Christ Church Devonshire | pinkbikepinksand

Devonshire Old Church

This is the church in Devonshire that was built to replace the one destroyed in the 1716 hurricane. It was an ambitious upgrade for the parish, the original having been a smaller wooden framed build with palmetto thatch. But in 1851 it too proved too small for the congregation and was replaced by a new church on adjacent ground and renamed “Christ Church” rather than merely Devonshire Parish Church. For fifty years the old church was left to decay, used only for housing an old hearse.

This little building is where the new hearse was stored in the late 19th century. Nowadays the hearses are owned by Funeral Homes or Undertakers, not by the Church but you can still get a horse-drawn hearse http://www.marquisranch.bm/carriage.html

Back in 1612 when the first English colonists arrived on Bermuda, there was not the wide choice for religious worship that there is today – it was Church of England, under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London. In England The Act of Uniformity 1559 specified that everyone should attend church once a week and that the Book of Common Prayer be used for the order of service. If a commoner objected to this Act, by not going to church, they were fined, but if a member of the clergy refused to sign the Act they were shipped out to minister to the colonies – maybe a better lifestyle but certainly a drop in income as the annual stipend was about ⅔ of that in an English parish.

The early church ministers in Bermuda were appointed from among the unemployed or non-conforming clergy. So it was that one of the early ministers, Lewis Hughes, had been disciplined for his connection to a witchcraft case back in England. Records document him as a conscientious and dedicated cleric who travelled across the whole island by foot in his duties.

If you are interested in the history of the Bermuda Anglican Church there is a comprehensive book “Chronicle of a Colonial Church” by AC Hollis Hallett, covering the early years 1612 to 1826.

One amusing story from this book is about a woman called Elizabeth Carter who was imprisoned and fined for correcting the preacher, William Edwards, during his sermon on 30 January 1673: he was preaching on the Book of Esther but managed to mix up two of the characters as he told the story so she promptly stood up to tell him he had it wrong. I don’t suggest anyone tries this at home, the penalty may not have changed much.

I had a pleasant wonder around the church and church yard at Devonshire Old Church. The grounds and church were restored in 1903, financed by Aubrey Cox, and from 1938 onwards it has been used for Christenings, Weddings and Funerals.