The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1891-04-03
miscellaneous.
HISTORY OF ST. GEORGES PARISH.
BY DIR. G. w. ARCHER.
NO. VII.

In 1856 the Glebe was rented TO Amo!
Garrett for three years from LIST January, fol
f33.6.S per annum, provision being made
that if tn, land should be sold within thai
period Mr.. Garrett should give it up on Ger
tain stipulated terms.
Rev. John Ireland was chosen Rector fol
two years from 18th March, 1887 and subscrip.
tions 10 pay him were ordered to be solicited
In June it was resolved that money should be
raised "for the purchase of an organ and for
repairs to the church and yard" Later in
the same month it was ordered that "Mr.
Snider be allowed ten shillings per Sunday
as Organist of the Parish" And the Glebe,
by vote of five ayes to one no, was ordered
to be sold. In July the new organ arrived
from Baltimore. In July, 1888, it was resolv-
ed to allow the rector the rents for the Glebe
from January LIST, which antedated his ap-
pointment several months.
Iu April MIR. Benedict Edward Hall was
appointed delegate to the Convention to be
held in Baltimore on the 4th Tuesday in
May. This was not General Convention,
but convention of the diocese of Maryland,
if that may be called diocese, where, as yet,
there was no bishop. Indeed, no General
Convention OF the church was held in Amer
lea until the following year, and then in Phil
adelphia. The Rev. Mr.. West, the former
rector, was appointed by this diocesan Con-
vention superintendent of st. Georges Par
ish." What were the duties of Superintend-
ent l have no means of knowing. 1t was
the designation which Wesley instructed his
special agents, Asbury and Coke, to assume,
when they came over to organize the Metho-
dist Societies in this country, but which they
soon found it expedient to drop tor that of
Bishop. The functions of this Office were
perhaps somewhat similar to those before de-
scribed as pertaining to commissary, who
was the American representative of the Bish-
op of London, then holding ecclesiastical jur-
isdiction here, which was ended by the revo-
luton.
On the 30th Sep. the vestry ratified the
proceedings of the local convention. These
proceedings consisted mainly in the adoption
of certain fundamental rights and liberties
of the Church in Maryland-the principal
right and liberty set forth being that of man
aging her own affairs without any informed
ding of the temporal authorities. These
rights were really in no danger whatever {;
and the alarm concerning them could only
have arisen from sense of past injustice
done to other denominations by their enforc-
ed support of the Establishment during the
eightyfve years of its existence. When the
time for legislative action arrived-to use the
words of historian of the Church-"the
State was tender towards its old associate.
The globes, churches, chapels and other pro-
perty then owned were secured to her, and
also it was provided that the repairs OF sacred
ediices then in progress under former acts
should still go on
In August, 1890, the vestry contracted
with Mr.. Parker Hall for enclosing the
church-yard, to be extended three panels
east, for which he is to be paid $780," In
this year, by the action of the convention as
sembled at Easton, Nd, the church wardens
werejoined with the vestry in transacting the
business of the Church.
On the Sd March, 1901, the vestry reap
point Mr.. Ireland rector for one year, and
guarantee him ESQ exclusive OF the Glebe {;
which offer is made him owing to the uncer-
tainty of subscriptions and the improperly
of saddling the clergy with trouble" of COL
lection? In May it was resolved that latter
August next, no one not subscribing men,
Der of the Church shall be entitled to inter-
ment without paying 76 Isl besides the sex
toms perquistes.
May 7th, 1902. Settled with Mr.. Ireland,
who resigned"
The Rev. John Ireland was an Englshman
of scholarly attainments. l can give no &C
count of his career in this country prior to
his appointment as rector of ST. Georges, and
it is most probable that he had arrived from
England but recently, while still young
man. Almost simultaneously with entering
upon his duties as rector he opened a semi
nary for boys. My grandfather medical
ledgers show that in 1887 he rendered pro-
fessional services to several Of Mr.. lrelands
pupils. In an old Baltimore newspaper l
have found letter of Feb. 1892, written by
him TO friend in Baltimore, who had re-
tod fn fob oEu nf apa6prnu
soon TO be started there. This he declines to
do on the ground that "Sion Hill Seminary
is now in very 1ourishing condition"
Soon after becoming rector MIR. Ireland
married Johanna, daughter of Jacob Giles,
the wealthy ironmaster, whose seat, Mount
Felix, was in the vicinity of Mount Sion
and his wife seems to have inherited part Of
her fathers landed estate thereabouts That
Mr., Ireland did not leave the county until
several years after his resignation-or, that
ii he did leave he retu1ned-is proved by the
fact that in 1896 his brother-in-law Aquilla
Giles, then of New York, gave him power of
attorney to dispose OF property in Hartford
county. In December of that year he was
chosen associate rector of ST. Paul's in Balt-
more, from which position, according to
Scharf, che was removed i'll 1901" This
phraseology would seem to indicate dissatis-
or the parishioners, of which, however, we
have no particulars, if such dissatisfaction
really existed.
1t is proper to remark that among the Hall
papers is one which seems to show that Mr..
IreaQd's seminary was not originally at
Mount Sion. This is an account made out
by his Reverence against the estate of Capt.
Aquilla Hall, and includes charges for the
boarding and tuition of his son Benedict for
two sessions in 1889, at f1910 per session.
Appended is brief note from Mr.. Ireland,
dated, Mount Felix, Oct. IL, 1882" 1t is
impossible to say whether at this date Mount
Felix was the seat of the school, or whether
Mr.. Ireland was only sojourning there dur
ing the fall holidays, as 1t was then the pro-
perty of his brother-in-law, Thomas Giles
having been devised to him by his father,
Jacob Giles, who died in 1884. AS regards
the branches taught at the seminary, | can
only give the statement of my father, who
was pupil of MIR. Ireland in the nineties,
namely, that the ancient classics mathemat-
les and French were taught; while in the &C
count just referred to there is charge of Fl
per session for "the services of a singing mas
ter for Benedict"
There is among my fathers papers short
letter from Mr.. Ireland written 10 him after
he was established in Baltimore as practi-
toner of medicine, the writer being then as
sociate rector of ST. Paul's 1t shows the
rare faculty of giving happy turn of expires
sion to trivial and commonplace matter:
baltimore, Aug. goth, 1893.
DEAR SIR: | have to-day been favored
with your medical account against me to the
1st inst, credited by two articles, my conf