St.Peter Church
St. Peter’s Church in the Town of St. George is well known as an iconic building central to the World Heritage status of the historic town. Many also know that St. Peter’s was redesignated ‘Their Majesties Chappell’ by Queen Elizabeth in 2012 in honour of the church’s
400th anniversary. How many though have explored the stories of the people memorialized in the churchyards surrounding this community building? Starting from the church steps proceed in a clockwise direction on this brief exploration.
The western churchyard is known as the resting place of Pilot James Darrell, who is commemorated by a slate plaque on the churchyard wall. A memorial service is held here each year in April to commemorate his accomplishments as a Pilot and community activist as he is the first recorded black landowner in the Town and his descendents continue to live on Silk Alley and Pilot Darrell Square just west of the churchyard and adjacent to Stewart Hall, home of the Bermuda Perfumery.
By 1698 almost a third of the 1124 inhabitants of the parish of St. George were black. The other grave markers in the western churchyard are generally unnamed but we know each marks the resting place of a free black or enslaved resident of the Parish.
The historic churchyard, with its separate section for blacks - indeed one of the last graveyards for blacks still remaining in Bermuda - is a vivid reminder of the reality of racial segregation in Bermuda, including in the churches. Not only were slaves and free blacks buried there in the 17th and 18th centuries, blacks continued to be buried in this separate section right up to the closing of the graveyard in 1854, twenty years after the Emancipation of all slaves in Bermuda.
Pause here under the mulberry tree and amongst endemic Bermuda Cedars and Palmettos and reflect. Were these unnamed people pilots and seamen, farmers and fishermen, domestic workers and caregivers, tavern keepers and shopkeepers, masons and carpenters, tailors and seamstresses?
As you move to the central and eastern churchyards the tombs become larger and more names are memorialized. Many are early Bermudians and others are visitors to these shores. Strong American connections
exist with Richard Sutherland Dale and Anne Willing Bingham being buried in the central area. He was the last casualty of the War of
1812 and Anne was the model for the Lady Liberty draped bust coinage minted between 1796 and 1804.
Also here you will find the Houghton family grave memorializing George and Mary and their children Julia and Robert who died in an eight day time period in September 1853 when the Town was in the grip of a yellow fever epidemic. There are other victims of this mosquito borne illness in this churchyard and others throughout the island, including the military graveyards held under stewardship by the Bermuda National Trust.
Governor George James Bruere, who was the representative of the Crown during the American Revolutionary War, rests close to the church and near the giant Bermuda Cedar that served to hold the bell in the central churchyard. His remains were discovered under the church by archaeologists in 2008 and he was reinterred with the permission of the Queen.
Under shady Olivewood trees in the eastern churchyard rest Sir Richard Sharples Governor and Commander-in-Chief who was assassinated on 10th March 1973 and his aide-de-campe Hugh Sayers. Yet more graves important to the social history of the island and telling of times of civil unrest in Bermuda’s recent history.
As you walk back towards the church imagine the life of Abigail, young wife of Captain Coffin who died at age 22 years and 7 months on board the steam ship Merlin on a voyage from St. Thomas in June 1853. One cannot but wonder, was she another yellow fever death like the Houghton family?
As you continue clockwise to the church steps you will pass three infant graves as well as graves of young and older Bermudians. The resting places in the churchyards of the oldest Anglican church in continuous use in the Western Hemisphere weave a rich texture of social history of the Town of St. George.
Now, if you have not already done so, enter and explore, the wonderful St. Peter’s Church, Their Majesties Chappell.
Where are our visitors from?
During the month of September 2016 over 1000 visitors signed the Visitor Book. They came from:
Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia ,Florida, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey, Idaho, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Texas, Illinois, Arizona, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, Indiana, Alabama, Connecticut, New Mexico, Vermont, New York, Arkansas, California, Utah, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, Georgia, Washington State and Washington DC.
Countries:
Italy, Canada,India,Jersey, England,Scotland,Ireland,Wales,Iran,Australia,New Zealand,Germany,Belize,Jamaica,Hong Kong,St Lucia,Haiti,Belgium,Luxembourg,Bahamas,Singapore,Northern Ireland,South Africa,Uzbekistan,Romania,Belarus,Puerto Rico,Hawaii,
The Team of St. Peters Church...
Fr Tom Slawson, Priest-in-Charge
Gillian Outerbridge, Parish Administrator
Nandi Outerbridge, Event Manager and Accounts
Marvin Fox, Custodian
Edith Swainson, House keeper,
Ronnie Denbrook, Grounds.
Nolan Crane, Graveyard.
Volunteers - 38 at last count!
