 Using the term "Episcopal" emphasized their belief and usage of the historical succession by the "laying-on-of-hands" of the "Episcopacy" and the "episcopate" rather than the descriptive term "Anglican" which emphasized their English origins and the mother church of the Church of England, much like the Scottish Episcopal Church from which the American church's first bishop, Samuel Seabury was consecrated.The American Episcopal Church was incorporated as “the first Anglican Province outside the British Isles.” At the time, in 1783, there were 47 parishes and about 38 clergy in the new first Diocese.