BALDWIN, Ashbel, clergyman, born in Litchfield, Connecticut, 7 March 1757; died in Rochester, New York, 8 February 1846. He was graduated at Yale College in 1776, and was a quartermaster in the revolutionary army. On 3 August 1785, he was ordained to the deaconate by Bishop Seabury in Middletown. This was the first Episcopal ordination ill the United States. He was ordained priest in September following, and became rector of St. Michael's Church, Litchfield, where he remained till 1793. From 1793 to 1824 he was rector of Christ Church, Stratford. He then held parishes in Wallingford, Meriden, North Haven, and Oxford, until in 1832 he became disabled by age. His records show that he had preached 10,000 times, and baptized 3,010 persons. He was secretary of the general convention, and also of the diocesan convention of Connecticut.