The first bishop appointed under the agreement was a Jewish convert, Michael Alexander, who had been converted while serving as a rabbi at Plymouth in 1825. He entered the ministry of the Church of England, became a missionary of the London Society for the Conversion of the Jews, and professor of Hebrew and rabbinical literature at King's College London. He was consecrated a bishop on 7 November 1841 to serve as the first "Bishop in Jerusalem". He took up his residence in Jerusalem at the beginning of 1842, and died in the desert near Cairo 23 November 1845. Alexander was succeeded by Samuel Gobat, a native of Crémines in the Bernese Alps, and a former missionary in Ethiopia. In his time it became evident that the joint bishopric could not endure.