Definition
An adjective (and occasionally a noun) describing a person, institution, or governance structure connected to episcopacy — the system of church government by bishops — or to a church organized under that system. In Anglo-American legal usage, the term appears primarily in two contexts:
1. Ecclesiastical status. Identifying a person as a member or adherent of an episcopally governed church, relevant in cases involving church property, clerical privileges, marriage law, and the administration of religious trusts or charities.
2. Church polity. Describing a form of religious governance distinguished from presbyterian (elder-governed) and congregational (congregation-governed) systems. This distinction carried legal weight in jurisdictions where established church status, clerical standing, or statutory exemptions depended on the polity of the religious body in question.
As a noun, an Episcopalian is a member of an episcopally governed church — in American usage, typically the Protestant Episcopal Church; in British and Scottish usage, a member of the Scottish Episcopal Church as distinct from the established Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Of or relating to Anglicanism or an Anglican church, especially the Scottish Episcopal Church or the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Pertaining to bishops, or government by bishops; episcopal; specifically, of or relating to the Protestant Episcopal Church.
The gap between common and legal meaning here is jurisdictional rather than conceptual. In ordinary American English, Episcopalian denotes membership in one specific denomination. In legal sources — particularly English and Scottish ecclesiastical law — the term functions more broadly as a marker of church polity and carries distinct legal consequences depending on whether the reference jurisdiction has an established church, what that established church is, and how dissenters from it are treated by statute. A researcher reading "Episcopalian" in a Scottish legal source will find it describes a dissenter from the Presbyterian establishment, not simply a member of a mainstream Protestant denomination.
Why It Matters in Research
This term rarely appears as a substantive legal concept on its own. It surfaces in legal texts as a classificatory label whose significance derives entirely from surrounding statutory and ecclesiastical context. Researchers encounter it most often in:
Church property disputes. Courts adjudicating competing claims to property held by congregations that changed affiliation needed to determine the original denominational identity of the trust or bequest. Whether a donor intended property for "Episcopalian" use — and what that meant at the time of the gift — required careful attention to period-specific ecclesiastical organization.
Statutory privileges and disabilities. In English and Scottish law, Episcopalians enjoyed shifting legal status across the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Scottish Episcopalians suffered under penal statutes after 1690 that restricted their worship and disqualified their clergy from performing legally recognized marriages and other civil functions. Relief came in stages, culminating in legislation that placed Scottish Episcopal clergy nearly on par with Church of England clergy when officiating in England (27 & 28 Vict. c. 94, cited in Rapalje & Lawrence). A legal document dated before that relief will reflect a very different set of rights and disabilities than one dated after.
Trust and charitable law. Bequests "for Episcopalian purposes" or to "Episcopalian congregations" required courts to define the term with precision. Historical usage in the instrument, not modern denominational organization, controls interpretation.
American versus British source divergence. American legal sources use the term almost exclusively to mean Protestant Episcopal Church. British and Scottish sources use it to describe a distinct category of religious dissenter from Presbyterian establishment. Researchers must identify the jurisdiction of the source before drawing any inference about legal significance.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionary sources agree that the term is fundamentally descriptive of church polity and affiliation, not a term of art with a fixed legal definition independent of context. Black's Law Dictionary (both the first and second editions) defines it identically and minimally — "of or pertaining to episcopacy, or to the Episcopal Church" — offering no guidance on the legal consequences that follow from the classification.
Rapalje & Lawrence provides the more substantive entry. It distinguishes the English and Scottish meanings explicitly, notes the historic status of Scottish Episcopalians as religious dissenters under Presbyterian establishment, and references the statutory relief of 27 & 28 Vict. c. 94. This is the entry most useful to a researcher working with historical ecclesiastical or property records from Scotland or the north of England.
None of the historical sources address American church property litigation or the post-Civil War period of American Episcopal denominational reorganization, which generated a significant body of case law. Researchers working in that area will find these dictionary entries insufficient starting points and should proceed directly to treatises on ecclesiastical law and American religious corporation statutes.
Jurisdictional Note
In Scotland, "Episcopalian" historically identified a religious dissenter from the established Presbyterian Church, with attendant legal disabilities that were progressively relaxed through nineteenth-century legislation. In England and America, the term identified an adherent of an episcopally governed church that was either established (Church of England) or mainstream Protestant (Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States), carrying no disability. Jurisdiction and date of the source document are essential before drawing any conclusion about an Episcopalian's legal standing.