The experience of the King's church in Early America was shaped by the unfolding imperial policies of the English government after 1675. London-based civil and ecclesiastical officials supervised the extension and development of the church overseas. The recruitment, appointment and financial support of the ministers was guided by London officials. Transplanted to the New World without the traditional hierarchical structure of the church - no bishop served in the colonies during the colonial period - at the time of the American Revolution it was neither an English-American, or American-English church, yet modified in a distinctive manner.

JAMES BELL is Visiting Research Fellow at the Rothermere American Institute in the University of Oxford and is the author of several books and numerous articles. He has taught at Princeton University, Barnard College, The College of Wooster, and The Ohio State University. His research interests are seventeenth and eighteenth century English and American History.