St. Thomas Church, located in Croome, was built between 1743-1745 in accordance with an 1732 act of the Maryland Assembly. Known as Page's Chapel until 1850, the St. Thomas' congregation descended from the original St. Paul's congregation located in Charles Town at Mt. Calvert. The longest serving rector during the colonel period, 1728-1775, was John Eversfield whose descendants appear frequently within these records. Page's Chapel was also the home church of Bishop Thomas John Claggett, the first Episcopal bishop to be consecrated on American soil.
This work was transcribed from: Volume I of St. Thomas' Parish Registers, dated 1850, and a small red book which was the personal register of Samuel R. Gordon, parish rector from 1852 to 1883. The red book is especially important because most of the records in it were never entered into the official parish register and have thus been inaccessible, and heretofore unknown. Numerous African-American entries within the records make this volume an invaluable link to past generations not normally included within early public records.
This volume covers: baptisms (1849-1902), confirmations (1851-1902), marriages (1851-1906), burials (1850-1904), and a list of vestrymen (1850-1906). The entries are transcribed from the original and, with a few exceptions, arranged chronologically with a minimum of editing. Punctuation and spelling are retained as it appears in the original texts. A surname index and a partial first name index add to the value of this work. Those slave entries where only a given name appears are listed in the index under the surname of the owner given, if any. If the names of two different owners are given the listing will be in the index under both surnames. If no surname is given in the original entry, then the first names will appear in the partial first name index.
Franklin A. Robinson, Jr.
(1998), 2015, 5.5" x 8.5", paper, index, 302 pp.
ISBN: 9780788408410
101-R0841
