The City Of Chester.

Jeremy Collett, John Hannum, Henry Pierce, Ralph Pyle, and Thomas Barnsly, but especially does he commend Thomas Powell for the gift of a valuable piece of land "for a minister's house, garden, and other conveniences." He also applauds Hon. Col. Francis Nicholson, of whom he says, "We may safely say no man parted more freely with his money to promote the interest of the church in these parts, nor contributed so universally towards ye erection of Christian synagogues in different and distant plantations in America."

The small but compact fabric of brick thus erected, and said to be one of the neatest on this continent, was forty-nine feet in length by twenty-six feet in breadth, and was well and substantially finished inside. The main entrance, which was wide and spacious, closed by double doors, was at the north side of the church, and the access to the building was from Market Street, through the yard.

The old church must have had a sun dial, perhaps over its main door, such as is still to be seen at the court-house of Somerset County, Md., for, in 1704, the wardens claim credit for "cash pd ye ferymen for Bringing Down ye Dyal, 1s. 8d.; ac of nayles for setting up ye Dyall, 1s. 2d.; money spent and pd ye men for setting It up, 4s."

The inside of the church was divided into four parts by two aisles, one extending from the double doors, and the other from the pulpit to the extreme western part of the church. The roof was oak, and the rafters white-oak, hewed with a broad axe. The chancel was spacious and paved with brick, as were also the aisles. In the west end of the church, and directly opposite the pulpit, built into the wall, was the well-known slab of gray sandstone, six feet in length by three in breadth, now in the Sunday-school room of the new church edifice, erected to the memory of James Sandelands, the elder. Along the borders of the old slab, in large capital letters, are the words:

Its face is divided into two parts, the upper bearing in cipher the initials "J. S." and "A. S.," the arms of the Sandelands family-argent, a band azure. On the border, dividing the upper from the lower part, are the words, "Vive Memor Lethi FFugit Hora." The lower half contains many emblems of mortality, - the tolling bell, the passing bell, the skull and cross-bones, the hour-glass, an upright coffin bearing on its side the words, "Memento Mori," "Time Deum," and in either corner, crossed, a sceptre and mattock, and a mattock and spade.

Mural Tablet.
In St. Paul's Church, Chester, Penna.

Queen Anne, whom Horace Walpole dubbed "the wet-nurse of the church," presented to the parish a handsome pulpit, a communion-table "well rail'd in and set out with a rich cloth, and a neat chalice;" the two former articles were located at the east end of the edifice. This chalice and salver, the queen's gift, as well as a similar chalice, presented to the congregation by Sir Jefferey Jeffries, are still in possession of the church wardens, and employed in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to the present time; but the pulpit and communion-table have long since been removed. The chalices and their salvers are of hammered and very pure silver. The one presented by the queen has engraved upon it the words "Annæ Reginæ." The gift from Sir Jefferey Jeffries was made in March, 1715, and consisted of a small bell, "a rich cloth, and a neat chalice." In time the bell was replaced by a larger one.

At a meeting of the vestry, March 30, 1741, twenty-three members of the congregation subscribed funds to "& for in consideration of purchasing a bell for said church," and at a meeting of the same body, April 15, 1745, a bell-tower or turret, to hang the bell, was ordered "to be built of stone in the foundation from out to out, Twelve by Fourteen foot." The belfry, built according to these directions, was to the west of and entirely detached from the church. The bell, which was made in England, and had cast on it the words "Roger Rice, Chester, 1743," was paid for in advance, in 1742, by a bill of exchange for thirty pounds, and, as the sum obtained by subscription amounted to only half that amount, John Mather donated the remaining fifteen pounds.

The stone-work, twenty-five feet in height, was surmounted by a frame structure in which the bell hung. The tower, including the wooden addition, was over fifty feet. The belfry was entered by a door on the south side. The frame superstructure was square until it reached the plate on which the rafters rested, and the roof faced four ways, receding to a point, which was ornamented with a weather-vane. In each side of the frame-work was a slatted window, so that the sound of the bell would not be obstructed any more than necessary. Within the interior was a rough ladder, which the sexton had to climb when he tolled the bell, although for church services it was rung by a long rope, which descended to within a few feet of the ground floor.

The foundation of the ancient structure was laid July, 1702, and on Sunday, Jan. 24, 1703 (new style), St. Paul's day, the edifice was opened to public worship, Rev. John Talbot preaching the first sermon in the church. The general impression is that Rev. George Keith was the first clergyman to hold divine services in St. Paul's, but in that gentleman's "Journal and Travels," published in London, 1706, occurs this passage: "Sunday, Jan. 24, 1702," (1703 N. S.) "I preached at Philadelphia, on Matthew v. 17, both in the forenoon and afternoon, Mr. Evans, the minister, having that day been at Chester, in Pennsylvania, to accompany Mr. Talbot, who was to preach the first