History of King's Chapel

King's Chapel was the first Anglican church in Boston, established under the authority of the Lord Bishop of London, Henry Compton. The Bishop chose and licensed the first minister of King's Chapel, Reverend Robert Ratcliffe, who arrived in Boston on May 15, 1686, and conducted a public service of the liturgy at the Boston Towne House on June 6. On June 15, 1686, a meeting was held at the Towne House which established King's Chapel. Two churchwardens were chosen to conduct meetings, call the minister, hire employees, and serve as treasurers.

On June 30, 1689, a small wooden meeting house was dedicated for Chapel services. The vestry of the Chapel was formed at a meeting of the congregation held April 11, 1699. The vestry consisted of nine men, selected to represent the congregation and advise the minister and wardens on all church matters. Chosen annually, the size of the vestry varied from 9 to 28 members during the 18th century, and the colonial governor and lieutenant governor served as ex officio members. Later, as Chapel membership increased, the wardens and vestry delegated some tasks to committees organized to solve particular problems or take particular actions.

The minister of King's Chapel conducted regular services; lectured on catechism; performed marriages, baptisms, and burials; visited the sick and troubled; and corresponded with the government of the Church of England. On March 4, 1698/9, Reverend Christopher Bridge arrived from England to serve as assistant minister to Reverend Samuel Myles. Selected and ordained by the Lord Bishop of London and given the title of King's Lecturer, Bridge conducted Sunday afternoon services, visited the sick, and sometimes gave catechism lectures. Because his salary of £100 a year came directly from the Crown, the King's Lecturer often acted independently of the minister, wardens, and vestry of the Chapel, leading to frequent disputes throughout the 18th century.

When Thomas Brattle died in 1713, he bequeathed his organ to King's Chapel. William Price, a member of the congregation, agreed to play the organ until the arrival of Edward Enston, an organist from England. The first church organ in New England was thereby assembled in King's Chapel on March 2, 1714, and the first service with music was held there. King's Chapel organists were primarily responsible for playing the organ, but gradually assumed the responsibilities of choirmaster as well. The first concert of the Handel and Haydn Society was held at King's Chapel on December 25, 1815.

When King's Chapel was built, congregants sat on formes, or benches, rather than pews. Box pews were built in 1712, and the sale of pews, their rents, and taxes were regulated by the wardens and vestry. Beginning in 1733, voting rights, formerly determined by church attendance, were granted only to proprietors of pews. Between 1747 and 1920, the proprietors of pews undertook many of the major duties of the Chapel. They selected the wardens, the vestry, and the minister; collected pew rents and kept pew records; appointed committees; and set policies for the church.

In the early 1750s, the original wooden church was replaced by a larger stone building, designed by architect Peter Harrison. The congregation of King's Chapel included wealthy Boston merchants, local officials, British army and navy officers, and a number of prominent Tory families. Because the Chapel represented the established Church of England in Boston, the American Revolution and events in Boston between 1773 and 1776 had a profound effect on the church. In 1774, loyalists, including a number of members of the Chapel, began fleeing Boston to Halifax, Quebec, and England. On Sunday, March 10, 1776, Reverend Henry Caner held a final service at the Chapel before embarking for Halifax, Nova Scotia. With him he took the communion service; the register of baptisms, marriages, and burials; and the first book of church records. In 1776-1777, with its minister gone and its congregation depleted by one-third, King's Chapel merged with Trinity Church in Boston and offered services at Trinity under Reverend Samuel Parker. Between 1777 and 1781, the Old South Society held services at King's Chapel while their church was being restored.

In 1782, the King's Chapel wardens asked James Freeman to officiate as lay reader until he could be ordained. Freeman delivered sermons and conducted services twice every Sunday, but his views diverged from the traditional Anglican dogma to embrace Unitarianism. When he sought ordination from American Episcopal churchmen, he was refused on several occasions. Finally, on November 18, 1787, the proprietors of pews ordained Freeman in the presence of the congregation of King's Chapel, effectively terminating the Chapel's Episcopal affiliation.

The 19th century saw many changes in the administration of King's Chapel. The position of King's Lecturer ceased with the separation of the colonies from Great Britain. In 1803, the wardens and vestry called Joseph Stevens Buckminister to accept the position of assistant minister. Buckminister declined, but Reverend Samuel Cary eventually accepted the position, serving as assistant minister from November 1806 to June 1807. The assistant minister conducted weekday services, delivered sermons and catechism lectures in the absence of the minister, undertook parish calls, and taught Sunday School. On January 1, 1809, Cary was ordained as colleague pastor at King's Chapel. In 1824, the procedure for appointing an assistant minister was formalized, and the proprietors voted to create the position of "associate minister," appointing Francis William Pitt Greenwood to the post. At the end of the nineteenth century, the church also hired a parish visitor, an individual with social work training to assist the minister in his parish duties.

On December 22, 1861, Henry Wilder Foote was ordained as minister of King's Chapel. Although the Chapel took no position on the issue of slavery until the Civil War was declared, Reverend Henry Wilder Foote and the congregation as a whole participated in Reconstruction efforts. As early as 1868, King's Chapel raised money for the education of freedmen in the south, supporting such institutions as the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, the Calhoun Colored School, and the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. The Chapel endowed the Mary Foote Hospital at Hampton and supported a scholarship fund for Indian children at Tuskegee.

In 1907, an indenture was written which established a board of three trustees, to be elected by the proprietors of pews. The purpose of the indenture, ratified by the faculty of Harvard Divinity School, was to ensure the continuation of Christian worship at King's Chapel. In the absence of such worship, King's Chapel would become the property of Harvard Divinity School.

By 1918, the number of proprietors had dwindled considerably, and communicants who were not proprietors sought a voice in the governance of the Chapel. The Society of King's Chapel was formed in 1920 and consisted of all communicants who signed the membership book of the Chapel. The Society, a policy-setting body that votes on important issues such as the election of ministers, wardens, and vestry, the hours and frequency of services, and the acceptance of gifts and bequests, meets annually on Easter Monday or when called by the senior warden. Other administrative tasks are the responsibility of the wardens and vestry. The senior warden serves as the chief administrative officer of King's Chapel.

History of the Price Estate

William Price, first organist and long-time proprietor of King's Chapel, died in Boston on May 17, 1771, at the age of 87. His will, probated a few days later, left a valuable estate on Cornhill in trust to the Chapel, reserving a life interest in the estate for his widow Sarah and his nieces Sarah and Margaret Creese. Trinity Church was named to administer the trust if King's Chapel declined the bequest. In the turmoil of the Revolution, the acceptance of the trust was lost; however, the minister and wardens of King's Chapel formally accepted the trust on August 30, 1789.

William Price's last surviving niece, Sarah Creese, died on April 21, 1809. She devised the Price estate to her nephew William Pelham, believing that her uncle would have objected to the Chapel's adoption of the Unitarian liturgy and would have revoked his support.

On April 26, 1809, the proprietors of pews of King's Chapel reaffirmed their acceptance of the Price trust. William Pelham, however, was living at the Price estate, and when he refused to leave or pay rent, the Chapel brought an action of formedon in remainder against him before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. The case was brought before the court in March 1813. Pelham charged, among other points, that the ministers and wardens of King's Chapel were not the lawful successors to the estate because the Chapel was no longer affiliated with the Episcopal Church. The court ruled for King's Chapel, and Pelham was removed from the estate and ordered to pay damages to the Chapel.

On June 13, 1824, the vestry of Trinity Church was advised by a committee on the Price estate that King's Chapel might not be the rightful heir to the estate and that Trinity might obtain the trust. On September 17, 1824, the rector and church wardens of Trinity entered the Price estate and claimed possession, but they were ousted by J. Stoddard and B.C. Forbisher, the King's Chapel tenants. Trinity sued the tenants through the clerk's office of the Court of Common Pleas, and the case was carried up to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, which heard the writ of sur disseizen in quibus on November 1, 1828. In its arguments, Trinity claimed that the Price estate was improperly accepted by King's Chapel and that the Chapel's secession from the Church of England rendered it incapable of performing the religious duties specified in Price's will.

On November 21, 1828, Trinity and the Chapel agreed to an out-of-court compromise in the form of an indenture. Trinity was awarded the trust and its administration, and King's Chapel would receive half of the trust's income.

At the seventh annual convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Massachusetts in May 1860, a committee was appointed concerning the Price estate. The Episcopal Church objected to the compromise between Trinity and King's Chapel and brought a third lawsuit before the Supreme Judicial Court in Equity in April 1862, requesting that no part of the Price estate income be given to King's Chapel. The case was adjudicated in favor of Trinity and King's Chapel in 1864.

Biographical Timeline of Ephraim Peabody

Ephraim Peabody (1807-1856) was the minister at King's Chapel from 1846 to 1855.