What was the tallest building in the United States from 1754 to 1810? Hint: its congregation included 15 signers of the Declaration of Independence (including George Washington, seen in the print to the left arriving at the church one Sunday). Another congregant designed the first American flag. Its minister was the chaplain for the Continental Congress. It’s adjacent churchyard and nearby burial ground are the final resting place for seven of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence, the largest number at one site.
The answer is Christ Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I was reminded of that by a nice feature on the Church in the Winter edition of “Preservation”, the magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Church is still an active church – as active as one can be in the times of Coronavirus. It is currently restoring the majestic steeple that made it the tallest building in the colonies for more than 50 years, until those hyper-competitive Bostonians put a taller steeple (by 17 feet) on their Park Street Church in 1810.
According to the article, Christ Church’s current baptismal font was the same one where Pennsylvania’s founder, William Penn, was baptized in London. The font, a “massive walnut octagonal baptismal font”, dates back to medieval times, and in the weasel words used by writers on history when they have no proof of the answer, “is thought by some to be the oldest object in America continually used for the same purpose”. “Thought by some”!
William Penn was a Quaker – and they don’t baptize - so why was he baptized in an Anglican church? Penn was born into English society: his father was an admiral in the Royal Navy, and a friend of King Charles II. William Jr. was baptized in All Hallows-by-the-Tower, one of the oldest churches in London, in 1644. Penn was later attracted to the Quaker movement as a young man, and like many of them he was jailed for his beliefs, and suffered a falling out with his father for this reason. After his father’s death, Penn had a vision of a better world, one of religious tolerance for all. King Charles owed Penn’s father a large sum of money, and Penn as the heir suggested that rather than paying the debt in cash, the King give him land in the new world. The King agreed, provided that the new land was named after Penn’s father, and so “Penn’s Sylvania” came into being, named not for William, but for his father.
Meanwhile, All Hollows Church in London had commissioned a new baptismal font, and an artist named Grinling Gibbons had carved “what is regarded as” (weasel weasel) one of the finest pieces of carving in London [definitely worth a click-through. Ed.]. When it was installed in 1682, their “old” font became surplus. What to do with it? Why not ship it off to Penn’s Sylvania, as a reminder to William Penn of his roots? The Preservation article notes that this was done perhaps as a gibe at Penn – taunting him with his Anglican roots.
I spent an hour or so looking for more specifics here but could not find more than the basic line that was repeated throughout the last 100 years or so – that the font was sent to Philadelphia in 1697. Penn was alive then, but was not living in Pennsylvania. The current Christ Church was not built until 50 years later. However, there was an earlier incarnation – apparently even some Church of England adherents had left England for the New World, and when they arrived in Philadelphia, they built a small wooden Anglican church on the site of the current location in 1696. So that timing works for the arrival of the font the next year. As the congregation grew, they erected a new brick church between 1727 and 1744, topped by the current steeple in 1754.
My 5th great grandfather, Theodorus Hall, was married in Christ Church on April 29, 1729. His family lived in Tacony, and were some of the founders of Trinity Church Oxford, about ten miles away from Christ Church. Why was he not married in his home church? I am guessing that Christ Church was the home church of his bride, Gartrey Goodwin. Her line is one of those dead ends that you sometimes come to with genealogy research, so I know little about her, other than that she was the mother of ten children in her life and lived to age 95. To live to that age, and to raise that large a brood in those times, meant you were one tough cookie.
Theodorus’ older sister, Susannah, was also married at Christ Church on May 2, 1733, to Joseph Harvey Jr. Sadly, Joseph died in 1736, leaving Susannah a widow with a young daughter. She later remarried to John Harvey Rush, also a widower with a young daughter. Their union produced six children, and a middle child, Benjamin, went on to study medicine and in the course of human events also signed the Declaration of Independence. He is one of the more accomplished founding fathers, Dr. Benjamin Rush.
Susannah was another tough cookie in the family tree. Her second husband died in 1751 leaving her, at age 34, with seven children to raise, ranging from an infant to her 16 year old daughter by her first marriage. What to do? “Under the sign of the Blazing Star, Mrs. Rush opened a shop above Second Street, opposite the immense colonnaded market shed that stretched the length of two city squares down the center of High Street [now Market Street. Ed.]. Here she sold groceries and liquor – “it was somewhat like a country store” according to one of her grandsons.” Son Benjamin noted “Her industry and uncommon talents and address in doing business commanded success so that she was enabled not only to educate her children agreeably to her wishes, but to save money.”
Susannah died at Benjamin’s home, at age 78, on July 2, 1795. He wrote of her, “Her company was at all times delightful … and as a mother she had no superior in kindness, generosity and attention to the morals and religious principles of her children.” He called her “an uncommon woman”. She was buried in the cemetery of Christ Church. Her son, Dr. Rush, joined her there in 1813. Their gravestone is still there, and was still legible a few years ago when I last visited. Since then, a storm had brought down a large branch from an old tree overhead, doing some damage to the stone. I sent off some money to contribute to needed repairs. This morning’s topic is my reminder that I need to go back and see how it fared.
My pile of reading material includes about 20 magazines. I pulled out the issue of Preservation last night to make a dent in the pile. And that led me on my odyssey this morning to find out more about the Church, and recall my family connections there. Now, three hours later, I have not read any of the other magazines. But I have had a wonderful visit this morning with Grandpa Theodorus, Grandma Gartrey, Aunt Susannah, and cousin Benjamin. I’ve learned some new things along the way. And with Facebook as an outlet, I have been able to share it with you, the folks who have read this far into this note. Thank you for staying with me on my ramble. But now is the time, as they say at the end of the service at Christ Church, to “go in peace”.
PS: If you care to join Christ Church for online worship tomorrow, or perhaps be part of the effort to restore this significant part of local and American history with your donation, go here: https://www.christchurchphila.org/steeple/.
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