USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Wickford > The Old Narragansett church (St. Paul's) : built A.D. 1707, a constant witness to Christ and his church > Part 4
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When Captain Lodowick Updike, the first of the name to own vast tracts of land around that village (then commonly called Updike's New Town) made his will, August 16, 1734, he inserted in it this clause: "But it is my mind and will that the lot of land in the Town of Wickford, by me formerly designed for the Church of England, in North Kingstown, be excluded from the former devise and be forever appropriated for the use of said Church." It is upon this provision, confirmed by the action of the grandson of Capt. Updike, Lodowick Up- dike, Esq., that the title to this lot, on which the Church stands, now rests. It was this lot that was awaiting the removal of St. Paul's northward. Upon it the building found its resting place, as soon as it was brought in from the old site. Previously
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to that period the village had been chiefly confined to the Main street, with the addi- tion of the small side streets, opening im- mediately from it. But now two causes were operating to give Wickford import- ance and new population.
Mr. Samuel Elam, a wealthy Englishman, had come over from near Newport about this time, and laid out the hitherto unoccu- pied tract of land between the two bridges into streets and house lots, calling the new settlement Elamville,-a name still clinging to it, in the old-fashioned title of "The Ville."
In the year 1800, at the suggestion of Mr. Elam, the Washington Academy, also, was built. The new people thus drawn to Wick- ford added to the congregation of St. Paul's, there being then no other place of worship in the village.
To return, for a moment, to the "old plat- form." In the year 1869 there was dedi- cated a handsome granite monument to the memory of the Rev. Dr. MacSparran and the Rev. Mr. Fayerweather, upon the site formerly covered by the Church, under which these two rectors had been interred. The spot is almost pathetic in its loneliness and unbroken tranquillity. Around the
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pastors of the flock sleep about one hundred and ten of the white members of the parish, the Phillipses, the Walls and the Gardiners, while an unnumbered company of the hum- bler slaves occupy unmarked graves, at the east end of the Churchyard.
The effort of removal appears to have ex- hausted the little congregation of St. Paul's and left them nothing with which to finish and furnish the interior of the building.
It contained, at first, in Wickford, neither pulpit nor pews, the worshippers being seated upon temporary benches, without backs, consisting of long boards placed up- on sections of logs. While the Church was on the old site there was no belfry or spire attached to it. But some years after the re- moval, probably in 1811, a tower and belfry were added, at the west end of the Church. Ten long "slips" were placed in the centre of the building, as you see them now, and square pews were constructed all around the sides. It is only another of the excep- tional circumstances attending all the life of the Old Church that it was never conse- crated until it was a good deal over one hundred years old, Bishop Griswold per- forming the act, on May 6th, 1819, the
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building being at the same time put in thor- ough repair and supplied with a bell. From this period, for about thirty years, the ser- vices of the Old Church were regularly maintained by the Rev. Lemuel Burge, the Rev. Francis Peck and the Rev. John H. Rouse. At different times an increased in- terest and an enlarged attendance were ap- parent. Some very aged people still recall the joyful Christmas Eves in the Old Church, when laurel and rhododendron and pine embowered the pulpit, hid the pillars and covered the whole front of the gallery, while a hundred tallow candles made the interior sparkle with light, even the ordin- arily sober-minded bell seeming to awaken to the spirit of the season and evolve music of unwonted merriness.
But all through the early "forties" there was a growing sentiment that the Old Church had done its work and that a more modern structure, out on the Main street, was demanded. About 1843 the rector sore- ly complained of the lack of room in the Church and the need of a more comfortable and convenient building. In 1847 this hope had ripened into the certainty of having the long-looked-for new edifice, in the centre of
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the village, "with nearly double the num- ber of pews" in the old one. On the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, in 1848, the new structure was consecrated by Bishop Henshaw, and the venerable Narragansett Church, after a nearly continuous honorable service of one hundred and forty-one years, was definitely closed for any save occasion- al uses.
The period of the deepest humiliation of the structure did not, however, arrive until a score of years later, when the tower and spire were prostrated. It has sometimes been imagined that a wild tempest swept in from the Atlantic Ocean and levelled this taller portion of the building. But the fact is well established that the tower fell on a perfectly windless night. It had not strength enough longer to stand and so it collapsed, in almost every part at once. Although not erected until more than a hundred years after the main portion of the building, the steeple was yet, in some respects, so faultily constructed that it passed out of existence nearly a half-cen- tury ago, while the old work appears still workmanlike and strong. At that time, too, even the more ancient main structure seemed to have sunken into neglect. The
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glass had all been broken out and the win- dows were provisionally closed with rough boards. The faded old tapestry of crimson above the pulpit windows hung by one corner, in a most dejected frame of mind. The posts sustaining the gallery were filled with holes made by tacks and small nails in fastening on the Christmas dressing with complete abandonment, when, in the closing year or two of use, it was believed that the end of the cherished structure for all pur- poses had arrived. What was worst of all, the shingles and roof boards had gone to decay and there was every prospect that the rains of summer and the snows of winter would enter the antique building and quick- ly lay it low. But at about this period a determined effort was made to rescue the honored relic from destruction. The roof was repaired and the outside walls were painted. At a later time the glass of the windows was restored, and one improve- ment has followed another,-the interior repainted, the altar and chancel restored from the front of the pulpit to their original position at the middle of the east wall, where there can still be discovered traces of an ancient canopy, and suitable orna- ments placed upon the Holy Table,-until
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the present seemingly aspect has been at- tained.
During the entire more than forty years since this restoration began, services, in the milder season of the year, have continued to be held in the Old Church, generally taking the form of vesper-services in the month of August, at which clergymen from other parts of Rhode Island and the Church at large have often preached, and by which a very wide and enthusiastic interest has been created.
Today this beloved structure enters upon a new, and what may be reckoned the per- manent and final era of its existence. It has been offered by St. Paul's Parish as a free gift to the Bishop and Diocese of Rhode Island, and accepted by them as a solemn trust. The formal transfer of the property from the Rector, Wardens and Vestrymen of St. Paul's to the officers of the Diocese has just been witnessed by a large and sym- pathetic assembly of the Churchmen of Rhode Island, generally, and the people of Wickford.
It may be a matter of some concern, be- fore we part, to consider, for a moment, the nature of the transaction in which we have just been participating. To certain persons,
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perhaps, it may appear that we have wit- nessed the adoption of the Narragansett Church by the Convention of Rhode Island, as when a child is sometimes accepted as a new member of a family. But in such a process it is always provided that the adopter shall much surpass in age and ex- perience the one adopted. It is noticeable, however, that when the "Rhode Island Episcopal Convention" came into being, the Narragansett Church had already attained the somewhat respectable age of eighty- three years. It is, obviously, a rather old child for so comparatively young a parent to adopt. Rather should we look upon the ceremony of today as the sealing of a union between equal partners, where each may bestow a sacred service upon the other and each may be blessed by what the other free- ly renders.
Through all the unnumbered years for which this happy union shall continue, we can picture to ourselves this venerated fane appealing to the Churchmen of the Diocese with a new certainty of a glad response, for material support; so that it may long be preserved in every renewed strength and comeliness. Nor will the people of the Dio- cese ever cease to visit the venerated struc-
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ture, now all their own, to drink in from the old fountain draughts of every kind of antique grace.
Is it their peace and tranquility of spirit which they desire to increase ? . Where better than in this abode of ancient peace shall they find them, where scarcely a foot- fall is ever heard and where the air seems redolent with the memory of hundreds of saints of a meek and quiet spirit ?
Is it courage of heart that they would like to gain? Let them call up that band of a dozen faithful soldiers of Christ, who, as pastors of the flock, through seven score years, essayed to stand undismayed in their lot, through no end of discouragements, and fight a good fight, and take them as an ex- ample.
Do they long for new sources of inspira- tion, so that their souls may mount up like eagles and never be weary or faint? How shall they be able, here, to open their ears and catch echoes of the hymns of lofty cheer which erewhile have been sung by a thousand brave voices in these sacred aisles, and rung in triumph under this vaulted roof ?
Perhaps, ere another century of the life of this house of God has drawn to a close
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some new and as yet unthought of office in the service of the Church will have been discovered for its use. Perhaps rejoicing multitudes will then be pressing hither and blessing the memory of those men of old time, who reared the Fane.
LIST OF RECTORS.
Christopher Bridge 1706-1708
William Guy. 1717-1718
James MacSparran 1721-1757
Samuel Fayerweather
1760-1774
Interregnum:
War with Great Britain.
William Smith.
1787-1790
Walter Gardner
1,791-1794
(Lay Reader and, later, Minister or Deacon officiating).
Joseph Warren 1796-1805
Isaac B. Pierce. 1809-1813
(Lay Reader).
James Bowers
1812-1814
Lemuel Burge.
1817-1819
(Lay Reader).
Patrick H. Folker 1819-1820
Lemuel Burge .1820-1834
Francis Peck 1834-1836
Lemuel Burge
1837-1840
John H. Rouse 1840-1849
Daniel Henshaw 1849-1853
Alonzo B. Flanders 1854-1866
William H. Collins 1861-1862
James A. Sanderson 1866-1868
Daniel Goodwin
1869-1874
George J. Magill
1875-1876
William W. Ayres 1876-1887
Albert J. Thompson
1887-1890
Samuel Borden-Smith 1890-1897
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Frederick B. Cole. .1897-1907 Richard R. Graham 1908-1912 H. Newman Lawrence 1912-1914
On October 28, 1914, the Old Narragansett Church became the property of the Diocese of Rhode Island and was thereby promoted to the direct charge and care of the Bishop-the Right Rev. James DeWolf Perry, D. D.
LIST OF RECENT GIFTS AND MEMORIALS.
July 1912. Crimson Damask Dossal, Altar Cloth and hangings for Pulpit and Reading Desk. By Mr. D. B. Updike, Boston. In Memory of his mother, Elizabeth Bigelow Updike.
Sept. 1912. Two Queen Anne Chairs. By Mr. E. P. Warren, Gorham, Maine.
Jan. 1914. Pair of Brass Candlesticks (Colo- nial style) for the Altar. By Mr. D. B. Updike. In Memory of Lodowick Updike of Smith's Castle, giver of the land on which the Church now stands.
Jan. 1914. A Copy of the Book of Common Prayer, believed to have been used in one of the English Chapels Royal. By Mr. D. B. Updike. It bears the following inscription: "This 'Royal' Copy of The Book of Common Prayer, according to the use of the Church of England, bears the cipher of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Anne, Benefactress of St. Paul's Church, Narra- gansett, to which she gave a Chalice, Paten and Christening Bowl for the due celebration of the two Sacraments of the Gospel, A. D., 1708. This Book, printed in 1710 (three years later than the erection of Old St. Paul's), contains the Office for Healing of the King's Evil, which Queen Anne was the last English Soverign to use. A gift for the Altar of Old St. Paul's, in Memory of the Honourable Daniel Updike, of Newport and Smith's Castle, Narragansett; for twenty-five
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years Attorney General of the Colony of Rhode Island. Born 1693; Died 1757. To whom may God grant Rest Eternal."
March 1914. Six three-light Brass Sconces (Colonial Style). By Mr. D. B. Updike. In Mem- ory of his father, Hon. C. A. Updike.
Oct. 1914. Five Hundred dollars for restora- tion by Mrs. W. Watts Sherman, Newport. (Part of this gift was used to purchase the handsome Brass Chandelier of Colonial style which now hangs in the centre of the Church.)
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.
The Right Rev. James DeWolf Perry, D. D., Bishop of Rhode Island, Chairman.
The Rev. George Mcclellan Fiske, D. D. The Rev. H. Newman Lawrence, Secretary.
Mr. George Gordon King.
Mr. Daniel Berkeley Updike.
Mr. James A. Greene.
PLANS OF THE COMMITTEE REGARDING THE PRESERVATION AND USE OF THE OLD CHURCH.
Repair of the exterior and restoration of in- terior.
To hold Services in the Old Church as often as circumstances will permit and to celebrate the Holy Eucharist therein at least once a year.
To make the Old Church again the centre of Missionary work throughout the Narragansett Country.
To encourage pilgrimages to the Old Church of Sunday Schools, Junior Auxiliaries, and other organizations of young people.
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