October 20th – This day being appointed for public Thanksgiving, was observ’d with great Solemnity – Went to Town & accompanied my company to Church, call’d on Gen Scott and din’d at Mrs. Wests – Doct. Falls came out last evening and staid all Night –
From the journal of Captain Henry Thompson, October 20, 1814. Courtesy the Friends of Clifton.
25 – Sunday, blustering day, but clear’d up at 2 O’Clock with Wind at NW – Went to Town, din’d at S. Steretts – Took all my Troop to St. Pauls Church
From the journal of Captain Henry Thompson, September 22, 1814. Courtesy the Friends of Clifton.
10 Sunday – Cloudy & Sultry day, rode by Furley to the Orchard. Mrs. T went to Church & din’d at Mr. Wirgmans, return’d in the evg with F. Bowly, S. Stewart & P. Merony. Din’d at Home alone – Wind S.E.
From the journal of Captain Henry Thompson, July 10, 1814. Courtesy the Friends of Clifton.
On May 4, 1814, after months of preparations by the Building Committee of St. Paul’s Church and builder Robert Carey Long, Rev. Dr. James Kemp gathered his congregation at the northern end of Charles Street to lay their cornerstone for their new church. In a sermon delivered at St. Paul’s Church in 1878, Revered John Sebastian Bach Hodges commented on the pressing need for a new building in 1814:
The ground upon which the Church stood, we have already remarked, was high, but that occupied by St. Paul Street and by the first five houses which front on Lexington Street counting from the corner of St. Paul had, as early as the beginning of the century, been reduced to the present level. The consequence was caving in of the hill upon which the Church stood, which, about 1811 or ’12, was obliged to be protected by a strong wall the defence proved inadequate, and the consequence was that it was indispensable to build a new Church, hence the erection of the present S. Paul’s, which was consecrated in the year 1817.
6th Sunday – Very fine day, Wind West and Snow all melted by 12 O’Clock. Went to Church Doct Kemp preach’d Mrs. Hu Thompsons Funeral Sermon & from thence with Mr. S. Sterett to dine with D.A. Smith, no other company return’d Home early
From the journal of Captain Henry Thompson, March 6, 1814. Courtesy the Friends of Clifton.
