History
Parish History | A Church for the Colonists | A Self-Guided Walking Tour of St. James' Church (
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A Church for the Colonists
by Val Hymes - e-mail
A simple brick church sitting under shade trees on Solomons Island Road in Southern Anne Arundel County saw history pass by its doors in Maryland's earliest Colonial days.
The colony had been established in 1634. It included the land now called Lothian. Old records indicate that people began worshipping in the area before then, but the location of the church or "meeting howse" is not known.
Its clergy and vestry kept a steady course through two wars back then and saw its seventh rector elected the first bishop to be consecrated on American soil.
It was not easy. The settlers cleared the land, felled trees to build homes and make furniture, cultivated the ground to grow tobacco - the currency of the time. They also grew Indian corn and wheat, while the women tended herbs in their "dooryard gardens" for medicine and seasonings.
"The men and the boys in the families had to take turns 'a-ranging' - patrolling certain areas for hostile Indians ... Another enemy that attacked these courageous colonists was the scourge of epidemics such as influenza, diphtheria and smallpox. Whole families were wiped out, and many orphans were left in the care of friends or neighbors." --, Edith Stansbury Dallam in St. James', 1663-1799
The congregation was mainly made up of "gentlemen farmers," tenant farmers and watermen. (Only male landowners were allowed to vote.) They supported their families in the fields or on the Chesapeake Bay, as two stained glass windows now attest.
In 1692, St. James' Parish, Old Herring Creeke, was officially established - along with 29 others - by the Maryland General Assembly. In 1695 the vestry ordered a church built on the present site. The Rev. Henry Hall became the first rector. His descendants continue to worship in the parish today. In 1700, a 100-acre glebe was left to the church. (Today, 52 acres remain.) When the 1695 church became dilapidated in 1763, the vestry ordered that a new church be built. It was finished in 1765 and remains the parish's main worship space today.
The brick building with its double aisles, pew doors, hand-plastered ceiling and two clear glass windows are basically the same as they were when the colonists came to worship there. Some of the silver service used in the Eucharist today dates to the early 1700s.
Today the first Parochial Lending Library established by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Bray in 1698 remains open in the parish hall and includes two of the original books.
The Baptismal bowl bequeathed to the church in 1732 is still in use. In 1747, stocks, a whipping post and two horse racks were built. Members were told they could be whipped if they did not donate their required amounts of tobacco to the Episcopal church, the official religion of the colony.
In 1792, the seventh rector of St. James', the Rev. Thomas John Claggett, resigned to become the first bishop of Maryland, the first bishop consecrated on American soil. The current rector, the Rev. William H. C. Ticknor, Bishop Claggett's great-great-great-great-grandson, has served the parish since 1973.
He watched the congregation change as families working in Washington D.C. came to Lothian and St. James' Parish. Today, farmers and watermen share the pews of the church with members working in the nation's capital, in the powerful circles of commerce, law, politics, and government.. The predominantly rural nature of the area was being infiltrated by "McMansions" and upscale developments as people looked for a more peaceful, rural setting.
Many feel they have found it. Linda Rines, consultant at the Department of the Interior, said, " I am very happy to have found such an active and diverse country parish. I have been welcomed and accepted as a new Marylander." She lives in a small cottage in a Deale beach community.
What made this rural parish survive the inroads of the 21st century? Ticknor, after 37 years as shepherd of this flock, said, "By God's grace, we were enabled to welcome everyone. We tried our best to accept people where they were." He noted that during the Eucharist, "We say, 'This is the Lord's table and everyone is welcome.'"
He said the parish avoided the "wrangling over the 'new' prayer book and women's ordination, and that "We are now a "welcoming and affirming parish." He said throughout his tenure, the parish leadership "has been willing to work together to meet the needs of the parish and the community."
To accommodate the constant growth, the parish built a two-story educational building, added a third service with a contemporary choir and is creating a labyrinth. "We have opened our doors for outreach ministries to the community and beyond,." He said.
Now, 318 years after establishment of the parish, the members of St. James' are quietly serving the more than 1,000 people who consider this their family parish, as well as the communities around them.
"We ask only the opportunity to welcome, serve and love our neighbors," Ticknor said.
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