Brought up a
Presbyterian, Kemp joined the
Episcopal Church and studied theology under the direction of the Rev. Dr. John Bowie, rector of Great Choptank parish, MD. He received deacon's orders in Christ Church, Philadelphia on December 26, 1789, and He was ordained
priest the very next day on December 27, 1789. Kemp was ordained to both orders by the Rt. Rev. William White. In August 1790, Kemp succeeded his theological instructor, Dr. Bowie and became rector of
Great Choptank Parish, in
Cambridge, Maryland, the county seat of Dorchester County. Rev. Kemp also served at
Green Hill Church likewise on the
Eastern Shore until 1813, when he was elected associate rector of
St. Paul's Episcopal Church,
Baltimore. Columbia College conferred on him a Doctor of Divinity Degree in 1802. Kemp was elected
suffragan bishop and consecrated on September 1, 1814, serving under elderly Bishop
Thomas J. Claggett and overseeing the parishes on the Eastern Shore. His consecrators included: •
The Most Reverend William White, fourth
presiding bishop of the
Episcopal Church •
The Right Reverend John Henry Hobart, third bishop of
New York •
The Right Reverend Richard Channing Moore, second bishop of
Virginia James Kemp thus became the
fifteenth bishop consecrated in the
Episcopal Church. He succeeded bishop Claggett on the latter's death in 1816. As bishop, Kemp invited Deacon
William Levington to his diocese in 1824, and helped him establish
St. James First African Episcopal Church, the third African American Episcopal church in the new country. ==Death and legacy==