Phelps Family History From England to America
In 1750, the Maryland Assembly voted funds to enlarge and repair Christ Episcopal Church of Wayside, Maryland, under the direction of its rector, The Rev. Samuel Clagett. Forty years later this name was to make ecclesiastical history when his son, Thomas John Clagett, became the first bishop of Maryland.
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| Thomas John Claggett, first Episcopal Bishop of Maryland and the first consecrated in the United States. | ||
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According to Richard Feller and Marshall Fishwic, the Right Reverend Thomas J. Claggett, who became Maryland’s first bishop in 1792, saw the need for an Episcopal church in Washington. While presiding over his diocesan convention in 1793, Bishop Claggett appointed a committee to study the idea.
Another strong advocate for a cathedral was Joseph Nourse, Washington’s First Registrar of the Treasury. Nourse did not want the cathedral in downtown Washington, but on the hill overlooking the city – Mt. Alban.
Thomas John Claggett, the first to use the double "g" in spelling his family's name, was born in October, 1743, near Nottingham in Prince George's County. (The Rev. Claggett is the author's 4th Great Grand Uncle.) He graduated from Princeton University in 1764. In 1792, at Trinity Church in New York City, he became the first Episcopal bishop of Maryland and was the first bishop of that faith consecrated in America.
Thomas John Claggett, was rector of St. Paul's Parish, Baden and Aquasco.
Bishop Claggett later served as the first rector of Trinity Church, Upper
Marlboro.
Bishop Claggett was appointed the third Chaplain of the United States Senate in 1800 and, in 1810, he founded Trinity Episcopal Church in Upper Marlboro.
He died at his home near Croom in August 1816. In 1898, Bishop Claggett was re-intered at the National Cathedral. A memorial marker was erected on the grounds of his home church, St. Thomas, Croom, in 1932. A wood carving of the consecration of Bishop Clagett may be seen on the Bishop's Stall in the Washington Cathedral.
His epitaph, in Latin, was penned by his very dear friend and fellow churchman, Francis Scott Key, the author of the "Star Spangled Banner."
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Thomas Joannes Claggett, D. D. Ordinatus Diaconus et Presbyter Et Episcopus Consecratus Decessit in place Christi |
Thomas John Claggett, D.D. Ordained Deacon of the Episopal Church And Consecrated Episcopal Went to be with Christ |
When the Civil War came, Bishop Clagget’s grandson, the Reverend John H. Chew, became rector of Saint Alban’s. Most of the congregation was made up of uniformed soldiers, and tents surrounded the church, given that many army units would stop there when passing through Washington. In 1865, when President Abraham Lincoln was killed, Saint Alban’s, like all other churches in Washington, held a memorial service.
