William A. Guerry

Guerry was born on July 7, 1861 in Clarendon County, South Carolina, the son of the Reverend LeGrand Felder Guerry and Margaret Serena Brailsford. He studied at Sewanee: The University of the South where he earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1884, his Master of Arts in 1884, and his Bachelor of Divinity in 1891. [1]

Guerry was ordained deacon on September 23, 1888, and priest on December 22, 1889 by Bishop Ellison Capers. In 1888, he was appointed rector of St John's Church in Florence, South Carolina, while in 1893 became chaplain of the University of the South, where he was also professor of homiletic and pastoral theology at the School of Theology. He was also involved in the construction of All Saints' Chapel in the university campus. [2]

In 1907, Guerry was elected Coadjutor Bishop of South Carolina,[3] and was consecrated on September 15, 1907 by Presiding Bishop Daniel S. Tuttle. He then became the eighth diocesan bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina on April 22, 1908. Guerry was made a Mason at Sight and was a member of Landmark Lodge No 76, A.F.M. During his episcopacy, he worked to gain racial equality in the diocese.

On June 5, 1928, Guerry was shot in his office in St Philip's Church, Charleston, South Carolina by a priest who had attacked his position on advancing racial equality in South Carolina.[4] Great opposition was also elicited by the bishop's proposal to have a black suffragan bishop. His murderer shot himself too and died. Guerry died four days later in Roper Hospital.[5]

• List of Succession of Bishops for the Episcopal Church, USA

• Bibliographic directory from Project Canterbury
• Biography
• Truth in Cold Blood, play about Guerry