Grace
Church
К
has stood for more than
a hundred years in Plym¬
outh anil has witnessed
many stirring scenes dur¬
ing its existence.
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IIAKKY Z. TUCKER
IN the historic town of Plymouth
stands lovely Grace Episcopal
Church, the meeting place of the
landed gentry in ante-bellum days
and the choice house of worship
for wealthy merchants and ship¬
owners. The handsome Gothic
building, one of the treasured
shrines of North Carolina, was de¬
signed and erected by the eminent
church architect, Richard Upjohn.
Founded in 1837, it was in that
year that the rites and sacraments
were first administered by the Rev¬
erend E. N. Forbes and Samuel J.
Johnston, D.D. According to the
old parish register, the first meet¬
ing for the erection of the church
was held under the direction of the
Reverend William Otis and Benja¬
min Maitland. The following men
were elected to serve as a vestry:
Franklin Fagan, John Boyle, Mar¬
tin Lucas, and William Maitland.
The name Grace Church was adopt¬
ed. and it was ordered that appli¬
cation be made for admission into
the Diocesan Convention. The
vestry voted the sum of $1.500
to erect the building, which was
soon completed and consecrated on
the second Sunday after Easter in
the year 1840.
The Birth of Plymouth
It was in January, 1790, that
Arthur Rhodes, who owned con¬
siderable land in this section, was
approached by a group of enter¬
prising men from England who
were searching for a place suitable
to build a town. At that time the
present town of Plymouth was a
large field of approximately one
hundred acres, cultivated yearly in
corn and cotton. Since the Roanoke
River offered an easy outlet to the
sea and also wound far inland, the
men who sought the tract of land
offered Rhodes 865 pounds for it.
THE STATE. September 6. 1947
After some harangue, the sale
was made and the town was chris¬
tened "Plymouth” after the old
town of that name in England. The
men who purchased the land were
Charles Johnson, Thomas and John
Stewart, Edmond Blount, John and
William Armistead, Thomas Hun¬
ter. and Martin Blount. They pro¬
ceeded at once to have the "Brick-
house Plantation" of the Rhodes
family laid out into 172 town lots,
which extended from the banks of
the Roanoke to where the high
school building now stands.
Numbers of the early settlers in
the vicinity of Plymouth soon
owned large estates. They were
able to command all the satisfac¬
tions of happy environment, and
had the leisure to enjoy it. The
house party was a perennial thing;
kith and kin came to spend a week,
a month, and tarried indefinitely.
They dined and danced and rode in
tournaments, raced their fine
horses, and followed Reynard
across the unfolding lowlands.
A "Class” Congregation
Grace Church enjoyed great
prestige with the wealthy citizenry
of the community, who not only
attended services regularly, but
observed great ceremonials, and
were always careful that the amen¬
ities of their select congregation
were never violated. They repre¬
sented a social structure whose
ramifications had to do with the
segregation of people into classes.
But the historical records of the
ivy-covered church have received
much less recognition than have
the twelve towering sycamore trees
that stand sentinel over the graves
of generations of Plymouth’s dead.
The twelve trees were named for
the twelve Apostles. Eleven of
them are tall, straight, and beauti¬
ful: but the twelfth, which by
some queer coincidence of nature,
is crooked, malformed, and ugly.
It is named Judas.
These famous trees were here in
the summer of 1861. when a crowd
of excited people gathered to pray
that success might attend two gal¬
lant young soldiers of the congre¬
gation, Captain N. J. Whitehurst
and Captain Stuart L. Johnston,
who were marching away to war.
As the two officers knelt at the altar
rail where they had so often bowed
before, little did they think that
the two companies of volunteers
which they were leading away
from Plymouth to the defense of
Roanoke Island, and for whom they
prayed for God’s richest blessings
to attend, would spend long
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