Christ Episcopal Church
"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 in 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."-Revelations 2:10.
The first church on these grounds was completed in 1750. The site of this church has been preserved by the construction of a brick wall over the original foundations and now serves as an open-air chapel. Early morning services are held here in summer, weather permitting. Named pavers in the floor of the chapel mark burial plots for the cremated remains of parishioners.
Cedar Grove Cemetery was opened by Christ Church Parish in 1800 to provide burial plots for yellow fever victims, and some tombstones in the churchyard were moved to these new grounds on Queen Street. Cedar Grove Cemetery was later deeded to the City of New Bern.
The present sanctuary, usually called the third church, was consecrated in 1875 and is entered on the National Register of Historic Places. The building is actually a combination of two buildings. The earlier one, consecrated in 1824, burned in 1871. However the fine Flemish-bond brick walls with their pointed-arch window openings remained and were used in the reconstruction. Aside from greatly embellishing the subdued gothic detailing of the 1824 structure, the buildings are almost identical.
The Gothic Revival bell tower and spire of the present church, which soars 150 feet above the city, has dominated the skyline of the city of New Bern for more than 125 years. The spire, embellished with a golden crown, was a prominent landmark on the charts of mariners in the nineteenth century. The Bell Tower contains a relatively new carillon (1996) that rings out over downtown New Bern twice a day.
Their silver communion service, Bible, and Book of Common Prayer, presented to the parish by King George II in 1752, are displayed in a wall case behind the font.
The 1752 communion service, in regular use today, is composed of a chalice, paten, two large flagons, and a large basin. Each piece bears the Royal Arms of Great Britain, which includes the initials of the King and hallmarks for the maker (MF - Mordecai Fox), the date (the letter R superimposed on a shield), the town mark of London (a crowned leopard's head); and an assay mark guaranteeing the purity of the silver to be 92.5% (a "lion passant gardant").
The Bible, printed in Oxford in 1717, also is inscribed with the Royal Coat of Arms. It is one of a number of Bibles known as The Vinegar Bible. In these bibles, the heading for the 20th chapter of Luke, which should read "Parable of the Vineyard," instead reads "Parable of the Vinegar".
The Prayer Book, again inscribed with the Royal Coat of Arms, was printed in Cambridge in 1752 and is used periodically for historic services held in the church.
The churchyard, shaded by a variety of venerable trees, stretches to either side of the main sanctuary (with the Parish Hall to the right and the education wing to the left). In the eighteenth century it served as a burial ground. In the aftermath of several yellow fever epidemics, the churchyard had filled with graves and was closed by 1799.
Shackelford Beach
Serene Shackelford
Showing posts with label New Bern. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Bern. Show all posts
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Amelia Green
Amelia Green, a Free Woman of New Bern by Jan Parys
Devastated by the Tuscarora War, 1711–1713, New Bern settlers needed help. They were aided by immigrants from England, Switzerland, the German Palatinate, and France. Slaves also arrived from Africa, and African slavery became a source of labor. Many godly people like the Quakers wanted emancipation for everyone so they helped the slaves obtain freedom.
Like most African-Americans Amelia Green wanted freedom from slavery for her family after she bought it for herself. Amelia petitioned the NC legislature successfully to free her family members. Amelia bought her freedom from Robert Schaw, a plantation owner in the Wilmington, NC, area. He was married to Anne Vail of the New Bern Vail family. Amelia’s children were listed as mulatto indicating they had a white father. There was a local Wilmington area planter named Richard Green and Richard is the name of her first son.
In her September, 1796 petition to the Craven County courts, she stated that all but two of her children, two daughters, had been able to acquire their own freedom by “the fruits of their own industry and meritorious behavior.” In 1796 she tried to emancipate her sixteen year-old daughter, Princess Ann Green. Five years later, she petitioned to emancipate her daughter Nancy Handy and talked of her own aging and not expecting to live much longer.
She lived twenty years longer and saw family members become owners of both real estate and human property. Amelia Green was a remarkable woman who lived in New Bern, North Carolina after she was free.
She became a landowner and the in-law of one of the largest African American slaveholders in the American South, John Carruthers Stanly. The house where Green spent the final decades of her life working to reassemble a family that had been separated because of slavery still stands in New Bern. It is located at 310 George Street. Her home, also known as the Green-Hollister House, was purchased in 1800 by John Carruthers Stanly for Amelia, his wife’s grandmother, to save it from the tax collector.
Located at 411 Johnson Street, the John R. Green House stayed in the family until 1842. The Green family owned a family pew in Christ Episcopal Church, the same church as the John Wright Stanly family. John Green earned his living as a tailor. Amelia was a laundry woman. Green’s story is one of struggle and hard work to be free from slavery, first for herself and then her immediate family members. She accomplished much at almost unimaginable levels for a woman, especially a slave woman.
Sources: Bob Arnebeck, A Shameful Heritage, Washington Post Magazine, January 18, 1889; Roger Davis and Wanda Neal- Davis , Chronology: A Historical Review, Major Events in Black History 1492 thru 1953; Patricia M. Samford, Historic Bath State Historic Site, (draft to be submitted to the North Carolina Historical Review, March 2006 and New Bern’s African American Guide to African American History (a map and explanations).
Devastated by the Tuscarora War, 1711–1713, New Bern settlers needed help. They were aided by immigrants from England, Switzerland, the German Palatinate, and France. Slaves also arrived from Africa, and African slavery became a source of labor. Many godly people like the Quakers wanted emancipation for everyone so they helped the slaves obtain freedom.
Like most African-Americans Amelia Green wanted freedom from slavery for her family after she bought it for herself. Amelia petitioned the NC legislature successfully to free her family members. Amelia bought her freedom from Robert Schaw, a plantation owner in the Wilmington, NC, area. He was married to Anne Vail of the New Bern Vail family. Amelia’s children were listed as mulatto indicating they had a white father. There was a local Wilmington area planter named Richard Green and Richard is the name of her first son.
In her September, 1796 petition to the Craven County courts, she stated that all but two of her children, two daughters, had been able to acquire their own freedom by “the fruits of their own industry and meritorious behavior.” In 1796 she tried to emancipate her sixteen year-old daughter, Princess Ann Green. Five years later, she petitioned to emancipate her daughter Nancy Handy and talked of her own aging and not expecting to live much longer.
She lived twenty years longer and saw family members become owners of both real estate and human property. Amelia Green was a remarkable woman who lived in New Bern, North Carolina after she was free.
She became a landowner and the in-law of one of the largest African American slaveholders in the American South, John Carruthers Stanly. The house where Green spent the final decades of her life working to reassemble a family that had been separated because of slavery still stands in New Bern. It is located at 310 George Street. Her home, also known as the Green-Hollister House, was purchased in 1800 by John Carruthers Stanly for Amelia, his wife’s grandmother, to save it from the tax collector.
Located at 411 Johnson Street, the John R. Green House stayed in the family until 1842. The Green family owned a family pew in Christ Episcopal Church, the same church as the John Wright Stanly family. John Green earned his living as a tailor. Amelia was a laundry woman. Green’s story is one of struggle and hard work to be free from slavery, first for herself and then her immediate family members. She accomplished much at almost unimaginable levels for a woman, especially a slave woman.
Sources: Bob Arnebeck, A Shameful Heritage, Washington Post Magazine, January 18, 1889; Roger Davis and Wanda Neal- Davis , Chronology: A Historical Review, Major Events in Black History 1492 thru 1953; Patricia M. Samford, Historic Bath State Historic Site, (draft to be submitted to the North Carolina Historical Review, March 2006 and New Bern’s African American Guide to African American History (a map and explanations).
Sunday, January 9, 2011
New Bern Clergyman shows what's in a name
Drury Lacy The clerical family man.
Bill Hand wrote: "Drury Lacy is my favorite name in all of New Bern history. It suggests a character of dry wit and sophistication, while in slant-rhyme with 'Drury Lane' oozes a fine irony: Drury Lane being, in that day, the very soul of carnality as London's Broadway; Drury Lacy being the very soul of spirituality as an educated and dedicated man of God." Bill notices "his deep devotion to his family." "Drury was one of those Virginia boys, born in 1802 to a prominent clergyman and professor of the same name in Prince Edward County." (He went to) Union Theological Seminar- Presbyterian (In) Sept., 1833 (he went) to New Bern. (He) brought (his) wife and child; (A) second child James Horace, (was born in)
1835.
Bill Hand wrote: "Drury Lacy is my favorite name in all of New Bern history. It suggests a character of dry wit and sophistication, while in slant-rhyme with 'Drury Lane' oozes a fine irony: Drury Lane being, in that day, the very soul of carnality as London's Broadway; Drury Lacy being the very soul of spirituality as an educated and dedicated man of God." Bill notices "his deep devotion to his family." "Drury was one of those Virginia boys, born in 1802 to a prominent clergyman and professor of the same name in Prince Edward County." (He went to) Union Theological Seminar- Presbyterian (In) Sept., 1833 (he went) to New Bern. (He) brought (his) wife and child; (A) second child James Horace, (was born in)
1835.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Christian Slave Owners?
Doing research about J. C. Stanly I found the documents showing his liberation from slavery by Lydia and Alexander Stewart. Then found Alexander Stewart was very concerned about the spiritual well-being of the slaves. He wrote in 1719 about leading four to Anglicanism and requested their being baptized. Alexander Stewart is the name of the captain of the slave ship on which J. C.'s mother was brought to America from Afica.
In 1719 Stewart was designated as "Mr." but by 1761 he was Rev. In 1761 he was requesting a school for "Negroe" children. Alexander Stewart is a very interesting man. So is John Carruthers Stanly who went from slave to slave owner.
In 1719 Stewart was designated as "Mr." but by 1761 he was Rev. In 1761 he was requesting a school for "Negroe" children. Alexander Stewart is a very interesting man. So is John Carruthers Stanly who went from slave to slave owner.
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