St. Mary Anne's Episcopal Church is an historic

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 States ...

church building located at 315 South Main Street in

North East The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each ...

Cecil County, Maryland Cecil County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland at the northeastern corner of the state, bordering both Pennsylvania and Delaware. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 103,725. The county seat is Elkton. The ...

. Built in 1742 of

red brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

in a

rectangular In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a rectilinear convex polygon or a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90 ...

shape to replace an earlier wooden church building on the site, it is the second parish church building for North Elk Parish, later known as St. Mary Anne's Parish, which had been established in 1706 by the General Assembly of the

Province of Maryland The Province of Maryland was an Kingdom of England, English and later British colonization of the Americas, British colony in North America from 1634 until 1776, when the province was one of the Thirteen Colonies that joined in supporting the A ...

. Originally dedicated to

St. Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

, the parish added ''Anne'' to its name in thanks for a bequest it received from the estate of

Anne, Queen of Great Britain Anne (6 February 1665 – 1 August 1714) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England, List of Scottish monarchs, Scotland, and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 8 March 1702, and List of British monarchs, Queen of Great Britain and Irel ...

, who died in 1714. Its bell tower was added in 1904. St. Mary Anne's is still an active parish in the

Episcopal Diocese of Easton The Episcopal Diocese of Easton is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America that comprises the nine counties that make up the Eastern Shore of Maryland. It is in Province III (the Middle Atlantic region) and was created ...

. The Rev. John Schaeffer is the current rector.

History

The church was established by the governor of Maryland along the north shore of the Elk River in 1706, with four acres of land set aside for a church building. Between 1709 and 1715, a wooden church was built on the site of the present church, but no details are known about this building. A Swedish Lutheran Reverend, Jonas Auren who had come to America in the late 1600s, preached here for a congregation made of Swedes and Finns from the former colony of

New Sweden New Sweden () was a colony of the Swedish Empire between 1638 and 1655 along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in what is now Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a g ...

, as well as English colonists, until his death in 1713. During this time the church was known as St. Mary's parish. In 1714, Queen Anne of England died. In an effort to establish the Anglican Church in the colonies she bequeathed a large Bible, a Book of Common Prayer and a silver chalice and paten to the congregation. In a gesture of appreciation, St. Mary's was renamed St. Mary Anne's. In 1845 St. Marks's, Perryville opened as a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...

for St. Mary's Parish. In 1913, St. Mark's was established as ''Susquehanna Parish''.History of St. Mark's
/ref>

Cemetery

Burials in St. Mary Anne's historic cemetery include: * Thomas Russell (1743–1786), ironmonger and manager of

Principio Furnace Principio Furnace and village is in Cecil County, Maryland, 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Havre de Grace. The Principio Iron Works were started here in 1719 by Joseph Farmer with British capital and an ironmaster, John England. By the 1740s ...

, brother of William Russell *

John Conard John Conard (November 15, 1773May 9, 1857) was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. He was nicknamed the "Fighting Quaker". John Conard was born in Chester Valley in the Province of Pennsylvania. He was educated a ...

(1773–1857), Pennsylvania congressman

Gallery

HABS-StMarysNorthEastMD-087135pr.jpg, Front view HABS-StMarysNorthEastMD-087137pr.jpg, Interior

References

External links

Historic American Buildings Survey
3 photos
St. Mary Anne's Episcopal Church website

Skirven, Percy G., The First Parishes of the Province of Maryland, Baltimore: Norman Remington Co., 1923

Waymarking listing for St. Mary Anne's Church
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary Anne's Episcopal Church Episcopal church buildings in Maryland Anglican parishes in the Province of Maryland Churches in Cecil County, Maryland Churches completed in 1742 Anglican cemeteries in the United States Cemeteries in Maryland 18th-century Episcopal church buildings 1706 establishments in Maryland Religious organizations established in 1706 Swedish-American history Finnish-American history New Sweden Churches in New Sweden

History

Cemetery

See also

Gallery

References

External links