Legend has it that the land that now houses St. Thomas Church Whitemarsh had been a Native American burial ground for the Lenni Lenape tribe.
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Legend has it that the land that now houses St. Thomas Church Whitemarsh, which consists of about 45 acres of prime real estate at the intersection of Bethlehem Pike and Church Road, had been a Native American burial ground for the Lenni Lenape tribe, which considered it sacred ground.
In 1683, however, one year after William Penn came to this area to escape persecution in England, Penn signed a treaty with the Lenni Lenape that compensated them for their land. Penn, who had been imprisoned without trial for eight months in 1668 in the Tower of London for his “heretical” beliefs as a Quaker, had been given much of what is now Pennsylvania by King Charles II. It helped that Penn's father was a very prominent admiral in the Navy and a war hero.
According to “St. Thomas' Church Whitemarsh: The First 30 Years,” by Nat Groton Jr. and former Local columnist Richard Lee, that 1683 treaty included 5,000 acres that Penn later granted to Major Jasper Farmer and his sons, who had been Penn's neighbors and friends in Tipperary, Ireland. Farmar died on the boat coming to Pennsylvania in 1685, but his son, Edward, who inherited two-thirds of his father's lands, founded St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Whitemarsh, in 1698, which was just a small log church on a hill at the time. (The oldest Episcopal church in the U.S. is Old Trinity Church in Church Creek, Maryland, and was built 17 years earlier, in 1671.)
In 1710 the log church was intentionally burned down because of termites and other problems and was replaced by a sturdier stone church, according to Julie Lawson, current chair of the church's history committee.
“That church lasted from 1710 to 1817,” she said, “but it suffered extensive damage during the Battle of Germantown in the Revolutionary War. So a third St. Thomas Church was built in 1818, which lasted 50 years and was then torn down. The Sheaff family then gave a lot of money for a new church, which was built starting in 1868 with walls 12 to 14 feet thick. Rev. Ingersoll Meigs came in and finished in 1881. Services were held in a small schoolhouse for years.”
After founding the community church, Edward Farmar preached Anglicanism, the faith of the Church of England, although many non-Anglicans also attended. Upon consecrating the completed church in 1818, William White, the first Episcopal Bishop in the U.S., also wanted to worship the same way as Anglicans.
“So we worship the same way as the Anglican Church,” said Lawson. “Since the 1680s there has been this continuity with the Book of Common Prayer. With all the changes in society — cultural, political, and economic — we still have the same foundation, praying in the Anglican way. That's so amazing to me.”
According to the Rev. Emily Richards, current rector of St. Thomas', which has about 1,000 members, “I love the fact that our holy hill was a place where people of all denominations came to have fellowship and to serve for all those years. I want to keep this tradition alive to renew, refresh and restore. All are welcome. As much as things have changed, this has stayed the same – fellowship, worship and service.”
“Thousands of people come for our barn sales, and all proceeds go to serve the neighborhood,” Richards continued. “All the money – $150,000 last year – eaves the campus. It's in our DNA to serve the local community, no matter what their religious tradition. We have a labyrinth, a solar farm, and a free summer camp for kids that serve kids from Philadelphia, not just from Whitpain Township. We are very proud of our history and carrying on our legacy.”
One important feature of the vast acreage of St. Thomas' Church is its graveyard, which takes up about 15 acres. Founder Edward Farmar, who died in 1745, and his son, Thomas, who died in 1731, are among those buried there. The oldest gravestone is for James Allison, whose tombstone says he died at age 45 and was buried in October 1727. More than 3,500 people are buried in the graveyard, including 12 veterans of the Revolutionary War.
Many events are coming up in the near future to celebrate the 325 years of service by St. Thomas'. Following are just a few:
For more details about upcoming events or to reserve a seat at any of them, email stthomaswhitemarsh325@gmail.com. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.
