Dictionary.net

Few things more exasperated the colonists than the scheme of appointing and sending out a bishop from England. It is said that there was a project of making Dean Swift bishop of the American colonies. In 1771, at the instance of the clergy of New York and New Jersey, the plan was again urged. The clergy of Virginia generally assented. But throughout America the dissenters and the Episcopal laity opposed. After the Revolution the case was altered. The first Episcopal bishop, Samuel Seabury, of Connecticut, was consecrated by Scotch non-juring bishops in 1784. The Methodists began to use the term bishop in 1787. The first Catholic bishop, John Carroll, of Baltimore, was consecrated in 1790.