Caner, Henry

(1700-Feb. 11, 1793). He was a missionary for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) in Connecticut. He worked with missionary zeal in Fairfield, Connecticut, among Native Americans and Negroes and with women and men alienated from their congregations by the excesses of the Great Awakening. In 1747 he was elected rector of King's Chapel, Boston, by the congregation which had been seeking an American in holy orders. This was an unprecedented procedure. The customary protocol directed application for a parson to the Bishop of London who had jurisdiction over the church in the colonies. When the British evacuated Boston in Mar. 1776, King's Chapel was closed and Caner moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia.