St. James' Church (Episcopal)
Lancaster, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Founded 1744. Original structure built 1746-53; this building begun 1820. George Ross, signer of the Declaration of Independence, was vestryman. Buried here are the patriots Edward Shippen, William Atlee, Edward Hand, and Jasper Yeates.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Founded in 1744, St. James' Episcopal Church has stood at the heart of Lancaster through the entire span of the American Revolution and the early Republic. Among its vestrymen was George Ross, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and its churchyard holds a remarkable roll of patriots, including Continental Army general Edward Hand and jurists who helped build the new nation's legal order. The present building, begun in 1820, replaced the colonial structure raised in the 1740s and 50s.
Why it matters
Few congregations can claim such a direct connection to the founding generation, making St. James' a resting place for the local leaders who turned revolutionary ideals into a functioning American republic.
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Related people
- · George Ross
- · Edward Hand
- · Edward Shippen
- · William Atlee
- · Jasper Yeates
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Presbyterian Church
Lancaster, PA · est. 1984
This Lancaster congregation traces its roots to 1742, completing its first building here in 1770 with the current edifice dedicated in 1851. Its first regular pastor, the Rev. John D. Woodhull, was a Revolutionary patriot, and among its members was James Buchanan, the 15th President of the United States. The church's long life spans the colonial era, the Revolution, and the antebellum decades of national growth.
Shippen House
Lancaster, PA · est. 1950
Edward Shippen was one of colonial Lancaster's leading citizens, a lawyer and judge who chaired the local Committee of Observation as the Revolution approached. His home stood here for three decades in the mid-1700s, an era when Lancaster was among the largest inland towns in the colonies. He is remembered too as grandfather of Peggy Shippen, who married Benedict Arnold and became entangled in the most infamous treason of the war.
Joseph Simon (1712-1804)
Lancaster, PA · est. 2006
In the mid-1700s, Lancaster sat on the edge of the British colonies' expanding frontier, a bustling inland hub where traders outfitted expeditions toward the Ohio country and beyond. Joseph Simon, a Jewish merchant, built a far-reaching network of trade and land ventures that reached as far as the Mississippi, and when the Revolution came he helped arm the Continental cause. His home doubled as one of the earliest gathering places for Jewish worship west of Philadelphia.
George Ross
Lancaster, PA · est. 1950
George Ross settled at Lancaster around 1751 and became a soldier, jurist, and ardent patriot in the cause of American independence. As a Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress, he signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The site of his country house, nine blocks north on Ross Street, is now marked by a monument; Ross died in 1779, in the midst of the Revolution he helped launch.