USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Portsmouth > Old St. John's at Portsmouth, and her distinguished colonial flock > Part 2
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"He gave a splendid banquet, served on plate Such as became the Governor of the State, Who represented England and the King, And was magnificent in everything."
But Governor Benning had not gathered the Portsmouth aristoc- racy for the sole purpose of exhibiting his customary bounty.
"The Governor, rising from his chair, Played slightly with his ruffles, then looked down, And said unto the Reverend Arthur Browne: 'This is my birthday: it shall likewise be My wedding day: and you shall marry me!'"
At this point, the Governor introduced a young servant, Martha Hilton, to the astonished and bemused company. It was Martha
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who was to be his bride! The Reverend Arthur was as amazed as the others and seemed to draw back (probably he had left his Prayer Book at home! ), but the Governor was no man with whom to trifle.
"This is the lady: do you hesitate? Then I command you as chief magistrate."
And the wedding was performed without delay.
There was another marriage, later on in 1769, which must have caused considerable disquiet to the Reverend Arthur. Colonel Theodore Atkinson, Jr., was the son of one of Mr. Browne's most loyal parishioners and himself a person of talent and capacity. He had been graduated from Harvard in 1757, and upon his return to Portsmouth had been made a member of the Council (of which his father was President) and afterwards Secretary of the Prov- ince. In 1762, he married Frances Deering Wentworth, a Boston belle of singular beauty and accomplishments, who apparently had bestowed her earlier affections upon her cousin, John Wentworth, later to become Governor of New Hampshire. Colonel Atkinson was not a robust person and lived only seven years after the mar- riage, departing this life without issue on the 28th of October in 1769. The funeral, conducted by Mr. Browne, was one of more than passing moment. By order of the Governor guns were fired in requiem salute from the fort in Newcastle and from a man-of- war in the harbor. We have, of course, no notion of what went on in the mind of the young widow. But her tears, if any, were soon dried, for on the IIth of November, just ten days after the ob- sequies, the widow marched up the center aisle of Queen's Chapel and gave herself into the pleased custody of her first and early love, none other than the new Governor, John Wentworth. In the sequel, the parson had ample opportunity to contemplate the un- seemly haste by which the woeful widow became the blushing bride, because, by a strange quirk of fate, on the very day of the wedding he slipped upon a pavement and broke his arm!
2'
Because Arthur Browne was a missionary of the S. P. G., which paid a portion of his salary, he made occasional reports to that So-
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ciety, and his letters to them make interesting reading to any stu- dent of Portsmouth's history. In 1741, for example, Browne wrote to England that the town and district of Portsmouth contained between six and seven hundred families. Of those, between fifty and sixty gave their adherence to the Church of England, "the re- mainder being neither Quaker, Baptist, Heathen or Infidel (that I know of) .. . nor can I discover any notoriously scandalous or Prophane." Mr. Browne read prayers every morning at 7, from May to September, besides his Sunday duties, and delivered a weekly lecture, "to strengthen and confirm my Flock" and to guard them "against the pernicious Doctrine of Whitefield, Ten- nant and such Incendiaries now frequent among us." During his Portsmouth pastorate of five years, he had baptized 93 children and two adults; and the number of Queen's Chapel communi- cants was 53.
The "Enthusiasts" gave the Anglican parson no end of trouble. These were groups of people who throughout the colonies about the middle of the Eighteenth Century followed the remarkable preaching and teaching of the Reverend George Whitefield. This man was a priest of the Church of England who in those days had been sent to Georgia as a missionary and whose staunch advocacy of the theology of Calvin soon rendered him suspect by his fellow clergy. But Whitefield had many followers and a number of itin- erant preachers, friendly to his ideas, sprang up in his wake. The movement evidently had reached Portsmouth by at least 1742, because in that year Mr. Browne complained of the "strange com- motions of a religious nature overspreading the Country." He de- clares, "The seed was sown by Mr. Whitefield: His Enthusiastick notions were the Cause of all: which are now improv'd to such a marvellous Degree, as to vye with the lying wonders of Fox and Naylor. Visions, Dreams, Trances are as frequent among us, as they were in their Day. ... & He is the best and most edifying Preacher who is most presumptuous and unintelligible, and can boldly anathematize all that dissent from him. My small Flock (Blessed be God!) have almost escaped the Infection, three or four only have fallen away. ... But their Loss (if it may be call'd one) is compensated by ye addition of thirty-six to our Communion
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notwithstanding the indefatigable Industry of some crackbraind Zealotts to disturb our Peace, & promote Division."
Mr. Browne could swing his verbal axe with a ready will and probably not a little secret enjoyment. At any rate, as later appears in his letter, he came to feel that an ill wind blows some good. "You know," he writes, "that anything extraordinary has a tend- ency to put men upon thinking, nor have our present disorders been quite destitute of this effect; which I ascribe to that adorable Providence that brings Good out of Evil."
Mr. Browne was considerably aided in his work by Benning Wentworth, who became Governor of New Hampshire in 1741, and who was so much interested in the firmer establishment of Queen's Chapel in Portsmouth and of the Church of England in the province that he was elected a member of the S. P. G., in 1743. The parson keenly appreciated the Governor's help and favor, especially since the preceding incumbent, Governor Belcher, had made some effort to lure away his congregation. Belcher, wrote Mr. Browne, tried to "trepan and overset us, pouring in Preachers from all Parts, pestering & pelting us with Sermons & Lectures some times three or four in a Day." But, since the advent of the new Governor, Mr. Browne could rejoice that "the snare is broken."
During his incumbency, this staunch missionary of the Church of England not only tended his own flock but sought to minister to several outlying towns, whenever he could find the opportunity to go afield. Considering the difficulties of travel at that time, into the wilderness of New-Hampshire, his energy and forthright courage are remarkable indeed. In Portsmouth his own congrega- tion was increasing slowly; and by 1760 the parish talked of the need for enlarging the Church (which indeed was accomplished by 1762). Yet Mr. Browne had turned his attention to small groups of people in the frontier settlements of Nottingham, Bar- rington, Canterbury, Rumford (now Concord), Bow, and Contoo-
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cook. Visits to these places had been made in the warmer months of the year, since winter travel was virtually impossible. And like many another parson before and after him, this itinerant mission- ary found difficulty in balancing his travel budget. He writes in 1760, "One journey to Canterbury which is about sixty-five miles from Portsmouth costs forty pounds our money including horse hire, about forty shillings Ster: which is such an Expence as cannot be Supported upon a Missionarys Allowance, and the Town being a Frontier, the Inhabitants plead Poverty."
The care of his own Queen's Chapel began to be burdensome as the years went by, and his letters to the Society are filled with complaints about his poverty and the disregard of his parishioners for his personal comfort. He had never been provided with a par- sonage and had had to pay house rent for as much as twenty-three years. His letter of "Decbr. ye 12th, 1760" has a strangely mod- ern plaint, and almost it might have been written yesterday. "The great Straits and Difficulties I have been hereby (since the Com- mencement of the War) reduced to and by the exorbitant advance upon all the Necessaries of life, force me to complain; but is there not a Cause? since my Parishioners have been deaf to all my Solici- tations, and regardless of the Hazard they run, notwithstanding my frequent Admonitions, of forfeiting all pretensions to the So- ciety's favour."
Indeed, for one reason or another, the congregation of Queen's Chapel seem to have treated their parson shabbily in his latter years. Perhaps this was because Arthur Browne had long since be- come an institution in the town. His accustomed presence may have induced that peculiar kind of neglect that often accompanies the familiar. For over thirty years, he had labored in Portsmouth, and his flock was justly proud of his integrity and of his position in their provincial aristocracy. He had become a virtual Chaplain to the Governor and had exercised in his own right an influence upon the religious affairs of the town far out of proportion to the size of his congregation. Moreover, John Singleton Copley had painted his portrait in 1757, as well as one of Mrs. Browne, and one also of their daughter, Jane. It was only the Portsmouth elite who sat
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for Copley! And so while his parishioners admired him for his unswerving loyalty to Church and Crown, while they respected his stubborn tilting with the "enthusiasts" and his sharp, wordy encounters with the "dissenters," while even they loved him for the faithful performance of his calling, yet they carefully re- strained any attempts towards prodigality on his behalf.
On July 2, 1773, the parish wrote a letter to the S. P. G. con- taining a notice of their esteem for their beloved parson who had departed this life on June Ioth of that year, and expressing the hope that the Society would send a successor and help to defray his expenses. The parish was by now properly repentant, and agreed to raise twice the income which Arthur Browne had re- ceived, besides an allowance for house rent. They also wrote: "We must further beg leave to observe that as good Conduct, a most Noble and Benevolent disposition, Excellent Preaching, Sound Doctrines, and great Oratory, were Qualifications regularly ex- hibited & ever conspicuous in our late faithful Divine and as this Chapel is Seated in the Metropolis of this Province, and the only. Established Church setled in it at present, so we shall humbly hope for a Gentleman of Similar Abilitys and as Christian like de- portment, to succeed him, as it will greatly lend to the enlargement and happiness of the Church."
But such an appointment was not to take place. The American Revolution was about to engulf the Colonies in a violent struggle that rendered all things English suspect. Arthur Browne slept rest- lessly in the Wentworth tomb in the little graveyard of Queen's Chapel. He never would have approved of the opprobrium heaped upon his most gracious Sovereign to whom he had always professed deepest loyalty. His body lies now under a sprig of lilacs trans- planted from the original bushes which his friend, Governor Ben- ning Wentworth, had first brought from England to Little Har- bor-that fine country seat lapped by tidal waters.
Certain of Arthur Browne's flock are brought to mind, as one browses around the present St. John's Church. In the northwest
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corner there is an old font presented to Queen's Chapel in 1761. On the hinged brass lid of this relic we are told that "this Bap- tisterium" was "acquired from the French at Senegal" by Captain John Tufton Mason and given to the parish by his daughters, when Wyseman Clagett and Samuel Livermore were Wardens.
The first named was a colorful and eccentric gentleman in Portsmouth's colonial galaxy of notable men. Wyseman Clagett was born in Bristol, England, in 1721, and educated there as a lawyer. In 1748, he migrated to Antigua; and ten years later re- moved to Portsmouth, where he practised law and became subse- quently (1765) Attorney General of the Province. He was noted for his overly strict interpretations of the law and became a terror to every petty offender against the dignity of the King, so much so that to be "Clagetted" meant to be prosecuted. His person was tall, solidly built, and he could so contrive his countenance and re- lease his booming voice that none could long brook his displeasure. And yet with all this rather forbidding exterior, he was fond of heavy humor, of long convivial sessions in the local taverns, and of the charms of feminine beauty. Arthur Browne married him to Lettice Mitchell on August 14, 1759. This union, even though his wife survived him by six years, was a stormy one. Wyseman had taken Lettice for batter and for worse! When a friend congratu- lated him for having married a fortune, he replied: "I have not married a fortune, sir; I have only married one of Fortune's daughters, a Miss-Fortune." It was small wonder that few liked him, but at least he was respected for his response to the Patriot cause in the Revolution. He was appointed as a delegate to two Provincial Congresses and was a member of the Committee of Safety. He died in Litchfield, New Hampshire, in 1784.
Samuel Livermore, the other Warden whose name is mentioned on the font cover, married Jane Browne, the fourth child of the Reverend Arthur, in 1759. He too was a lawyer and a close friend of Governor John Wentworth, who appointed him as King's At- torney for New Hampshire in 1767. In the troublous times of the Revolution which soon followed, Livermore decided to move to Holderness, New Hampshire, where he erected an imposing man-
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sion on the site of what is now Holderness School. There he re- mained on good terms with Tory and patriot alike. He was so well esteemed that he became in the post-Revolutionary period, Repre- sentative and Senator in Congress, and also served as Chief Jus- tice of the State. He was prominent in the Convention which formed the present Constitution of New Hampshire, and this document is subscribed with his name. He was regarded by his contemporaries as one of the ablest men in New Hampshire. He died in Holderness in 1803, in the seventy-second year of his age.
St. John's Parish, being constituted near a United States Navy Base, the time-honored "Portsmouth Navy Yard," always has welcomed into its fellowship those who, in their Country's service, follow the vocation of the Sea. One of these good men, whom Arthur Browne well knew, was Elijah Hall for whom a memorial tablet has been placed on the west wall of the church. The tablet reads: "In memory of the Hon. Elijah Hall who died June 22 A.D. 1830, aged 84 years. As an officer of the Ranger under Capt Paul Jones, a Merchant, a Representative, Senator and Councillor of this State; as Naval Officer, Member of this Church and in his other relations, he sustained the character of a Patriot and an up- right Man." Hall had been born in Raynham, Massachusetts, in 1742, and had come to Portsmouth as a young man. During the Revolution he became a staunch patriot and embraced that cause whole-heartedly by offering himself to the newly-formed United States Navy. He saw service on the "Ranger" (which had been Portsmouth built in 1771 at the Continental Shipyard then on Badger's Island), and he remained with that famous craft until her capture by the British in Charlestown, in 1780. In later years (1829) Hall wrote the following quaint letter: "I served my country faithfully during the whole Revolutionary War, and part of the time with the gallant Paul Jones as his First Lieutenant, and was in several desperate battles. I commanded a Marine Bat- tery during the siege of Charlestown and there lost the sight of my left eye by the bursting of a shell and have never asked my coun- try for a pension. During the Last War (1812-1815) I lost my only three sons in battle, all of whom were officers, while defend-
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ing their country's flag." This brave gentleman died in 1830, and the Portsmouth Journal of June 26, 1830 said of him: "He was in private life an estimable citizen, a fair merchant, a tender parent, and an honest man."
Another of Arthur Browne's good parishioners was Colonel Theodore Atkinson, who still is remembered at St. John's by rea- son of a curious dole which he directed in his will should be given to the poor. 200£ was set aside, the income of which was to be expended for bread that was placed at the door of the Church and could be taken home by those in need of the staff of life. The be- quest long since has been absorbed in parish endowment funds, but the ancient custom is still retained, as a kind of legal and historic fiction, of displaying a loaf on one Sunday morning in each month.
One of the most interesting parts of the present Church estab- lishment is the old graveyard where are buried many of those who, like Governor Benning Wentworth and the Reverend Arthur Browne, had so intimately to do with the colonial history of the town. Here are the tombs of the Atkinsons, the Sheafes, the Peirces, the Marshes, the Sherburnes, the Jaffreys, and many others who were well known in their day.
It is interesting to reflect that all these worthies were sum- moned to Queen's Chapel by the great bell that tolled its deep notes from the belfry on Church Hill, and which still calls the faithful to prayer and worship. The bell itself-like the font-was a part of the spoils of war. It was presented to the parish by Sir William Pepperell of Kittery who, in 1745, had conducted a suc- cessful English expedition against the French fortress at Louis- burg. One of the bells in that historic citadel was brought back to Portsmouth, and, since Queen's Chapel was apparently in need of a suitable "alarum," this prize was given to the parish. It did not, however, survive the fire of 1806 that destroyed the Chapel; but the metal that remained was sent to Boston, where it was recast by Paul Revere.
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The old bell, as it swings back and forth today, could tell a memorable tale of those exciting and portentous colonial days. It has sounded its sombre tones when many of Portsmouth's notables were laid to rest in the near-by churchyard. It has been rung with joyful delight when countless couples have taken each other for richer or for poorer. Its mellow notes once welcomed the Father of His Country. It has pealed forth in jubilation at the conclusion of every war in which these United States of America has engaged. And all through the years, it has been a valiant summoner to those who wished to find their fellowship in Christ's religion under the forms of the Episcopal Church. Long may it ring for the Glory of God!
"From St. John's steeple I call the people On Holy Days To prayer and praise."
THE END
"Actorum Memores simul affectamus Agenda!"
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T HIS NEWCOMEN ADDRESS, based upon 17th, 18th, and 19th Century records of Old St. John's Church and of the town of Portsmouth, was delivered during the "1947 New Hampshire Luncheon" of The Newcomen Society of England, held on September 10, 1947, at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, U.S.A. The luncheon was presided over by RICHARD W. SULLO- WAY, President & Treasurer, Sulloway Mills, Frank- lin, Chairman of the New Hampshire Committee, in American Newcomen. MR. DUNN, the guest of honor, was introduced by DR. WILLIAM SAFFORD JONES, President, The Portsmouth Athenaeum, Secretary of the New Hampshire Committee in this Society, a roster of whose Office Bearers is given in the following pages:
TT
ITT
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THE NEWCOMEN SOCIETY OF ENGLAND
NEW HAMPSHIRE COMMITTEE
Chairman RICHARD W. SULLOWAY, Esqre. President & Treasurer Sulloway Mills, Inc. Franklin Past-Chairman, Industrial Development Committee New England Council Boston
Vice-Chairmen
NORMAN S. BEAN, Esqre. President Manchester National Bank Manchester
ELIOT A. CARTER, Esqre. Vice-President Nashua Gummed & Coated Paper Company Nashua
ARETAS B. CARPENTER, Esqre. Manchester
THE RT. REV. JOHN T. DALLAS, D.D., LL.D. The Bishop of New Hampshire Concord [ 27 ]
DR. JOHN SLOAN DICKEY President, Dartmouth College Hanover
THE REV. ROBERT HAYES DUNN Rector, St. John's Episcopal Church Portsmouth
JOHN G. GERKEN, Esqre. President Rumford Press Concord
R. C. L. GREER, Esqre.
General Manager, New Hampshire Gas & Electric Co. Portsmouth
JAMES M. LANGLEY, Esqre. Publisher, "Monitor-Patriot" Concord
JOHN R. McLANE, Esqre. Senior Partner McLane, Davis & Carleton Manchester
ARTHUR E. MOREAU, Esqre. President, Amoskeag Industries, Inc. Manchester
EARLE W. PHILBROOK, Esqre. "Philbrook Farm" Littleton
WILLIAM G. SALTONSTALL, Esqre. The Principal Phillips Exeter Academy Exeter
AVERY R. SCHILLER, Esqre. President Public Service Company of New Hampshire Manchester
THE HON. HUNTLEY N. SPAULDING Treasurer, Spaulding Fibre Company Rochester Former Governor of New Hampshire
DR. HAROLD W. STOKE President, University of New Hampshire Durham [ 28 ]
COLONEL WILLIAM PARKER STRAW President, Amoskeag Savings Bank Manchester
ROYAL P. WHITE, Esqre. Resident Manager, American Woolen Company Sawyer Mills Dover
Treasurer EDGAR C. HIRST, Esqre. President, The First National Bank of Concord Concord
Associate Treasurers
H. L. ADDITON, Esqre. President, Merchants National Bank Manchester
GEORGE A. TREFETHEN, Esqre. Cashier, The First National Bank of Portsmouth Portsmouth
Secretary DR. WILLIAM SAFFORD JONES President, The Portsmouth Athenaeum Portsmouth
F. N. JEAN GINDORFF, Esqre., ex-officio Harriman, Ripley & Company, Inc., New York
FRANCIS B. WHITLOCK, Esqre., ex-officio Vice-President, Central Hanover Bank & Trust Company, New York
ELLIOTT H. LEE, Esqre., ex-officio Vice-President, Guaranty Trust Company of New York
DR. JOSEPH W. ROE, ex-officio Yale University Chairman, Historical Advisory Committee American Branch, The Newcomen Society
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O
6
CHURCHES.
CHURCHES.
PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
The first Episcopal Church, or Chapel, at Ports- mouth, was erected prior to the year 1638, on the southeast corner of the twelve acres of glebe land, near where Mr. Charles Robinson's house now stands. The parsonage house stood near the pres- ent site of Mr. John K. Pickering's house.
In 1732, a new church was erected nearly on the ground where St. John's Church now stands. It was called Queen's Chapel.
The Rev. Arthur Brown was rector of the church until the year of his death, in June,' 1773. From this time to 1780 only occasional services were had, when the Rev. John .Cozens Ogden became the rector and continued to the year 1793. The parish was incorporated Feb. 15, 1791, by the name of St. John's Church. The Rev. Joseph Willard was or- dained, in 1795, as rector of St. John's Church. At Easter, 1806, he resigned, and removed to Newark, N. J.
On the morning of Dec. 24th, 1806, the church was consumed by fire. June 24, 1807, the corner- stone of the present edifice was laid, and the church was completed and opened on May 29, 1808.
Among many candidates for the vacancy in this church was the present rector, Rev. Charles Bur- roughs, D.D. who was invited by the unanimous vote of the parish to be their minister. He was admitted to the order of Deacons by the Rt. Rev. Bishop White, Dec: 10, 1810. On Wednesday, May 20, 1812, he was admitted to the order of Priests by the Rt. Rev. A. V. Griswold, Bishop of the Eastern Diocese. The next day he was induct- ed rector of St. John's Church.
The Wardens are Joshua W. Peirce and Robert Lefavour.
"Taken from the 'Portsmouth City Book,' in an edition of 1856-57, published by C. W. Brewster & Son at Ports- mouth, 'as existing in June, 1856.' Few copies remain today of a curious little directory which appeared nearly a century ago."
-ROBERT H. DUNN
2
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"It was THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH (1836-1907), in his memorable 'An Old Town by the Sea,' who, in 1883, wrote of Old St. John's famous churchyard:
" 'Here and there is a rosebush drooping with a weight of pensive pale roses, as becomes a rosebush in a churchyard.
" "The place has about it an indescribable soothing atmos- phere of respectability and comfort. Here rest the remains of the principal and loftiest in rank in their generation of the citizens of Portsmouth prior to the Revolution-stanch, roy- alty-loving governors, counselors, and secretaries of the Prov- ince of New-Hampshire, all snugly gathered under the motherly wing of the Church of England. It is almost impos- sible to walk anywhere without stepping on a governor. You grow haughty in spirit after a while, and scorn to tread on
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anything less than one of His Majesty's colonels or a secretary under The Crown. Here are the tombs of the Atkinsons, the Jaffreys, the Sherburnes, the Sheafes, the Marshes, the Mannings, the Gardners, and others of the quality. All around you underfoot are tumbled-in coffins, with here and there a rusty sword atop, and faded escutcheons, and crum- bling armorial devices. You are moving in the very best society.'
"Aldrich, conspicuous always for ability to recreate New England's proud past, caught both the charm and the historic dignity of a churchyard that cherishes 'the quality' of Colonial Portsmouth!"
-ROBERT H. DUNN
20
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GEORGE IN INN
"Portsmouth lived colonial days when the stagecoach and high road brought weary travellers to the celebrated 'George III Inn.' Here were horses changed; here, with blazing hearth and snug comfort within, the rigors of a rough journey from Boston soon were forgot. Early did Portsmouth win reputation for warm hospitality."
-ROBERT H. DUNN
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"Of the Sea and its mariners are those colonial treasures one still finds in old Portsmouth mansions! Of the Far East and the Indies; of distant oceans and shores; brought proudly by Portsmouth's sea captains of gen- erations gone by."
-ROBERT H. DUNN
20 20
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"Northern New England, of which New Hampshire is a part, shares with Portsmouth the dramatic setting of lighthouse and fog bell-of guardian beacon of a rugged, wooded shore-where gulls hover and men yet go down to the Sea in ships, as for generations past."
-ROBERT H. DUNN
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"Doorways and colonial furnishings that challenge beauty have made Portsmouth famous. Here is the age-old art of the ship carver preserved in line and form and grace. Ship Master and Counting-House Merchant lived well!"
-ROBERT H. DUNN
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"So many times have New Hampshire's Portsmouth and her prized collections of colonial treasures been likened to those of Virginia's Williamsburg! Someday a similar restoration of this priceless seaport town may come to be undertaken. The reward would be rich indeed in beauty!"
-ROBERT H. DUNN
'
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"Colonial Governors of New Hampshire passed and repassed through these superb gateways and entered houses which are architectural gems of the Queen Anne and Georgian periods. These houses still stand."
-ROBERT H. DUNN
20
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"When you come to visit Old St. John's in Portsmouth, take pleasant time to read the various tablets, monu- ments, and inscriptions upon the walls of the old Church. Here is one of them:
" "The HON. THEODORE ATKINSON, Esq", in the year 1754, gave a lot of land to this Church for building tombs, Vaults, & Monuments.' "
-ROBERT H. DUNN
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"With dancing shadows from hearth whose glow ban- ished Winter's chill, the colonists at Portsmouth found warm comfort and cheer. Housewife's spinning wheel betokens home industries long a backbone in New Eng- land's simple economy."
-ROBERT H. DUNN
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"Symbols of New England's fisheries: dory; anchor; fishing nets; lobster pots; lobster buoys-here we find the very essence of the salty Sea. New Hampshire shares in these with coastal New England."
-ROBERT H. DUNN
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PAIN MEDTICOMMISSION PLESMAN
"Immediately behind the high pulpit, in Old St. John's at Portsmouth, is a marble tablet, with this inscription:
IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM GARDNER AN HONEST MAN A FRIEND OF THIS CHURCH AND A SINCERE LIBERAL PATRIOT DIED APRIL 29, 1834 AGED 83 YEARS
"The Gardner Family made history for Colonial Portsmouth-and for America."
-ROBERT H. DUNN
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"At the beginning, I said: The Colonists were a God- fearing folk. As we look into our American People in the early 1800's we find such references as this, written in 1833 by I. Finch, Esq. of London and contained in his Travels in America: 'NEW YORK contains one hun- dred places of public worship. On Sunday morning is exhibited the gratifying spectacle of various denomina- tions of Christians hastening towards their respective places of worship, and the Broadway is seldom so crowded as on this occasion.' In which general connec- tion I may add that General Washington, then Presi- dent, attended St. John's Church, Portsmouth, on All Saints' Day, 1789."
-ROBERT HAYES DUNN
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H
"Within this great old Church of hallowed naval and marine and colonial memories, there have worshipped generations of New Hampshire and Maine men, women, and children-whose lives have been enriched and blessed through that unity of mind and soul and being which comes when asked for within the reverence and sanctity of God's House."
-ROBERT H. DUNN
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274
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288
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"Of all its colonial relics, many of historic value sufficient to be classed as museum pieces, none of St. John's treas- ures are more humanly interesting than her wall tablets, stained glass windows, and her monuments. These tell of generations long past, but still famed for deeds done."
-- ROBERT H. DUNN
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"As one looks seaward from Old St. John's, there comes to mind a veritable pageant of ships and their masters and crews that put out from the colonial Port of Ports- mouth-never again to return from the Great Deep. These men and their bravery pointed a courageous way for our American merchant marine of later days."
-ROBERT H. DUNN
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"Colonial homelife centered in the warmth and cheer of hearth and blazing fire. Such wholesome surroundings bred both contentment and character. Portsmouth's houses abound in examples of the finest of these old colonial fireplaces, many in the homes of colonial parish- ioners."
-ROBERT H. DUNN
20
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.....
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"Since the close of the Civil War, when New England became recognized for its summers of sunshine and its bracing ocean breezes, thousands upon thousands from all over the United States of America and from Canada have visited Old St. John's, in Portsmouth."
-ROBERT H. DUNN
2'
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STORIA
MEMORES
THE NEWCOMEN SOCIETY OF ENGLAND IN NORTH AMERICA
B ROADLY, this British Society has as its purposes: to increase an appreciation of American-British traditions and ideals in the Arts and Sciences, especially in that bond of sym- pathy for the cultural and spiritual forces which are common to the two countries; and, secondly, to serve as another link in the intimately friendly relations existing between Great Britain and the United States of America.
The Newcomen Society centers its work in the history of Material Civilization, the history of: Industry, Invention, En- gineering, Transportation, the Utilities, Communication, Min- ing, Agriculture, Finance, Banking, Economics, Education, and the Law these and correlated historical fields. In short, the background of those factors which have contributed or are con- tributing to the progress of Mankind.
The best of British traditions, British scholarship, and British ideals stand back of this honorary society, whose headquarters are at London. Its name perpetuates the life and work of Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729), the British pioneer, whose valuable contributions in improvements to the newly invented Steam Engine brought him lasting fame in the field of the Mechanic Arts. The Newcomen Engines, whose period of use was from 1712 to 1775, paved a way for the Industrial Revolution. Newcomen's inventive genius preceded by more than 50 years the brilliant work in Steam by the world-famous James Watt.
"The roads you travel so briskly lead out of dim antiquity, and you study the past chiefly because of its bearing on the living present and its promise for the future."
LIEUTENANT GENERAL JAMES G. HARBORD, K.C.M.G., D.S.M., LL.D., U.S. ARMY (RET.) American Member of Council at London, The Newcomen Society of England
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