History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 120

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992

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St. Barnabas, Sixty-filth and Hamilton Streets. Rev. John G. BawD.

St. Barnabas Mission, Third and Dauphin Streets. Rev. Charles E. Betticher.

St. Bartholomew, Nineteenth Ward. Rev. James Saul, D.D.

St. Chrysostom, Twenty-eighth Street and Susquehanna Avenue. Rev. C. S. Daniel.

St Clement, Twentieth and Cherry Streets. Rev. B. W. Maturin, Rev. G. E. Shepperd, Rev. I. I. Cameron, Rev. Charles Fields.

St. David, Centre Street, above Baker, Rev. Charles Logan.

St. David Chapel, Manayunk, Terrace. Rev. H. P. Chapman.

St. George, Hazel Aveune, near Sixty-first Street. Rev. Gideon J. Burton.

St. James, corner Twenty-second and Walnut Streets. Rev. Henry J. Morton, D.D .; Rev. William H. Borr, assistant.

St. James the Less, Nicetown Lane and Falls of Schuylkill. Rev. Robert Ritchie.

St. James, Hestonville, Fifty-second Street and Kershaw Avenue. Rev. T. W. Davidson.

St. James, Kingsessing, Woodland Avenue above Sixty-eighth Street. Rev. Charles A. Maison, D.D.

St. John, Brown Street, below Third. Rev. George A. Latimer.

St. John Free Church, Cemetery Avenue, one square from Frankford road. Rev. Henry A. F. Hoyt.

St. John the Baptist, corner Germantown Avenue and Mehle Street, Germantown. Rev. Charles H. Hibbard.

St. John the Evangelist, Third and Reed Streets. Rev. John E. Johnson.

St. Jude, Franklin Street, above Brown. Rev. William H. Graff.

St. Luke, Thirteenth Street, below Spruce. Rev. C. G. Currie, D.D.

St. Luke the Beloved Physician (Memorial), Bustleton. Rev. Samuel F. Ilotchkin.

St. Luke, Main Street, below Mill, Germantown. Rev. Samuel Upjohn.

St. Mark, Locust Street, above Sixteenth. Rev. Isaac L. Nicholson, D.D .; Rev. Henry McCulloch and Rev. Henry McDowell, as- aistante.

St. Mark, Frankford, Rev. R. C. Booth ; Rev. S. Tweedle, assistant.

St. Mark's Mission, New York Railroad and Orthodox Street. Rev. S. Tweedle.

St. Mary, Locust Street, above Thirty-ninth. Rev. Thomas C. Yarnall, D D .; Rev. Robert F. Innes, assistant.

St. Matthew, Girard Avenue and Eighteenth Street. Rev. John P. Hubbard, D.D.

St. Matthias, corner Nineteenth and Wallace Streete. Rev. Robert A. Edwards ; Rev. Theodore H. Waterman, assistant.

St. Michael, Iligh Street, near Morton, Germantown, Rev. John K. Murphy.

St. Paul, Third Street, below Walnut. Rev. William S. Adamson.

St. Paul, Chestnut Hill, Chestnut Avenue. Rev. J. A. Harris, D.D.

St. Paul, Kensington Avenue, near Bockius Street. Rev. H. E. Cooke, Frankford.

St. Paul, Cheltenham. Rev. Edward W. Appleton, D.D., Ashbourne.

St. Peter, Third and Pine Streets. Rev. Thomas F. Davies, D.D., Rev. Alexander J. Miller.

St. Peter, corner Wayne and Harvey Streets, Germantown. Itev. Theo- dore S. Rumney, D.D.

St. Peter's House, Lombard Street, above Third. Rev. Francis M. Taitt.

St. Philip, Spring Garden Street, below Broad.

St. Stephen, Tenth Street, above Chestnut. Rev. S. D. McConnell ; Rev. Francis G. Burgess, assistant.

St. Stephen, Bridge and Melrose Streeta, Brideshurg. Vacant.

St. Thomas, corner Fifth and Adelphi Streets. Rev. J. P. Williams,

St. Timothy, Reed Street, below Eighth. Rev. Robert T. Roche, D. D.

St. Timothy, Ridge Avenue, near Shur's Lane. Rev. Robert E. Dennl- sou, rector, Roxborough ; Rev. N. F. Robinson, assistant minister.

I365

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.

Trinity, Southwark, Catherine Street, above Secoud. Rev. Andrew D. Heffern.

Trinity, Oxford road, near Second Street turnpike. Rev. R. B. Shep- herd.

Trinity Chapel, Crescentville.

Trioity, Maylsodville, Forty-second Street and Baltimore Avenue. Rev. Richard M. Thomas.

Zion, Eighth Street and Columbia Avenue. Rev. William R. Carroll.

The Reformed Episcopal denomination have the following church organizations :

Church of Holy Trinity, Twelfth and Oxford Streets. Rev. H. S. Hoff- man.

Church of Our Redeemer, Sixteenth and Oxford Streets, Rev. Charles H. Tucker.

Church of the Corner-Stone, northwest corner of Eighteenth Street and Fairmount Avenue. Rev. J. B. North.

Church of the Sure Foundation. Rev. William Newton.

Emanuel, East York and Sepviva Streets. Rev. Forrest E. Dager. Grace Chapel, Falls of Schuylkill. Rev. Alexander Sloan. Reconciliation, corner Thirteenth aud Tasker Streete.

Second, Chestnut Street, west of Twonty-first. Right Rev. William R. Nicholson, D.D .; Rev. F. H. Reynolds, assistaot.

St. John's, Frankford Avenue, above Adams Street. Rev. Johnson Hub- bell.

St. Paul, corner Orthodox and Mulberry Streets, Frankford. Third, Wayne Street and Chelton Avenue. Rev. J. Eastburn Brown.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.1

Pennsylvania was professedly founded as a land of religious toleration, as appears from the laws adopted in England for the government of the colony, which provided,-

" That all persons living in this province who confess and acknowledge the one almighty and eteroal God to be the creator, upholder and ruler of the world, and that hold themselves obliged in conscience to live pesceably and justly in civil society, shall in no way be molested or prejudiced for their religious persuasion or practice io matters of faith and worship, nor shall they be compelled at any time to frequent or maintain any religious worship, place or ministry whatever."

In the first clause of the charter of privileges, Oct. 28, 1701, the same pledge is given in nearly the same language, and it is added :

" And that all persone who also profess to believe in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, shall be capable (notwithstanding their other per- suasion and practices io point of cooscience and religion) to serve thie Government in any capacity, both legislatively and executively, he or they solemnly promising, when lawfully required, allegiance to the king as sovereign, and fidelity to the proprietor and Governor," etc.

There was then no legal debarment of Catholics from entering the newly-founded colony of Penn.

The first known reference to the presence of a priest and the celebration of mass in Philadelphia may be found in the following extract from a letter of Rev. John Talbot, a nonjuring Episcopal minister to the secretary of the (London) Society for Propa- gating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, dated at New York, Jan. 10, 1707-8, which says, "Arise, O Lord Jesus Christ ! help us and deliver us for thine honor. Since Mr. Brooke, Mr. Moore, and Mr. Evans went away there's an Independency at Elizabethtown, Ana- baptism at Burlington, and the Popish Mass at Phil- adelphia. I thought that the Quakers would be the first to let it in, particularly Mr. Penn ; for, if he has

any religion 'tis that, but thus to tolerate all without control is the way to have none at all." 2

In "Church Documents," by Pott & Amery, New York, under " Connecticut," page 37, is another letter from Rev. John Talbot to George Keith, who was en- gaged also by the Society for Propagating the Gos- pel, in which he says, under date of Feb. 14, 1708, "I saw Mr. Bradford in New York. He tells me that Mass is set up and read publically in Philadel- phia, among which Lionel Britton [or Brittain], the church warden, is one, and his son is another."

The next reference to the celebration of mass is contained in a letter from Penn to Logan, dated 29th Seventh month, 1708 (Logan papers) : "Here is a complaint against your Government that you suffer publick mass in a scandalous manner. Pray send the matter of fact, for ill nse is made of it against us here."

In another letter from Penn to a correspondent in Philadelphia, he says, " It has become a reproach to me here with the officers of the Crown that you have suffered the scandal of mass to be publicly cele- brated."

Others than Talbot made the charge that if Penn had any religion he was a Papist. To that he re- plied,-

" If the asserting of an impartial liberty of conscience, if doing to others as we would be done by, and an open avowing and steady prac- ticing of these things at all times and to all parties will justly lay s man under the reflection of being a Jesuit or Papist of any rank, I must not only submit to the character, but embrace it, too."

Such were the sentiments and the policy of the founder of Pennsylvania, and that it had " become a reproach to him" that mass was " publically" cele- brated, and that he spoke of it as the " scandal of the mass" must not be too harshly judged, when we con- sider the temper of the times in England and his fears that his proprietary interests would be made to suffer.

That there were Catholics then living in Philadel- phia is evident from the documents we have quoted. Dr. John Gilmary Shea, the eminent Catholic his- torian, furnished Thompson Westcott with the result of investigations in England by Very Rev. Pamfilo da Magliano, provincial of the Franciscans in this coun- try, which shows there were Franciscans " in North America," and that of the number Rev. Polycarp Wicksted and Rev. James Haddock " were in North America in 1708," and that, therefore, " probability points," says Mr. Westcott, "to either as being the celebrant of the mass in Philadelphia in 1707-8."

Dr. John Gilmary Shea, in an article in the Ameri- can Catholic Quarterly Review for July, 1883, says,-

" The earliest evidence we have of the presence of priests in Philadel- phia is connected with the conversion of Lionel Brittain, a prominent and well-to-do personage, and the public celebration of mass at the time.

1 This article was contributed by Martin I. J. Griffin.

2 The authority for this statement is to be found in "The History of the (Episcopal) Church in Burlington, N. J.," by Rev. Geurgo Morgan Hill, D.D., Trenton, 1876, which contains many of Talbot's lettera.

1366

HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

This conquest preceded the entrance of the Jesuits into that province, aod was probably due to the Franciscans who had been sent to Mary- land by the Propaganda some years before."

We believe, however, that to the Jesuits belongs the honor of establishing the first Catholic Church in this city. In the " Roman Catalogue of the Society of Jesus," the names of three priests are recorded as being in New York City between 1683 and 1696,- Fathers Thomas Harvey, Henry Harrison, and Charles Gage. Farther Harvey was born in London in 1635, was in New York from 1683 to 1690, and in Mary- land in 1693, and again in New York in 1696,1 and it is very probable that on his way from New York to Maryland, Philadelphia and the intervening country was ministered to. He returned to Maryland and died there in 1719, aged eighty-four.

In "The Records of the English Province of Society of Jesus," by Henry Foley, S.J., vol. iii. p. 394, is this important testimony from the " Annual Letters of the English Province regarding the Mission in Maryland," under date of 1685-1690, which says,-

" Our mission in the West Indies, Maryland, and indeed in New York, underwent the same fate with those in England. In the latter (New York) there were only two priests, and these were forced in the storm ? to change their residence, as was also the Catholic governor himself. One of them traveled on foot to Maryland, the other, after many perils on the sea,-having been captured and plundered by Dutch pirates,-at length arrived safe io France. In Maryland great difficulties are suf- fered. Our Fathers yet remain to reoder what consolation they can to distressed Catholics."

The name of the priest who " traveled on foot to Maryland" is, unfortunately for investigators, not given. But who will gainsay the probability that he did not pass through Philadelphia, and, if so, spirit- wally attend such Catholics as he could discover?

The Assembly of New York, in 1691, declared the act of 1683, whereby religious toleration was pro- claimed, to be " null and void." A bill of rights ex- cluding Catholics from its privileges was adopted. This bill of rights was repealed by King William in 1697, and in 1700 an act passed whereby any " Jesuit priest and Popish missionary" was " deemed and ac- counted an incendiary and a disturber of the public peace and safety, and an enemy of the true Christian religion, and shall be adjudged to suffer perpetual imprisonment." Harborers of priests were to pay two hundred pounds and stand three days in the pillory.

As the return, made June 13, 1696, by Mayor Mer- ritt, of New York City, to Governor Fletcher shows but nine Catholics in New York City, it is a fair pre- sumption that Father Harvey had " traveled on foot" from that city to Maryland, returned as far as Phila- delphia, where no such restrictive and unjust laws ex- isted, and ministered to the Catholics of this city who believing themselves privileged by the charter and

laws openly professed their faith, and in 1708 had mass " publically" celebrated.

Thus far, it will be observed, no reference has been made to the " old priest" spoken of by William Penn in a letter from London, in 1686, as one "who had rare shad," nor of the house northwest corner of Front and Walnut Streets, nor of "the house at southeast corner of Second and Chestnut Streets," said to have been " built for a papal chapel." Inves- tigations by Mr. Westcott prove the former property to have been owned by Friends, and the latter too large for any congregation the Catholics could possi- bly have had.

The gossip and traditions related by Watson re- garding the place of early Catholic worship need not be critically examined. In those days Catholics did as Catholics in country districts sparsely settled do now,-have mass celebrated at the house of one of their number, and by changes very often from the house of one to another. This was the custom before the founding of St. Joseph's Church.

The "old priest" spoken of by Penn is very clearly proven to be Rev. Jacobus Fabrieins, the Dutch pastor of the Swedish Lutheran congregation. He was called " priest" by his own people and by the Quakers ; the term was applied to all " members of the gospel of whatever denomination of Christians."

As yet, no further reference to the Catholies of Philadelphia or their affairs has been discovered until the visits of Rev. Joseph Greaton, S.J., from about 1722 to the founding of old St. Joseph's Church. We are, however, of the opinion that Rev. Thomas Ilarvey visited this city from time to time prior to his death in Maryland, in 1719.

In the first "Catalogue of the Jesuits in the Prov- ince of England," Rev. Joseph Greaton is recorded in 1722 as a " missioner in Maryland," but this is not to be taken restrictively as applying to the colony of Maryland, but to the Jesuits' province, which then included Pennsylvania. Traditionary evidence shows that Father Greaton passed through Adams County, Pa., on a visit to Philadelphia as early, perhaps, as 1722.

The probabilities are that Father Greaton visited the Catholics of this city from that time until he con- cluded to establish a permanent residence here and found a church ; that in 1729 he received the land upon which afterward the little chapel of St. Joseph's was built, and that in 1731 he began its erection.

It was finished in 1732, and on Feb. 26, 1732, mass was first celebrated within the eighteen by twenty- eight feet chapel, to a " congregation," says Mr. West- cott, "originally consisting of eleven persons."3

1 " Doenmentary History of New York," and " Brief Sketch of the Cath- olic Church in New York," by Rev. J. R Bayley.

2 The "storm" was the Revolution of 1688, and Thomas Dongan was " the Catholic guveruor" of New York.

3 To " not more then ten or twelve persons," says a manuscript in the archives of the Archbishop of Baltimore, und believed to be that of Arch- bishop Carroll. "To forty," says Rev. P. A. Jordan, S.J., now one of the assistants at old St. Joseph's, in " The Woodstock Letters," printed for the Jesuits in 1873.

It is probable that Father Jordan's figures are correct. Surely from

1367

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.

Father Greaton was born in London, Feb. 12, 1678, was admitted to the Society of Jesns July 5, 1708, being then in holy orders.

In 1710 he was studying theology (third year) at Liege. In 1711 he was teaching at St. Omer's. In 1712 and 1713 he was procurator and consultor at Watten. In 1714 his name appears in " Personarnm" of the "Catalogne of the English Province" as John, and as being " on the mission."

From 1715 to 1720 he was a missionary priest in all His Majesty's dominions; but those of that per-

the College or District of St. Chad, Staffordshire, England. In 1722-25 he was a missioner in England. In another catalogue his name appears as James. These aliases become of importance, as will appear farther on.1

The land upon which St. Joseph's Chapel was built was purchased in 1729, but it is believed full payment was not made until May 15, 1733, when the deed for the lot was put on record. Father Greaton's residence was begun an 1732 and finished in 1733. It was a large substantial mansion, and is still standing.

The original deed, when the church property was first purchased, was not recorded, perhaps because official sentiment was not then favorable to the Catholics becoming established as a church organiza- tion, though public opinion was not hostile. While the Catholics were few and were visited occasionally by a priest, they were almost unnoticed, but when it became known that land had been obtained for a chapel, the Assembly of Feb. 6, 1730-31, passed an act "enabling religions societies of Protestants within this province to purchase lands for burial gronnds, churches, houses of worship or schools." It is believed this act was designed to prevent " popish worshipers" from securing land. Though the title and preamble contemplated only Protestant associations, the second section, which is the main enacting clanse as to religious societies previously formed, confirms all sales, gifts, or grants made of any lands or tenements to any person, in trust, for sites of churches, houses of worship, schools, almshouses, burial gronnds, to the person to whom the same were sold or given, in trust, for the several religious societies for whose use the same were purchased or given.

At a later period it will appear that the design of this act was to restrict or prevent the securing of lands by any religious society except Protestants.

The erection of the first Catholic chapel in Phila- delphia (eighteen by twenty-eight feet) attracted the attention of the authorities, and at the session of the Provincial Council, July 25, 1734, Governor Patrick Gordon informed the Conncil that he was under no

small concern to hear that a house, lately built on Walnnt Street, in this city, had been set apart for the exercise of the Roman Catholic religion, com- monly called the "Romish Chapel," where several persons resorted on Sundays to hear mass openly celebrated by a Popish priest. He conceived, he said, the public exercise of that religion to be contrary to the laws of England, some of which, particularly the 11th and 12th of King William III., are extended to

suasion here imagining they have a right to it from some general expressions in the chapter of privileges granted to the inhabitants of this government hy our late honorable proprietor, he was desirous to know the sentiment of this board on the subject. It was observed thereupon that if any part of the said char- ter was inconsistent with the laws of England it could he of no force, as being contrary to the express terms of the royal charter to the proprietary. The consideration was postponed till next meeting, the laws and charter to be laid before the board.

At the meeting held on the 31st of July this matter was resumed :

" The miante of the preceding Council being rend and approved, the consideration of what the Governor then laid before the Board touch- ing the Popish Chappell was resumed, and the charter of privileges, with the laws of the province concerning liberty, being read, and like- wise the Statute of the eleventh and twelfth of King William the Third, chapter 4, it was questioned whether the said statute, notwithstanding the general words in it, 'all others his Majesty's dominions,' did extend to the plantatione in America, and, admitting it did, whether any prose- cntion could be carried on here by virtue thereof while the aforesaid law of this province, passed so long since as the fourth year of her late Majesty, Queen Anne, which is five years posterior to the said statute, stands narepealed. Aod under this difficulty of concluding upon any- thing certain in the present case, it is left to the Governor, if he thinks fit, to represent the matter to our superiors at home, for their advice and directions in it."

In the London Magazine and Monthly Chronologer of July 7, 1737, a correspondent, in speaking of the Quakers, gives "a small specimen of a notable step which the people of that profession have taken toward the propagation of Popery abroad, and as I have it from a gentleman who has lived many years in Penn- sylvania, I confide in the truth of it. . . . In the town of Philadelphia, in that colony, is a public Popish chapel, where that religion has free and open exercise and in it all the superstitions rites of that church are as avowedly performed as those of the Church of Eng- land are in the Royal Chapel of St. James. And this chapel is not only open upon fasts and festivals, but is so all day and every day of the week, and exceed- ingly frequented at all hours cither for public or pri- vate devotion. . . . This chapel, slightly built and for very good reasons, is but small at present, thongh there is much more land purchased around it for the same pions purposes than wonld contain Westminster Abbey and the apartments, offices, etc., thereunto belonging."

In reply to this a correspondent, on July 21st, | said,-

the time of the mass in 1708 up to 1732 there were by immigration or birth forty who professed the Catholic faith. Father Gienton would not have been likely to erect even the humble chapel he did were the numbers of the faithful not in excess of ten or twelve.

1 For the above, and other information relating to Father Greaton, we are indebted to Brother Henry Foley, SJ., anthor and compiler of "The Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus," com- pleted in nine volumes.

1368

HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

" What private understanding may be between Papists and Quakars I know not nor believe there is any. But it is plain tbal beads, Agnus Dei, bells, or even mass, are in no way detrimental to society, and the Yea and Nay folks in Pennsylvania find the Papists as useful in their trade and of as peaceful behavior as any sort of Christians."

That the Quakers were not hostile to the Catholics at the time mentioned is also proven by the letter of Rev. Colin Campbell to the secretary of the (London) Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Speaking of "the obstruction that I and our missionaries in Pennsylvania and New Jersey meet with," under date of Nov. 2, 1742, he says,-

" What is the effect of Quakerism now in Pennsylvania but a nursery of Jesuits; no less than two priests are in Philadelphia, four in Cones- toga, a county in the country, and what the end of Quaker power will prove we may plainly guess. Many Irish Papists turn Quakers, and get into places as well as Germans."1

The "two priests" referred to were Fathers Greaton and Neale. Campbell's predecessor, Rev. John Tal- bot, had bewailed the permitting "Popish mass in Philadelphia" in 1707, and declared that if William Penn " had any religion 'tis that," and that Penn was " a greater Antichrist than Julian the apostate." He also called him "the lewd Governor," and charged that instead of trying "to convert the Indians to the faith, he labors to make Christians heathens, and pro- claims liberty and privileges to all that believe in one God." 2

It was this proclaiming "liberty and privileges to all who believed in one God" that made Father Greaton and his flock insist, in 1734, that they " had the right to the public exercise of their religion."

Thirty-five years after Talbot's testimony Rev. Colin Campbell's shows that Penn's policy had made Penn- sylvania "a nursery of Jesuits," bnt strangely, too, that "many Irish Papists were turning Quakers."

It seems the principle of "tolerating all without control" worked rather oddly in those days.

Father Greaton was the only priest stationed in Philadelphia from the building of St. Joseph's until April 21, 1741, when Rev. Henry Neale, S.J., who had arrived in Maryland from England the year be- fore, came to assist him. On the 25th he wrote to the Superior in England (Pennsylvania then being a separate mission from Maryland and subject to the provincial in England), saying, " I find things other- wise than represented in England, I mean ay regards a competent maintenance of one in my station, for an amount of twenty pounds only will not suffice." Father Neale died May 5, 1748. It is not likely that Father Neale remained in Philadelphia from 1741 to 1748, the number of Catholics not justifying the per- manent residence here of two priests.

As Rev. Robert Harding, who succeeded Father Greaton in 1750, and built St. Mary's in 1763, arrived in this country in 1732, and is recorded as laboring in Maryland and "occasionally in Pennsylvania," it is

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 120

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 992

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992