King's Chapel
Encyclopedia
King's Chapel is "an independent Christian
unitarian
congregation affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association
" that is "unitarian Christian in theology
, Anglican
in worship, and congregational
in governance." It is housed in what was formerly called "Stone Chapel", an 18th century structure at the corner of Tremont Street
and School Street
in Boston, Massachusetts.
. The original King's Chapel was a wooden church built in 1688 at the corner of Tremont and School Streets, where the church stands today. It was situated on the public burying ground because no resident would sell land for a non-Puritan
church.
In 1749, construction began on the current stone structure, which was designed by Peter Harrison
and completed in 1754. The stone church was built around the wooden church. When the stone church was complete, the wooden church was disassembled and removed through the windows of the new church. The wood was then shipped to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
where it was used to construct St. John's Anglican Church. That church was destroyed by fire on Halloween night, 2001. It has since been rebuilt.
During the American Revolution
, the chapel sat vacant and was referred to as the "Stone Chapel." The loyalist families left for Canada, and those who remained reopened the church in 1782. It became Unitarian
under the ministry of James Freeman, who revised the Book of Common Prayer
along Unitarian lines in 1785. Although Freeman still considered King's Chapel to be Episcopalian, the Anglican Church refused to ordain him. The church still follows its own Anglican/Unitarian hybrid liturgy
today. It is a member congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association
.
Inside, the church is characterized by wooden columns with Corinthian capitals that were hand-carved by William Burbeck and his apprentices in 1758. Seating is accommodated by box pews, most of which were originally owned by the member families who paid pew rent and decorated the pews to their personal tastes. The current uniform appearance of the pews dates from the 1920s.
Music has long been an important part of King's Chapel, which acquired its first organ in 1723. The present organ, the sixth installed in King's Chapel, was built by C. B. Fisk in 1964. It is decorated with miters and carvings from the Bridge organ of 1756, and it is slightly below average in size compared with most mid-1900s European chapel organs. For over forty years, the eminent American composer Daniel Pinkham
was the organist and music director at King's Chapel. He was succeeded by Heinrich Christensen.
The King's Chapel bell, cast in England
, was hung in 1772. In 1814 it cracked, was recast by Paul Revere
, and was rehung. It is the largest bell cast by the Revere foundry, and the last one cast by Paul Revere himself. It has been rung at services ever since.
Within King's Chapel is a monument to Samuel Vassall
, brother of the colonist William Vassall, a patentee of the Massachusetts Bay Company, and an early deputy of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
. Samuel Vassall of London was also named a member of the Company in its 1629 Royal Charter but never sailed for New England
, instead remaining in London
to tend to business affairs; his brother William frequently clashed with John Winthrop
, and eventually removed himself to Scituate, Massachusetts
.
The monument to Samuel Vassall, London merchant, mentions his resistance to King Charles
's taxes imposed on Tonnage and Poundage
, especially as Parliament had refused the King's request for a lifetime extension. Samuel Vassall subsequently represented London as a Member of Parliament
(1640–1641), which restored some of Vassall's estate thought destroyed by the Crown. Ironically, later Vassalls in Massachusetts, including William Vassall for whom Vassalboro, Maine
was named, turned Loyalist
and fled to England during the American Revolutionary War
.
.
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
congregation affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalist Association , in full the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations in North America, is a liberal religious association of Unitarian Universalist congregations formed by the consolidation in 1961 of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of...
" that is "unitarian Christian in theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, Anglican
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
in worship, and congregational
Congregationalist polity
Congregationalist polity, often known as congregationalism, is a system of church governance in which every local church congregation is independent, ecclesiastically sovereign, or "autonomous"...
in governance." It is housed in what was formerly called "Stone Chapel", an 18th century structure at the corner of Tremont Street
Tremont Street
Tremont Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts.-Etymology:The name is a variation of one of the original appellations of the city, "Trimountaine," a reference to a hill that formerly had three peaks. Beacon Hill, with its single peak, is all that remains of the Trimountain...
and School Street
School Street
School Street is a short but significant street in the center of Boston, Massachusetts. It is so named for being the site of the first public school in the United States...
in Boston, Massachusetts.
History
King's Chapel was founded by Royal Governor Sir Edmund Andros in 1686 as the first Anglican Church in New England during the reign of King James IIJames II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
. The original King's Chapel was a wooden church built in 1688 at the corner of Tremont and School Streets, where the church stands today. It was situated on the public burying ground because no resident would sell land for a non-Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
church.
In 1749, construction began on the current stone structure, which was designed by Peter Harrison
Peter Harrison
Peter Harrison was a colonial American architect who was born in York, England and emigrated to Rhode Island in 1740. Peter Harrison and his brother, Joseph Harrison, came to the American colonies and established themselves as merchants and captains of their own "vessels." Peter Harrison returned...
and completed in 1754. The stone church was built around the wooden church. When the stone church was complete, the wooden church was disassembled and removed through the windows of the new church. The wood was then shipped to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
Lunenburg , is a Canadian port town in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia.Situated on the province's South Shore, Lunenburg is located on a peninsula at the western side of Mahone Bay. The town is approximately 90 kilometres southwest of the county boundary with the Halifax Regional Municipality.The...
where it was used to construct St. John's Anglican Church. That church was destroyed by fire on Halloween night, 2001. It has since been rebuilt.
During the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
, the chapel sat vacant and was referred to as the "Stone Chapel." The loyalist families left for Canada, and those who remained reopened the church in 1782. It became Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
under the ministry of James Freeman, who revised the Book of Common Prayer
Book of Common Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...
along Unitarian lines in 1785. Although Freeman still considered King's Chapel to be Episcopalian, the Anglican Church refused to ordain him. The church still follows its own Anglican/Unitarian hybrid liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
today. It is a member congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalist Association , in full the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations in North America, is a liberal religious association of Unitarian Universalist congregations formed by the consolidation in 1961 of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of...
.
Inside, the church is characterized by wooden columns with Corinthian capitals that were hand-carved by William Burbeck and his apprentices in 1758. Seating is accommodated by box pews, most of which were originally owned by the member families who paid pew rent and decorated the pews to their personal tastes. The current uniform appearance of the pews dates from the 1920s.
Music has long been an important part of King's Chapel, which acquired its first organ in 1723. The present organ, the sixth installed in King's Chapel, was built by C. B. Fisk in 1964. It is decorated with miters and carvings from the Bridge organ of 1756, and it is slightly below average in size compared with most mid-1900s European chapel organs. For over forty years, the eminent American composer Daniel Pinkham
Daniel Pinkham
Daniel Rogers Pinkham, Jr. was an American composer, organist, and harpsichordist. Pinkham was one of America's most active composers during his lifetime...
was the organist and music director at King's Chapel. He was succeeded by Heinrich Christensen.
The King's Chapel bell, cast in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, was hung in 1772. In 1814 it cracked, was recast by Paul Revere
Paul Revere
Paul Revere was an American silversmith and a patriot in the American Revolution. He is most famous for alerting Colonial militia of approaching British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord, as dramatized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, Paul Revere's Ride...
, and was rehung. It is the largest bell cast by the Revere foundry, and the last one cast by Paul Revere himself. It has been rung at services ever since.
Within King's Chapel is a monument to Samuel Vassall
Samuel Vassall
Samuel Vassall was an English merchant and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1648. He was active trading in and settling the American colonies of Massachusetts, Virginia and Carolina.-Early life:...
, brother of the colonist William Vassall, a patentee of the Massachusetts Bay Company, and an early deputy of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...
. Samuel Vassall of London was also named a member of the Company in its 1629 Royal Charter but never sailed for New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, instead remaining in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to tend to business affairs; his brother William frequently clashed with John Winthrop
John Winthrop
John Winthrop was a wealthy English Puritan lawyer, and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of migrants from England in 1630, and served as governor for 12 of...
, and eventually removed himself to Scituate, Massachusetts
Scituate, Massachusetts
Scituate is a seacoast town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States, on the South Shore, midway between Boston and Plymouth. The population was 18,133 at the 2010 census....
.
The monument to Samuel Vassall, London merchant, mentions his resistance to King Charles
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
's taxes imposed on Tonnage and Poundage
Tonnage and Poundage
Tonnage and Poundage were certain duties and taxes first levied in Edward II's reign on every tun of imported wine, which came mostly from Spain and Portugal, and on every pound weight of merchandise exported or imported. Traditionally tonnage and poundage was granted by Parliament to the king...
, especially as Parliament had refused the King's request for a lifetime extension. Samuel Vassall subsequently represented London as a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(1640–1641), which restored some of Vassall's estate thought destroyed by the Crown. Ironically, later Vassalls in Massachusetts, including William Vassall for whom Vassalboro, Maine
Vassalboro, Maine
Vassalboro is a town in Kennebec County, Maine, United States. The population was 4,047 at the 2000 Census. Vassalboro includes the villages of South Vassalboro, North Vassalboro, and East Vassalboro, home to the town library and sports field.-History:...
was named, turned Loyalist
Loyalist (American Revolution)
Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men. They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution...
and fled to England during the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
.
Ministers
- Robert Ratcliff, rector 1686-1689
- Samuel Myles, rector 1689-1728 (d.1728)
- Roger Price, rector 1729-1746
- Henry Caner, rector 1747-1776
- James FreemanJames Freeman (clergyman)James Freeman was the minister of King's Chapel in Boston for 43 years and the first preacher in America to call himself a Unitarian...
, rector 1787-1836 (d.1836) - Samuel Cary, minister 1809-1815 (d.1815)
- F.W.P. GreenwoodF.W.P. GreenwoodFrancis William Pitt Greenwood was a Unitarian minister of King's Chapel in Boston, Massachusetts in the 19th-century.-Biography:...
, minister 1824-1843 (d.1843) - Ephraim PeabodyEphraim PeabodyEphraim Peabody was a Unitarian clergyman from the United States.-Biography:...
, minister 1845-1856 (d.1856) - no regular minister 1856-1861
- Henry Wilder Foote, minister 1861-1889 (d.1889)
- no regular minister 1889-1895
- Howard Nicholson Brown, minister 1895-1921
- Harold Edwin Balme Speight, minister 1921-1927
- John Carroll Perkins, minister in charge 1927-1931, minister 1931-1933
- Palfrey Perkins, minister 1933-1953
- Joseph Barth, minister 1953-1965 (d. 1988)
- no regular minister 1965-1967
- Carl R. Scovel, senior minister 1967-1999
- Charles C. Forman, affiliate minister 1980-1998 (d. 1998)
- Matthew M. McNaught, interim minister 1999-2001
- Earl K. Holt, minister 2001-2009
- Dianne E. Arakawa, interim minister 2009-present
Burying ground
The burying ground at King's Chapel is the site of the graves of many historical figures. It was Boston's only burial site for 30 years (1630-1660), and is a stop on the Freedom TrailFreedom Trail
The Freedom Trail is a red path through downtown Boston, Massachusetts, that leads to 16 significant historic sites. It is a 2.5-mile walk from Boston Common to Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown. Simple ground markers explaining events, graveyards, notable churches and other buildings, and a...
.
See also
- King's Chapel Burying GroundKing's Chapel Burying GroundKing's Chapel Burying Ground is a historic cemetery at King's Chapel on Tremont Street in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest cemetery in the city and is a site on the Freedom Trail....
Further reading
- A History of King's Chapel, in Boston: The First Episcopal Church in New England By Francis William Pitt GreenwoodF.W.P. GreenwoodFrancis William Pitt Greenwood was a Unitarian minister of King's Chapel in Boston, Massachusetts in the 19th-century.-Biography:...
(1833) at Google Books - Annals of King's Chapel from the Puritan age of New England to the present day. Boston: Little, Brown, 1882, 1896. vol.1; vol.2.
External links
- King's Chapel website
- The Boston Athenaeum "houses the King’s Chapel Collection of mostly 17th century theological works"
- Boston National Historical Park Official Website