Sunday, February 14, 2016

The Church of England: Anglicans and Episcopalians

Not have a clear handle on how many ancestral families were members of the Church of England, I'll focus on two - one Southern and one Northern.

Francis Land settled in Lower Norfolk County, Virginia in 1630. He became active in the Anglican Church of Lynnhaven Parish. Francis was a vestryman and church warden there in 1646 and 1647. The Lands probably remained members of the church until the late 1700s when John Land married Elizabeth Barlow. Elizabeth was from a Baptist family and the descendants of John and Elizabeth attended the Baptist Church in Kentucky and Indiana.

John Simmons, Sr. arrived in New York from Hampshire, England during the early 1750s. He married widow  Catherine Dally Salter at Trinity Church in New York City in 1758. The Simmons family would attend Trinity until the Revolutionary War, when they were forced to flee the city as the British army began its occupation of the city in 1776. After the war, John and his family returned to NYC ant the Trinity Church. One major change would come to the church in the US - formally breaking from the Church of England and becoming the Episcopal Church in America.

John Simmons,Jr.'s 2nd marriage took place in the Episcopal Church in Philadelphia in 1792. It is probable that his other two marriages took place in the Church as well. It would also appear that the Episcopal faith carried down through the Simmons family into the 20th century. My uncle's will requested an Episcopal service at his burial. Whether or not that wish was carried out, I don't know. [That's another, very long story!]

No comments:

Post a Comment