St. John's Parish (Gunpowder)
Baltimore County, Baltimore County, Maryland
Marker Inscription
Established 1692 The old church here standing was built by Edward Day at his own expense and consecrated in 1817 to replace Saint John's at Joppa Town which, built in 1725, lay in ruins. Baltimore County Historical Society
The Story
St. John's Parish was one of the original Anglican parishes carved out of colonial Maryland in 1692, when the colony formally established the Church of England. Its first house of worship stood at Joppa Town, then a bustling tobacco port and county seat on the Gunpowder River; when Baltimore eclipsed Joppa and the town slid into ruin, the congregation needed a new home. Edward Day paid to build the church that stands here, consecrated in 1817 to carry the old parish forward into a new century.
Why it matters
The marker traces the long arc of a single colonial congregation from the era of established religion through the rise and fall of a Chesapeake port town, a reminder that America's oldest communities often outlived the very places that first gave them a home.
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Related people
- · Edward Day
Related events
- · Establishment of St. John's Parish (1692)
- · Decline of Joppa Town
Themes & tags
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