Originally published June 25, 2020.
The Consecration of St. Paul’s Church in Boston, Friday, June 30, 1820 This coming Tuesday, June 30th, will mark the two-hundred year anniversary of the consecration and opening of St. Paul’s. On the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church we celebrate the Feast of St. Peter & St. Paul on June 29th, that is to say, one of two feast days honoring St. Paul. But how did the founders of St. Paul’s get to that day in June of 1820?
Dudley Atkins Tyng
Dudley Atkins Tyng, Esq., was one of the strongest early advocates for the formation of a new Episcopal church in Boston in the early 1800’s. Our archives contain several years of correspondence between Tyng and the Rev. Dr. Samuel Farmar Jarvis. Both men were prolific letter writers, giving many clues about the earliest origins of St. Paul’s Church in Boston. Tyng served as the first warden of the new church and Jarvis was then a young Episcopal priest serving at a church in New York City.
Tyng became a proprietor, the Boston term for member or parishioner, of Trinity Church in Boston, located then at the corner of Summer Street and Bishop’s Way (later Hawley Street) in the South End (what we now call Downtown Crossing).
Tyng and Jarvis began to correspond in the fall of 1818. Jarvis was from Connecticut, son of the second Episcopal bishop of Connecticut Abraham Jarvis. Tyng reported to Jarvis that a group of the proprietors of Trinity were unhappy with Rector John Gardiner’s level of attention to pastoral care and desired to force Dr. Gardiner to accept an assistant. A copy of the offer letter to Jarvis from the trustees of the Greene Foundation (Benjamin Greene and Enoch Hale) offering the position of Trinity Assistant Minister at a somewhat reduced salary than previously discussed is in the archives. The matter got as far as Jarvis being en route to Boston. Jarvis wrote afterwards to Tyng, only to be stifled by a message from Gardiner stating he did not support his hiring and dissuading him from continuing.
A New Church
By late 1818, Tyng and several other prominent men from an array of Boston churches joined forces to form a new Episcopal church, independent of Trinity Church. Tyng continued corresponding with Jarvis to interest him in serving as rector of the new church, keeping Jarvis apprised of their progress. His earliest co-conspirators were Benjamin Greene and Stephen Codman from Trinity Church, and John and George Odin and Subel Bell of Old North. Jarvis was interested in making his mark, particularly in Boston where there was considerable animosity towards the Episcopal Church following two wars fought against the British and a burgeoning Unitarian movement among Congregationalists, the established state church. Jarvis accepted an appointment to the new (General) Theological Seminary in New York in the spring of 1819 while “reserving to myself the right of retiring from the situation, when I may think it expedient, by giving six months’ notice of my intention…if then a new church be built in Boston, I shall be left perfectly open to enter into future negotiations with the vestry.”
By April, 1819, enough men had subscribed to the new church go forward with its incorporation and to begin the search for a location. Tyng relayed the good news to his friend Jarvis, reporting that a committee of nine had been authorized to move forward: Messrs. Odin and Bell from Old North; George Sullivan and Daniel Webster from Brattle Square Unitarian Church (formerly Brattle Street Church, a Congregational Church that had embraced the growing movement toward Unitarianism and was located in the now City Hall Plaza area of Boston); William Appleton, John Armory (Appleton’s father-in-law), Henry Codman (son of Stephen described as “heartsick at Trinity”, became warden of St. Paul’s in 1821 after Tyng returned to his ancestral home in Newburyport due to illness, and William Shimmin from Trinity Church; and Francis Wilby, described only as “of a Baptist congregation.” The committee adopted St. Paul’s as the name of the new church.
The location of the new church was the next step. Jarvis had expressed a preference for the well-established South End, but the new subscribers preferred the West End where there were fewer churches but many residences. Tyng warned Jarvis that not all of the subscribers had committed to purchasing pews, but seemed confident that there were others who would join the church once pews were offered. The group subsequently purchased a lot on Common St (now Tremont St). On March 12, 1820 the formal offer to Jarvis was made from Tyng and George Sullivan on behalf of the proprietors to serve at St. Paul’s. Jarvis accepted the offer on March 17 and the wheels were in motion. More to come on The Rev. Samuel F. Jarvis as we continue this series!
In subsequent letters, Tyng kept Jarvis apprised of the progress of the location and building. The first stone was laid on July 2, 1819. The cornerstone was laid in September, the roof completed at Christmas and then slated. By the first of May the plastering was completed. The pews and pulpit were installed and the finishing touches were in place ahead of the anticipated July completion date. On June 30th, The Rt. Rev. Alexander Viets Griswold, Bishop of the Eastern Diocese, received by the proprietors of the church at the west door, along with The Rev. Samuel Jarvis and other local clergy. They proceeded to the communion table and started the consecration service with the twenty-forth Psalm. It would be another 92 years before St. Paul’s Church would be elevated as the Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.
“Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” Psalm 24 (KJV)
Compiled with the assistance of Myra Anderson, Vice Chair of the Cathedral Chapter.
Photos saved on Flickr.com.