The Historical Society of the Episcopal Church is pleased to announce the awarding of the Robert W. Prichard Prize to Peter W. Walker for his dissertation entitled, “The Church Militant: The American Loyalist Clergy and the Making of the British Counterrevolution, 1701-92.” The dissertation was submitted in 2016 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University. The project was awarded an ACLS-Mellon Dissertation Completion Fellowship for 2015-16 and was supported by the Massachusetts Historical Society, the American Philosophical Society, the Lewis Walpole Library, and the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church. Dr. Walker is Visiting Assistant Professor in History at the University of Wyoming and is currently converting the dissertation into book form.

The Prichard Prize recognizes the best Ph.D., Th.D., or D.Phil. dissertation which considers the history of the Episcopal Church (including the British colonies that became the United States) as well as the Anglican church in the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is named to honor the Rev. Dr. Robert W. Prichard, longtime board member and president of the Society, noted historian and author in the discipline. The dissertation need not focus solely or even principally on the history of the Episcopal Church or Anglicanism. The selection committee welcomes dissertations which place that history in conjunction with other strands of church history, or even place it in dialogue with non-ecclesial themes of American history. The Episcopal or Anglican element of the work should be a constitutive, not peripheral, part of the dissertation.

Applications received were reviewed by a selection committee, with recipients determined by the Board of Directors at their meeting in June at Trinity College, Toronto. The Rev. Dr Lauren Winner, convener of the Prize, announced the recipient.

For over a century HSEC has been an association dedicated to preserving and disseminating information about the history of the Episcopal Church. Founded in Philadelphia in 1910 as the Church Historical Society, its members include scholars, writers, teachers, ministers (lay and ordained) and many others who have an interest in the objectives and activities of the Historical Society.

Additional details may be found at hsec.us/grants.