Thomas Nettleship Staley

Right Rev. Thomas Nettleship Staley MA, DD (1823- 1898) born in Yorkshire, England, was a British priest of the Church of England and later the Anglican Bishop of the Church of Hawaii.

Staley was a Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge. He was Tutor and Principal of St Mark's College, Chelsea, and then Principal of the Collegiate School, Wandsworth. [http://www.andrewspages.dial.pipex.com/dby/kelly/croxall.htm] He served as the Church's first bishop of Honolulu in Hawaii, having been selected by Archbishop Sumner in 1861, at the suggestion of Queen Victoria. He and his wife, Catherine W. Shirley Staley, arrived in Honolulu in October, 1862, a few weeks after the death of Albert, Prince of Hawaii, the only son of King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma Kaleleonalani Naokinaea.

As bishop, Staley was appointed to the island's Privy Council and Board of Education, and began two church-operated boarding schools. [http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/hi/keepers/koc54.txt] He also helped to establish the Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew and Royal Mausoleum in Honolulu.

He corresponded with Charles Darwin. [http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/search-results?sort=date-ascending&documenttype=Correspondence&pageno=238&manuscript=true&pagesize=50]

Staley was appointed Chaplain of Hawaii's Most Noble Order of Kamehameha. He retired in 1870.

Publications

Five Years' Church Work in the Kingdom of Hawaii. Rivington, London (1868).

References

* [http://anglicanhistory.org/hawaii/staley1868/ Five Years' Church Work in the Kingdom of Hawaii] , by Thomas Nettleship Staley (1868)
* [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/subjectView.asp?ID=P26957 Staley in the National Archives]
* [http://anglicanhistory.org/hawaii/staley_sermons1863.html Two sermons by Staley]