USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Annals of King's Chapel from the Puritan age of New England to the present day > Part 2
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Tremont Street from Court to Bromfield St. As it appeared in 1800.
ng's Chapel School St .
Genelary.
Ezekiel Price. ku/us & Amory.
Court St. House of I'm. Powell Esp
345
THE INTERREGNUM.
D'. Byles, M: Walter, McBadger, &c. are likewise driven from Boston to this place ; but [all] of them have some comfortable provision in the Army or Navy as Chaplains, a service which my age & infirmities will not well admit of. I have indeed greatly suffered in my health by the cold weather & other uncomfortable circumstances of a passage to this place ; but having by the good providence of God survived the past distress, I am in hopes some charitable hand will assist me in my purpose of pro- ceeding to England, where the compassion of the well-disposed will I hope preserve me from perishing thro' the want of the necessaries of life. If otherwise, God's will be done.1
I am, Rev.ª Sir, &:
H. CANER.
Dr. Caner had taken with him the Church Registers, so largely filled with his own clear, methodical, precise hand- writing, and a part of the Records of the Vestry, which had been in the habit of meeting at his house.2 The Registers were ob-
1777, and did so, in 1781. (Mass. Ar- identical in architecture and size with chives, cliv. 333.) Caner's house on St. Peter's, Vere Street, Oxford Street, London. In the record of this Church we find that, in 1752, Rev. John Breyn- ton, a chaplain in one of his Majesty's ships of war during the siege of Louis- burg (S. T. D. in England, in 1771), was sent out as missionary to St. Paul's Church, Halifax. Ile was devoted to his duties, learning the language of the Micmac Indians so as to conduct wor- ship in it. Dr. Breynton's attentions to the unfortunate refugees were unwearied. After long service in the little group of founders of the colony, he obtained leave of absence for a visit in England in 1785, but never returned, and in 1790 resigned his cure. (Nova Scotia Ilist. Soc. Coll., i. 35 et seq.) " The polite and generous Dr. Breynton, Rector of St. Paul's Church in Halifax," poor Mr. Bailey calls him. (Bartlet's Frontier Missionary, p. 156.) Tremont Street was sold for £750 to Samuel Henley. (Ibid., cliv. 339; see also pp. 398, 444.) The Boston Gazette, of Feb. 28, 17So, advertises that " Agree- ably to a Resolve of the General Court will be leased for the Term of One Year from the First of April next the Mansion house of the Rev. Dr. Caner, situated in Tremont Street near the Chapel." Dr. Caner's estate - as an Absentee - was settled in the Suffolk Probate Court. The Inventory, taken Jan. 22, 1779, by Franeis Archbald, Jacob Wen- dell, and Jacob Cooper, describes the premises as " A Dwelling House, Barn, &c. situate in Tree Mont Street near the Stone Church, with the Land & Ap- purtenances," which are appraised at £2,550. o. o. (Suffolk Probate Files, No. 16.426). See also a valuable paper by Mr. John T. Hassam on the Confiscated Estates of Boston Loyalists, in 2 Mass. Ilist. Society's Proceedings for May, IS95, x. 162-185.
I We are informed that " about, or a little previous to, the middle of the xviiith century, a number of churches were built under the direction of the Bishop-of-London, & the funds drawn out of the publie exchequer, but in order to save unnecessary expenditure, one plan served for several buildings." So St. Paul's Church, Halifax, which was
2 It is fortunate that Dr. Caner left behind him the Baskerville Bible (Cam- bridge, 1763) which is still in use. On the front cover, which is elaborately tooled in gold, is this inscription : " Kings Chapel | Boston | New England | 1768." The fly-leaf is inscribed in Old English and Roman letters, written in red and blue ink, as follows: "The Gift | of | Mrs Elizabeth | Rogers | to | Kings Chapel | in | Boston | 1768."
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ANNALS OF KING'S CHAPEL.
tained from his heirs more than a quarter of a century after- wards, in 1805, and are now in my keeping. He also took the church plate and vestments, of which more anon. "Two Boxes of Church Plate, & a Silver Christening Basin," he says, " were left in the hands of the Rev. Dr. Breynton 1 at Halifax to be delivered to me or my order, agreeable to his Note Re- ceipt in my hands." 2
Dr. Caner soon sailed for London, where he was received with every mark of respect and kindness. The Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts offered him the choice of any of the missions then vacant; and he was appointed to Bristol, R. I., with a salary of £60.3
" The first year in which Caner's name appears as Missionary at Bristol, 1778, the British forces attacked and set fire to the town, and the Church was utterly consumed. The loss of property thereby caused to the inhabitants provoked among them a more intense hatred against everything which they identified with the obnoxious acts of Britain." +
He had been proscribed and banished under the statute of Massachusetts in 1778, and we can find no trace that he ever thought of returning to this rebellious though triumphant town after the peace, - or that the remnant of his parish, whose min- ister he had been for twenty-seven years, ever once thought of asking this patriarch of more than eighty years to return.
The diary of his parishioner, Dr. Jeffries, also an exile, con- tains several references to the aged clergyman : 5 --
" London Aug. 23, 1779. Received a letter from Rev. Dr. Caner dated Cardiff, South Wales."
1 For a notice of Dr. Breynton, see Sprague's Episcopal Annals, p. 62.
2 See p. 317, post.
3 " That truly venerable clergyman hath been in England for some months, is lately recovered from the small pox, and by accepting of the vacant Mission at Bristol in Rhode Island, is again be- come the servant of the Society ; from a vicissitude of fortune peculiarly distress- ful to advanced life, re-assuming an em- ployment after an interval of 30 Years, which he first entered upon in 1727, and discharged near 20 years with great fidelity at Fairfield. The Society, truly sensible of his great worth, gave him the choice of any one of the vacant Missions, that being the only testimony they had
to give of their affectionate regard for THE FATHER of the American Clergy." Quoted in Batchelder, History of the East- ernt Diocese, P. 399.
[Professor Dexter (Yale Biographies and Annals, p. 297) mentions this as an honorary appointment, which Dr. Caner retained " till the Peace, without ventur- ing to revisit America." Cf. Extracts from Dr. Jeffries' Diary, letters of Dr. Caner and Rev. Samuel Parker, and obituary notice, printed on pp. 346, 347, 348, 352, post. - EDITOR.]
4 Anderson, Col. Ch., iii. 455.
5 I am indebted for these extracts to Dr. B. Joy Jeffries and Mr. Walter Lloyd Jeffries.
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THE INTERREGNUM.
"Sept. 25, 1781. No. 63." [Bristol.]
Breakfasted with Mrs. Gore, Queen's Square,
"Sept. 26, 1781. Put up at my old friend's Dr. Caner's in Crokerton near the east gate of Cardiff and opposite the venerable old Friery, - very hospitably received by the venerable old gent. and his family."
"Oct. 13, 1781. Returned with Mrs. G to Cardiff, and to my sorrow found Dr. Caner greatly and alarmingly indisposed with the symptoms of approaching apoplexy and paralysis."
"Oct. 16, 1781. Dr. Caner remains wandering and much impaired in his intellect."
" April 7, 1783. Mrs. Gore, Dr. Caner & Peters breakfasted with me. Margaret St., Cavendish Square [London]. Went to Pantheon in evening."
"Oct. 9, 1784. This forenoon attended and was examined by the Honorable Board of Commissions for American Claims at Newcastle House, Lincoln's Inn Fields, as an evidence in behalf of the Rev. Dr. Caner's claim."
Rev. S. Peters writes, Aug. 7, 1780: -
" Dr. C-r is in Cardiff, Wales, happy in obscurity and Episcopal neglects."
And Rev. Mr. Bailey, in 1781 : -
"I am informed that Dr. Caner has retired with his young wife to Cardiff." 1
From Cardiff Dr. Caner writes to his former parishioner, Dr. Sylvester Gardiner: -
CARDIFF, Augt 28th 1779.
. . . Tis true, the Air in this Climate is not so clear & elastic as it was with us in America, but for that reason I should think it more suitable for people advanc'd in life ; & I think I have general experience on my side in support of this Opinion. One is liable to take cold in every place. I had myself a cold last Spring, attended with a very troublesome Cough, & which lasted longer than any one I can remember to have had before. Excepting that Instance, I never had better health in my life than since my coming into Wales. - But your present depression is I doubt much aggravated by what you afterwards mention, the scanty circumstances you labour under, & the small prospect there is, of their being much mended. This I own, is a dark prospect, especially to a man in years, & who is encumbered with a Family (Tho' by the way you have never yet told me, who, or how many your present Family consists of) - But be of good cheer my Friend, & recollect by whose fatherly Protection you have hitherto been conducted through life; remember that his hand is
1 Bartlet's Frontier Missionary, p. 322.
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ANNALS OF KING'S CHAPEL.
not shortened, that it cannot help, He hath delivered, he doth deliver, & we trust that he will still deliver us, when the purposes of his wisdom are accomplished in us ; Or if he sees fit to continue the burden, he will yet support the mind, & enable us to bear the weight under which he per- mits us to labour. As your troubles increase, so let your faith also in- crease, & rest assured that your confidence in the hand that guides the Universe, will not finally be frustrated.
I pray God give you & all of us the Grace, humbly to submit, & pa- tiently endure, the visitations, with which his Providence has thought fit, or may yet think fit to exercise us, firmly believing that he will conduct all things for the best good of those that confide in him, altho' his footsteps may be too dark for our imperfect faculties to penetrate -
I am My good Sir, with much Affection
Your sincere Friend & Humble Servant
H CANER.
He died in England, at the close of the year 1792, in his ninety- third year.1 One of his daughters was married to a Mr. Gore, of Boston. The last mention of Dr. Caner which I find on our church records is as follows : -
Boston, August 5, 1781.
At a meeting of the proprietors of Chapel Church at the Vestry - Present &c.
Whereas there was a large quantity of Plate, Damask & other Linnin Belongin to said Church, & deposetted in the Care of the Revd Doct' Caner, & he the said Doc" Gowing of with the Refegees, & taking the Plate & Linnin with him, Therefore
Voted That the Church Wardens & Vestry be desired to Use their Endeaver to Ascertain the quantity & Value of said plate & linnin as near as may be, & lay in a Clame (in behalf of said Church) on the Estate of the Revd Henry Caner for the same --
1 The following obituary notice ap- peared in the Columbian Centinel, of Feb. 13, 1793 : -
" Died. - At Long-Ashton (Eng.), the Rev. IIENRY CANER, At. 93, a very re- spectable character, many years minister in the Chapel-Church of this town. When (says an English paper) the Ameri- can Revolution took place, he was obliged to relinquish the Ministry, his country, and his possessions, and took refuge in England, where he has since lived, distinguished by a serenity of mind, and cheerful submission to the various vicissitudes of life."
The Boston Gazette ( No. 2002), of Feb. 11, 1793, contains the following : -
" At Long-Ashton in Somersetshire, England, aged 93, the Rev. Dr. HENRY CANER, a very respectable character many years Minister of the Chapel Church in this town."
I am informed by Mr. Henry O'B. O'Donoghue of Long Ashton, near Bris- tol, that " there is no tombstone in the church-yard with Dr. Caner's name, nor any trace to be found of such a person ever having lived in the parish."
[The Rev. Dr. Edmund F. Slafter in- forms us that in the publications of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, Dr. Caner is said to have died in London in 1792. - EDITOR.]
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THE INTERREGNUM.
To 3 Sett wrought Plate Vizt.
6 Flagons
6 Cups
4 large Basons
6 Dishes Estimated at 2800 oz.
2 Xtening Basons
6 Salvers
4 Tankards &c
A quantity Dammask Linnen Belongin to the Communion & Six Surplis &c.
This plate, the gift of three kings of England to the Royal Chapel, was of value to the Church far beyond its worth as old silver. A wrong was done not to this Church only, but to the history of ancient things in our New World, when the efforts of the parish to recover it proved to be in vain. We are reluctantly obliged to relate that this was the result. Among the files of Church papers is a draught of a letter sent to the Rev. East Apthorp in London : -
Revª Sir
BOSTON 5th July 1784.
The Vestry of the Chapel in this town finds it necessary to apply to the Revd Doctor Caner for the church plate & Linnen wch he carried away, have chosen you for their Agent in that business, & hope it will not be disagreeable to you to transact it for them either by yrself or under your direction by some confidential friend of yours living att Bristol where the Doctor resides, for wch purpose we send you a power of attor- ney wth powers of Substitution.
M' John Wheelwright, when he was lately in England, mention'd to Doctor Caner the necessity of sending the Church plate & linnen &c to Boston wch he says he refus'd to do as his Estate was taken from him here by the publick. We conceive he must have misunderstood the Doctor, for upon what Principles can he detain the interest belonging to the Church because the publick have taken away his property? The Church did all they cou'd to save it for him, & no doubt wou'd have had a Claim on his Estate if they cou'd have sworn to the acco' exhibited, wch they cou'd not do for want of the weight of the plate & particular accot of the linnen &c.1 We think it wou'd be taking up your time need-
1 As we have already seen (ante, p. 345, note), Dr. Caner's estate, as an Absentee, was settled in the Suffolk Probate Court. At the end of Mr. Jennings's Account, dated Boston, Sept., 17SI, appears this memorandum : -
"There was a demand exhibited by Thos. Bulfinch & James Ivers as a Committee of King's Chapel Church for the sum of £1500 for Three Setts of Wrought Plate said to be
carry'd of by sd Canner, which demand not being well supported, agreeable to the Reso- lutions of this Common Wealth we have not allowed." (Suffolk Probate Files, No. 16. 426.)
The word "King's " is cancelled in the original paper as it is here.
In its destitution and until Easter, 1798, the Table was furnished by loans of a Flagon from the Old South Church
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ANNALS OF KING'S CHAPEL.
lessly to use arguments to prove the Justness of our Claim, wch is so self- evident. We demand it in the name of the Church, who have chosen us a Committee for that purpose. - If M' Wheelwright did not misun- derstand the Doctor, & he has any real intentions of detaining the plate &c from the Church, We beg the fav' of you to take such steps as y" think will be most effectual to obtain them. Wou'd not an application to the Bishop of London be advisable & proper? The Doctor was wthin his Diocese when he took charge of the Church plate & Linnen, &c, as he says, for their security to the Church ; & M's Gore [his daughter] tells M' Wheelwright there are likewise books belonging to the Church in the D's possession wch may be likewise demanded. The Doctor left the before mentioned things wth Doctor Breynton at Hallifax, & by his orders they were sent to England in time of the War. Cou'd that be for security of the Interest of the Church? was not the risq: greater in the transportation than their remaining att Hallifax? & ought the Church in that Case to pay any charges for removal, is submitted to you.
Inclos'd is our letter to Dr. Caner for your perusal, sealing, & delivery, & to take any extracts from it wch you may think necessary.
The Revª Mr. East Apthorp.
We would gladly believe that this great act of wrong on the part of an old man, who had passed a generation of life as min- ister of the Church which he now defrauded, was the error of old age and the infirmity of a mind embittered by the losses and disappointments which had come upon him so late in life. We cannot put it out of sight, or forget it; but we can remember at the same time that this beautiful and now venerable church was built through his tireless zeal in the prime of his years.
" Dr. Caner's published discourses," says the Annalist of the American Pulpit, " show that he was a man of fine intellectual endowments and acquirements. He had withal a very popular address, and exerted an important influence wherever he lived. He was undoubtedly one of the most eminent Episcopal clergymen of his day in this country."
As a sequel to the account just given of the charges regarding the communion plate and other Church property, we quote the following : 1 -
" A service of plate for the altar was loaned by his Excellency Gov. Bernard, which the vestry in 1770 refused to purchase of him, and it was probably returned. The Royal Governors received from the Crown on
and a large Tankard from the widow of Governor Hancock.
An account of the plate now owned by King's Chapel will be found on pp. 616-618, post.
1 The several statements in the text, from this point, respecting the church plate and furnishings, are taken chiefly from Dr. Hoppin's History of Christ Church, Cambridge.
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THE INTERREGNUM.
their appointment Communion Plate and ornaments of a church, to be appropriated at their discretion. In 1772 his Excellency Gov. Thomas Hutchinson gave a silver flagon and covered cup, now in use, which bear the following inscription : -
THE GIFT OF K. WILLIAM AND Q. MARY TO YE REVD. SAMLL. MYLES FOR Y' USE OF THEIR MAJESTIES' CHAPPELL IN N. ENGLAND MDCXCIV.
"In 1787 this plate, then in the hands of the Rev. Dr. Parker of Boston for safe keeping, was claimed by Dr. Thomas Bulfinch, Warden, as the property of the King's Chapel." What Dr. Caner had carried away "were afterwards disposed of in the Provinces by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel."
To which we add an extract from a letter of Dr. William Morice, Secretary of the Society, to Dr. Parker, dated July 17, 1787:
" Dr. Apthorp . . . says that when he was missionary Gov. Bernard gave one flaggon and one cup of silver and some rich crimson damask for the Table. Which, he adds, was not given with so good a grace as it ought to have been, the Governor intimating that he considered it as his property, and that he should lend it to the Church ; but no farther men- tion being made of returning it, they always considered it as a gift. . . . Dr. Caner sent two flaggons of old plate from the Chapel. . . . The Chapel can have no right, for it was given to Cambridge Church in con- sideration that new plate had been given to the King's Chapel. It there- fore belongs to Cambridge Church, upon the supposition that a Church of England minister officiates there. As that is not the case, I should think the Society might demand it, in order to give it to some other Church in the King's remaining Provinces ; which they have done with Dr. Caner's."
In answer to a letter of Nov. 30, 1787, from Dr. Parker to Dr. Thomas Bulfinch reclaiming " the plate belonging to the Church at Cambridge," Dr. Bulfinch's reply (Dec. 3, 1787) -
" returns him all the plate which he borrowed of him, according to his promise at the time of borrowing it ; wishes Mr. Parker to look at the arms and inscription on the flagon : by which it appears to be the unalienable property of the Chapel, not liable to the disposal of Dr. Caner or any other person, without a regularly recorded vote of the Church so authorizing him, which appears never to have been passed. Can Mr. Parker conceive that the plate belonging to Trinity Church is on any account at his disposal without the express consent of the Church ?"
352
ANNALS OF KING'S CHAPEL.
Mr. Sergeant writes, Oct. 7, 1772 : -
"Gov. Hutchinson has made us a present of a silver flagon and cup with cover, and given the same to Newberry Church. Bass, I imagine, will be not a little proud of it."
A view of the changed condition of the Episcopal Church in New England at the close of the Revolutionary War is afforded by the following letter, dated June 21, 1784: -
Rev. Samuel Parker to Rev. Dr. William White.
. . . We are indeed [in Massachusetts] but 5 in Number, for when the British Troops evacuated this Town in March 1776, all the Episcopal Clergy in this Town, myself ex- Muito cepted, & many from the other Towns accompanied them & have never since returned. In- deed, but two others remained in the whole Government : these were the Revd. Mr. Bass of Newburyport, who was a Missionary from the Society but now for reasons unknown dismissed their Service, & Revd. Mr. Wheeler, who was an Assistant to the Rector of Trinity Church in New- port, R. I. ; the latter, being a native of this Province, upon the breaking out of the War retired to a small patrimony in the Vicinity of this Town, & did not officiate at all till within a Twelve month past he was invited to the Churches in Scituate & Marshfield, in the County of Plymouth.
Since the War two Clergymen have settled in this State : Revd. Mr. Lewis, who was Chaplain in Burgoyne's Regiment of Light Dragoons, left that Service & came to this town in 1778, & settled at Christ's church ; the other, the Revd. Mr. Fisher, who came from Annapolis in Nova Scotia in 1780 & settled in Salem. The oldest Church in this Town, formerly known by the Name of King's Chapel, is now supplied by a Lay Reader who is a Candidate for holy Orders. There are five or six other Churches, in some of which Lay Readers now officiate. In the State of New Hampshire, there are but two Episcopal Churches, one at Portsmouth, the metropolis of the Government, where there has been no Clergyman since the War, the other in a new Settlement in the western part of the State, where a Missionary from the Society in England is now resident. In the State of Rhode Island are three churches only, exclu- sive of one at Bristol which was burnt by the British, &c.1
1 Journals of the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church (Philadelphia, 1861), i. 427-429.
" In the General Convention of 1814, an instrument was drawn up by the bishops, and received the approbation of the other House, certifying that 'what is
now called the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, is the same Church formerly known by the name of the Church of England in America, the change of name having been the dictate of a change of circumstances in the civil constitution of the country,' so says
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THE INTERREGNUM.
The course of these Annals has brought us in contact with a feature of our colonial life generally too unfamiliar, and held in too low esteem since the establishment of American indepen- dence, -we mean the character and fortunes of the Boston Loyalists of the Revolutionary period.1 The unusual fulness of material that has been preserved, in parish records and other memoranda, enables us to present in some detail a typical ex- ample intimately connected with our story, which may serve to illustrate better than could otherwise be done the spirit of pride, grief, resentment, and bitter sense of wrong which so strongly colors that chapter of our history.
We have met from time to time, conspicuous among those belonging to this period of our annals, the name of Dr. Sylvester Gardiner. He was the great-grandson of Joseph Gardiner, one of the first settlers of Narragansett, R. I., and was the fourth in a family of seven (four sons and three daughters) children of William Gardiner, who died in 1732, at the age of sixty. Syl- vester, it appears, was accounted a boy of slow and dull under- standing, not likely to fill his place worthily as son of an important landholder; but the Rev. James McSparran, Epis- copal missionary at Narragansett, -whose name has hereto- fore appeared in these annals as the eloquent and eccentric preacher at Christ Church, Boston, - who had married an elder sister of the youth, appears to have noted his latent genius; and, during the father's lifetime, he had taken charge of the son's education, sending him abroad for an eight years' course of study, from which he returned to take his position as a leading and eminent physician of Boston .. At the time the Siege of Boston began, being then sixty-eight years of age, Dr. Gardiner had not only become a distinguished physician and surgeon, but was engaged largely in mercantile ventures, had considerable property invested in various directions, and was the owner of real estate amounting to a hundred thousand acres of land, chiefly in the district of Maine (then a "district" of Massachusetts), including what is now the city of Gardiner, where he had built an Episcopal Church, seventeen dwelling- houses, mills, smithies, etc. All this was confiscated, in con- sequence of the part he took in the Revolutionary struggle and his own departure from these shores, - under what con-
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