USA > Delaware > Early clergy of Pennsylvania and Delaware > Part 7
USA > Pennsylvania > Early clergy of Pennsylvania and Delaware > Part 7
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CHRIST CHURCH.
Rev. John Waller James became an assistant minister in Christ Church in 1832, and served faithfully four years, to the spiritual benefit of the congregation, who showed their lively appreciation of his services by elect- ing him rector at the death of Bishop White, in July, . 1836. He died four weeks afterward, to the sorrow of his friends and parishioners. He was buried in Christ Churchyard, near Bishop White's vault. He did good work in Sunday-schools, and his ministry was greatly blessed. As the railway traveler passes Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, he sees on his right, going westward, a neat church building with its tower, erected to the memory of Mr. James mainly by the Christ Church people, that they might give him, not a monument of dead marble but a place where the worship of Christ might be perpetuated on earth, while their late rector adored Him in paradise. May many other such monu- ments arise to the glory of God. Mr. James was rector of Christ Church, Meadville, when he was elected assistant minister at Christ Church, Philadelphia, for the lifetime of Bishop White, "and until the Easter Monday following his decease." While this church was undergoing repairs Mr. James started to visit his rela- tives. He arrived at Huntingdon by the canal, in going to Pittsburgh, where his family lived, and he was so ill there that he was conveyed to an inn, and died there on the morning of Sunday, August 14th, A.D., 1836, aged thirty-one years. His body was brought to Christ churchyard, according to "his dying request." It is a striking fact that Bishop White and Rev. Mr. Cum- mings also died on a Sunday, and that Dr. Evans was attacked on Sunday, in Christ Church, with the disease which in a few days closed his earthly life. The Lord's Day is a fitting time for earthly worship to merge into
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heavenly worship, and while the earthly temple fades from the sight of the dying eyes, the heavenly temple rises in beauty to replace it. The ladies of Christ Church had a tablet prepared to be placed in the Church, in the memory of the Rev. Mr. James. A clergyman who knew Mr. James describes him to me as a good, amiable and devoted man. The mural tablet affirms that the words he had spoken in life made him "happy in the prospect of death and heaven." An obituary appeared in the Protestant Episcopalian, and in the volume, "The Inscriptions of Christ churchyard."
The Rev. Benjamin Dorr, D.D., became rector of this church in 1837, being instituted on Ascension Day by Bishop Onderdonk. Many yet remember his long and faithful rectorate. Some notes prepared for me by the doctor's son-in-law, J. Edward Carpenter, Esq., and the polished discourse of the late John William Wallace, Esq., President of the Historical Society of Pennsyl- vania, delivered before that society, afford ample means for a sketch of Dr. Dorr. He was born on the 22d of March, 1796, at Salisbury Point, Mass., and educated at the village school and at Dartmouth College. Hc studied law, but gave up that pursuit for the ministry. He was a member of the first class in the General Theo- logical Seminary. Bishop Hobart ordained him dea- con in IS20, and priest in 1823.
In 1827 he married Esther Kettell Odin, who was the daughter of John Odin, Esq., of Boston, and a descend- ant of Rev. William Walter, a former rector of Trinity Church, Boston, and of John Eliot, "the Apostle to the Indians," Rev. Increase Mather, and Chief Justice Lynde, of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
The young clergyman held the rectorship of united churches in Lansingburg and Waterford, N. Y., from
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1820 to 1829, and that of Trinity Church, Utica, N. Y., from 1829 to 1835. He was Secretary and General Agent of the Domestic Committee of the Board of Missions from 1835 to 1837, in which year he became rector of this church which post he held until his death in 1869. He was elected Bishop of Maryland in IS39, but declined the office, preferring in simple humility to dwell with his own loved flock, who rejoiced in retain- ing him.
The University of Pennsylvania honored him with the degree of Doctor of Divinity. A number of his sermons and other works were published.
The paternal ancestors of Dr. Dorr were carly set- tlers in Roxbury, Mass., now a part of Boston. His mother, Ruth Dalton, was the descendant of an old family in Salisbury, Massachusetts.
Rev. Dr. Leeds, formerly rector of St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia, preached a sermon commemorative of Dr. Dorr in Christ Church on the next All Saints' Day after his death.
The doctor was passionately fond of travel, and learned to read human nature in the old stage-coach in his early years, while in after life he was permitted to cross the ocean and look on the historic scenes of the old world. His important position, as Secretary of the Missionary Board, caused him to travel much, and required such skill and zeal as is needed by a bishop. He was a true missionary. His delight at seeing a Christian Church in the Indian settlement at Oneida village, New York, under Bishop Hobart's care was great, and he prayed for a time when the Lord would call all heathen to a knowledge of Him. From the Gulf of Mexico to the northern lakes the laborious secretary traveled thousands of miles, when travel was laborious.
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When the doctor took charge of Christ Church he found a staid parish, stamped with the quiet mind of Bishop White, and he continued the work in the same quiet confidence of Christian faith. His love for the parish is evinced by his bequest of a part of his library, and a goodly legacy for an endowment, that its blessed services may be maintained to the end of time. The inception and increase of this endowment was largely due to the labors of the faithful warden, Edward Lyon Clark.
The chastening love of God, which draws His chil- dren homeward, was experienced by this " man of God," when his beloved son, William, the companion of his foreign travel, and his earthly hope, was snatched from him in the Southern War. His friends and comrades erected a tablet to his memory in this church, but his father had had a tablet on his heart, and has now gone to that son who could not return to him. The shadows are over and the day has dawned on father and son.
For thirty-two years Dr. Dorr continued his faithful work here. Generations may bless his work in the Sun- day-schools, the Endowment Fund and Hospital. The earnest preacher's words are no more heard, but his deeds remain. His pen was active, and many a mourner has been cheered by his book entitled " Recognition of Friends in Another World ;" while his "Churchman's Manual," and " History of a Pocket Prayer-Book," and writings on Sunday-school work and Confirmation and Communion, and the prophecies on Christ, with his travels, and his Memoir of Watson, the Annalist, have given useful information. His "History of Christ Church " is invaluable, and he appended to it an account of the early history of the Church in Pennsylvania. He wasan enthusiastic antiquary, and loved to bring up the
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holy dead in the minds of their descendants. Such writings stimulate others to follow the examples of the worthies described ; as they look for aid to the same Saviour who stirred their activity in the divine life. "The Recognition of Friends" passed through nine editions, and the "Pocket Prayer-Book" was repub- lished in London and in Canada West. The author was a living epistle, and his good example in social and church life were the best comments on his writings.
Dr. Dorr was sympathetic. I well remember encour- aging words he uttered to me in this church, coming gracefully from an aged clergyman closing his work to a younger brother with less experience.
This good man died on Saturday, September 18th, 1869, at his house in Manheim street, Germantown. Mr. Wallace beautifully describes the funeral scene, when a vast throng assembled to pay the last tribute of love and affection to their rector, in this church, where he had ministered for nearly a third of a century. The services were conducted by Drs. Foggo and Rudder and Bishop Davies and Rev. Messrs. Wadleigh, Montgomery and Depuy. The Doctor was buried at Salisbury, Mass. He loved his simple childhood home, and writes delight- fully, in his diary, of revisiting it; and meeting there father and brothers, and thinking gently on a dead mother, whose image then naturally came before him. It was fitting that he should be laid to rest where he was born ; and he left a sum by will for the care of the coun- try cemetery, and his burial place. There he sleeps among his kindred, awaiting the call of the resurrection to meet his Christian friends once more for a lasting association.
In Dr. Dorr's visit to England the list of Bishops and eminent clergy who did him honor is not a short one.
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He mentions Rev. J. S. M. Anderson, the chaplain of Queen Adelaide, and afterward of Victoria, and this writer, I notice, mentions Dr. Dorr in his History of the Colonial Church; speaking of his "History of Christ Church," and of his declination of the Bishopric of Maryland. He was present at the consecration of Bishop Jackson, of Lincoln, and a delighted observer of the annual exhibition of the Charity Schools at St. Paul's, London, where thousands of voices praised God in unison.
A bust of Dr. Dorr, carved in Rome, adorns the ves- try room of this church. The marble monument in the church which commemorates him, rightly quotes Isaiah, as to his feeding his flock as a " shepherd."
Mrs. E. B. Souder composed a beautiful poem on the funeral of this rector, painting the surpliced priest in his coffin, among the flowers which loving hands had strewn upon him, with the muffled bells and sorrowing congre- gation and mournful music and attendant priests, closing thus :
"The cross and crown, fit tokens Of thy life and sure reward -- To dwell with saints in glory, And with our risen Lord."
At Ledger Place and Lagrange Street, a few steps from this church, is the old rectory, of black and red English brick, whence Dr. Jenney and other clergy used to walk across the grass, in their vestments, to the church. It was altered for business purposes. There was a later rectory in Arch Street, where the St. Elmo Hotel stands.
Mr. Wallace's dedication of the Memoir of Dr. Dorr styles Dr. Foggo "long the faithful assistant of the lamented Dorr, now his honored successor." For
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twenty-eight years he has served this church, and long may his faithful and patient service continue. He is the twelfth rector, and these rectors have sometimes re- mained long in their positions, showing the loving relation of pastor and people.
Christ Church bears the holy name of our common Saviour. The Scripture has told us that He is "the same yesterday, and to-day and forever," and so may this church firmly stand, echoing the same Christian truths in the coming ages, as were uttered by Clayton and Evans and White and Dorr and the other rectors, in the days that are gone ; and may those truths, impressed by the Spirit of God, bring many souls to that good land above where praise is endless and worship perpetual.
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CHAPTER XII.
ST. PETER'S CHURCHI.
"Mine house shall be called an House of Prayer for all people. -Isa. 56 : 7.
T HESE Divine words are inscribed above the ancient pulpit of this church, and we will en- deavor to trace the lives of those who have here led the prayers and praises of the "joyful " people of God.
In 1754 a largely signed petition was presented to the proprietaries, Thomas and Richard Penn, for the gift of a lot for a new church. The late John William Wallace owned the original document. The lot was increased by purchase, and is now a square in extent, and sacred as the burying place of many who have died in Christ. The present wall has guarded the cemetery for about a century.
On the 4th of September, 1761, the present church was opened, the celebratad Dr. William Smith preaching the sermon. He was Provost of the College of Philadel- phia, now the University of Pennsylvania. There was no bishop to consecrate the building, as Pennsylvania was then a dependence of Great Britain, ruled by George the Third. The Church in Pennsylvania was under the care of the Bishop of London. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was aiding the American churches nobly, and its reports, collected by Bishop Perry, are used in these notes.
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ST. PETER'S CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA.
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The rector of Christ Church, when St. Peter's was opened, was Rev. Robert Jenney, LL.D. He became the rector of the new church, as the parishes were united. The Rev. Dr. Sprague, in his "Annals," which have aided my investigations, states that this clergyman was the son of the Archdeacon of Waneytown, in the North of Ireland. He came to America in 1715, and assisted Rev. Wm. Vesey, in Trinity Church, New York. He was afterward at Rye and Hempstead, L. I., and in 1742 became rector of Christ Church. He died at the age of seventy-five in 1762, having been fifty-two years in the ministry and over nineteen years rector of Christ Church. He is buried under the middle aisle of that church. Provost Wm. Smith, in his funeral sermon, says : "He was a man venerable in years, and a striking pattern of Christian resignation under a long and severe illness. Those who knew him best in that situation know that his chief concern was not for himself, but for the distressed and perplexed state of his congrega- tion. He was a man of strict honesty, one who hated dissimulation and a lie, exemplary in his life and morals, and a most zealous member of the Episcopal Church." He held the office of Commissary. He receives notice in Rev. Mr. Anderson's "History of the Colonial Church," and in Dr. Dorr's " History of Christ Church."
Dr. Jenney begs the Propagation Society for a cate- chist, and writes of the one church in New York City. Think of the multitude of churches on Manhattan Island from Trinity Spire to King's Bridge, and thank God for the increase. Dr. Jenney refers to Mr. Charleton's excellent catechetical work in New York, and declares that the negroes in Philadelphia need a catechist. The negroes were generally disposed to religion. The rector baptized many, and several were communicants. The
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numerous congregation in Philadelphia made the duty "exceedingly severe" for an aged man, who expected soon to be worn out with fatigue, and an assistant is asked for, as a younger man than the rector could not perform the work alone. In 1747 the Doctor writes the Society that he has lately had a " fit of a dead palsey," and gives the vestry special advice as to what kind of a man should succeed him when a change became neces- sary. He made his wife promise that his successor should have the privilege of reading his books about the Constitution of the Church, like St. Peter providing for things after his decease. This indicates a scarcity of books, contrasting strongly with the flood of literature printed to-day. There was, however, a parish library for Christ Church. The society gave books on theology to the parishes, some of which may yet be preserved. The heavy folios did not look like our small and handy volumes. Dr. Jenney labored under the Propagation Society from 1744 in New York and Philadelphia. In 1760 he had been fifty years a minister of the church, and was unable to write through "great bodily indis- position." In 1765 Rev. Wm. Sturgeon, the faithful assistant, writes that "Dr. Jenney was seized with a palsey which continued to his death," and for more than five years "the whole duty of the parish had fallen on him." The good soldier of Christ had finished his work and went to his heavenly home for rest and refreshment.
The Rev. Dr. Richard Peters was the next rector of the united churches in 1762. He was the uncle of Judge Richard Peters who resided at Belmont, in Fairmount Park, as Watson notes in his "Annals." He was for a time assistant to Rev. Archibald Cummings, and after- ward served as Secretary of State under various gov- ernors.' He was from Liverpool, England, and was
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well educated. He came to Philadelphia as an English Church clergyman in 1735. The vestry of Christ Church note his influence when assistant in drawing dissenters in "great numbers" into the Church of England. He resigned the assistantship, but in 1762 took the place of Mr. Duche, then an assistant, who went to England to receive priests' orders. On Mr. Duche's return, Dr. Peters was elected rector. In 1764 he visited England, and returning in 1765 was welcomed by the vestry at the parsonage. Oxford University made him a Doctor of Divinity. Thomas Coombe and William White be- came his assistants in 1772. In 1775 he resigned the united churches by reason of bodily infirmity, having held the rectorship thirteen years. The vestry passed appreciative resolutions, for which the rector thanked them in a loving manner. He lived among his congre- gation till his death in July, 1776, at the age of seventy- two. Dr. Peters was liberal in pecuniary aid to his church, and appeared kind and genial in his letters perused by Dr. Sprague. According to Bishop White, he was interesting in discoursing on literature, classics or history Jeremiah Langhorne wrote the Bishop of London, requesting that Mr. Peters might be assistant to Mr. Cummings, as he was so satisfactory to the con- gregation. His father is spoken of as Ralph Peters, town clerk of Liverpool, and the son is described as an
able man. He had been educated at Westminster ยท School and in Leyden, and had studied law. He was ordained deacon by the Bishop of Winchester in 1730, and priest the next year. He served Latliam' Chapel in Lancaster County, England, in the Diocese of Chester. Mr. Langhorne styles him "the worthiest clergyman that I have known." In 1763 John Ross writes that he has been chosen rector, and was "eminent
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as a divine preacher." He was satisfied that he would "be of vast service to the Church of England in this province." In 1763 Dr. Peters writes the Arch- bishop as rector. He led a laborious life, which Bishop Perry says was " closed by an honored and useful min- isterial service of thirteen years." Dr. Peters arranged the particulars of the union of Christ and St. Peter's Churches with Archbishop Secker, of Canterbury, when he was in England. This rector was buried under the middle "aisle of Christ Church, near the chancel rail," as Dr. Dorr records.
The successor of Dr. Peters was that brilliant man, Rev. Dr. Jacob Duche. He was the son of Jacob Duche, a vestryman of Christ Church, and the grandson of Anthony or Andrew Duche, who came to this country with William Penn as a Protestant refugee from France. The life of this gifted clergyman was striking and romantic. Born in Philadelphia in 1737, he was the first graduate of the College of Philadelphia under Provost Smith. There were many letters from him to Dr. Smith among that gentleman's papers. Young Duche was sent by his father to Clare Hall, in the English University, of Cambridge, to continue his studies, and was ordained by Bishop Sherlock. In the records of the venerable Propagation Society there is a letter from Provost Smith to the Bishop, to be delivered by Mr. Duche, which commends him as a "young gen- tleman of good fortune, bred up in our college under me. He has distinguished himself as a scholar and orator on many public occasions, and from the most disinterested motives has devoted himself to the Church. He proposes to spend some time at the University in England, and goes from this place in company with Mr. Hamilton, our late governor. He is in every respect a
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youth of the most hopeful parts and not unworthy the honor of your lordship's protection and notice." Dr. Smith, in writing of Mr. Duche to the secretary of the Society, in 1760, styles him "that shining youth," and speaks of his popularity. The Rev. Samuel Nichols, secretary of the Bishop of London, describes him at his ordination as "a very promising young gentleman." Dr. Peters commends him to the Archbishop as de- servedly esteemed for piety, and " strong, lively manner of enforcing Christian doctrines and duties.". When Dr. Peters resigned Mr. Duche was the senior assistant, and was chosen rector September 25th, 1775. He and his two assistants, the Rev. Messrs. Coombe and White, were natives of Philadelphia. Mr. Duche had been assistant for sixteen years. His election to the rector- ship indicates his reputation, though he was only a little over two years in the active exercise of that rectorship. Most of the vestry had known the new rector from childhood, and wrote the Bishop of London of his excel- lent religious character. Dr. Duche married Elizabeth Hopkinson, whose brother Francis was noted in the Revolution, and a signer of the Declaration of Inde- pendence. She died in 1797. The Doctor was affec- tionate and benevolent, cheerful and resigned, and em- inently religious.
Bishop White was the lifelong friend of Parson Duche. He describes his voice and action in preaching as commendable. Being near-sighted, he memorized his sermons effectively. The Bishop styled Whitefield the best reader of the Prayers that he ever heard, and places Duche next. The Bishop also acknowledges the benefits of the instructions received from him. Many thought Duche a rival of the eloquent Whitefield, and he held the office of Professor of Oratory in the
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College of Philadelphia. Bishop White deemed him not inferior to Whitefield in correct pronunciation.
The house of "Parson Duche," as he was called, stood on the northeast corner of Third and Pine Streets, and is said to have been patterned after "one of the wings of Lambeth Palace." His father gave it to him.
Those who read the carly records of the missionaries are struck with their constant and earnest pleadings that Bishops might be sent to this country. Duche tried to secure the Episcopate for the United States after the Revolution, and was present, at Bishop White's request, on the glad day when he was consecrated in the chapel of Lambeth Palace, in 1787. His presence gratified the Bishop, who had received his care almost from infancy, and who had worked harmoniously under him as assistant minister.
When the Junius Letters appeared, Dr. Duche wrote concerning them over the acrostic signature "Tamoc Caspipina," that is, "the Assistant Minister of Christ Church and St. Peter's, in Philadelphia, in North America." On September 7th, 1774, he appeared be- fore Congress, in Carpenters' Hall in his vestments, with his clerk, and read a service from the Prayer Book, adding a moving and earnest extemporary prayer. One of the Psalms in the Morning Psalter was the thirty-fifth, which prays God to " lay hand on shield and buckler," and to give His help. John Adams wrote his wife that it seemed as if "Heaven had ordained its reading." Sparks and Irving note the circumstance in their " Lives of Washington," and many of you are fam- iliar with the picture of the scene. He preached a patriotic sermon before Congress on a Fast day, and also on the death of its first president, Peyton Randolph. He was made chaplain. Moore's "Patriotic Preachers
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of the Revolution " gives his Congressional sermon. When chaplain he devoted his salary to the families who had had relatives slain in battle, He became dis- couraged with the progress of the war, and wrote Washington advising its cessation. The trouble that followed this act, for himself and family, is noted in the printed archives of the State of Pennsylvania, but after the lapse of over a century we can understand that one bred to obey a king might conscientiously hesitate, and allow him to rest in peace at your altar, where he has long been buried, where the Blessed Sacrifice of Christ is remembered as a link between the dead and the living. Duche went to England it is supposed, to com- municate with Bishop Terrick, of London, about his political views. Anderson's "Colonial Church" notes that Bishop Terrick died in A.D., 1777, and Bishop Lowth succeeded him. While in England Duche was a preacher in Lambeth Asylum. In 1790 he returned to Philadel- phia, in poor health, and died in 1798, nearly sixty years old. He never resumed his connection with the united churches of Philadelphia, but rejoiced in the work of Bishop White, taking a lively interest in the churches.
Bishop White followed Dr. Duche in the rectorship, kindly stipulating that if it was thought best for Duche to resume it, if he returned from England, he would give place to him. The Rev. Professor Bird Wilson has given a volume to the life of the Bishop, and Dr. Sprague's account was aided by Dr. Dorr's " History of Christ Church," and a manuscript from T. H. White, Esq. The Bishop's father was Colonel Thomas White, who came from London to the eastern shore of Mary- land, where he practiced law. The Bishop's sister was Mary, wife of Robert Morris, signer of the Dec- laration of Independence. William White was born in 8
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