Bishop of the Episcopal Church

Parents: Walter A. Jagger (1808–1879) and Julia Ann Niles (1808–1877). Spouse: (1) Anna Louise Lawrence (1834–1908); (2) Mary Elizabeth Jellison (1864–1931). Children: With Anna Lawrence: Thomas Augustus Jagger (1871–1953). Kinship: Husband of Anna Lawrence, the second cousin four times removed of the post–World War II Smith generation.

Early Life and Education Thomas Augustus Jagger was educated in New York City by private tutors before preparing for the ministry while engaged in business. He studied at the General Theological Seminary, graduating in 1860, and was awarded a Doctor of Divinity by the University of Pennsylvania in 1874.

Ordained Ministry He was ordained deacon on November 10, 1860, and began his clerical career as assistant at St. George’s Church, Flushing, Queens. In May 1862 he became minister in charge of Trinity Church, Bergen Point, New Jersey, and was ordained priest on June 3, 1863, by Bishop Horatio Potter. In 1864 he became rector of Anthon Memorial Church in New York City (now All Souls Church). Four years later, in 1868, he accepted the rectorship of St. John’s Church, Yonkers, New York. From 1870 to 1875 he served as rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia.

Bishop and Later Life On April 28, 1875, Jagger was consecrated Bishop of Southern Ohio by Presiding Bishop Benjamin Bosworth Smith. After the election of Boyd Vincent as coadjutor in 1889, Jagger was given episcopal oversight of American churches in Europe. He resigned his bishopric in October 1904 and in 1906 became the tenth rector of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston, Massachusetts. He died in Cannes, France, in 1912.

Family On April 22, 1862, Jagger married Anna Louise Lawrence, daughter of John W. Lawrence and Mary King Bowne, the latter a daughter of Walter Bowne, Mayor of New York City. Their son, Thomas Augustus Jagger, Jr., became a noted volcanologist and founder of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. After Anna’s death in 1908, Bishop Jagger married Mary Elizabeth Jellison in 1910.