William Edmond Armitage was born in New York, NY. He graduated from Columbia College in 1849 and from General Theological Seminary, New York City in 1852. He was ordained a deacon and served parishes in New Hampshire, Maine, and Michigan. In 1866 he was selected to be assistant bishop of Wisconsin by Bishop Jackson Kemper, and received the degree of doctor of sacred theology from Columbia College.

When Armitage arrived in Milwaukee, he attempted to unite all the parishes in the diocese for charity work and to organize a cathedral that would be the seat of the bishop and the focal point of the work of the diocese. He secured funds for the establishment of Shelton Hall at Nashotah and for publication of a periodical called The Church Register. After Kemper's death, Armitage was elected bishop of Wisconsin in 1873. 

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]