Nicholas H. Cobbs

Who is Nicholas H. Cobbs?

Bishop Nicholas Hamner Cobbs was minister and evangelist of the Episcopal church. He was born in Bedford County, Virginia, on 5 February, 1796. Cobbs was raised a Presbyterian and educated privately. He was subsequently confirmed an Episcopalian and ordained a deacon on the same day, May 23, 1824, in Staunton, Virginia. He served several parishes in Virginia.

In 1843, Cobbs was called to the rectorship of St. Paul's church, Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1844, he was elected bishop of Alabama, being the first to preside over that diocese, and was consecrated in Philadelphia, 20 October, 1844. A slave owner, Cobbs nonetheless opposed Alabama's secession from the Union and ordered Alabama clergy to omit prayers for the Confederate Congress and President from services.

Cobbs died in Montgomery, Alabama, 11 January, 1861, the day of his state's secession from the Union on the eve of the American Civil War. The Bishop Cobbs Home for Orphans in Montgomery was named for him.