John England (September 23, 1786, in Cork, Ireland – April 11, 1842 in Charleston, South Carolina) was an Irish-born American prelate of the Catholic Church.

England previously served as a priest in Cork, Ireland, where he was active in the movement for Catholic emancipation in the British Isles.

[1] At age 19, in his second year at Carlow, England began delivering catechetical instructions to children in the parish chapel, but adults soon started attending.

[1] After leaving Carlow, England established a women's reformatory, which led to the concepts behind the Presentation Sisters.

After his ordination, England was appointed lecturer at the North Chapel in County Cork and chaplain of prisons.

[3] In 1809, England published the "Religious Repertory" and established a circulating library in St. Mary Parish in Shandon, Ireland.

During the 1812 British general election, he maintained that "in vindicating the political rights of his countrymen, he was but asserting their liberty of conscience".

Bigotry against Catholics was so strong there that an inscription over the city gates read : "Enter here Turk Jew or Atheist, Every man except a Papist".

At the end of the ceremony, England refused to take the customary oath of allegiance to the Crown, declaring his intention to become an American citizen.

The Catholic population of Charleston was mainly composed of poor immigrants from Ireland and refugees from the island of Hispaniola with their servants.

Soon after his arrival in the United States, England starting traveling through his large diocese to meet with his parishioners.

In politics, England successfully advocated before the Legislature of South Carolina the granting of a charter for his diocesan corporation, which had been strongly opposed through the machinations of the disaffected trustees.

[4] In 1826, England became the first Catholic bishop to address the US House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., with President John Quincy Adams in the audience.

[6]England played a prominent role in convening the 1829 First Provincial Council of Baltimore, a gathering of bishops and clergy from across the United States.

He tried to bring her to Charleston to train the new congregation, but Bishop Murphy in Cork would not permit it, citing her age.

England opened a school for African-America girls in Charleston in 1831 and held a synod of the clergy on November 21, 1831.

Experiencing a shortage of priests in his diocese, England established in 1832 the Philosophical and Classical Seminary of Charleston.

[1] England also recruited some Ursuline nuns from a convent in Black Rock, Ireland to come to Charleston the same year.

At one point, the pope offered England appointment as bishop of the Diocese of Ossory in Ireland, but he declined, stating that he remained an American citizen.

During the cholera and yellow fever epidemics in Charleston, he joined his priests and nuns in tending to the sick.

In 1834, England recruited a small group of Ursulines nuns from the convent at Blackrock, Cork, to come to the diocese to teach and minister.

When England requested a coadjutor bishop to cover the diocese during his absence, the Vatican appointed Clancy.

To obtain financial support for his diocese, England met with prospective donors in cities and towns throughout the United States.

He sought funding, vestments and books from the pope, the Propaganda Fide department of the Holy See and the Leopoldine Society of Vienna.

His successor, Bishop Ignatius Reynolds, collected England's writings and published them in five volumes at Baltimore, in 1849.