St. Paul's Church (Chester, PA)
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St. Paul's Church is an
Episcopal Episcopal may refer to: *Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church *Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese *Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name ** Episcopal Church (United State ...
church founded in 1702 in Chester, Pennsylvania. The church is a part of the
Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania The Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America encompassing the counties of Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, Chester and Delaware in the state of Pennsylvania. The Diocese has 36,641 ...
. It is located at 301
East 9th Street The New York City borough of Manhattan contains 214 numbered east–west streets ranging from 1st to 228th, the majority of them designated in the Commissioners' Plan of 1811. These streets do not run exactly east–west, because the grid plan ...
and is an active worship center.


History

England, The Netherlands and Sweden each claimed the territory flanking the Delaware River. Swedish colonists established a permanent settlement at Upland, New Sweden (now Chester, Pennsylvania), by 1644. Dutch soldiers, under the command of Director-General
Peter Stuyvesant Peter Stuyvesant (; in Dutch also ''Pieter'' and ''Petrus'' Stuyvesant, ; 1610 – August 1672)Mooney, James E. "Stuyvesant, Peter" in p.1256 was a Dutch colonial officer who served as the last Dutch director-general of the colony of New Net ...
, arrived in a squadron of ships in 1655, and seized the Swedish colony. It was renamed New Netherlands, although Swedish and Finnish settlers were allowed to remain. The English seized New Netherlands in 1664, at the beginning of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The Dutch formally ceded the colony to England a decade later, in the 1674 Treaty of Westminster. The Swedes had set aside a plot of land on the south side of 3rd Street, east of Market Street, as a burial ground. It is believed that they never erected a church building, but held religious services in a nearby
blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...
.


Old St. Paul's Church

In 1700, Reverend Evan Evans was sent to the
province of Pennsylvania The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn after receiving a land grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania ("Penn's Woods") refers to W ...
by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. He is frequently mentioned in the society records as traveling to Chester, Chichester, Concord and Radnor. St. Paul's Church was erected on site of the Swedish burial ground in 1702–1703. The original church was built of brick – in length, in width, and in height – with a wooden steeple containing the bell. The former Quaker Anglican missionary George Keith is known to have preached at St. Paul's twice in 1702. The St. Paul's Church parish included St. Martin's Church in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania and St. John's Church in Concord. In 1704, Reverend Henry Nichols was sent by The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts as a missionary to work in all three churches. In 1707, Reverend Evan Evans, travelled to England and returned the same year with a pewter
Holy Communion The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instituted ...
Service, a gift from Queen Anne to the parish. Inscribed on these are the words "''Anna Regina, in usum Eccelesiae Anglicanae apud Philadelphiani, A.D., 1708''." The communion service was displayed at the east end of the church. Missionaries were sent from Philadelphia to preach to the congregation, however problems arose due to the distance the preachers had to travel and the church began to have ministers from the Swedish Church in Wilmington, Delaware preside over the congregation. Israel Acrelius, the noted
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
Lutheran missionary and priest was a church minister at St. Paul's in 1756. In the west end of the Old St. Paul's Church was a large grey slab of sandstone erected to the memory of James Sandilands, an early landowner and merchant in Chester, with the following inscription: ::"Here lies interr-d the bodie of James Sandelands, marchant, in Upland, in Pennsylvania, who departed this mortal life, Aprile the 12, 1692, aged 56 years, and his wife, Ann Sandelands" In 1835, extensive repairs were made to the church with an increase in the number of pews and the addition of a gallery in the west end with a large main entrance underneath. The old St. Paul's Church on Third Street was demolished in 1850.


Current church

In 1859, a new church was built on the opposite side of Third Street. The new church was built of pointed stone in
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
style with a spire one hundred and twenty-four feet high. In 1872, the church was again remodeled. On June 3, 1877, the church was struck by lightning and suffered damage. On March 19, 1884, the church caught fire and suffered additional damage. In April 1900, the current St. Paul's church was established at the 9th and Madison Street. The English Gothic architecture building is built of granite with doorways and windows of Indiana limestone. The architect was William Provost, Jr. In 1956, St. Paul's Church received a memorial gift of an Aeolian-Skinner organ.


Old Swedish Burial Ground

Also known as St. Paul's Burying Ground and St. Paul's Cemetery.


John Morton Memorial

John Morton, a signer to the Declaration of Independence is buried at the old St. Paul's burial ground. His remains lay beneath a plain marble obelisk, 11 feet in height. The inscription on the west side of the memorial reads: ::"Dedicated to the memory of John Morton, A member of the First American Congress from the State of Pennsylvania, Assembled in New York in 1765, and of the next Congress, assembled in Philadelphia in 1774. Born A.D., 1724 – Died April 1777." The inscription of the east side of the memorial reads: ::"In voting by States upon the question of the Independence of the American Colonies, there was a tie until the vote of Pennsylvania was given, two members of which voted in the affirmative, and two in the negative. The tie continued until the vote of the last member, John Morton, decided the promulgation of the Glorious Diploma of American Freedom." The inscription on the south side of the memorial reads: ::"In 1775, while speaker of the Assembly of Pennsylvania, John Morton was elected a Member of Congress, and in the ever memorable session of 1776, he attended that august body for the last time, establishing his name in the grateful remembrance of the American People by signing the Declaration of Independence." The inscription on the north side of the memorial reads: ::"John Morton being censured by his friends for his boldness in giving his casting vote for the Declaration of Independence, his prophetic spirit dictated from his death bed the following message to them: 'Tell them they shall live to see the hour when they shall acknowledge it to have been the most glorious service I ever rendered to my country."


David Lloyd

David Lloyd, personal lawyer to William Penn, Attorney General of Pennsylvania, six term Speaker of the
Pennsylvania General Assembly The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The legislature convenes in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. In colonial times (1682–1776), the legislature was known as the Pennsylvania ...
and Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Colony is buried at old St. Paul's burial ground along with his wife Grace. The Lloyds were removed to St. Paul's after the
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
burial ground on Edgemont Avenue between 6th and 7th avenue was removed to make way for new development in October 1959.


Major William Anderson

William Anderson William Anderson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * William Anderson (artist) (1757–1837), painter of marine and historical paintings * William Anderson (theatre) (1868–1940), Australian stage entrepreneur * William Anderson (1911–1986), ...
, a
Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
in the
Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...
during the American Revolutionary War and a U.S Congressman from Pennsylvania is also buried at Old St. Paul's cemetery. File:David and Grace Lloyd Grave Headstones.jpg, David and Grace Lloyd headstones File:David and Grace Lloyd Burial Marker.jpg, David and Grace Lloyd marker File:Major William Anderson Grave.jpg, Major William and Elizabeth Anderson gravestone File:John Mortons grave marker.jpg, John Morton grave marker


References


External links

*
DelawareCountyHistory.com Old St. Paul's Episcopal Church Cemetery Records
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Paul's Church, Chester, Pennsylvania 1702 establishments in Pennsylvania Cemeteries in Delaware County, Pennsylvania Chester, Pennsylvania Churches in Delaware County, Pennsylvania Episcopal churches in Pennsylvania Religious organizations established in 1702