North American colonial and later U.S. clergyman, first Protestant Episcopal (Episcopal Church in the United States of America) bishop of New York. He was elected June 13, 1786, and was consecrated at Lambeth Palace, London, Feb. 4, 1787, along with Bishop William White of Pennsylvania.

After graduating from Kings College (later Columbia University) in 1758 Provoost studied at St. Peters College, Cambridge. Returning to New York he was a minister at Trinity Church from 1766 to 1771. He sympathized with the American Revolution, and after it he was chosen a regent of the University of the State of New York (1784), was named chaplain to Congress (1785) and to the U.S. Senate (1789), and succeeded in organizing the Protestant Episcopal Church after the Revolution.