[5] He was appointed by John Bird Sumner, the Archbishop of Canterbury,[6] and consecrated on 15 December 1861,[5] at the suggestion of Samuel Wilberforce and Queen Victoria, as the church's first Bishop of Honolulu, for the Kingdom of Hawaii.

In a letter to Rufus Anderson of the American Board, the British missionary William Ellis (who had visited the Hawaiian Islands in 1825)[citation needed] wrote that Staley was "associated with that section of the Church of England from which the greatest number of perverts to Popery has proceeded, and between whom and the Roman Catholics the difference is reported to be slight ..."[8] Even the American writer Mark Twain criticized Staley as an agent of Britain.

Although he was appointed to the King's Privy Council 1863–1864 and Board of Education in 1865,[10] he denied ever giving political advice, or being behind any plots leading to British colonization of the islands.

The next King Kamehameha V continued his support[citation needed] and the cornerstone for the Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew was laid in a ceremony in March 1867.

[citation needed] He reluctantly retired in 1870 and was replaced by Alfred Willis;[17] he was reported on 25 February to havealready tendered his resignation.