Crown of Life
Christian cross
HISTORY OF CHRIST CHURCH
NEW BERN, N. C.
1715-1940
E. K. BISHOP
Crown of LifeHISTORY OF CHRIST CHURCH NEW BERN, N. C. 1715-1940BY GERTRUDE S. CARRAWAYAUTHORIZED BY THE VESTRY OF CHRIST CHURCH PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH THE REV. CHARLES E. WILLIAMS, RECTOR E. K. BISHOP, SENIOR WARDENNEW BERNOWEN G. DUNN, PUBLISHER1940
ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTES
1940
In commemoration of the 225th anniversary of the establishment of Christ Church Parish in 1715 and the 200th anniversary of the Act of the General Assembly on August 21, 1740, authorizing erection of the first parish church here; and in honor of the Hon. Edward K. Bishop, for more than half a century a vestryman, first elected April 24, 1889, serving as Secretary and Junior Warden at different times, and for the past eighteen years Senior Warden, first named to this high position of leadership and responsibility April 3, 1922—able, loyal, and true, a worthy successor of worthy predecessors.
DEDICATION
For all Thy saints, O Lord,Who strove in Thee to live,Who followed Thee, obeyed, adored,Our grateful hymn receive.For Thy dear saints, O Lord,Who strove in Thee to die,Who counted Thee their great reward,Accept our thankful cry.Thine earthly members fitTo join Thy saints above,In one communion ever knit,One fellowship of love.Jesus, Thy Name we blessAnd humbly pray that weMay follow them in holiness,Who lived and died for Thee.—BISHOP RICHARD MANT, 1837.Hymn 293.TWO CENTURIES OF SERVICE
For two centuries of service, progress and inspiration, Christ Episcopal Church has held an important place, literally and figuratively, in the heart of New Bern, second oldest town of North Carolina.
Its spire, pointing skyward, higher than anything else in the city, is rimmed with a large crown, symbolic of everlasting life, not only for the Church triumphant but also for those stalwart Christians who try to further the Kingdom of God on earth.
The twenty-six rectors, the assistant ministers and many members have exercised a vital influence on the history of the region. To a great extent the history of the local Church is a history of the community.
These patriots of the Cross have bequeathed a priceless heritage for the Church and Church members of today and tomorrow—a tower of strength during the past, a beacon of light in the present, and a guiding star for the future.
“Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the Crown of Life.”—Revelation 2:10.
RECTORS OF CHRIST CHURCH
| JAMES REED | 1753-1777 |
| LEONIDAS CUTTING | 1785-1792 |
| SOLOMON HALLING | 1792-1795 |
| THOMAS P. IRVING | 1796-1813 |
| GEORGE STREBECK | 1813-1815 |
| JEHU CURTIS CLAY | 1817-1818 |
| RICHARD S. MASON | 1818-1828 |
| JOHN R. GOODMAN | 1828-1834 |
| JOHN BURKE | 1835-1837 |
| CAMERON F. MCRAE | 1838-1842 |
| FORDYCE M. HUBBARD | 1842-1847 |
| WILLIAM N. HAWKS | 1847-1853 |
| HENRY F. GREENE | 1854-1857 |
| THOMAS G. HAUGHTON | 1857-1858 |
| ALFRED A. WATSON | 1858-1862 |
| EDWARD M. FORBES | 1866-1877 |
| CHARLES S. HALE | 1877-1881 |
| VAN WINDER SHIELDS | 1881-1889 |
| T. M. N. GEORGE | 1890-1905 |
| L. G. H. WILLIAMS | 1905-1907 |
| JOHN H. BROWN | 1908-1910 |
| B. F. HUSKE | 1910-1917 |
| DANIEL G. MACKINNON | 1917-1925 |
| GUY H. MADARA | 1926-1930 |
| I. DEL. BRAYSHAW | 1931-1934 |
| CHARLES E. WILLIAMS | 1934- |
| Page | |
| ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTES | 3 |
| DEDICATION | 4 |
| TWO CENTURIES OF SERVICE | 5 |
| RECTORS OF CHRIST CHURCH | 6 |
| TABLE OF CONTENTS | 7 |
| Chapter | |
| I. EARLY COLONIAL RELIGION | 9 |
| II. FIRST MINISTERS IN EAST CAROLINA | 12 |
| III. ESTABLISHMENT OF CHURCH | 14 |
| IV. CRAVEN COUNTY SETTLED | 19 |
| V. RELIGIOUS LEGISLATION | 23 |
| VI. LOCAL PARISH DESIGNATED | 25 |
| VII. FREEDOM OF WORSHIP AGAIN DECREED | 29 |
| VIII. UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE | 32 |
| IX. NEW CHURCH ACTS | 34 |
| X. FIRST LOCAL CHURCH | 36 |
| XI. EAST CAROLINA MISSIONARIES | 40 |
| XII. GIFTS FROM KING GEORGE | 44 |
| XIII. THE REV. JAMES REED, FIRST RECTOR | 47 |
| XIV. ROYAL GOVERNOR ARTHUR DOBBS | 50 |
| XV. LARGE PARISH TERRITORY | 54 |
| XVI. NUMEROUS CHURCH BILLS | 58 |
| XVII. FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL | 61 |
| XVIII. OTHER SERVICES OF “PARSON” REED | 64 |
| XIX. CHURCH AND SCHOOL | 68 |
| XX. ROYAL GOVERNOR WILLIAM TRYON | 72 |
| XXI. THE REV. JAMES MCCARTNEY | 76 |
| XXII. TRYON ASKS MORE AID | 79 |
| XXIII. ROYAL GOVERNOR JOSIAH MARTIN | 82 |
| XXIV. TOMLINSON ASSISTS RECTOR | 85 |
| XXV. THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD AND DISESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH | 89 |
| XXVI. DEATH OF MR. REED | 95 |
| XXVII. THE REV. LEONIDAS CUTTING | 98 |
| XXVIII. STEPS TOWARD ORGANIZATION | 102 |
| XXIX. THE REV. SOLOMON HALLING | 105 |
| XXX. FIRST BISHOP ELECTED FOR NORTH CAROLINA | 109 |
| XXXI. THE REV. THOMAS P. IRVING | 112 |
| XXXII. THE REV. GEORGE STREBECK AND THE REV. JOHN PHILLIPS, ASSISTANT RECTOR | 119 |
| XXXIII. THE REV. JEHU CURTIS CLAY AND ORGANIZATION OF THE DIOCESE | 121 |
| XXXIV. THE REV. RICHARD SHARPE MASON | 124 |
| Chapter | Page |
| XXXV. OTHER LOCAL DENOMINATIONS | 129 |
| XXXVI. SECOND EPISCOPAL CHURCH BUILDING | 136 |
| XXXVII. THE REV. JOHN R. GOODMAN | 141 |
| XXXVIII. THE REV. JOHN BURKE | 144 |
| XXXIX. THE REV. CAMERON F. MCRAE | 147 |
| XL. THE REV. FORDYCE M. HUBBARD | 149 |
| XLI. THE REV. WILLIAM N. HAWKS | 151 |
| XLII. THE REV. HENRY F. GREENE | 158 |
| XLIII. THE REV. THOMAS G. HAUGHTON | 162 |
| XLIV. THE REV. A. A. WATSON | 166 |
| XLV. THE REV. EDWARD M. FORBES | 172 |
| XLVI. CHURCH FIRE | 177 |
| XLVII. THE REV. CHARLES S. HALE | 183 |
| XLVIII. THE REV. VAN WINDER SHIELDS | 185 |
| XLIX. THE REV. T. M. N. GEORGE | 188 |
| L. THE REV. L. G. H. WILLIAMS | 192 |
| LI. THE REV. JOHN H. BROWN | 195 |
| LII. THE REV. B. F. HUSKE | 197 |
| LIII. THE REV. DANIEL G. MACKINNON | 200 |
| LIV. THE REV. GUY H. MADARA | 204 |
| LV. THE REV. I. DEL. BRAFSHAW | 207 |
| LVI. THE REV. CHARLES E. WILLIAMS | 210 |
| LVII. THE RT. REV. THOMAS C. DARST | 216 |
| CHRIST CHURCH VESTRYMEN | 219 |
| BIBLIOGRAPHY | 223 |
| INDEX | 231 |
| FACING PAGE | |
| E. K. BISHOP | Frontispiece |
| FIRST LOCAL CHURCH—1750 | 32 |
| COMMUNION SILVER, Presented by KING GEORGE II | 48 |
| SECOND LOCAL EPISCOPAL CHURCH—1824 | 128 |
| PRESENT EPISCOPAL CHURCH—1875 | 176 |
| CHRIST CHURCH ALTAR | 192 |
| Showing Communion Silver and Memorial Cloth. | |
| THE REV. CHARLES E. WILLIAMS | 208 |
| THE RT. REV. THOMAS C. DARST | 209 |
EARLY COLONIAL RELIGION
That the early colonists in Eastern North Carolina had faith and religion is evidenced by many historical facts, and, although for a history of Christ Church, New Bern, it is manifestly impossible to go fully into an account of Christianity through the entire section, nevertheless it is important to mention a few outstanding events that transpired before the settling of this city.
During Colonial days the church was usually the chief center of a settlement. Upon it our American forefathers depended often for educational and social privileges as well as religious inspiration. Christ Church played as vital a role along all these lines as any other factor in this community, and as material a part as practically any other church in any other region.
On August 13, 1587, Manteo, Indian friendly to the white colonists in Governor John White's English settlement on Roanoke Island, was baptised,1 this being believed to be the first Christian baptism by the English on territory now comprising the United States. Some days later Virginia Dare, first white child of English parentage born in the New World, was also christened at old Fort Raleigh.2
In 1607, as English colonists started up the James River to found the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown, Va., they disembarked first at Cape Henry on April 26. With religious ritual they planted there a crude wooden cross, symbolic of faith in God and confidence in the future.3 Episcopal services are continued there annually in tribute to their piety and pioneer spirit.
Religion was also made an integral part of the daily life of other later settlements in Virginia and Carolina. Indeed, many persons came to this continent mainly for freedom of worship. Others were stimulated to religious zeal in their new homes. In almost all colonies buildings were set apart for public worship, sometimes private
1 White, John, Account of Lost Colony. Published by Richard Hakluyt, Vol. III, p. 340.2Ibid.3 “On the nine and twentieth day [of April] we returned to the mouth of the Bay of Chesiopic, set up a cross and called the place Cape Henry,” wrote George Percy, son of Earl Percy, who was with the Virginia colonists in 1607.homes were thus used. For wide stretches where houses were scattered, however, religion had to be an individual or family devotion.
The first charter granted March 24, 1663, by King Charles II of England to the original eight Lords Proprietors of Carolina stated that these leaders were “excited with a laudable and pious zeal for the propagation of the Christian faith, and the enlargement of our empire and dominion” by settling “in the parts of America not yet cultivated or planted, and only inhabited by some barbarous people who have no knowledge of Almighty God.”4 As today, one of His Majesty's titles was “Defender of the Faith.”5
Liberty of conscience and freedom of worship were allowed under both the first and second Carolina charters, although it was distinctly understood that the Church of England was to be the established church in the colony just as it was in the Mother Country.6
Under John Locke's “Fundamental Constitutions or the Grand Model of Government,” accepted March 1, 1669,7 which had great ideals of liberty8 though failing to function suitably for scattered inhabitants in Carolina,9 it was declared:
“It shall belong to the Parliament to take care for the building of churches and the public maintenance of divines, to be employed in the exercise of religion, according to the Church of England; which being the only true and orthodox, and the national religion of all the King's dominions, is so also of Carolina, and therefore it alone shall be allowed to receive public maintenance by grant of Parliament.”10
No missionary societies were in the world during the 17th century, and there were no missionaries on this continent except a few traveling Quaker preachers. But, at the close of that century the Bishop of London sent the Rev. Thomas Bray (1656-1730) to Maryland to settle some differences there and to study church conditions.11
Dr. Bray visited various American colonies, and became intensely interested in their religious conditions. Upon
4The Colonial Records of North Carolina (hereafter cited as Col. Rec.), I, 21.5Ibid., I, 20.6Ibid., I, pp. 32, 113-14.7Ibid., I, 187-205; The State Records of North Carolina (hereafter cited as St. Rec.), Vol. XXV, pp. 123-136.8 Col. Rec., I, 202-203.9Ibid., I, pp. xvii-xviii.10Ibid., I, 202.11Ibid., I, 520, 571. New Standard Encyclopedia, Vol. IV, p. 156. Drane, Dr. Robert B., Colonial Parishes and Church Schools, in Sketches of Church History in North Carolina, edited by the Rt. Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire and published by Wm. L. De Rosset, Jr., p. 167.his return to England, he reported in 1700 the immediate need of missionaries in the New World.12
12 Col. Rec., I, pp. 572-73. McConnell, Dr. S. D., History of the American Episcopal Church, pp. 96-98. Protestant Episcopal Historical Society Collection, pp. 99-106. Hawks, Francis L., History of North Carolina, Vol. II, pp. 338-339.II
FIRST MINISTERS IN EAST CAROLINA
The first minister to preach in North Carolina is said to have been William Edmundson, a Quaker, native of Westmoreland, England, who came to Carolina during the Spring of 1672 and preached at the house of Henry Phillips, where the town of Hertford is now located.1
George Fox, also a Quaker, was the second missionary to visit North Carolina. He went to the western part of what is now the county of Chowan, as well as to the Perquimans and Pasquotank sections.2
The Quakers were thus the first to send missionaries into Carolina, and they infused their principles through northeastern parts of the province. Presbyterians and members of other denominations also moved to the region from Virginia and other colonies.3
Quaker influence was felt from 1694 to 1696 when John Archdale was Governor of the Carolinas. He was a Quaker, convert of George Fox. But when Henderson Walker became Governor, 1699-1703, he did much to help establish the Church of England and further its cause in North Carolina.4
The first Church of England missionary for the Albemarle section, sent in 1700 at Dr. Bray's insistence, was the Rev. Daniel Brett. This was an unfortunate selection, as were some of the later missionary choices. He remained only a few months.5
As early as 1669 there had been instituted in England a society “for the promotion of Christian knowledge.” For various reasons it failed to function well. A second organization, to supply clergymen for the American colonies, was started by Dr. Bray, desirous to improve religious conditions in the colonies.
On June 16, 1701, his society, as a voluntary organization among churchmen in England, was chartered by King William III of England as the “Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.”6
1 Cheshire, J. B., Jr., Fragments of Colonial Church History, pp. 3-4.2 Col. Rec., I, xviii, 226-27, 572. Journals of Edmundson and Fox.3 Vass, the Rev. L. C., History of the Presbyterian Church in New Bern, N. C., pp. 18-21.4 Battle, Kemp P., The Colonial Laymen of the Church of England in North Carolina, published in Cheshire's Sketches, pp. 95-96.5 Col. Rec., I, 572.6 Cheshire, The Church in the Province of North Carolina, op cit., pp. 51-52; New Standard Encyclopedia, IV, 156. McConnell, op cit., pp. 98-99. Hawks, op. cit., II, 340.This association did more towards the early Christianizing of East Carolina than probably any other one factor. However, the group was greatly handicapped in its worthy efforts by the general indifference found on both sides of the ocean and the immense distances that had to be traveled.
The first public library in Carolina was started at Bath, the oldest town, with books sent by Dr. Bray.7 Books were later sent to many other towns of the province. And the Rt. Rev. Henry Compton, Lord Bishop of London from 1675 to 1714, obtained from the Crown a promise of a bounty of 20 pounds for every minister or scholar who would agree to come to America.8
7 Col. Rec., I, 572.8Ibid., I, 600-1. Hawks, II, 339.III
ESTABLISHMENT OF CHURCH
In the Fall of 1701 Governor Henderson Walker had the “Assembly” pass an act making the Church of England the established church.1
Parishes were laid out in this province. Craven, named for William, Earl of Craven, one of the original Lords Proprietors, was a precinct in St. Thomas parish. Provision was made for erection of churches and appointment of vestries. For payment of 30 pounds for each minister's salary, a poll tax was laid on every tithable person.2
Quakers, Presbyterians and other denomination members in the province objected strenuously to the bill, and appealed to England. They asserted that, though religious toleration had been definitely promised, there could be no real religious freedom and liberty of conscience for all, if they were forced thus to help support the Church of England.3
The measure was later vetoed by the Lords Proprietors, not because of these objections filed by colonists but because of the opinion that the bill was “inadequate,” 30 pounds not being considered enough for preachers.4
On December 15, 1701, however, the vestry of Chowan precinct appointed under the act made arrangements for a church reader and a house of worship.5 This church, reported well under way October 13, 1702, near Edenton,6 was the first to be erected in North Carolina.7 It is said to have been located on land later included in the Hayes Plantation.8
An entry dated June 30, 1702, in the Vestry Book of St. Paul's parish, Chowan precinct, refers to a March act of the Assembly empowering each vestry to provide a standard of weights and measures and transact other business.9 That vestry also met on October 13 of that year and at other times.10
Governor Henderson wrote to the Bishop of London October 21, 1703, requesting that a “worthy good man”
1 Col. Rec., I, 543, 572.2Ibid., 598, 601. Cheshire, Sketches, p. 52.3 Col. Rec., I, 527, 709, 802. Cheshire, p. 54.4 Col. Rec., I, 601. Hawks, II, 343, 357.5 Col. Rec., I, 543-545.6Ibid., I, 558-61.7 Cheshire, op. cit., 119.8 Graham, John Washington, History of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, p. 4.9 Col. Rec., I, 558.10 Col. Rec., I, 558, 560, 568, et als.be sent to Carolina to regain the flock and establish it in the Christian profession.11 He severely criticized the behavior of the Rev. Daniel Brett, said to be “the first minister sent to us.”12
The first missionary sent to North Carolina by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was the Rev. John Blair.13 He left England late in 1703.14 His mission in this New World was destined to encounter many difficulties and handicaps, as did other early Colonial missionaries.
In a letter to officials of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel he reported three chief precincts in this province, with three small churches and three glebes.15 Craven was not counted as one of the main precincts. He said that a reader was engaged at a small salary in each of the three, for morning and evening prayers and two sermons every Sunday.16
Four “sorts of people” were described: Quakers, “powerful enemies to church government”; those with no religion who would be Quakers if it did not compel them to live moral lives; a denomination something like Presbyterianism; and those really zealous for the interest of the church. This fourth group was said to be fewest in number but composed of the “better sort of people.”17
Blair almost starved in the Carolina wildernesses. He worked hard and traveled far, but could accomplish little. While he was returning to England for aid after a few months, his vessel was captured and he was held a prisoner of war in France for nine weeks.18
During late 1704 or early 1705 a Vestry Act was passed by the North Carolina Assembly, providing for twelve vestrymen in each precinct. These were given the power to build churches and raise money, displace and disapprove ministers, for whom they were to pay 30 pounds per annum.19 This measure was evidently later repealed.
Members of the House of Lords of the British Parliament notified Queen Anne March 13, 1705, of a petition received from Joseph Boone, merchant, and other Carolina residents objecting to two Assembly acts: appointment of a commission of twenty laymen to remove rectors
11Ibid., pp. 572-73.12Ibid., 572.13Ibid., 597, 600.14Ibid., 600.15Ibid., 601.16Ibid.17Ibid., 601-2.18Ibid., 600-3. Hawks, II, 344.19 Col. Rec., I, 680, 682, 689, 709.only by delivery of written notices and provision that no man might be chosen to the House of Commons of the Assembly if he had not received the Church of England sacrament within a year before his election unless he would swear he was of the Church of England profession.20 The Lords declared that such measures were not warranted by the charter granted to the Carolina Lords Proprietors.21 Accordingly, Queen Anne pronounced them null and void.22
At a council meeting held in Chowan December 3, 1705, Bath County, reported to be growing, was divided into three precincts:23 Pampticough, north of the Pamlico river beginning at Moline's Creek and extending westerly to the head of the river; Wickham, from Moline's Creek to Matchepungo Bluff; and Archdale, the south side of the river, including Neuse. Each precinct was allowed two Assembly members. Pampticough soon passed out of existence. In 1712 Wickham became Hyde, and Archdale became Beaufort.
The second and third missionaries sent to North Carolina for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts were the Rev. James Adams and the Rev. William Gordon. They arrived in April, 1708.24 Both were worthy Christian leaders.
At that time there were four precincts in the Albemarle Sound section,25 and both ministers went to that area: Gordon, to Chowan and Perquimans;26 Adams, to Pasquotank and Currituck.27
In 1709 Gordon wrote of his section: “The people, indeed, are ignorant, there being few that can read, and fewer write, even of their Justices of Peace and vestrymen.”28 Bath was said to be the only town, with twelve houses but no church though land had been laid out for a glebe.29 Gordon returned to England after a comparatively short but satisfactory stay in America.30
Adams was called “exemplary” in a letter written August 25, 1710, by church wardens and vestrymen of “Caratuck” to the S. P. G. officials to thank them for sending the minister to that region. He was reported to have been there for two years and five months, and was
20Ibid., pp. 634-40.21Ibid., 636.22Ibid., 643, 673.23Ibid., 629.24Ibid., 681.25Ibid.26Ibid., 684-85, 689.27Ibid., 681.28Ibid., 712.29Ibid., 715.30Ibid., 684-85, 701.then planning to return to England.31 A letter dated the next day was sent by the “Pascotank” vestry, asking for a continuance of Adams’ work.32
Adams himself wrote, “I have suffered a world of misery and trouble, both in body and mind.”33 He prepared to leave for England but died in 1710 just before his scheduled departure.34
The Rev. John Urmstone was fourth on the list of S. P. G. missionaries to North Carolina. In 1711 he came to Chowan. Colonial Records contain numerous letters from him to his superiors, complaining bitterly of the land, vestries and lack of money.35 The noted divine and historian, Dr. F. L. Hawks, wrote later that Urmstone, weak and vacillating, “did more to retard the spread of Christianity and the growth of the Church of England in Carolina than any and all other causes combined.”36
Fifth came the Rev. Giles Rainsford,37 whose health failed after a few months. He is said to have been alarmed by Indian hostilities and to have moved soon to Virginia.38
31Ibid., 728-29.32Ibid., 730.33Ibid., 734.34Ibid., I, 884; II, 75. Hawks, II, 350-51.35 Col. Rec., I, 763-64, 774, 849, 850, etc.36 Hawks, II, 353.37 Col. Rec., I, 858-60.38 Hawks, II, 353. Col. Rec., II, 17, 128.IV
CRAVEN COUNTY SETTLED
The first white settlers in this section were from Virginia, New Jersey and New England. Some were hunters. Others sought a living from the soil. Many desired religious freedom. There were Quakers, Calvinists, Puritans, French Huguenots and other “dissenters,” who had come to America from religious persecutions abroad.
Although there were a number of earlier smaller groups or individuals, the first organized settlement in Craven County dates back to 1707, when the Rev. Claude Phillippe de Richebourg brought Palatine Protestants to the Trent River. This is said to have been the first Presbyterian minister, as well as the first organized Presbyterian congregation, in North Carolina.1 Some of the colonists were Lutherans, others Calvinists, French Huguenots, or Reformed Church members.
These exceptionally fine citizens moved to this region from Virginia, where in search of religious liberty they had gone in 1690, with the encouragement of King William of England, first locating at Manakin Town above the James River falls. Not satisfied with the land in Virginia, they had decided to move farther south.
Pious and zealous, talented and hard-working, these settlers were unusually worthy. They held religious services regularly. In an effort to promote silk culture, they had eggs shipped here, but the eggs hatched on the vessel and the silk worms died for lack of food. After the Indian massacres in 1711, the colonists moved still farther south, settling on the Santee River in South Carolina.2
First organized colony direct from Europe to North Carolina, Swiss and German Palatines settled on the site of this town in 1710. They were stout Protestants. The day before the first group sailed from Gravesend on the Thames River in England in January, 1710, religious services were held and an appropriate farewell sermon
1 Vass, op. cit., pp. 49-53. Ashe, Samuel A., History of North Carolina, Vol. I, p. 161.2 Lawson, John, History of Carolina, pp. 28-30, 141, 187. Hawks, II, 85.was preached by the Rev. Mr. Cesar, a German Reformed minister of London.3
Baron Christopher deGraffenried, 49, Swiss nobleman, popular at European courts, who organized the colonists, was present for the farewell service.4 He followed later in the year with his Swiss settlers,5 changing the name of the Indian village, “Chattawka,” on the Neuse and Trent Rivers in East Carolina, to honor his native Bern, Switzerland.6
Henry Hoeger, a Reformed minister, accompanied the local settlers. He was 75 years old, sober and honest. Jacob Christofle Zollikofer, of St. Gall, Switzerland, was instructed to go around Europe to try to get contributions for the building of a church and for the sending over here of a young German preacher as an assistant to Hoeger. He was requested to have the young minister ordained in England by the Bishop of London and to send a liturgy of the Church of England translated in high Dutch. The outcome of these assignments is not definitely known.7
The colonists had been able to bring little furniture to their new home, but they did probably bring their Bibles, hymn books and religious volumes. Religious services must have been held often, probably at private homes.
As early as 1703, the Rev. Josuah Kocherthal, a Lutheran clergyman at Landau in the German Palatinate, driven to despair over the religious persecutions and horrible sufferings which his followers had endured after invasions of French armies, had gone to England to investigate the expediency of an emigration across the Atlantic.
Upon his return home, he published a book on the province of Carolina, giving glowing descriptions of its climate and fertility. Thousands of downtrodden persons envisioned a land of plenty and promise, with liberty and peace of soul.8
Encouraged by the English government, which was as eager to get foreign Protestant colonists for the New World as it was to keep its own people at home, the greatest migrations since the Crusades took place. In a few months between 10,000 and 15,000 persons flocked to
3 DeGraffenried, Baron Christopher, The Landgrave's Own Story, published in deGraffenried, Thomas P., History of the deGraffenried Family, p. 77. Vass, 57.4 DeGraffenried, op. cit., pp. 76-77.5Ibid., 78.6Ibid., 77.7 Dubbs, Prof. Joseph H., D. D., Historic Manual of the Reformed Church. Perry's Historic Collections. Vass, 60.8 Todd, Vincent H., Ph.D., Christoph von Graffenried's Account of the Founding of New Bern, pp. 13-14, 17, 22.London, begging to be transported across the ocean. Among these were many of the future settlers of New Bern.9
For his colony, deGraffenried carefully chose young and able-bodied men, representing almost every trade and craft then prevalent.10 No colony in America had such a highly selective personnel.
DeGraffenried was authorized by the Bishop of London to perform marriage ceremonies and baptisms.11 Though most of the settlers were of the Calvinistic and Lutheran faiths, they signified a desire to be affiliated with the Church of England. On April 20, 1711, deGraffenried wrote the Bishop of London:
“Humbly request your lordship to accept of me and my people, and receive us into your Church under your Lordship's patronage, and we shall esteem ourselves happy sons of a better stock; and I hope we shall always behave ourselves as becomes members of the Church of England, and dutiful children of so pious and indulgent a father as your Lordship is to all under your care; in all obedience, craving your lordship's blessing to me and my countrymen here.”12
The Bishop of London wrote the next January 12 to Secretary Fulham of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel: “As to the letter of Baron deGraffenried, whereby you may perceive that they are all ready to conform to the Church of England; if the Society will be pleased to allow a stipend for a chaplain to read Common Prayers in High Dutch, I will endeavor to provide so soon as I have their resolution, which I would willingly hear so soon as possible, that I may send him over with Mr. Rainsford.”13
A colony of Welsh Quakers, including Thomas Lovick, John Lovick and other leaders who afterwards became prominent, settled in 1710 below New Bern on Clubfoot and Hancock Creeks on the south side of the Neuse River.14 German immigrants arrived in 1732, but moved up Trent River and settled in what is now Jones County, then part of Craven.15
9 DeGraffenried, pp. 75-76.10Ibid., 76.11 Todd, op. cit., 377.12 Col. Rec., I, 756.13Ibid., 831.14 Vass, op. cit., 70.15 Vass, 71.Thus there were English, French, Germans, Swiss, Welsh, Scotch-Irish and other nationalities in this area early in the 18th century. Many religious faiths were represented—Church of England, Calvinists, Lutherans, Reformed, Quakers, Presbyterians, and a few Catholics. Methodists and Baptists also came early to the section.
VRELIGIOUS LEGISLATION
Establishment of the Church of England in North Carolina was recognized by Act of the Assembly in 1711, with acceptance of the laws of England as “the laws of this government so far as they are compatible with our way of living.” A fine of a hundred pounds was provided for vestrymen refusing to qualify under the English laws.1
The Rev. Mr. Urmstone wrote July 7 of that year that the Assembly Act provided for the worship of God and the establishment of the church. Vestries of twelve men in every precinct or parish were called to meet in six weeks to choose church wardens, to give them power to buy glebes, to build churches and to engage clergymen.2
But, it was difficult to get ministers. Miles Gale wrote in 1714 to the Secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel:
“Your letters received for his Excellency, the present Governor Eden, and my Eldest Son, Christopher Gale . . . I have made all the Enquiry in my power after some to go as missionaries, they like the terms but dread y voyage and the heat of the climate. I heartily wish & hope Religion may be taken care for in that Heathenish Country.”3
An Act for Observing the Lord's Day was passed in 1715 and remained in force until its repeal in April, 1741.4 Three holidays were again decreed: January 30, when King Charles I was “barberously murthered;” May 29, the Restoration anniversary; and September 22, the Indian massacre anniversary.5
This act forbade cursing, swearing and drunkenness on the Sabbath. Ministers were directed to read the law publicly twice a year, on the first Sundays in March and October. If no minister was in the section, the Clerk was ordered to read it at precinct court in April and October.6
Another 1715 law permitted Quakers to make a solemn affirmation rather than take an oath.7 This was again decreed Oct. 16, 1749.8 But, because of their failure to
1 Col. Rec., I, pp. 789-90.2Ibid., 769.3Ibid., Vol. II, 133.4 St. Rec., XXIII, pp. 3-6.5Ibid., 3.6Ibid., pp. 4-6.7Ibid., 11.8Ibid. Col. Rec., II, 884.take oaths, despite the fact that liberty of conscience was promised, Quakers were long considered ineligible to hold office and were not allowed to serve on juries or give evidence in criminal cases.
Also passed in 1715 was an act to the effect that no minister of the Church of England should be obliged to enlist in the militia.9 Established Church clergymen were exempt from military duty during practically the entire Colonial period in North Carolina, but it was not until passage of a temporary six-months’ act in 1760 and a more permanent act in 1764 that such provision was made for Presbyterian ministers, “regularly called to any congregation.”10 No mention was then made of other denominations.
In 1770 it was recorded that for five years Quakers had been released from attendance on general or private musters, provided they were regularly listed and would serve in the regular militia in case of insurrection or invasion. On February 23, 1771, Perquimans County Quakers wrote to thank the Assembly for the act passed at the preceding session exempting them from militia duty and military training.11
9 St. Rec., XXIII, pp. 29-30.10Ibid., 597.11 Col. Rec., IX, pp. 176-77.VILOCAL PARISH DESIGNATED
Craven parish was one of nine parishes provided for in 1715; accordingly, the history of Christ Church may be said to have been started in that year.
The bill was entitled “An Act for establishing the church and appointing select vestrys,” this “Province of North Carolina being a member of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Church of England being appointed by the charter from the Crown to be the only Established church to have Publick encouragement in it.”1
Under the act the province was divided into nine parishes, as follows: Chowan precinct, two; Pasquotank precinct, two; Perquimans, Currituck and Hyde, each constituting one parish; the remaining part of the Pamplico River and its branches in Beaufort precinct, St. Thomas parish; and “Nuse river & the Branches thereof, by the name of Craven parish, to which all the Southern settlements shall be accounted a part until further Divisions.”
The twelve men named as vestrymen for Craven parish were Col. Wm. Brice, Maj. Wm. Hancock, Mr. Jno. Nelson, Mr. Jno. Slocumb, Capt. Rich'd Graves, Mr. Dan'l McFarlin, Mr. Jno. Smith, Mr. Jno. Mackey, Mr. Thos. Smith, Mr. Jos. Bell, Mr. Martin Frank and Mr. Jaco(b) Sheets.
Vestrymen named for the various parishes under this act were directed to meet at their respective churches, chapels or courthouses within forty days after publication of the law. Should any vestryman fail to meet as summoned by the marshal or deputy, if not “a known & Publick Dissenter from the Church of England,” he was to be fined three pounds. Should any marshal fail to call the vestrymen, he was to be subject to fine of twenty shillings.
All the vestrymen were ordered to qualify before the following Easter Monday. Others to be appointed later
1 Col. Rec., II, pp. 207-13. St. Rec., XXIII, pp. 6-10.were to qualify within a month. They were to take an oath and make the following declaration before a Justice of the Peace:
“I, A. B., do declare that it is not lawfull upon any pretence whatever to take up Arms against the King & that I will not apugne the Liturgy of the Church of England as it is by Law established.”
After qualifying, the vestrymen were expected to choose two of their number to serve for one year as church wardens; then two other vestrymen were to be selected for this service the following year; and so on under this rotation in office until all vestrymen had served for a year as wardens.
If a vestryman failed to serve as church warden, he was to forfeit thirty shillings. Should any vestryman be absent from a regular meeting without “a lawful cause,” he was to be taxed ten shillings.
These vestries were empowered to purchase land for the erection of churches, raising money from a poll tax of not over five shillings a year. They were also to name ministers at not less than fifty pounds per year.
The ministers were given the right to marry couples, but could not receive more than five shillings for each ceremony. Magistrates were allowed to marry persons “in such parishes where no minister shall be resident.” A man and woman desiring to be married could take three or four neighbors or witnesses to the Governor or a Council member and obtain a marriage certificate. Previously, for lack of clergymen, marriage had been only a civil contract in the province.
This extensive Vestry Act, signed by Gov. Charles Eden, N. Chevin, C. Gale, Fran. Foster, T. Knight and Speaker Edw. Moseley, remained in force until April, 1741, when it was superseded by another bill establishing the church and a special marriage act. It was substantially re-enacted in October, 1749.2
In 1720 it was reported that the persons appointed in 1715 to serve as vestrymen for the southwest parish of Chowan and Craven precinct had not qualified, so it was enacted by “His Excellency the Palatine and the rest of
2 St. Rec., XXIII, 6.the true and absolute Lords Proprietors of Carolina,” with the consent of the General Assembly, that the marshal or deputy summon the vestrymen to qualify within forty days, with power to fill vacancies.3
Three years later, on November 23, 1723, when New Bern was incorporated and laid out in a township, there was a clause in the charter providing a site for a church.4 Despite the Indian wars and other difficulties, the town had by then grown considerably.
Beaufort was also incorporated as a town about the same time, and St. John's parish was established there, being divided from Craven into Carteret precinct. Vestrymen named were Christopher Gale, Esq., Joseph Bell, Jno. Shaw, Jno. Nelson, Richard Whitehurst, Richard Williamson, Richard Rustell, Jno. Shackleford, Thomas Merriday, Enoch Ward, Joseph Fulford and Charles Cogdail.5
No Episcopal minister was serving in any of the eleven parishes of North Carolina in 1727 or 1728, it was reported in the Journal of Proceedings for setting the boundaries between North Carolina and Virginia.6
On this Boundary Commission there was a Virginia chaplain, the Rev. Peter Fontaine, an Episcopal minister, appointed partly in order that people on the Carolina frontiers might get themselves and their children baptized.7
Colonel William Byrd, a boundary commissioner, wrote that when the chaplain “rubbed us up with a seasonable sermon, this was quite a new thing to our brethren of North Carolina, who live in a climate where no clergyman can breathe, any more than spiders in Ireland.”8
Transfer of the province from the control of the Lords Proprietors to the Crown in 1729 ended Proprietary government but brought little change in conditions. Each parish had the right to elect its vestrymen. The Craven vestry and church wardens could raise money by a poll tax not exceeding five shillings in currency for the purpose of paying preachers and aiding the poor.9
3Ibid., XXV, pp. 166-68.4Ibid., 204-5.5Ibid., 206-9.6 Col. Rec., II, pp. 750-57; 776-815.7 Vass, op. cit., 15.8 Byrd, William, Histories of Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina, edited by Dr. William K. Boyd, p. 72.9 Col. Rec., V, 86.VII
FREEDOM OF WORSHIP AGAIN DECREED
Instructions drafted December 14, 1730, by King George II for Capt. George Burrington, named as Royal Governor of North Carolina, contained among the 117 different sections1 the order that there was to be “liberty of conscience to all persons (except papists).”2 These directions were repeated later for Royal Governor Gabriel Johnston,3 who did much to promote the power and influence of the church in the province.
Burrington was told to “take especial care that God Almighty be devoutly and duly served throughout your Government, the Book of Common Prayer as by law established read each Sunday and Holiday and the blessed sacrament administered according to the rites of the Church of England.”4
More churches and rectories should be built in North Carolina,5 the King admonished, calling attention to the rule that “ministers must have certificates from the Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of London of his being conformable to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England.”6 All schoolmasters also were to be licensed by the Bishop of London.7
Governor Burrington wrote July 2, 1731, to one of the Principal Secretaries of State: “This Country has no Orthodox Minister legally settled, those that formerly have been here generally proved so very bad that they gave people offence by their vicious Lives.”8
The next March he wrote the Bishop of London: “I was not able to Prevail with the Last assembly to make necessary provision to subsist a convenient number of clergymen but have a very good expectation the ensuing one will come into the measures I proposed. Dr. Marsden continues in the South Part of this Province. He sometimes Preaches, Baptizeth children and marrieth them when desired.
1 Col. Rec., III, pp. 90-118.2Ibid., 110.3Ibid., 498.4Ibid., 110.5Ibid.6Ibid.7Ibid., 111.8Ibid., 152.“The Rev. Mr. Bevil Granville, nephew to the Lord Lansdown, is also here. He was going to Maryland but we have hopes he will continue with us if your Lordship will procure the usual allowance from the Society. These are all the ministers of the Church of England now in this government: there is one Presbyterian minister who has a Mixed audience; and there are four meeting houses of Quakers.
“Mr. John Boyd (the gentleman who delivers this letter) was bred at the University of Glasgow; has practised Physic in the Colony of Virginia seven years, is now desirous to take orders, several Gentlemen of my acquaintance in this Country give him the Charack of a worthy, conscientious man, well qualified for the ministry, they are desirous of having him for their Pastor, and earnestly requested me to recommend Mr. Boyd to my Lord Bishop for orders, a certificate, and an allowance from the Society, the Better to support him, if your Lordship thinks him deserving; as I believe Mr. Boyd's designs are purely to do good in takeing the ministry upon him and not out of any view of gain, I humbly recommend him to your Lordship for Orders and a certificate.”9
Boyd wrote that year to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts as follows about North Carolina:
“There is no minister residing of the Church of England in any part of that government, for want of which many of the people are drawn away by Presbyterian anabaptists or other Dissenting Teachers, many of their children unbaptised & the administration of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper wholly neglected.”10
From Edenton Granville wrote May 6, 1732, that he had baptized 1,000 persons.11 That month Governor Burrington also reported that “Richard Marsden officiates Gratis at a place called Onslow.”12 Also in the Cape Fear region a French clergyman, the Rev. John LaPierre, was said to be engaged.13 And, Governor Burrington reported, “a clergyman beneficed in Virginia preaches once a month in a precinct named Bertie.”14
9Ibid., 339-40.10Ibid., 394.15Ibid., 341.12Ibid., 342.13Ibid.14Ibid.A later report of the Royal Governor in 1733 to the Lords of Trade and Plantations stated: “There is not one clergyman of the Church of England regularly setled in this Government. The former missionarys were so little approved of, that the Inhabitants seem very indifferent, whither any more come to them.
“Some Presbyterians, or rather Independent Ministers from New England, have got congregations . . . The Quakers in this Government are considerable for their numbers and substance; the regularity of their lives, hospitality to strangers, and kind offices to new settlers induceing many to be of their persuasion.”15
The Rev. George Whitefield, (1714-1770), the famous Methodist divine, “unequalled prince of pulpit orators,” arrived in New Bern on Christmas eve in 1739. On Christmas day he preached in the courthouse. An account of his visit related that “Most of his congregation was melted to tears. Here he was grieved to see the minister encouraging dancing, and to find a dancingmaster in every little town. ‘Such sinful entertainments,’ he said, ‘enervate the minds of the people, and insensibly lead them into effeminacy and ruin’.”16 Mr. Whitefield returned to New Bern again in November, 1764,17 and later in 1765.18
15Ibid., 429-30.16 Vass, op. cit., 79.17 Col. Rec., VI, 1060.18Ibid., VII, 97.VIII
UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE
Although it is impossible to get a complete story of religious history here during the Colonial era, court records prove the close union of church and state. In numerous instances may be found indications of a kindly Christian spirit towards the weak and unprotected.
An entry dated March 20, 1740, in the minute book of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, reads: “Mr. Philip Trapnell appears and delivers up an infant boy named Joseph Waters to this court. Ordered that the constable next in that neighborhood take the said boy into his custody and bring him to the vestry next Easter morning.”1
In the same month it was recorded: “An infant about nine years of age is brought into court. The court thought fit to bind her out to William Carlton till she come to the age of 16 years and the said Carlton gives securities for his good performance during the time she shall remain with him as follows: that he is to do his endeavor to teach her or cause her to be taught to read the Bible.”
Care of orphans is also shown in a record of September, 1742: “Ordered that every master or mistress of orphans within this County bring a certificate from a neighboring justice to satisfy the court of their welfare.”
Such quality of mercy is not always evident. On September 19, 1740, there was made the entry: “Mary Magee appears in court. Ordered that she be stripped her clothes to her waste and receive 12 lashes on her bare back at the public whipping post.”
Measures taken against “dissenters” from the established church were based on the belief that those who refused to worship under the prescribed forms were wicked. A bill for liberty of conscience failed to pass in 1740.2
A local record of June 20, 1740, stated: “A motion and petition made by a sect of decenting people called Baptists that they may have the liberty to build a house
1 Taken from minutes of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions in the vault of the Clerk of Craven County Superior Court, New Bern, this entry and others quoted in this chapter, unless otherwise credited, may be found also in an article, “The Early History of Craven County,” by the late Congressman Samuel M. Brinson, in Volume X, The North Carolina Booklet, published by the North Carolina Society Daughters of the Revolution.2 Col. Rec., IV, 514.FIRST LOCAL CHURCH—1750
of worship and being duly examined by the court acknowledged to all the articles of the Church of England except part of the 27 and 36 they desiring to preach among themselves. Referred.” Two words have a line drawn through them, but they seem to be, “but rejected.”
Later that year on September 22 the record shows: “The following dissenting Protestants appeared, viz.: John Brooks, John James, Robert Spring, Nicholas Purefoy, and Thos. Fulcher came into court and took the oath of allegiance and supremacy and subscribed the test the 39 articles of Religion being distinctly read to them the following of which they dissented from to wit: the 26th and the latter part of the 27th.”
However, the Craven Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions in December of the same year granted a “Petition of Palintines or High Germans praying that they may have Liberty to build a Chaple on Trent for a place of worship.”3
Progress along many lines was made in New Bern during the next decade. In 1749 James Davis came from Virginia, through subsidy of the General Assembly,4 and set up here the first printing press in North Carolina, publishing the first newspaper, first pamphlet and first book of the province.5
The General Assembly met here in 17386 and later in twenty different years, and the Council even more frequently, until the town was chosen in 1765 as the logical place for the provincial capital.7 The next year a bill was passed to erect Tryon's Palace here as the seat of government for the province.8
3 Vass, op. cit., pp. 60-61.4 Col. Rec., IV, pp. 976-77, 984, 1023.5 Weeks, Stephen B., The Press of North Carolina in the Eighteenth Century.6 Col. Rec., IV, 355.7Ibid., VII, 2.8 St. Rec., XXIII, 664-65.IX
NEW CHURCH ACTS
In 1741 another act was passed establishing the church in this province.1 Sixteen parishes were named, each privileged to levy a poll tax for support. Among the parishes is named, for possibly the first public time, Christ-Church Parish in Craven County.
Inhabitants of each parish were authorized to meet on the first Monday after the act and on Easter Mondays thereafter every two years at the church or courthouse to elect twelve freeholders as vestrymen for two-year terms.
These vestrymen were ordered to qualify, after being summoned by constables, and take this oath: “I, A. B., do declare I will not oppose the Liturgy of the Church of England, as it is by law established.”
Two church wardens were to be selected by the vestry. If they refused to serve, they had to pay forty shillings proclamation money. But they were not required to serve more than one year without their consent. The wardens were allowed three per cent of the church taxes.
The vestry could engage a minister, buy land for a church and raise money for the poor. If a rector was believed to be immoral, he could be deprived of his salary but he was permitted to bring suit for it in court.
This act was later repealed, and another was passed for the clergy in December, 1758.2
A special marriage act was also passed in 1741.3 This limited the right to perform marriage ceremonies to ministers of the Church of England. In the absence of the rector, the matrimonial ceremony might be performed by a magistrate. But whether or not the rector acted in this capacity, he was to receive the fee, “if he do not neglect or refuse to do the service.”4
Presbyterians did not consider themselves bound by this act, so they joined couples in wedding ceremonies conducted by their ministers without license or publication.
1 St. Rec., XXIII, pp. 187-191.2Ibid., XXV, 364. Col. Rec., V, 1036.3 St. Rec., XXIII, pp. 158-161.4Ibid., 160.It was not until 1766 that these marriages were legalized. Then it was made lawful for a Presbyterian preacher to marry a couple by license, but even then the Church of England minister was to get the fee unless he declined to officiate.5
Much opposition was occasioned by these acts, and in January, 1771, the law was changed so that Presbyterian clergymen could marry couples by publication of banns or license without the payment of the fees to the Church of England rectors.6 But the Board of Trade had the King disallow this change.7
Hence, it was not until the Revolutionary War and the adoption of the State Constitution in December, 1776, that there was no Established Church in North Carolina and the ministers of other denominations were legally permitted to perform wedding ceremonies and receive fees for the rites.
5Ibid., 674. Col. Rec., VII, pp. 432-33.6 Col. Rec., VIII, 384, 479. St. Rec., XXIII, 831.7 Col. Rec., IX, 7.X
FIRST LOCAL CHURCH
Places for religious services, probably at private homes, were undoubtedly designated by the earliest settlers in and around New Bern, since so many of them had moved to the section for religious reasons. As already mentioned, a chapel had been authorized up Trent River. There may have been one or more in New Bern.
Col. Thomas Pollock, a “stalwart churchman”1 and a Proprietary Governor of North Carolina, who held mortgages on New Bern property for money he had advanced to deGraffenried,2 wrote his New Bern agent that he had given a lot here for a church.3 Title was confirmed by the Act for the Better Settling the Town of New Bern, passed by the General Assembly in 1723. That act specifically mentioned “proper allotments for a Church, Courthouse, and Market-place.”4
When Royal government of Carolina was initiated in 1729 there were two or three rude buildings used as churches, perhaps including one here, though there is no proof for this, and a few Quaker meeting houses in different parts of the province. At that time there was no regular clergyman in the territory.
About 1734 the Rev. John LaPierre held a few services in New Bern, and it may be that his work stirred sentiment for a commodious church building here. The next year he moved here and resided here for probably twenty years. He preached at various places of the region.5
St. Thomas Church, still standing at Bath, oldest town in North Carolina, dates back to 1734, now the oldest church building in the State.6 This was antedated by a house of worship which disappeared years ago. The parish was organized there with a vestry in 1701.7
Started in 1736 was the present church of St. Paul's parish, Edenton, but it was not completed for many years. Service was held there in 1760, and the interior woodwork was finished in 1774.8 The parish of Chowan there
1 Cheshire, Sketches>, 100.2Ibid.3Ibid., 172. Colonel Thomas Pollock's Letter Book.4 St. Rec., XXV, 204-5.5 Cheshire, op. cit., 69.6Ibid., 209.7Ibid., 162, 255.8 Graham, op. cit., 5-8.had been organized at a vestry meeting held Dec. 15, 1701,9 and since then has been known as St. Paul's parish in that third oldest town of North Carolina. The graves of three governors, Henderson Walker, Charles Eden and Thomas Pollock, are in that historic churchyard.
Inspired very likely by these examples of church building in Bath and Edenton, the Craven parish vestrymen in 1739 laid a tax on all tithables here for a new church. Commissioners were appointed for the purpose.10
These commissioners are reported in Colonial Records to have made 100,000 bricks for the local house of worship.11 The brick are believed to have been made from clay in a hill near this town, where John Lawson, first surveyor-general of the colony, had camped years previously. Mrs. Richard S. Mason, wife of a later rector of the church, used to relate how her mother had boasted about helping with this task of brick manufacture.12 The brick-making hole is said to have been long visible along New South Front Street towards the Pembroke road.13
Besides the cost of making these bricks, the vestry incurred other expenses, so the legal tax of five shilling was found to be insufficient to carry on their work.14 An act passed by the Assembly on August 21, 1740, enabled the commissioners to proceed with their work on the church by permitting them to levy a special tax for the purpose. The act also provided “for the better regulation of the said town.”15
The extra tax sanctioned for New Bern permitted collection of one shilling, six pence, proclamation money, for two years. It was to be paid yearly, such commodities being acceptable, as “Pork, good and merchantable, dry salted, per Barrel, 30 shillings proclamation money; Beef, dry salted, per Barrel, good and merchantable, 20 shillings; drest Deer Skins, two shillings and Six Pence per Pound; Tallow, four pence per pound; Bees Wax, Ten Pence Half Penny per Pound; Rice, per Hundred, Ten Shillings.”
Collections were to be made by “John Bryan, Gentleman, he giving Security of 400 pounds, Proclamation money, to the County Court of Craven.” He was to be
9 Col. Rec., I, 543-45.10 St. Rec., XXIII, 141.11Ibid.12 Whitford, Col. John D., Historical Notes, history of First Baptist Church and other parts of New Bern, in manuscript form, p. 291.13Ibid.14 St. Rec., XXIII, 141.15Ibid., 141-43. Col. Rec., IV, 549, 572.allowed four per cent of the amounts thus obtained. Each tithable resident not paying the tax was to forfeit four shillings and costs.
George Roberts, William Wilson, George Bold, William Herritage and Adam Moore, “Gentlemen,” were named as Commissioners to receive the levy from Bryan.
In this act it was recorded that a lot had been “laid out” for the church in the 1723 charter, but this site was considered “insufficient and not so commodious” and “all the adjacent lots having been taken up,” and the “vestry having taken up four lots, more convenient and commodious, for erecting a church, and for a churchyard and other parish purposes,” therefore, “as soon as the said church shall be fit to celebrate divine service in, the said four lots shall be saved to the parish.”16
The commissioners were directed to sell at public sale, after four days’ notice, the less desirable property that had been set aside for the church by Colonel Pollock in 1723 and apply the money on their new church building at the larger site.17
These four lots approved for the edifice were on the north side of Pollock Street between Middle and Craven, including the present site of Christ Church. Accordingly, for two centuries the parish has used the same site, centrally situated on one of the most valuable corners in the business heart of the city.
Another act passed April 4, 1741, pointed out that the tax had not been enough to finish the New Bern church. The vestry had been empowered to lay a tax of fifteen shillings per poll for paying a minister for one year but the next vestry had not thought it advisable to employ a minister, so this tax was ordered converted towards the completion of the church.18
This act stated that the 100,000 bricks made by the commissioners for the church were too many for the purpose, so the commission was authorized to sell all the brick not needed and apply the money on the church structure.19
Due to the deaths of Wilson, Moore and Roberts, their places on the commission were taken in April, 1745, by John Fonveille, Edward Bryan and Christopher Gregory
16 St. Rec., XXIII, 143.17Ibid.18Ibid., 181-82.19Ibid.Hobbs. Under the Assembly Act making these appointments, the commissioners were authorized, if there was not enough money on hand to complete the church, to levy another tax “with as much Expedition as possibly may be.”20
The act was amended in 1751. Bryan and Hobbs were then dead, and the appointment of commissioners was discontinued. The church wardens and vestrymen were given the power to call the commissioners to account for the money collected; and, as some of the inhabitants of Craven and Johnston counties were said not to have paid the tax, the vestrymen and wardens were authorized to issue warrents on their possessions and chattels.21
It is believed that the church was finished about 1750,22 but for some time was without a regular rector. It stood at the corner of Pollock and Middle streets, and traces of its foundations and walls are still in the churchyard there. Some years afterwards it was torn down to make way for a larger structure. The two later churches have been located farther back on the property.
20Ibid., 231-32.21Ibid., 365-66.22 Whitford, op. cit., 270.XI
EAST CAROLINA MISSIONARIES
Although impossible to mention all the missionaries that worked in Eastern North Carolina during the Colonial era, it is interesting to note that a number were directly or indirectly connected with the history of New Bern or this immediate territory.
The Rev. John Garzia acted for some time as a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in the Chowan precinct, and “as occasion shall require to the North East side of River Nuse.”1 In his annual report dated April 16, 1742, from Bath Town, he told of baptizing 623 children, nine adults and three Negroes in that section, where he listed 103 communicants and 2,000 “Heathen & Infidels.”2
After Garzia died, the Rev. Clement Hall agreed to settle near Edenton in 1745.3 A native of Perquimans precinct, he had gone to England for ordination in the ministry.4 While the Edenton church was being built, he held services there in the courthouse, at an annual salary of forty-five pounds.5 For a time perhaps the only clergyman in the province, he also conducted services at four chapels in the territory that now comprises Gates and Chowan counties and he visited many other parts of the eastern portion of North Carolina.6
On December 27, 1749, he reported that he had traveled 200 miles through the northern part of his area that Fall, baptizing 265 white and twenty black children and four black adults, besides preaching fourteen sermons.7
Hall wrote May 19, 1752: “I have now thro’ God's gracious assistance and blessing in about 7 or 8 years, tho’ frequently visited with sickness, been enabled to perform (for aught I know) as great ministerial duties as any minister in North America, viz., to journey about 14,000 miles, preach about 675 sermons, baptize about 5,783 white children and 243 black children, 57 white
1 Col. Rec., IV, 560.2Ibid., 604-5.3Ibid., 752-53.4 Cheshire, Sketches, 70. Graham, op. cit., 8.5 Col. Rec., IV, 753.6Ibid., 924.7Ibid., 925.adults and 112 black adults, in all 6,195 persons & sometimes administered the holy sacrament of the Lord's supper to two or three hundred communicants in one journey besides churching of women, visiting the sick, etc.”8
In addition to being one of the most capable and devout ministers in early Carolina, Hall was the first native North Carolina author. The main writers in this province that preceded him were not natives, as John Lawson of Scotland, John Brickell and the Rev. John Thompson of Ireland.
The first book known to have been compiled by a native North Carolinian was published for Hall in 1753 by James Davis at New Bern: “A Collection of many Christian Experiences, Sentences and several Places of Scripture Improved; Also some short and plain Directors and Prayers for sick Persons; with serious Advice to Persons who have been Sick, to be by them perused and put in Practice as soon as they are recovered; and a Thanksgiving for Recovery. To which is added, Morning and Evening Prayers for Families and Children, Directors for the Lord's Day, and some Cautions against Indecencies in time of Divine Service, &c. Collected and Composed for the Spiritual Good of his Parishioners, and others. By Clement Hall, Missionary to the Honourable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and Rector of St. Paul's Parish in North Carolina. Newbern: Printed by James Davis MDCCLIII.”9
In 1755 Hall lost his house, books and personal property by fire. He died in 1759.10 Succeeding him was “Parson” Daniel Earl, youngest son of an Irish nobleman and a former officer in the British army, who had come to the Albemarle section in 1757 to act as curate for the Rev. Mr. Hall. Besides his religious and political activities, he taught his people how to cultivate and weave flax and he established at his home, “Bandon,” named for his native town, the first classical school for boys in North Carolina.11
About the time that Hall went to Edenton, James Moir was at Brunswick.12 In 1748 Christopher Bevis asked the
8Ibid., 1315.9 Copied from old copy of the volume.10 Cheshire, 71.11Ibid., 74-75, 168-69. Graham, 9-10.12 Col. Rec., IV, 606.Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to appoint him as Moir's successor in the Cape Fear territory.13 Moir had moved to Edgecombe parish.14
The method of electing vestrymen being regarded as “inconvenient and detrimental,” it was decreed in 1751 that vestrymen should be elected by ballot in the same manner as Assemblymen. Only citizens qualified as Assemblymen were considered eligible for vestries.15
A bill to establish the church and erect schools offered in 1752 failed.16 Two years later, however, North Carolina was divided into twenty-four parishes. Among these parishes were Christ Church parish, Craven County; St. Thomas in Beaufort County; St. Matthew's, Orange County; St. George, Hyde County; St. John's, Onslow; St. James, New Hanover; St. Patrick's, Johnston; St. John's, Carteret; and St. Philip, Brunswick.17
The first minister for St. Philip's church at Brunswick had been the Rev. Mr. LaPierre, a French Huguenot,18 ordained in 1707,19 who had come to America the next year and to this province from Charleston in 1729.20 The first wooden chapel, 24 by 16 feet, was erected there the next year. The next church there was started in 1751 and was near enough completion for dedication in 1768. It is now in ruins. Colonial Dames of America make annual pilgrimages there.21
Obliged to sell his belongings, Mr. LaPierre is said to have moved from Brunswick to New Bern in 1735 and to have remained here until his death here in 1755.22 Although he is not listed as a regular rector of Christ Church, it is probable that he held services here and assisted with church and religious affairs in general. The General Assembly, in session here in 1749, voted him four pounds for preaching “several sermons” before that body.23
13Ibid., 876-77.14Ibid., 872.15 St. Rec., XXIII, 369-70.16 Col. Rec., IV, 1337.17 St. Rec., XXV, 298.18 Col. Rec., III, 342.19Ibid., 529.20Ibid., 391.21Ibid., IV, 754-56, 1299; VII, 789. St. Rec., XXIII, 368.22 Cheshire, op. cit., 69.23 Col. Rec., IV, 1024.XII
GIFTS FROM KING GEORGE
After the church in New Bern had been completed about the year 1750, Christ Church vestrymen tried to get a rector. Their efforts along this line failed at first, as there were few ministers in the New World. So, in 1752, they wrote to England, probably to the Bishop of London, asking aid in their endeavor to obtain a regular rector.1
Even before the arrival of the rector that this appeal drew here, it was perhaps in response to this letter, with its news of the new local church, that King George II had a special silver communion service made for the parish in 1752 and sent it to New Bern as a royal gift, presented through John Council Bryan, then a church warden.
This service, still in use here and from time to time put on public display, bears the Royal Arms of Great Britain and four Hall Marks, in a shield: the initials, M. F., for the manufacturer, Mordecai Fox of England; the letter “R” denoting “Rex” or King by whom the plate was evidently ordered; a Lion, “passant gardant.” guaranteeing that the silver was of the standard required by law; and a leopard's head crowned, showing that the plate was hall marked at the London government office.
A similar communion set, also made by Fox, was presented to the Old South Church, Boston, in 1742, with books, vestments and linen for the church altar. An alms basin, made also by the same manufacturer in 1760, is owned by Trinity Church, New York.
Royal Governor Josiah Martin is reported to have tried to take the local silver with him when he fled from New Bern in May, 1775, but was prevented from doing so. During the War Between the States the Rev. A. A. Watson, local rector, took the service to Wilmington for safe keeping. Afterwards it was moved to Fayetteville and placed in the care of Dr. Joseph Huske, grandfather of a later local rector. It is said to have been overlooked there
1 St. Rec., XXIII, 420.by the Federal troops, because it was hidden among a great deal of worthless rubbish in a closet.
As was the custom in such presentations, according to the late Graham Daves, secretary of this parish, who investigated the Royal gifts during a visit to London in 1896, the ancient Bible and Book of Common Prayer still in the possession of the local church were presented to the parish by King George II at the same time as the silver.2
The Bible is 20½ inches long, 13½ inches wide and 4¼ inches thick. The initials, “G. R. E.,” are found three times on the back, under the crown, standing for “George, Rex, England.” On the front is the Royal coat of arms, with the mottoes, “Dieu Et Mon Droit,” (God and my right) and “Honi Soit Qui Mal Pense,” (Evil be to him who evil thinks.) The volume is elaborately illustrated.
On the first page is the following in large print: “The Holy Bible Containing the Old Testament and the New Newly Tranflated Out of the Original Tongues and with the former Translations Diligently Compared and Revifed By His Majefty's Special Command. Appointed to be read in Churches.”
Under an ornamental engraving is the information that the book was printed at Oxford: “Printed by John Baskett, Printer to the King's Moft Excellent Majefty, for Great Britain; and to the University. MDCCXVII.” (1717.)
As a heading for the scriptures is the following dedication: “To the Moft High and Mighty Prince James, By the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc. The Transflations of the Bible, with Grace, Mercy and Peace through Jefus Chrift Our Lord.”
The large Prayer Book also contains on its covers, in gilt, the coat of arms of Great Britain. Upon the back, surmounted by a crown, are the monogram letters, “G. R. E.” It was published at Cambridge in 1752 by Joseph Bentham, “Printer to the University.”
Its first page has this statement: “The Book of Common Prayer and Adminiftration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church According to
2 Much of the information in this chapter as to the history of the communion service and the Hall Marks are from an unpublished, typescript article by Graham Daves, pasted in one of the old church record books.the Ufe of The Church of England Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David Pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches; and the Form or Manner of Making, Ordaining and Confecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.”
This Prayer Book was presented to Dr. Richard S. Mason, later rector, by the vestry on his leaving this parish in 1828. It was returned a few months after his death by his wife, at his request. A note in Dr. Mason's handwriting pasted in the volume says it was to be returned to Christ Church; and a letter on black-rimmed stationery, dated June 20, 1874, and signed by Mary Mason, also gives this information.
Both the Bible and Prayer Book were lent to the Hall of History at Raleigh for some years, but are now here at the church.
XIIITHE REV. JAMES REED
FIRST RECTOR OF CHRIST CHURCH
Two ministers, both exceptionally worthy men, came from England following the appeal of Christ Church vestrymen in 1752. The first was the Rev. James Reed, who became the first regular rector of the parish. Arriving shortly afterwards was the Rev. Alexander Stewart, who went to Bath.
Evidently Reed had felt certain that he would be engaged here, for he is reported to have brought his family with him.1 They arrived late in the year 1753. After a year's trial as clergyman, Reed was formally installed by Act of the Assembly as the rector of Christ Church parish.2
Passed at the request of the Christ Church wardens and vestrymen, the act read in part that the “Rev. James Reed at great Charges and Expence, transported himself from England hither and hath performed Divine Services at the said church and at the several chappels within the said parish One year and upwards, to the approbation of the parish.”
The minister was promised an annual salary of 133 pounds, six shillings and eight pence, proclamation money, so must have been considered an exceptionally fine pastor. He was assured a good glebe house, with kitchen, the “lot to be well and sufficiently paled in.”3
For his part of the contract, which was confirmed by Governor Arthur Dobbs, Reed agreed to hold services at Christ Church every Sunday except when he was on leave at the chapels in this vicinity. He was to visit each chapel three times a year.4
This Assembly Act, passed in January, 1755,5 confirmed the agreement that the church wardens and vestry had previously made with Reed. It was introduced by John Fonveille, Craven County's Representative, and Solomon
1 Cheshire, Sketches, 74.2 St. Rec., XXIII, 420-21.3Ibid.4Ibid.5 Col. Rec., V, 310.Rew,6 Assemblyman from the Borough Town of New Bern, who died the next Fall.7
On December 18, 1754, the House of Commons, in session at New Bern, passed a resolution naming Samuel Swann and John Starkey, both of Onslow County, to wait on Reed and thank him for the sermon he had delivered before the House members on Sunday, December 15.8
That he made a favorable impression is evidenced by the fact that he served as Chaplain of the Assembly in January, 1755, being paid ten pounds for this service.9 He was specifically exempted from clergy acts.10
Again the following October, at New Bern, Starkey and James Carter of Rowan County were requested to return the thanks of the House to Reed for the sermon he had preached to the Assemblymen on the preceding Wednesday.11
Many times he served as the Assembly Chaplain, so must have been a devout minister and eloquent speaker. In March, 1757,12 he was paid ten pounds for his services during the Assembly session, according to Colonial Records. He served also as House Chaplain in May, 1757;13 and again in April, 1760, when the House met daily at nine o'clock in the morning for religious services.14
Eight chapels at remote points, besides Christ Church in New Bern and St. John's parish church in Carteret County, were served by Mr. Reed.15 In 1758 he was enrolled as a regular missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, but due to miscarriage of mail he did not learn definitely of his appointment until 1760.16
On March 5, 1760, he wrote the S. P. G. Secretary to thank him for the appointment and the organization's instructions, as well as for a “parcel of books” and “pious tracts.” He promised to distribute the pamphlets and said that one had already brought good results in encouraging church members to attend Holy Communion services here more regularly.17
Terming the S. P. G. aid “a great encouragement to perseverance in the faithful discharge of my ministerial
COMMUNION SILVER PRESENTED BY KING GEORGE II
duty,” the rector pledged himself to endeavor to answer their expectations “to the utmost of my abilities that the society may never have occasion to repent of their appointment, nor our worthy Governor of his recommendation.”18
Other ministers also preached at the new church in New Bern. On December 27, 1755, the Rev. Michael Smith,19 of Johnston County, later of St. James, New Hanover County, delivered a sermon there for the Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons. At the request of members, his sermon was printed here in 1756 by James Davis. In October, 1756, a sermon Mr. Smith preached before the House during a General Assembly session here was ordered printed.20
18Ibid.19Ibid., V, 961-62.20Ibid., 665, 696.XIV
ROYAL GOVERNOR ARTHUR DOBBS
When Arthur Dobbs, of Castle Dobbs, Ireland, author of scientific and other books, High Sheriff of County Antrim, Surveyor General of Ireland, and Member of the Irish Parliament for Carrickfergus,1 was appointed Royal Governor of North Carolina, he was instructed June 17, 1754, by the Lords of Trade to the King to “take especial care God Almighty be . . . served . . . the Book of Common Prayer as by law established read each Sunday and holiday,” and Communion administered according to the Church of England.2
Churches were to be kept open, and more churches and rectories should be built, the new Governor was told. Ministers were to obtain certificates from the Bishop of London; and every orthodox rector was to be a member of the vestry in his parish.3 No schoolmaster was to serve without a license from the Governor and the Bishop of London.4
Dobbs endeavored to carry out these directions, but that he was confronted by a difficult task is borne out by what the Rev. Mr. Fontaine wrote about North Carolina in 1754: “They have no established laws, and very little of the gospel, in that whole colony.”5
In January, 1755, after two months in his gubernatorial capacity, Dobbs wrote: “What I have chiefly observed since I came here as to the wants & Defects of this Province is first the want of a sufficient Number of Clergymen to instil good principals and Morality into the Inhabitants, & proper Schoolmasters to instruct their Youth, the want of which occasion an Indolence & want of attention to their own good.”6
The Assembly appropriated 7,200 pounds for the purchase of glebes and 2,000 pounds for the purchase of public buildings, subject to the King's approval; but,
1 Vass, op. cit., 22.2 Col. Rec., V, 1136.3Ibid.4Ibid., 1137.5Ibid., V, v.6Ibid., 314.though His Majesty later sanctioned the appropriations, the money was used instead for aiding the British during the French and Indian wars. Repeated requests were made for the return of these sums for their original purpose.7
A day of solemn fasting and war prayers was set aside by Governor Dobbs in April, 1757.8 By another proclamation, June 7, 1758, was designated as a time for fasting, supplication and thanksgiving.9 To celebrate victory, he issued another formal proclamation for a thanksgiving day during the Fall of 1759, he wrote William Pitt in England, and he even composed a special thanksgiving hymn to be sung through the province.10
During November, 1757, he again suggested amendments for the bill providing for an established clergy.11 Church laws had been evaded in some counties by citizens combining to elect vestrymen who they knew would not serve. To Dobbs it seemed better to put a general tax on all taxable persons in the entire province and pay the clergy directly out of that sum in the public treasury, using any surplus for the erection of church buildings.12
A year later, in November, 1758, his main recommendation to the Assembly again was for a better law to maintain the clergy.13 He urged that ministers’ salaries be fixed and vestries better regulated so that future vestrymen would not have the right to reduce the salaries and supplies of their rectors. It was also suggested that vestrymen be carefully chosen and then obliged to qualify and act.
“I must also recommend to you the erecting proper schools in the Province for the education of youth, in the reformed Protestant Religion, and in moral religious principles,” he wrote, “otherwise in the next age we shall have a succession of Infidels, Deists, Enthusiasts and Sectaries to the disgrace of our Holy Religion and destruction of Society.”14
Accordingly, measures for better provision of the clergy and selection of vestries were passed in 1758.
7Ibid., 527, 1095; VI, 988-89, 1036-37, 1154a-54b. St. Rec., XXIII, 422-24.8 Col. Rec., V, 755.9Ibid., 932.10Ibid., VI, 62-64, 65.11Ibid., V, 870.12Ibid., 870, 1014; VI, 5, 223.13Ibid., V, 1014.14Ibid.Every minister in the province was to be allowed an annual salary of 100 pounds, proclamation money, also a “glebe with a mansion house, outhouses and other conveniences,” or, if no house, twenty more pounds. It was set forth that this should not conflict with Mr. Reed's contract.15
Although later repealed and included in a more comprehensive law of 1762, the new provisions were the best for the clergy in provincial history up to that time, the General Assembly reported to the King:
“And more we should have gladly done; but alas, Sir, the Country is so impoverished in its circumstances through granting repeated Aids to your Majesty for making the same defensible and in carrying on Expeditions . . . against the French and their Indian Allies, that we cannot give sufficient encouragement to the Clergy, nor Erect proper Schools for the Education of our Youth. Permit us, therefore, most earnestly to intreat your Majesty to order and direct that the proportion of the said sum which shall be allotted to this Country be laid out . . . in purchasing a Glebe for each parish in this province . . . and erecting and establishing a free School in every County.”16
In a letter from New Bern, Governor Dobbs reported to the Board of Trade May 18, 1759, that he had approved bills for a lottery to finish churches at Wilmington and Brunswick, as similar bills had been passed in a number of provinces and it had seemed impossible to get the vestries to levy taxes to complete the two churches.17 A bill passed in December, 1760, applied proceeds from slaves and other effects taken from Spaniards at Cape Fear in 1748 towards finishing the two houses of worship.18
15Ibid., 1036; VI, 5. St. Rec., XXV, 364.16 Col. Rec., V, 1095.17Ibid., VI, 32, 511. St. Rec., XXIII, 535-37.18 St. Rec., XXIII, 535-37.XV
LARGE PARISH TERRITORY
An Assembly bill in January, 1760, proposing to divide Christ Church parish, was rejected by the Upper House,1 although “Parson” Reed reported to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts that his territory was at least a hundred miles long.2 On June 26, 1760, he wrote the S. P. G. Secretary that he could not ascertain the number of active communicants of the Church of England, because the county was so large he was unable to administer Communion at the several chapels more than once a year.3
“There are too many that can hardly be said to be members of any particular Christian society,” he commented, “and a great number of dissenters of all denominations from New England, particularly Anabaptists, Methodists, Quakers and Presbyterians.” About nine or ten were said to be “Papists.” The “Infidels & Heathen” were said to total about a thousand.4
No Indians were reported, but a great many of the Negroes were said to be heathen. “I baptize all those whose masters become sureties for them,” he added.5
Erection of a chapel in Carteret County was mentioned, “built a neat wooden chapel upon Newport River, where a small, regular congregation constantly attend divine service, performed by a layman every Sunday.”6
Two bishops for the continent, one for the Northern district and the other for the Southern district, or two clergymen with Episcopal powers, as well as more regular rectors, were requested of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in a letter written January 22, 1760, by Governor Dobbs. The society was asked to increase its missionaries in this province, which was said to have 80,000 white residents besides Negroes.7
“Nor have we but eight resident Clergymen,” the governor observed. “Having only strollers who set up
1 Col. Rec., VI, 172.2Ibid., 595.3Ibid., 265.4Ibid.5Ibid.6Ibid., 265-66.7Ibid., 222-23.for teachers, without any regular instruction, and many of them immoral Livers.”8
That Mr. Reed had given satisfaction in his parish is proved by the following recommendation given him March 3, 1760, by the church vestry:
“We, the subscribers, the church wardens and only vestrymen at present qualified of Christ Church parish, which is the whole extent of Craven County, in the province of North Carolina, do hereby certify that the Rev. James Reed hathe served the cure of the sd. parish for 6 years & upwards, that during the sd. time he hath diligently attended one Parish church & 8 chapels situate at very great distances from the town of Newbern, the place of his residence & centre of the Parish.
“That he hath given great satisfaction to his parishioners by a regular and exemplary life and a faithful discharge of his duty & that there is a perfect harmony and good agreement subsisting between the sd. Rev. Jas. Reed & his Parishioners in general, witness our hands this 3rd. day of March, 1760.”9
This recommendation is signed by John Fonvielle, Will'm. Jonas, church wardens; James Shine, Thos. Graves, Lem'l. Hatch, Jacob Blount, vestrymen.
Reed had a comfortable rectory here, as indicated in a letter written to the S. P. G. Secretary by the Rev. John MacDowell on April 16, 1761, that New Bern had had an Assembly Act passed allowing 100 pounds sterling a year to Reed and that Reed had a parsonage house and all conveniences.10
But, according to his own word, the local rector did not get the salary promised locally. Other difficulties are set forth in a letter he wrote to the S. P. G. on December 27, 1762, from New Bern:
“The hardships we labor under in this Province are so great that were it not for the benevolences of the Society, we could not subsist with the least decency. Every clergyman that has attempted to settle in this Province for these 10 years past, upon the sole dependence of the legal stipend, have been obliged to leave it, and ’tis our misfortune at Present to have no legal Stipend at all; or
8Ibid., 223.9Ibid., 230.10Ibid., VI, 554.rather there is no law at present by which any stipend can be recovered.
“At an Assembly held at New Bern in Nov'r. last a bill for the encouragement of an Orthodox Clergy and a bill for the establishment of Vestries were presented to his Excellency the Governor for his assent, the latter of which was rejected on account of some exceptional Clauses, and as the 2 bills depended on each other in such a manner, that the one cannot operate without the other, we are therefore at present without any legal encouragement.
“Very probably something may be done in our favor at the next Assembly, especially if it should please God to prolong the life of our praiseworthy Gov'r. But we cannot expect his abode with us much longer, for he is far advanced in years and has lately had a slight stroke of the Palsy; so that I every day expect to hear the disagreeable news of his death, in whom the clergy will lose a faithful friend, and the Christian Religion an able advocate.”11
The following June 26 Reed wrote the Secretary that the clergy were still destitute of any legal provision or encouragement and had nothing to live on but the benevolences of the Society. Evidently the local parish paid him very little, and for long periods of time must have paid him nothing.
“I have not received any stipend at all from my Parish for upwards of 14 months,” he wrote, “nor have I the least expectation of receiving one shilling till some Vestry Law be enacted, for as long as there is no vestry Law no tax can be levied for the clergy's Stipend & tho’ the Sheriffs have now a whole year's collection in their hands yet as there is no vestry to call them to account they do not choose to part with the money on any terms or security whatsoever, the misfortune is they too often stand in need of it themselves. For the generality of the Sheriffs are very extravagant, to say no more . . .
“The Assembly is to meet I believe about Oct'r. next when our Governor will endeavor if possible to get a better vestry Law enacted than any of the former ones,
11Ibid., 745.that have been repealed. It would be much better for the Clergy, than it has been, if the Stipend were paid out of the public treasury as in So. Carolina . . .
“The churchwardens used to send us to the Sheriffs, and the Sheriffs to send us back again to the churchwardens. It is not long ago since I had the misfortune to be sent backwards and forward & played off in this manner for 12 months successively.”12
12Ibid., 990.XVI
NUMEROUS CHURCH BILLS
So many church bills were introduced in the General Assembly during the Colonial period, many of them being passed but later repealed or vetoed, that it is extremely difficult to keep up with their provisions from time to time.
Alex Stewart, missionary at Bath, reported May 20, 1760, that in the six years he had resided in the province four different acts had been passed by the Assembly for electing vestries and encouraging an orthodox clergy. The last one had met the fate of most of the others, he said, through repeal in England.1
Governor Dobbs, as Parson Reed said, worked diligently in behalf of the established church and its clergymen; but for various reasons, here and abroad, it seemed impossible to get definite action that would last permanently.
The Assembly tried to re-enact the Vestry bill repealed by the King, taking the nomination of ministers from the Crown, the Governor reported January 22, 1760, but the assemblymen had been too busy with other matters, so established a Vestry law for one year to retain the tax for maintaining clergy pursuant to the last act, which settled 100 pounds per annum on clergy, with 20 pounds in lieu of glebe. At the next session, he remarked, it was hoped to establish a general fund to pay the rectors direct from the provincial treasury, as in South Carolina.2
Church wardens were instructed in 1760 to appear annually at the orphans’ court to present the names of orphans without guardians or apprenticeships and to report abuses of guardians. Justices and wardens failing to do their duty along this line were liable to fines of ten pounds.3
Mr. Reed's contract exempted him from the act establishing vestries passed by the Assembly May 23, 1760. This permitted all parishes to elect their own
1 Col. Rec., VI, 242.2Ibid., 223.3Ibid., 395. St. Rec., XXV, 415-22.vestries, but since it depended on the general vestry act, it was not considered valid, and later was repealed by the King.4 This question as to whether the King or the colonists could select and remove rectors was one of the pre-Revolutionary controversies between Americans and their Mother Country.5
The Bishop of London explained that one primary objection to the 1760 act was that it did not require vestrymen to say that they continued to be faithful to the Church of England. He recommended a stronger declaration that they would conform to the church liturgy.
Objection was also raised to the bill's provision of punishing immoral ministers in temporal courts. The Bishop also declared that the clergy were not provided for properly, being made dependent on vestries. And again repeated was the 1759 declaration that the “whole right of patronage is undoubtedly in the Crown, but the Act takes away right and gives it to vestrymen.”6
Still another of the many orthodox clergy bills was passed by the Assembly in 1762. Mention was also made therein that it was not to conflict with Reed's agreement. It was likely repealed by proclamation, because of provisions opposed by the Governor and other British authorities.7
Under this measure, ministers were to be engaged by vestries, at salaries of 133 pounds, six shillings and eight pence, the same amount as Mr. Reed's salary, besides their regular fees. If believed guilty of immorality or crime, they could be removed by the governor, with the consent of a majority of his council members. All had to have certificates from the Bishop of London, “ordained conformable to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England, and is of a good Life and Conversation.”
For marrying a couple by license, a clergyman was to be paid twenty shillings; for marrying by banns, five shillings. The remuneration for a funeral sermon was set at forty shillings. If these rites were conducted by other persons, the regular rectors were nevertheless permitted to demand and receive the fees.
4 Col. Rec., VI, xxxi, 395. St. Rec., XXV, 430-32.5 Col. Rec., VII, 152; IX, 81-84.6Ibid., VI, 714-16.7Ibid., V, pp. xxxi-xxxii. St. Rec., XXIII, 583-85.Vestrymen were privileged to purchase glebe lands, and erect thereon a “convenient mansion-house, 38 × 18, with kitchen, barn, stable, dairy and meat house.” If no house was provided for a rectory, the minister was to receive twenty additional pounds a year.
The Bishop of London wrote May 3, 1762, referring to the general confusion of so many Assembly laws passed and repealed, to remind the colonists that, “All statutes made in England for the establishment of the Church shall be in force under the law in North Carolina.”8
8 Col. Rec., VI, 716.XVIIFIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL
Despite the fact that Parson Reed was not paid regularly and encountered numerous handicaps in his local work, he undertook many more activities than called for in his contract. Chief among his outside interests were his efforts in behalf of education, resulting here importantly in the opening of North Carolina's first incorporated school.
As early as December, 1762, the House thanked him for the sermon at the beginning of the Assembly session, “Recommending the Establishing Public Schools for the Education of Youth.” He was requested to furnish “the Printer with a copy thereof, that the same might be printed and dispersed in the several counties within this Province.”1
Only slight encouragement had previously been given to public education. Children of the privileged classes were taught by private tutors or at private schools. Some studied in Northern States or in England. But poorer boys and girls had to learn as best they could, or not at all. Trade apprentices were sometimes taught the three R's by their masters. Charles Griffin, Church of England lay reader, who opened a school in 1705 in Pasquotank County, is believed to have been the first teacher to come to North Carolina.2
In 1749 John Starkey had introduced a bill for a free school.3 In 1754 the sum of 6,000 pounds was authorized for schools, but was diverted for military purposes. Other funds appropriated were disallowed in England.4
The Assembly in 1758 asked King George that part of the sum be provided by the Crown for schools and churches, in return for Colonial war aid, but objections were raised up to 1763. Merchants are reported to have opposed use of public money for such purposes.5
Governor Dobbs frequently urged the need of better schools and more schoolmasters in the province.6 On
1 Col. Rec., VI, 955.2 Johnson, Guion Griffis, Ante-Bellum , p. 18.3 Col. Rec., IV, 977, 990, 994.4Ibid., V, xxv; VI, 5, 1006.5Ibid., V, xxv, 1095; VI, 3.6Ibid., V, 1014; VI, 116, 219, 449-50, 473, 839, 841, 1026, 1091, 1219.March 30, 1762, he wrote the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel that the number of clergy had been diminished and that the inhabitants were more “dissolute and idle for want of clergy and school, there being not even a Parish Clerk in the Province to serve as a Schoolmaster or Reader.”7 For almost 30 parishes in the province, he pointed out, there were only seven clergymen, including one who did little.8
Largely due to Mr. Reed's influence, a school was opened here January 1, 1764, with Thomas Tomlinson as schoolmaster.9 The General Assembly on March 9 ratified an “Act for building a schoolhouse and schoolmaster's residence in New Bern.”10 Reed, John Williams, Joseph Leech, Thomas Clifford Howe, Thomas Haslen, Richard Cogdell and Richard Fenner were named as the first trustees.11
As “Missionary in Craven County,” Mr. Reed reported on local church and school matters in general to the S. P. G. Secretary June 21.12 First he told of the passage of a Vestry Act by the Assembly, with the aid and influence of “our worthy Governor to whom the clergy in this Province can never sufficiently express their gratitude.” Under this act vestries could levy taxes of ten shillings for building churches, maintaining the poor, paying church readers and encouraging schools.
Then he reported on the receipt of books and tracts on various occasions, commenting, “For tho’ the heat of the Methodists be considerably abated, yet the distribution of such tracts will be of great service.”
About the school he wrote: “We have now a prospect of a very flourishing school in the town of New Bern & which indeed has been greatly wanting for several years past, in Dec'r. last Mr. Tomlinson, a young man, who had kept a school in the County of Cumberland in England, came here by the invitation of his brother, an inhabitant of the Parish.
“On the 1st of Jan'y. he opened a school in this Town & immediately got as many scholars as he could instruct and many more have lately offered than he can possibly take to do them justice, he has therefore wrote to his
7Ibid., VI, 709.8Ibid., 710.9Ibid., 1048.10Ibid., 1145.11 St. Rec., XXV, 484-85.12 Col. Rec., VI, 1047-48.friends in England to send him an assistant (Mr. Parrot) and a subscription for a school house has been lately carried on, with such success, that I have got notes on hand payable to myself for upwards of 200 pounds this currency (Equal to about 110 pounds Sterling) to build a large commodious School House in New Bern & which I shall endeavor to get completed as soon as possible, for during 11 years Residence in this Province I have not found any man so well qualified for the care of a school as Mr. Tomlinson. He is not only a good scholar, but a man of good conduct, has given satisfaction to the parents of such children as are under his care, and will be of infinite service to the rising generation . . .
“I have rode my long circuit twice with great satisfaction. My congregations have been greatly crowded. My number of communicants increased and the return of my health made my duty not only easy but a real pleasure! I have likewise taken care of St. John's Parish (in Carteret County), which sickness would not permit me to do last autumn & have visited it twice—once at the court house where I baptised 24 children, again at a private house where I baptised 11 children; and again at the chapel upon Newport River where I baptised 14 children and administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to 36 communicants.”13
13Ibid.XVIII
OTHER SERVICES OF “PARSON” REED
A voluminous letter writer, particularly in reporting to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the Rev. Mr. Reed's missives furnish today much information about the church, school and other progress during his era. He played a prominent Colonial role in many fields of service.
Reed was one of four clergymen in the province praised in 1764 by Governor Dobbs, who wrote the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel that there were only six clergymen in the province, four of whom performed their duty diligently—those at Edenton, Bath, Halifax and New Bern.1
The North Carolina Magazine or Universal Intelligencer, published by James Davis at New Bern, carried an advertisement in August, 1764, in the form of a “Notice to the Freeholders of Chrift Church Parifh, Craven County.”2
This notice stated that the subscriber, Richard Cogdell, sheriff, would open polls at the courthouse for election of vestrymen of the parish and there would be a fine of 20 shillings on every freeholder in the parish who failed to attend and vote.
At that time and place, it was also stated, subscribers to the schoolhouse fund were requested to elect two commissioners and a treasurer to direct and superintend the building of the school.
All persons having bills against the parish and all owing money to the parish were asked to be at the church October 4 for settlement of accounts.
Jacob Blount and James Davis, as church wardens, advertised in the latter's newspaper that on Thursday, January 3, 1765, pews in Christ Church would be rented to the highest bidders, for one year, by order of the vestry.3
1 Col. Rec., VI, 1039.2 Photostat copies of this newspaper in the archives of the North Carolina Historical Commission, Raleigh, N. C.3Ibid.Accounts of the visit of the Methodist divine, the Rev. Mr. Whitefield, are contained in Mr. Reed's correspondence. The local rector wrote December 21, 1764, that the preacher had arrived here Saturday, November 17, while en route from the North to South Carolina and Georgia.4
At the request of local persons, Reed reported, Whitefield preached the next morning, Sunday, to a “very numerous Congregation. That afternoon he continued on his journey.” At the time Reed said he was at a chapel 35 miles from New Bern.
Whitefield complained here of asthma, though he was fat and looked well, the New Bernian wrote. But, because of the asthma, he was said to preach seldom and never to read prayers at the same time. New Bern was the only place in which he preached in this province, Reed added, or “probably anywhere south of New York.”
Reed then added his opinion, “I think his discourse has been of some real service here.” Whitefield recommended infant baptism, he remarked, and declared himself to be a member and a minister of the Church of England.
From New Brunswick Whitefield wrote, “At New Bern, last Sunday, good impressions were made. The desire of the people in the section to hear the gospel makes me almost determined to come back early in the Spring.” He did return the next Spring, on his way back North stopping over in New Bern and preaching here on Thursday evening of Passion Week in 1765 and also on Easter Sunday at Christ Church.5
Mr. Reed cooperated not only with Governor Dobbs but also with the latter's successor, William Tryon. Due to Governor Dobbs’ advancing age and failing health, King George III of England, who had ascended the throne in 1760 upon the death of his grandfather, King George II, commissioned Tryon as Lieutenant-Governor of North Carolina on April 26, 1764.6
Tryon was 35 years of age, a member of an English family of high standing. On October 10 he arrived in the colony, at Cape Fear.7 Three days after the death of Governor Dobbs, he assumed temporary control of the provincial government, on March 31, 1765.8 His commission
4 Col. Rec., VI, 1060-61.5 Col. Rec., VII, 97, 104.6Ibid., VI, 1043-44.7Ibid., 1053-54.8Ibid., 1320.as governor arrived later and was officially opened before the Council on December 20.9
Not only loyal to the Crown but also zealous for the established church, Governor Tryon soon recommended passage of an Assembly bill for a better provision for an orthodox clergy.10 Passed in May, 1765,11 this re-enacted the repealed 1762 bill, with omission of the former disapproved features.12
The stipend for the clergy was fixed at 133.6.3, with shorter and easier methods provided for their recovery by law. Certain fees were set for marriage ceremonies and funeral sermons. Vestrymen retained the right to tax and pay salaries, and were supposed to supply their rectors with glebes of 200 acres of good land and a residence, or pay 20 pounds a year more if no rectory was provided.
The right of presentation or selection of ministers of the established church was granted to the Crown, through the Governor, thus relieving rectors from the so-called “insolence and tyranny of vestries.”13 The Governor and his Council were given authority to suspend clergymen deemed guilty of gross crime or notorious immorality. Their suspension was revocable by the Bishop of London.
Although confirmed and ratified by the King, on the advice of his Privy Council, this act was easier to pass this time than to enforce. In some counties residents refused to receive the clergymen sent by the governor. Some men elected vestrymen would not qualify or act.14 Later the measure was amended in 1766 so that the salary of a suspended minister, or part of it, might be paid to his substitute.15
Under the act, Tryon officially commissioned Reed as rector of Christ Church, where he had already been serving for almost 12 years. An original manuscript of this commission is now on file in the New York Historical Society Library in New York City, among the papers collected by the late Dr. Francis L. Hawks, whose grandfather, John Hawks, had signed the document as a witness. It reads as follows:
9Ibid., VII, 159-160.10Ibid., 42.11 St. Rec., XXIII, 660-62.12 Col. Rec., VII, 150-153, 158; VIII, xliii.13Ibid., VII, 97.14Ibid., VIII, xliii.15Ibid., VII, 891-92, 920; VIII, xliv. St. Rec., XXIII, 759.“To all, to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting.
“Know ye, that I, William Tryon, Esquire, Lieutenant-Governor and Commander in Chief in, and over, the Province of North Carolina, and by virtue of His Majesty's Commission true and undoubted patron of the Rectory, Benefice or Parish of Christ Church in the County of Craven, in the Province aforesaid, and Diocese of London; for divers good Causes and Considerations, me thereunto moving, have empowered, and by these Presents do empower, Thomas Clifford Howe, Esquire, of said Craven County and Province aforesaid, to induct The Reverend James Reed, Clerk, A. B., into the Rectory, Benefice or Parish, of Christ Church, in said County, Province and Diocese of London.
“In Testimony whereof I have hereunto set my Hand and Caused the Great Seal of the said province to be affixed at Brunswick this second day of September in the year of our Lord 1765 and in the Fifth Year of His Majesty's Reign.
“William Tryon. (Seal)
“By His Honour's Command
Fount'n Elwin, p. Sec.
“Inducted September the 10th, 1765, by me.
(Test)
“Thomas. C. Howe.”
Jno. Rice
John Hawks
XIX
CHURCH AND SCHOOL
On May 16, 1765, James Reed and 39 other prominent residents of New Bern and the vicinity reported to Governor Tryon that the money subscribed for establishment of a school at New Bern had been partly spent for materials for a school building and that they desired Thomas Tomlinson, the instructor, to have more pupils and be able to procure an assistant.1
Governor Tryon was requested to ask the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to allow a yearly salary for Tomlinson. The schoolmaster, 31 years of age2 when he had arrived here in December, 1763, was said to be endeavoring to teach the children “in such branches of useful learning as are necessary in several of the offices or stations in life, and imprint on their tender minds the principles of the Christian religion agreeable to the establishment of the Church of England.”3
This petition was signed by the following men: James Reed, Missionary, Thomas Clifford Howe, Samuel Cornell, John Williams, Richard Cogdell, Richard Caswell, James Davis, Peter Conway, John Clitherall, Jacob Blount, Richd. Ellis, Francis Macilwean, Alexdr. Gaston, Phil. Ambrose, Jacob Sheppard, Jos. Jones, John Daly, Will. Euen, Timo. Cleary, Jno. Pindar, Pat. Gordon, John Franck, Tho. Pollock, Bernard Parkinson, Wm. Wilton, Christ. Neale, Thos. Sitgreaves, Corn. Groenendyke, Jno. Green, John Fonville, Longfield Cox, Jno. Smith, Cullen Pollock, Richd. Fenner, Amb. Cox Bayley, Andr. Scott, Andr. Stewart, Eliu Cotting, Jno. Moore, Alex. Eagles.
Reed reported that collections of school pledges were slow.4 On July 10 there were 30 pupils, at 20 shillings proclamation money per quarter.5 But, much of this was not paid. And it was not sufficient to operate the school efficiently. Hence, aid was desired from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.
1 Col. Rec., VII, 35-36.2 Epitaph on his tombstone in Cedar Grove cemetery states that Tomlinson died September 24, 1802, at age of 70 years.3 Col. Rec., VII, 35-36.4Ibid., 98.5Ibid.Tryon wrote for this financial supplement,6 and it was pledged by the Society.7 He reported July 31 that there were only five clergymen then in the province, for 32 parishes. Four S. P. G. missionaries were listed: Reed, in Craven County; Earl, near Edenton in Chowan; Stewart, at Bath in Beaufort County; and Moir, an itinerant missionary.8
As to Reed, the Governor added he had seen “much of him at the General Assembly held at New Bern. I really esteem him a man of great worth9. . . . I pledged my endeavors to get decent clergymen,”10 and also to ask more aid from the Society.11
Referring to the condition of the churches, Tryon said that the church at New Bern was “in good repair;” at Wilmington there were “walls only;” at Brunswick “only outside walls built and roofed.” The Bath church was said to be “wanting considerable repairs,” and Edenton, “wanting as much.” Chapels were reported to have been established in every county, “served by a Reader where no clergyman can be procured.”12 Only one complete glebe house, with full glebe lands, was said then to be in the colony, “at Bath and nowhere else.”13
That Summer Reed contracted a severe attack of yellow fever.14 During his illness Tomlinson likely acted as his substitute in holding services at Christ Church.15
Mr. Reed wrote the Society January 14, 1766: “We have suffered the most intense heat during the last summer that ever was known in the memory of man and about the middle of August I was seized with the yellow fever,” an “exceeding violent” attack, “but soon over,” though it left him permanently deaf.16
The Rev. Mr. Stewart had been brought to New Bern in a horse litter during December, having lost the use of his limbs from rheumatism, and was under the care of a physician, Reed reported. He commented also, “though people here are peaceable and quiet, yet they seem very uneasy, discontented and dejected.”17
His illness over, Reed renewed his efforts for the local school, and on July 20 wrote to the S. P. G.: “Schoolhouse is at length enclosed . . . Large and decent Edifice for
6Ibid., 102-4.7Ibid., 458.8Ibid., 102.9Ibid.10Ibid., 103.11Ibid.12Ibid.13Ibid., 99.14Ibid., 154.15Ibid., 241; IX, 305.16Ibid., VII, 154.17Ibid.such a Young Country—forty-five feet in length, thirty in breadth, and has already cost upwards of 300 pounds this currency.”18
All subscriptions had been expended, he said:
“I have preached and begged in its behalf, until the suppliant is entirely weary and charity cold.” The floors had not been laid, and the chimneys had not been built. “I have therefore sent a Bill of Exchange for my last half year's salary to New York to purchase Bricks for the Chimneys and intend at the next session of Assembly . . . in November to recommend the undertaking from the pulpit . . .
“’Twould give me great satisfaction to see a little flourishing Academy in this place. I have this affair much at heart, and the difficulties I have met with have given me much uneasiness. Mr. Tomlinson received a small additional stipend last Easter Monday. The vestry then agreed to pay him twelve pounds per annum for attending the church in New Bern at such times as I am obliged to be absent and attend the several Chapels. I have furnished him with Tillotsons Sermons and the congregation attends very regularly.”19
The minister kept his word, and on December 1, 1766, the General Assembly incorporated the local school,20 first to be so chartered in the province21 and second private secondary school in English America to receive a charter.
Under this charter, the schoolmaster had to be a member of the Church of England.22 Upon recommendation of the trustees, he was required to obtain a license from the governor.23 The eleven trustees were given authority to elect other trustees in case of vacancies24 and to dismiss schoolmasters without the consent of the Royal Governor,25 powers to which British representatives later objected. Thus both school and church furnished some of the controversies which arose between English rulers and colonists in those pre-Revolutionary days.
The Rev. Mr. Reed, named one of the school trustees,26 reported that the school building was completed in 1768, though it was perhaps used even before being finished, on
18Ibid., 241.19Ibid.20Ibid., 339, 420. St. Rec., XXIII, 678-80.21 Col. Rec., VII, 432, 458.22Ibid., 432. St. Rec., XXIII, 679.23 St. Rec., XXIII, 679.24Ibid., 678-80.25 Col. Rec., VII, 316; IX, 243.26Ibid., IX, 242.the corner site of the present school campus, on New and Hancock Streets.27
A tax of one penny per gallon levied for seven years on spirituous liquors imported through Neuse River helped support the new school, including the teacher's salary of twenty pounds, or about $100, a year, an assistant's salary of the same amount, and the tuition of ten poor children selected by the trustees.28
27Ibid., VII, 750. St. Rec., XXIII, 679-80; XXV, 516.28 Col. Rec., IX, 239. St. Rec., XXIII, 680.XX
ROYAL GOVERNOR WILLIAM TRYON
As a “staunch churchman,”1 Royal Governor Tryon, as has been noted, did much to help the established church. The Rev. Andrew Morton referred to him as “that amiable and good man, who may be justly called the Nursing Father of the Church in this Province.”2
The Rev. Mr. Moir wrote, “Governor Tryon, though a soldier, has done more for the settlement of a regular ministry in this province than both his learned Predecessors.”3
Another minister, the Rev. George Micklejohn, later declared: “We have a governor who rules a willing People with the Indulgent Tenderness of a common parent, who desires rather to be beloved than feared . . . defender and friend, the Patron and nursing father of the Church established amongst us—he is a Religious Frequenter of its Worship and a steady adherent to its Interest.”4
In February, 1766, Tryon became a member of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and gave it a handsome cash donation.5 He made a contribution of forty guineas towards the church being built at Brunswick.6
However, his religious interests were not confined to his own denomination. Other faiths also grew stronger under his rule. Dr. Hugh Williamson, Presbyterian historian, in his history of North Carolina, wrote, “It was fortunate for the dissenters that Governor Tryon was not a bigot.”7 Bishop J. B. Cheshire wrote that Governors Johnston and Dobbs were both zealous churchmen but that Tryon did much more to advance religion in North Carolina.8
Thirteen Church of England ministers were in the province in 1767, a substantial increase over the five that were here when he arrived. They were listed April 30 of that year, as follows:9
1 Col. Rec., VIII, xliv.2Ibid., VII, 424.3Ibid., 145.4Ibid., 519-20.5Ibid., 158, 162, 260. Haywood, Marshall DeLancey, Governor William Tryon and His Administration, p. 28.6 Col. Rec., VII, 164, 515.7 Williamson, Hugh, History of North Carolina, Vol. II, p. 118.8 Cheshire, Sketches, p. 75.9 Col. Rec., VII, 457.Reed, Christ Church, Craven County; Micklejohn, St. Matthews, Orange County; Stewart, St. Thomas, Bath; Morton, St. George, Northampton; Samuel Fiske, St. John, Pasquotank; Thomas Floyd, Society, Bertie; these six established by letters of Presentation by the Governor.
Daniel Earl, in charge in Chowan County, who was said never to have applied for Presentation; Thomas Burgess, Edgecombe, Halifax, settled by Act of Assembly; John Barnett, St. Philip, Brunswick; John Wills, St. James, New Hanover; James Cosgreve; William Miller, St. Patrick, Dobbs; and Charles Cupples, St. John, Bute, “not yet established.”10
These ministers had no easy time. Even Reed, as already indicated, had dire difficulties. In 1767, when there were 1,378 white taxables in Craven County,11 the Rev. Mr. Stewart wrote the Society that Reed would have “been obliged to desert his parish” had not Mr. Dobbs induced the Society “to take him on their list . . . The parish of New Bern, known to be the most beneficial parish at that time in this province when money was plenty, on a better footing and punctually paid, was insufficient to support Mr. Reed (a parsimonious saving man and without children.”)12
Mr. Stewart informed the S. P. G. that the lack of a currency medium made it impossible for North Carolina churches to pay proper salaries and that a nominal salary of 100 pounds sterling was hardly equal to 40 pounds sterling in South Carolina, Virginia and Northern provinces.13
But the rectors and missionaries performed valiant service along many lines. Among the tracts and sermons published by James Davis at New Bern was one by Stewart in 1758, entitled, “The Validity of Infant Baptism.”14
A number of additional church acts were passed by the Assembly during Tryon's administration. In 1766 the previous year's law concerning the orthodox clergy was amended so that if a minister was considered guilty of crime or immorality the governor and council might suspend him until the Bishop of London could review and
10Ibid.11Ibid., 539.12Ibid., 493.13Ibid., 496.14Ibid., VI, 316. Old copies of the pamphlet.decide the case; and meanwhile the church wardens and vestry could allow any deserving minister to substitute, at full or part pay.15
During that same year another act continued for another five years the bill for vestries passed five years earlier, permitting freeholders to change vestrymen not then serving. Any person elected to the vestry and refusing to serve was liable to a fine of three pounds.16
In that year, too, it was made lawful for a Presbyterian minister to marry a couple by license.17 But the Church of England minister was still to get the fee whether or not he officiated, provided he did not refuse to serve. Prior to that, no minister except one of the established church was legally allowed to celebrate the rite of matrimony. However, this 1766 act was soon repealed.18
The Vestry Act of 176819 was the last one seeking to perpetuate the Church of England in North Carolina. It was limited to five years,20 but was then voted to be continued for ten years,21 though nullified by the Revolution.
Governor Tryon selected New Bern as the seat of his provincial government, following a tour of two months through North Carolina.22 As there was no suitable government house here, plans were made for the erection of one.
The General Assembly in November, 1766, passed with a large majority a bill entitled: “An act for erecting a convenient building within the town of New Bern for the residence of the governor, or commander-in-chief for the time being.”23 The Governor approved the measure December 1.24
Construction of “Tryon's Palace,” costing about $80,000,25 followed, 1767-70, with John Hawks from England as the supervising architect.26 The Assembly met in 1768,27 176928 and 177029 in the new school building at New Bern, and even used the schoolhouse also in 1771,30 177331 and 1774.32 But, the new Palace was used chiefly then for Assembly meetings. The governor wrote June 7, 1770, that he had just moved into the edifice, sooner than he had expected;33 and the first meeting of the Assembly there was held the next December.34
15Ibid., VII, 224. St. Rec., XXIII, 759.16 St. Rec., XXIII, 759-60.17Ibid., 674. Col. Rec., VII, 432-33. Haywood, op. cit., p. 18.18 St. Rec., XXIII, 826. Col. Rec., VIII, xliv.19 Col. Rec., VII, 920.20Ibid., VIII, 4-5.21Ibid., IX, 1014-15. St. Rec., XXIII, 956.22 Col. Rec., VII, 2.23Ibid., 320. St. Rec., XXIII, 664-65.24 Col. Rec., VII, 338.25Ibid., VIII, 626.26Ibid., VII, 431.27Ibid., 923, 984-85.28Ibid., IX, 272.29Ibid.30Ibid., 224, 226, 272.31Ibid., 371, 590.32Ibid., 953.33Ibid., VIII, 211.34Ibid., 282, 285.Regarded as the most beautiful building in North or South America,35 this Palace played an important role during Colonial, Revolutionary and early State history.
35 Kimball, Fiske, Tryon's Palace, published in Quarterly Bulletin of the New York Historical Society, for January, 1940, pp. 13-14. Lossing, Benson J., The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Vol. II, p. 570. Col. Rec., VII, 695; VIII, 285. Don Francisco de Miranda, “the precursor of the Independence movement in Spanish America,” who visited New Bern in 1783, is quoted by Francis Xavier Martin in The History of North Carolina from the Earliest Period, Vol. II, p. 265, as saying the Palace not only was the most beautiful in North America but had no superior in South America.XXI
THE REV. JAMES McCARTNEY
At the beginning of the year 1767 James McCartney, a native of Ireland, was employed to assist Tomlinson with the New Bern school.1 He continued in this capacity until May, 1768, when he left for England to become a candidate for Holy Orders.2 Very likely during this time he served as lay reader at Christ Church.
Governor Tryon wrote the Bishop of London February 12, 1768, that McCartney “waits on you for orders of ordination.” Mr. McCartney, he said, had also acted ably as tutor to Speaker John Harvey's children.3 The next May 14 the Rev. Mr. Reed wrote the S. P. G. recommending McCartney for priesthood.4
In his letter Reed reported that the “duty upon rum will amount to about 60 pounds per annum this currency and will be sufficient to discharge present debts, completely finishing the school house, and pay Tomlinson 20 pounds per annum.” He added, “I have baptized about 100 whites and blacks in my own parish from Midsummer to Christmas last and about 30 in St. John's parish.”5
Ordained as a minister of the Church of England, McCartney was licensed July 25 by the Bishop of London for service in North Carolina. During November he arrived back in New Bern, but was ill at home here for several weeks. Following his recovery, he reported later, he visited six extensive parishes, preached 49 sermons, and baptized 768 white persons and 27 Negroes between the middle of December and the latter part of May.6
“Though many of these parishes would have received me willingly, none would suit so weakly a Constitution as mine,” he wrote.7 During this period he undoubtedly held services here. Because of its climate, he decided the first of June, 1769, to settle in Granville County.8
For several years McCartney served the Granville parish faithfully. In 1771 he was one of those contracting with John Lynch for erection of a church there.
1 Col. Rec., VII, 689.2Ibid., 750.3Ibid., 689.4Ibid., 750.5Ibid.6Ibid., VIII, 85.7Ibid., 85-86.8Ibid., 86.Because he had known of John Hawks’ excellent work here, he was probably the one responsible for obtaining Hawks to draw plans for the church.9
A number of citizens signed a petition in 1771, praising McCartney as “a credit to his holy profession” and recommending that his bounty from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel be continued. It had been given him temporarily when he returned to America after being ordained. Since the subscribers were nominally church members, many of them belonging to Christ Church here, the list is quoted:
John Simpson, Aquila Sugg, William Cray, Richard Ward, Samuel Johnston, Robert Howe, Francis Mackilwean, Ben. Hardy, Thomas Hines, Richard Evans, Edward Hare, William McKinne, Thomas Gray, James Green, Junr., Joseph Leech, Joseph Montfort, James Blount, William Davis, Philemon Hawkins, John Campbell, A. Nash, Hugh Waddell, Andrew Knox, Wm. Thomson, Joseph Hewes, Jacob Shepard, Jacob Blount, James Bonner, William Haywood, Moses Hare, James Hasell, John Rutherford, Lewis deRosset, John Sampson, Alexr. McCulloch, William Dry, Samuel Cornell, Marmaduke Jones, Nat. Dukenfield, M. Moore, John Ashe, J. Moore, Cornelius Harnett, Richard Caswell and John Harvey.10
Also recommended for ordination orders by Governor Tryon in the same year as McCartney was a talented young actor named W. Giffard, who had come to the province with a company of strolling players. In a letter to the Bishop of London June 11, 1768, Tryon wrote from Brunswick that Giffard was
“Most wearied of the vague life of his present profession, and fully persuaded he could employ his talent to more benefit to society by going into holy orders and superintending the education of the youth in this province . . . I was not assured how far your lordship would choose to take a member of the theater into the church . . . His behaviour has been decent, regular, and commendable . . . If your lordship grants Mr. Giffard his petition, you will take off the best player on the American stage.”11
9 A copy of the original plans is filed in the collection of Dr. Francis L. Hawks, grandson of the architect, at the New York Historical Society Library, 170 Central Park West, New York City.10 Col. Rec., IX, 61-62.11Ibid., VII, 786-87.The sermon preached by the Rev. Mr. Micklejohn, S. T. D., before “His Excellency Royal Governor Tryon and the troops raised to quell the late Insurrection at Hillsborough, on Sunday, Sept. 25, 1768,” was printed by James Davis at New Bern.12
12Ibid., 939, 976, 983. Copies of the sermon are extant. Dr. R. D. W. Connor, then Secretary of the North Carolina Historical Commission, edited one for The North Carolina Booklet, Vol. VIII, No. 1, July, 1908, pp. 57-58.XXIITRYON ASKS MORE AID
Continuing his efforts to bolster the power of the Church of England in this province, Governor Tryon wrote Daniel Burton, S. P. G. Secretary, March 20, 1769, from Brunswick:
“The infancy of the established religion in this province is undoubtedly the period and crisis for setting the Church of England here on a solid basis. We have laid a more firm and permanent foundation than any other colony can boast, she now stands in need of the utmost assistance of her friends to raise the superstructure . . . I trust the Society will not withdraw the missions of 50 pounds per annum from those gentlemen who now enjoy them, but rather exert every other aid in their power to facilitate the propagation of the gospel here.
“The bounty of the Society of 20 pounds per annum for two years to every minister coming out to this province is certainly of real service. If it could be continued for a longer duration it would be more beneficial. This additional munificence possibly might exceed the limits of the Society's economy. I do not presume to set bounds to their liberality, my intention is singly to represent what encouragement I judge would most effectually promote the cause of religion and consequently the felicity of the inhabitants of the colony.”1
Church attendance at New Bern was decreased that Autumn by one of the worst storms in the history of the town. A letter written from New Bern December 6 by the Rev. Alexander Stewart, of Bath, to the S. P. G. describes its results.
Striking here September 7, it was reported as the “most violent Gale of wind and the highest tide that was ever known since this country has been inhabited . . . No place has suffered so much as this Town of New Bern.
“One entire Street, Houses, Store Houses, wharves, etc., to the amount of near 20,000 pounds, were destroyed and
1 Col. Rec., VIII, 15.swept off, together with several of the inhabitants, in a few hours’ time. The roads were impassable for several weeks by reason of the trees fallen and the Bridges carried away and so great is the scarcity of small Boats at the Ferries, etc., that the people cannot travel nor attend the places of public Worship as usual . . . My private losses in the Hurricane upwards of 600 pounds . . . I question whether these lower Inhabitants will ever get over it these seven years.”2
Martin Howard, Chief Justice of the Province, an Anabaptist, was baptized by Mr. Reed during the Summer of 1770. The rector offered to baptize by total immersion, saying he regarded “the moral more than the mode.”3 Afterwards Howard was reported as “a constant communicant,”4 a valuable addition to Christ Church.
Howard's judicial career in North Carolina was a period of disturbance and turbulence, (1767-1773) marked principally by the War of the Regulators and the trials of the offenders. He presided with impartiality and fairness, although historians long maligned him because of his strong Royalist leanings.5
While residing on his plantation, “Richmond,” near New Bern, where he boasted that on “the best piece of meadow in Carolina” he had made two blades of grass grow where only one grew before, Howard founded St. John's Lodge, No. 2, A. F. & A. M. He served as its first Worshipful Master, after it received its charter January 10, 1772.6
Later refusing to take an oath of allegiance to the new State of North Carolina, continuing loyal to his King, he moved to New York and Rhode Island in 1777, and the next year returned to his native England. He was exiled and banished from North Carolina by the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions of Craven County in September, 1777, and his local property was confiscated.7
2Ibid., 159-60.3Ibid., IX, 6.4Ibid.5 Haywood, op. cit., 49-50. Henderson, Archibald, article on Howard, published in The Charlotte Observer and other North Carolina newspapers, Sunday, March 17, 1935.6 Original charters and minute books of St. John's Lodge are still in excellent state of preservation, in Masonic Temple vault here. The first entry in the minute books is dated January 9, 1772.7 Data on Howard from various references in Volumes IX, X and XI of Colonial and State Records of North Carolina; sketch of Howard by Francis Nash, taken from Vol. III, Biographical History of North Carolina; and memoir of Howard by Henry H. Edes, from Transactions of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, March, 1900, copy of which was presented to the New Bern Public Library by Alexander B. Andrews, of Raleigh.XXIII
ROYAL GOVERNOR JOSIAH MARTIN
Royal Governor Tryon left North Carolina the last of June, 1771, to become Royal Governor of New York,1 and he was succeeded here by Royal Governor Josiah Martin. The latter, like the former, was deeply interested in the local school and church, and did much to try to improve educational and religious conditions throughout the province, but he served at a difficult period.
Reed wrote of Tryon's transfer: “The clergy have lost a powerful advocate and a very sincere friend.”2 Tryon had believed that the church established by law was right and advisable for the colonists and that it was a major part of his duty to enforce the law and aid the church in every way possible. That he did this is proved by the fact that when he first came to North Carolina there were only five clergymen of the Established Church and when he left the province there were eighteen.3
Yet, Tryon headed a subscription to obtain a minister and a schoolmaster for Presbyterians in North Carolina, and he had many friends among that denomination and other faiths as well as in his own church. Presbyterian pastors united to praise him and denounce the Regulators upstate that opposed his government.4
A new church act in January, 1771, again gave to Presbyterian ministers the right to officiate at matrimonial ceremonies in their customary manner. This was passed with gubernatorial approval, but a clause suspended operation subject to the king's approval.5
This act, Tryon wrote, was an “indulgence” to which the Presbyterians were entitled for their support of the government: “If it is not thought too much to interfere with, and check the growth of the Church of England, I am sensible the attachment the Presbyterians have shewn to the government merit the indulgence of this act.”6
Reed commented, regarding the act: “It was good policy to keep the Dissenters in as good humour as possible,
1 Col. Rec., IX, 5, 9.2Ibid., 5.3Ibid., VIII, xlv.4 Haywood, op. cit., pp. 18-20, 188. Cheshire, op. cit., pp. 76-80.5 Col. Rec., VIII, 384, 479; IX, 5-7. St. Rec., XXIII, 831.6 Col. Rec., VIII, 527.at such a critical juncture. Should this Act receive the Royal assent, it would be a fatal stroke to the Church of England, but as the Insurrection is entirely quelled I flatter myself with hopes that the Act will meet with a repulse.”7
Apparently Reed had no idea that the act would be given the King's approval, and the Board of Trade encouraged His Majesty to disallow it. Accordingly, it was disallowed.8
Reed continued his church duties here and on July 2, 1771, reported: “I have likewise baptized since Christmas last about 130 white children, Two white adults and seven black children in my own parish, and about 25 white children and one Adult in St. John's Parish . . .
“P. S. The Rev. Mr. Stewart, the Society's Missionary at Bath died last Spring and has left a widow and four children, & his affairs in great confusion.”9
One of Governor Martin's first official acts, soon after he arrived here, was to issue a proclamation August 30, 1771, for “encouragement to religion and virtue,” calling especially for the proper observance of the Sabbath.10
That month Reed was seized with “bilious fever” and was ill until Christmas. But, by being carried in a chair instead of riding horseback as usual, he managed to attend all his chapels, with the exception of one that was on an extremely bad road.11
Between midsummer and Christmas he baptized about 90 white and five colored children in this parish, and baptized 25 white children in St. John's parish. He asked leave to move elsewhere, by doctor's advice, or go north for a few months or return to England to recuperate, if he should have a return of the disorder, but he added that he preferred to remain here.12
As Assembly notation on December 23 stated that the House had requested Reed to publish the sermon he had preached the previous day at the church in New Bern. He was allowed ten pounds to defray the printing cost.13
The Rev. Dr. Joseph Pilmoor, Methodist divine, preached here during the Christmas season of 1772. He spoke of the town and its residents in a complimentary
7Ibid., IX, 6.8Ibid., 7, 251, 284-85.9Ibid., 6-7.10Ibid., 28-29.11Ibid., 243-44.12Ibid., 244.13Ibid., 215, 219.way, saying, “In all my travels through the world I have met with none like the people of New Bern.”14
While governor, Martin was a zealous churchman, though unable to accomplish as much as he would have liked for the Established Church. He wrote the Bishop of London: “I shall steadfastly labor for the better establishment of our clergy, and until they can be put upon some more independent footing, I think it will not be good policy to augment their number in this Province.”15
14The Journal of the Rev. Joseph Pilmoor, D. D. (1769-74.)15 Col. Rec., IX, 306.XXIVTOMLINSON ASSISTS RECTOR
Thomas Tomlinson, first professional teacher in the first incorporated school of the province, assisted the Rev. Mr. Reed with church duties for a number of years, and indeed likely served as lay reader here for many years after Reed's death.
Governor Martin wrote from New Bern June 20, 1772, to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in behalf of Tomlinson, calling his “character and conduct not only unimpeached but standing in the fairest light.”1
Tomlinson was reported by the Governor to continue “to officiate . . . as Reader of this Parish, while the Rector is engaged near half the year in the remote parts of his wide parish; and acquits himself so admirably in that station that I cannot help wishing it may be seen consistent with the pious and laudable views of the Society to extend its bounty to him.”2
The local school evidently progressed satisfactorily for perhaps eight years under Tomlinson's leadership, because there is little in Colonial Records about him until 1771. Reed wrote of him: “The first person I verily believe that ever taught school in New Bern for any considerable time without complaining of bad pay and very loudly; such complaints I have seen nailed up at the church doors.”3
On February 15, 1772,4 Reed wrote the Society that Tomlinson had incurred the displeasure of two trustees by reproving and suspending their children. On the previous September 14, the minister declared, the school trustees had met without notifying him and had accused Tomlinson of neglecting school affairs. Eight trustees were present at the meeting and voted seven to one against Tomlinson, Reed reported. Two more trustees were elected, to fill two vacancies. Mr. Parrot, the assistant to Tomlinson, was elected schoolmaster but declined to take the place.
Reporting that he had tried in vain to get the trustees and Tomlinson reconciled, Reed said he resigned from the
1 Col. Rec., IX, 304.2Ibid., 305.3Ibid., VII, 98.4Ibid., IX, pp. 238-44.board. Although he had been its main originator and backer, he then suggested repeal of the local school act, to take away so much power from the trustees.5
Royal Governor Martin also sided with Tomlinson and Reed against the trustees. He wrote in June from the Palace at New Bern to the Bishop of London that the trustees had most unjustly dismissed Tomlinson, taking advantage of an Act of an Assembly, which gave this power, and urging that the King disallow the school act.6
Despite the pleas in his behalf, Tomlinson gave up the school April 13, 1772, and later that year went to Rhode Island for his health. The pupils were heavily in debt to him. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel granted him a gratuity of fifteen pounds, almost a year's stipend. After a trip to England he returned to New Bern and probably resided here many years. In 1789 he was listed as a Christ Church warden. He did not continue his public school duties here, but likely served from time to time at Christ Church.7
Tomlinson is buried in Cedar Grove cemetery, at the left of the main entrance walk near the Weeping Arch, one of the oldest graves in the older part of the cemetery, for he died two years after the burial ground had been opened by Christ Church in 1800. His tombstone bears this simple inscription:
“In Memory of Thomas Tomlinson who departed this life on the 24th of September, 1802. Aged 70 years.”
Reed also had his troubles with the colonists. In 1773 a bill was passed by the Assembly “to regulate the attendance of the minister of Christ Church parish at the parish church in the Town of New Bern and at the several Chapels within said Parish.”8
Due to the increased population in New Bern, with establishment of the governor's residence and courts here, “the more regular attendance of the minister” was said to be necessary for the church. Therefore, it was enacted that the “minister shall not be absent from the parish church, New Bern, more than six Sundays a year . . . on some days between March and December
5Ibid., 243.6Ibid., pp. 305-7.7Ibid., pp. 317-18; X, 428. St. Rec., XXV, 35. Cheshire, p. 176.8 Col. Rec,. IX, 443, 507-8, 583.. . . with regular attendance at the several chapels twice a year.”9
Although this may sound today like a rebuke, it was explained at the time that it was intended to relieve Reed of “insupportable toil and labour,” in journeying so far and often to the parish chapels, at his advancing age, as well as to make his attendance more frequent at the local church, “which was heretofore more than half the year without a clergyman.”10
Mr. Reed wrote the S. P. G. in 1773 that the last Vestry Act passed in 1768 would expire that year and a permanent law was badly needed. “If it should miscarry,” he remarked, “I shall have very little hopes of ever seeing the Church of England established in this Province.”11
On January 7, 1774, he seemed quite discouraged and unhappy. He told the Society that until a Court law had been settled there was no chance of getting a new Vestry law. “Nor can taxes be collected for support of church or State,” he added. “I must ingenuously confess I am heartily weary of living in this land of perpetual strife and contention; such I have found it by the experience of upwards of twenty years. Without the benevolence of the Society it would be quite intolerable.”12
Between December 21, 1773, and June 21, 1774, he reported, he baptized 153 white children, seven colored children and three white adults. The number of his communicants was said to be 168.13
The March Assembly passed an act to amend and further continue the Vestry Act for ten more years, the rector reported on July 19. But this new bill related only to the maintenance of the poor. For, establishment of the Church of England, with the approach of the Revolution, seemed to have gone forever in North Carolina.14
This law, Reed commented, empowered vestries to build workhouses for the poor and permitted keepers to inflict corporal punishment on inmates behaving refractorily. “I wish the amendment had been entirely omitted,” he wrote. “The very thought of whipping the aged and infirm, though a little refractory, is shocking, and such authority ought certainly to be vested in persons of more
9 St. Rec., XXIII, 911.10 Col. Rec., IX, 658.11Ibid., 341.12Ibid., 815.13Ibid., 1015.14Ibid., pp. 1014-15.humanity than is generally to be found in the keepers of Workhouses.”15
15Ibid., 1015.XXVTHE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
AND
DISESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH
“The beginnings of the Establishment in North Carolina were marked by the Cary Rebellion; the struggles against it were continuous, and the close of its career follows hard on the War of the Regulation and the battle of Alamance,” later wrote Stephen B. Weeks.
“There was less freedom of education in North Carolina in 1773 than in 1673; a more rigid conformity was required in the province than in England. This was injustice, and intolerance, persecution and tyranny. The history of Colonial North Carolina is a continual struggle against a government which sought to repress all aspirations whether political, religious or intellectual; for her the War of Independence was not a Revolution only; it brought with it a Reformation, and made possible a Renaissance.”
Objections to the Established Church thus formed one of the main conflicts between British rule and many of the colonists. Governor Martin continued to do his duty as he saw it by trying to strengthen the church. In 1774 he recommended to the Earl of Dartmouth “the expediency of giving greater encouragement to the Establishment of the Church of England in a political view with respect to religion.”1
But, the rule of the church in North Carolina had then passed. The Church Act of 1768 was re-enacted in 1774, to remain in effect for ten years. Under that measure, the governor could suspend a clergyman for misconduct, but only until the Bishop of London could pass on the case.2 However, with the mounting rise of opposition to English authority, this and other church laws were disregarded.
1 Col. Rec., IX, 1086.2 St. Rec., XXIII, 956.The first provincial convention, first popular legislative assembly to be called and held in defiance of Royal protest anywhere in America, met at the Palace in New Bern August 25, 1774.3 The second provincial convention was held here the following April.4
News came of the fights between patriots and English at Lexington and Concord in New England, and local disorders broke out. Governor Martin fled from New Bern and took refuge on a British warship off Fort Johnston near Wilmington.5 He was the last of the Royal Governors in North Carolina. Citizens set about forming a State government.
Proceedings of the Committee of Safety at New Bern July 21, 1775, tell of the observance of the day before as “a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer to humble ourselves before God,” as ordered by the Continental Congress. “Divine service was performed in the church and a very animating and spirited discourse suitable to the occasion was read by a member of the Committee, to a very crowded audience.”6
A delegation from the Committee had been sent to Reed prior to the day of prayer “to request and entreat him to perform divine service in his church on the fast day and deliver a sermon; but their entreaties were vain, he giving as a substantial reason, that as he was one of the missionaries of the honorable Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, he should render himself obnoxious to the Ministry and of course lose his mission.”7
For thus “deserting” his congregation, the special committee passed a resolution “earnestly requesting” the vestry to suspend Mr. Reed as rector of the church and stop his salary.8 The general Committee of Safety unanimously confirmed this suspension.9
The Rev. Daniel Earl wrote the S. P. G. from near Edenton August 30 that “the situation of the clergy in this part of the world is at present truly critical. Some of them have been suspended, deprived of their Salaries . . . on account of charges against them of opposing the general cause of America.”10
3 Col. Rec., IX, 1041.4Ibid., 1201-5.5Ibid., X, 41-50.6Ibid., 115.7Ibid., 115-16.8Ibid., 116.9Ibid.10Ibid., 238.Reed wrote the S. P. G. Secretary February 2, 1776, of “the difficulties I laboured under occasioned by the present unnatural civil dissensions. To live peaceably with all men, if possible, was my determined Resolution, and after the Committee's suspension I lived very retired for two or three months.
“In the meanwhile several intimations were given me, that my attendance at church as usual would not be disagreeable, and about the middle of November last Providence presented an opportunity of decently closing the breach, since that time I have done duty as usual and flatter myself shall meet with no more interruptions. That the speedy and merciful interposition of the King of Kings may restrain the exorbitant passions of men, check the desolating progress of civil discord and heal the ghastly wounds of our country is the daily fervent prayer of, Sir,
“Your most obliged, etc.
“James Reed.
“N. B. Any person prompted by curiosity to open this Letter is desired to Seal it up again in a Cover and forward it.”11
Although the congregation seemed willing for Reed to resume his pastoral duties, he did not have an easy time. Naturally he remained a staunch loyalist, true to his King and his native land, failing to follow the lead of the patriotic New Bernians who began to call for freedom and independence.
The Rev. L. C. Vass, D. D., Presbyterian minister and historian, wrote here years later that boys of the town, likely prompted by their elders, would beat drums at the church door and shout “off with his head,” when Reed offered the usual prayers for the King.12
Even as late as 1772 it had been legally decreed that prayers for the Royal family be offered in all parish churches, chapels and other places of divine worship in this province.13 So, Reed was obeying local law as well as custom.
The Provincial Congress on May 1, 1776, passed a resolution providing that vestrymen legally elected in
11Ibid., 428.12 Vass, op. cit., p. 78. Whitford, op. cit., p. 206.13 Col. Rec., IX, 295.each parish of the province on Easter Monday and taking the oath recommended by the preceding congress should be declared legally named and be authorized to proceed with parochial business. Where no vestries had been elected, the freeholders of the parish were called to meet on the first Monday in July to elect vestrymen. Those chosen were directed to qualify and take the oath, serving until the next Easter Monday.14
The church was permanently disestablished by the State Constitution adopted in December, 1776, by the Constitutional Convention at Halifax:15
“No establishment of any one religious Church or Denomination in this State in Preference to any other, neither shall any person, on any pretence whatsoever, be compelled to attend any Place of worship contrary to his own Faith or Judgment, or be obliged to pay for the purchase of any Glebe or the building of any House of Worship, or for the maintenance of any Minister or Ministry, contrary to what he believes right, or has voluntarily and personally engaged to perform, but all persons shall be at Liberty to exercise their own mode of Worship. Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to exempt Preachers of treasonable and seditious Discourses, from legal trial and Punishment.”16
To keep ministers out of politics, it was set forth in the Constitution that no clergyman of any denomination should be eligible to serve as a member of the House of Commons, Senate or Council of State while acting as a pastor.17
Another section read: “No person who shall deny the Being of God, or the Truth of the Protestant religion, or the divine Authority either of the Old or New Testament, or shall hold religious Principles incompatible with the Freedom and Safety of the State, shall be capable of holding any Office or Place of Trust or Profit in the civil Department within this State.”18
This seemed to limit office holding to Protestants, but it was not strictly enforced. For, many offices were later held by Catholics. William Gaston, for instance, held important offices, though a devout Catholic.
14Ibid., X, 553-54.15Ibid., 1006-13. St. Rec., XXIII, 980-84.16 Section XXXIV.17 Section XXXI.18 Section XXXII.But, to protect the right for subsequent generations, Gaston at the State Constitutional Convention in 1835 at Raleigh insisted upon the changing of the word, “Protestant,” to “Christian.” Since then he has been known as “The Father of Religious Liberty in North Carolina.”19 In 1868 the clause was further broadened so as to debar from office only persons who denied “the Being of Almighty God.”20
An ordinance of the 1776 convention at Halifax provided for the status quo of church property, all glebes, lands and tenements, churches, chapels and houses remaining for the use of that religious denomination for which purchased, built or devised.21
All ministers of every denomination were then legally granted the right to perform marriage ceremonies.22 For many years ministers of denominations other than the Church of England had been denied this full privilege during Colonial days.
Strange as it may seem, no guarantee of religious liberty was contained in the Federal Constitution drafted by the Constitutional Convention in 1787 at Philadelphia. More criticism of this arose in North Carolina than probably anywhere else, and many Carolina leaders insisted that religious freedom be specifically promised in the Constitution.
The first ten amendments to the Federal Constitution were adopted as the “Bill of Rights.” The first amendment still starts: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” North Carolina accordingly ratified the Constitution at Fayetteville November 21, 1789.23
19 Connor, Judge Henry G., William Gaston, pp. 35-38. Creecy, Richard Benbury, Grandfather's Tales of North Carolina History, pp. 107, 119-22.20 Article VI, Section 8.21 St. Rec., XXIII, 986-87.22Ibid., XII, 726; XXIII, 997.23Ibid., XXII, 47-49.XXVI
DEATH OF MR. REED
During the Colonial era from 1662 to 1775 only about fifty Church of England clergymen had been in North Carolina,1 though for this entire time the denomination was the legally-established church of the Province.
The Rev. Mr. Reed remained longer in New Bern than any other Colonial minister stayed anywhere in North Carolina; and his 24 years here constitute a longer local service than that of any of the other 25 rectors of Christ Church.
All three Royal Governors whom he served praised him highly; and under difficult circumstances he managed to get along fairly well during the early Revolutionary period. Evidence points to the fact that he continued to hold services at the church.
Described as an exceptionally fine gentleman and Christian leader, he is considered one of the most outstanding ministers in Colonial America. Of him it has been said, “A very worthy man and the most influential of the Episcopal ministers who labored in North Carolina before the Revolution.”2
Zealous, accurate and well-informed, he took prominent roles in educational and civic affairs as well as religious; he did not confine his activities to New Bern, but preached and worked at many outlying points in his wide Craven County territory. Not only by members of his congregations was he respected, but also by other denominations.
In his voluminous writings, still preserved in Colonial Records, it is difficult to find any unkind words against others, although sometimes his patience was sorely tried by what he considered Colonial shortcomings and lack of church support and religious interest.
On May 7, 1777, before the close of the Revolutionary War, he passed away in New Bern. Hence, he was not living to see the British take possession of the town August 25, 1781. He likely retained his Royalist sympathies
1 Vass, op. cit., p. 29.2 Reed was praised by Weeks, Hawks, Vass, Cheshire and other church historians. This quotation is from a Baptist historian, Dr. G. W. Paschal.to the last, but he must have suspected that in the end America would win its freedom and independence from the Mother Country. Worry probably hastened his death.
His body was interred in the churchyard near Middle Street. In recent years the brick mound had overgrown with ivy. A fund for the purpose of properly marking the grave was started by the late Mrs. Mary O. Dunn Windley, and additions were made by others. St. Ann's chapter of the Woman's Auxiliary took over the project, and in 1937 had the tomb rebricked and covered with a long, flat, marble slab, bearing this inscription:
“In Memory of Rev. James Reed, first rector of Christ Church. Died 1777. Missionary S. P. G. Preacher, Teacher, Advocate of Free Schools.”
Dying intestate, without children, only half of his estate was legally allotted to his widow, Hannah Reed, under an Assembly Act of 1756; but it was argued that all his property had been acquired through his marriage, so under a special Act in 1780 all his personal estate was allowed to go to the widow.3
As Mrs. Reed owned land in the colony, she was perhaps a native, lending credence to the theory that the minister did not marry her until he moved to America. She may have been his second wife, as he is said to have brought a family with him from England. Little is known about her, but she likely assisted her husband materially in his church and educational work.
Reed had not been paid regularly by the church, and he seemed generous with the little money that he received, as evidenced by his willingness to pledge half his year's salary for the purchase of bricks for the local schoolhouse chimneys. So, he could not have saved much money from his meager earnings. However, he evidently was not extravagant. The Rev. Mr. Stewart wrote of him, likely intending it as a compliment, that he was “a parsimonious saving man.”4
After his death it is probable that Tomlinson preached from time to time at Christ Church. There may have been other local lay readers as well as visiting ministers. For
3 St. Rec., XXIV, 332-33.4 Col. Rec., VII, 493.about eight years, so far as can be ascertained, there was no regular rector.
Churches and congregations were, of course, adversely affected by the Revolutionary War. Many clergymen, of English birth and sympathy, returned to England. Some continued their activities in this region, as the Rev. Messrs. Pettigrew, Cuppels, Blount, Earl, and Taylor.5 But, for some years following the war the church and, in fact, all denominations remained weak, poor and discouraged.6
The Church of England was especially hurt by the Revolution, because so many intense patriots of other denominations regarded it as “British” and in their political opposition to the Crown they also objected to the English church.
There was no Episcopal Bishop in America after the Revolutionary War. In 1783 in Maryland was chosen the name, “The Protestant Episcopal Church of Maryland,” and this main name was adopted by the General Convention, which in 1785-86 framed a Constitution, revised the prayer book and named Bishops, even prior to the adoption of the Federal political Constitution.7
5 Vass, 78, 196.6Ibid., 78.7 McConnell, op. cit., pp. 220-21, 240-53. Other Church histories.XXVII
THE REV. LEONIDAS CUTTING
The second regularly-commissioned rector of Christ Church parish to serve for any length of time was the Rev. Dr. Leonidas (Leonard) Cutting, “a man of piety and learning and of high reputation in the Church.”1
Rector here from 1785 to 1792,2 a worthy successor for “Parson” Reed, he was instrumental in helping arrange the first steps that led to the provincial organization of the church, with naming of the “First Bishop of North Carolina.”
Those post-war years were extremely difficult ones in many respects. Disease had caused many deaths, besides the war casualties. Smallpox had been so violent here in 1779 that it prevented the regular session of the General Assembly at New Bern.3 Court records on May 15 show that the section was so “generally infested with smallpox, Court ordered all business continued to the next term.”4 Another epidemic came during the Summer of 1781.5 Yellow fever is said to have caused the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. John Wright Stanly in 1789 during one of the epidemics of that dread affliction.6
Accordingly, for this and other reasons it was hard to build the church to its former importance. As an illustration, there was a law passed Dec. 29, 1785, imposing a fine of five pounds on any person trying to obstruct the ways leading to houses of public worship.7
The years of Dr. Cutting's ministry were important in the political history of America. In 1787 the Federal Constitution was drafted. Two of the signers were New Bernians, frequently attending Christ Church—Richard Dobbs Spaight and William Blount. George Washington was inaugurated in 1789 as the first President of the United States. He visited New Bern and was gaily entertained here April 20-22, 1791.8
Many prominent laymen resided in New Bern during those stirring times to help Dr. Cutting improve church
1 Cheshire, the Rt. Rev. Joseph B., Decay and Revival, (1800-1830), published in Sketches of Church History in North Carolina, p. 258.2Ibid.3 St. Rec., XIII, 792; XIV, 66.4 Extract from Court Records of Craven County, dated May 15, 1779, reprinted in St. Rec., XIV, 302.5 St. Rec., XV, 443, 600.6 Whitford, op. cit., 173. Year of death from tombstones in Christ Church yard, and from Stanly's will probated here in June, 1789, Craven County Records of Wills, Book A, pp. 198-99.7 St. Rec., XXIV, 746-47.8President Washington's Diaries, 1791-99, transcribed and compiled by Joseph A. Hoskins, pp. 20-22. Henderson, Dr. Archibald, Washington's Southern Tour, 1791, pp. 84-101.and civic conditions. Recognizing the need for better care of the poor and aged of the community, leaders had the State legislature pass a law in 1787 to allow Craven County to conduct a lottery to raise money for a County Home. Managers appointed were Spaight, Stanly, John Hawks, Abner Neale and Spyers Singleton.9
On January 6 of that year the lot on the southeastern corner at Middle and Johnson Streets which had been provided for the residence of the Episcopal rector was turned over to the school trustees.10
The public school here had been reorganized in 1784, following the Revolutionary War interruptions. An Act of the General Assembly of the independent State gave it the name of the New Bern Academy, and appointed the following nine outstanding members on its self-perpetuating school board:11
Richard Caswell, who had served four terms as Governor and later was to serve three more years, longer than any other Governor under the independent State; Former Governor Abner Nash, important leader, who is buried on his estate, “Pembroke,” across Trent River; Richard Dobbs Spaight, who served 1792-95 as the first native-born Governor of North Carolina and who was also a Member of Congress as well as signer of the Federal Constitution, buried on his plantation, “Clermont,” across Trent River;
William Blount, who signed the Constitution, then later became Governor of the Territory South of the River Ohio and Senator from Tennessee; John Wright Stanly, illustrious patriot, who lost fourteen privateers during the Revolution and is said to have lent about $80,000 to help Gen. Nathaniel Greene win the war, buried in Christ Churchyard;
John Sitgreaves, Federal judge and a member of the Continental Congress; Gen. William Bryan, who served as Craven County sheriff, member of the Committee of Safety, delegate to three provincial conventions and the State Constitutional convention, representative in the House of Commons, and Christ Church warden, besides
9 St. Rec., XXIV, pp. 821-23.10Ibid., 825.11Ibid., 607-9.taking a gallant role in the Revolutionary war, especially at the battle of Moore's Creek Bridge;
Dr. William McClure, the only surgeon in his Revolutionary regiment; and Spyers Singleton, scholarly soldier, who played a vital role in the famed case of Bayard versus Singleton here in 1786, when it was held for the first recorded time in America that a legislature is limited in power by the Constitution.12
Caswell died soon after being elected Speaker of the State House in 1789. The Assemblymen attended his funeral in a body. He was buried near Kinston with Masonic honors, having been second Grand Master of State Masons.
A funeral oration for “The most Worshipful and Honorable Major General Richard Caswell, Grand Master of Masons of North Carolina,” was delivered in Christ Church, New Bern, on Sunday, November 29, before St. John's Lodge, No. 2, A. F. & A. M., of this city.13
The address was printed here by Francis Xavier Martin, who had come to town as a penniless young Frenchman about 1782. After the death of James Davis in 1785 Martin became New Bern's chief printer and editor, and later one of North Carolina's main historians. He was appointed a Federal Judge of the Territory of Mississippi, and then served as the first Attorney General and afterwards as Chief Justice of Louisiana, dying in that Southern State as a wealthy miser.
As the local church was thus the scene of many public gatherings and as the congregation included so many prominent statesmen and other local leaders, it was natural that under Dr. Cutting's inspiration the members should begin to plan for a larger edifice to replace the small Colonial church on the corner of the extensive parish property.
In his diary William Attmore reported in 1787, “There is a small church here with a square tower, Cupola and Bell and it is the only place of Worship in the Town.”14
Looking towards the erection of a new church in the future, a State Act was passed in 1789 to allow acceptance
12 North Carolina Court Records, May term, 1786, at New Bern, I N. C., p. 42 (5).13 St. Rec., XXI, 221-22. Masonic minute books of St. John's Lodge. Original records of the address in pamphlet form.14Journal of a Tour to North Carolina, 1787, James Sprunt Historical Publications, Vol. XVII, No. 2.of donations and bequests for building an Episcopal church and supporting a minister. It was enacted that
“John Fonveille, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Richard Nixon, Isaac Guion, Thomas Tomlinson, John Daves, Thomas Haslen, David Witherspoon and William Good, Esquires, be appointed churchwardens to receive and recover such subscriptions.” They were “empowered to prosecute in law or equity against any person or persons who may refuse to give up such subscriptions.”15
Under the act, the congregation was authorized to convene in the church on the first Monday after Easter and elect seven persons to serve for three years as churchwardens, and thereafter to meet on the same day every year.
Much time was required to get the money and erect the new church, however. It was not consecrated until February 1, 1824.16
15 St. Rec., XXV, 35-36.16 The original certificate of consecration, in large frame, hangs in the vestibule of Christ Church.XXVIII
STEPS TOWARD ORGANIZATION
The first movement to reorganize the Episcopal church in North Carolina after the Revolutionary War was started by the Right Reverend William White, D. D., of Pennsylvania, who in October, 1789, wrote to Governor Samuel Johnston, of “Hayes,” at Edenton, relative to a church revival in this State.1
The American Prayer Book adapting the ancient liturgy to the new republic had been adopted by the General Convention at Philadelphia, and diocesan organizations were being perfected in various States.2
Governor Johnston felt that he could not officially call the clergy of one denomination to meet, so he referred the matter to the Rev. Charles Pettigrew, rector of St. Paul's Church, Edenton. Pettigrew wrote to Dr. Cutting at New Bern, the Rev. Mr. Wilson of Martin County, the Rev. Mr. Blount at Tar River, and others, asking them to meet at Tarboro on the second Thursday of the following May.3
Dr. Cutting also heard from Bishop White, expressing pleasure at the convention plans; and he received word, too, from the Committee of Correspondence, Philadelphia, as to union in the General Convention of the church.4
That the ministers in those days did not even know the names of all other Episcopal rectors in North Carolina is proved by the letters exchanged by Pettigrew and Cutting. Naming a few clergymen, the former wrote as follows, relative to the proposed first State Episcopal convention:
“These are all the clergy of the Episcopal order that I have heard of in the State. Should you know or hear of any to the Southward of New Berne, I must request the favor of you to acquaint them with the matter . . .
“I presume I need not inform you, that there has been a Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Clergy from the United States, at Philadelphia, from the 8th of July to the
1 Pettigrew, the Rev. William S., The Conventions of 1790, ’93 and ’94 and the Bishop-Elect, published in Sketches of Church History in North Carolina, edited by Bishop Cheshire, p. 182.2 McConnell, op. cit., pp. 259-63.3 Pettigrew, op. cit., pp. 182-83.4Ibid., 183-84.8th of August last, and that they have appointed in one of their Canons such a meeting again on the first Tuesday in August, 1792, and successively on that day in every third year afterwards.”5
According to Dr. Cutting's reply November 28, 1789, conditions in the local church at the time must have been quite discouraging. After saying that he did not know with certainty where any of the clergy dwelt except Blount, he commented,
“How it may be in other Parishes or Congregations in this State I know not; but here by the Expiration of an Old Law a few years ago, we have no Church Wardens, Vestry-men, nor any officer to take any charge or care of the Church. Whatever meetings therefore we may hold in the church will be spontaneous, unbacked by authority; but which cannot be remedied without an application to the Assembly.”
Concluding, Cutting said he would “diligently enquire whether there are any of our Episcopal brethren to the Southward of New Bern.” He reported he had received a letter, urging North Carolina to join the General Convention.6
The first Protestant Episcopal convention of clergy and laity of North Carolina was held June 5, 1790, at Tarboro, following these advance preparations. The Constitution of the General Church adopted the previous year at Philadelphia was approved.7
“Parson” Pettigrew wrote to Bishop White the day after the convention that the only persons attending the meeting besides himself were one clergyman (probably the Rev. James L. Wilson) and two laymen, Dr. John Leigh and William Clements, of Tarboro, “of distinguished merit and reputation.” Pettigrew acted as chairman of this first convention; Clements as secretary.8
A small attendance was also reported for the second convention held later that year, November 12-13, at Tarboro. The Rev. Mr. Pettigrew, the Rev. Mr. Wilson and the Rev. Dr. Micklejohn, of the clergy, and Dr. Leigh, William McKenzie and Joseph Leech, of the laity, were named delegates to the General Convention to be held at
5Ibid., 183.6 Pettigrew Papers, 1789. Also, Pettigrew, op. cit., 184.7The Proceedings of the First Convention of the Clergy (and Laity) held at Tarborough, in pamphlet edited by Bishop Cheshire, The First Effort to Organize the Church in North Carolina, or The Early Conventions, pp. 9-11.8 Pettigrew, Conventions, p. 185.New York in 1792. Colonel Leech, Mayor of New Bern, was also named on the standing committee for the State.9
Another meeting was called for Tarboro in October, 1791, but there were not enough delegates there to transact business.10
9 Minutes of the convention from the North Carolina Chronicle or Fayetteville Gazette, of date November 22, 1790, published in Cheshire's The Early Conventions, pp. 13-15.10 Pettigrew, op. cit., 188.XXIXTHE REV. SOLOMON HALLING
One result of the 1790 church gatherings at Tarboro was that Dr. Solomon Halling, of New Bern, was recommended for Holy Orders by the State Standing Committee and was ordained in 1792 by the Rt. Rev. James Madison, D. D., first Bishop of Virginia. In 1792 he succeeded Dr. Cutting as rector of Christ Church here, the third regular rector.1
Dr. Halling was a native of Pennsylvania.2 Educated as a physician, he served to the close of the Revolutionary War as surgeon of the Fourth North Carolina Regiment.3 Likely he came to New Bern as a teacher at the New Bern Academy. He has been described as “a most exemplary man, and the most zealous clergyman of his time in the State.”4 He acted as rector here until 1795 when he moved to Wilmington.5
Even before his ordination, Dr. Halling had spoken and preached in New Bern. A pamphlet printed at New Bern gives his “discourse delivered before St. John's Lodge of Masons, No. 2, on the Festival of St. John the Baptist, June 24, 1789.” He often delivered sermons and orations for the Masons, according to the ancient Masonic minute books still extant. In 1791-92 he was Worshipful Master of the local lodge, which he also served at different times in other capacities.6
Halling was a member of the Masonic committee that delivered an address of welcome to George Washington during the first President's visit here in April, 1791.7 Washington is said to have worshipped in Christ Church while here, as President James Monroe and Vice President John C. Calhoun are reported to have also done during a later visit.
It is an interesting fact that William Joseph Williams, who in 1794 at Philadelphia painted the celebrated pastel known as the Masonic portrait of Washington, later moved to New Bern, died here in 1823, and is buried in Cedar
1 Cheshire, The Early Conventions, p. 15.2 Cheshire, Decay and Revival, p. 258.3 Henderson, op. cit., p. 94.4 Cheshire, Decay and Revival, 258.5Ibid.6 Minutes of St. John's Lodge.7 Masonic Lodge minutes. Report of a lodge meeting on April 29, 1791. Masonic minute books and pages are not numbered.Grove cemetery. The original portrait, the only authentic picture of the first President from life in Masonic regalia still in existence, now hangs in the old Masonic lodge room of the Alexandria-Washington Lodge, No. 22, at Alexandria, Va.
Christ Church was still the only house of worship in New Bern in 1792. Jedidiah Morse described it then, in his American Geography, as follows: “The Episcopal church is a small brick building, with a bell. It is the only house for public worship in the place.”8
It was Halling's purpose at that period to do all he could to further the cause of church union and the election of Mr. Pettigrew as the first Bishop of North Carolina. He did his best to arouse the North Carolina Episcopalians towards these two ends.
As to the naming of a bishop, Dr. Leigh, eminent physician, politician and churchman, had written to Pettigrew March 29, 1791:
“I think it is something which may be deferred for sometime yet; but should it become necessary, I see no reason why we cannot appoint or recommend one of those now in the State. If the appointment of a Bishop will tend in any degree to raise once more the fallen state of our Church, I am clearly convinced that it should be done.
“This is the object to which the attention of the Clergy, as well as the Laity, should be directed. Every exertion is now called for aloud. The enemies of our Church, who are many, wish its destruction. Religion of whatever kind can only be sustained by the zealous exertions of its supporters. I fear that the mode adopted by our last Convention will be productive of no good. No subscriptions or donations have yet reached me, nor have I heard of any one forwarding, although I had reason to expect some.”9
A third church convention was held at Tarboro November 21, 1793. Six persons attended, three ministers and three laymen, one of each being present from Christ Church: the Rev. Mr. Wilson, of Williamston, who presided; Mr. Clements, who served as secretary; Dr. Halling, who also took a leading role; the Rev. Mr. Gurley, of
8 Morse, Jedidiah, American Universal Geography. Vass, op. cit., pp. 86-87.9 Pettigrew, Conventions, pp. 187-88.Murfreesboro; F. Green, of Craven County; and Dr. Leigh.
Recommendation was made that a convention of church people in the State be called for the last Wednesday in May, 1794, at Tarboro, to form a Constitution and elect a bishop.
Dr. Halling wrote Mr. Pettigrew December 16, 1793, that there were too few at the gathering to choose a bishop.10 Mr. Pettigrew was probably too ill at that time to attend. Halling was strongly in favor of Pettigrew's election as bishop. He added:
“I . . . have declared myself a volunteer in this sacred cause . . . I believe it will be the general wish, that you should be elected to the Episcopacy of North Carolina. My exertions shall not be spared on this occasion—and you must not refuse. Consider it a call from Heaven, and reflect on your former vows. Excuse me if I speak freely. My whole soul is engaged in this important business. May GOD in mercy for our country preserve you to overlook and bless His little flock. This is the ardent wish and prayer of my dear and Rev. Sir, your unworthy brother in our LORD JESUS.”11
Paying tribute to Dr. Halling's zealous work for the church, Bishop Cheshire wrote, “It was by his earnest assiduity that the Convention of 1794 was gotten together. If the other ministers had had his enterprising and courageous spirit we should have had another tale to tell.”12
Dr. Halling left New Bern in 1795, accepting a call as rector of St. James Church, Wilmington. He also acted as principal of the Wilmington Academy. In 1809 he moved to the Diocese of South Carolina, where he “continued the same course of devout faithfulness, and endeared himself to all his brethren in that new home. He died in 1813, much honored and lamented by the Bishop and the Clergy of that Diocese.”13
10 Cheshire, The Early Conventions, pp. 17-18.11 Pettigrew, op. cit., 190-1.12 Cheshire, Decay and Revival, 258.13Ibid., 261.XXX
FIRST BISHOP ELECTED FOR NORTH
CAROLINA
Largely due to Dr. Halling's efforts, Mr. Pettigrew was elected the first Bishop of North Carolina at the convention held in Tarboro May 28-31, 1794.1
Dr. Halling and Dr. Isaac Guion represented Christ Church at this convention. The latter presided over several sessions. The former served with the Rev. Mr. Wilson and Robert White of Tarboro in drafting the Constitution ratified by the delegates.2
More than a year later, on June 9, 1795, Mr. Pettigrew wrote to Bishop White, telling of the North Carolina church meeting and his election as bishop on a vote by ballot. He told of the Constitution adopted, and the plan to unite with the General Convention. Besides his personal recommendation from the State gathering, he said he could add a testimonial from the Edenton district, where he had lived and preached for twenty years.3
Bishop White referred him to the convention to be held at Philadelphia in September, 1795, “this body being clothed with authority to decide whether it would be willing to accept a recommendation drawn by a committee appointed by the North Carolina convention.”4
Because of the distances at which the clergy and laity lived from him and the lack of transportation and communication facilities, Pettigrew was said to have been denied the personal acquaintanceships which would have justified use of the regular form of recommendation prescribed by the General Convention. An informal recommendation had instead been drafted, to fit the local situation.5
Pettigrew expected to attend the General Convention, and had it met as scheduled, he very likely would have been consecrated as the first Bishop of North Carolina. Five days prior to the time of the meeting he set out
1 Cheshire, The Early Conventions, p. 24.2Ibid., pp. 21-29.3 Pettigrew, Conventions, pp. 193-95.4Ibid., pp. 195-96. Pettigrew Papers.5 Cheshire, The Early Conventions, pp. 28-29. Pettigrew, Conventions, 194-95.towards Philadelphia, but he found so many cases of yellow fever at Norfolk that he returned home. There was so much yellow fever in the country that the convention did not meet.6
The next General Convention was to have met in Philadelphia during September, 1798, but it also failed to convene, due to the fact that the epidemic of yellow fever was still raging. Pettigrew was notified of the cancellation of the gathering.7
A special convention was called for June, 1799, at Philadelphia; and the next regular convention met in 1801 at Trenton, N. J. But, because of his poor health, Mr. Pettigrew was unable to attend either one. For years he suffered from tuberculosis.8
Without ever being consecrated Bishop, Mr. Pettigrew continued to serve his parishioners through the Lake Scuppernong section. Refusing to accept compensation, and probably acting also as doctor and teacher since he had formerly been head of the Edenton Academy, he toiled valiantly in home mission work.
From the beginning of his ministry in 1775, as a missioner in the Edenton region and then as the Rev. Mr. Earl's successor at St. Paul's Church there, Mr. Pettigrew served in the Albemarle region until his death in 1807.
The funeral was conducted from St. Paul's Church by the Rev. Jonathan Otis Freeman, a Presbyterian minister, who later assumed charge of the New Bern Academy. While teaching in the Edenton Academy, 1808-11, he also was paid for “delivering lectures to the students on the Sabbath.” At that time there was no rector at St. Paul's, there were no other Presbyterians in Edenton and about the same men acted as Academy trustees and church vestrymen.
Originally called Pettigrew's Chapel, a church that came to be known as St. David's parish was erected in 1803 on “Parson” Pettigrew's plantation, “Belgrade,” near Creswell, as a center for his work through Tyrrell and Washington Counties. It is still standing.
As a feature of the new Pettigrew Memorial State Park in that area, his home, built 1796-98, with quaint windows
6 Pettigrew, op. cit., 196.7Ibid., 197.8Ibid., 197-201.and double chimneys, has been recently restored. Also reconditioned is the old cemetery where members of the family are buried, including Parson Pettigrew's famous grandson, Gen. James Johnston Pettigrew, son of a Miss Shepard of New Bern, and the youngest general in the Confederate Army, who lost his life at Gettysburg.
The parson's epitaph reads: “Sacred to the memory of the Rev. Charles Pettigrew, late minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church and Bishop-Elect of the State of North Carolina, who after a life devoted to the cause of religion and virtue fell asleep in Jesus on the 8th of April, A. D. 1807, Aged 63 Years.”9
Thus failed the first efforts to obtain an Episcopal Bishop for North Carolina. The late lamented Rt. Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire wrote that the prejudice against the British before, during and after the Revolution reacted against their Established Church in the New World, but that other causes also contributed to the “lethargy” among the scattered congregations.
The previous governmental patronage left bad effects, he said, and time was necessary to overcome them. Bishop Cheshire referred to the period as the “death-struggle of the old Colonial system.”10
9 Data on the Rev. Mr. Pettigrew came from many sources, including various references in Colonial Records, but chiefly from Cheshire's Sketches, pp. 215-16, 219-22, 229-40, 256, which contain accounts of his life by his descendants, Gen. J. Johnston Pettigrew, and the Rev. William S. Pettigrew.10 Cheshire, Decay and Revival, 243-53.XXXI
THE REV. THOMAS P. IRVING
For the next twenty-two years, from 1796 to 1818, local schoolmasters served as rectors and assistant rectors of Christ Church, again proving the close relation and interdependence of school and church in this community.
The Rev. Thomas Pitt Irving, a native of Somerset County, Maryland, became principal of the New Bern Academy in 1793, following his graduation from Princeton in 1789. He held a degree of Master of Arts, and was an exceptionally brilliant and versatile man.1
Following his ordination to the diaconate by Bishop White in 1796, Irving assumed charge of Christ Church parish, in addition to his school duties. His seventeen years as local rector constitute the second longest term of service, next to that of Mr. Reed.
During Mr. Irving's twenty years’ residence in New Bern it was his misfortune to witness three major disasters: the burning of the old schoolhouse where he taught, the burning of historic Tryon Palace, where he then resided and taught school, and another serious epidemic of yellow fever.
After having been used for about 28 years, the old school building was destroyed by fire in 1795, said to have been due to the carelessness of a singing class there.2 By permission of the legislature, the local school was then held in the Palace,3 no longer serving for governmental purposes since New Bern was not retained as the capital of the State.
Irving and his family also made their home in the Palace. Under the Council Chamber in the main portion of the three-building edifice, they kept wood and hay in the cellar. On the night of February 27, 1798, a Negro woman went to look for eggs in the hay. With her she carried a lighted pine-wood torch. Some sparks fell on the dry hay. A blaze ensued. Unfortunately a hole was cut in the floor above to pour water on the flames. It
1 Cheshire, Sketches, 258-59. That Mr. Irving was in New Bern in 1793 is proved by an advertisement in the North Carolina Gazette here, dated October 12, 1793.2 Whitford, op. cit., 202.3 Vass, op. cit., 92-93.acted as a flue and the fire became uncontrollable. The central structure was entirely destroyed.4
The minister toiled incessantly during the yellow fever epidemic later that year.5 He conducted the funeral services for practically all the victims. Scores of inhabitants died of the disease. Records show that a pall-bearer would often be the next one carried to a grave.6
So many persons succumbed that at night trenches were dug in the Episcopal church yard in a line near the adjoining property to the northwest on Middle Street, and the bodies were buried there indiscriminately.7 It was probably some of these hurriedly-interred corpses that were unearthed a few years ago when excavations were made for the foundations of the parish house addition.
These numerous burials in the church yard, already well filled with graves, perhaps formed the main reasons why the church opened Cedar Grove cemetery in 1800. This cemetery was transferred in 1854 to the city by the church.8 An old Indian burying ground is said to have been originally in the hilly part of this cemetery property.
A Mason himself, Irving usually held funeral services for Masonic brethren from the Episcopal Church, except when they were too numerous during epidemics. Frequently he composed original odes befitting the character of the deceased.9
The memorial sermon for Gov. Richard Dobbs Spaight was to have been preached by Irving, after the statesman had been mortally wounded in a duel here on September 5, 1802, with John Stanly, son of John Wright Stanly and State legislator and Congressman of note.10 As illness prevented him from delivering this memorial, he had his prepared address printed in part in The Raleigh Register.11
Governor Spaight was a communicant and vestryman of Christ Church. He had served as chief executive when the University was formally opened January 15, 1795, at Chapel Hill, and was present for that occasion, although it was almost a month later when the first student enrolled for this first existing State University to open its
4Ibid., 93. Masonic minutes, 1798, give date of fire.5 Whitford, 202-5.6Ibid., 204.7Ibid.8 Marble tablet at the top of the entrance arch at the cemetery gives these dates.9 Masonic minutes mention such odes at different times.10 Original correspondence between Spaight and Stanly prior to their duel is in the Hawks collection at the New York Historical Society Library, to which previous reference has been made. These letters give exact dates and details of the controversy.11 Andrews, Alexander B., Richard Dobbs Spaight, pp. 118-20.doors. Women in New Bern and Raleigh presented mathematical instruments to the institution. Mrs. Spaight is said to have been the first woman to attend a University commencement. She was Miss Mary Leech, daughter of Col. Joseph Leech, of New Bern.
A poem used to close Irving's eloquent tribute was copied for the epitaph on Spaight's tombstone across Trent River. Adapted from the ode composed in 1746 by William Collins (1720-1756), it follows:12
“So sleeps the brave—he sinks to restWith all his country's wishes blessed.When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,Returns to deck his hallowed mould,She there shall find a sweeter sodThan fancy's feet have ever trod.By fairy hands his knell is rung,By forms unseen his dirge is sung,There honor comes, a pilgrim grey,To bless the turf that wraps his clay,And freedom shall a while repairAnd dwell a weeping hermit there.”Spaight's ancestors had long been active members of Christ Church. He was born in New Bern March 25, 1758, the son of Richard Spaight, a grand-nephew of Royal Governor Dobbs, and Elizabeth Wilson Spaight, daughter of Mary Vail Jones Wilson Moore.13
This maternal grandmother, Madame Moore, was a great social leader of the old days. She resided at Clermont, which once consisted of 2,500 acres. Three times she married—first for position, then for money, and finally for love.
Madame Moore is said to have owned a stall in Christ Church twice as large as any of the other stalls. President Washington and President Monroe are reported to have worshipped there, as well as Sir William Draper, “Conqueror of Manila” and other visitors.14 When she came to town from her estate, she traveled in an elegantly-equipped large rowboat, manned by six oarsmen in handsome liveries. It is still rumored that some of her money is buried at Clermont.
12 Andrews, op. cit., 120. Governor Spaight and his son, Governor Richard Dobbs Spaight, Jr., are buried in the family burial plot on their old plantation, “Clermont.” This poem appears on his tombstone. Not far distant is the tomb of New Bern's third Governor, Abner Nash, on his plantation, “Pembroke,” along the Trent River.13 Most of the information on Spaight used in this chapter may be found, with much other material, in Mr. Andrews’ brochure.14 Whitford, 14.Besides being a talented writer and orator, Mr. Irving was particularly interested in dramatics and ranks as one of the pioneer amateur dramatists and producers in North Carolina. His school was one of the first to present dramas as public programs.
On December 23, 1793, New Bern Academy students gave “a dramatic piece in ridicule of scholastic pedantry,” followed by an oration by William Gaston on the blessings of American independence. The Commencement program included an original skit written and produced by Irving and a play, “Mock Doctor or Dumb Lady Cured.”15
As a dramatist, as well as a prominent Mason, Irving probably had much to do with encouraging St. John's Masonic lodge to build the large Masonic temple and theatre that still stands here, the oldest theatre still in regular use in America.
A second charter obtained by the lodge was dated January 26, 1795, the organization then being listed as Number 3 instead of 2, and activities were resumed. Professor Irving was a main leader. He served as Worshipful Master and in many other official capacities, including chaplain.16
Masonic meetings were held regularly at Tryon's Palace. After the Palace was burned, the Masons planned to erect a building of their own. Irving was the orator on the occasion of the laying of its foundation stone April 15, 1801. The structure was completed by 1808.17
Undoubtedly Irving also had much to do with the construction of the school building that replaced the former schoolhouse that had been burned on the present campus. The new one was finished in 1806, and is now the oldest school building still in use in North Carolina.18
That period was one of the greatest building eras in the history of the town. Many church leaders were among the numerous citizens erecting fine homes in the city or the surrounding sections during those first years of the nineteenth century. The Episcopal church was still the only house of worship here at the opening of that century.
15 Excerpts from The North Carolina Gazette, New Bern, for January 4 and July 12, 1794, quoted by Dr. Archibald Henderson in his article on early amateur dramatic groups in North Carolina which was published December 19, 1926, in The Winston-Salem Journal and other North Carolina newspapers.16 Masonic lodge minutes.17Ibid. Irving as orator for the laying of the cornerstone is listed with other local officers on an oblong silver plaque that came from the original foundation stone and is now in the possession of the local lodge. This small plaque was taken away by Northern soldiers who used the Masonic Temple as a hospital during the War Between the States. It was returned to the owners in 1898 by St. John's Lodge, No. 1, of Providence, R. I.18 North Carolina State Educational authorities say they know of no older schoolhouse still being used in the State than the New Bern building which school records show was finished in 1806.Church and secular music was also encouraged by Mr. Irving during his local residence. He must have been a talented composer as well as poet, for his odes were set to music at various times, as reported in the Masonic minutes. One entry tells of the singing of an anthem that he had set to music for a special Masonic program.19
Another entry relates that the minister conducted a service for St. John's Day June 24, 1798, at Christ Church, at which he preached “an elegant discourse,” on the theme, “Stand still, brethren, and consider the wonderfull works of God,” as taken from Job. 37:6-14. As a musical feature, “a Masonic ode composed by Chaplain T. P. Irving was sung by many ladies and gentlemen in a masterly manner.”20
From the use and names of his whipping rods, Mr. Irving was known to the school boys as “Tippoo Sahib” and “The Great Mogul.”21 Although recognized as a teacher and preacher of much ability, he was considered by some citizens to be “cold and perfunctory.”22
Yet, this seems hardly a fair characterization for anyone who could send downtown to buy commonplace supplies in the following poetic manner:23
“Palace, New Bern, Nov. 11, 1797.
“Messrs. George and Thomas Ellis:
“I send you, sirs, a little boyTo buy me neither robe nor toy,Nor rum, nor sugar, nor molasses,Coffee, tea, nor empty glasses;Nor linen cloths, nor beau cravats,Nor handkerchiefs, nor beaver hats;Nor anything, or less or moreOf all that constitutes your store,Save only this, a noon-day taper,And one thing more, a quire of paper.Of these pray send the exact amount,And charge them both to my account;And rest assured my prayer shall be,Kind sirs, for your prosperitee.“Thos. P. Irving.”19 Masonic minute books here.20Ibid.21 Wheeler, John H., Historical Sketches of North Carolina, Vol. I, p. 120. Whitford, op. cit., 208.22 Cheshire, Sketches, 259.23 Vass, op. cit., 93.To give an idea of the local school at that period, Mr. Irving taught three classes in 1793. The first class studied the three “R's”—reading, writing and arithmetic; the second, “Mathematics, in the various branches of that science”; and the third, “the dead languages.”24
Until about 1813 he stayed in New Bern, as rector and instructor, then he went to Hagerstown, Md.25 There he died early in 1818, while principal of the Hagerstown Academy.26
While here, he taught many local young men who became outstanding citizens of the State, thus reflecting credit on his remarkable store of diversified knowledge as well as on his high character and example.
Among his students were William Gaston, noted orator, State Supreme Court Justice and composer of the State anthem; Dr. Francis Lister Hawks, Episcopal minister, educator and historian; the Rev. Cicero S. Hawks, Bishop of Missouri; Richard Dobbs Spaight, Jr., who served as Governor, 1835-36, with his father being the only instance of father and son becoming Governors of North Carolina; and George E. Badger, Superior Court Judge, United States Senator and Secretary of the Navy.
24 Coon, Charles Lee, North Carolina Schools and Academies, p. 50.25 Cheshire, Sketches, p. 259.26 In The Raleigh Register, Raleigh, N. C., for February 6, 1818, appeared this item: “Died, Lately, the Rev. Thomas Pitt Irving, principal of the Hagerstown Academy, formerly of New Bern.”XXXII
THE REV. GEORGE STREBECK
AND
THE REV. JOHN PHILLIPS, ASSISTANT RECTOR
Succeeding Mr. Irving as rector of Christ Church was another educator, the Rev. George Strebeck, who also did double duty as minister and school principal, 1813-15.
Little is known about Mr. Strebeck, but it is a matter of church record that in 1814 and 1815 he was assisted by the Rev. John Phillips. Much more is known about Mr. Phillips and his work.1
From the Revolution to 1817 there were six Episcopal candidates for Holy Orders in North Carolina. Three of these were from New Bern, all being teachers: Solomon Halling, Thomas Irving and John Phillips. The other three were Adam Boyd, of Wilmington; James L. Wilson, of Martin County; and John Avery, of Edenton.2
Phillips had originally come from England as one of the Wesley brothers’ lay-preachers. His wife was a ward of one of the famed Wesleys. When his associates took up Methodism, he adhered to his church.
While in New Bern assisting Mr. Strebeck at the school, Phillips became a candidate for the Episcopal ministry and was ordained in August, 1814, by Bishop Moore of Virginia. He continued to aid Mr. Strebeck at both the local church and school until his removal to Virginia in 1815.
During 1818 Mr. Phillips returned to North Carolina from Virginia and served as a missionary in this State until 1822. He organized Episcopal churches at Tarboro and Warrenton, and revived a number of other churches.
To show what a wide territory he covered, he reported in 1820 that he had traveled 220 miles a month since the previous convention. Regular work was undertaken at Tarboro, Washington, Warrenton and Blounts Chapel (Trinity Church, Chocowinity). In addition, he visited
1 Most of the facts about Messrs. Strebeck and Phillips in this chapter are from Cheshire, Sketches, pp. 259, 275-76.2Ibid., 249.Hillsboro, Raleigh, Williamsboro, Oxford, Scotland Neck and rural congregations in Pitt and Beaufort Counties.
While Mr. Phillips was serving at Tarboro, the first steps were taken to organize Christ Church, Raleigh, and build a church building there in 1820; but it was not organized and admitted to the convention until 1822.
Probably from such strenuous travels and earnest endeavors, Mr. Phillips’ health failed about 1822. He returned to Virginia, where he died in 1831. He was particularly lauded for his fervent piety and great simplicity of character.
The Rev. Mr. Strebeck left New Bern at about the same time that Mr. Phillips did in 1815. He had likely had a difficult time here. The War of 1812 took place during most of the time that he was local rector.
New Bern was the largest town of North Carolina in 1815, with a population of approximately 3,600; a substantial increase from the 2,467 inhabitants, including 1,298 slaves, reported in 1810.3
Bishop George W. Freeman of Arkansas was another Episcopal clergyman who served here as a professor in the New Bern Academy. For a time he was rector of Christ Church, Raleigh. Both he and his brother, the Rev. Frederick Freeman, also an Episcopal minister, were associated in the local school about 1816 with another brother, the Rev. Jonathan Otis Freeman, M. D., principal of the Academy, a Presbyterian minister already mentioned as having conducted the funeral for the Rev. Charles Pettigrew.4
Daniel Drew, an English Episcopalian, opened a select school here for instruction in the classics. He was a Latin, Greek and Hebrew scholar. Though only a layman, he is said to have been “quite a master in speculative theology.”5
3 United States Census. Vass, 97.4 Cheshire, op. cit., 256. Vass, op. cit., 105.5 Miller, Stephen F., “Recollections of New Bern Fifty Years Ago,” published in Our Living and Our Dead, official organ of the North Carolina Branch of the Southern Historical Society, Vol. I, p. 339.XXXIIITHE REV. JEHU CURTIS CLAY
AND
ORGANIZATION OF DIOCESE
About the first of January, 1817, the Rev. Jehu Curtis Clay, also a teacher as well as a priest, followed Mr. Strebeck here, taking over educational and pastoral duties for about a year. During his rectorship the Diocese of North Carolina was organized at New Bern.
At that time there were only three Episcopal ministers in this region. The Rev. Adam Empie had succeeded Dr. Halling as rector of St. James, Wilmington, in 1811, but in 1814 returned to the North. He was followed at St. James by the Rev. Bethel Judd. In November, 1816, he came back to the pulpit at Wilmington, succeeding Mr. Judd, who remained temporarily in that city.1
Three years previously Mr. Empie had endeavored to communicate with clergymen in the State to get them to perfect an organization. Upon his return to North Carolina, he renewed his efforts. Due to his earnest efforts, with the material aid of Mr. Judd and Mr. Clay, the organizing convention of the diocese was held at Christ Church here on April 24, 1817.2
All three ministers attended the convention. Judd, who on May 1 became rector of St. John's Church, which he had organized that year at Fayetteville, was elected president. Empie was named secretary. Clay conducted divine service; Judd preached the forenoon sermon.
Six lay delegates were present: John Stanly and John Spence West, from Christ Church; John Rutherford London and Marsden Campbell, St. James; John Winslow, St. John's; and Josiah Collins, Jr., St. Paul's Church, Edenton.
Judd, Empie, Clay, Stanly and London were named on a Constitutional Committee to present a Constitution. The General Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal
1 Cheshire, Sketches, pp. 261, 267-68.2 This report of the diocesan organization meeting is taken from the official minutes contained in the Diocesan Journal of 1817 in the business office of the present diocesan organization at Wilmington, N. C.Church of the United States was adopted. Rectors were requested to take annual offerings for the support of missionary work in the State. It was decided to hold annual conventions on the second Thursday after Easter. Later, when the organization seemed sufficiently strong, it was planned to elect a diocesan bishop.
Meanwhile, the three rectors and less than 200 laymen in the section were placed under the care of Bishop Richard Channing Moore, of Virginia, who was asked to visit the State and perform Episcopal offices at the different parishes.
As diocesan leaders for the year, Judd was elected president; Empie, secretary; and Judd, Clay and Empie, West, Winslow, Campbell and John B. Blount of Edenton as members of the Standing Committee.
Moses Jarvis of New Bern and Mr. Judd were named delegates to the next General Convention. Fayetteville was chosen for the next State Convention, and Mr. Clay was appointed to draft canons for consideration at that gathering.
But, before the time for the convention Mr. Clay had been succeeded as the local rector by the Rev. Richard S. Mason. A report in the official diocesan record reads:
“About the first of January, 1817, the Rev. Mr. Clay took charge at New Bern; and by his assiduity and talents gave great hopes of extensive usefulness—but circumstances inducing his removal to the diocese of Maryland cast a gloom for a time over the prospects, and damped the zeal of the friends of Zion. A seasonable relief, however, is anticipated for the talents and zealous efforts of the Rev. Mr. Mason, who has recently commenced his labors in that congregation, with every prospect of success.”3
The Rev. Mr. Empie is well known in church history outside this State. After leaving Wilmington in the Spring of 1814, following his first rectorate of three years there, he became the first chaplain at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N. Y., which had just previously been reorganized after the opening of the War
3 Excerpt from the 1818 Diocesan Journal.of 1812. At Wilmington he is said to have increased his congregation from 21 to 102 communicants.
Returning South, he again served as rector of St. James Church from 1816 to 1829. For some time he was rector of historic Bruton Parish and president of William and Mary College at Williamsburg, Va.
Bishop Cheshire commented upon these beginnings of diocesan organization: “The work of the first Convention and the first Bishop of North Carolina was simply to gather together and to organize the remains of the old Colonial Church in the several localities where it had been most successfully established . . . We today are the ecclesiastical and spiritual representatives in fact, and not merely in theory, of the Church which our Anglo-Saxon fathers set up here to sanctify the new Continent which they were subduing and civilizing.”4
4 Cheshire, op. cit., 277.XXXIV
THE REV. RICHARD SHARPE MASON
Dr. Mason served here as rector from the Spring of 1818 until 1828, his ten years ranking fourth in length of service. He was one of the outstanding Episcopal ministers in North Carolina, serving long and ably at Raleigh for many years during the last part of his life.
Soon after his arrival in New Bern he represented Christ Church at the second diocesan convention, which was held April 2, 1818, at Fayetteville. Lay delegates included John W. Guion, of New Bern. Probably due to the recent change in rectors, no report or collection for the local parish is given in the official minutes of the meeting.
Mr. Judd was re-elected president, and Mr. Empie was renamed secretary. By that time Edenton had a rector, the Rev. John Avery, who also attended the gathering, as did the Rev. John Phillips, formerly of New Bern, then of Virginia, who in that year returned to North Carolina as a mission worker around Tarboro, Warrenton and Washington. Admitted into the union was St. Jude's Church, reported organized in Orange County.
The first record on the oldest extant parish registers among the local church documents is dated May 6, 1818, and is in the handwriting of Dr. Mason. It records the baptism of two small Negro girls, as follows:
“May 6—At the house of William Judd—Julia, a black female child aged about 6 years, the property of said Wm. Judd; sponsors William Judd, his wife, Mehitable Judd. Also at the same time and place Laura, a black infant daughter of Pakey, a black man and property of Wm. Judd, and Sukey, a free black woman.”
A notation in the front of this oldest register written by the Rev. J. R. Goodman, next local rector, states that previous parish records were destroyed in a fire which in 1818 burned the house of Lucas Benners, then secretary of the vestry. It is chiefly for this reason that it is so
difficult and at times impossible to trace the early history of the church in detail. From that year on the records are fairly complete. However, the first vestry book extant goes back only to 1830.
Born on the Island of Barbados in the West Indies December 29, 1795, Mason was only 22 years old when he came to New Bern. He had been graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1811, at the early age of fifteen. On September 21, 1817, he had been ordained deacon by Bishop White in St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia; and it was not until April 30, 1820, after he had been at Christ Church for two years, that he was ordained priest by Bishop Moore in St. Paul's Church, Edenton.
That he was greatly beloved here is apparent from the fact that numerous babies he baptized were named for him. He kept careful, neat records of all his official acts in the parish. Among the entries are reports of many baptisms of colored folk, and in most instances their white owners acted as their sponsors.
An entry in Dr. Mason's register, dated February 4, 1819, shows that at the house of William Gaston was baptized Catherine Jane Gaston, daughter of William and Eliza Ann Worthington Gaston, born January 21 of that year. Sponsors were Mrs. Gaston, Mr. Worthington and Mrs. Taylor.
The mother, formerly of Georgetown, who was Gaston's third wife, died later in the year, leaving two infant daughters. For the remaining quarter of a century of his life the statesman was a widower.2 Evidently he did not object to the Episcopal baptism of his child at his home, although he was a loyal Catholic and Catholic services were often held in his home,3 now known as the Coor-Gaston-Henderson house, on Craven and New Streets, which he purchased April 17, 1818,4 and where he resided locally until his death in 1844.
In April, 1819, New Bern was visited by President Monroe. He is reported to have worshipped in Christ Church. St. John's Masonic lodge sent him an address of welcome, signed by Lucas Jacob Benners, then Worshipful Master. The President's reply, dated at New Bern April
2 Connor, op. cit., p. 47.3 Irwin, the Rev. M. A., “History of St. Paul's Catholic Church, New Bern,” published in New Bern Sun-Journal, Saturday, May 7, 1938.4 Craven County Record of Deeds, Book 40; pp. 190-91.12, read in part, as still recorded in original Masonic record books:
“Deriving as we do, all the blessings which a kind Providence has bestowed on us, from our republican institutions, we should forfeit all claims to the continuance of the Divine favor, if we did not zealously cherish, and steadily adhere to these institutions.
“Having a common interest, and bound together as the American people are, by all the ties which can cement their union, I see with great satisfaction the increasing harmony, in the public opinion, proceeding from those great causes, which you have noticed, and which it is so consistent with the benevolent principles of your society to cherish.”5
Dr. Mason and Moses Jarvis represented the local church April 22 at the third diocesan convention in Wilmington. On the second day Mason preached the convention sermon. For this parish he reported nine baptisms, four marriages, eight funerals, and 32 communicants, with 80 subscribed to the missionary fund.6
An idea of the improving church conditions in this area at that period may be obtained from the address of Bishop Moore to the Virginia convention of 1821, regarding the North Carolina diocesan convention which he had attended the previous year at Edenton:
“The church of that Diocese holds up to your view the most encouraging prospects. In Edenton, at which place the Convention was convened, our sittings were attended by great numbers of people, some of whom had come from a distance of near fifty miles to witness our proceeding and attend upon our ministry. In that place I ordained two deacons, and admitted one gentleman to the priesthood. In the Diocese so late as the year 1817 there was not a single clergyman: they are now blessed with the labors of seven faithful men; and in the course of another year, several candidates, who are now preparing for Holy Orders, will be admitted to the Ministry of the Word.”7
In the year 1822 there were nine Episcopal ministers reported for this diocese.8
5 St. John's Masonic Lodge minutes, April, 1819.6 Diocesan Journal, 1819.7 Virginia Diocesan Journal, 1821.8 North Carolina Diocesan Journal, 1822.Although comparatively young while here, Dr. Mason is said to have been quite absent-minded. Once in planting vegetables in his garden, he is reported to have put the peas in his pocket and his spectacles in the ground.9
As a devout minister, he did his best to win religious converts. Jarvis B. Buxton gave up his business and became rector at Fayetteville.10 An instance where he failed is related in Stephen Miller's Recollections. Among the members of Christ Church was Mrs. Narcissa Hatch Howard, a pious Christian. Her husband, Josiah Howard, of New Bern and Jones County, was averse to religion. The wife requested Dr. Mason to attend Howard's bedside while the latter was ill. But, despite every effort, Miller reports, the rector could not make any headway in converting Howard.11
At the 1826 diocesan convention Dr. Mason reported that he was giving instruction in the catechism and lectures on the Scriptures to colored residents of New Bern and that every Thursday night he was delivering lectures at the church on the Acts of the Apostles.12 The next year he deplored a great decline in zeal and piety at New Bern.13
Perhaps it was this decline that led to his decision to leave this parish. His transfer to the Diocese of Pennsylvania was reported in 1828, at the same time that the Rev. Francis L. Hawks was reported as having transferred to Connecticut. John H. Bryan represented Christ Church at that year's convention.14
Dr. Mason became rector of St. Matthews Church, Geneva, N. Y., in 1828; and the next year began to act as president of Geneva College. In 1835 he became president of Newark College in Delaware. During 1840 he started his long service as rector of Christ Church, Raleigh, a post he held as a capable and beloved leader until his death there February 21, 1874.15
That he made an excellent record in New Bern and left many friends and admirers here is indicated by the fact that the vestry let him take with him from here the Prayer Book that had been presented to this parish by King George II. He always intended to return it at his
9 Roberts, Dita, A Short Historical Sketch of Christ Church Parish, p. 14.10 Miller, op. cit., 243.11Ibid., 464.12 Diocesan Journal, 1826. (Hereafter the North Carolina Diocesan Journals will be cited as D. J.).13Ibid., 1827.14Ibid., 1828.15 Data about Dr. Mason came from Diocesan Journals, parish registers, church histories and articles. Miller, op. cit., 339.death, as shown by a note in his own writing pasted in the volume. It was returned to Christ Church after his death by his widow, Mrs. Mary Bryan Mason.
Resolutions of respect to his memory, in the writing of the late Frederick C. Roberts, are still spread upon local vestry minutes, as passed after Dr. Mason's death. They call attention to the fact that he had served here as rector fifty years before and the “good influence then exerted by him is still felt among us,” and “we recognize in him one of the best, purest and ablest divines who has ever adorned the ministry of our church.”16
1 Diocesan Journal, 1818.
16 Vestry Minutes, Christ Church Parish, 1874. (Hereafter the Vestry Minutes will be cited as V. M.)SECOND LOCAL EPISCOPAL CHURCH—1824
XXXV
OTHER LOCAL DENOMINATIONS
By 1818 the Methodists and Baptists had erected churches in New Bern, and Presbyterians were planning for a handsome edifice. It was natural for Episcopalians to press their efforts towards completion of long-pending arrangements for a new church.
Methodists organized here in 1802, and held great camp meetings in 1803. They were next to the Episcopalians in constructing a house of worship. Their present structure, Centenary Methodist Church, dedicated October 22, 1905, is their third; being preceded by old Andrew Chapel on Hancock Street and their second church on New Street.
Between 1785 and 1807 Bishops Asbury and Whitecoat of their denomination preached here at different times. It is reported that on his last visit Bishop Asbury was so feeble that he had to sit while he delivered his sermon in Andrew Chapel. Previously he had held services at the Episcopal Church.1
The Rev. Lorenzo Dow preached in the Methodist Chapel, and announced surprisingly that he would return for another service there at noon exactly two years from then. Many local bets were made as to whether he would keep this strange engagement.
At the appointed time a huge assembly gathered in the chapel, but there was no sign of Dow. Suddenly, just as the hour struck, he appeared in the pulpit. The congregation was thrown into a frenzy of excitement, as he announced his text: “Be not afraid; it is I.” He had arrived in town the night before, in disguise, and had kept hidden until noon.2
The Rev. Amos C. Treadway, who was pastor of the Methodist Chapel here in 1821, declared in one of his sermons: “I had rather be a poor Methodist preacher, traveling over the barren hills of Carolina, receiving my one hundred dollars a year, than to be a Prince seated on
1 For this and other material on local Methodism, see Vass, op. cit., pp. 79-80; Plyler, Dr. M. T., “Early Methodist Ministers in North Carolina,” published in The North Carolina Christian Advocate, November 12, 1936; Hendren, Elizabeth Mayhew, “History of New Bern Methodists,” published in New Bern Sun-Journal, November 19, 1936; and other articles published in that same Methodist Conference Edition of the Sun-Journal, November 19, 1936 .2 Whitford, op. cit., pp. 273-74.his throne.” However, at the next Conference he withdrew from the denomination and soon became an Episcopal minister.3
Edward Wadsworth, native of Craven County and president of LaGrange College in Alabama, is among others who preached at the chapel. Melvell B. Cox is reported to have given himself to missions towards the close of the 1831 Conference there. After a year as a missionary to Africa he died, with the injunction, “let a thousand missionaries fall rather than give up Africa.”4
A unique monument to a colored Methodist minister is found today in Greenwood Negro cemetery here. Its inscription tells his story:
“Here lie the remains of John Cook, the colored preacher. He was a native of Africa and was brought to this country in the year 1805. He was converted and joined the Methodist church at this place in 1818 and soon after became a preacher of the Gospel. His deep and consistent piety secured unbounded confidence in his Christian character. Having spent his life in the service of God he died in holy triumph on the 24th of November, 1856. In the 65th year of his age. This monument was erected to his memory by his brethren and friends, white and colored, in token of their respect and Christian affection.
“Soldier of Christ, well done;Praise be thy new employ,And while eternal ages runRest in thy Saviour's joy.”Presbyterians organized here January 7, 1817, under the leadership of John Witherspoon, grandson of a Signer of the Declaration of Independence.5 Mrs. Eunice Edwards Pollock Hunt, a charter member, was daughter of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards,6 famous New England minister and president of Princeton College, and sister of the mother of Vice President Aaron Burr. This is the oldest Presbyterian organization and their church is the oldest church structure of their denomination in any town of Eastern North Carolina.
3 Miller, op. cit., 340.4Ibid. Local church records. Methodist histories.5 Vass, 106.6Ibid., 134.Their church, still considered an architectural gem, was dedicated January 6, 1822.7 It is said to have been built from a design made for earlier churches by Sir Christopher Wren, noted English architect, responsible for the beauty of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
Pastors of the church have had important careers. The Rev. John Nicholson Campbell, supply minister, left here in 1820 to become Chaplain of Congress.8 The Rev. Drury Lacy, here 1834-36, served as president of Davidson College and he and his wife opened a school in Raleigh which became Peace College.9 His son, Dr. Ben R. Lacy, Sr., was long State Treasurer; and a grandson, Dr. Ben Lacy, Jr., is now president of Union Seminary.
Dr. Charles G. Vardell, pastor here from 1891 to 1896, was first president and is now president emeritus of Flora Macdonald College at Red Springs. His son, Dr. Charles Vardell, Jr., directs the music department at Salem College. The Rev. Dr. Lachlan C. Vass, local pastor, now deceased, still ranks as one of the chief historians of this town.
Two sons of this local church have enlisted in foreign mission fields—Lachlan Vass, Jr., who went to Africa, and Dr. William Hollister, of this city, who served for some years as a medical missionary to Korea.
Baptists10 organized here May 11, 1809, and by 1812 had finished a “meeting-house” on Johnson Street near the cemetery entrance, the present site of St. Cyprian's colored Episcopal Church. This was New Bern's third denomination to erect a house of worship. The second Baptist church here, their present edifice, was dedicated July 2, 1848. Probably patterned after the same drawing, it bears a close similarity to the Chapel of the Cross, an Episcopal church at Chapel Hill, erected about the same time, 1843-1848.
Local Baptist pastors have been prominent in church and educational history. Meredith College and Furman University took their names from former New Bern pastors, the Rev. Thomas Meredith and the Rev. Richard Furman, Jr. The “Biblical Recorder,” State Baptist publication, was started here January 5, 1835, by
7Ibid., 124.8Ibid., 108.9Ibid., 155.10 Chief source of this Baptist summary was an address, “A Century of Service,” by the Rev. Dr. Hight C. Moore, editorial secretary of the Baptist Sunday School Board at Nashville and former local pastor, during the program here commemorating the 125th anniversary of the First Baptist Church organization here on November 13, 1934, as a feature of the 104th annual session of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention. A manuscript copy of the address is in the possession of the author of this history.Meredith; another local pastor, the Rev. J. M. C. Breaker, founded “The Confederate Baptist,” at Columbia, S. C.
Wake Forest College was the idea of a New Bern pastor, the Rev. William Hooper, who had turned to the Baptist ministry from the Episcopal pulpit. A native of Wilmington, he was a grandson of William Hooper, who signed the Declaration of Independence for North Carolina. The Baptist leader became second president of Wake Forest; and later served as president of Chowan Female Institute, 1855-62; following New Bern service, 1852-54.
Samuel Wait, first president of Wake Forest College, became prominent in North Carolina because of an accident that forced him to come to New Bern. He also served as local pastor. For five years he was president of Oxford Female Seminary.
Other pastors had outstanding educational records: the building at Chowan College was due to Martin R. Forey, president; Joseph Andrews Warne, first principal of Furman Academy; Josiah J. Finch, principal at Sedgewick Female Seminary; Theodore Whitefield, principal of a Mississippi school for the blind; and Abraham David Cohen, resident superintendent of Oxford Orphanage.
Established in 1821, the local Catholic parish is the oldest in North Carolina. Originally comprising almost all Eastern Carolina, it long drew members and visitors from as far west as Greensboro.
St. Paul's Catholic Church edifice, still in use, was erected 1840-41, now ranking as the oldest of its denomination in the State. Previous services were held at William Gaston's home. Cardinal Gibbons often visited here while Bishop of the North Carolina vicariate, 1868-72. Father Harry Northrop, local priest, became Bishop of Charleston; and another priest, Father Thomas F. Price, founded the Catholic Orphanage at Raleigh and the American Foreign Missionary Society at Mary Knoll, N. Y.11
During May, 1848, a Union Baptist minister, Peter Howell, came to New Bern. A few followers were formed October 7 into an O'Kellyan Christian Church, with 29
11 Irwin, op. cit.members, including two prominent laymen, Messrs. Bragg and Ellixon. The group did not have continuous leadership, and became disorganized during the War Between the States. It was not until about 1886 that Disciples of Christ permanently organized here. Their first church, formerly standing on Hancock Street, was completed and dedicated December 1, 1889, with 65 charter members. Their present handsome edifice, Broad Street Christian Church, was dedicated April 18, 1926.12 A charter member, Miss Etta Nunn, has long served the denomination in Auxiliary work and Mexican mission fields.
Free Will Baptists began a church here a century ago which joined the historic old Bethel Conference, the background for many pioneer Disciples of Christ in North Carolina. This church had 46 members in 1841, when the first Christian organizations were begun in the State. The group failed to go over to the Disciples of Christ. It has had a long and honorable record here.
The Tabernacle Baptist Church was organized in 1895. The cornerstone of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, was laid December 31, 1903, the first of that faith to be built and dedicated in North Carolina. Financial contribution was made by Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, discoverer of Christian Science. The Jewish synagogue, Chester B'Nai Sholem, was built in 1908. The Riverside Methodist Church was organized in 1915 from a Sunday School that had been opened in that part of town the year before. Their church building was erected in 1920.
But, in 1818, there were only three churches and three pastors in New Bern. A writer reported in that year:
“There are three houses of public worship in New Bern, and at present three congregations supplied with pastors. The Episcopalians, who are a numerous and respectable body, have a decent brick church, at present supplied with a clergyman.
“The Methodists, the most numerous society of Christians in the place, have a very large and convenient chapel, and are supplied with a regular succession of able and evangelical preachers. The Baptists have a meeting-house, at present out of repair. They have no regular
12 Most of the information about the local Disciples was obtained from articles written by C. C. Ware, of Wilson, corresponding secretary of the North Carolina Christian Missionary Convention, in The North Carolina Christian, and from an article on the history of the Broad Street Christian Church by John R. Taylor, published in The New Bern Times, December 15, 1939.preacher. Besides these, a Presbyterian congregation meets at the Academy for public worship.”13
Stephen Chester, a Presbyterian, wrote a humorous poem about the churches for a New Year's address January 2, 1819. It follows, as printed in the Carolina Centinel here:14
Episcopal ChurchA Church of George the Second's reignStill flings its shadow o'er the plain,But mouldering on its ancient leaseMust soon resign its resting place.Methodist Church
Next comes a house without a nameTo that of church it has no claim,And yet the long misshapen pileContains a throng ’twixt either aisle,And in the galleries perch'd above,To join in prayer and feasts of love;Its various worshipers can tellWhy they reject a spire or bell.Baptist Church
The Baptist Barn comes next to viewWhere winter winds turn noses blue,And shiv'ring devotees retireRight glad from worship to the fire;But Presbyterians in the lurch,Too poor or mean to build a church,Are glad to find admittance hereWhen its own priests don't interfere.13 Vass, 98.14Ibid., 113. Whitford, 230-31.
XXXVI
SECOND EPISCOPAL CHURCH BUILDING
During Dr. Mason's rectorate the second Episcopal church was erected here. The same location was used, but instead of having the building at the corner of the lot the larger structure was placed to the northeast, the present site.
As early as January 2, 1778, the southwest corner of the church lot had been designated as the true beginning for the plan of the town.1 The “Lady Blessington” cannon taken from the British Ship-of-War Lady Blessington after a sharp engagement during the Revolution by an armed privateer owned by John Wright Stanly, New Bern patriot and member of Christ Church, was planted on that corner and was used in laying out the city.2
In 1789, as previously mentioned, a State bill was passed3 permitting nine Episcopalians named as church wardens to accept donations for erecting a new and larger church than their small Colonial structure which is said to have resembled on the interior the Episcopal church still standing at Georgetown, S. C., which was also erected in 1750.4 But it took a long time to raise sufficient funds.
A definite proposal for construction of the church was drafted in 1820.5 Undoubtedly the local building boom gave impetus to the movement. On a special committee for the purpose were appointed M. C. Stephens, J. R. Donnell, Moses Jarvis, John P. Daves and J. F. Burgwyn.
Decision was reached to have the edifice face the South. It was to be a brick structure, 70 feet long and 55 feet wide, with a shingle roof. Besides the main auditorium, with two aisles and fifty to sixty pews, there was to be a vestry room. High arched windows were planned, and side galleries. Special mention was made that there was to be an organ.
1 St. Rec., XIII, 357; XXIV, 246.2 Vass, p. 87.3 St. Rec., XXV, 35-36. Supra, pp. 86, 100 et seq.4 Whitford, p. 35.5 V. M., 1820.This new church was consecrated February 1, 1824,6 by the Rt. Rev. John Stark Ravenscroft7 (1772-1830), born in Virginia and bred in England and Scotland, who had been elected and installed in 1823 as the first bishop of the permanently-organized Diocese of North Carolina. Previously Bishop Moore of Virginia had made four annual visitations in North Carolina and presided over the diocesan conventions, 1819-1822.8
Bishop Ravenscroft was a large and commanding personality, with a voice “like the roaring of a lion.”9 His eyebrows were so heavy that he called them his “dormer windows.”10 For years, he said, he tried hard and finally succeeded in checking his besetting sin of profanity.
While studying law at William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va., he is reported to have been dissipated, but was rescued by the lady who later became his wife. He wrote of her that what she did not approve she would not smile on, yet she never gave him a cross word or an ill-natured look in her life.11
Despite his early Scotch Presbyterian training, he joined the Republican or Reformed Methodists, but after study he turned to the Episcopal religion “for that deposit of Apostolical succession in which alone verifiable power to minister in sacred things was to be found in these United States.”12
Accordingly, he became a candidate for Holy Orders and was licensed as a lay reader by Bishop Moore February 17, 1816, the next year being ordained April 25 as a deacon in Monumental Church, Richmond. On May 6 he became rector at Fredericksburg. In 1818 he was ordained a priest.
When named Bishop of North Carolina, he was the tenth Episcopal Bishop for America. His diocese was weak and congregations were small, but he was a fearless leader, wise in counsel and strong in action, and he traveled extensively to build up the church in the State.
For his first year there were reported 480 communicants and seven clergymen, with 200 baptisms. His salary was set at $750, to be paid semi-annually, not
6 V. M., 1824, and original certificate of consecration.7 This brief sketch of Bishop Ravenscroft came from various sources, but particularly the article, “The First Three Bishops—Ravenscroft, Ives and Atkinson,” written by the Rt. Rev. Alfred A. Watson, D. D., and published in Cheshire's Sketches, pp. 279-287, et. passim.8 Cheshire, Sketches, 278.9 Watson, article mentioned, p. 281.10Ibid.11Ibid.12Ibid., p. 285.including his pay as rector of Christ Church, Raleigh.13 In 1831 after his death there were reported to be fifteen ministers and 809 communicants in the diocese, most of them in East Carolina.14
In his “Recollections of New Bern Fifty Years Ago,” published 1874-75 in the magazine, Our Living and Our Dead, Stephen Miller, former New Bernian, speaks briefly of the dedication of the “new brick edifice” by the local Episcopalians.
The choir for the dedication was led by James B. Ackroyd, church organist, who was a piano and organ teacher and composer, Miller reports, so there must have been an organ in the church from the beginning. He adds, “Most of the influential families in New Bern were represented in the membership and pews of the church.”15
Among the clergymen present for the service, he says, was the Rev. William Hooper, LL.D., professor at the University of North Carolina, 1818-1838, and at a later period professor at the South Carolina College at Columbia.16 He had entered the Episcopal ministry in 1818, at the age of 26, but as previously mentioned turned to the Baptist denomination. In 1831 he was baptized as a Baptist and became an influential Baptist minister.17
Showing how prominent churchmen underwrote the final costs of the new Episcopal church here, an original indenture of the church vestry, dated February 4, 1824, is still extant,18 signed by members of the Building Committee: M. C. Stephens, J. Burgwyn, Moses Jarvis and John P. Daves:
“Whereas, the subscribers for building Christ Church in general meeting agreed that if the excess of sales of pews be less than the debts due to the builders and banks, the deficiency should be raised by payments on the notes given by subscribers . . . acknowledge receipt of John R. Donnell, R. D. and Charles Spaight, $394.50, being the amount of their assessment, this sum to be repaid out of the proceeds of the sales of pews still unsold, previous to any distribution on account of the original subscription.”
A design of the church seats appears on the paper, and a notation shows a contract “between John Stanly, Marcus
13 Marshall, the Rev. Matthias M., D. D., “The Church in North Carolina: Its Present Condition and Prospects,” published in Cheshire's Sketches, see p. 342.14Ibid.15Op. cit., pp. 339, 456.16Ibid., 339.17 Moore, op. cit. Whitford, op. cit., p. 262.18 John D. Whitford Collection, North Carolina Historical Commission Archives, Raleigh.C. Stephens, John W. Guion, Moses Jarvis, John Merrit, John P. Daves and James G. Stanly, vestry, trustees, for $639, for two pews, numbers 23 and 25, subject to tax not exceeding $17.50 per year for support of pastor.”19
The paper bears the seal of John M. Roberts as witness and the signatures of the vestrymen: J. Stanly, Stephens, Guion, Jarvis, Daves, Merrit and J. G. Stanly.
Within several years the church was in need of repairs, as shown in a record dated November 27, 1832: “The undersigned having been requested to examine the state of Christ Church in this town since the completion of the essential repairs thereof do hereby certify that they conscientiously believe the repairs to be perfectly secure from the most remote danger and that its condition is such to warrant the presence of the greatest possible assemblage.” Signed by B. Flanner, Joshua Mitchell, F. Sparrow, Hardy B. Lane and D. Mumford.20
Flanner and Mitchell were brick masons; Mumford was a colored brick mason; Sparrow was a shipbuilder; Lane built the steeple to the old Baptist church and had charge of all the carpenter work executed on the new brick church.
One of the “leading men of his line,” Bennett Flanner is said to have had charge of much of the new Episcopal church construction. Stephen F. Miller wrote: “He moved on the scaffolding high in the air, apparently with as much indifference as if standing on the pavement below. I saw him stand erect nearly a half-hour on the apex of the steeple, not less than 150 feet high, with no other surface of support than the twenty or thirty inches diameter on which his feet rested.”21
Walls of the edifice had to be repaired again in 1833. The roof spread several inches on the huge structure, forcing out the side walls and rendering the building dangerous.22 The old roof was taken off, to restore the walls to their proper position. A new roof of a different material was substituted, with cypress shingles. This is said to have been a cause of the heavy fire loss when the church was burned in 1871.
19 A design of the church pews also appears on the original deed of the Vestry to J. R. Donnell, R. D. Spaight and Charles Spaight, for Pews No. 23 and 25, dated November, 1825, now in the museum of the New Bern Public Library. According to this deed, the three men subscribed $1,000 and were assessed $394.50, but were credited with $639 for the pews.20 Whitford, op. cit., 270-1. Record in Whitford Collection, N. C. Historical Commission, Raleigh.21 Miller, op. cit., 348.22 Whitford, 270.XXXVII
THE REV. JOHN R. GOODMAN
Ordained priest at St. Paul's Church, Edenton, on April 16, 1828, after arriving in North Carolina from Pennsylvania, the Rev. John R. Goodman became rector of Christ Church in December of that year.1
With great enthusiasm he set to work to build up his congregation and the loyalty of its members. A Sunday School was established, and a library started. Women of the church formed an “Industrious Society.” New light fixtures were installed in the new church; and a bell, “of large size,” was obtained.
By 1830 Mr. Goodman could report to the diocese that there was an “increase in the religious sensibility” of his congregation. He said that many prayer books and religious tracts had been distributed. Lay delegates to the convention that year were Moses Jarvis, James W. Bryan, Charles G. Spaight and William N. Hawks.2
An old minute book of the vestry, recently found here by C. H. Stith and turned over to Senior Warden E. K. Bishop for the church archives, has a first entry dated May 7, 1830. This is the oldest local vestry book still extant, so far as is known. Mr. Stith is the great-grandson of Moses Jarvis.
Still further “increase of seriousness and religious sensibility” at New Bern was reported by Mr. Goodman in 1832.3 During 1829 there had been 75 members listed on the church rolls, six of the former 81 having been marked off as dying during the year; while by 1832 the number had grown to 106, including eleven Negroes.4
That Summer the rector was granted a leave of absence from the middle of August to the end of October, to attend the General Convention in the North. The next February his salary was reported to be inadequate for his support, and he was allowed for one year all revenue from the church pews less the expense of collections.5
1 D. J., 1828-29.2Ibid., 1830.3Ibid., 1832.4 First Parish Register.5 V. M., 1832-33.Apparently the “religious sensibility” of his flock did not keep on the upward march. For, in 1833, he reported that many of the members had “too much of a heedless unconcern for the dying behest of their Lord.” However, he did report the establishment of a missionary society and the formation of a colored congregation, likely the first of each for the local church.6
The records by Mr. Goodman in his parish registers are unusually neat and explicit. He used Roman numerals. He kept a careful index, and added many explanatory notes, as about the destruction of the first church records by fire.7
By a marriage ceremony entry, he noted that the man was found later to be from Columbia, S. C., where he passed under another name, having a wife and family there. Goodman added in his own defense, “As he was a stranger in this place, I made every enquiry, and was repeatedly assured by the person who brought the license that no legal impediment existed.”8
From an entry October 31, 1833, it is learned that the church service was conducted at the Academy building while the church was undergoing repairs.9
Some of the pews in those days were decorated or lined. A notation of February 10, 1834, was to the effect that those pewholders “disposed to line and trim their Pews, on the sides and back thereof, be requested to use a red colour for the same, in order to conform to the hangings and trimmings of the pulpit and desk.”
Before Mr. Goodman resigned the local rectorate in 1834, the congregation lost a prominent layman and member of the vestry, John Stanly. On December 15, 1829, and probably on other occasions, the minister gave communion to the layman in his “sick chamber” at the Stanly home here, he reported in the local register.
The tombstone near the front entrance of Cedar Grove cemetery bears this inscription, written by William Gaston, who also wrote the memorial obituary of the statesman:
“Sacred to the memory of John Stanly, eldest son of John Wright Stanly and Ann, his wife, who was born at
6 D. J., 1833.7Supra, p. 124.8 Parish Register.9 V. M., 1833.New Bern, N. C., on the ninth day of April in the year of our Lord 1774 and died on the second day of August in the year 1833.
“Few persons in any community have occupied a more prominent station, few have exercised a more powerful influence than this distinguished individual for many years held and exerted in our Town and throughout our State. Long let the affectionate and grateful remembrance live of his genius, his learning, his courtesy, his eloquence, his virtues, his personal charities and his public services.—Gaston.”
XXXVIII
THE REV. JOHN BURKE
The Rev. John Burke became rector of Christ Church in 1835, and served until 1837.
At first he was only temporarily called, at $50 per month, and he accepted on that basis, until the vestry could hear definitely from a call extended to Dr. Mason, then of Geneva, N. Y., urging him to return to the local church, at a salary of $800 a year.1
Dr. Mason declined the local invitation, and in July, 1835, Mr. Burke was named permanent rector, according to a note in the parish records made by Charles Shepard, secretary of the vestry. Burke expressed thanks to “those gentlemen who contributed to defray his travel expenses” to New Bern. The vestry voted $50 to William Hawks, who had substituted in the pulpit while there was no rector.
In June of 1835 the vestry had voted to engage a rector for only one year at a time, the appointment to cease at the termination of that period unless the rector was notified three months before expiration of the term that continuation of his services was desired. This action, however, was rescinded in 1838.
Mr. Burke was re-elected rector in July, 1836, at a salary of $700 a year. He had asked an increase of pay, but the vestry declined, saying they were unable to raise the amount at that time.2
His first convention report explained that the deficit for the Bishop's salary from his parish was due to the fact that collections had been irregular since his predecessor had left New Bern.3 In 1837 he reported that he was instructing youths in the catechism, and was doing as much as he could to improve the Sunday School.4
Started here on July 4, 1837, was the Female Benevolent Society, now the New Bern Benevolent Society, the oldest charitable organization in North Carolina still in existence and probably the second oldest in the United
1 Vestry Minutes, 1835.2Ibid., 1836.3 D. J., 1836.4Ibid., 1837.States.5 An earlier Female Charitable Society, started here in 1812, had dissolved after several years.6
The Benevolent Society was sponsored by a native New Bernian who had been visiting the relatives of her Northern husband. The first president was Miss Janet Taylor, afterwards married to William Hollister. The Rev. Mr. Burke likely assisted with the organization.
Its purpose was “to assist temporarily, during sickness, stress of weather, or other unavoidable casualty such ‘respectable females’ as are ordinarily in the habit of supporting themselves by their own industry.” In 1843 it was incorporated. During 1851 it was left $1,000 by Michael Lente, this still being a trust fund, interest used for relief work.
Succeeding the late Bishop Ravenscroft, the Rev. Levi Silliman Ives, of Connecticut, had become the second Bishop of North Carolina in 1831.7 He was popular during his 22-year service, diocesan conventions were like family reunions, and the church flourished under his untiring and zealous leadership. When he started his work, he found 15 clergymen and 809 communicants; when he concluded, he left 40 ministers and more than 2,000 members.
His educational and literary interests were also outstanding. St. Mary's school at Raleigh was started, as was the mountain mission at Valle Crucis. Five of his sermons were published, as “The Apostles’ Doctrine and Fellowship.”
But, he had trouble with his personal beliefs and convictions. Reared a Presbyterian, he began preparing for the ministry when he decided to turn to the Episcopal church. He was ordained in 1823. After holding a number of important charges in New York and Pennsylvania, he was rector of St. Luke's Church in New York when called to North Carolina.
About 1848 he showed inclinations towards Romanism. For four years he wavered in his faiths, but then made his decision. In 1853, after he became a Roman Catholic, he resigned as the Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina in a letter written from Rome.
5 Records of the local organization give full history, and its rank in age through the country has been checked with State and National authorities.6 Johnson, Guion Griffis, Ante-Bellum North Carolina, pp. 163, 266, 702.7 Watson, op. cit., 287-92, et passim.8 Marshall, op. cit., 342.XXXIX
THE REV. CAMERON F. McRAE
After the resignation of the Rev. Mr. Burke, the vestry in November, 1837, invited the Rev. William Hawks and the Rev. Harvey Stanly, both natives and residents of New Bern, to hold services as often as they could at Christ Church until a regular rector might be procured.1
A resolution was passed by the vestry to the end that any vestryman had a right to invite an Episcopal clergyman to preach here without consulting the other members.
No report of the church was given to the diocese in 1838, as no rector was here that Spring. During June of that year came the Rev. Cameron Farquahar McRae, of Elizabeth City, who served from 1838 to 1842. He had been recommended in May by Bishop Ives at request of the vestry and was to receive $650 the first year, with later increase.2
A leader of unbounded charity and benevolence, he assisted the women of his and other denominations with their new Female Benevolent society. Also active at the same time was a pioneer Female Education Society of New Bern, an auxiliary to assist the Presbyterian Board of Education, particularly in aiding “pious indigent young men in obtaining an education for the gospel ministry.”3
That Mr. McRae made an excellent rector is shown in the following resolution passed and recorded by the vestry April 18, 1840, and addressed to Bishop Ives:
“McRae having signified a willingness to be admitted into the office of Institution of Ministers, we the undersigned, the Vestry of Christ Church, New Bern, state with great pleasure that Mr. McRae has been nearly two years the Rector of said church, that he has given universal satisfaction to the whole of his congregation and that he is duly qualified and fit to receive the said office.”
In the vestry minutes is found a glowing tribute to John W. Guion, secretary, who died July 18, 1840.
1 V. M., 1837.2Ibid., 1838.3 Original record in possession of the Rev. R. E. McClure, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, New Bern.A letter of resignation was written by the minister January 17, 1842, who said that after nearly four years of relationship “of pleasing character,” he was resigning for “private and domestic” reasons, expecting to move from the section the following June.4
On the same day the vestry answered: “We feel assured that we express the feelings of every member of the congregation and that not one of those we represent would on this occasion withhold the expression of their sincere and heartfelt conviction that your duties throughout the entire period of the charge you now resign have been performed with a zeal, ability and faithfulness which entitles you to the most unqualified testimonials of their approbation and esteem.”5
The Rev. Moses A. Curtis, of Hillsboro, was called, at a salary of $1,000, to succeed Mr. McRae, with the approval of Bishop Ives, who came here and met with the vestry April 9; but Mr. Curtis must have declined, for Mr. Hawks was requested to preach temporarily after Mr. McRae's departure.6 Mr. Hawks was then in charge of the Griffin Free School, so was residing in New Bern.
4 V. M., 1842.5Ibid.6Ibid.XLTHE REV. FORDYCE M. HUBBARD
The Rev. Forcyce M. Hubbard, of Cheraw, S. C., formerly a New England lawyer, was called to the rectorate on May 5, 1842. The town was described to him as having 4,000 inhabitants “and the congregation of Christ Church consists of (among) the most fashionable and intelligent portion of the community.”1
The description must have appealed to him, for he accepted the call and moved shortly to this city, probably in June, for his first parish register notation is dated June 30. He was allowed a leave to visit in the North during 1843.2
Mr. Hubbard is said to have made a number of changes in the chancel, including the substitution of the altar for the communion table. According to Miss Dita Roberts, in her excellent booklet, “A Short Historical Sketch of Christ Church Parish,” he was the first local rector to preach in his surplice without changing for an academic gown just before the sermon.3
While here, he taught Latin at the New Bern Academy. From here he went in 1847, to Chapel Hill, where he acted as a professor at the University of North Carolina until his death. Diocesan records have numerous references to his attendance at various conventions after his departure from this city.
That Mr. Hubbard's relations with the vestrymen and church members were cordial and friendly here is evident from the tone of his letter of resignation dated June 12, 1847, in which he said that his decision to leave New Bern was due to
“No caprice of dissatisfaction on my part, nor from any signs of disaffection in the Parish which it has been my happiness to serve but from a deference which is the duty of us all to the ‘godly judgment’ of our revered Diocesan, often and earnestly repeated that the interests of the Diocese demand my services elsewhere more than here.”4
1 V. M., 1842.2Ibid., 1843.3Op. cit., pp. 14-15.4 V. M., 1847.In similar friendliness the vestrymen accepted the resignation a few days later, “with great reluctance and regret.” They paid tribute to Mr. Hubbard's “ministrations among us a faithful teacher and servant of our Lord and Master . . . a Christian gentleman . . . has endeared you to us in no common or ordinary degree.”5
5Ibid.XLITHE REV. WILLIAM N. HAWKS
Next rector was the Rev. William N. Hawks, who succeeded Mr. Hubbard in 1847, at a salary of $750 a year. He had frequently held services at Christ Church during previous years, and had represented the congregation as lay delegate to diocesan convention even prior to that.1
In 1832 Hawks was reported in diocesan records as serving St. Peter's Church, Washington as rector.2 During 1839 he was said to be residing in New Bern again, as teacher at the Moses Griffin school, which had been established for poor girls, as one of the first institutions of the kind, through bequests left by Griffin, eccentric local miser, who died in 1816 leaving his property in the city for the purpose. The school was incorporated in 1833, and located on George Street across from the northern end of Cedar Grove cemetery.3
A colored congregation was started in New Bern by Hawks, with 70 persons, diocesan records show for 1845.4 The next year the number of members is said to have continued to increase.5
Two years after that he assumed charge of Christ Church. He also directed St. Thomas Mission, and his reports mention it frequently. He was a true pastor, beloved by his congregation and also by members of other denominations.
The church registers often show baptisms of the Griffin school pupils. One entry is dated December 7, 1847, when five of the girls were baptized by Mr. Hawks. The school teacher, Miss Areta Ellis, long active in this capacity, acted as their sponsor.6
The number of communicants reported to the diocesan convention in May, 1848, was 154; including 115 white persons and 39 colored. The next year there were 124 whites and 36 colored, or a total of 160. But the following year there was a decrease of four members, to 156; consisting of 122 white members and 34 colored. Two of the
1 Vestry Minutes.2 Diocesan Journal, 1832.3 Griffin's will probated in June, 1816, Craven County Record of Wills, Book C; pp. 132-34. Manuscripts in private collection of the late Mrs. Frederick C. Roberts, New Bern. Thomas, Henderson Lee, Public Education in Craven County, thesis submitted to faculty of University of North Carolina, towards Master of Arts degree in Department of Education, Chapel Hill, 1925, p. 32. Whitford, pp. 214-17.4 D. J., 1845.5Ibid., 1846.6 Parish Registers (hereafter cited as P. R.), 1847.Negroes were reported to have been dropped from the rolls for “evil living.” The church members gave often to charity and missions.
No action was taken May 25, 1851, by the vestry as to the charges being brought against Bishop Ives, then reported to be turning to Catholicism.
Mr. Hawks, like many of the other rectors, had financial troubles. He had previously thanked the vestry for $50 paid him for his substitute services, saying the amount was all right. But in 1853 he complained to the vestry that he did not think it fair to receive on his salary only the proceeds from rentals of church pews. He also complained of his heavy duties, which included teaching. In August, 1853, he resigned.7
Grandson of John Hawks, supervising architect of Tryon's Palace, and brother of the brilliant Francis Lister Hawks, D.D., and Bishop Cicero Hawks, this rector was a member of one of New Bern's most outstanding families. A native New Bernian, he married here Miss Sarah Coart, on April 20, 1831, the Rev. Mr. Goodman performing the ceremony.8 He died at Columbus, Ga., where for some time he had served as rector.9
This rector was one of the five sons of Francis Hawks, only son of John Hawks. The latter was a native of Dragby, Lincolnshire, England, rather than being a Moor from Malta as often stated erroneously. The father of these boys served as United States Collector of Customs for the Port of New Bern.10 He must have been an excellent father and his wife, Julie A. Stephens Hawks, must have made a splendid mother; for their sons turned out so well. One became a lawyer, one an educator and the other three clergymen, including one who was a bishop and another who was elected bishop three times.
It is related that Francis Hawks used to “tune up” his sons every Monday morning with a whipping. If one of the boys would demur and plead innocence, the father would say, “Oh, you will deserve it anyway before the week is half gone.”11
7 V. M., 1853.8 P. R., 1831.9 Miller, op. cit., p. 344.10Ibid. Whitford, op. cit., 192.11 Whitford, 174.Dr. Francis L. HawksFrancis Lister Hawks,12 one of the sons, studied law under William Gaston and John Stanly here, after his graduation from the University of North Carolina in 1815, when he was 17 years old. He also studied in a law school at Litchfield, Conn. While practicing the profession here, he often read sermons at church services in the absence of the rector. He is said to have possessed “graceful elocution, mellifluous composition, and finely-modulated voice.”
When 23 years of age, he went to the General Assembly. He also served here as Worshipful Master of St. John's Masonic lodge, in which he was an active member and officer. As Reporter to the State Supreme Court, he compiled four volumes of North Carolina Court Records.
In 1827 he was ordained a deacon at New Bern, and later became a priest. After serving as assistant to Dr. Harry Croswell at New Haven and then as assistant minister to Bishop White at St. James, Philadelphia, he became rector of St. Stephens, New York City. In a few months he transferred to St. Thomas Church, New York, where he served ably for 12 years.
During 1836 he was elected historiographer of the Episcopal Church in the United States. In this capacity he visited Europe, especially England, to gather material for his “Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of the United States.” He also wrote many secular histories, including histories of his native State. He was also a co-founder of the New York Review, and aided with the work of many historical and literary organizations.
His appointment as missionary Bishop of the Southwest had come in 1835, but there was no endowment for the office, so he declined. He moved to Holly Springs, Miss., in 1843, joining a daughter there, and the next year became rector of Christ Church at New Orleans. Besides rebuilding that church, which he served for five years, he helped establish the University of Louisiana and became its first president.
The fact that he had served as literary master, spiritual almoner and temporal head of a classical school at
12 Material on Dr. Hawks came from numerous sources, especially references at the library of the New York Historical Society, New York City, which he helped organize and to which he left his historical collections. Miller, 247-48. Whitford, 118, 174, et passim.Flushing, Long Island, which had failed with its fiscal affairs in bad shape, was used against him when he was nominated as Bishop of Mississippi. His character was vindicated and he was elected to the post, but he declined to serve. Later he refused to accept appointment as Bishop of Rhode Island.
He became rector of the Church of the Mediation in New York, which was soon merged with Calvary Church. With the outbreak of the War Between the States, he resigned his Northern position, and for more than two years served Christ Church in Baltimore. Then he returned to New York to become associated with the Church of the Annunciation. In 1865 friends organized a new parish for him, the Church of the Holy Saviour. He died September 27, 1866. The funeral was held from Calvary Church, and the body was interred at Greenwich, Conn. His first wife was a native of that State.
Long considered one of the most eloquent and renowned preachers in America, Dr. Hawks often drew theologians all the way from Europe to hear his sermons. Stephen Miller wrote of him: “His gifts and labors considered together, the ancient town of New Bern has never produced another son of such literary accomplishments to adorn the age of her Gaston and Stanlys.”13
Frequently he came to New Bern, and throughout his life retained a deep interest in the welfare of his native town. He was supposed to deliver the address on the occasion of the laying of the foundation stone for the entrance of native shell rock at Cedar Grove cemetery, but was unable to arrive in time for the program.
With receipts from his lecture given upon his later arrival, a total of $130, the iron gates under the cemetery entrance arches were purchased, reports the late Col. John D. Whitford in his memoirs of New Bern. Colonel Whitford says that the four lines on the marble tablet above the main arch were taken from a special hymn composed at the time by Dr. Hawks,14 as follows:
“Still hallowed be the spot where liesEach dear loved one in earth's embrace,Our God their treasured dust doth prize,Man should protect their resting place.”13 Miller, 248.14 Whitford, 118.Local CemeteriesCedar Grove cemetery is the third important cemetery opened here for burials during the past two centuries. The first cemetery is said to have been located on the east side of Craven Street, between Pollock and South Front, about where the Taylor-Nixon house and adjoining structures are now situated.15 Previously, in 1715, every plantation owner had been ordered to set aside land for a family burial plot.16
The Episcopal church yard was the second community cemetery here. Besides the Rev. James Reed and John Wright Stanly, many important persons were buried there. But the site has attained more notoriety from the tombstone of Charles Elliott, provincial Attorney-General, who died in 1756, because of its unique epitaph: “An Honest Lawyer Indeed.”
Also in this quiet and peaceful God's Acre, so near the central business district of town, is the oft-quoted epitaph:
“Behold and see as you pass by,As you are now, so once was I.As I am now, you soon must bePrepare for death and follow me.”To a similar inscription in Massachusetts a student added:
“To follow you I am not contentUntil I know which way you went.”In the Southeastern part of the churchyard is a marble cross erected in 1869, through the efforts of the Hon. M. E. Manly, to the memory of a Roman Catholic priest, the Rev. Father Patricius (Patrick) Cleery, a native of Ireland, who came here on a visit to settle his sister's estate and died here in 1799 during a yellow fever epidemic, after he had worked valiantly for the relief of other local sufferers. The marble cross replaced a former lightwood board over his grave, with its tribute, “he died at his post,” and the site was long tended by appreciative members of other denominations.17
15Ibid., 131.16 St. Rec., XXIII, 66-67.17 Whitford, 207. Catholic Church Diocesan histories in the library of the Rev. Father M. A. Irwin here.At the west of the front entrance walk a mother, father and two sons are said to be buried in the same grave. Mrs. B. R. Morris heard the story from the late Col. James A. Bryan, who was a descendant of the family connections.
James Bryan Jasper, a three-year-old boy, was drowned in Neuse River when he fell overboard from a wharf at the foot of Pollock Street near his home on that street. James Jasper, his father, “ran plunging in after him with hopes of saving his life,” but was also drowned in the attempt, on September 21, 1796. The mother and infant son, named for the drowned brother, died on the day the baby was born.
The church opened Cedar Grove cemetery in 1800 and transferred it to the city in 1854. There are buried many prominent personages, as William Gaston, William Williams, Peter Custis, Moses Griffin, John Stanly, and Mary Bayard Clarke, literary genius and talented poet.
Moisture is held by the “Weeping Arch” entrance of native shell rock, and a superstition has long been that if water drops on anyone passing under the arch he will be the next one carried there in a hearse.
The Confederate monument in the cemetery was erected May 11, 1885, by the Ladies’ Memorial Association, predecessor of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Across George Street, where the new cemetery extension has been recently opened, there was a Federal cemetery during the War Between the States prior to the establishment of the present National cemetery farther out that street February 1, 1867. This latter seven-and-a-half-acre tract now has graves of 3,600 soldiers from twenty States. Names of 1,100 are unknown. Monuments to their war dead have been placed there by New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
XLII
THE REV. HENRY F. GREENE
After the resignation of the Rev. William Hawks as rector of Christ Church in 1853, the vestry extended a call to the Rev. A. A. Watson, of Plymouth, N. C., then at Brooklyn, N. Y., who had visited New Bern. Salary was set at $900. But he declined to leave his “flock.”1 Later he did become local rector, and afterwards in 1883 was named first Bishop of the Diocese of East Carolina.
The Rev. Thomas Atkinson had been elected Bishop of North Carolina at the 1853 convention in Raleigh, to succeed Bishop Ives, and the local vestrymen asked him to recommend a rector.2
A petition signed by 68 men and women of the congregation urged the vestrymen to recall Mr. McRae to the local pulpit, but the vestry decided that this would not be for the best interest of the parish, especially since Bishop Atkinson had already recommended for the rectorate the Rev. Henry F. Greene, of Baltimore.3 Accordingly, Greene was called and accepted, serving here for more than three years.
Taking charge January 20, 1854, Mr. Greene soon reported “pleasing signs of interest.” He told of work in the Sunday School, parish school and charitable society.4 Despite his zeal, however, he was badly handicapped because of ill health.
Four new pews had been added in the church, it was reported August 10, 1854, and two pews had been enlarged.5 That year the vestry declared that the church walls had been so “mutilated” by tablets it would be necessary thereafter to get official consent by paying $500 before any marker could be placed in the church. Later the amount of money was omitted, but vestry consent was still required for church tablets.
During that 1854 Summer the vestry decided to try to get a new rectory. Consideration was given August 10 to the purchase of the property of William P. Moore on
1 V. M., 1853.2Ibid.3Ibid.4 D. J., 1854.5 V. M., 1854.Pollock Street, but it was reported unfavorably by a committee composed of Mr. Greene, John Blackwell and M. W. Jarvis.
On December 5 William Dunn, long secretary of the vestry, reported for a rectory committee that they had bargained with Dr. E. S. Hunter for his house, on the west side of Craven Street between New and Broad Streets. This was approved, and Mr. Dunn said that $1,977.50 had been subscribed for the purpose. To make up the $2,250 purchase price, $300 was lent by J. G. Stanly on a vestry note.
Among the contributors listed were John Blackwell, $350; John N. Washington, $250; Stanly, Jarvis, Samuel Simpson and J. C. Justice, $200 each; Samuel Oliver and Mrs. Daves, $150 each; and Alex Justice, $125.6
Although this lot was bought, it was not retained for a rectory, being sold to George S. Stevenson for $2,500 in August, 1859.
In 1854 Judge George E. Badger, then United States Senator and former Secretary of the Navy, a native of New Bern, was asked to give the vestry an opinion as to the chance that the parish had in getting soon the bequest of Alice A. Thompson, of New Bern, who in 1836 had left property to the church after the life estate of relatives.7 It was said that the church was then entitled to twenty slaves and one-half interest in the house and lot adjoining the Presbyterian Church here. James W. Bryan was employed by the vestry as its attorney in the matter; later George S. Attmore was engaged as counsel.
A vestry resolution of June 24, 1856, paid tribute to William Dunn, who had died. Mention was made of a “deep sense of his worth as a man, of his usefulness as a citizen, of his valuable services as a member of the vestry and of our great loss by his removal from our midst.” The next year a resolution was adopted in memory of Matthew A. Outten, vestryman, “Citizen, Friend and Christian.”
The diocesan convention at Washington May 21-24, 1856, was informed that for nearly eight months there had been no regular services at Christ Church, causing a
6Ibid. Craven County Record of Deeds, Book 62; pp. 188-89.7Ibid.deficit in the parish quota, due to the illness of the rector.8
But Mr. Greene reported nevertheless that the Ladies Sewing Society “without fairs or public sales” had been able to raise “considerable sums” for the parish and for missions. He added that he had visited church communicants, that the parish “ragged school” for the poor was then under a salaried teacher, that a Young Ladies’ school was to be opened soon, and that a Classical school with church and secular training had been established.9
The next year he told of “favorable signs of progress and improvement.” The free schools for the poor were said to have been directed by the rector; with the Rev. J. V. Stryker, assistant rector, in charge of the Classical school. Mr. Stryker had been engaged to assist Mr. Greene, because of the latter's poor health.10
In a letter dated June 21, 1856, Mr. Greene reminded the vestry of his “feeble and precarious state of health,” and said that a complete rest, with change of climate, had been advised by his physician. Accordingly, he expressed willingness to resign as rector.11
Instead of accepting a resignation, vestrymen on July 1 granted the rector a leave of absence for three months. “Time will bring healing on its wings,” they assured him.12 But, despite his Summer vacation, his condition remained unfavorable upon his return to duty.
On April 20, 1857, he submitted his formal resignation, because of “physical incapacity to perform duties.” He declared he was leaving the church “in a prosperous condition,” and expressed gratification that his “relations . . . have always been those of cordial friendship to yourselves and other members of the congregation.”13
For their part, in their reply, the vestry praised his record: “You have raised the church in this parish to a condition of prosperity spiritually that has not been enjoyed for many, many years.” His personality and character were also complimented, with “veneration and love for you as a faithful, Godfearing and conscientious Pastor.”14
Mr. Greene was requested to keep on holding church services, with the aid of Mr. Stryker, so long as he remained
8 D. J., 1856.9Ibid.10Ibid., 1857.11 V. M., 1856.12Ibid.13Ibid., 1857.14Ibid.in New Bern, even after his resignation became effective. This he agreed to do. Mr. Stryker continued to serve here also until July 20, 1857. From here Mr. Greene went to Morganton, then to Raleigh, where he died about 1860.15
15 Roberts, op. cit., p. 15.XLIII
THE REV. THOMAS G. HAUGHTON
Again the vestry voted to call the Rev. Mr. Watson to the local rectorate, taking this action June 18, 1857, salary being fixed at $900; but a letter received from him stated he would decline if called, so the invitation was not formally extended.1
The Rev. Thomas G. Haughton, of Salisbury, was asked to become the rector of Christ Church. He accepted June 29. But, as he was busily engaged in erecting a church at Lexington and attending to other work in his parishes, he could not move to New Bern until September. His salary was to be $800 a year.2
Mr. Haughton told the diocesan convention in 1858 of signs of improved demands for church pews, there not being enough seats available to fill the requests. He also told of a gradual addition to the number of male communicants, and said that the free school was “flourishing” under his direction.3
However, after only a short rectorate, Mr. Haughton submitted his resignation July 6, 1858. He regretted to sever the “tie which united us so pleasantly,” he wrote, but desired to return upstate as rector of St. Luke's Church, Salisbury.4
“Heartfelt sorrow” was expressed by the vestry in having to accept the resignation. It was pointed out that Mr. Haughton during his nine months in the community had been held in “highest esteem and respect.”5
Vestrymen at once wrote to Bishop Atkinson for advice in trying to get a new rector as soon as possible. They asserted that a minister was particularly needed here during the Summer, “owing to the sickness which more generously prevails and the deaths which more frequently occur.’6
Friends again contacted the Rev. Mr. Watson to see if he would then accept a local call. The reply must have been favorable. For, he was unanimously called from
1 V. M., 1857.2Ibid.3 D. J., 1858.4 V. M., 1858.5Ibid.6Ibid.Plymouth on August 23, being offered an annual salary of $800 and a rectory. He accepted this third call, and said he would move here as soon as he could arrange his business affairs. 7
In those days it required a long time to travel to New Bern, without the modern railroads, bus service and good roads. When Mr. Greene first came here from Baltimore in 1854, the vestrymen advised him to come by steamship from Baltimore to Norfolk, thence by railroad via Weldon to Goldsboro, and then by stage from Goldsboro to New Bern.8
Not until April 29, 1858, was the Old Mullet Road completed between this city and Goldsboro by the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad Company. A mammoth celebration was held here that day, with addresses by Henry W. Miller and Dr. Francis L. Hawks.9
Yet, Bishop Atkinson and other church leaders managed to come fairly often to this city. This bishop was exceptionally popular here and elsewhere through the diocese. His tact, personality and spirituality appealed to all classes.
Bishop Thomas A. AtkinsonBorn in Virginia August 6, 1807, Thomas A. Atkinson10 was a great-grandson of a Church of England clergyman. He was educated at Yale and Hampden-Sidney, then studied law and was admitted to the bar, practicing successfully for eight years.
During the year 1836 he was ordained an Episcopal deacon, and the next year became a minister. Important charges were held, at St. Paul's in Norfolk, at Lynchburg, and then at St. Peter's Church, Baltimore. He made such a success of this last parish that Grace Church was built for him in Baltimore and he became its rector in 1852.
Twice he declined the Indiana bishopric; first, because of lack of experience, and second, because he did not believe in slavery but was sympathetic to the Southern attitude. In 1853 he would have perhaps been made Bishop of South Carolina but he considered slavery an evil.
7Ibid.8Ibid., 1854.9 Whitford, pp. 228-29. Old newspaper accounts.10 Watson, op. cit., pp. 292-95. Marshall, op. cit., pp. 342-43. These two constituted the chief sources for the facts about Bishop Atkinson.That was the year he was called to succeed Bishop Ives in North Carolina. He accepted, and was consecrated that year in St. John's Chapel, New York, during the General Convention. His influence quickly increased through this State and the South. A degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Trinity College, Hartford; and Doctor of Laws by the University of North Carolina and Cambridge University.
His term of more than 27 years as Bishop, however, was filled with political, industrial, social and religious problems. He approved of the War Between the States and favored the separation of the Southern Episcopal Church from the Northern, but denied that the Act of Secession brought that separation.
After the war, he was prominent in effecting the reconciliation and reunion of the churches and in restoring confidence and peace among their members. At the 1865 General Convention he and Bishop Lay prevented any action that might have prohibited the return of the Southern churches on honorable terms.
Under his leadership, the Church assisted the State of North Carolina in solving many of the reconstruction difficulties. Tireless in his efforts, he saw the Episcopal Church grow and spread steadily over the State.
In 1853, when he assumed the bishopric, there were 36 ministers, 42 congregations and 1,788 communicants; seven years later, the number of communicants had been doubled and there were 44 ministers and 53 congregations. By 1873 there were 50 clergymen and 3,742 communicants, with total contributions of $55,381.58. By 1883 there were 76 ministers and 5,889 communicants.
Some years before his death on January 4, 1881, Bishop Atkinson consented to the election of an assistant bishop, the Rev. Theodore Benedict Lyman, of California, who was consecrated in 1873. Bishop Atkinson's body was interred beneath the chancel of St. James Church, Wilmington, which he served as rector without giving up the episcopate from March, 1863, to December, 1864, during the War Between the States.
XLIV
THE REV. A. A. WATSON
One of the most beloved of all local and East Carolina churchmen, later being named the first Bishop of the Diocese of East Carolina, the Rev. Alfred Augustin Watson became rector of Christ Church during the Fall of 1858.1
Moses W. Jarvis resigned as secretary of the vestry March 12, 1860, after long and faithful service. In letters he spoke of “affectionate recollections of his past connections” with the vestry. He was succeeded by William H. Oliver.2
In April, 1860, a lot adjoining the church property, on the corner of Pollock and Craven Streets, was selected for purchase, provided the cost did not exceed more than the worth of the three county bonds and five shares of Bank of Commerce stock derived from the sale of the old parsonage site.3
The vestry minutes abruptly stop May 3, 1860. Those were stirring times of civil conflicts that ended in war. Watson's parish registers here go into the year 1861, when with many young men of his church he entered the Confederate Army. As Chaplain of the Second Regiment, North Carolina troops, his work in the hospitals and on the battlefields makes a story of great inspiration.
During the first part of his local rectorate he took a special interest in the parish school and worked untiringly among the poor. His first report to the diocese in 1859 stated that forty children were then attending the free school here.4
At the diocesan convention in 1861 at Morganton Bishop Atkinson said he had confirmed a colored person at New Bern June 15, 1860, and eleven white persons and one colored here May 19-20, 1861.5
Lay delegates elected from this parish for that meeting were Mr. Oliver, James W. Bryan, Fred C. Roberts and Henry R. Bryan.
1 V. M., 1858.2Ibid., 1860.3Ibid.4 D. J., 1859.5Ibid., 1861.Dr. Watson reported for the year 57 baptisms, four marriages, 33 funerals, 106 communicants and contributions of $1,454.80. He said he had officiated occasionally at camp in New Bern, and had baptized two persons at St. Thomas Chapel near this city.6
To the diocesan convention of 1862 Dr. Watson reported again as rector of Christ Church and also as army chaplain. He told of the capture of New Bern March 14, 1862, and the previous unsettled conditions and “great obstructions to the work of the parish.”7
During the middle of the previous July, he said, he had joined the Confederate Army but at the request of the vestry had kept his local rectorate. In the latter part of September, 1861, he continued, the Rev. William R. Wetmore had been engaged as assistant rector and had served in that capacity until the capture of New Bern.
Although Mr. Wetmore remained in New Bern, Dr. Watson reported, he was “no longer able, consistently with self-respect and his duty to the true government, to perform public service. The intruders, in violation of all Church principles, Canon law and religious liberty, then took possession of the edifice and placed one of their own Chaplains in it.
“By far the principal part of the congregation withdrew from the town at the time of its capture. A few, however, remained, and for them and for our prisoners in the hand of the enemy Mr. Wetmore continued to perform such official acts as were practicable.”8
Mr. Wetmore reported 45 baptisms and 38 funerals. There were no confirmations, as the Bishop's scheduled visit was cancelled by the fall of New Bern. Of those baptized, five were Confederate soldiers. Two were baptized after having been wounded in the Battle of New Bern, and died soon afterwards. Mr. Wetmore said that the sick and wounded after the battle were cared for by the ladies of the town.9
Throughout the war years Dr. Watson baptized a number of persons on Army battlefields. Some of his baptism records here and elsewhere during the first part
6Ibid.7Ibid., 1862.8Ibid.9Ibid.of the war are filed here among the local parish documents.
In 1863 Dr. Watson was called to Wilmington as assistant rector at St. James Church, where Bishop Atkinson was then acting as rector for almost two war years. The latter retired from the rectorate in December, 1864, and Dr. Watson was unanimously elected rector, a post he held until his election as Bishop in 1883.
Unable to accomplish much at New Bern, Mr. Wetmore left the city. In 1863, according to diocesan records, he was at Lincolnton and Shelby. There was no report or representation of the local church at the convention held that year in Fayetteville.
The New Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in North Carolina was adopted in May, 1863; and, also because of the war, the canons were then revised.10
No report, no minister and no lay delegation were listed for Christ Church in either 1864 or 1865, while the town remained in the hands of the Northern conquerors.
Services were held at the church from time to time by Union Army Chaplains. Major Russell Sturgis, Jr., of the 45th. Massachusetts Regiment here, former president of the Boston Y. M. C. A., often held Sunday morning services at the church, with music by a male quartet. This major became superintendent of a Sunday school he started there for poor children.11
Stephen Miller quotes an excerpt from an article in Harper's Weekly about the fall of New Bern:
“The fruits of the victory were six forts, thirty-four heavy guns, six steam boats, and public property to the amount of two millions of dollars . . . The next day (March 15th) was the Sabbath. By order of Gen. Burnside, all the churches were thrown open, the army chaplains officiated, and thanks were returned to God for the signal victory he had granted the patriot armies.”12
One Post Chaplain, the Rev. J. Hill Rouse, an Episcopal clergyman affectionately called “Father Rouse,” did valiant service here in 1864 during the yellow fever epidemic. It was written of him:
10Ibid., 1863.11History of the Forty-Fifth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, compiled by Albert W. Mann, regimental historian, pp. 227, 229, 230-31.12 Miller, op. cit., 467.“How you have borne up through many weeks of constant service in thy holy calling, exposed to the epidemic's fury, no mortal knows, but you shall rest embalmed in the memory of those whose kindred you have blessed.”13
Besides Col. T. J. C. Amory, who succumbed to yellow fever here October 6, 1864, another war disease victim among the Unionists was George Brooks, of Massachusetts, brother of the noted divine, Phillips Brooks, who died of typhoid fever at the Stanly hospital here February 10, 1863.14
Another Massachusetts soldier stationed here during those critical days miraculously recovered from desperate illness to live and work for the spread of the Kingdom of God on earth.
Dr. Russell H. Conwell, Baptist minister, who later built up the largest Protestant church in America, founded Temple University and two hospitals at Philadelphia, and helped educate 100,000 youths through earnings from his famed lecture, “Acres of Diamonds,” was converted from atheism to Christianity by the brave act of his young orderly, John Ring, who lost his life in saving Union Captain Conwell's sword after a Confederate attack on their fort near Newport January 30, 1864, while the officer was attending to army business at Federal Department headquarters in New Bern.15
During the war, books were brought here from Boston for a library maintained by a noted Union Army chaplain, the Rev. Dr. Andrew L. Stone.16 The first Negro public schools in North Carolina were opened here by the Northerners in 1862 when New England soldiers volunteered as teachers.17
The Rt. Rev. A. A. Watson,18 D.D., LL.D., S.T.D., is still regarded as one of the outstanding rectors of this church. He was born in New York City April 21, 1818, and was brought up by Presbyterian parents in the Presbyterian faith.
Like Bishop Atkinson, he was educated and licensed as an attorney. After being graduated from New York University
13 Whitford, op. cit., 322.14 Mann, op. cit., pp. 93, 184.15 Burr, Agnes Rush, Russell H. Conwell and His Work.16 Mann, op. cit., p. 229.17North Carolina, A Guide to the Old North State, compiled and written by the Federal Writers’ Project of the Federal Works Agency, Work Projects Administration, p. 223. Mann, op. cit., p. 230.18 Information on Bishop Watson was compiled from many different sources, including church histories, church paper articles and Roberts, op. cit., pp. 16-18.he studied law in the office of Chancellor Kent and was admitted to the bar in 1841.
As a tutor for the family of Josiah Collins near Creswell, Dr. Watson came to North Carolina. Mr. Collins was a loyal churchman; he was a nephew of Mrs. James McKinlay, of New Bern.19 Mrs. Collins, reared a Presbyterian, had joined the Episcopal church when her first baby was christened.
Watson became deeply impressed by the morning and evening prayers said daily in the plantation chapel for all the family, guests and servants. Mrs. Collins gave him a Prayer Book and told him to mark in it anything with which he differed and someday they would discuss those passages.
According to a version of this story related by Mrs. Rebecca Wood Drane, great-granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Collins,20 Watson kept the book a long time, then finally returned it to Mrs. Collins, saying, “Mrs. Collins, here is your book and you will not find a mark in it. There is nothing that I would want changed.”
Other books about the church were lent to him by Mrs. Collins. He undertook an intensive study of the Episcopal doctrines, became convinced of apostolic authority, and decided to be baptized and confirmed.
His family “went to bed sick at heart at such departure from family traditions, but ‘once convinced nothing could turn Brother from his decision’,” Mrs. May Webb Cranmer quotes his sister as saying.21
After special training at the General Seminary, he was ordained a deacon November 3, 1844. The next May 25 he was ordained priest by Bishop Ives in St. John's Church, Fayetteville.
Becoming rector at Plymouth, for some years he carried on mission work through that section. Grace Church was founded there in 1837 by the Rev. E. M. Forbes and Dr. Samuel J. Johnston, and the church was consecrated on the second Sunday after Easter in 1840. As rector, Dr. Watson had the Rev. George Patterson as his assistant there for some time.
19 Record of Wills, Craven County, Book D, p. 18.20Mission Herald, April, 1940, p. 174.21Ibid., June, 1940, p. 12.Following his rectorate at New Bern and his war service, when he was made rector of St. James Church, Wilmington, he was authorized in 1865 to get an assistant, and he obtained the Rev. Mr. Patterson again. Upon organization of the Diocese of East Carolina here in 1883, he was named its first Bishop. He died April 1, 1905.
Illustrative of his force of character and religion and his deep devotion to the Southern government, a story is told of how he continued to offer prayers for Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, after he returned to his rectorate at Wilmington following close of the war.
Gen. Joseph R. Hawley, commander of the Union troops in control of Wilmington, ordered him to stop praying for Davis and start immediately praying for the President of the United States. Dr. Watson fearlessly continued his Confederate prayers, with this defiant reply to General Hawley: “I take my orders from my Bishop and not from a Union General.”22
22 Moore, Louis T., “State's Historic City,” article on Wilmington, N. C., published in The Greensboro Daily News, Sunday, March 6, 1927.XLV
THE REV. EDWARD M. FORBES
After the war the first rector here was the Rev. Edward M. Forbes, who held the pastorate from January 1, 1866, until 1877, the third longest service of all the local ministers. He was a native New Bernian, born here in 1810, son of Stephen B. Forbes, who had been born in February, 1780, and had died May 3, 1860.1
Early in life the son became partially paralyzed and was left permanently lame. He was never quite well, though seldom ill enough to be confined. Small in stature, only five feet in height and 100 pounds in weight, he was a giant in intellect.2
Recognized as exceptionally well informed on the Bible, he was the author of an oral catechism. Through his entire career he “went about doing good.” Industrious and consecrated, he was one of the most beloved of all the ministers of his time. Though poor in material things and generous to the needy, he was thrifty and economical, so left a considerable estate. He was never married.
On May 8, 1836, he was ordained a priest in Christ Church, New Bern, by Bishop Ives; at the same time the Revs. Cameron F. McRae and Harvey Stanly were ordained as deacons. Mr. McRae came here as rector two years later. Stanly was a member of the prominent local Stanly family and became important as a priest. He held services frequently here.
In February, 1844, Mr. Forbes preached in Mobile, Ala., Henry Clay being in the audience.3 While rector of Christ Church, Elizabeth City, where he served long and ably, he was the presiding officer of the first convocation of the diocese, held in 1849 at Elizabeth City.
Following his arrival here from Elizabeth City as the rector of the reorganized congregation after the War Between the States, he reported to the next diocesan convention, which was held in New Bern May 30 to June 4, 1866: “I took charge of this congregation on the first
1 Tombstone records in Cedar Grove cemetery.2 Data on Mr. Forbes came from several sources, especially Roberts, op. cit., pp. 19-20, and other references as indicated.3 Miller, op. cit., p. 241.of January, 1866, and found it much affected in every way by the war.”4
All four delegates named from Christ Church attended the diocesan meetings here: Jacob Gooding, William H. Oliver, John Hughes and Frederick C. Roberts. Alternates were William G. Hall, Henry R. Bryan and Peter E. Hines.
Because of the absence of Bishop Atkinson on account of illness, the Rev. Dr. Mason presided here in his former parish, and the Bishop's address was read by another former local rector, the Rev. Dr. Watson. The Bishop reported that on the previous November 26 he had confirmed five persons here.
For the five months that Mr. Forbes had been in the city, he listed eleven baptisms, four marriages, and six burials; with sixty white communicants, 15 colored communicants, and 100 catechumens. Total contributions were $609.
The next diocesan convention was held at Wilmington. John Hughes was the only local lay delegate in attendance. Mr. Forbes reported 103 communicants, with 29 baptisms, a substantial gain for the year.5
At that time he announced that all the colored communicants had been transferred to St. Cyprian's Church here, with the Rev. H. A. Skinner in charge as their rector. Two years after the start of this colored church 102 members were reported. Previously most of the Episcopal ministers here had given much time to work among the Negroes, and many of that race had belonged to Christ Church.
The first African Episcopal congregation in North Carolina had been formed at Fayetteville in 1832 under a white rector.6 The next year Bishop Ives mentioned visiting the Negro congregation at New Bern, which he said he found in a “flourishing condition.”7 Here, too, Sunday evening services at times had been given over “to lectures on the Scriptures and catechetical instruction for the benefit of the coloured people,” as reported in 1826 by Dr. Mason.8 A colored congregation was again formed in 1845 by the Rev. Mr. Hawks.9 But the St. Cyprian
4 D. J., 1866.5Ibid., 1867.6 Johnson, op. cit., p. 547.7 D. J., 1833.8Supra, p. 127.9Supra, p. 151.organization soon after the War Between the States was the first permanent one of the kind here.
Results of the work of Mr. Forbes were also evident in 1868 at Tarboro, when he reported 136 communicants and 49 baptisms. Three candidates for orders were announced: Benjamin P. Winfield, Edmund Joyner and James W. Gray.10
A valuable gift for this parish was also reported, the children of the late John P. Daves having dedicated in his memory a lot and a building for a parochial school. This was the remaining old west wing of historic Tryon Palace, which had been repaired by Northern friends. It was equipped by women of the parish for the instruction of poor children. Three rooms were used for classes, and a fourth for a chapel.
A tablet was erected there, with this inscription: “To the Church of the Living God. In Memory of John P. Daves By His Affectionate Children. January, 1868.” When the Palace wing was later disposed of, this marble marker was removed to Christ Church yard. It was moved and reset in recent years when the parish house addition was erected.
Also moved and reset along with the Daves tablet at the same time was another marble marker, inscribed to “Mary, relict of James McKinlay,” who died in 1840. This was also probably taken from its original place in the Tryon Palace chapel. Mrs. McKinlay was Mr. Daves’ sister.11 She is buried in the Daves plot near the entrance in Cedar Grove cemetery.
The Daves family was long prominent here. Major John Daves, father of John Pugh Daves, died here in 1804 and was first interred in Cedar Grove cemetery, where a marker still stands. But the body was removed in June, 1893, to Guilford Battleground National Park near Greensboro. He was a captain in the North Carolina Continental Line, distinguished for bravery and gallantry at the Revolutionary engagements at Germantown, Stony Point and Eutaw Springs. Here he served as the first Collector of the Port of New Bern, and became
10 D. J., 1868.11 Record of Wills, Craven County, Book D, pp. 13-18.an original member of the State Society of the Cincinnati.12
John P. Daves died March 1, 1838.13 A daughter of his, Mary M. Daves, was married here August 11, 1850,14 at the Daves home near Tryon's Palace to John W. Ellis, of Rowan County, Governor of North Carolina 1859-61 and a leader of the secession movement in this State. He died in July, 1861, at the age of 40 years.
In 1869 Mr. Forbes reported to the convention at Raleigh that he was being assisted here by the Rev. William B. Gordon, then a deacon, later rector at Kinston. He told of 42 baptisms and 125 communicants, with contributions of $2,588.15
Besides saying that the parochial school was “continuing to prosper,” Mr. Forbes announced the formation of a “Church Relief Society” by the women of the congregation, for the benefit of the poor. These educational and benevolent projects were always close to his heart. Much of his time and means was used in aiding poor boys.
“I am happy to state that the Laity of my Parish are working with great energy and earnestness, and thus contribute much to the prosperity of the Church,” he told the next convention at Edenton, when he reported 37 baptisms, 29 confirmations and 143 communicants. “The Relief Society have been very successful and have done much to relieve both the temporal and spiritual wants of the poor.”16
From June to December, 1870, the Rev. James A. Weston held services at the local church. At another period the Rev. Mr. Eddy assisted in the parish.17
Throughout his entire career Mr. Forbes was kind and helpful to young ministers and ministerial students. But, he was not narrow or bigoted about his own religion. Once at Beaufort a theological student named Rice became convinced that baptism by immersion was right and necessary. Mr. Forbes had been training him for the Episcopal ministry, but instead procured financial aid for him and encouraged him to go to Wake Forest College to study for the Baptist ministry.18
12 Tombstone inscription, Cedar Grove cemetery.13 Craven County Wills, Book C, pp. 417-18.14 Record of Marriage Bonds, Craven County, Book B, p. 340.15 D. J., 1869.16Ibid., 1870.17 P. R.18 Whitford, op. cit., p. 264.PRESENT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, CONSECRATED 1875
XLVI
CHURCH FIRE
On the night of Tuesday, January 10, 1871, about 9:30 o'clock, the dreaded fire alarm was sounded here. The blaze was discovered in Hahn's Bakery, on Pollock Street, which was then located about where Baxter's Jewelry Store now stands, just across the street from the church.
As the flames progressed fiercely to other buildings, sparks flew over to the shingle roof on the brick church. Soon the southwest corner was in flames. In spite of heroic efforts, the blaze enveloped the roof, steeple and entire building, inside and out, with the exception of a portion of the side brick walls.1
When the steeple was burning, the large bell gave way and crashed to the ground. Eye witnesses asserted that it tolled mournfully as it fell. After the debris had been cleared away it was found, a mass of molten metal. Many pieces were carried away. Later the vestry permitted the Ladies’ Sewing Society to use it for the sale of souvenirs.2
According to Miss Dita Roberts, the first donation for a new church came from a three-year-old child, who watched the fire and remarked to her mother, “Mama, I've dot free cents, and I'm going to dive it to you to buy some nails to build a new church.”3
The loss of the edifice and its contents was a terrific calamity to the congregation and the city. Mr. Forbes did not know of the fire until the following day.4 As soon as they could regain their composure, the rector and members began at once to formulate ways and means for reconstruction.
A building committee was appointed.5 Societies and clubs started striving to raise money in various ways. George Bishop was chosen as contractor for a new church.6 He was the father of E. K. Bishop, later Senior Warden. Meanwhile, the Presbyterians offered the use of their church on Sunday nights.7 The George Street Chapel in old Tryon's Palace was also used.
1 Accounts of eye-witnesses.2 V. M., January 23, 1871.3 Roberts, op. cit., p. 19.4 Whitford, op. cit., p. 270.5 V. M., January 18, January 20, January 30, 1871. The minutes show that Bishop Atkinson attended the January 20 meeting.6 V. M., February 5, 1872.7Ibid., January 12, 1871. A reply of appreciation is recorded January 30.Among the organizations that worked for funds was the Juvenile Sewing Society, formed and directed by Mrs. Sarah Bennett Carraway, wife of Major Daniel T. Carraway, for some years an officer of the vestry. Members of this group were girls from five years old to teenage. They made paper lamplighters, knitted garments and sewed quilt squares and other articles at their weekly meetings, selling them for the benefit of the church building fund.
In addition to contributing $100 to the building fund, they donated at cost of $350 the main altar window of Christ blessing the little children. They also presented an altar chair. So outstanding was their work that the vestry under a special complimentary resolution in 1874, the only one of the kind in the records so far as known, presented Mrs. Carraway with a deed for a pew, (Number 36) in the new church.8
There are still extant copies of a small pamphlet: “The Juvenile Sewing Society of Christ's Church, New Bern. Answer to an Appeal. For Benefit of the Church. Lovingly Inscribed to a Former Pastor, by Esclairmond Claremont, N. C., Jan. 29, 1871.”
Fairs and feasts also helped pay for the new structure, which was slowly erected on the remaining walls of the former building. A new organ, new furnishings and new equipment were needed for the larger church. Numerous memorials, as the windows, were given by members.
At the 1871 diocesan convention in Warrenton, Mr. Forbes reported: “While my people bow with meek submission under this heavy visitation of the Almighty, it gives me pleasure to state that they have gone to work with increased energy and zeal, not only to rebuild the Temple of the Lord but also to enlarge it, so as to become the home of the poor and the stranger.”9
Mr. Forbes added that nothing had been neglected in the building plans, and that work was progressing with Sunday school and the Relief Society. He said there had been 34 baptisms and twelve confirmations during the previous year, and that the 156 members had contributed $7,069.84. The church treasurer, Major Carraway, was
8Ibid., June 8, 1874.9 D. J., 1871.the only lay delegate present; he reported that the rector's salary of $1,100 had been paid in full.
Augustus M. Flythe was then reported as a candidate for Holy Orders from New Bern, and at the 1872 convention in Salisbury he was said to be a deacon residing at New Bern as a missionary to nearby points. He told of 24 communicants at St. Thomas Church in Craven County, and said he also often visited Kinston.10
Another candidate from here, Alexander Bass, was mentioned by Mr. Forbes, another illustration of the rector's splendid influence over young men. He also told the convention that an additional $5,076 had been raised for the church building fund during the year, $772 for the Relief Society, and $580.52 for the Sunday School.
Despite lack of a church, the parish work went forward along practically every line. In 1874 the bishop reported that he had preached here and confirmed twenty persons.11 During that Summer the Rev. N. E. Price held services for four Sundays and the Rev. C. O. Brady preached on Sunday, July 5.12
The 1875 convention met May 19-21 in the new church at New Bern. The Rev. Mr. Price, then a deacon, was reported to be assisting the local rector. There were 173 church members listed; with 90 white and 180 colored students in the parochial schools.13
By that time the church had been completed, with the exception of the steeple, which was added some years later by gift of Miss Anne Donnell, a former member, then living in New Jersey, who had previously donated a window and a new bell.14
On Sunday, May 23, 1875, the church was consecrated by Bishop Atkinson. Also in attendance were Bishop Lyman and a large number of clergymen. Proper papers were presented by Senior Warden Jacob Gooding; and signed by him and the other vestrymen: William H. Oliver, John Hughes, D. T. Carraway, Joseph Fulford, Henry R. Bryan and George Roberts. During the service the Rev. Mr. Windley was ordained a deacon.15
The interior architecture of the church is still considered unique. The high turtle-back ceiling must have
10Ibid., 1872.11Ibid., 1874.12 P. R., 1874.13 D. J., 1875.14 V. M., December, 1871.15Ibid., special note, dated May 23, 1875.steel supports all the way across from side to side, for there are no inner supports. The roof is of slate. Gothic designs are evident in the chancel, windows, pews, chairs and other features, except the Roman front doorways.
A number of changes have been made since then in the church. A front porch was built in 1884 in memory of Miss Elizabeth Peterson, who in 1876 willed the necessary funds. About 1914 the Rev. B. F. Huske, then rector, had charge of extending and enlarging the chancel and choir stalls, making decided improvements. The parish house was built during the first decade of the next century, and the church was then again extensively renovated. The parish house addition was constructed during the past few years, and the sacristy in 1939.
Mr. Forbes had resigned as rector here the night before the church fire, but as soon as he learned of that disaster the next day he decided to remain here and devote his energies to the task of rebuilding. His resignation was again submitted May 25, 1875, but the vestry unanimously declined to accept it.16
Later he again resigned, effective January 1, 1877, but offered to continue as acting rector until a successor could be obtained.17 So much difficulty was experienced in getting another minister that he severed his local connection April 29, 1877. The Rev. T. B. Haughton, studying here under him, was engaged temporarily; and Mr. Forbes was requested to assist occasionally.18
In March of that year another deep loss was sustained by the parish in the death of Mr. Gooding, long Senior Warden and active church leader. The vestry adopted resolutions highly extolling him.
The organ was installed in the church that year. Vestrymen recorded thanks for the financial aid of the Sunday School pupils who made its purchase possible and of the Old Dominion Steam Ship Company and the Merchants and Miners Line which transported it here free of charge from Boston.19
As this was a second-hand musical instrument when brought here, it is now probably one of the oldest pipe organs in the country. It was made by the Jardine Organ
16Ibid., correspondence in those years published in the records.17Ibid., December 4, 1876.18Ibid., Note recorded July 18, 1877.19Ibid., 1877.Company, one of the first pipe organ builders. Originally, the pipes were of wood, and the old pump had to be worked by hand before the installation of electricity. An old traction type, it still corresponds to the ox cart method of transportation as compared to the more modern organs; but organ experts highly praise its music and assert that its tones can not be reproduced today.
For a time after leaving Christ Church, Mr. Forbes assisted here at St. Cyprian's Church, which he had so helpfully sponsored. He is even said to have given this church to the Negroes.20 Formerly it had been the first Baptist church here, completed by 1812.
The last years of Mr. Forbes’ life were spent as rector of St. Paul's Church, Beaufort. He died at Beaufort September 25, 1893, at the age of 83. The funeral was held the next day from Christ Church here and he was buried in New Bern.
His keen interest in this parish and diocese, as well as his unfailing desire to aid the poor and unfortunate, were exemplified in his will. Among his many bequests were the following: to the diocese all his property not otherwise devised, $250 annually for missionaries in the diocese and $1,000 for loans to ministerial students; $50 for foreign and domestic missions; $50 for the widows and orphans of diocesan clergymen; funds to insure St. Cyprian's colored church and St. Augustine School near Raleigh; $115 annually for a scholarship for diocesan ministerial students at St. Augustine's School, this institution also being left his books; $25 annually for the Christ Church Relief Society; $5 annually for a Thanksgiving Day dinner for the poor here; and $5 annually for the poor here on Christmas or Holy Innocents Day.21
Resolutions passed by the vestry for Mr. Forbes read in part, as follows: “Resolved: that the parish of Christ Church will cherish in loving memory his faithful performance of duty as its rector for a period of eleven years. His valuable services in organizing the congregation after the disturbance of the late war; the instituting of Memorial Chapel with the Parochial and Sunday Schools; the organizing of Christ Church Relief Society; his zeal
20 Whitford, op. cit., p. 265.21 Record of Wills, Craven County, Book F, pp. 109-16.and energy in rebuilding the Church after its destruction by fire in 1871 will always be kept in mind together with grateful recollections of his solace in griefs; his godly counsel in troubles; his encouragement in despair; his affectionate appeals to erring ones; his admonition, advice and sympathy to all who were in ‘sorrow, need, sickness or any other adversity’; and especially his great interest in the training of the young; and care for the temporal and spiritual necessities of the poor.”22
22 V. M., 1893. Vol. 3, pp. 153-55.XLVIITHE REV. CHARLES S. HALE
The Rev. Charles Stuart Hale became rector of Christ Church in October, 1877. A native of New England, he came here from Buffalo, N. Y.
That he was an outstanding clergyman is proved from a copy of the resolution sent here by the Secretary of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Western New York, regretting the loss of his “faithful and efficient services” and praising his “high character, manly Christian course and clear unflinching adherence to church principles.”1
One of the main accomplishments during his three and a half years here was the organization of the Altar Guild, composed of church leaders who worked for the extension of God's Kingdom in many, sundry ways.
Formed early in 1878, the guild had John S. Long for its first warden; George E. Tinker, vice warden; Henry C. Pool, registrar; and John D. Hughes, treasurer. The group was reorganized in 1881 when the Rev. Van Winder Shields was rector.2
In 1878 Mr. Hale reported 234 communicants. For the Sunday School he listed 95 pupils, with twenty teachers and five officers. The parish school had forty-seven students. The church was said to be worth $35,000 and the chapel $3,000, with debts of $600. At that time the Bishop wrote that on a Palm Sunday visit here he had “observed with pleasure the marked progress of the church.”3
Vestry minutes contain “exalted appreciation of his pious and devoted zeal” in referring to George H. Roberts as treasurer. Praise is also given to F. C. Roberts for his able service as secretary. They mention the renting of the “Memorial Chapel” in 1876 to Miss Kate Carraway and Prof. G. W. Neal for use as a high school.
1 V. M., October, 1877.2 V. M., 1878. Organization minute book.3 D. J., 1878.During the Summer of 1880 Mrs. Louise Weed Hale, wife of the rector, died in Asheville. White altar hangings for the church were given in her memory.4
That October Mr. Hale tendered his resignation. He explained that he felt physically unable to continue the duties, having had malaria during the entire time he had been here. The resignation became effective November 28. With regret it was accepted by the vestrymen, who declared he had given “so much satisfaction to the congregation as well as benefit to the cause of religion and the advancement of the welfare of the church.”5
Petitions signed by 133 members of the congregation urged the vestrymen to reconsider their acceptance of the resignation. The vestry did this, and Mr. Hale stayed on for several months. On March 3, 1881, he again resigned, effective after Easter, to accept a call to Trinity Church, Claremont, N. H.
The vestry on January 16 of that year passed resolutions of respect for Bishop Atkinson, who had died January 4. They paid tribute to “his dignity, his great natural endowment, his sound learning, his eloquence, and logical power as a preacher, his executive ability, his boldness as a defender of the truth, his purity and elevation of character, his meekness and saintliness as a disciple and an apostle.”6
Resolutions of appreciation were also passed for the Rev. James C. Atkinson, who was thanked for his frequent aid to this parish. He was leaving the diocese to go to Oregon.7
4 V. M., 1880.5Ibid.6Ibid., 1881.7Ibid., March 9, 1881.XLVIIITHE REV. VAN WINDER SHIELDS
The Rev. Mr. Shields, then serving at Kittrell, N. C., was called to the local pulpit in 1881. He arrived April 21, conducted services here on Sunday, April 24, then left the next day to bring his family to the city.1
During his eight years’ stewardship he was greatly beloved for his character and admired for his work. He was a true friend to all in trouble or need.
Including children, 292 members were listed for the church in 1883. By 1889 the number had grown to 305, including children. When revised, however, the lists showed only 227 active members.2
Late in December, 1885, vestrymen recommended that the church pews be made free. There had been difficulty in collecting the rental fees anyway. In a vote at a congregational meeting, 13 favored this step, six opposed it and two expressed willingness to be governed by the majority. These 21 votes were so few that the vestry decided to abandon their attempt for free seats.3
It was during this rectorate that the front porch was added to the church. The steeple was also completed, and a bell placed there. All were gifts. In 1886 an organ and a communion cup were presented to Grace Church, Trenton.
Mr. Shields resigned his office in September, 1889. A committee was appointed by the vestry to ask him to reconsider, but he said his decision was final; so the resignation was accepted September 3, with this resolution:
“Whereas, the pleasant relations existing for over eight years between the Rev. V. W. Shields and the members of Christ Church Parish must in the providence of God be sundered, we the vestry express in this official and emphatic manner our profound regret at this unexpected event, and tender to Mr. Shields and his family our cordial appreciation and sympathy, and pray that in their new
1 V. M., April, 1881.2 P. R.3 V. M., 1885. Vol. 3, pp. 29-33. (Pages in this third extant book of vestry minutes are numbered consecutively, so may be referred to exactly from now on. The first book of minutes of the vestry, now in possession of the church, begins May 7, 1830, and extends to the time of the War Between the States. The second book begins April 24, 1866, and lasts through April 7, 1884. Volume 3 begins May 2, 1884, and goes to December 8, 1902. Volume 4 covers February 2, 1903, to February 7, 1921. Volume 5, from May 25, 1921, to December 13, 1938. Volume 6, from then on.)field of labor they may enjoy a large measure of usefulness and of that peace which ‘passeth understanding’.”4
From here Mr. Shields went to Jacksonville, Fla., where he was rector of St. John's Church until 1924 and rector emeritus until his death there May 13, 1927. He was a native of Rokeby Plantation in Jefferson County, Miss., born there July 3, 1849, so lived to be almost 78 years of age.
Organization of the Diocese of East Carolina had been perfected here at Christ Church on December 12 and 13, 1883, during Mr. Shield's ministry. This was the second diocese to be formed here, a unique record for the parish.5
For a number of years Bishop Atkinson had advocated a division of North Carolina into two dioceses. After his death, this plan was voted May 10-14, 1882, at a regular meeting of the Diocese of North Carolina at Tarboro. Permission to form the new diocese was granted October 9, 1883, by the General Convention at Philadelphia.
The Rt. Rev. Theodore Benedict Lyman, D. D., who had succeeded the late Bishop Atkinson after having served as assistant Bishop of North Carolina, called the convention of the new diocese to order. After divine service and communion, the Rev. Dr. Watson, former local rector, then of Wilmington, was elected convention president; and the Rev. Nathaniel Harding, secretary. Many names were suggested for the new diocese, “East Carolina” being chosen.
Dr. Watson was selected as the first Bishop. He was consecrated April 17, 1884, in St. James Church, Wilmington, of which he had been rector for 21 years. The consecrator was a native Wilmingtonian, the Rt. Rev. William Mercer Green, Bishop of Mississippi. He was assisted by Bishop Lyman of North Carolina and Bishop Howe of South Carolina. In his first Episcopal address the new Bishop of the new diocese stressed unity of interest, saying the growth of each parish was necessary for the best results in all the other churches as well as in the diocese, the ecclesiastical unit.
Bishop Lyman continued to serve the Diocese of North Carolina until his death in 1893, when he was followed by
4 V. M., Vol. 3, p. 55.5 Information about this meeting is taken from articles by Judge Francis D. Winston, of Windsor, and Mrs. A. M. Waddell, of Wilmington, published in the New Bern Sun-Journal Jubilee Edition, May 17, 1933.the late Rt. Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire, in turn succeeded by the present bishop, the Rt. Rev. E. A. Penick. Bishop Lyman, born in Massachusetts in 1815 and educated at Hamilton College and the General Theological Seminary, had served in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Italy, California and elsewhere before coming to North Carolina to assist Bishop Atkinson for the last eight years of the latter's life. From 1783 to 1883 Episcopal clergymen increased from 50 to 76 in North Carolina and communicants from 3,742 to 5,889.6
At a joint convention of the Dioceses of North Carolina and East Carolina held in May, 1890, at Tarboro, the historic communion service of Christ Church was used.7 By then there were reported to be 85 Episcopal clergymen in this State, with 7,500 communicants, of whom 4,400 were in the North Carolina Diocese and 3,100 in the East Carolina Diocese.8
6 Marshall, op. cit., p. 343, et passim.7 Cheshire, Sketches, “The Joint Centennial Convention,” p. 12.8 Marshall, op. cit., p. 343.XLIX
THE REV. T. M. N. GEORGE
Mr. Shields’ resignation was to become effective the first Sunday in Advent, 1889, so well before that time the vestry instructed Secretary E. K. Bishop to notify Bishop Watson and Junior Warden George H. Roberts to open a correspondence in regard to procuring a new rector.
At an early special meeting it was voted to extend a call to the Rev. Thomas Mordint Nelson George, of Durham. Mr. Roberts, by then named Senior Warden to succeed the late Maj. John Hughes, was requested to write him. Judge Henry R. Bryan was named Junior Warden succeeding Mr. Roberts.
The acceptance of Mr. George, written October 12, was read to the vestry November 4, his rectorship to begin January 1, 1890. Plans were at once set in motion towards obtaining a new rectory.1
The old rectory on George Street was sold to Sam Duffy for $1,500.2 Meanwhile, a house was rented on Broad Street. In April, 1891, after Mr. George and his family had been residing here for some time, a site on Pollock Street, to the east of the church, was approved for a new rectory, and plans for the proposed dwelling were drawn by Architect Herbert Simpson.3
Bishop Watson approved this location. But many members of the parish objected to putting a rectory “on any part of the church yard.” A petition to that effect was signed by twenty-eight members, and others also expressed opposition. Hence, a lot on the west side of Craven Street, adjoining the church property, was bought from the New Bern Academy.4
Contributions were collected for the purpose, and the two-story frame rectory was built there. Several years later the Federal Government erected a postoffice on the adjoining corner lot. That building is now the City Hall. The rectory has been moved to its neighboring lot to the northward.
1 V. M., 1889.2 V. M., Vol. 3, pp. 61-62.3Ibid., 87-92.4Ibid., 96-100.During the school year of 1891 it was reported that 23 boys and 17 girls attended the parish school, their terms ranging from four to 119 days. Mrs. Hannah Harrison, a Griffin School girl, was then principal.5 The Griffin School, long operated here, was considered practically an Episcopal institution, so closely associated was it with the church.
In March, 1895, the vestry met to confirm the sale of the Mission Chapel, “the old Palace outbuilding,” by the Christ Church Relief Society to Francis S. Duffy for $1,900. A committee was named to investigate the cost of a new chapel and school.6 The parish school was moved from the Palace wing to two rooms elsewhere, but the chapel was still used temporarily for a Sunday School.
Erection of a new chapel was begun by May on a lot situated on the south side of Pollock Street, west of Burn, a part of the property bequeathed to the Diocese by Mr. Forbes and lent to the parish without charge by the Diocese. Mrs. Margaret D. Nelson donated the new structure and presented the belfry and bell.7 Upon its completion, it was named All Saints Chapel, and services were long held there regularly. It is now used as a nursery school for underprivileged children of that part of town. Bishop Thomas C. Darst deconsecrated the structure.
Many other memorials were presented to the church and chapel at that period. Women of the parish requested and received permission to erect an iron fence at their own expense, to replace the wooden fence. Mrs. Lucretia Guion Dunn was treasurer for the women's committee.
Mrs. Mary McKinlay Nash, Graham Daves, Jane Graham Hughes and Jennie Daves Hughes offered in memory of their sister and aunt, Mrs. Ann Daves McLean, the sum of $500, if efforts were made to wipe out the church's floating debt and try to prevent its repetition.8
As early as 1893 there had been mention of the needs for a parish house. On February 17, 1903, a special session of the vestry was called to discuss the possibility of procuring such a building.9
5Ibid., 99, 125.6Ibid., 188.7Ibid., 195-96, 266.8Ibid., 252.9Ibid., Vol. 4, pp. 4-5.A motion was passed to try to raise $10,000, half for a parish house and the remainder for church improvements. On a committee for this purpose were named Mrs. Nelson, Mrs. George H. Roberts, Mrs. Mary D. Windley, Mrs. Charles Duffy, Miss Mary Oliver, E. H. Meadows, J. A. Bryan, E. K. Bishop, Mark Disosway and M. deW. Stevenson. For a building committee were appointed Messrs. Roberts, Bryan and Meadows.
The next month drawings of the proposed parish house were submitted by Architect Simpson.10 Progress was reported slowly thereafter, as construction was undertaken. In November, 1904, the vestrymen were notified that the work had been stopped on account of lack of funds.11 It was completed later.12 The church was also renovated and rearranged on the interior. The organ was moved from the gallery to the east front of the church, and the chancel was also otherwise re-equipped.13
Mr. George was ill in a Boston hospital during the last part of 1904, having been taken sick there while attending the General Convention.14 On May 2, 1905, he tendered his resignation, to accept a call to St. James Church, Marietta, Ga., because his health necessitated a change of climate. The resignation became effective the first Sunday in June.
Resolutions were adopted by the vestry, in tribute to the rector: “His piety and devotion to duty will be long remembered in this Parish, and his Kindness and gentleness will be cherished by all.”15
Much work was accomplished in the parish during his rectorship of more than fifteen years. Besides the building programs for the church, chapel and parish house, a Girls Friendly Society was organized here by Mr. George May 1, 1904.16 A vested choir was first formed here also in that year. Three original members still assisted with the church music in 1940, Mrs. Garrason A. Farrow, for many recent years organist; Mrs. C. T. Ward and Miss Sadie Whitehurst.
The Rev. Mr. George had been born in Marietta March 25, 1858, and thus returned to his native city. He was the son of a minister, and had two brothers in the
10Ibid., 6.11Ibid., 22.12Ibid., 28-29, 34.13Ibid., 26-27.14Ibid., 22-23.15Ibid., 30-33.16 Roberts, op. cit., p. 23.ministry. Not only by all ages and classes of his own church was he beloved, but also by members of all denominations.
After his death in February, 1908, a memorial service was held here during a meeting of the Wilmington Convocation. A tribute to him by the rector at that time, the Rev. J. H. Brown quoted: “Mark the perfect and behold the upright man, for the end of that man is peace.”17
17Ibid., p. 24.L
THE REV. L. G. H. WILLIAMS
The Rev. L. G. H. Williams, of Americus, Ga., accepted a call to the Christ Church rectorate in the Fall of 1905. He met with the vestry for the first time on November 6.1
As their first act, the vestrymen turned over to the rector the completion of the parish house. This task the newcomer undertook with characteristic energy and interest, and it was used that Christmas for the annual Christmas tree exercises of the Sunday School.2
At a meeting of the parish December 4 the rector requested that the number of vestrymen be increased from seven to nine, and this was done.3 When the vestrymen organized later that month, Mr. Roberts was renamed Senior Warden; Judge Bryan, re-elected Junior Warden; Charles L. Stevens, clerk; and John R. B. Carraway, re-elected treasurer.4
Because of his ill health, Mr. Williams was granted a leave of absence between August and October, 1906.5 Following his return, at the annual parish supper in December, he reported many achievements, including the completion of the parish house. He warned against the danger of becoming “too well satisfied,” for he declared that plenty of work remained for all. As for himself, he did his part earnestly, working especially among the poor of the entire city.6
The following October, in 1907, after two years’ service, Mr. Williams resigned as rector, effective in December, due to the climatic conditions which were not satisfactory for his health or that of his family. The vestry went on record in sympathy with the minister because of the illness of his wife, and accepted his resignation with regret.7
Bishop Robert Strange, who had succeeded the late Bishop Watson, made suggestions as to Mr. Williams’ successor here; and on January 10, 1908, met here with the vestry. A call was then extended to the Rev. John H. Brown, of Fernandina, Fla.8
1 V. M., Vol. 4, p. 38.2 Roberts, op. cit., pp. 24-25.3 V. M., Vol. 4, p. 39.4Ibid., 41.5Ibid., 49.6Ibid., 52.7Ibid., 59-60.8Ibid., 67.CHRIST CHURCH ALTAR
Bishop Robert Strange
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Strange had been born in Wilmington December 6, 1857. His father was Col. Robert Strange, a prominent lawyer, who had served with distinction in the Confederate Army. His mother was Carolina Wright, daughter of Dr. Thomas H. Wright, prominent at Wilmington and long identified with St. James Church.
After attending the Horner and Graves school at Hillsboro, he was graduated at the University of North Carolina in the Class of 1879. He was confirmed by Bishop Atkinson November 20, 1877; and in 1880 applied as a candidate for Holy Orders in the Diocese of North Carolina. Three years later he went to Brunswick County, Virginia, as a catechist and lay missionary.
When Dr. Watson, his former rector, became the first Bishop of the new Diocese of East Carolina, Strange attended the consecration in St. James Church. Three days afterwards, Sunday, April 20, 1884, he was ordained to the diaconate there by Bishop Watson.
Following a trip to Europe, Mr. Strange was called to the Church of the Good Shepherd at Raleigh. There on November 15, 1885, he was advanced to the priesthood by Bishop Lyman. For more than a year he served in the State Capital, then accepted a call to his mother church at Wilmington. While rector there at St. James from 1887 to 1900, he was given a degree of Doctor of Divinity by the University of North Carolina.
For four years he served as rector of St. Paul's Church, Richmond. Then he was named the second Bishop of the Diocese of East Carolina. He was consecrated at St. James Church on All Saints Day in 1904. The main sermon of the occasion was preached by Bishop Randolph of Southern Virginia. For a decade he labored successfully through the Diocese. He died August 23, 1914. His body was also interred under the chancel at St. James Church.
LI
THE REV. JOHN H. BROWN
Mr. Brown accepted the local call, and began a two-year rectorate in March, 1908.1 Before his arrival, the rectory was renovated.2
As one of the most important public steps ever taken by the congregation, the church pews were made free in 1910, instead of being rented as they had been previously. This change had been suggested in 1885, and again in 1894 and 1898, without definite results. The vestry approved such a plan in 1909, and the next month their recommendation was accepted by the membership at a parish meeting on January 17, 1910.3
The Carolina Churchman was started in 1909, by merging The Mission Herald and The Messenger of Hope; and Mr. Brown served capably as assistant editor. He was a trustee of the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn.; and also acted as Chairman and Field Secretary of the East Carolina Sunday School Commission.4
Many accomplishments along varied lines were reported for those years. The altar in the parish house was presented to the Episcopal mission at Burgaw. Church attendance here was reported to be good, the rector preaching excellent sermons and conducting the rituals in unusually impressive and inspiring manner.
In May, 1910, Mr. Brown resigned the local post to accept a call to Christ Church, Pensacola, Fla. A resolution passed by the vestry praised him as “an able preacher of the gospel and a learned theologian,” and expressed gratitude for “the good work that has been accomplished by Mr. Brown in the parish.”5
During that Summer New Bern staged one of the most elaborate celebrations in State history, in a week's programs commemorating the bi-centennial of the founding of the city in 1710. The North Carolina State Firemen's Association held the annual convention and
1 V. M., Vol. 4, p. 69.2Ibid., 68.3Ibid., 41, 86. Supra, p. 185.4 Roberts, op. cit., p. 25.5 V. M., May 18, 1910, Vol. 4, pp. 95-96.tournament here at the same time, adding to the entertainment events that drew thousands of people.
LIITHE REV. B. F. HUSKE
An invitation was sent in July, 1910, to the Rev. Bartholomew F. Huske, of St. Paul's Church, Greenville, originally from Fayetteville, to succeed Mr. Brown as local rector October 1.1 This call was accepted, and for seven years he served the parish.
A decade prior to the passage of the equal suffrage amendment to the Federal Constitution to give women the ballot politically, which went into effect August 26, 1920, it was voted here at a parish meeting on November 28, 1910, to follow “an old-time custom” in allowing “such ladies as were contributors to the church to be allowed to cast ballots” for vestrymen.2
The next year, however, the vestry decided that future elections should be conducted under the church canons which then required that voters should be baptized male adults in special registrations.3 That canon was changed by 1913.4 In 1912 the number of vestrymen was increased again, this time from nine to twelve.5
Grace Chapel was opened in Riverside during 1913. The lot was donated by William Dunn, Sr. Materials were given by lumber men and building supply dealers.6 It was finally dismantled in 1919, after comparatively short service.
When the Episcopalians before that year had discontinued their Sunday School in that section of the city, the Riverside Methodist Sunday School was permitted to use their chapel. After the Riverside Methodists decided to build a new church, the old structure was moved to Grantham on the Morehead City road, where for some time it has been used by the Presbyterians.
Repairs to the church, with construction of a recess chancel, were authorized by the vestry in 1913.7 Messrs. Roberts, Bishop, and Thomas D. Warren were named on a committee for the purpose.8 William W. Griffin was elected treasurer for a church improvement fund.9 The
1 V. M., Vol. 4, p. 93.2Ibid., 102.3Ibid., 118.4 Church Histories.5 V. M., Vol. 4, pp. 134-35.6Ibid., 138, 141.7Ibid., 143.8Ibid., 146.9Ibid., 147.Rev. J. N. Bynum was engaged to assist with local mission work during that Summer.10
Upon motion of Mr. Bishop, an Every Member Canvass was held in December, 1914, to increase church funds and raise money for missions. This started an annual custom, since then followed by other local churches.11 Resolutions of respect were adopted for the late Capt. Wentworth S. Simmons, long a vestryman and church official.12
The Diocesan Council was held at New Bern in the Spring of 1915.13
On April 8, 1917, a special meeting of the vestry was held with the rector, with reference to his departure for service as Chaplain of the North Carolina Naval Reserves, upon entry of the United States in the World War. He was allowed an indefinite leave of absence.14
During his service here a Woman's Auxiliary and a Junior Auxiliary were formed among the members of All Saints Chapel, with the aid of the Christ Church women. A sewing and cooking school were also started.15
The centennial anniversary celebration of the organization of the Diocese of North Carolina here in 1817 was held in Christ Church on May 17, 1917. Three Bishops were present for the ceremony—Bishop Joseph B. Cheshire of Raleigh; Bishop Junius M. Horner, of Asheville; and Bishop Thomas C. Darst, of Wilmington, who had succeeded Bishop Strange in the Diocese of East Carolina.16
A handsome bronze tablet was unveiled as a gift to Christ Church from the two dioceses and the missionary district of Asheville. It still has an honored place on the west wall near the baptismal font. Its inscription begins:
“To the glory of God and in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the organization of the Diocese of North Carolina.”
Names of the nine Episcopalians who met in New Bern and organized the first Diocese of North Carolina in 1817 are also on the tablet: the Rev. Bethel Judd, Fayetteville, president; the Rev. Adam Empie, Wilmington, secretary; the Rev. Jehu Curtis Clay, of New Bern; John Rutherford London and Marsden Campbell, of Wilmington; John
10Ibid., 143, 145.11Ibid., 162-63.12Ibid., 165.13Ibid., 167.14Ibid., 201.15 Roberts, op. cit., p. 26.16 V. M., Vol. 4, p. 204. New Bern Sun-Journal files, May, 1917.Stanly and John Spence West, of New Bern; Josiah Collins, Edenton; and John Winslow, Fayetteville.
The Rev. Guy H. Madara was named acting rector of the parish during the Fall of 1917, Mr. Huske resigning here to remain in the service of the country as a Chaplain in the regular Navy. The question of a permanent successor was postponed until the visit of Bishop Darst.17
Following his retirement from the Navy, as a Lieutenant-Commander, after service on the seas and as assistant chaplain at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., Dr. Huske visited New Bern on various occasions. He still ranked as an officer in the Naval Reserves, and held a degree of Doctor of Divinity.
For some years after his naval service he was rector of St. Mary's Church, Kinston, then maintained his headquarters and home in his native city of Fayetteville, while serving as rector of Grace Church, Whiteville, and Trinity Church, Lumberton.
17 V. M., Vol. 4, pp. 207, 208, 212-13.LIII
THE REV. DANIEL G. MACKINNON
The Rev. Daniel G. MacKinnon, S. T. D., accepted the rectorship of this parish in October, 1917, and arrived during December from St. Bartholomew's parish, Philadelphia.1 Among his earlier charges was a rectorate at Kansas City.
At his first meeting with the parishioners, vestrymen agreed to support him in the church school by attending his Bible class on Sunday mornings.2
During his entire stay here, he did much work among the men of the congregation, drawing them to the Sunday night services and holding special suppers for them from time to time. The Brotherhood of St. Andrew was fostered.3
When the Rotary Club was organized in 1920 the parish house was used for the men members, and since then has been the main meeting place for their supper sessions, women of the church preparing and serving the suppers. For some time recently Mrs. H. C. Lumsden has been in general charge. The kitchen and serving room have been much improved in space, arrangement and equipment.
In March, 1919, Mr. Bishop was again elected Junior Warden,4 to succeed the late Judge Bryan, who had served in this capacity for many years until his death and who was warmly praised in vestry resolutions.5
Mr. Roberts passed away in 1922, after service as a vestryman for 48 years and Senior Warden for 33 years. Appropriate tributes were offered to his memory by the vestry.6
Named April 3, 1922, to succeed Mr. Roberts as Senior Warden, Mr. Bishop has held that office ever since. J. G. Dunn, Sr., long a member of the vestry with lengthy service as treasurer, succeeded Mr. Bishop as Junior Warden.7 When he became ineligible for re-election to the vestry, Charles H. Stith became Junior Warden; and
1 V. M., Vol. 4, pp. 209, 210, 214, 216.2Ibid., 217.3Ibid., 223; Vol. 5, p. 46.4Ibid., March 3, 1919, Vol. 4, p. 234.5Ibid., 234-35, 237.6Ibid., Vol. 5, pp. 7, 12-13.7Ibid., 10-11.later Frank F. Fagan was named, serving at the present time.
George H. Roberts, Jr., who has long served on the vestry, being first named the month before his father's death,8 was elected secretary or clerk, upon the removal of W. G. Boyd from the city after long and efficient secretarial service.9 He was followed shortly as clerk by J. E. Boswell, who was named to the vestry in Mr. Boyd's place. J. C. Bagg was later elected clerk, then L. A. Stith, and J. Haywood Jones. J. G. Dunn, Jr., has for some time served as treasurer, following his father, J. G. Dunn, Sr., and J. E. Boswell.
The matter of building an extension to the parish house for needed church school purposes was considered in 192310 and often later discussed; but the addition was not made possible until 1938.11 Church windows were retouched during Dr. MacKinnon's rectorate, with financial aid from the women's groups.12 Many improvements in the church yard were made under the direction of Mrs. J. Vernon Blades.13
Just as the Christ Church bell was first to ring in the news of the signing of the World War Armistice November 11, 1918, with Dr. MacKinnon holding a thanksgiving and prayer service, so the parish house was the first public door opened to the hungry and suffering fire victims after the disastrous fire on December 1, 1922, which burned forty blocks, chiefly in Negro residential sections, causing approximately $1,000,000 damage and leaving 1,000 persons homeless.
St. Cyprian's Church also did valiant work during the disaster, as did its rector, the Rev. R. I. Johnson. It was temporarily converted into a Negro emergency hospital. A baby born there was named St. Cyprian Emergency Dillahunt. The dire need for a local Negro hospital then became so urgent that efforts in that direction were undertaken, resulting successfully fifteen years afterwards.14
Patriotism was stressed during Dr. MacKinnon's ministry. He had started his work here during the World War, and the American Flag was given an important
8Ibid., 9.9Ibid., 27.10Ibid., 31-32.11Infra, p. 210.12 V. M., Vol. 5, pp. 53, 55, 98.13Ibid., 52.14Infra, p. 214.place in the church. He also emphasized form and ritual; and his scholarly sermons gave much information about church history, symbolism, the Trinity, Holy Communion and other phases of worship.
Mission work was pushed through this region under his guidance. The Rev. J. Mitchell Taylor was engaged as his assistant along this line. Mr. Taylor carried on the work particularly at the Vanceboro church, then a mission of the parish.
In recent years missions have been sponsored at Vanceboro, Trenton, Oriental, Pollocksville and Jasper. None is being conducted at present. The Vanceboro church now has its own rector and organization. The Trenton church is operated under the Kinston parish, and the Pollocksville membership has been transferred there. The Oriental church was burned. The Jasper mission, where the interest had decreased, was sold a few years ago to the Disciples of Christ, who have moved the church across the highway and renovated and beautified it as a Sunday School building.
During April, 1925, after more than seven years here, Dr. MacKinnon resigned. The vestry accepted his request with regret, calling attention to the “high-tone, dignified manner in which the services have been conducted and the untiring efforts of Dr. MacKinnon to increase the spiritual welfare of his people.”15
From New Bern he left June 3 for Pleasantville, N. J., near Atlantic City, where he had been elected rector of St. Mark's parish. For some years he and Mrs. MacKinnon had been spending the Summers in that vicinity, so had numerous friends there. After fruitful service, he retired from the active ministry, and he and his wife resided at Marshfield Hills, N. J. Mrs. MacKinnon died in October, 1940.
15 V. M., Vol. 5, pp. 58-59.LIV
THE REV. GUY H. MADARA
The Rev. Guy H. Madara, who had acted temporarily as rector here during the Autumn of 1917, following missionary work in Alaska, returned to New Bern on February 2, 1926, to begin a regular pastorate.1
For two months before his arrival the Rev. Richard B. Doherty, an able young minister from New York, had substituted here. The parish had been without a regular rector since Dr. MacKinnon had departed the preceding June.
Since 1918 the Rev. Mr. Madara had served as canon missioner for the Diocese of Newark in New Jersey. During the year before his local call he had also had charge of the parish at Mountain Lakes, N. J. He was a graduate of the Philadelphia Divinity School.
Isaac E. Brooks, of this city, was certified by the vestry in 1927 as a worthy candidate for Holy Orders.2 In time he was duly ordained, and for some time held a rectorate at Philadelphia.
The next year the Rev. Jean A. Vache, pastor of a Presbyterian chapel in Ghent, transferred his affiliation to the Episcopal church, and was recommended by the vestry for ordination.3 Following service in East Carolina, he has for some years been rector of St. Andrew's Church in Greensboro.
As an important innovation, an acoustic system was installed in the church, without expense to the parish.
When it was first planned to enlarge the city postoffice, then on Pollock and Craven Streets, the Federal Government in 1927 asked to buy the adjoining rectory lot on Craven Street. The vestrymen agreed to sell it for $20,000, and in 1929 the sale was consummated at that price. Church notes were thereupon paid off, and the balance was deposited on savings accounts in local banks, which closed the next year.4
1 V. M., Vol. 5, p. 72. New Bern Sun-Journal files, for the first part of February, 1926.2 V. M., Vol. 5, pp. 100, 139.3Ibid., 132.4Ibid., 124, 127, 129, 149-50.The Government afterwards decided not to enlarge its old building but to sell it to the city for a City Hall and to erect a new Federal Building on Middle and New Streets. Accordingly, instead of building a new rectory as long contemplated, the vestry bought the adjoining Clark lot on Craven Street and moved the old rectory there, completely renovating it both inside and out in 1935.
During the year 1929 the vestry and parish voted to reduce the number of vestrymen from twelve back to nine again; and the rotation system was inaugurated, with three new members elected each year, to serve for only three years.5 In March, 1933, this rule was amended so that no member except the Senior Warden could be reelected for at least one year after the expiration of a term.6
Beloved for his indefatigable work among the poorer citizens of the entire town and surrounding sections, Mr. Madara especially fostered the activities at the church missions. In this he was supported by the vestrymen. A general church canvass was also sponsored here during his rectorate.
Much interest was taken in the women's work, and the rector was instrumental in starting the long-active Woman's Auxiliary on a new plan of circle or chapter divisions that since then has been successfully followed. Throughout the entire history of the church the women have always been active and helpful, and their organizations have accomplished many worthwhile things for the parish.
Not confining his interests to church but taking prominent roles in civic and community affairs, Mr. Madara was a leader in the Rotary Club, and served capably as its president.
On All Saints Day in 1930 a unique new altar cloth was dedicated for use in the church.7 This had been completed after seven months’ work by Miss Elizabeth Griffin, who left New Bern the next March for Manila and has since served as treasurer of the Missionary District of the Philippine Islands.
5Ibid., 159.6Ibid., March, 1933, p. 208; also repeated May, 1934, Vol. 5, p. 217.7Ibid., pp. 182-83.This lovely cloth still ranks as one of only three of the kind in the country, the other two being at the Denver Cathedral and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Measuring 120 inches in length and 24 inches in width, it consists of tiny pieces of beautiful laces contributed by 72 donors. The laces came from many different parts of the world, most of them being given as memorials to departed relatives or friends.
The corporal cloth and chalice veil were made later by Mrs. D. L. Ward, Sr., and the credence cloth was made by Mrs. H. C. Lumsden, to go with the altar or fair cloth. These last three were dedicated on All Saints Day in 1932 in memory of Mrs. Katharine Brayshaw, wife of the next rector. Probably no church in the nation has more valuable and exquisite communion sets.
Mr. Madara resigned as the local rector in November, 1930, to take effect December 31.8 A letter of regret was written him by the vestry.9
From headquarters at Rochester, N. Y., he did missionary work for the Church Extension Board. Then he assumed charge of a parish at Hammondsport, N. Y. For some time recently he has been a Chaplain in the Army, again having his home and headquarters in Rochester. During the Fall of 1940 he was promoted to the rank of Major. Although unable to return here often from New York State, he has kept in close touch with his many local friends.
8Ibid., 181.9Ibid., 186.LVTHE REV. I. DEL. BRAYSHAW
A call to the Rev. Ilbert deLacy Brayshaw, assistant rector of St. James Church, Wilmington, was extended by Christ Church vestry. It was accepted, and Mr. Brayshaw began his local work September 1, 1931.1
All Saints Chapel was closed that November.2 Some of its furnishings were given to missions. In 1938 the vestry agreed to permit its use as a nursery school, at the request of Mrs. Frank W. Hughes, the prime mover in this community project for the welfare of under-privileged children in the Long Wharf section of town. The chapel was then deconsecrated.
Through the financial aid and under the direction of Senior Warden Bishop and with the advice of Mrs. Richard N. Duffy and others as to decorations, the parish house was renovated in 1933. The vestry expressed thanks to Mr. Bishop and Mrs. Duffy.3 The next year plans were revived for a church school addition, but it was not until 1938 that this was finally achieved.4
On May 17-18, 1933, the Golden Jubilee anniversary of the organization of the Diocese of East Carolina here was celebrated at Christ Church. Mr. Brayshaw was general chairman for the programs, and there was a large attendance of clergy and lay visitors from all parts of the region.
Near the previous marker in commemoration of the founding of the earlier Diocese of North Carolina here, a tablet was unveiled to mark the first convention for the organization of the Diocese of East Carolina here December 12 and 13, 1883. This had been bought with contributions raised under the direction of the Rev. Mr. Huske, then of Kinston, as chairman of a special committee for the purpose.
The inscription on this tablet reads: “To the glory of God, in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the Diocese of East Carolina, with
1 V. M., Vol. 5, pp. 190-91. New Bern Sun-Journal files for the first part of September, 1931.2 V. M., Vol. 5, p. 193.3Ibid., 211.4Ibid., 219. Supra, p. 201. Infra, 210.reverent gratitude for abundant blessings and divine mercies bestowed upon this diocese through fifty years of progress. This tablet is erected at the fiftieth annual convention of the diocese, May 17, 1933.”
Women delegates were received and seated at this convention for the first time in the history of the diocese. Under former canons, only male members were eligible for election as official delegates. The previous year the conventions for men and women had been separated, and this was the first year that the two had been held at different times.
Bishop Darst read a proposed amendment to the canons, whereby women would be permitted to serve as official delegates to the General Convention. The proposal that women be privileged to serve on vestries was also discussed, but final action was deferred.5 It was approved the following year by the General Convention, and made effective by diocesan acceptance.
Dr. R. B. Drane, retired rector of St. Paul's historic parish of Edenton, who for many years had served as president of the diocesan conventions, at first declined the honor at this 1933 gathering here, due to his physical condition, but he was prevailed upon to accept his unanimous election to the position.6
Dr. Drane was one of the three convention honor guests who had attended the organization gathering fifty years before, the other two being Judge Francis D. Winston, of Windsor, and N. W. Taylor, of Beaufort. The other three survivors were unable to be here: the Rev. N. C. Hughes, of Henderson; the Rev. Armand de Rossett, retired, of Baltimore; and the Rev. H. S. McDuffie, Negro clergyman, then retired, of Philadelphia.7
The hurricane of September, 1933, did considerable damage to the church property and trees. The buildings were quickly repaired, but the trees and shrubs were not so easily replaced. Church members and officers did much relief work for hurricane disaster sufferers of the section.
Mrs. Brayshaw, wife of the rector, died in New Bern during his service here. He suffered a stroke of paralysis
5New Bern Sun-Journal, May 17, 1933.6Ibid.7Ibid.THE REV. CHARLES E. WILLIAMS
THE RT. REV. THOMAS C. DARST
some time afterwards while at Washington, N. C., on January 8, 1934.8 For several months he was treated at St. Luke's hospital here and at a hospital near Washington, D. C. He died June 29 at the home of a brother, the Rev. William Brayshaw, in Smithfield, Va., at the age of 42.9
A native of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, he had held rectorates in West Virginia and South Carolina, including Orangeburg and Camden, before going to Wilmington and thence coming to New Bern. He also served as a Chaplain in the National Guard, and went on his regiment's encampments while he was here. As a preacher he was forceful and eloquent, and as a pastor he was greatly beloved. His untimely demise was sincerely regretted by many friends and acquaintances.
8 V. M., Vol. 5, p. 214.9New Bern Sun-Journal, June 29, 1934.LVI
THE REV. CHARLES E. WILLIAMS
Through Bishop Darst, the vestry engaged the Rev. Charles E. Williams, who was doing notable work in the Creswell area, to act as supply rector for the Lenten and Easter season of 1934 during the incapacity of Mr. Brayshaw.1
Mr. Williams was already well known here, having spoken previously in the local church. He was one of the main speakers on the first night's program during the Jubilee convention here the previous year, his subject being rural work.
When Mr. Brayshaw continued ill after Easter, Mr. Williams kept on serving here as acting rector. Following the former's death, Mr. Williams resigned as supply rector early in July. However, on July 10 he was elected the regular rector of the parish.2
It was under his supervision that the parish house addition was again recommended3 and at last accomplished, being started in November, 1937, and made ready for use by the next March. This two-story extension has a rector's office, a church school office and three church school classrooms on the lower floor and seven classrooms on the second floor, a total of twelve rooms.
At the parish supper in 1935 it was announced that women for the first time were eligible for election to the vestry; but the parishioners decisively defeated a motion to extend this plan to Christ Church women.4 It was put into vogue elsewhere in this and other dioceses.
The parish suppers were made unusually enjoyable by Mr. Williams, with annual reports of church organization officials, talks by Bishop Darst and the Rev. Walter R. Noe, of Wilmington, executive secretary of the diocese, and fellowship features.
A parish bulletin was authorized in December, 1936,5 and proved so helpful and successful that it has since then been published weekly by the rector, except during
1 V. M., Vol. 5, p. 214.2Ibid., pp. 221-22.3Ibid., 219, 270, et passim. Supra, 201, 207.4 V. M., Vol. 5, p. 243.5Ibid., 258.the Summer months from the second Sunday in June to the second Sunday in September.
Among the physical improvements of church property during the past few years, Mr. Bishop at his own expense had the church interior and outside porch repainted in 1938.6
St. Ann's Chapter of the Woman's Auxiliary had the grave of the first rector, the Rev. James Reed, rebricked in 1937. A long flat marble slab was placed there, with an appropriate inscription.7 Much other work was done in the church yard. Historical markers had already been erected there by the city and the New Bern Historical Society.
In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the death of John Wright Stanly, buried in the church yard in 1789, a memorial service was held at the grave in 1939 by the Young People's Service League.
One of the most important accomplishments during Mr. Williams’ active and fruitful ministry was the building of a sacristy, as an addition to the northeastern portion of the church. This was done by St. Agnes Chapter, another of the seven chapters of the Auxiliary. It was dedicated to the use of the Altar Guild, in memory of Mr. Brayshaw, (1891-1934). Many of the furnishings of the beautiful little room are memorials to other persons.
During the early part of May, 1940, Mr. Williams began holding noon prayer services in the church every week day to pray for world peace and improved world conditions. Members of other denominations joined Episcopalians in these services for three months. The American flag was kept constantly in the chancel.
As of July 22, 1940, there were 607 baptized members listed on the church rolls, with 489 confirmed communicants.
The church school had 168 members enrolled for the year of 1939-40, with 19 teachers and officers, Mr. Williams acting as general superintendent. Under the direction of Mrs. Leinster Duffy, a splendid Junior choir furnished Lenten music as usual.
6Ibid., 285.7Supra, p. 96.During the past ten years the Young People's Service League did excellent work, winning a banner as a standard league for seven years of that decade (1933-1939), and one year being awarded the diocesan shield for making the best record in the diocese.
A living Christmas tree sponsored by this organization was planted at the southwestern corner of the church yard, in memory of Miss Mollie Heath, for over half a century a local public school teacher and church school primary teacher.
Memorials in the church and church yard have been compiled and listed by Miss Margaret S. Bryan. The attractive scrapbook is exhibited for the many visitors who come to the church during the annual Garden Club pilgrimages.
All organizations of the church functioned successfully during the 1939-40 year, report church officials. The Woman's Auxiliary as always had a busy year, as did its various chapters. The women have always worked loyally and efficiently for their church, and have had various successful organizations as the present Altar Guild; the former St. Cecilia society, which staged so many successful Christmas bazaars; and other sewing societies, missionary groups and church auxiliaries.
Since the War Between the States there have been only four Senior Wardens: Jacob Gooding, John Hughes, George H. Roberts and Mr. Bishop.
It is impossible to check exactly the number of years that Mr. Gooding served on the vestry, but it was probably half a century, including the church activity recess during the War Between the States. He was on the vestry in 1830 when the first vestry minutes now extant begin. How long he had then been a member is not known. In 1824 he was not a vestryman. He served until his death at the age of almost 90 in 1877. Nor is it known exactly how long he was Senior Warden, as the first reference to this in the minutes was in 1852. Family connections have been told that he served for 40 years as Senior Warden.
Major Hughes served on the vestry for 23 years, including 12 years as Senior Warden. George H. Roberts, for 33 years Senior Warden, served 48 years on the vestry. Mr. Bishop's long service on the vestry began in 1889, and his Senior Wardenship started in 1922.
An unusually long vestry record was also made by Judge Henry R. Bryan, who served 53 years, from 1866 to his death in 1919, including a number of years as Junior Warden. J. G. Dunn, Sr., also long a Junior Warden in recent years, served 33 years on the vestry to 1940.
Of outstanding importance and interest to Christ Church members is the Permanent Endowment Fund. This was first started June 7, 1886, when George B. Guion bequeathed $500, for use in maintaining the church yard; but the money was so badly needed for current expenses during the next decade that it was borrowed by the vestry, with the intention of replacing it shortly.
Not until March 5, 1929, was this sum returned to the fund, which by then had been re-established with other legacies. It was repaid into the endowment from interest that had accumulated on the fund.
Mr. Bishop was appointed trustee for the fund, and in 1940 had the distinction of having preserved the entire principal intact, despite the industrial depression and bank failures. At Mr. Bishop's request, John G. Dunn, Jr., has been a co-trustee since 1935.
From the vestry minutes, especially those for the early part of 1929, during Mr. Madara's rectorate, may be found references to the endowment fund. Only the interest is used, for upkeep of the church yard, permanent improvements on the church and other such expenditures considered of permanent value to the church or its congregation.
A total of $14,100 was shown for the principal, invested in good securities, according to the trustees’ books as of September 2, 1940. The list of donors, with the amount of their bequests and the date received, follows:
George B. Guion, $500, 1886-1929; Charles Tilden Pumphrey, a choir member confirmed in the church just
before leaving here on World War service, dying of pneumonia while on Y.M.C.A. duty in France, $100, 1919; Mrs. Kate La Montaigne, $500, 1919; George H. Roberts, $1,000, 1927; Mrs. Mary O. Windley, $500, 1927; Mrs. Sarah E. Wadsworth, $1,000, 1928; James A. Bryan, $5,000, 1929; Mrs. Margaret D. Nelson, $2,000, 1929; Mrs. Louise B. Addis, $3,000, 1934; and Mrs. Sophia B. Duffy, $500, 1940.
Much of Mr. Williams’ time, as well as that of Bishop Darst, Mr. Noe, Mr. Bishop and other church members, has been given to the Good Shepherd Hospital for Negroes,8 opened June 26, 1938, as the only such institution for Negro patients in an eighty-mile radius. It was sponsored by the Diocese, and was located on property that had been left the Diocese by the Rev. Mr. Forbes.
Its second anniversary was observed here, with appropriate program, on Sunday, June 30, 1940. At that time it was announced that there was no outstanding indebtedness on the $70,000 building and equipment. The Duke Endowment, the Pennsylvania Diocese and others were among the donors. Women's Auxiliaries of East Carolina and Massachusetts gave the hospital quantities of linens and supplies during the Spring.
Mr. Noe is chairman and treasurer of the board of directors; the Rev. R. I. Johnson, general manager and chief organizer. For the two years they reported 392 operations, 320 medical cases, 75 babies born, 342 persons in the out-patient department, and as many as 500 persons a month at the regular clinics conducted there by county health officials.
As rector of St. Cyprian's Church since 1918, the Rev. R. I. Johnson has been outstanding, not only in this diocese but in other parts of the country. Although much work among Negroes was done here by white rectors, with a Negro congregation organized temporarily as early as 1833,9 the permanent organization of St. Cyprian's Church dates back only to June 20, 1866. For a time it was served by white leaders, as Mr. Skinner and Mr. Forbes.
The Rev. Peter W. Cassey, a perpetual deacon, who came here in 1880 and served until 1894, was the first
8Supra, p. 201. See also V. M., June 16, 1930, Vol. 5, p. 172.colored man to have charge of the church, and since then all rectors have been Negroes. The next year he was followed by the Rev. George Frazier Miller, of Brooklyn, N. Y., who remained one year. The Rev. George Avant was rector from 1898 to 1907. During the rectorate of the Rev. J. L. Taylor, 1907-13, the present church was built to replace the former century-old structure. For one year, 1915-16, the Rev. S. A. Morgan served there, being succeeded by the incumbent, whose ministry has been the longest of all.
9Supra, pp. 127, 142.LVII
THE RT. REV. THOMAS C. DARST
The Right Reverend Thomas Campbell Darst, D. D., third Bishop of the Diocese of East Carolina since 1915, deserves a large share of the credit for the progress and promise of the parish and the Diocese during the last quarter of a century. His encouragement and inspiration have assisted the local rectors in all their undertakings and objectives.
Born at Pulaski, Va., November 10, 1875, a son of Thomas Welsh Darst and Margaret Glendy Darst, he was reared in the Presbyterian faith, like Bishops Ravenscroft, Ives and Watson. When he told his mother he had decided to become an Episcopal minister, she said, “I bequeath thee to His Divine Will.”
In 1899 he was graduated from Roanoke College, Salem, Va., and three years later from the Virginia Theological Seminary. Since then he has been awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity by Roanoke College, the Virginia Seminary, the University of the South, Duke University and the University of North Carolina.
Ordained to the diaconate by Bishop Peterkin, of West Virginia, in 1902, he was ordained to the priesthood the next year by Bishop Gravatt. He served as assistant rector of Christ Church, Fairmont, W. Va., 1902-03; then became rector of Meade and John's parishes in Upperville, Va., where he stayed until 1905; when he became rector of St. Mark's Church, Richmond, for four years. From 1909 to 1914 he was rector of St. Paul's, Newport News, Va.; then went to St. James, Richmond.
Unanimously elected Bishop of the Diocese of East Carolina at St. Peter's Church in Washington, he was consecrated January 6, 1915, at St. James Church, Wilmington, by Bishops Tuttle, Cheshire, Horner, Guerry, Gravatt and B. D. Tucker. The 25th anniversary of this occasion was appropriately celebrated last January during the 57th annual meeting of the Diocesan convention and
the 52nd annual gathering of the Diocesan Woman's Auxiliary at St. James.
Not only among Episcopalians but also among all denominations Bishop Darst is known and beloved. With his Bishop's Fund he has aided many persons. At the annual encampments at Camp Leach, he is loved as one of the best sports among all the young people at the church resort.
During his 25 years in the Diocese he has confirmed about 9,000 persons; sixty young men have been ordained ministers; and thirteen persons have gone into foreign mission fields.
Among those serving as a missionary in a foreign land from this Diocese is a native New Bernian, Dr. Lula Disosway, daughter of Mrs. Lula Disosway and the late R. J. Disosway. In 1927 she went to China as a medical missionary, and has made a high mark for herself as assistant to the superintendent of St. Elizabeth's Episcopal Hospital at Shanghai, where she has charge of the maternity division. Through shot and shell, war and revolution, she has remained faithfully on her job. Her talks about her work during her visits home are heard with much interest.
Originator and director of the famous Bishops’ Crusade a number of years ago, Bishop Darst became known all over the country. He has preached in many of the leading churches and cities of America.
Besides serving as the first Chairman of the National Commission on Evangelism, he has been president of the Synod of the Province of Sewanee; and trustee of the University of the South, St. Mary's and St. Augustine's schools at Raleigh, and the Bishop Payne Divinity School at Petersburg, Va.
Included in the Diocese of East Carolina, one of the three now in North Carolina, are most of the counties in the eastern part of the State along the entire coastline. There were about 8,000 communicants and almost 100 parishes and missions reported in 1940.
Cooperating in extensive plans that contemplate the eventual restoration of historic St. Thomas Church,
“Cathedral of the Diocese,” and other old buildings at Bath, oldest town in North Carolina, Bishop Darst has exemplified his regard and appreciation for the past record of the church, in building on historical heritage for a more worthy present and a greater future, with praise and gratitude for the work, service and inspiration of older leaders in pointing the way towards higher goals.
CHRIST CHURCH VESTRYMENIN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
FROM 1830 TO PRESENT DATE, 1940
John R. Donnell
John P. Daves
John H. Bryan
D. Hatch
Moses Jarvis (Treasurer, Junior Warden)
Jacob Gooding (Treasurer, Senior Warden)
William Kyle (Secretary)
Edward G. Pasteur
John M. Roberts
James W. Bryan (Secretary)
Charles Shepard (Secretary)
John W. Guion (Secretary)
Edward Benners
Samuel Oliver
Stephen B. Forbes
Asa Jones
John Blackwell
Moses W. Jarvis (Secretary, Treasurer, Junior Warden)
Thomas S. Singleton
William Dunn (Secretary, Treasurer)
John R. Justice
John N. Washington
J. C. Justice
John A. Guion
M. A. Outten
Israel Disosway
William G. Hall (Treasurer)
John S. Winthrop
William H. Oliver (Secretary, Treasurer, Junior Warden)
Joseph Fulford (Treasurer)
John Hughes (Senior Warden)
Henry R. Bryan (Junior Warden)
Frederick C. Roberts (Secretary)
Daniel T. Carraway (Secretary, Treasurer)
George H. Roberts (Treasurer, Junior Warden, Senior Warden)
W. B. Boyd (Secretary)
M. D. W. Stevenson
John Dunn (Treasurer, Junior Warden)
John S. Long
Owen H. Guion (Secretary)
E. K. Bishop (Secretary, Junior Warden, Senior Warden)
J. B. Hughes
Robert Ransom
Graham Daves (Secretary)
John R. B. Carraway (Treasurer)
M. Makeley
Edward B. Roberts
William Dunn, Sr. (Secretary)
Wentworth S. Simmons (Secretary)
Frank W. Hughes
Charles L. Stevens
J. G. Dunn (Treasurer, Junior Warden)
Thomas D. Warren
W. G. Boyd (Secretary)
H. B. Smith
William Dunn, Jr.
W. B. R. Guion
H. M. Bonner
R. J. Disosway
Charles A. Seifert
William W. Griffin (Treasurer)
Mark Disosway (Honorary Vestryman for Life)
H. J. Lovick
W. J. Rice
Charles H. Stith (Junior Warden)
C. R. Thomas
George H. Roberts, Jr. (Secretary)
J. E. Boswell (Secretary, Treasurer)
E. R. Marriner
J. C. Bagg (Secretary)
E. A. Braddy
J. G. Dunn, Jr. (Treasurer)
Henry P. Whitehurst
Frank N. Challen
Oscar A. Kafer, Sr.
Laurence A. Stith (Secretary)
L. M. Satterthwaite
John Haywood Jones (Secretary)
Frank F. Fagan (Junior Warden)
John A. Guion
Parker W. Morris
G. N. Mitchell
1940 VESTRYMENE. K. Bishop, Senior Warden
F. F. Fagan, Junior Warden
J. G. Dunn, Jr., Treasurer
John Haywood Jones, Clerk
J. E. Boswell
Parker W. Morris
G. N. Mitchell
Charles H. Stith
George H. Roberts, Jr.
COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY VESTRY TO ARRANGE FOR WRITING AND PUBLISHING OF CHURCH HISTORYE. K. Bishop
John A. Guion
Judge R. A. Nunng
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ANDERSON, JAMES S. M. The History of the Church of England in the Colonies and Foreign Dependencies of the British Empire.
ANDREWS, ALEXANDER B. Richard Dobbs Spaight. Reprinted from The North Carolina Historical Review for April, 1924. Raleigh, N. C., Edwards and Broughton Printing Company, 1924.
__________. “William Joseph Williams.” Unpublished manuscript in possession of the author of this history.
ASHE, SAMUEL A'COURT. History of North Carolina. 2 v. Greensboro, N. C., C. L. Van Noppen, 1908; Raleigh, Edwards and Broughton, 1925.
ATTMORE, WILLIAM. Journal of a Tour to North Carolina, 1787. Edited by Lida Tunstall Rodman, in The James Sprunt Historical Publications, Vol. XVII, No. 2. Chapel Hill, N. C., The University of North Carolina Press, 1922.
BATES, HENRY L. Scrapbook. In North Carolina Room of the University of North Carolina library, Chapel Hill.
BATTLE, KEMP P. “The Colonial Laymen of the Church of England in North Carolina,” published in Cheshire's Sketches of Church History in North Carolina. Wilmington, Wm. L. De Rosset, Jr., 1892.
BOYD, WILLIAM K. (ed). Some Eighteenth Century Tracts Concerning North Carolina. Publications of the North Carolina Historical Commission. Raleigh, Edwards and Broughton, 1927.
BRICKELL, JOHN. Natural History of North Carolina. Dublin, Ireland, Carson, 1737. Raleigh, printed by authority of the Trustees of Public Libraries, 1910.
BRINSON, SAMUEL M. Early History of Craven County. North Carolina Booklet, Vol. X, No. 4, April, 1910. Published by the North Carolina Society Daughters of the Revolution, Raleigh.
BRYAN, MARGARET S. Scrapbook of Memorials in Christ Church, New Bern. Typewritten.
BRYAN, MARY NORCOTT. A Grandmother's Recollections of Dixie. New Bern, Owen G. Dunn.
BURR, AGNES RUSH. Russell H. Conwell and His Work. Philadelphia, The John C. Winston Company.
BYRD, WILLIAM. Histories of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina. Introduction and notes by William K. Boyd, Ph.D. Publications of the North Carolina Historical Commission. Raleigh, Edwards and Broughton, 1929.
CENSUS. First United States Census, 1790. Return of the Whole Number of Persons within the Several Districts of the United States. Washington, W. Duane & Son, 1802. Also later census reports.
CHESHIRE, JOSEPH BLOUNT. Fragments of Colonial Church History. March 27, 1886. Printed copy at University of North Carolina library, collection of North Caroliniana from the library of W. L. Saunders.
__________, (ed.). The Early Conventions: Held at Tarborough, 1790, 1793 and 1794. Raleigh, Spirit of the Age Print, 1882.
__________, (ed.). Sketches of Church History in North Carolina. Addresses and papers by clergymen and laymen of the Dioceses of North and East Carolina, prepared for the joint centennial convention at Tarboro, May, 1890. Wilmington, N. C., Wm. L. De Rosset, Jr., 1892.
__________. “The Church in the Province of North Carolina,” and “Decay and Revival,” published in Cheshire's Sketches of Church History.
CLAREMONT, ESCLAIRMOND. The Juvenile Sewing Society of Christ's Church, New Bern. Answer to an Appeal. New Bern, January 29, 1871.
COLONIAL RECORDS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 10 v. Edited by W. L. Saunders. Raleigh, P. M. Hale, 1886; Josephus Daniels, 1887-90.
CONNOR, HENRY G. William Gaston. Addresses at the unveiling and presentation of the bust of William Gaston by the North Carolina Bar Association, November 24, 1914. Raleigh, Edwards and Broughton. 1915.
CONNOR, R. D. W. History of North Carolina. Colonial and Revolutionary periods. Chicago, Lewis Publishing Co., 1919.
__________, (ed.). Sermon by Rev. George Micklejohn. N. C. Booklet, VIII, No. 1, July, 1908.
COON, CHARLES LEE, (ed.). North Carolina Schools and Academies. Publications of the North Carolina Historical Commission. Raleigh, Edwards & Broughton, 1915.
COOPER, FRANCIS H. “Some Colonial History of Craven County.” At University of North Carolina library.
CRANMER, MAY WEBB. “Bishop A. A. Watson.” The Mission Herald, Wilmington, N. C., June, 1940.
CRAVEN COUNTY RECORDS. County Court House, New Bern. Court records, deeds, marriage bonds, marriage licenses, wills.
CREECY, RICHARD BENBURY. Grandfather's Tales of North Carolina History. Raleigh, Edwards & Broughton, 1901.
DAVES, GRAHAM. “Chattawka or Chautauqua, Origin of the Name.” North Carolina University Magazine, U. N. C. Library.
__________. “Communion Silver of Christ Church.” Typescript. Attached to a volume of vestry minutes of Christ Church parish while Mr. Daves was secretary of the vestry, 1896.
DEGRAFFENRIED, THOMAS P. History of the deGraffenried Family. Published by the author, The Vail-Ballou Press, Binghamton and New York, 1925.
DE MIRANDA, FRANCISCO. Diary. Edited by W. S. Robertson.
DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY, published for the American Council of Learned Societies. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons.
DIOCESAN JOURNALS. Diocese of North Carolina and Diocese of East Carolina. Journal of the Proceedings of the Protestant Episcopal Church in North Carolina, 1817 to date.
DRANE, ROBERT B. “Colonial Parishes and Church Schools.” Published in Cheshire's Sketches.
DRANE, REBECCA WOOD. “Bishop Watson's Decision to Join the Episcopal Church.” The Mission Herald, Wilmington, April, 1940.
DUBBS, JOSEPH H. Historic Manual of the Reformed Church. Dr. Dubbs, Lancaster, Pa.
EDES, HENRY H. Memoir of Martin Howard. From Transactions of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, March, 1900. Typewritten manuscript at New Bern Public Library.
EDMUNDSON, WILLIAM. Journal. Visit to Northeastern Carolina in early Colonial days.
FOOTE, WILLIAM HENRY. Sketches of North Carolina. New York. R. Carter, 1846.
FOX, GEORGE. Journal. Trip to North Carolina during Colonial period.
GRAHAM, JOHN WASHINGTON. History of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Edenton. Address delivered at the Diocesan Convention of East Carolina, Edenton, May 13, 1936. Edenton, The Chowan Herald Print, 1936.
HAVENS, JONATHAN. The Pamlico Section of North Carolina. New Bern, Richardson Printing Co., 1886.
HAWKS, FRANCIS L. History of North Carolina. 2 v. Fayetteville, E. J. Hale and Son, 1858 and 1859.
__________. Collection of historical data on North Carolina in library of New York Historical Society, New York City.
HAYWOOD, MARSHALL DELANCEY. Governor William Tryon and His Administration. Raleigh, E. M. Uzzell, 1903.
HENDERSON, ARCHIBALD. Washington's Southern Tour, 1791. Cambridge, Mass., Houghton Mifflin Co., The Riverside Press, 1923.
__________. “Early Amateur Dramatic Groups in North Carolina,” Winston-Salem Journal, December 19, 1926.
__________. “Martin Howard.” The Charlotte Observer, March 17, 1935.
HENDREN, ELIZABETH MAYHEW. “History of New Bern Methodists.” New Bern Sun-Journal, November 19, 1936.
HEYWOOD, FRANK A. The Norfolk-Southern Railroad and Its Commercial Tributaries. North Carolina room, U. N. C. Library.
HOOPER, WILLIAM. ’Tis Fifty Years Since. Raleigh, Holden, 1859.
HOSKINS, JOSEPH A., (ed.). President Washington's Diaries, 1791-99. Summerfield, N. C., 1921.
IRWIN, MICHAEL A. History of St. Paul's Catholic Church, New Bern. New Bern Sun-Journal, May 7, 1938.
JAMESON, J. FRANKLIN, and BUEL, J. W. Encyclopedic Dictionary of American Reference. Library of American history. 2 v. 1901.
JOHNSON, GUION GRIFFIS. Ante-Bellum North Carolina. Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 1937.
JONES, JO SEAWELL. Defence of the Revolutionary History of the State of North Carolina. Raleigh, Turner and Hughes, 1834.
KIMBALL, FISKE, and CARRAWAY, GERTRUDE S. “Tryon's Palace.” The New York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin, January, 1940. Vol. XXIV, No. 1. Pages 13-22.
LAWRENCE, ALFRED S. “Sketch of a Colonial Clergyman.” The Carolina Churchman, September, 1928. Vol. 19, No. 2.
LAWSON, JOHN. History of Carolina. London, W. Taylor and F. Baker, 1714. Raleigh, Strother and Marcom, 1860.
LOSSING, BENSON J. The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution. 2 v. New York, Harper and Bros., 1855.
MANN, ALBERT W. History of the Forty-Fifth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia. Boston, Wallace Spooner, 1908.
MARSHALL, MATTHIAS M. “The Church in North Carolina: Its Present Condition and Prospects.” Published in Cheshire's Sketches of Church History.
MARTIN, FRANCIS XAVIER. The History of North Carolina. 2 v. New Orleans, A. T. Penneman, 1829.
MASONIC MINUTES. Records of St. John's Lodge, A. F. & A. M. Original books, beginning January 9, 1772. Masonic Temple vault, New Bern.
MCCONNELL, S. D. History of the American Episcopal Church. New York, Thomas Whittaker, 1904.
MILLER, STEPHEN F. “Recollections of New Bern Fifty Years Ago.” 4 articles, published in Our Living and Our Dead, official organ of the North Carolina branch of the Southern Historical Society, Vol. I, November, 1874-February, 1875, Nos. 3-6.
MOORE, HIGHT C. “A Century of Service,” typewritten copy of an address delivered in New Bern during the 125th anniversary exercises of the First Baptist Church, November 13, 1934.
MOORE, LOUIS T. “State's Historic City.” Greensboro Daily News, March 6, 1927.
MORSE, JEDIDIAH. American Universal Geography.
MOORE, JOHN W. School History of North Carolina. New York, American Book Company, 1882.
NASH, FRANCIS. “Martin Howard, Chief Justice of North Carolina,” from Vol. III, Biographical History of North Carolina, (1906), presented in typescript by A. B. Andrews, Raleigh, to New Bern Public Library.
NORTH CAROLINA FEDERAL WRITERS’ PROJECT OF THE FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY, Work Projects Administration. North Carolina, A Guide to the Old North State. Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 1939.
OLDS, FREDERICK A. Story of the Counties of North Carolina. Oxford, Press of the Oxford Orphanage, 1922.
PERRY'S HISTORIC COLLECTIONS.
PETTIGREW PAPERS, 1780-1860. Library of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
PETTIGREW, THE REV. WILLIAM S. “The Conventions of 1790, 1793 and 1794, and the Bishop-Elect,” published in Cheshire's Sketches, pages 182-241.
PILMOOR, JOSEPH. Journal of the Rev. Joseph Pilmoor, D. D., 1769-74.
PLYLER, M. T. “Early Methodist Ministers in North Carolina,” published in The North Carolina Christian Advocate, November 12, 1936.
POLLOCK, THOMAS. Letter Book. Early part of the 18th Century.
POWELL, EMMA HENDERSON. New Bern. New Bern, Owen G. Dunn, 1905.
PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.
ROBERTS, DITA. A Short Historical Sketch of Christ Church Parish. New Bern, Owen G. Dunn, 1911.
ROBERTS, LAVINIA COLE. Collection of original manuscripts on local subjects of historical interest. In possession of family.
SHOTWELL, R. A. Business Directory of New Bern, 1866.
SOUTHERN CHURCHMAN. Series of articles on “Colonial Churches.”
TAYLOR, JOHN R. “History of the Broad Street Christian Church.” New Bern Times, December 15, 1939.
THOMAS, HENDERSON LEE. “Public Education in Craven County.” Thesis presented to the faculty of the University of North Carolina towards a degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Education. Chapel Hill, 1925. Typescript. Copies at Craven County Education Department office, New Bern, and U. N. C. Library.
TODD, VINCENT H., (ed.). Baron Christoph von Graffenried's Account of the Founding of New Bern. Publications of the North Carolina Historical Commission. Raleigh, Edwards & Broughton, 1920.
VASS, LACHLAN C. History of the Presbyterian Church in New Bern, N. C. Richmond, Va., Whittet and Shepperson, 1886.
VIZETELLY, FRANK H. New Standard Encyclopedia of Universal Knowledge. 25 v. New York, Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1931.
WADDELL, GABRIELLE DE ROSSET. Establishment of East Carolina Diocese. New Bern Sun-Journal, May 17, 1933.
WARE, CHARLES CROSSFIELD. “History of Disciples of Christ in New Bern.” North Carolina Christian, 1930-1939.
WATSON, ANNAH ROBINSON. On The Field of Honor. Copy in the University of North Carolina library, Chapel Hill.
WEEKS, STEPHEN BEAUREGARD. “Christopher de Graffenried.” 11 pages typewritten manuscript, University of North Carolina library.
__________. The Religious Development in the Province of North Carolina. Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, May-June, 1892.
__________. Church and State in North Carolina.
__________. The Press of North Carolina in the Eighteenth Century. Brooklyn, N. Y., Historical Printing Club, 1891.
__________. Historical Papers. U. N. C. library, Chapel Hill.
__________. Collection of Caroliniana. Raleigh, E. M. Uzzell and Co., 1907.
__________ and WEEKS, SADIE MANGUM. Scrapbook. 10 v. History and biography of North Carolina, newspaper clippings, 1825-1897. U. N. C. library.
WHEELER, JOHN H. Historical Sketches of North Carolina. Philadelphia, Lippincott, Grambo and Co., 1851.
WHITE, JOHN. Account of Lost Colony. Published by Richard Hakluyt, England, 1600.
WHITE PINE MONOGRAPH. An Architectural Monograph. “New Bern Architecture.” Series of 3 articles. By Charles Francis Hannigan and Aymar Embury, II. Vol. XIII, Nos. 1-3. Russell F. Whitehead, Editor. New York, The Marchbanks Press, 1927.
WHITFORD, JOHN D. Historical Notes. Typewritten manuscript of notes on the history of the First Baptist Church and New Bern. Copies at New Bern Public Library and North Carolina Historical Commission Library, Raleigh.
__________. Historical Collection. Manuscripts and clippings on historical subjects. North Carolina Historical Commission Library, Raleigh.
WILLIAMSON, HUGH. History of North Carolina. 2 v. Philadelphia, Thomas Dobson, 1812.
WINSTON, FRANCIS D. “Forming of East Carolina Diocese.” New Bern Sun-Journal, May 17, 1933.
OTHER SOURCESNEWSPAPER FILES. North Carolina Gazette and North Carolina Magazine, or Universal Intelligencer, all extant issues, 1751-1785. Photostat copies in the North Carolina Historical Commission Archives, Raleigh. Other early North Carolina newspapers at Historical Commisison library and University of North Carolina library. Old copies of New Bern Spectator. Files covering past 20 years for Raleigh News and Observer, Greensboro Daily News, Charlotte Observer, Winston-Salem Journal, and New Bern Sun-Journal.
PERIODICAL FILES. North Carolina Booklet, published during first years of the 20th century by the North Carolina Daughters of the Revolution. The Mission Herald, The Southern Churchman, The Spirit of Missions and other Episcopal publications. D. A. R. Magazine, now the National Historical Magazine, published monthly by the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, Washington.
North Carolina Historical Review, published by the State Historical Commission. The South Atlantic Quarterly, published by the Duke University Press, Durham. Biblical Recorder, published at Raleigh for the North Carolina Baptists, files for 1934. North Carolina Christian, Wilson, published by North Carolina Disciples of Christ, files 1930-40. North Carolina Christian Advocate, North Carolina Methodists, 1936.
LIBRARIES. New Bern Public Library. Archives of St. John's Lodge, No. 3, A. F. & A. M. Private libraries, especially of church books. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Woman's College, U. N. C., Greensboro. Duke University Library, Durham. North Carolina Historical Commission Library, Raleigh. State Library Commission, Raleigh. Executive office library of the Diocese of East Carolina, including journals of all the diocesan conventions, Wilmington. Christ Church records—parish registers, vestry minutes, and organization books. New York Public Library, New York City. New York Historical Society Library, New York City. Columbia University Library, New York City. Congressional Library, Washington.
MISCELLANEOUS. Encyclopedias. General histories. General collections and clippings on New Bern and East Carolina. Genealogies. Birth, baptism, marriage and death records. Tombstone inscriptions.
ABBREVIATIONS OF TITLES
| Col. Rec. | The Colonial Records of North Carolina. |
| St. Rec . | The State Records of North Carolina. |
| V. M. | Vestry Minutes of Christ Church, New Bern. |
| P. R. | Parish Registers, Christ Church. |
| D. J. | Diocesan Journals, proceedings of diocesan conventions in Dioceses of North Carolina and East Carolina. |
Ackroyd, James B., 138
Acoustic System, 204
“Acres of Diamonds,” 169
Adams, James, 16, 17
Addis, Louise B., 214
Africa, 130
African Episcopal, 173
Alabama, 130, 172
Alamance, 89
Alaska, 204
Albemarle Section, 16, 41, 110
Alexandria, 106
All Saints Chapel, 189, 198
Altar Cloths, 205-6
Altar Guild, old organization, 183; present organization, 211, 212
Ambrose, Phil, 68
American Foreign Missionary Society, 132
Americus, Ga., 192
Amory, T. J. C., 169
Anabaptists, 30, 54, 80
Andrew Chapel, 129-30
Andrews, A. B., 81, 117, 223
Annapolis, 199
Apostolic Succession, 137, 170
Archdale, John, 12
Archdale Precinct, 16
Architecture, present church, 179-80
Armistice, World War, 201
Army, 206; see also Confederate Army and Union Soldiers
Asbury, Bishop, 129
Ashe, John, 77
Ashe, Samuel A., 22, 223
Asheville, 184, 198
Asheville Missionary District, 198
Assembly Acts, 14, 23, 24, 25-27, 29, 34-35, 36, 37, 39, 42, 47, 48, 50, 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, 58-60, 62, 66, 73, 82, 86, 89, 98, 99, 100; incorporation of New Bern school, 70; erection of government house, 74; see also General Assembly
Atkinson, James C., 184
Atkinson, Thomas A., 140, 158, 162, 163-65, 169, 173, 179, 182, 184, 186, 187, 193
Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad, 163
Atlantic City, 202
Attmore, George S., 159
Attmore, William, 100, 223
Avant, George, 215
Avery, John, 119, 124
Badger, George E., 117, 159
Bagg, J. C., 201, 220
Baltimore, 154, 163, 208
Bandon, 41
Baptisms, 21, 27, 29, 30, 40-41, 54, 63, 73, 76, 80, 83, 87, 125, 126, 137, 138, 151, 167, 170, 173, 175, 178
Baptist, 22, 32, 129, 131-35, 138, 139, 169, 175, 181
Baptist Sunday School Board, 135
Barbados, 125
Barnett, John, 73
Baskett, John, 45
Bass, Alexander, 179
Bath, 13, 16, 36, 37, 40, 47, 58, 64, 69, 73, 79, 83, 217-18
Bath County, 16
Battle, Kemp P., 13
Battle of New Bern, 167-68
Baxter's Jewelry Store, 177
Bayard vs. Singleton, 100
Bayley, Amb. Cox, 68
Bazaars, 212
Beaufort, 27, 175, 181, 208
Beaufort County, 69, 120
Beaufort Precinct, 16, 25
Belgrade, 110
Bell, on church, 141, 177, 179, 201
Bell, Joseph, 25, 27
Benners, Edward, 219
Benners, Lucas, 124, 125
Bentham, Joseph, 45
Bern, 20
Bertie, 30, 73
Bethel Conference, 133
Bevis, Christopher, 41
Bible, 20, 32, 172
Bible, royal gift to parish, 45-46
Bible Class, 200
Biblical Recorder, 131
Bi-Centennial, founding of New Bern, 195-96
Bill of Rights, 93
Bishop, Edward K., 3, 141, 177, 188, 190, 197, 198, 200, 207, 211, 212, 213, 214, 220, 221
Bishop, George, 177
Bishop of Charleston, Catholic, 132
Bishop of London, 10, 13, 14, 20, 21, 29, 30, 44, 50, 59, 60, 66, 73, 76, 77, 84, 86, 89
Bishop Payne Divinity School, 217
Bishop's Crusade, 217
Bishop's Fund, 217
Blackwell, John, 159, 219
Blades, Mrs. J. Vernon, 201
Blair, John, 15
Blount, Jacob, 55, 64, 68, 77
Blount, James, 77
Blount, John B., 122
Blount, the Rev. Mr., 97, 102, 103
Blount, William, 98, 99
Blount's Chapel, 119
Board of Trade, 31, 35, 50, 52, 83
Bold, George, 38
Bonner, H. M., 220
Bonner, James, 77
Boone, Joseph, 15
Boston, 44, 168, 169, 180, 190
Boswell, J. E., 201, 220, 221
Boundary, between North Carolina and Virginia, 27
Boyd, Adam, 119
Boyd, John, 30
Boyd, W. B., 220
Boyd, W. G., 201, 220
Boyd, William K., 28
Braddy, E. A., 221
Brady, C. O., 179
Bragg, Mr., 133
Bray, Thomas, 10, 12, 13
Brayshaw, I. deL., 6, 206, 207-9, 210, 211
Brayshaw, Katharine (Mrs. I. deL.), 206, 208
Brayshaw, William, 209
Breaker, J. M. C., 132
Brett, Daniel, 12, 15
Brice, William, 25
Brick Manufacture, 37, 38
Brickell, John, 41, 223
Brinson, Samuel M., 33
British, 51, 89, 95, 97
Broad Street Christian Church, 133, 135
Brooklyn, 158, 215
Brooks, George, 169
Brooks, Isaac E., 204
Brooks, John, 33
Brooks, Phillips, 169
Brotherhood of St. Andrew, 200
Brown, John H., 6, 191, 192, 195, 197
Brunswick, 41, 42, 52, 67, 69, 72, 73, 77
Brunswick County, Va., 193
Bruton Parish, Williamsburg, Va., 123
Bryan, Edward, 38, 39
Bryan, Henry R., 166, 173, 179, 188, 192, 200, 213, 220
Bryan, James A., 156, 190, 214
Bryan, James W., 141, 159, 166, 219
Bryan, John, 37, 38
Bryan, John Council, 44
Bryan, John H., 127, 219
Bryan, Margaret S., 212
Bryan, William, 99
Buffalo, N. Y., 183
Burgaw, 195
Burgess, Thomas, 73
Burgwyn, J. F., 136, 138
Burial Plots, 155; see also Cemetery, Cedar Grove Cemetery, Christ Church Yard, Federal Cemetery and Greenwood Cemetery.
Burke, John, 6, 144-45
Burnside, A. E., 168
Burr, Aaron, 130
Burr, Agnes Rush, 171
Burrington, George, 29
Burton, Daniel, 79
Bute, 73
Buxton, Jarvis B., 127
Bynum, J. N., 198
Byrd, William, 27-28
Calhoun, John C., 105
California, 164, 187
Calvary Church, New York, 154
Calvinists, 19, 21, 22
Cambridge University, 164
Camden, S. C., 209
Camp Leach, 217
Campbell, John, 77
Campbell, John Nicholson, 131
Campbell, Marsden, 121-22, 198
Cape Fear, 30, 42, 52, 65
Cape Henry, 9, 11
Capital, 33, 74-75, 112
Carlton, William, 32
Carolina Centinel, 134
Carolina Churchman, 195
Carraway, Daniel T., 178-79, 220
Carraway, John R. B., 192, 220
Carraway, Kate, 183
Carraway, Sarah Bennett (Mrs. D. T.), 178
Carter, James, 48
Carteret Precinct, 27
Cassey, Peter W., 214-15
Caswell, Richard, 68, 77, 99, 100
Cathedral of Diocese, 218
Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 206
Catholic, 22, 29, 54, 92, 125, 132, 145, 152, 155
Catholic Orphanage, Raleigh, 132
Cedar Grove Cemetery, 86, 105-6, 113, 117, 142, 151, 154, 155, 156, 174
Cemeteries, 155-56; see also Burial Plots, Christ Church Yard, Cedar Grove Cemetery, Federal Cemetery and Greenwood Cemetery
Census, 120
Centenary Methodist Church, 129
Centennial Anniversary, 198
Cesar, the Rev. Mr., 20
Chalice Veil, 206
Challen, Frank N., 221
Chancellor Kent, 170
Chapel Hill, 113, 131, 149
Chapel of the Cross, 131
Chaplain of Congress, 131
Charles I, 23
Charles II, 10
Charleston, S. C., 42, 132
Charter, 10
Chattawka, 20
Cheraw, S. C., 149
Cheshire, Joseph Blount, 11, 13, 17, 39, 42, 43, 49, 72, 75, 84, 88, 97, 101, 104, 107, 108, 111, 117, 118, 120, 123, 140, 186, 187, 198, 216
Chester B'nai Sholem Synagogue, 133
Chester, Stephen, 134
Chevin, N., 26
China, 217
Chocowinity, 119
Choir, 138, 190, 213
Chowan, 12, 14, 16, 17, 25, 26, 36, 40, 69, 73
Chowan Institute, 132
Christ Church, Baltimore, 154
Christ Church, Elizabeth City, 172
Christ Church, Fairmont, W. Va., 216
Christ Church, New Orleans, 153
Christ Church, Pensacola, 195
Christ Church, Raleigh, 120, 127, 138
Christ Church Parish, New Bern, 64, 67, 86, 98, 112, 124, 126, 149, 174, 181, 185, 186, 195, 197, 216; designated as a parish, 34, 42; first church built, 36-39, 44, 69, 100, 106, 115, 133, 134, 136; second church, 100, 101, 129, 136-40; third church built and consecrated, 177-82; wardens, 86, 101, 103, 136; yard, 96, 99, 113, 136, 155-56, 174, 201, 208, 211, 212, 213
Christian Science, 133
Christmas, 31, 83, 181, 192, 212
Christmas Tree, 212
Church Canvass, 205
Church Constitution, 97; Diocese, 121; State, 107, 109, 121-22, 168
Church of Annunciation, New York, 154
Church of England, 9, 10, 12, 14-17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 29, 30, 33, 34, 35, 45-46, 54, 58-60, 65, 68, 70, 72, 74, 79, 82, 83, 87, 93, 95, 97, 163
Church of Good Shepherd, Raleigh, 193
Church of Holy Saviour, New York, 154
Church of Mediation, New York, 154
Church School, see Sunday School
City Hall, 188, 205
Claremont, New Hampshire, 184
Claremont, Esclairmond, 178
Clarke, Mary Bayard, 156
Clay, Henry, 172
Clay, Jehu Curtis, 6, 121-22, 198
Cleary, Timothy, 68
Cleery, Patrick, 155
Clements, William, 103, 106
Clergy Bills, 51-52, 56, 58-60, 66, 73-74, 89
Clermont Plantation, 99, 114, 117
Clitherall, John, 68
Clubfoot Creek, 21
Coart, Sarah, 152
Cogdail, Charles, 27
Cogdell, Richard, 62, 64, 68
Cohen, Abraham David, 132
Collector, Port of New Bern, 152, 174
Collins, Josiah, 121, 170, 199
Collins, Mrs. Josiah, 170
Collins, William, 114
Colonial Dames, 42
Colonial Records of North Carolina, see footnotes at end of chapters
Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 81
Columbia, S. C., 132, 138, 142
Columbus, Ga., 152
Committee of Correspondence, church, 102
Committee of Safety, 90, 99
Communion, 30, 48, 50, 54, 63, 202
Communion Silver, 44, 187
Compton, Henry, 13
Confederacy, 171
Confederate Army, 111, 166, 167, 193
Confederate Baptist, 132
Confederate Monument, 156
Congress, 131
Connecticut, 127, 145, 153, 154, 156, 164
Connor, Henry G., 94, 128
Connor, R. D. W., 78
Constitution, Federal, 93, 97, 98, 99, 197; State, 35, 92-93, 99; State Church, see Church Constitution
Constitutional Amendments, 93, 197
Constitutional Convention, State, 92-93
Continental Congress, 90, 99
Conventions, North Carolina Episcopal, first, 103; second, 103-4; third, 106-7; others, 109, 121-23, 126, 127, 158; see also Diocesan Conventions
Conway, Peter, 68
Conwell, Russell H., 169
Cook, John, 130
Coon, Charles Lee, 118
Coor-Gaston-Henderson House, 125
Cornell, Samuel, 68, 77
Corporal Cloth, 206
Cosgreve, Thomas, 73
Cotting, Eliu, 68
Council, 33, 66, 92
Court, Pleas and Quarter Sessions, 32-33, 80
Cox, Longfield, 68
Cox, Melvell B., 130
Cranmer, May Webb, 170
Craven County, 19-22, 39, 69, 73, 80, 95, 130, 214
Craven, Earl of, 14
Craven Parish, 25-27
Craven Precinct, 14, 26
Cray, William, 77
Credence Cloth, 206
Creecy, Richard B., 94
Creswell, 110, 210
Crosswell, Harry, 153
Cuppels, Charles, 73, 97
Currituck, 16, 25
Curtis, Moses A., 148
Custis, Peter, 156
Cutting, Leonidas, 6, 98-101, 105
Daly, John, 68
Dare, Virginia, 9
Darst, Margaret G., 216
Darst, T. W., 216
Darst, Thomas C., 189, 198, 210, 214, 216-18
Daves, Graham, 45, 46, 189, 220
Daves, John, 101, 174
Daves, John P., 136, 138, 139, 174, 175, 219
Daves, Mary M. (Mrs. John W. Ellis), 175
Daves, Mrs., 159
Davidson College, 131
Davis, James, 33, 41, 49, 61, 64, 68, 73, 78, 100
Davis, Jefferson, 171
Davis, William, 77
Declaration of Independence, 130, 132
Dedication, of book, 4
deGraffenried, Christopher, 20, 21, 22, 36
Delaware, 127
de Miranda, Don Francisco, 75
Denver, Cathedral, 206
de Richebourg, Claude Phillippe, 19
de Rossett, Armand, 208
deRosset, Lewis, 77
de Rosset, William L., 11
Diocese of East Carolina, 158, 166, 171, 187, 189, 193, 198, 207-8, 210, 214, 216, 217, 218; organization, 186
Diocese of Newark, 204
Diocese of North Carolina, 121-23, 126, 137, 138, 141, 158, 179, 186, 187, 193, 198, 207
Diocese of Pennsylvania, 214
Diocese of Western New York, 183
Diocesan Conventions, 121-22, 124, 126, 127, 137, 145, 158, 166, 173, 179, 186, 187, 198, 207, 216; see also Conventions
Diocesan Records, 149, 151; see also footnotes for various chapters
Diocesan Reports, from Christ Church, 127, 142, 144, 147, 151-52, 158, 159-60, 162, 166, 167, 168, 172, 173, 175, 178, 179, 183
Diocesan Shield, 212
Disciples of Christ, 133, 202
Disestablishment of Church, 89-93
Disosway, Israel, 219
Disosway, Lula, 217
Disosway, Mark, 190, 220
Disosway, Mrs. Lula, 217
Disosway, R. J., 217, 220
Dissenters, 19, 30, 32, 33, 82
Dobbs, Arthur, 47, 50-52, 54, 56, 58, 61, 62, 64, 65, 72, 73, 114
Dobbs County, 73
Doherty, Richard B., 204
Donnell, Anne, 179
Donnell, John R., 136, 138, 140, 219
Dow, Lorenzo, 129
Dramatics, 115, 117
Drane, R. B., 208
Drane, Rebecca Wood, 170
Draper, William, 114
Drew, Daniel, 120
Dry, William, 77
Dubbs, Joseph H., 22
Duel, 113
Duffy, Francis S., 189
Duffy, Mrs. Leinster, 211
Duffy, Mrs. Richard N., 207
Duffy, Sophia B. (Mrs. Charles), 190, 214
Duffy, Sam, 188
Duke Endowment, 214
Duke University, 216
Dukenfield, Nat, 77
Dunn, J. G., 200, 201, 213, 220
Dunn, J. G., Jr., 201, 213, 221
Dunn, John, 220
Dunn, Lucretia Guion (Mrs. John), 189
Dunn, William, 159, 219
Dunn, William, Sr., 197, 220
Dunn, William, Jr., 220
Durham, 188
Dutch, 20, 21
Eagles, Alexander, 68
Earl, Daniel, 41, 69, 73, 90, 97, 110
Earl of Dartmouth, 89
East Carolina Sunday School Commission, 195
Easter, 32, 65, 122, 170, 210
Easter Monday, 25, 34, 92, 101
Eddy, Mary Baker, 133
Eddy, the Rev. Mr., 175
Eden, Charles, 23, 26, 37
Edenton, 30, 36-37, 40, 41, 64, 69, 90, 102, 109, 110, 119, 122, 124, 126, 175, 199, 208
Edenton Academy, 110
Edes, Henry H., 81
Edgecombe, 73
Edmundson, William, 12, 13
Edwards, Jonathan, 130
Elizabeth City, 147, 172
Elliott, Charles, 155
Ellis, Areta, 151
Ellis, John W., 175
Ellis, Mrs. J. W., 175
Ellis, Richard, 68
Ellixon, Mr., 133
Elwin, Fountain, 67
Empie, Adam, 121, 122, 124, 198
Endowment Fund, 213
England, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 23, 40, 44-46, 51, 58, 59, 61, 62, 76, 80, 83, 86, 89, 96, 97, 119. 137, 152, 153
English, 22, 120
Episcopal Church, name chosen, 97; first organization efforts in North Carolina, 97-98, 102-103; first convention, 103; second convention, 103-4; third, 106-7; see also Conventions, Diocese of North Carolina, Diocese of East Carolina, Diocesan Conventions, Established Church and Church of England
Established Church, 10, 14, 23, 24, 25, 29, 34-35, 42, 58-60, 72, 82, 84, 89, 93, 111
Euen, Will, 68
Eutaw Springs, 174
Evans, Richard, 77
Every Member Canvass, 198
Fagan, Frank F., 201, 221
Farrow, Mrs. G. A., 190
Fasting, 51, 90
Fayetteville, 44, 93, 104, 121, 122, 124, 127, 168, 170, 173, 197, 198, 199
Federal Cemetery, 156
Female Benevolent Society, see New Bern Benevolent Society
Female Charitable Society, 145
Female Education Society, 147
Fenner, Richard, 62, 68
Fernandina, Fla., 192
Finch, Josiah J., 132
Fire (1922), 201
Fire, church (1871), 139, 177-80, 182
Firemen, 195-96
Firemen's Tournament, 195-96
First Bishop of North Carolina, see Pettigrew, Charles
Fiske, Samuel, 73
Flag, 201-2, 211
Flanner, Bennett, 139
Flora Macdonald College, 131
Florida, 186, 192, 195
Floyd, Thomas, 73
Flushing, 154
Flythe, Augustus M., 179
Fontaine, Peter, 27, 50
Fonveille (Fonvielle, Fonville), John, 38, 47, 55, 68, 101
Forbes, Edward M., 6, 170, 172-75, 189, 214
Forbes, Stephen B., 172, 219
Forey, Martin R., 132
Fort Johnston, 90
Fort Raleigh, 9
Foster, Fran, 26
Fox, George, 12, 13
Fox, Mordecai, 44
France, 15, 214
Franck, John, 68
Frank, Martin, 25
Fredericksburg, 137
Freedom of Worship, 10, 14, 29-31, 32
Freeman, Frederick, 120
Freeman, George W., 120
Freeman, Jonathan Otis, 110, 120
Free Will Baptists, 132-33
French, 20, 22, 30, 51, 52, 100
French Huguenots, 19, 42
Fulcher, Thomas, 33
Fulford, Joseph, 27
Fulford, Joseph, 179, 219
Fundamental Constitution, 10
Furman Academy, 132
Furman, Richard, Jr., 131
Furman University, 131
Gale, Christopher, 23, 26, 27
Gale, Miles, 23
Garden Club, 212
Garzia, John, 40
Gaston, Alexander, 68
Gaston, Catherine Jane, 125
Gaston, Eliza Ann Worthington, 125
Gaston, William, 92-93, 115, 117, 125, 132, 142-43, 153, 154, 156
Gates County, 40
General Assembly, 14, 15, 16, 23, 24, 27, 29, 33, 34-35, 42, 48, 49, 50, 52, 56, 61, 69, 74, 83, 98, 100-1; see Assembly Acts
General Convention, 97, 102, 103, 109, 110, 122, 141, 164, 186, 190, 208
General Seminary, 170, 187
Geneva College, 127, 144
George II, 29, 44-46, 65, 128, 134
George III, 52, 59, 61, 65, 66, 67, 80, 82, 83, 86, 91
George, T. M. N., 6, 188-91
Georgetown, 125, 136
Georgia, 65, 66, 190, 192
German, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23
Germantown, battle of, 174
Gettysburg, 111
Gibbons, Cardinal, 132
Giffard, W., 77
Girls’ Friendly Society, 190
Glebes, 47, 50, 52, 60, 66, 69, 92, 93
Golden Jubilee Anniversary, Diocese of East Carolina, 207-8, 210
Goldsboro, 163
Good, William, 101
Gooding, Jacob, 173, 179, 180, 212, 219
Goodman, John R., 6, 124, 141-42, 152
Good Shepherd Hospital, 214
Gordon, Pat, 68
Gordon, William, 16
Gordon, William B., 175
Grace Chapel, 197
Grace Church, Baltimore, 163
Grace Church, Plymouth, 170
Grace Church, Whiteville, 199
Graham, J. W., 17, 39, 42, 43
Grantham, 197
Granville, Bevil, 30
Granville County, 76
Gravatt, Bishop, 216
Graves, Richard, 25
Graves, Thomas, 55
Gravesend, 19
Gray, James W., 174
Gray, Thomas, 77
Green, F., 107
Green, James, Jr., 77
Green, John, 68
Green, William Mercer, 186
Greene, Henry F., 6, 158-61
Greene, Nathaniel, 99
Greensboro, 132, 204
Greensboro News, 171
Greenville, N. C., 197
Greenwood Cemetery, 130
Griffin, Charles, 61
Griffin, Elizabeth, 205
Griffin, Moses, 156
Griffin School, 148, 151, 189
Griffin, William W., 197, 220
Groenendyke, Corn., 68
Guardians, 58
Guerry, Bishop, 216
Guilford Battleground National Park, 174
Guion, George B., 213
Guion, Isaac, 101, 109
Guion, John A., 219
Guion, John A., 221
Guion, John W., 124, 139, 147, 219
Guion, Owen H., 220
Guion, W. B. R., 220
Gurley, the Rev. Mr., 106-7
Hahn's Bakery, 177
Hagerstown, 117, 118
Hale, Charles S., 6, 183-84
Hale, Louise Weed (Mrs. Charles S.), 184
Halifax, 64, 73, 92, 93
Hall, Clement, 40-41
Hall, William G., 173, 219
Halling, Solomon, 6, 105-7, 109, 119, 121
Hamilton College, 187
Hammondsport, N. Y., 206
Hampden-Sidney, 163
Hancock Creek, 21
Hancock, William, 25
Harding, Nathaniel, 186
Hardy, Ben, 77
Hare, Edward, 77
Hare, Moses, 77
Harnett, Cornelius, 77
Harper's Weekly, 168
Harrison, Hannah, 189
Hartford, Conn., 164
Harvey, John, 76, 77
Hasell, James, 77
Haslen, Thomas, 62, 101
Hatch, D., 219
Hatch, Lemuel, 55
Haughton, T. B., 180
Haughton, Thomas G., 6, 162
Hawkins, Philemon, 77
Hawks, Cicero S., 117, 152
Hawks, Francis, 152
Hawks, Francis L., 11, 13, 17, 18, 22, 66, 78, 97, 117, 127, 152-54, 157, 163
Hawks, John, 66, 67, 74, 77, 99, 152
Hawks, Julie, 152
Hawks, William N., 6, 141, 144, 147, 148, 151-52, 158, 173
Hawley, Joseph R., 171
Hayes, 102
Haywood, Marshall DeLancey, 75, 80, 84
Haywood, William, 77
Heat, 69
Heath, Mollie, 212
Henderson, 208
Henderson, Archibald, 80, 101, 107, 118
Hendren, Elizabeth Mayhew, 134
Herritage, William, 38
Hertford, 12
Hewes, Joseph, 77
Hillsboro, 78, 120, 148, 193
Hines, Peter E., 173
Hines, Thomas, 77
Hobbs, Christopher Gregory, 38-39
Hoeger, Henry, 20
Holidays, 23, 29
Hollister, Dr. William, 131
Hollister, William, 145
Holly Springs, Miss., 153
Holy Innocents Day, 181
Hooper, the Rev. William, 132, 138
Hooper, William, 132
Horner, Junius M., 198, 216
Horner and Graves School, 193
Hoskins, Joseph A., 101
Howard, Josiah, 127
Howard, Martin, 80, 81
Howard, Narcissa Hatch, 127
Howe, Bishop, 186
Howe, Robert, 77
Howe, Thomas Clifford, 62, 67, 68
Howell, Peter, 132
Hubbard, Fordyce M., 6, 149-50
Hughes, Frank W., 220
Hughes, J. B., 220
Hughes, Jane Graham, 189
Hughes, Jennie Daves, 189
Hughes, John, 173, 179, 188, 212, 213, 219
Hughes, John D., 183
Hughes, Mrs. Frank W., 207
Hughes, N. C., 208
Hunt, Mrs. Eunice Edwards Pollock, 130
Hunter, E. S., 159
Hurricane, 208
Huske, B. F., 6, 180, 197-99, 207
Huske, Joseph, 44
Hyde Precinct, 16, 25
Improvement Fund, 197
Indiana, 163
Indians, 17, 19, 23, 27, 51, 52, 54, 113
Industrious Society, 141
Infidels, 51, 54, 92-93
Ireland, 27, 50, 76, 155
Iron Fence, 189
Irving, Thomas P., 6, 112-18, 119
Irwin, M. A., 128, 135, 157
Italy, 187
Ives, Levi Silliman, 140, 145, 147, 148, 152, 158, 164, 170, 172, 173, 216
Jacksonville, Fla., 186
James I, 45
James, John, 33
Jamestown, 9
Jardine Organ Company, 180-81
Jarvis, Moses, 122, 126, 136, 138, 139, 141, 219
Jarvis, Moses W., 159, 166, 219
Jasper, 202
Jasper, James Bryan, 153
Jewish Synagogue, 133
Job, 116
John's Parish, Va., 216
Johnson, Guion Griffis, 63, 146, 176
Johnson, R. I., 201, 214, 215
Johnston County, 39, 49
Johnston, Gabriel, 29, 72
Johnston, Samuel, 77, 102
Johnston, Samuel J., 170
Jonas, William, 55
Jones, Asa, 219
Jones County, 21, 127
Jones, John Haywood, 201, 221
Jones, Joseph, 68
Jones, Marmaduke, 77
Joyner, Edmund, 174
Judd, Bethel, 121, 122, 124, 198
Judd, Mehitable, 124
Judd, William, 124
Junior Auxiliary, 198
Junior Choir, 211
Justice, Alex, 159
Justice, J. A., 159
Justice, J. C., 219
Justice, John R., 219
Kafer, Oscar A., 221
Kansas City, 200
Kimball, Fiske, 75
Kinston, 100, 175, 179, 199, 202, 207
Kittrell, 185
Knight, Tobias, 26
Knox, Andrew, 77
Kocherthal, Josuah, 20
Korea, 131
Kyle, William, 219
Lace, 206
Lacy, Ben R., 131
Lacy, Ben R., Jr., 131
Lacy, Drury, 131
Ladies Memorial Association, 156
Ladies Sewing Society, 160, 177
Lady Blessington Cannon, 136
LaGrange College, 130
Lake Scuppernong, 110
La Montaigne, Kate, 214
Lane, Hardy B., 139
Landsdown, Lord, 30
LaPierre, John, 30, 36, 42
Lawson, John, 22, 37, 41
Lay, Bishop, 164
Leech, Joseph, 62, 77, 103, 104, 114
Leech, Mary (Mrs. R. D. Spaight), 114
Leigh, John, 103, 106, 107
Lente, Michael, 145
Lexington, 162
Lincolnton, 168
Living Christmas Tree, 212
Locke, John, 10
London, 20, 21, 44, 45, 131
London, Bishop of, see Bishop of London
London, John Rutherford, 121, 198
Long, John S., 183, 220
Long Island, 154
Long Wharf, 207
Lords Proprietors, 10, 14, 16, 27
Lossing, Benson J., 75
Lottery, 52, 99
Louisiana, 100, 153
Lovick, H. J., 220
Lovick, John, 21
Lovick, Thomas, 21
Lumberton, 199
Lumsden, Mrs. H. C., 200, 206
Lutherans, 19, 20, 21, 22
Lyman, Theodore Benedict, 164, 179, 186, 187, 193
Lynch, John, 76
Lynchburg, 163
MacDowell, John, 55
Mackey, John, 25
MacKinnon, Daniel G., 6, 200-2, 204
MacKinnon, Mrs. D. G., 202
Macilwean (Mackilwean), Francis, 68, 77
Madara, Guy H., 6, 199, 204-6, 213
Madison, Bishop James, 105
Magee, Mary, 32
Makeley, M., 220
Malaria, 184
Malta, 152
Manakin Town, 19
Manila, 114, 205
Manly, M. E., 155
Mann, Albert W., 171
Manteo, 9
Marietta, Ga., 190
Marriage Acts, 26, 34-35, 59, 66, 74, 82, 93
Marriages, 21, 26, 29, 34-35, 93, 114, 142
Marriner, E. R., 220
Marsden, Richard, 29, 30
Marshall, Matthias M., 140, 146, 187
Marshfield Hills, N. J., 202
Martin County, 102, 119
Martin, Francis X., 75, 100
Martin, Josiah, 44, 82-84, 85-86, 89, 90
Mary Knoll, N. Y., 132
Maryland, 10, 30, 97, 112, 187, 199, 209
Mason, Mary Bryan (Mrs. Richard S.), 37, 46, 128
Mason, Richard S., 6, 46, 122, 124-28, 136, 144, 173
Masons, 49, 100, 105, 106, 113; see also St. John's Lodge, A. F. & A. M.
Massachusetts, 155, 156, 187
Massachusetts Regiment, 45th. Volunteers, 168, 171
Massachusetts Woman's Auxiliary, 214
Matchepungo Bluff, 16
McCartney, James, 76-77
McClure, R. E., 148
McClure, William, 100
McConnell, S. D., 11, 13, 97, 104
McCulloch, Alexander, 77
McDuffie, H. S., 208
McFarlin, Daniel, 25
McKenzie, William, 103
McKinlay, James, 174
McKinlay, Mrs. James, 170, 174
McKinne, William, 77
McLean, Ann Daves, 189
McRae, Cameron F., 6, 147-48, 158, 172
Meade Parish, Va., 216
Meadows, E. H., 190
Memorial Chapel, Tryon Palace Wing, 174, 177, 181, 183, 189
Memorials, 158, 174, 180, 189, 207-8, 211, 212
Men's Work, 200
Merchants and Miners Line, 180
Meredith, Thomas, 131-32
Meredith College, 131
Merriday, Thomas, 27
Merrit, John, 139
Messenger of Hope, 195
Methodists, 22, 31, 54, 62, 83, 119, 129-30, 133-34, 137
Mexico, 133
Micklejohn, George, 72, 73, 78, 103
Militia, 24
Miller, George Frazier, 215
Miller, Henry W., 163
Miller, Stephen F., 120, 127, 128, 134, 138, 139, 140, 154, 157, 168, 171, 176
Miller, William, 73
Mission Herald, 171, 195
Missionary Society, Christ Church, 142, 212
Missions and Missionaries, 10-17, 23, 31, 40-43, 54, 62, 69, 73, 83, 96, 124, 126, 130, 131, 179, 181, 193, 198, 202, 206, 217
Mississippi, 100, 132, 153, 154, 186
Mississippi School for Blind, 132
Mitchell, G. N., 221
Mitchell, Joshua, 139
Mobile, Ala., 172
Moir, James, 41-42, 69, 72
Moline's Creek, 16
Monroe, James, 105, 114, 125-26
Montford, Joseph, 77
Monumental Church, 137
Moor, 152
Moore, Adam, 38
Moore, Hight C., 135, 140
Moore, John, 68, 77
Moore, Louis T., 171
Moore, M., 77
Moore, Madame Mary, 114
Moore, Richard C., 119, 122, 125, 126, 137
Moore, William P., 158
Moore's Creek Bridge Battle, 100
Morgan, S. A., 215
Morganton, 161, 166
Morris, Mrs. B. R., 156
Morris, Parker W., 221
Morse, Jedidiah, 106, 108
Morton, Andrew, 72, 73
Moseley, Edward, 26
Mountain Lakes, N. J., 204
Mumford, D., 139
Music, 115
Nash, Abner, 77, 99, 117
Nash, Francis, 81
Nash, Mary McKinlay, 189
Nashville, Tenn., 135
National Cemetery, 156
National Commission on Evangelism, 217
National Guard, 209
Naval Reserves, 198-99
Navy, 198-99
Neal, G. W., 183
Neale, Abner, 99
Neale, Christopher, 68
Negroes, 54, 76, 120, 124, 125, 130, 141, 151, 166, 173-74, 181, 201, 214-15; Negro Congregations, 127, 142, 151, 173-74, 181, 214-15; Negro Hospital, 201, 214
Nelson, John, 25, 27
Nelson, Margaret D., 189, 190, 214
Neuse, 16
Neuse River, 20, 21, 25, 40, 71, 156
Newark College, 127
New Bern, captured, 167-69; incorporated, 27; laid out, 136
New Bern Academy, 99, 105, 110, 112, 115, 142, 149, 188
New Bern Benevolent Society, 144-46, 147
New Bern Historical Society, 211
New Bern Library, 81, 140
New Bern Sun-Journal, 128, 134, 199, 206, 209
New Bern Times, 135
New Brunswick, 65
New England, 19, 31, 54, 90, 130, 149, 169, 183
New Hampshire, 184
New Hanover County, 49, 73
New Haven, 153
New Jersey, 19, 156, 179, 202, 204
New Orleans, 153
Newport, 63, 169
Newport News, Va., 216
Newspaper, first in province, 33
New York, 65, 70, 80, 82, 104, 145, 153, 154, 164, 169, 204, 206, 215
New York Historical Society, 66, 75, 78, 117, 157
New York Review, 153
New York University, 169-70
Nixon, Richard, 101
Noe, Walter R., 210, 214
Norfolk, 110, 163
Northampton County, 73
North Carolina Baptist State Convention, 135
North Carolina Christian, 135
North Carolina Christian Advocate, 134
North Carolina Christian Missionary Convention, 135
North Carolina Gazette, 117, 118
North Carolina Historical Commission, 67
North Carolina Magazine, 64
North Carolina State Firemen's Association, 195
Northern Episcopal Church, 164
Northrop, Harry, 132
Nunn, Etta, 133
Nunn, R. A., 221
Nursery School, 189, 207
Oaths, 23-24, 26, 34
Ohio River, 99
O'Kellyan Christian Church, 132
Old Dominion Steam Ship Company, 180
Old Mullet Road, 163
Old South Church, Boston, 44
Oliver, Mary, 190
Oliver, Samuel, 159, 219
Oliver, William H., 166, 173, 179, 219
Onslow, 30
Orange County, 73, 124
Orangeburg, S. C., 209
Oregon, 184
Organ, 136, 138, 178, 180-81, 190
Oriental, 202
Orphans, 32, 58
Our Living and Our Dead, 120, 128, 134, 138, 140
Outten, Matthew A., 159, 219
Oxford, 120
Oxford Orphanage, 132
Oxford Seminary, 132
Palatines, 19, 20, 26, 33
Palm Sunday, 183
Pamlico River, 16, 25
Pampticough, 16; see Bath
Papists, see Catholic
Parish Bulletin, 210-11
Parish House, 180, 189-90, 192, 200, 201, 207, 210
Parish Meetings, 192, 195, 197, 200, 210
Parish Registers, 124-25, 142, 149, 151, 166, 168
Parkinson, Bernard, 68
Parliament, 10, 15, 16
Parrot, Professor, 63, 85
Paschal, G. W., 97
Pasquotank, 12, 16, 17, 25, 61, 73
Pasteur, Edward G., 219
Patriotism, 201-2
Patronage, 59, 111
Patterson, George, 170-71
Peace College, 131
Peace Prayers, 211
Pembroke, 99, 117
Penick, E. A., 186
Pennsylvania, 102, 105, 141, 145, 187, 214
Pennsylvania Diocese, 127
Pensacola, 195
Permanent Endowment Fund, 213
Perquimans, 12, 16, 24, 25, 40
Peterkin, Bishop, 216
Petersburg, Va., 217
Peterson, Elizabeth, 180
Pettigrew Cemetery, 111
Pettigrew, Charles, 97, 102, 103, 104, 106, 107, 109-11, 120
Pettigrew, James Johnston, 110
Pettigrew Memorial State Park 110-11
Pettigrew, William S., 104, 108, 111
Pettigrew's Chapel, 110
Pews, 162; free, 185, 195; sale, 138-39, 140; trimmed, 142
Philadelphia, 93, 102, 103, 105, 109, 110, 125, 153, 169, 186, 200, 204, 208
Philadelphia Divinity School, 204
Philippine Islands, 205
Phillips, Henry, 12
Phillips, John, 119-20, 124
Pilgrimage, Garden Club, 212
Pilmoor, Joseph, 83-84
Pindar, John, 68
Pitt County, 120
Pitt, William, 51
Pleasantville, N. J., 202
Plyler, M. T., 134
Plymouth, N. C., 158, 170
Poll Tax, 27, 38
Pollock, Cullen, 68
Pollock, Thomas, 36, 37, 38, 39, 68
Pollocksville, 202
Pool, Henry C., 183
Poorhouses, 87-88, 99
Population, 120
Porch, 180, 211
Postoffice, 188, 204-5
Prayer Book, 29, 50, 97, 102, 141, 170
Prayer Book, gift of King George II, 45-46, 127
Prayers for King, 91
Presbyterian, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 22, 24, 30, 31, 34-35, 54, 72, 74, 82, 110, 120, 129-31, 134, 137, 145, 147, 148, 159, 169, 170, 177, 197, 204, 216
Presentation, 66, 73
Price, N. E., 179
Price, Thomas F., 132
Princeton College, 112, 130
Printing Press, 33
Protestant Episcopal Church, 97, 111, 121, 168
Protestants, 19, 20, 33, 92, 93, 169
Providence, R. I., 118
Provincial Conventions, 90-91, 99
Pulaski, Va., 216
Pumphrey, Charles Tilden, 213
Purefoy, Nicholas, 33
Puritans, 19
Quakers, 10, 12, 14, 15, 19, 21, 22, 23-24, 30, 31, 36, 54
Queen Anne, 15, 16
Rainsford, Giles, 17, 21
Raleigh, 46, 114, 118, 120, 124, 127, 131, 132, 138, 145, 158, 161, 175, 181, 193, 198, 217
Raleigh Register, 113, 118
Randolph, Bishop, 193
Ransom, Robert, 220
Ravenscroft, John Stark, 137-38, 140, 145, 216
Reconstruction, 164
Records, burned, 124, 142
Rectories, 29, 158-59, 166, 188, 204-5
Red Springs, 131
Reed, Hannah (Mrs. James), 96
Reed, James, 6, 47-49, 52, 54, 55-56, 58, 59, 61, 62, 64, 65, 66-67, 68-71, 73, 76, 80, 82, 83, 85-88, 90, 91, 95-97, 98, 112, 155, 211
Reformed Church, 19, 20, 22
Regulators, 78, 80, 82, 89
Relief Society, 175, 178, 179, 181, 189
Renovations, 190, 197, 200, 201, 205, 207
Repainted, 211
Repairs, on church, 139, 197
Restoration, 23
Revolutionary War, 35, 74, 87, 89-91, 95, 97, 99, 100, 105, 111, 119, 136, 174
Rew, Solomon, 47-48
Rhode Island, 80, 86, 154, 156
Rice, John, 67
Rice, theological student, 175
Rice, W. J., 220
Richmond, plantation, 80
Richmond, Va., 137, 193, 216
Ring, John, 169
Riverside Methodist Church, 133, 197
Roanoke College, 216
Roanoke Island, 9
Roberts, Dita, 128, 149, 150, 161, 171, 176, 177, 182, 191, 196, 199
Roberts, Edward B., 220
Roberts, Frederick C., 128, 166, 173, 183, 220
Roberts, George, 38
Roberts, George H., 179, 183, 188, 190, 192, 197, 200, 212, 213, 214, 220
Roberts, George H., Jr., 201, 220, 221
Roberts, John M., 139, 219
Roberts, Mrs. F. C., 156
Roberts, Mrs. G. H., 190
Rochester, N. Y., 206
Rokeby Plantation, 186
Romanism, 145; see also Catholic
Rome, 145
Rotary Club, 200, 205
Rotation System, vestry elections, 205
Rouse, J. Hill, 168-69
Rowan County, 175
Royal Governors, 29, 31, 36, 44, 49, 50-52, 56, 62, 65-67, 70, 73, 86, 90, 95
Rural Work, 210
Rustell, Richard, 27
Rutherford, John, 77
Sabbath (Sunday), 23, 29, 50, 83, 110, 168, 177, 179, 185, 188, 190, 193, 200, 210, 214
Sacristy, 180, 211
St. Agnes Chapter, 211
St. Andrew's Church, Greensboro, 204
St. Ann's Chapter, 96, 211
St. Augustine School, 181, 217
St. Bartholomew Church, Philadelphia, 200
St. Cecilia Society, 212
St. Cyprian's Church, 131, 173-74, 181, 201, 214-15
St. David's Parish, Creswell, 110
St. Elizabeth Hospital, Shanghai, China, 217
St. George Parish, Hyde County, 42
St. George, Northampton County, 73
St. James Church, Marietta, Ga., 190
St. James, Philadelphia, 153
St. James, Richmond, 216
St. James, Wilmington, 42, 49, 73, 107, 121, 123, 164, 168, 171, 186, 193, 207, 216, 217
St. John's Chapel, New York, 164
St. John's Church, Fayetteville, 121, 170
St. John's Church, Jacksonville, Fla., 186
St. John's Day, 116
St. John's Lodge, A. F. & A. M., 80, 81, 100, 101, 105, 108, 115-18, 125-26, 128, 153: see also Masons
St. John's Parish, Bute, 73
St. John's Parish, Carteret, 27, 42, 48, 63, 83
St. John's Parish, Onslow, 42
St. John's Parish, Pasquotank, 73
St. Jude's Church, 124
St. Luke's Church, New York, 145
St. Luke's Hospital, 209
St. Luke's Parish, Salisbury, 162
St. Mark's, Pleasantville, N. J., 202
St. Mark's, Richmond, 216
St. Mary's, Kinston, 199
St. Mary's School, Raleigh, 145, 217
St. Matthew's Church, Geneva, N. Y., 127
St. Matthew's Parish, Orange County, 42, 73
St. Patrick's, Dobbs County, 73
St. Patrick's, Johnston County, 42
St. Paul's Cathedral, London, 131
St. Paul's Catholic Church, 132
St. Paul's Parish, Beaufort, 181
St. Paul's, Edenton, 14, 36-37, 41, 42, 102, 110, 121, 125, 141, 208
St. Paul's, Greenville, 197
St. Paul's, Newport News, 216
St. Paul's, Norfolk, 163
St. Paul's, Richmond, 193
St. Peter's, Baltimore, 163
St. Peter's, Philadelphia, 125
St. Peter's, Washington, N. C., 151, 216
St. Philip's, Brunswick, 42, 73
St. Stephen's, New York, 153
St. Thomas Church, New York, 153
St. Thomas Mission, 151, 167, 179
St. Thomas Parish, Bath, 25, 36, 42, 73, 217-18
Salem, Va., 216
Salem College, 131
Salisbury, 162, 179
Sampson, John, 77
Santee River, 19
Satterthwaite, L. M., 221
School Acts, 42, 61; recommended, 51, 52, 61
Schoolmasters, 29, 50, 54-55, 61, 62, 70, 85, 112, 121; see also references under names of schoolmasters
Schools, classical school, 160; cooking and sewing school, 198; other local schools, 120; parish school for poor, 160, 162, 166, 174, 175, 183, 189; parochial school, 175, 179, 181, 189; public school, 61-63, 64, 68-71, 76, 82, 85-86, 99, 112, 115, 117, 118, 119, 120, 212; public schoolhouse used by General Assembly, 74
Scotch, 137
Scotch-Irish, 22
Scotland, 41, 137
Scotland Neck, 120
Scott, Andrew, 68
Scrapbook, 212
Secession, 164, 175
Secretary of State, 29
Sedgewick Seminary, 132
Seifert, Charles A., 220
Sewanee, 195, 217
Sewing Society, 212
Shackleford, John, 27
Shanghai, China, 217
Shaw, John, 27
Sheets, Jacob, 25
Shelby, 168
Shepard, Charles, 144, 219
Shepard, Miss, 111
Sheppard, Jacob, 68, 77
Shields, Van Winder, 6, 183, 185-86, 188
Shine, James, 55
Silkworms, 19
Simmons, Wentworth S., 198, 220
Simpson, Herbert, 188, 190
Simpson, John, 77
Simpson, Samuel, 159
Singleton, Spyers, 99, 100
Singleton, Thomas S., 219
Sitgreaves, John, 99
Sitgreaves, Thomas, 68
Skinner, H. A., 173, 214
Slocumb, John, 25
Slavery, 124, 163; see also Negroes
Smallpox, 98
Smith, H. B., 220
Smith, John, 25
Smith, John, 68
Smith, Michael, 49
Smith, Thomas, 25
Smithfield, Va., 209
Society for Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 12, 15, 16, 17, 21, 23, 30, 40, 41, 42, 48, 54, 55, 56, 62, 64, 68, 69, 72, 73, 76, 77, 79, 85, 86, 87, 90, 91
Society of Cincinnati, 175
South Carolina, 19, 57, 58, 65, 73, 107, 132, 163, 186, 209
South Carolina College, 138
Southern Episcopal Church, 164
Southern Historical Society, 120
Southern Virginia, 193
Spaight, Charles, 138, 140, 141
Spaight, Elizabeth Wilson (Mrs. Richard), 114
Spaight, Mrs. Richard Dobbs, Sr. (Mary Leech), 114
Spaight, Richard, 114
Spaight, Richard Dobbs, 98, 99, 101, 113, 114, 117
Spaight, Richard Dobbs, Jr., 117, 138, 140
Spaniards, 52
Sparrow, F., 139
Spring, Robert, 33
Sprunt, James, Historical Publications, 101
Stanly, Harvey, 147, 172
Stanly, J. G., 139, 159
Stanly, John, 113, 117, 121, 138, 139, 142-43, 153, 154, 156, 198-99
Stanly, John Wright, 98, 99, 101, 113, 136, 142, 155, 211
Stanly, Mrs. John Wright, 98, 142
Stanly Hospital, 169
Starkey, John, 48, 61
State Supreme Court, 153
Stephens, M. C., 136, 138, 139
Stevens, Charles L., 192, 220
Stevenson, George S., 159
Stevenson, M. D. W., 190, 220
Stewart, Alexander, 47, 58, 69, 73, 79, 83, 96
Stewart, Andrew, 68
Stith, Charles H., 141, 200, 220, 221
Stith, Laurence A., 201, 221
Stone, Andrew L., 169
Stony Point, 174
Storms, 79
Strange, Bishop Robert, 192, 193, 198
Strange, Col. Robert, 193
Strebeck, George, 6, 119-20, 121
Stryker, J. V., 160-61
Sturgis, Russell, Jr., 168
Sugg, Aquila, 77
Sunday, see Sabbath
Sunday School, 141, 168, 178, 179, 180, 181, 183, 189, 192, 197, 200, 201, 202, 207, 211, 212
Suppers, 200
Swann, Samuel, 48
Swiss, 19, 20, 22
Switzerland, 20
Synod, 217
Tabernacle Baptist Church, 133
Tarboro, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 109, 119, 120, 124, 174, 186, 187
Taylor, J. L., 215
Taylor, J. Mitchell, 202
Taylor, Janet, 145
Taylor, John R., 135
Taylor, Mrs., 125
Taylor, N. W., 208
Taylor, the Rev. Mr., 97
Taylor-Nixon-Ward House, 155
Taxes, 27, 37, 38, 39, 51, 71, 87
Temple University, 169
Tennessee, 99, 195
Thames River, 19
Thanksgiving, 51, 168, 201
Thanksgiving Dinner, bequest of the Rev. E. M. Forbes, 181
Thomas, C. R., 220
Thomas, Henderson Lee, 156-57
Thompson, Alice A., 159
Thompson, John, 41
Thomson, William, 77
Tillotson's Sermons, 70
Tinker, George E., 183
Todd, Vincent H., 22
Tomlinson, Thomas, 62, 63, 68-71, 76, 85-86, 96, 101
Trapnell, Philip, 32
Treadway, Amos C., 129-30
Trent River, 19, 20, 21, 33, 36, 99, 114, 117
Trenton, 202
Trenton, N. J., 110
Trinity College, Hartford, 164
Trinity Church, Chocowinity, 119
Trinity Church, Claremont, N. H., 184
Trinity Church, Lumberton, 199
Trinity Church, New York, 44
Tryon, William, 65-67, 68, 69, 72-75, 76-78, 79, 82
Tryon's Palace, 33, 74-75, 90, 112-13, 115, 116, 152, 174, 175, 177, 189
Tucker, B. D., 216
Tuttle, Bishop, 216
Typhoid Fever, 169
Tyrrell County, 110
Union Baptist, 132
Union Seminary, 131
Union Soldiers, 118, 167-69, 171
United Daughters of the Confederacy, 156
U. S. Military Academy, 122
U. S. Naval Academy, 199
University of Louisiana, 153
University of North Carolina, 113, 114, 138, 149, 153, 157, 164, 193, 216
University of Pennsylvania, 125
University of the South, 195, 216, 217
Upperville, Va., 216
Urmstone, John, 17, 23
Vache, Jean A., 204
Valle Crucis, 145
Vanceboro, 202
Vardell, Charles G., 131
Vardell, Charles G., Jr., 131
Vass, L. C., 13, 22, 31, 33, 52, 91, 93, 97, 117, 118, 120, 131, 134, 135, 140
Vass, L. C., Jr., 131
Vested Choir, 190
Vestry, Christ Church, 1, 25-27, 34, 37, 39, 44, 47, 51-52, 55, 64, 66, 70, 101, 103, 113, 124, 127, 128, 138, 144, 147, 148, 150, 152, 158, 160, 166, 178, 180, 184, 185, 188, 189, 190, 192, 195, 197, 198, 200, 201, 202, 204, 205, 206, 207, 212, 213
Vestry Acts, 15, 25-26, 34, 42, 56, 58-60, 62, 74, 87-88
Vestry Minutes, see footnotes at end of chapters
Vestry Room, 136
Vestrymen, 14, 23, 26, 27, 42, 50, 51, 52, 58-60, 74, 91-92, 197, 200, 205, 212, 213; number changed, 192, 197, 205
Virginia, 9, 12, 17, 19, 30, 33, 73, 106, 119, 120, 124, 126, 128, 137, 163, 193, 209, 216, 217
Virginia Theological Seminary, 216
Waddell, Gabrielle (Mrs. A. M.), 187
Waddell, Hugh, 77
Wadsworth, Edward, 130
Wadsworth, Sarah E., 214
Wait, Samuel, 132
Wake Forest College, 132, 175
Walker, Henderson, 12, 14, 37
War Between the States, 118, 133, 154, 156, 164, 172, 173, 174, 181, 212
War of 1812, 120, 122-23
War, others, see Revolutionary War and World War
Ward, Enoch, 27
Ward, Mrs. C. T., 190
Ward, Mrs. D. L., Sr., 206
Ward, Richard, 77
Ware, C. C., 135
Warne, J. A., 132
Warren, Thomas D., 197, 220
Warrenton, 119, 124, 178
Washington, 119, 124, 209, 216
Washington, D. C., 209
Washington, George, 98, 101, 105, 114
Washington, John N., 159, 219
Washington County, 110
Waters, Joseph, 32
Watson, Alfred A., 6, 44, 140, 146, 158, 162-63, 165, 166-71, 173, 186, 188, 192, 193, 216
Weeks, Stephen B., 33, 89, 97
Weeping Arch, cemetery entrance, 156
Weldon, 163
Welsh, 21, 22
Wesley Brothers, 119
West, John Spence, 121-22, 199
West Indies, 125
West Point, N. Y., 122
West Virginia, 209, 216
Weston, James A., 175
Wetmore, William R., 167-68
Wheeler, John H., 118
White, John, 9, 11
White, Robert, 109
White, William, 102, 103, 109, 112, 125, 153
Whitecoat, Bishop, 129
Whitefield, George, 31, 65
Whitefield, Theodore, 132
Whitehurst, Henry P., 221
Whitehurst, Richard, 27
Whitehurst, Sadie, 190
Whiteville, 199
Whitford, Col. John D., 39, 93, 101, 117, 118, 134, 135, 140, 154-55, 157, 165, 171, 176, 182
Wickham, 16
William III, 12, 19
William and Mary College, 123, 137
Williams, Charles E., 6, 210-14
Williams, John, 62, 68
Williams, L. G. H., 6, 192
Williams, William Joseph, 105, 156
Williamsboro, 120
Williamsburg, Va., 123, 137
Williamson, Hugh, 72, 75
Williamson, Richard, 27
Williamston, 106
Wills, John, 73
Wilmington, 44. 52, 69, 90, 105, 107, 119, 121, 122, 123, 126, 164, 168, 171, 186, 187, 190, 193, 198, 207, 209, 216, 217
Wilmington Convocation, 190
Wilson, James L., 102, 103, 106, 109, 119
Wilson, William, 38
Wilton, William, 68
Windley, Mrs. M. O., 96, 190, 214
Windley, the Rev. Mr., 179
Windsor, 187, 208
Winfield, Benjamin A., 174
Winslow, John, 121-22, 199
Winston, Francis D., 187, 208
Winston-Salem Journal, 118
Winthrop, John S., 219
Witherspoon, David, 101
Witherspoon, John, 130
Woman Suffrage, 197
Woman's Auxiliary, 96, 198, 205, 211, 212, 214, 216
Women Delegates, 208
Women Vestrymen, 208, 210
Women's Church Organizations, 96, 141, 142, 160, 175, 177, 178, 189, 190, 198, 201, 205, 211, 212, 214, 216
Works Progress Administration, 171
World War, 198, 201, 214
Worthington, Mr., 125
Wren, Christopher, 131
Wright, Carolina, 193
Wright, Thomas H., 193
Yale, 163
Yellow Fever, 69, 98, 110, 112, 113, 155, 168
Young Men's Christian Association, 168, 214
Young People's Service League, 211, 212
Zollikofer, Jacob C., 20
