Samuel Provoost (1742 – September 6, 1815) was the third Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, USA, as well as the first Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. He was consecrated as bishop of New York in 1787 with Bishop William White. He was born in New York City, of Huguenot descent, in 1742, and educated at King's (now Columbia) College. In England he continued his studies at St. Peter's College, Cambridge, and was ordained priest in 1766. He returned to New York and became an assistant minister of Trinity parish, a post he retained until 1774, when he withdrew. He declined to serve as delegate to the Continental Congress, though his patriotic impulses led him to join his neighbors in their pursuit of the British after the burning of the town of Esopus. He did not resume the a