The congregation at St. Mary’s must have felt very pleased with the warrant of George I which restored the church to them. It was not that George was partial or favorably inclined toward Lutheran thought, of which he was an adherent. He was actually indifferent, by and large, to matters of religion, or even of government. Most likely, it was the influence of Ruperti, the Pastor at St. Mary’s and at the Court Chapel, which was the reason for the warrant.
Ruperti was energetic and his time at St. Mary’s was marked by intensive building activity. In 1708, renovations were made to the parsonage. After obtaining the ground which became the cemetery, the church built a vault to which members of the Royal family contributed a nice sum. At about the same time, a carriage way was constructed from the Strand for the benefit of the more affluent members. In 1726, a subscription fund was opened for a new organ. Also in 1726, the church obtained a new teacher’s house as a result of a generous gift from the Princess of Wales, Caroline von Brandenburg-Ansbach. She was the daughter-in-law of George I and a devout Lutheran who additionally showed deep interest in the German school.
Though all of these activities sound expensive, the financial condition of the Church was stabilized under Ruperti. Part of the financial help came from the court officials who were involved with George I. Still, finances were always tight and it had been necessary in 1712 to sell lottery tickets to pay Ruperti’s salary. By 1718 the church capital amounted to approximately 250 pounds which enabled them to buy government securities. A generous windfall came from Johann Tietz, a longstanding church councillor, who left the congregation the sum of 300 pounds on his death, under the condition that a yearly memorial sermon be preached.
The staff had grown with an Assistant Pastor and a teacher. Even though money was tight, the members of the Church responded to external needs. They collected for two burned out English Churches in 1707, for the Lutherans in America, and for the building of Churches on the continent.
In May of 1709, Ruperti was appointed, as one of two Lutheran ministers, to help care for the hundreds of Germans arriving in London. He was responsible for distributing financial aid among them.
As Germans passed through London, many of them found their way to St. Mary’s, if they had the time to do so. For the first years in the Eighteenth Century, it was customary for the Germans to find a ship from Rotterdam to London, and thence to find a ship to America. One such group, who had more time in London than they really desired, was the 1717 Germanna emigrants. Fortunately, their participation at St. Mary’s is recorded in the Church Book. We will look at the entries in the next note.
(09 Mar 05)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.