At the founding of The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, all of New England was considered one diocese — the Diocese of Connecticut — led by Bishop Samuel Seabury. In 1811, the congregations in Massachusetts petitioned the General Convention to form a separate diocese consisting of the states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Titled the Eastern Diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, its first bishop was Alexander Viets Griswold.