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TRINITY CHURCH In Newport, Rhode Island
U
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01811 8304
GENEALOGY 974.502 N47IS
Trinity Church in Newport, Rhode Island
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I
Trinity Church
Trinity Church
IN NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND A History of the Fabric By Norman Morrison Isham A.M., F.A.I.A.
Boston Printed for the Subscribers MDCCCCXXXVI
COPYRIGHT, 1936, BY THE RECTOR, CHURCH WARDENS, VESTRY AND CONGREGATION OF TRINITY CHURCH IN NEWPORT
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. D. B. UPDIKE, THE MERRYMOUNT PRESS, BOSTON
Preface
T HE purpose of this book is to set forth the history of the fabric of Trinity Church in Newport. Architecture of the classic type came to the Colonies from England just as it had come to England from Italy and France. It superseded here, as it did in the homeland, the old Tudor forms of the seventeenth century. In New England, at least, this new style came with the Royal Governors and the Church of England. The new missions which the Church established at the re- quests of the people could hardly escape the influence of Sir Christo- pher Wren. Hence the importance of our early churches and espe- cially of Christ Church in Boston and Trinity in Newport.
The general history of the parish is touched upon only as it explains this or that feature in the church building. The references to the church records, which are necessarily numerous, are to Mr. George C. Mason's Annals of Trinity Church, because that book is available while the original records, though accessible, are of little use to readers who are not in or near Newport.
My thanks are due to all who have helped me in the collection of material, to the staff of the Newport Historical Society in the investi- gation of the land titles, to Miss Edith M. Tilley for her genealogi- cal search, and to William King Covell, Esq., and John Howard Benson, Esq., for photographs. I am greatly indebted also to George J. J. Lacy, L.R.I.B.A., of Gray's Inn Square, London, for plans and photographs of Wren churches; and to Arthur T. Bolton, Esq., F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A., curator of Sir John Soane's Museum, London, and one of the editors of the Wren Society's Publications, for kindly help and counsel.
Finally, I thank my friends the Reverend Stanley C. Hughes, D.D., Rector of Trinity, and Daniel Berkeley Updike, Esq .- the one for his steady encouragement, the other for the pains he has taken to have the presentation of the book what his taste and skill have made it.
NORMAN MORRISON ISHAM
July 14, 1936
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE FIRST CHURCH, 1701-1726 3
II. THE CHURCH LAND-THE ORIGINAL LOT 23
III. THE SECOND CHURCH, 1725-1762 34
THE DESIGN
37
THE BUILDING
59
THE INTERIOR 68
THE EASTERN ADDITION 88
THE NEW STEEPLE 95
APPENDICES
A. SPRING STREET AND THE LAND AT THE EAST IO7
B. THE LAND AT THE WEST IO8
C. DONORS TO THE RESTORATION FUND, 1925 IIO
Illustrations
Trinity Church
Frontispiece
FIGURE I Suggested Plan of the First Trinity Church
9
FIGURE 2 IO
Plan of Old St. Paul's, Narragansett, in 1762
Based on Martin Read's plan and modern measurements
FIGURE 3
II
Plan of St. Mildred's, Bread Street, London Sir Christopher Wren, 1681-83. Redrawn from Clayton, Wren Society Publi- cations, vol. Ix, p. 55. Pulpit from measurements by George J. J. Lacy, Esq., L.R.I.B.A., London
FIGURE 4 I6
"King's Chapel as in 1720" Redrawn from Greenwood's History of King's Chapel
FIGURE 5
The Carr Land and the Church Property
24
FIGURE 6
27
The Original Lot and the Additions thereto
FIGURE 7
35
Christ Church, Boston, West Front
FIGURE 8
36
Interior of Christ Church, Boston, looking West
37
FIGURE 9
Plan of Trinity Church, in 1726
FIGURE IO 40
A. Trinity Church, looking East B. Christ Church, looking East
x ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURE II 41
Bay of Nave, Trinity Church, North Side
FIGURE 12 42
The Chancel from the North, 1924
FIGURE 13 St. Andrew by the Wardrobe, looking East
43
FIGURE 14 44
Interior of Trinity Church, looking East
FIGURE 15 45
Bay of St. Andrew by the Wardrobe
FIGURE 16 46
St. James's, Piccadilly, looking East
FIGURE 17 Systems of Columns
FIGURE 18 Cornice and Base
FIGURE 19 63
The Change to "Sash" Windows, with the Catch for the Movable Lower Sash
FIGURE 20 North Door of Trinity Church
FIGURE 2I 70
Suggested Arrangement of Altarpiece and King's Arms
FIGURE 22 73
A. Suggested Original Arrangement at West End of Trinity with the Upper Gallery
B. Suggestion of Munday's Setting of the Organ with the Peres be- hind it and the Upper Gallery
48
61
64
ILLUSTRATIONS
xi
FIGURE 23 The West End with the Organ, in 1924
75
FIGURE 24
77
South Pew at West End
FIGURE 25
79
Old Panel, Unpainted, and Marks of Chancel Steps
FIGURE 26
80
Interior of Trinity Church, looking West
FIGURE 27
The Pulpit and Chancel, 1936
81
FIGURE 28
83
Present Plan of Trinity Church
FIGURE 29
89
Trinity Church, Cross Section, looking East
FIGURE 30
90
Trinity Church, Cross Section, looking West
FIGURE 31
94
Lengthwise Section of Present Church, looking North
Cellar modern. Only Original Part of Organ Case is shown
FIGURE 32 The Stages of the Tower and Steeple, with Framing
98
FIGURE 33 The Spire
100
Trinity Church in Newport, Rhode Island
I The First Church 1701-1726
T HE present church of Trinity Parish, Newport, is the successor to that in which the congregation worshipped in the beginning. The date of this first church, like that of the founding of the parish, is not quite certain. In 1699, how- ever, on October 24, Lord Bellomont sent to the Board of Trade "the humble petition," dated September 24, "of the people of the Church of England now residing in Rhode Island." The petition- ers asked for "assistance towards the present maintenance of a Min- ister," which Bellomont rather brutally hoped would be "the means to reform the lives of the people in that Island and make good Christians of'em." The petitioners also set forth the fact that they had "agreed and concluded to erect a church,"' and three years later, on September 29, 1702, the Rev. Mr. Lockyer and the wardens, William Brinley and Robert Gardner, wrote to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts: "Our Church is but young : it not being four years yet compleat since we began to assemble ourselves together on that occasion; . . . The place where- in we meet to worship is finished on the outside, all but the steeple which we will get up as soon as we are able; the inside is pew'd well altho' not beautified; we have also got an altar, where we have had the communion administered twice .... "2 Since, from this state- ment, the church was new in 1 702, and since, according to the peti- tion of 1699, it was only agreed upon in that year, it must have been
I Mason, Annals of Trinity Church (Ist series; this is the series referred to unless otherwise stated), pp. 11-13; Arnold, History of Rhode Island, p. 559; original petition in British State Paper Office, New England, vol. IX.
2 Mason, Annals of Trinity Church, pp. 13-16. This altar, which still exists and has been restored to the chancel, will be referred to later.
4
TRINITY CHURCH IN NEWPORT
erected between those dates-1699 and 1702-either by the Rev. Mr. Lockyer or by the first clergyman, the Rev. David Bethune.3
In 1699 the Venerable Society had not yet been founded.4 The affairs of the Church of England here were at first, apparently, in the hands of the royal authorities, which, for Newport, meant those of Col. Francis Nicholson, an ardent propagandist, who had been lieutenant governor of New York under Andros, and perhaps in those of the Rev. Samuel Myles, rector of King's Chapel, which as a quasi-royal foundation, was always independent of the Society. Mr. Myles went with the Rev. George Keith to Newport, it will be remembered, in 1701.
Mason says that Col. Nicholson "had occasion to come to New- port and it is the received opinion that he secured the services of the Rev. Mr. Lockyer, who began to preach here about 1694." There is no doubt that the parish did "acknowledge" Nicholson as its "most generous benefactor,"5 if not its founder, and as a friend to whom it could turn in any need.
The date of 1694 is too early, however, in view of the state- ments in the petition to Bellomont, and if he sent anyone it must have been the Rev. David Bethune, who was certainly here in 1700, while the Rev. Mr. Lockyer's name first appears in 1701.6
That Col. Nicholson and the Rev. Mr. Myles were interested in the founding of Trinity may be inferred from the history of the trouble between that rector and the Rev. Christopher Bridge, his assistant, who came over in March 1699. In 1700 Col. Nicholson, then in Virginia, wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury: "I am heartily sorry ... that there is no very good understanding between
3 Updike, History of the Episcopal Church in Narragansett (2d edition, Rev. Daniel Good- win, editor), 11, 177, 425. This edition is the one always referred to.
4 Its charter was granted June 16, 1701.
5 Letter in Mason, Annals of Trinity Church, p. 27.
6 Pub. R. I. Historical Society quoted by Goodwin in Updike, History of the Narragansett Church, 11, 426.
5
THE FIRST CHURCH
the Revd. Mr. Miles, of Boston, and Mr. Bridge, about Rhode Island. ... "7 The Bishop of London, to end this, sent Mr. Bridge to Narragansett, whence he seems still to have interfered at Newport, for the Rev. John Talbot wrote to the Rev. George Keith, the first missionary sent to the colonies by the Venerable Society that "Poor Mr. Honyman is much disturbed at Rhode Island by Mr. Bridge, who says he has a letter from my Lord of London to take his place; if so, he will ruin two Churches at once. Pray help your Countryman what you can. ... "8 This probably refers to "That insolent Riott upon the Church of Road Island" which the Bishop says, in a letter of 1708, "mr. Bridge hath com- mitted."9
Mr. Bethune was here in 1700, as he signed, on October 19 of that year, a receipt for books sent out to the minister at Rhode Island by the Rev. Dr. Bray. He signed the receipt as "Licens'd to be the Minister of that place." The church, therefore, may have been built, or at least begun, by the Rev. Mr. Bethune in the spring and summer of 1701.
The Rev. Mr. Lockyer, however, signed a similar receipt on November 12, 1701. He had, therefore, succeeded Mr. Bethune before that date. He was, according to the diary of the Rev. George Keith, in charge of the parish on August 4, 1702.
On September 29, 1702, the Rev. Mr. Lockyer and the ward- ens wrote to the Society, apparently seeking its protection, that the church was "pew'd well altho' not beautified." At that date the church had been standing for a while, at least, for the letter of the rector and wardens goes on to say: "We have had the commun- ion administered twice." If there were three communions a year, at Easter, Whitsunday and Christmas, the church must have been
7 Foote, Annals of King's Chapel, 1, 196.
8 Ibid., p. 169.
9 Ibid., p. 196.
6
TRINITY CHURCH IN NEWPORT
built by the Rev. Mr. Bethune. If there were communions once a month, and thus one in August and one in September, the church must have been pretty well completed by the first of August, 1702, which might have been possible under Mr. Lockyer. At all events, the date is either 1701 or 1702, which is a degree of accuracy sel- dom attainable. Dr. MacSparran, writing in 1752 or 1753, gives the date as 1702.
It may be worth our while to consider briefly what this older church may have been like and where it stood. No drawing of it exists, nor has anyone handed down any definite dimensions of it; but we do know that it contained a certain number of pews, that it had a gallery, and was to have a steeple. When we consider, too, that in Narragansett a church was built in 1707, within five years of the date of this-a church which, in essentials, is still standing and of which a definite plan is at hand which is ancient enough to give us the internal arrangement in 1760-an attempt to restore the original building of Trinity is not too hopeless; for it is pretty certain that the churchmen of Narragansett would have watched the proceedings of their brethren of Newport and have consulted with them on their own project. In fact, it is not too much to suppose that old St. Paul's was a copy of old Trinity or, at any rate, possessed a strong family resemblance to its older sister.
We know that the old church had thirty-five pews, in addition to eight in the gallery. The small size of the latter, as shown by this number of pews, makes it almost certain that it was drawn across the western end of the church. St. Paul's, Narragansett, had at first no galleries. It was voted to get timber for them in 1721.10 The pews on the floor of old Trinity, according to the list in 1719, were numbered up to thirty-five. Number 27 is
10 Updike, History of the Narragansett Church, II, 464.
7
THE FIRST CHURCH
left out, but the minister's pew, marked "o"-that is, with no number-brings the actual total up to thirty-five.11
We know that the church was not square, that is, was not in the meetinghouse shape. Dr. MacSparran, in writing about it to the church at New London, said: "If you have the Newport church you will then be under an absolute necessity of conforming to the dimensions of said church, both as to the House and Belfry. Now, it may be, Gentlemen, you will think a less Fabric will serve your Turn Which if Built Square, may in time be Lengthened & En- larged."12 From this we gather that the church had a belfry and thus possibly a tower, that is, the steeple (which, in those days, meant a tower and spire, or in any case a tower), had been built, and we might further infer from the order of notice "by Placards affixed to the Church Dores"13 that it had more doors than one.
There was, as we have seen, an altar in 1702,14 and a bell in 1709.15 It was voted in the latter year that "ye glass for ye Church Windows now in ye hands of ye Glazier be put in without de- lay."16 In the same year, too, the rector and vestry wrote to Col. Francis Nicholson "that you Would Intercede with ye Honble Society for an Altar piece, for it is the Only Ornament that is wanting to complete its beauty."17 One of the old votes shows, moreover, that a vestry room was contemplated.18 This was no doubt in the tower, where it was in the later church. 19
II Mason, Annals of Trinity Church, p. 34.
12 Ibid., p. 44.
13 Ibid., p. 19. This statement might refer, however, to one door which was double. 14 Ibid., p. 14.
Ibid., pp. 18, 19, 21.
16 Ibid., p. 18. The glass was leaded. Some of it was fastened directly into the window frames and some was set in wooden or perhaps iron casements which could be opened.
17 Ibid., p. 15.
18 Ibid., p. 19.
19 Ibid., p. 109.
8
TRINITY CHURCH IN NEWPORT
If the builders of St. Paul's in Narragansett had old Trinity in mind so that we may, perhaps, reason from copy to original, we may make a still further comparison and consider the first King's Chapel in Boston as a possible model. The contract for this build- ing, which was published some years ago, describes a church which, in plan, bears a remarkable likeness to what the original Trinity seems to have been if we lay out its plan to accommodate the thirty-five pews which we know it had, the pulpit and the chancel.
In this document John Holebrook, Stephen French and Jacob Nash, housewrights, all of Weymouth, agreed with Anthony Haywood, Esq., on July 21, 1688, for £260,20 not called sterling, to "Erect sett up & build" before the end of the next Novem- ber, "one frame of building of the Dimensions following (that is to say) in length fifty four feet in breadth thirty six feet studd twenty feet with five windows in the front five windows in the rear and two windows at each end of such dimensions as are sett downe in a platt of the same made by Mr. P. Wells Surveyor and the same frame shall clapboard fill with brick & seale with lime and hair & white washing and the roofe thereof with board & shingles make tight & stanch and shall & will on the west end of the sd frame Erect, build & sett up One Belfry of ten feet square twenty feet above ye roofe ... and sufficiently glaze all the sd windows with good square glasse & iron casmts ... with sufficient locks to the doors thereof. ... "21 Note the plural.
"P. Wells" is very probably the Philip Wells who, in 1687, made and signed a plat of the land on Boston Neck and near by, in Southern Rhode Island, belonging to Richard Wharton, of Bos- ton, merchant, one of Andros's council. The surveyors of the sev- enteenth century used the skill in drawing they possessed to de- sign buildings. They were sometimes in the old records called art-
20 The total cost came to £284 16s.
21 Old-Time New England, vol. XII, no. I, P. 31.
9
THE FIRST CHURCH
ists, possibly because they colored and embellished their plats. Peter Harrison made a map of Fort George, Newport. Here in Wells is our first ecclesiastical architect. Anthony Haywood's name stands fourth on the list of original contributors to King's Chapel. In 1695, he was a captive of the Barbary pirates and the church collected money to ransom him.
The building was not "pew'd well." It had only benches until 1694. On July 5, 1689, a payment of £1 15s. was made to "Mr Wm Smith for Benching the church."22 Pews first appeared in 1694, when an agreement was made with John Cunnabel, of Bos- ton, "joyner," to build them for £85.23
Nor did the church have a tower. The expression "on the west end of the sd frame" shows that the belfry stood on the roof.
Ur
25
24
11
10
9
8
7
'8
26
HAYDON
AYRAULT
READING/PULPIT
PIKE
MUNDAY
BERNON LILLIBRIDGE
MAY
29
O
MINISTER
JONES
25
22
21
14
12
12
MATTHEWS
BULL
WRICHTINGION
J BROWN
NEARGRASS
W. WANTON
20
19
18
15
16
17
MACKINTOSH
MARTINDALE
MAD. CARR
CRANSTON
NATH. KAY
MAD. GIDLEY
30 GARDNER
6
GOULDING
31
32
33
34
35
4 1
2
3
4
5
BRENTON
BRIGHT!
A LUCAS
BRINLEY
ARNOLD
GOVERNOR NEARGRASS
GIBBS
MORTON
SHEARMAN
FIGURE I. Suggested Plan of the First Trinity Church
In Figure I is a conjectural restoration of the plan of the original 22 Greenwood, History of King's Chapel, p. 45.
23 Foote, Annals of King's Chapel, 1, 116.
GALLERY
IO
TRINITY CHURCH IN NEWPORT
Trinity Church. This drawing assumes a resemblance to St. Paul's, Narragansett (Figure 2), and to King's Chapel, both of which
1
20
19
18
2
17
21
26
.
8
11
22
25
ALTAR
3
7
12
23
24 FONT PEW IN 1724.
16
4
5
6
READ- ING
PVLPIT
13
14
15
MINI- STER
5
110
15
FIGURE 2 Plan of Old St. Paul's, Narragansett, in 1762
have a curious likeness to St. Mildred's, Bread Street, London, built in 168 1, said to be the least altered of Wren's City Churches. We are apt to forget that the great architect was still living and working when King's Chapel, the first Trinity and St. Paul's, Narragansett, were built. In fact, St. Paul's, London, was not fin- ished until 1710.
At St. Mildred's (Figure 3) the altar was at the east end, the gal- lery at the west and the pulpit against the wall, east of the middle
9
10
II
THE FIRST CHURCH
5
10
,20
7.5
30
FIGURE 3 Plan of St. Mildred's, Bread Street, London
on the north side, the long side. The same plan was followed, prob- ably, in the original King's Chapel, which had a gallery on the west and almost certainly the pulpit on the north, as it was in that posi- tion, near the middle of the church, in the enlarged building. Be- yond this analogy we ought not, perhaps, to try to go, but even this is of surpassing interest. And it is hard to refrain from conjec- ture as to the pews. The arrangement of these, in Trinity, can have varied very little from that in St. Paul's, Narragansett, for which, as I have already suggested, Trinity in all probability provided the model. Indeed, the block arrangement is alike in St. Mildred's and St. Paul's, though the pews in the former face east, and possibly this resemblance extended to King's Chapel and old Trinity. The numbering, of course, is hazardous, but there are one or two points
I2
TRINITY CHURCH IN NEWPORT
of support even for that. The governor's pew, for instance, was number I in the old list.24 The minister's pew was the seventh in sequence. This had no actual number and is marked "o," but "6" comes before it and "7" after it. The minister's pew in St. Paul's, Narragansett, was near the pulpit. Here it comes next to the altar. The governor's pew, when it appeared in King's Chapel, was op- posite the pulpit.
At first, it will be seen, the altar and the pulpit were not close together. The English parish church of Wren's time was a combi- nation of "mass house" and "preaching house," that is, of the long church with the altar at one end as its focal point, and the broad church, built for preaching, with a pulpit on the side, so that the speaker's voice could reach the greatest number of his listeners. It must be remembered that neither St. Mildred's nor any of these three early colonial churches was basilican in the sense of having side aisles. With the pulpit on the north wall, the whole congrega- tion was in front of the preacher. In their square pews they could all see and hear him. They could also face the altar. When the churches were divided into a nave and two side aisles, the pulpit was better visible nearer the end of the church, and there were fewer people behind the preacher than if it were in the middle. Sir Christopher Wren said, "Concerning the placing of the pulpit, I shall observe, a moderate voice may be heard fifty feet distant before the preacher, thirty feet on each side, and twenty behind the pulpit."
It is greatly to be regretted that we know so little of the external appearance of the church. We know that it had a belfry and that it was intended that it should have a steeple, but there seems no proof that this was ever built, and the small size of the lot is against it. This lack of knowledge is the more unfortunate in that the date of this first building, 1701-1702, would bring it into the little- 24 Mason, Annals of Trinity Church, p. 34.
I3
THE FIRST CHURCH
known period of the transition from the old seventeenth-century manner with its open framing, steep roofs and leaded windows, to the newer classical fashion which was invading the land and which finally triumphed in the new church which the Rev. Mr. Hony- man was to build. If we could be certain that old St. Paul's had preserved its outward aspect intact through its long history and that it resembled Trinity, we should have a new proof of what is very probable-that the new style came into the New England colonies with the Church of England, or, at any rate, that the Church brought in the Renaissance and broke down the old Tu- dor fashions in architecture as in social life. Fortunately, the old King's Chapel comes to our aid.
Scattered through the early records of King's Chapel are many entries which, while interesting in themselves, do much to fill in the bare outlines of the old contract and help us to form a picture not only of the Chapel itself but also of the first Church of Eng- land building in Newport.
There was a gallery in the Boston church, as there was at New- port, and it was certainly at the west end, for it was only in 1717, after the church had been enlarged in 1710, that a "new gallery" was ordered on the north wall and built at a cost of £80, of which the new governor, Samuel Shute, contributed forty, and not till 1729, on September 19, is it recorded that John Pillet did "Cov- enant and Agree ... To build a double Gallery on the South Side of King's Chapel, Consisting of ten Pews in the front, each of them five feet Six inches deep, and one Single Bench be- hind .... " What seems to have been a point of some controversy was settled, while the work went on, by the vote, on October 3 1 : "whether the South Gallary Should be Built in the Front over the Governour's Seat: it Passed in ye negative."
That there was a governor's pew in the enlarged church is plain from this entry, but there was one in the original chapel also
I4
TRINITY CHURCH IN NEWPORT
in 1698, when Lord Bellomont was expected as the new gover- nor, and it was on the outer wall as it appears that the later pew was. Goddard and Were, carpenters, received £15 for it and its turner's work, and it was enriched with carving for which Richard Knight, carver, was paid {9. It was probably curtained like the pew in the enlarged building.
In May of the same year £ 5 8s. was paid "for Lime and Plaster- ing the church." As the earlier records speak of plastering, this must have been applied to the outside, as in the case of the Old Feather Store, near Faneuil Hall, long ago destroyed-a view strengthened by the words "to Keep out the Snow." The Boston east wind was disturbing even then.
In 1700, important items record payments to "the Carpenter for the Church Porch," £2 on April 16 and {2 5s. on October 7. There were "window Shutters" which, in 1699, were "to be painted ... as the gates are."
The church may have had a projecting chancel, for Col. Giles Dyer, one of the wardens, who was a painter, gave, in 1694, his labor in "Duing the Commandements and allter rome." This last may mean only the space within the rail, for the contract does not call for any projecting east end.
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