George III of England reaffirmed the rights of the St. Mary's congregation in 1766. That same year, they laid the cornerstone for a new Church in the Savoy Palace. They thought big; the Church was designed to hold one thousand people. At the same time, a subscription drive was started to raise the necessary funds. Two wealthy merchants gave generous gifts. The pastor and the councillors started making house visits to secure addition funds [sound familiar?]. The net result was that the initial payment of 800 Pounds to the builder could be made without touching the Church capital.
Within a year of the start of construction, Pastor Pittius died. After his death, the councillors decided that in the election of a new pastor only members who had paid pew rents for two consecutive years could vote. This was in the spirit of "keeping good order and avoiding confusion." Unfortunately, a long dispute did arise between two contending men for the job. Eventually the job went to Johann Gustav Burgmann, who was able to consecrate the new Church building in 1768. Most of his initial energy was applied to the school but he soon found that the duties of a pastor involved many unpleasant and time-consuming duties. After six years, Burgmann returned to Germany. The Assistant Pastor Wolf took over, but he lasted only a year before he retired.
Several pastors had found that the congregation and, through them, the councillors, were very strong. The next pastor, Adam Lampert, was elected with 247 of 340 votes. This in itself shows how the church had grown. The school was successful enough that two teachers had to be employed. Though Lampert's time as pastor was successful, he died after four years.
To fill the vacant post of pastor quickly, the council wrote to the three universities of Goettingen, Strassburg, and Tuebingen in their search for a suitable candidate. Previously the pastors had all come from the pietistic school in Halle. Eventually the choice fell on Dr. Johann Gottlieb Burchhardt, a lecturer at the University of Leipzig. In doing so, he became the most intellectual pastor St. Mary's had ever had. He cast a critical eye over all of the Germans in London:
"The Germans who come to London to settle here are in double danger. Either they stray on the path to disbelief through abuse of freedom, through seduction and a propensity to licence, and stop attending any church altogether or if the spark of religion which they brought with them from their German homeland is not yet lost completely and they wish to hear a sermon once in a while, they go from one church to another, cannot make sense of the different doctrines they get to hear and end up with doubts of enthusiasm."
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.