History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 85

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150

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Friends had ever but two graveyards, one at the present location, and the other on Edgmont Avenue above Twelfth Street, a burial-place for the negroes, owned by members of Chester Meeting; but the evi- dence is now conclusive that there was a graveyard previous to the one now walled in with heavy ma- sonry adjoining the Beal house-lot on the north. On the 31st of the Sixth month, 1702, at a meeting held at Chichester, it appears that "Chester meeting pro- poseth theer intentions of purchasing a burying place in the town, which this meeting approves of, provided they preserve and keep in Good order the Old Bury- ing Place." The graveyard purchased about this date was not inclosed with a stone wall as we now see it many years previous to the Revolution. Grace Lloyd, by her will, 6th of Fourth month, 1760, directed her executors to "pay £10 towards walling in the front part of the graveyard belonging to the people called Quakers in Chester with brick or stone." And nearly ten years later, 31st of Twelfth month, 1769, Joseph Hoskins, by will, bequeathed £10 " for the use of enclosing or fencing the burying ground belonging to the Friends of Chester meetings in such manner as their Preparative Meeting of Chester shall direct and appoint." The extracts from these wills clearly prove that as late as the first of the year 1770 no wall had been erected around the grounds wherein the bodies of many of the noted personages of the ancient borongh lie. David Lloyd and Grace, his wife, Caleb and David Coupland, Henry Hale Gra- ham, Davis Bevan, John Salkeld, John Mather, and others of the early settlers and leading men of the last century in the province are interred in that God's acre, now in the heart of a busy city, while the re- mains of a number of persons who fled to this prov- ince to escape persecution in Europe lie there forgot- ten because the prohibition by the society of stones to mark the graves of those who slumber within the burial-grounds belonging to their meetings.

The graveyard for negroes above mentioned was on Edgmont road, above Twelfth, and was used for the interment of slaves by the sufferance of the then owner of the land. The latter, Grace Lloyd, in her will, dated 6th of Fourth month, 1760, made the following bequest :

" And it is my mind and will, and I do hereby order and direct that the piece of burying ground, being forty feet, fronting Edgmont Road, in said borough, thence seventy feet back and forty feet in breadth, shall at all times hereafter, forever, be used for and as a burying place for negroes, that is to say, for euch as shall have belonged to my late husband or myself, and such as do or hereafter may belong to Friends of Chester Meeting, and such as in their life-time desire to be buried there, but not for any that are executed, or lay violent hands upon themselves, and that none be buried there without the consent of the Overseers of Friends' Meeting at Chester."

The lot thus set apart was surrounded by a tall, thick-set hedge, hut after the execution of several persons at the intersection of Edgmont and Provi- dence roads (the colonial law then requiring the burial of the body of the culprit near the gallows)

337

THE CITY OF CHESTER.

rendered the locality a place of dread, and the super- stitious negroes soon began to regard it as a spot to be avoided when living and shunned as a place of inter- ment. In time even that the lot had been ever used as a graveyard was forgotten until the clause in Lydia Wade's will directed attention to it. In 1868, John and James C. Shedwick erected the row of houses on the east side of Edgmont Avenue, above Twelfth, and while the excavations for the cellars were being made a number of human bones were exposed. At that time they were thought to be the remains of Indians, the fact that it was the site of an old grave- yard being unknown to the public.

St. Paul's Church and Burial-Ground .- A tract of ground was donated to the Swedish Church by Armgard Pappegoya for glebe or church land in Upland early in the history of the settlement. The plot of land on the south side of Third Street, east of Market Square, where the old burial-ground now is, and where the first St. Paul's Church building was erected, was, previous to that structure being placed there, a burying-place for the dead of the Swedish colonists at Upland. This fact is established by the report of Mr. Ross to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in 1714, wherein he dis- tinctly makes this declaration. He also states, they (the Swedes) " had likewise a Church endowed with a valuable Glebe not far from the place of burial, but of this building there remains no sign at this day." John Hill Martin thinks this reference is to the block-house, or House of Defense, which was torn down by order of the court in 1703, an opinion which is doubtless correct. Acrelius tells us that the Swedes held religious services usually in the forts and houses of defense. The fact is satisfactorily established that the Swedes were obliged to have sentinels regularly posted during public worship to apprise the congre- gation within of any attempted attack by the Indians, of which the early settlers seemed to be constantly apprehensive. Every student of our early annals is aware that after the cargo of the " Black Cat," which had been ladened with articles of merchandise for the Indians, became exhausted, and the Swedish settlers' capacity for making presents had ceased, the savages seriously considered in council whether the Europeans should be exterminated or permitted to remain. An old Indian succeeded in preventing a breach between the two races by assuring the young braves that cour- ageous and vigilant men, armed with swords and muskets, would be difficult to subdue. The clergy- men were particularly obnoxious to the savages, be- cause the latter believed that during divine services the minister-he alone speaking and all the rest remaining silent-was exhorting the congregation against the Indians. Acrelius also tells us that a block-house answered the purpose very well (as a church):

"The Indians were not always to be depended upon that they would not make an incursion, fall upon the

Christians, and capture their whole flock. It was, therefore, necessary for them to have the religious houses as a place of defense for the body as well as the soul. The churches were so built that after a suitable elevation, like any other house, a projection was made some courses higher, out of which they could shoot; so that if the heathen fell upon them, which could not be done without their coming up to the house, the Swedes could shoot down upon them continually, and the heathen, who used only bows and arrows, could do them but little injury."1

In 1700, Rev. Mr. Evans was sent to Pennsylvania by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and located in Philadelphia. He is frequently mentioned in the history of the society as going to Chester, Chichester, Concord, and Radnor, each about twenty miles distant from Philadelphia, and while constant allusion is made to a church edi- fice existing in that city, no intimation is given of any such building in either of the other places desig- nated. I am aware that in taking down the old St. Paul's Church building, in July, 1850, after it had stood one hundred and forty-eight years, two bricks, burned exceedingly hard and considerably larger in size than those in use at the present day, closely cemented together, and with the figures 1642 cut upon them, were found. These numerals must have been made upon them many years subsequent to that date, for in 1644 there was not a house standing in the present limits of Chester. Independently of that fact, we have documentary record of the exact date of the building, so circumstantially set forthı that there is no room remaining for doubt.

In an account of the building of St. Paul's Church, Chester, furnished to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, Mr. Ross, the then missionary of the society, in his report, June 25, 1714, says,-

" In the Swedish Dormitory-the old Swedish burial ground-James Sandelanda, of Chester, (or as it was first called, Upland,) Merchant, a man of good reputation in the country, wae on account of affinity io- terred to keep up the memory of this founder of a growing family ; twas agreed amongst his relations that his grave, as also that of his kindred and family, who were or might be buried there should be distinguished & set apart from the rest of the burying ground by au enclosure or wall of stone. This design was no sooner formed & noised abroad, but it was happily suggested by a projecting fellow in Town, that, if it seemed good to Mr. Sandelands' relations, the intended stone wall about the place of the interment might be with somewhat more changes carried up and formed into a emall chapel or church. This new motion was well liked by ye sd relations and encouraged by everybody in the neigh- borhood that wished well to the church of England, but they who put life into this proposal & prosperously brought it to pass were Joseph Yestee, merchant in Chester, and James Sandelands, son to the above namied Mr. Sandelands, the latter of which two gentlemen, besides other gifts, gave some land to enlarge the church yard, bot the former, to wit: Mr. Yeates, a zealous asaerter of our constitution in church and State, must be allowed to have been the main promoter of the founding of St. Paul's upon Delaware."

The report further alludes to other persons " parish- ers, who were chief helpers to carry on the work,"-

1 History of New Sweden, p. 176.

338

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Jeremy Collett, John Hannum, Henry Pierce, Ralph Pyle, and Thomas Barnsly, but especially does he commend Thomas Powell for the gift of a valuable piece of land "for a minister's house, garden, and other conveniences." He also applauds Hon. Col. Francis Nicholson, of whom he says, " We may safely say no man parted more freely with his money to pro- mote the interest of the church in these parts, nor contributed so universally towards ye erection of Christian synagogues in different and distant planta- tions in America."

The small but compact fabric of brick thus erected, and said to be one of the neatest on this continent, was forty-nine feet in length by twenty-six feet in breadth, and was well and substantially finished in- side. The main entrance, which was wide and spa- cious, closed by double doors, was at the north side of the church, and the access to the building was from Market Street, through the yard.

The old church must have had a sun dial, perhaps over its main door, such as is still to be seen at the court-house of Somerset County, Md., for, in 1704, the wardens claim credit for "cash pd ye ferymen for Bringing Down ye Dyal, 18. 8d .; ac of nayles for setting up ye Dyall, 1s. 2d .; money spent and pd ye men for setting It up, 48."

The inside of the church was divided into four parts by two aisles, one extending from the double doors, and the other from the pulpit to the extreme western part of the church. The roof was oak, and the rafters white-oak, hewed with a broad axe. The chancel was spacious and paved with brick, as were also the aisles. In the west end of the church, and directly opposite the pulpit, built into the wall, was the well-known slab of gray sandstone, six feet in length by three in breadth, now in the Sunday-school room of the new church edifice, erected to the mem- ory of James Sandelands, the elder. Along the borders of the old slab, in large capital letters, are the words :

" Here lies interred the bodie of James Sandelands, Merchant in Upland, in Pensilvania, who departed this mortal life Aprile te 12, 1692, aged 56 years, and his wife, Ann Sandelands,"

Its face is divided into two parts, the upper bearing in cipher the initials "J. S." and "A. S.," the arms of the Sandelands family-argent, a band azure. On the border, dividing the upper from the lower part, are the words, " Vive Memor Lethi FFugit Hora." The lower half contains many emblems of mortality,-the tolling bell, the passing bell, the skull and cross-bones, the hour-glass, an upright coffin bearing on its side the words, " Memento Mori," "Time Deum," and in either corner, crossed, a sceptre and mattock, and a mattock and spade.

Queen Anne, whom Horace Walpole dubbed "the wet-nurse of the church," presented to the parish a

handsome pulpit, a communion-table "well rail'd in and set out with a rich cloth, and a neat chalice;" the two former articles were located at the east end of the edifice. This chalice and salver, the queen's gift, as well as a similar chalice, presented to the congre- gation by Sir Jefferey Jeffries, are still in possession of the church wardens, and employed in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to the present time; but the pulpit and communion-table have long since been removed. The chalices and their salvers are of hammered and very pure silver. The one presented by the queen has engraved upon it the words "Annæ Regina." The gift from Sir Jefferey Jeffries was made in March, 1715, and consisted of a small bell, "a rich cloth, and a neat chalice." In time the bell was replaced by a larger one.

At a meeting of the vestry, March 30, 1741, twenty- three members of the congregation subscribed funds to "& for in consideration of purchasing a bell for said church," and at a meeting of the same body, April 15, 1745, a bell-tower or turret, to hang the bell, was ordered " to be built of stone in the founda- tion from out to out, Twelve by Fourteen foot." The belfry, built according to these directions, was to the west of and entirely detached from the church. The bell, which was made in England, and had cast on it the words "Roger Rice, Chester, 1743," was paid for in advance, in 1742, by a bill of exchange for thirty pounds, and, as the sum obtained by subscription amounted to only half that amount, John Mather donated the remaining fifteen pounds.

The stone-work, twenty-five feet in height, was sur- mounted by a frame structure in which the bell hung. The tower, including the wooden addition, was over fifty feet. The belfry was entered by a door on the south side. The frame superstructure was square until it reached the plate on which the rafters rested, and the roof faced four ways, receding to a point, which was ornamented with a weather-vane. In each side of the frame-work was a slatted window, so that the sound of the bell would not be obstructed any more than necessary. Within the interior was a rough lad- der, which the sexton had to climb when he tolled the bell, although for church services it was rung by a long rope, which descended to within a few feet of the ground floor.

The foundation of the ancient structure was laid July, 1702, and on Sunday, Jan. 24, 1703 (new style), St. Paul's day, the edifice was opened to public wor- ship, Rev. John Talbot preaching the first sermon in the church. The general impression is that Rev. George Keith was the first clergyman to hold divine services in St. Paul's, but in that gentleman's "Jour- nal and Travels," published in London, 1706, occurs this passage: "Sunday, Jan. 24, 1702," (1703 N. S.) " I preached at Philadelphia, on Matthew v. 17, both in the forenoon and afternoon, Mr. Evans, the minis- ter, having that day been at Chester, in Pennsylvania, to accompany Mr. Talbot, who was to preach the first

AND HIS WIFE ANN SANDELANDS

TIVE MEMOR LETII - VEFUGIT HORA

MEMENTO MORI

TIME DE UM

JN UPLAND JN PENSILVANIA. WHO

DEPARTED HIS MORTAIL LIFE APRILE TE 12 16 92 AGED 56 YEARS.

MMPAL TABLE"

HERE LIES INTERR-D TE BODIE OF JAMES SANDELANDS MARCHANT.

339

THE CITY OF CHESTER.

sermon in the church after it was built." Mr. Keith did preach here on February 7th and August 3d of that year, and records : " We were kindly entertained at the house of Jasper Yeats there," and on "Sunday, April 9, 1704, I preached at Chester, on John iv. 24, being my last sermon there." In 1704, Rev. Henry Nichols was appointed missionary to St. Paul's parish, by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and reported that the people were well inclined to the Church of England, although they had previous to that time no " fixed minister till now," and that the congregation had made a subscription of sixty pounds a year towards the support of their rector.

In 1718, Rev. John Humphrey, who was in charge of the parish, reported to the society that he could not get a house in Chester to live in, and therefore had to buy a plantation of a thousand acres, about three miles distant. He was not altogether acceptable to parishioners, and, on April 5, 1717, they petitioned the society to appoint another person, which was done, and Samuel Hesselius was substituted in his stead.

Thirty-four years after Mr. Humphreys had com- plained of the absence of a parsonage, in 1752, the Rev. Thomas Thompson writes to the society : " I found no church wardens or vestry, no house for the minister to live in, nay, not a fit house to hire." Mr. Thompson, it seems, formed no better opinion of the people than the people did of the rector, for in " Rev. Dr. Perry's papers relating to the history of the church in Pennsylvania, 1780 to 1778," Rev. Thomas Thompson is referred to as a man of bad character.

The congregation, however, failed to provide for the missionaries as the rules of the society required, and in 1762 a notice was given them, that if they did not procure better accommodations for their clergy- man, and "maintain a glebe, a dwelling-house, and their church and burying-grounds in decent order and repair," the society would withdraw its mission from them. To accomplish these ends the congrega- tion issued a scheme in January of that year to raise £562 10s. by a lottery. The advertisement, after setting forth these facts, states : "They," the congre- gation, " find themselves under the disagreeable neces- sity to apply to the publick by way of a Lottery, not doubting that it will meet with all suitable encour- agement from the well-disposed of every denomina- tion, as it is intended for the Glory of God, and con- sequently for the good of the Province." There were 1733 prizes and 3267 blanks, making 5000 tickets in all. The drawing was to take place either in Chester or Philadelphia, on March 1, 1762, and continue until all the tickets were drawn. The managers add this addenda to their advertisement :

There is little of interest connected with the church for more than twenty years following the lottery.

In 1835, the old church proving too small for the accommodation of the congregation, extensive repairs were made to the ancient edifice. The old pews were increased in number, each of the large square ones were made into two small ones, the high backs low- ered, the double doors walled up, a gallery built across the western end, and under it the main entrance to the church was made. The old pulpit with the sounding-board was not removed, and the great oriel window to the east, in the rear of the clergyman's desk, was not disturbed. These changes made it necessary to remove the old Sandelands tablet. It was placed in the wall on the outside of the building ; and during the spring, when the stonework was being whitewashed, it was repeatedly treated to a coat of that abominable compound by the sexton's wife, who did all chores of that character about the church. The ancient bell-tower was torn down, and a small belfry built in the roof at the western end of the building. The bell, which with such difficulty had been procured from England more than a cen- tury before, had become damaged by long service, and it was determined to have it recast. George W. Piper and J. Gifford Johnson took the bell in a wagon to Philadelphia, to Wiltbank's foundry, for that pur- pose. Before this bell was recast the foundry was destroyed by fire, and the heat was so great that tons of metal were fused into a mass. Wiltbank, how- ever, furnished a bell; but it is more than probable that not an ounce of the material in the old one cast by Roger Rice entered into the composition of the one which hangs in the belfry of the present church. No doubt but that the good people of that day be- lieved they were doing a wise act in disturbing the antiquated appearance of the ancient structure and decking it out in modern toggery, just as their suc- cessors fifteen years afterwards were actuated by the same idea when they razed the entire building to the ground, and that, too, without getting enough stones from the ruins to lay a third of the basement of the new edifice. Matters drifted on with the parish until 1850, when the change in the current set in, and Chester, after slumbering a century and a half, started into activity. St. Paul's Church awakened with the rest, and began to make provisions for the new order of things. But the error of that day, and it was a serious one, consisted in destroying absolutely the old sanctuary.

The new church structure, which was erected on the north side of Third Street, was built after a plan prepared by T. U. Walter, architect, of Philadelphia, and the cost, it was believed, would not exceed five thousand dollars, although it ultimately cost nearly double that sum. The corner-stone was laid July 25, 1859. Rt. Rev. Alfred Lee, D.D., Bishop of Dela- ware, and Rev. Charles W. Quick delivered addresses. The building, forty-four by forty-six, was of pointed

"N.B .- As the above sum will fall vastly short of completing every- thing as conld be wished, it is hoped that if any are scrupoloue as to the method of raising money, yet wish well to the Design, and are will- iog to promote the same, if such Persons will deliver their Liberality into the hende of Mr. Charles Thomsou, Merchant in Philadelphia, or to any of the Managers aforesaid, it will be gratefully acknowledged and carefully applied accordingly."

340

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

stone, in the Gothic style, the spire one hundred and twenty-four feet from the ground. The main door was approached by a flight of stone steps, one of which was the slab which had formerly covered the remains of Robert French, one of the descendants of Joran Kyn, the founder of Chester, and to-day is one of the flagging in the sidewalk to the Sunday-school, on the east side of the church.

The church was opened Sunday, May 4, 1851, Rev. Mr. Balch officiating. But it appears not to have been consecrated by Bishop Potter until Tuesday, Dec. 23, 1851. Bishop Lee preached the consecration sermon. Drs. Suddards and Balch, and Revs. Messrs. Bean, Ridgely, Huntington, Micheson, Hawes, and Hand were present and officiated on that occasion. The constant growth of our busy city, and the in- crease in the number of the worshipers, soon began to tax the seating capacity of the new structure, and for several years after the close of the war it became evident that additional room must be provided to meet this want. In 1872 the demand was so impera- tive that the congregation determined that the church building must be remodeled, and steps were taken promptly to carry out that end. On Sunday, June 14, 1872, services were held in the sanctuary for the last time previous to the changes being made, and for ten months the edifice was closed during the al- terations. The south end of the church was demol- ished, and a new addition, considerably increasing the seating capacity, a handsome Gothic front of Ridley granite, sepentine, and Cleveland stone com- bined, which approaches closely to the sidewalk, and a towering steeple and belfry erected. On Sunday, April 13, 1873, the congregation renewed religious services in St. Paul's, and Rev. Henry Brown, the rector, preached a historical sermon.

During a heavy thunder-storm, on Sunday, June 3, 1877, the lightning struck the rod on the steeple, and in its descent the electric fluid unloosened the water- pipe where it was attached to the wall, below the eaves, and making a round hole through the mortar of the solid masonry, it entered the church, ran along the gas-pipe, tore a hole in the plaster, and again forced its way between the joints of the stone wall, to the outside of the building, and thence to the ground.

In 1883 the church was thoroughly repaired, hand- somely frescoed and decorated. On Sunday after- noon, March 9, 1884, it caught fire from a defective flue. The damage on that occasion exceeded two thousand dollars.

John Hill Martin, in his " History of Chester," gives the following list of ministers of St. Paul's from 1702 to the present time : Revs. Evan Evans, 1702- 4; Henry Nichols, 1704-8; George Ross, 1708-14; John Humphreys, 1714-26; Samuel Hesselius, 1726- 28 ; Richard Backhouse, 1728-49; Thomas Thomp- son, 1751 ; Israel Acrelius, 1756 ; George Craig, 1758- 81; James Conner, 1788-91; Joseph Turner, 1791-

93; Levi Heath, 1796-98; Joshua Reece, 1803-5; William Pryce, 1815-18; Jacob Morgan Douglass, 1818-22; Richard Umstead Morgan, 1822-31; John Baker Clemson, D.D., 1831-35; Richard D. Hall, 1735-37; Mortimer Richmond Talbot, 1837-41; Greenberry W. Ridgely, 1842-43; Anson B. Hard (associate rector), 1844-48 ; Charles W. Quick, 1849- 50; Lewis P. W. Balch, D.D., 1850-53 (resigned, and removed to Virginia) ; Nicholas Sayre Harris, 1852- 55 (Mr. Harris was a graduate of West Point) ; Daniel Kendig, 1855-59; M. Richard Talbot, 1859-61; J. Pinckney Hammond, 1861-63; Henry Brown, 1863.

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History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 85

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1150

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150