William Mercer Green
American bishop; first Bishop of Mississippi (1798-1887)
William Mercer Green (May 2, 1798 – February 13, 1887) was the first Episcopal bishop of Mississippi.
Early life
Green was born in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1798. He was the son of William Green, a North Carolina rice planter, and Mary (Bradley) Green, a woman of Quaker extraction. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1818 and was ordained deacon April 29, 1821. Two years later, on April 20, 1823, Green was ordained priest. He became the rector of St. John's Church in Williamsboro, North Carolina, where he remained for four years. He then moved to Hillsborough, where he was rector of St. Matthew's Church until 1837. In that year, he was appointed chaplain and professor of belles-lettres at the University of North Carolina.
“William Mercer Green” enters the record as american bishop; first Bishop of Mississippi (1798-1887). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what William, Mercer and Green can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“William Mercer Green” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, William, Mercer and Green provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8015570. VIAF identifies the subject as 2036694. The Library of Congress control number is no92027273. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1798, 1887, 1818 and 1821.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “William Mercer Green”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow William Mercer Green primary sources, William Mercer Green archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William Mercer Green”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “William Mercer Green” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.