The History of the American Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Paris (1815-1980)

Copyright © 2012 Cameron Allen

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Table of Contents

Introduction

1: Religious Ministrations to American Episcopalians in Paris

2: The Gathering of the American Episcopal Church Congregation in Paris

3: The Formal Organization of the American Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity in Paris; the Rectorate of Mr. Lamson; the First Church Building in the rue Bayard

4: Early Years of the Rectorate of John Brainard Morgan

5: The Projection and Completion of the Present Church

6: The Holy Trinity Physical Plant (1886)

7: Music at Holy Trinity during the Morgan Rectorate

8: Mr. Morgan’s Rectorate After the Occupation of the New Church

9: Ministrations to Students in Paris during the Morgan Rectorate: St. Luke’s Chapel and Holy Trinity Lodge

10: The Congregation of Holy Trinity under the Rectorate of Mr. Morgan

11: The Rectorate of Samuel Newell Watson

12: The Rectorate and Deanship of Frederick W. Beekman Down to the Outbreak of World War Two: The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression

13: Holy Trinity Becomes a Cathedral

14: Student Ministrations in Paris Post-World War One: St. Luke’s Reborn; the United States Students’ and Artists’ Club:

15: Holy Trinity During World War Two: The Deutsche Evangelische Wehrmachtkirche

16: The Beekman Deanship Following World War II; The Final Years of St. Luke’s Chapel

17: The Post-World War Two Boom at Holy Trinity under the Deanship of Sturgis Riddle

18: The Deanship of Robert G. Oliver: Participatory Democracy Comes of Age at Holy Trinity

Introduction

T HIS WORK WAS an outgrowth of a sabbatical year (from Rutgers University), spent in Paris, 1982-1983. After several weeks’ attendance at Holy Trinity, I approached the resident Dean, the Very Rev. James R. Leo, and asked whether I might consult the parish registers. I indicated that I had for many years been interested in genealogy, and that I knew numerous marriages had occurred at Holy Trinity between American heiresses and titled Europeans, hence my interest. Dean Leo said I should make an appointment with his secretary. I am sure that Dean Leo thought I would be in on a Tuesday at 10:15 a.m. and out by 11:30 at the latest. Finally, however, after my several weeks of note-taking, the Dean, ever observant, said to me, You know, we’ve never had a history of this congregation written, and I think that you might be the person who would undertake it. I immediately thought: What an interesting project that would be, and it would satisfy the sabbatical expectation of some finished written product. Thus, I spent significant portions of that year, reading through vestry minutes and parish newsletters, busily making notes, and explored the holdings of the Bibliotheque National in Paris and Versailles for English and American periodicals and newspapers published in Paris that would contain items of interest. I contacted the places of Church of England worship in Paris for such material as they might possess, and the Church of Scotland congregation which became successor in title to the original American Episcopal Church property in Paris. These notes I then took back to the States, spent some time at great libraries in New York City (Columbia University), in Washington, D.C. (the Library of Congress) and Palo Alto, Calif. (Stanford University) from which I made further notes. I typed up a preliminary history from all these notes. I then made a return trip to Paris in 1985 to catch up some loose ends and had the memorable experience of staying several nights in the little apartment in the Cathedral tower. How extremely thoughtful of Dean Leo to provide this in house experience for me! The rest of my stay I spent in my former small hotel on the Rive Gauche, and had my hair trimmed by my former barber, who not only remembered me but welcomed me back with enthusiasm. (Tips are remembered and appreciated!)

Not to get too far ahead in my story, the genealogical notes which I had taken at Holy Trinity were published some ten years later, with the permission of the vestry as:

Marriages in the American Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity [the American Pro Cathedral], Paris, 1858-1910, 127 New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, pp. 7-11 (Jan 1996), pp. 89-91 (April 1996), and pp. 165-169 (July 1996)

The remainder of my notes (the history portion) was worked into an 837 page transcript. I retained one copy of this myself; another was sent to the Cathedral in Paris for such uses as it might serve there. Over time, the Cathedral has made additional photocopies. Some of these copies have been consulted by interested persons outside the congregation, and have been cited and quoted a number of times. Indeed, by consulting the Internet and googling key terms, it is impossible to escape the conclusion that this history has taken on an independent bibliographic existence, despite the fact that it has not been truly published in the traditional sense. It is for this reason that I have decided to self-publish the manuscript covering just the period of the parish/cathedral’s history down to 1980. That way, I am playing fair with those who have consulted and quoted the original typescript. The incorporation of a truncated version of this typescript after vigorous editing (which is clearly desirable) into a true sesquicentennial history covering 1858/9-2008/9 awaits other hands and minds.

Meanwhile, the reader is deprived of an account of the very productive deanships of the following:

The Very Rev. James Richard Leo, 1980-1992. His own account of his deanship as a portion of his total priesthood is contained in his eminently readable Exits and Entrances: (Xlibris Corp., 2008).

The Very Rev. Ernest E. Hunt, III, 1992-2003

The Very Rev. Zachary William Maddrey Fleetwood 2003- 2011

In the preparation of a work of this sort, one necessarily contracts many extended obligations it would be rude and thoughtless to ignore in silence. First in time was the suggestion made by Dean Leo that I work on a history of this magnificent parish and his encouragement therein. But perhaps it is foremost that it is largely at the insistence of my brother Spencer Allen and his dear wife Rhoda of Columbus, Ohio, that this work is awakened from its slumber of over 25 years and made more widely available. Spence correctly divined that, unless he intervened, my history would pass from slumber to oblivion. Thus, I was prodded awake at a period when my energies were flagging. But that is not all: Spencer became fascinated by some of the mists revealed in the life of its founding rector, the Rev. William O. Lamson, and undertook a vigorous search to fill in the gaps that I had left. All of the work involved in the search for his sons and their fate, and the sad spiraling down of W. O. Lamson’s twilight years, are a direct result of Spencer’s investigation. Spencer left no stone unturned in the (ultimately successful) effort to locate a picture of that first rector. Spencer and Rhoda’s niece, Joyce Santos, of Flemington, N.J., expended prodigious and talented effort to produce a worthy copy of the gradually expanding work and its graphics, sandwiched in between her vocationally mandated trips to Japan and Latin America. (When you want to have something done well, give it to a busy person!) Spencer befriended Dr. Aija Bjornson of Hamma Library, Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Bexley, Ohio, who contacted Pastor Damrath’s daughter, Maria Luise Damrath in Germany, and translated into English Maria Luise’s account of her father’s life. Thank you for all your effort and expertise, Dr. Bjornson, and for becoming so personally interested in the unfolding Damrath story. Maria Luise Damrath and Pastor Damrath’s son, Friedrich, supplied several pictures of Pastor Damrath and his high-ranking military associates. We are also indebted to Wayne Kempton, historiographer of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, for his tireless search for a number of documents which add substantially to what we know of W. O. Lamson’s life. Thanks are also extended to the Rev. Canon Dr. Clement William Welsh, formerly Canon Theologian at SS. Peter and Paul (the National) Cathedral, Washington, D.C., and after retirement interim rector of St. James’ Church in Florence, Italy, where he produced his history, St. James Church: A History of The American Church in Florence (edited by Horace W. Gibson, Jr.), (Florence, Xenion, 2008). That work resolved the puzzle of W.O. Lamson’s exact time spent in Florence and his precise involvement at the Florence parish. The author is grateful as well to Frances Bommart and Nancy Webster of the Archives Committee of the Cathedral, Paris, for much correspondence and assistance, arising out of their interest in the history; and to Kate Thweatt, former Junior Warden of the Cathedral, for her steady interest and involvement.

This book is dedicated to The Very Reverend James R. Leo. For additional information about the author or the American Cathedral please go to http.//www.facebook.com/Paris Cathedral

1:

Religious Ministrations to American Episcopalians in Paris

Prior to the Organization of Holy Trinity

A MERICAN COLONIALS WITH European residence are almost invariably thought of in relation to England the Mother Country. The number of Americans in Paris during the colonial period must have been few; with the American Revolution that began to change markedly. During the colonial period any Americans in Paris of Anglican affiliation were served as would be any other Englishmen by the British Embassy chaplaincies. A brief sketch of these Anglican ministrations in Paris has traced their origin to the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to such a notable Ambassador’s Chaplain as Richard Hakluyt, active in Paris from 1583-1588, later to achieve an enduring niche in history as the earliest serious student of English navigational history. With the English Civil War and its aftermath, the Interregnum, Anglicans lost their Embassy connection, and were served as the Anglican members of Queen Henrietta Maria’s refugee Roman Catholic household by the celebrated John Cosin, later to be Bishop of Durham and one of the principal authors of the 1662 English Prayer Book revision. With the restoration of the Crown, the Ambassador’s Chaplain once again was able to minister officially to Anglicans in Paris; the most illustrious of these Paris chaplains during this period was William Wake (1682-1685), later to be Archbishop of Canterbury. ¹

With the American Revolution, the number of Americans in Paris increased substantially, understandably attracted to America’s chief bulwark against the British Crown, England being abandoned now as spiritual mother by independence-oriented Americans and left to Loyalist Americans. But with this increase of Americans in Paris during both the American Revolution and the Second War for Independence (the War of 1812), American Anglicans cannot have relied upon British Embassy ministrations. Finally with the end of the War of 1812 and the second expulsion of Napoleon from France, swarms of both English and Americans began arriving in Paris. The British Embassy clearly could not be expected to minister other than passively to these very numerous Anglicans.

The much more numerous English began to search for other solutions to the problem of adequate Anglican worship. In 1824 the Rev. Lewis Way opened his chapel just off the Champs Elysées, the ancestor of what is now St. George’s Anglican Church. This was a proprietary chapel, located at 78, rue de Chaillot and later on the Avenue Marboeuf, and was described several decades later as follows:

The church, if such it could be called, was situated at the bottom of the Avenue Marboeuf, a side-street off the Champs Elysées, of which now scarcely any trace is left. … It was of the plainest possible description. Save for altar-rails, holy table, reading-desk, and pulpit, it might have been a concert-room. There were no pews or chairs, but seats more like bancs, covered with velveteen throughout. There was an extremely small vestry, and hard by a cow-stable, of which, on hot summer days, we were unmistakably made aware. In fact, when we most wanted ventilation we could not open the windows because of this odorous stable. The approach to the chapel was bad. The street was paved with rough stones, and there was no side pavement. Anything was thought well enough in these days for l’Église Anglicane. There was a huge skylight, on which we mostly depended for light.²

This clerical witness went on to recount:

One had eccentric people to deal with. … I remember Lady C. sitting in front of the reading-desk. The sun shone in brightly during the saying of the Creed. She slowly opened a flaring red parasol, and held it over her head while reciting her faith. As we did not turn to the east, we were in full view of each other. I paused, and she, taking the broad hint, feeling probably that she had erred, by a curious coincidence closed her parasol at the clause I believe in the forgiveness of sins.³

Mr. Way was succeeded for some twenty five years (c. 1830-1856) by the Rev. Robert Lovett, chaplain to the Right Hon. the Earl of Rosse.

Even prior to the 1824 opening of the Marboeuf Chapel, another Anglican clergyman had arrived in Paris in the year 1822, the Rev. Matthew Henry Thornhill Luscombe, intent upon ministering to Anglicans there. He was appalled by the laxity he found prevalent among these expatriate Anglicans, and gradually decided that he wished to receive authority to form a visible Church of England among our countrymen on the Continent, to administer the rite of confirmation … His extensive negotiations in the matter led ultimately to his consecration as a Bishop on 20 March 1825 at Stirling, Scotland, by four Episcopal Church of Scotland bishops: the Primus of that Church, and the Bishops of Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Ross and Argyll. This Scottish consecration occurred with the collusion of the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose own power to participate in such an unusual consecration was circumscribed. The new Bishop Luscombe returned to Paris to become the Bishop of London’s special Commissary and subsequently in 1828 to receive a crown appointment as British Embassy Chaplain in Paris. Finding the Embassy dining room entirely inadequate to serve the hordes of English in Paris, he determined by 1827 that a regular church building was urgently needed. Initially he thought the building might be built either by public subscription or with the aid of the English government.⁴ Neither plan proved feasible, and, thwarted thereby, in 1833 he purchased out of his own pocket a lot on the rue d’Aguesseau for 15,000 francs.⁵ Thereon he speedily began construction of a church, expending his own money in this endeavor. He stated that He relied on the English Public for repayment of the sums expended.⁶ This hope never materialized. A public subscription of some 5,145 francs in Paris and of some £ 68 in London did pay for an organ for Bishop Luscombe’s proprietary chapel.⁷ The new church building (the predecessor in history and location of St. Michael’s Anglican Church) was belatedly opened (thanks to a Paris carpenters’ strike) on 23 March 1834 and was declared capable of seating 800 worshippers.⁸ On Bishop Luscombe’s death in 1846, this proprietary chapel was sold by his estate to another Anglican clergyman, the Rev. William Chamier who continued to operate the building and minister to its congregation until his retirement in 1857.

Thus by 1834 American Episcopalians had these three centers of Anglican worship available to them: the British Embassy dining room, the Marboeuf Chapel (the future St. George’s), and Bishop Luscombe’s chapel on the rue d’Aguesseau (the future St. Michael’s). But still other Anglican services were becoming available in this era: English Episcopal services were being conducted in the French Reformed Church of the Oratoire (probably as a temporary supplement to Embassy services, or as a predecessor to Mr. Sayers’ services.) By 20 April 1834 still another English Chapel (Anglican, but extremely evangelical) was established at No. 30, rue Neuve St. Augustin, by the Rev. Thomas Sayers, M.A.⁹ By 18 October 1835 this was moved to No. 7, rue des Capucines.¹⁰ Bishop Luscombe was apparently an old-fashioned High Churchman, and took issue with the Rev. Mr. Sayers’ plans for a chapel.¹¹ The evangelical Anglican chapel continued, however, as late as 1840.¹² By that time the Rev. F. B. Gourrier was advertising Church of England services once again at the Oratoire in the morning and at his residence, 8, rue de Marche d’Aguesseau, in the afternoon. By 1847 there were Church of England services at a French Reformed Church at the Batignolles.

There is regularly recurring evidence that Americans were being ministered to at Marboeuf, at the Embassy, at the rue d’Aguesseau, and at the Oratoire. There is record of a meeting between American Bishop Hobart and the newly consecrated Bishop Luscombe in Paris in 1825, at which time it was assumed that Bishop Luscombe would oversee ministrations to American Anglicans.¹³ It is known that James Fenimore Cooper and his family attended the services conducted by Bishop Luscombe at the Oratoire. Further, Cooper stated: I called on the Bishop, here, in order that the family might have the benefit of his office. He has confirmed the two eldest of the girls. (This was prior to 16 June 1831.). Two years thereafter, in preparing to leave Europe, Cooper wrote Bishop Luscombe:

I am joined by Mrs. Cooper in saying adieu to you all, with the best wishes for the future. We particularly desire to thank you for your official and pastoral kindnesses, and the girls, who are partly your own work in a very important part of their Christian characters, desire to be included in this part of the message.¹⁴

Eventually American Episcopalians in Paris for a period of some years were enabled to cease reliance on the Anglican services organized by the British and to hear once again the language of the American Prayer Book. This came about through the largesse of a wealthy American citizen, Colonel Herman Thorn. Colonel Thorn came from a family Loyalist through the American Revolution, whose fortune went into eclipse as a consequence of that loyalty to the British crown. Born in the Hudson Valley north of New York City in 1783, Colonel Thorn was able to mend that fortune very handsomely by a marriage in 1810 in New York City to Jane Mary Jauncey, the heiress of a wealthy bachelor uncle, William Jauncey, of French Huguenot descent. The young couple proceeded forthwith to begin a family which ultimately numbered fourteen children, residing in the household of Uncle William at 24 Broadway, New York City. As a consequence of the probate of Uncle William’s will in 1828, Colonel Thorn became one of the wealthiest New Yorkers.¹⁵ He moved his family the following year (1829/1830 New York City Directory) to Bloomingdale, but apparently in midyear 1830 the entire family went to reside in Europe. The first definite word on his European residence occurs in the journal of James Fenimore Cooper. Under date of 19 September 1830 he described the presentation of several Americans to the reigning French monarch:

In the evening at 7 o’clock Gen. LaFayette came for me, in his carriage. We drove to la rue de Rivoli, and took up Mr. McLane & Mr. Thorne. We then went to the Palais Royal to be presented. So little ceremony was used, that LaFayette, who had previously made his arrangements with the other gentlemen, first proposed the presentation to me at 2 o’clock.¹⁶

In the following year Herman Thorn encountered a major family problem when his second daughter ran away from home in the company of a young Frenchman. Mrs. Susanna (DeLancey) Cooper, J. Fenimore Cooper’s wife, wrote her sister, 19 October 1831:

We heard that the Thorn family were in the deepest affliction, from a blow worse than death… their second daughter, Mary, a beautiful creature of about fifteen, had run off with a young Frenchman - it seems that the young man had visited in the family for the last six months, and within a month or six weeks had made an offer for Mary - which her Father refused, on finding out that he was of a profligate character - and on his repeating it, had forbidden him the house - a Governess … encouraged him to proceed, and through her, they kept up a correspondence, which terminated in, Mary’s quitting her father’s house, between nine and ten at night, ten days ago, since when they know nothing of her…¹⁷

Eventually Mary returned home, and the young man, Camille de Varaigne du Bourg, was arrested. At this point, the Vicomte Charles Emmanuel Henri Dambray contacted James Fenimore Cooper who, as an old friend of Thorn, had taken an interest in the matter. On 3 December 1831, Cooper wrote Dambray:

I have fully explained myself, to the Messrs de (Varaigne), on the points that I think essential to the gentleman now in arrest… For my own part, Sir, I have no farther interest in this unhappy transaction than that which is connected with concern for the misfortunes of a countryman and an old brother Officer. I could wish to see strict justice done to all parties, but I have seen enough of the facts to know that it is not easy to decide what shall be just or otherwise. It is my opinion that Mr. Thorn will not consent to a marriage, and I believe, that, in this opinion, he is supported by most of his American friends. I cannot yet say what his final decision in regard to the prosecution is. If the character of Young M. de Varaigne is what you appear to think it, I shall be sorry to find that he is to be the victim of a passion that tyrannizes over most of us, in youth. ¹⁸

At some later point of time, Thorn apparently reconciled himself to the young couple’s determination, and Camille ended as one of his sons-in-law.

Herman Thorn next attracted the gaze of the redoubtable Mrs. Trollope who refers to him in early 1835:

The Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of Passion-week are yearly set apart by the Parisians for a splendid promenade in carriages, on horseback, and on foot, to a part of the Bois de Boulogne called Longchamps. When the beau monde of Paris first adopted the practice of repairing to Longchamps during these days of penitence and prayer, a convent stood there, whose nuns were celebrated for performing the solemn services appointed for the season with peculiar piety and effect. … . The convent was destroyed at the revolution but the horses and carriages of Paris still continue to move for evermore in the same direction when the last three days of Lent arrive.

Going to Longchamps … The only individual, however, except the Duke of Orleans, who had two carriages on the ground, two feathered chasseurs, and twice two pair of richly-harnessed steeds, was a certain Mr. Thorn, an American merchant, whose vast wealth and still more vast expenditure, are creating considerable consternation among his sober-minded countrymen in Paris. We were told that the exuberance of this gentleman’s transatlantic taste was such, and such was the vivacity of his inventive fancy, that during the three days of the Longchamps promenade he appeared on the ground each day with different liveries, having, as it should seem, no particular family reasons for preferring one set of colors to another.¹⁹

Soon this item appeared in the English-language Paris newspaper, Galignani’s Messenger, Friday, 16 October 1835:

Married - Yesterday, 15th inst., at the hotel of the Consul-General of the United States, Louis Augustus DePau of New York (Marquis de Grasse), to Miss Angelina Jauncey Thorn, daughter of Colonel Herman Thorn, of the United States. - Colonel Thorn has rented for some years the sumptuous Hôtel Monaco, in the rue de Varennes, belonging to S.A.R. Madame Adelaide, and on the return of the bride from a short tour in England, she will take up her residence in the Faubourg St. Germain, with her distinguished family. ²⁰

The elopement of his second daughter Mary with the young Camille deVaraigne, followed now by the marriage of his eldest daughter Angelina civilly, may have prompted Colonel Thorn to examine his conscience on the religious welfare of his family, for very soon after this marriage; the following notice appeared in Galignani’s Messenger, Saturday, 26 December 1835:

American Episcopal Chapel, Hôtel Monaca (Sic), no. 23, rue de Varennes, at quarter past 11.²¹

This notice, or one very similarly worded, appeared thereafter in virtually every Saturday edition of Galignani’s Messenger from that date through Saturday 6 November 1841, with some gaps (e.g., April 20, 1839 through December 1839), in the column headed Strangers’ Diary. Never is Colonel Thorn’s name mentioned in these notices, but it clearly was his home, the Hôtel Monaco, as the wedding announcement makes clear. What Colonel Thorn was doing in this period was appointing a British clergyman to serve as chaplain to his family and then very generously making his home and his clergyman available on Sunday mornings to conduct services for any Americans in Paris whose religious proclivities made that prospect attractive. There is no record available, apparently, as to the identity of this British clergyman or of these clergymen, nor of their services and ecclesiastical acts (baptisms, marriages, burials). A chaplain may have served the family prior to the invitation thus regularly published, of course.

A published statement that Colonel Thorn resided in the Hôtel Matignon on the rue de Varenne and that these American Episcopal services were conducted there requires some further reflection and refutation.²² The assumption that Colonel Thorn leased the Hôtel Matignon as his residence seems to have arisen from the fact that both the Hôtel Monaco and the Hôtel Matignon (which were nearly adjacent) were residences of Talleyrand and that both were owned by S.A.R. Madame Adélaïde, sister of King Louis-Philippe. However, all contemporary references to Colonel Thorn’s residence make it clear that it was the Hôtel Monaco. The Hôtel Monaco was located, according to the notices, at 23, rue de Varenne(s). It should not be assumed that this is the present-day number 23, for up until the year 1850 the portion of the modern rue de Varenne which includes the number 23 was separately named the rue de la Planche. When the identity of this street was merged into the rue de Varenne which continues it, it was necessary to renumber all the buildings on the anciently named rue de Varenne. A modern work of reference identifies old number 23 rue de Varenne as the current no. 53 rue de Varenne.²³ A superficial observation of the building currently at no. 53, rue de Varenne, would indicate that it is a more modern replacement for whatever building formerly existed at no. 53 in Colonel Thorn’s era. Contemporary maps dating from 1775, 1812, and 1821 show the outline of the Hôtel Monaco. The Hôtel Matignon continues to exist at 57 rue de Varenne.

Aside from the regular references to the Hôtel Monaco in Galignani’s Messenger, 1835-1841, at least three published accounts give us a glimpse of this hotel particular as Colonel Thorn’s residence. Strangely enough, all three accounts date from early in 1838: Young Charles Sumner, later to be the prominent liberal U.S. Senator, in his journal under date of 11 March 1838 (he lived at Paris from January through May 1838), records:

Saw the review of troops of the line and national guards in front of the Tuileries, and then went to church in the chapel of Colonel Thorn. The Colonel lives so en prince that he has his private chapel and chaplain; and the entire world is at liberty to enjoy them. The room is not larger than a good-sized salon; it is furnished very neatly, with a handsome carpet and chairs, and a pretty desk and pulpit. The American Episcopal service was used; the prayer ran for the ‘President of the United States, the King of the French, and the Queen of England’, in that order. ²⁴

Just two months later the visitors included a honeymooning American couple, Frederic and Charlotte (Brinckerhoff) Bronson. Young Mrs. Bronson already had recorded seeing (29 April 1838) in the Bois de Boulogne:

Mr. Thorn and his daughter in a very splendid carriage with a gay livery with outriders in uniform, Mrs. Thorn and another daughter in another splendid equipage, and Mr. and Mrs. Janeway (sic, should be Jauncey) Thorn in another as splendid. ²⁵

Two weeks later, Sunday May 13th, 1838, she wrote her mother:

Went this morning at 12 to Mr. Thom’s (sic, i.e., Thorn’s) chapel. Drove into the space in front of the house which is an old looking building, but is quite extensive. A valet opened the church door, and we were obliged to walk in the faces of the persons assembled and take our seats. The great chapel consists of a room as large as our parlor, carpeted, and about 60 chairs covered with brown linen placed in rows. Mr. Thom’s (Thorn’s) family sat on the sofa. There is a little brass railing which encloses the pulpit and reading desk which are side by side; these are covered with crimson and gold. There is over Mr. Thom’s (i.e., Thorn’s) desk an opening with an iron railing which forms a sort of organ loft, where there is a small organ and two or three singers. We heard a very good sermon. I felt at first a little awkward, as I was apprehensive that only those went who were acquainted with the family, but Mr. Welles afterwards told me that he had advertised in the public prints that it was open to all Americans. After leaving the church, we drove through the Champs Elysées… ²⁶

A much worldlier picture of the Hôtel Monaco, with no reference to the chapel, is painted by the soon-to-be celebrated American actress, Anna Cora (Ogden) Mowatt. The granddaughter of an Anglican clergyman in New Jersey, she was herself born at Bordeaux, where her father was engaged in the wine export business. She and her husband James Mowatt visited Paris from America early in 1838; her memoirs include the following description of a Pre-Lenten Carnival ball in 1838:

Given by the American millionaire, Colonel T–-n (i.e., Thorn) of all the magnificent entertainments which Paris has this season witnessed, the bal costumé, given at the residence of Colonel T–n, on the second night of the carnival, for splendor and concentrated variety of amusements, bears away the palm.

Long before the palace-like mansion of Colonel T–n could be reached, the interminable line of equipages, with their coronets and coats of arms, the liveried coachmen in front, and fancifully-dressed chasseurs behind, announced what guests would grace his entertainment. On approaching the hotel, some fifty gendarmes, well mounted, guarded the brilliantly-illumined and spacious court yard, while the canopied porch and whole front of the mansion were thronged by the attendant domestics of the visitors. Alighting, you are received by some twenty footmen, and ushered into an antechamber, the centre of which is occupied by the present, fashionable ornament, a handsome billiard table. Passing through this apartment, you are loudly announced at the door of the reception room, where the ever-graceful and affable hostess stands, whose very smile makes welcome, and whose courteous greeting sheds ease on all around.

Twelve gorgeous saloons were thrown open. Where the uncouth door once had been, costly drapery was suspended, tastefully gathered in folds or festoons; the carpets of velvet, the divans, ottomans, and couches were all that could be imagined of luxurious and beautiful. The walls were fluted with gold or rich silks, and hung with the works of the first masters; the ceilings painted in a thousand devices. One apartment raised above the others overlooked the ball room, and was lined with a row of draperied arches, from which the dancers were viewed to the greatest advantage, their light forms reflected in the bright mirrors opposite, which covered one entire side of the dancing apartment. The thousand lights shed a flood of brilliancy which would almost have eclipsed sunshine; and the sparkling of diamonds and many-colored gems threw a luster around almost painfully dazzling.

And the varied, the charming, the voluptuously beautiful costumes!.. It would have employed the eyes of Argus to have scanned them all. Soon as the midnight hour arrived, the swell of music stole upon the ear from the exquisite band of fifty musicians, and a general rush was made to the ball room, until then unopened. A large circle drawn in the centre of the apartment was the magic boundary not to be passed; but the throng around it was inconceivably dense until the sound of horses’ feet was heard; when all with one accord drew back as four fairy steeds, mounted by Cinderella postillions, drawing a Queen Mab chariot of crimson velvet, with golden wheels, flew twice around the ring. A pair of lovely shepherdesses, placing their flower-wreathed crooks upon the ground, sprang lightly from the chariot and, as the car and its outriders disappeared, moved gracefully round in a fanciful pas de deux, amidst the noisy plaudits of admiring spectators. The guests elevated themselves on sofas and couches, sometimes three or four crowding together on the small and delicately-shaped chairs, at the imminent risk of losing their balance; while a host of crushed unfortunates on tiptoe behind, clinging to those raised by chance (as so often happens in the world) above them, made extremely perilous the position of both parties; thus adding much to the excitement, and, according to the rule that Pleasure is enriched by sharing with her sister Pain, to the enjoyment, of the scene. …

When dancing had tired the unwilling feet of many an enraptured fair one, the droll queries of a strolling manager, and pertinently stupid answers of his clown, forming a set enigmas or charades, gratefully varied the diversions. A handsome supper table, filled with confectionery, was accessible the whole evening; and a little past midnight the rich curtains which concealed a spacious apartment were thrown back, disclosing the most sumptuous banqueting board, spread with every delicacy that could gratify the palate or satisfy the appetite; heavy with the service of gold, bright with the dazzling radiance of costly candelabras, and the mellow light of moonlight lamps, which lined the gilded walls, rich with such ornaments as the genius of Paris alone could execute. The table itself was so spacious and long, that, reflected in the large mirror at its foot, the eye refused to reach its farther end. When graced on either side by ‘fair women’, who seemed to have been gathered from every land, lovely relics of every age, relieved by the background of ‘brave men,’ like the setting to jewels, what more splendid sight could be imagined?

The morning had far advanced before the courteous host and hostess found their banquet hall deserted, It proved, indeed, -

‘No sleep till morn, when youth and pleasures meet to chase the glowing hours with flying feet.’

But a gayer festival, with more agreements and less alloy to the general enjoyment, may seldom again be witnessed.

The cost of this ball is currently estimated at eight thousand dollars. … ²⁷

Mrs. Mowatt’s spell-bound description was corroborated by Charles Sumner in the following year, in a letter dated from Paris on 15 April 1839 to his friend George S. Hillard of Boston. Interesting to observe parenthetically is the juxtaposition of Charles Sumner as a dedicated professional democrat with his innate proclivity to have no time for anyone who was not important in society:

And then, society has spread its nets. I have found invitations where I did not wish them. Lord Granville has been very kind to me. Thorn’s balls are truly brilliant, and his house is one of the finest I have ever seen. People with titles beg for invitations there. Before the last ball, Lord Brougham, who was in Paris, and of whom I have seen much, wrote me a note, - which I send you for an autograph, - asking me to get him an invitation!²⁸

Even several years prior to the lavish and costly balls described above, there were rumors of Thorn’s overextension of himself in this social whirl; James Fenimore Cooper, who had been back in North America for three years by then, reported to his wife Sue by letter:

(Henry) Brevoort tells me (Herman) Thorn’s affairs are in bad order. He wants money and is vexed with more law-suits. He prophecies that five years will wind him up, but I should think it cannot be as bad as that –²⁹

At any rate, after spending the period 1830-1845/46 living in Paris, Colonel Thorn returned to New York City with his remaining family, where he lived briefly in 1846 at New Brighton, Staten Island, and then reappeared in the New York City Directory for 1846/47 at 15 Laight Street, and 1849-1859 at 8 West 16th Street. It was this residence that his old friend James Fenimore Cooper described under date of 9 March 1850:

Yesterday, I dined with (Herman) Thorn. All very glad to see me - Angelina, Mrs. Thorn, two young daughters and Jim Morris - Mrs. Hamilton’s sisters. I give you a plan of the house. Architecture noble - ceilings 18 feet - everything plain, but grand, altogether the finest house I have seen in this country -

The dinner was a French service, on a French table. Everything excellent, and on a great scale. Two footmen, neither in livery, but both in white gloves. Service quiet and dinner excellent.³⁰

Thus, somehow Colonel Thorn had survived in yet good style his prodigal expenditures in Paris and some unpleasant lawsuits among the family over Uncle William Jauncey’s will, which have been summarized as follows:

The Thorn-Jauncey dispute concerned money inherited by the Thorn family from Mrs. Thorn’s father (sic; should be uncle), the enormously wealthy William Jauncey. By officially changing their surnames from Thorn to Jauncey, the two elder sons of Herman Thorn - William and James - qualified in 1829 for large inherited estates from their grandfather. William died intestate and single, in 1830 from a fall from his horse; and James died in the mid-1840’s, leaving a widow and three children. ³¹

James Fenimore Cooper wrote his wife Sue of the outcome of one of the suits; on 1 April 1848:

(Herman) Thorn has just lost a suit with Mr. Jauncey. I believe he thought of setting up the defense that the children were not his sons, but was persuaded not to do it. Mrs. Thorn, however, talked very strongly against her daughter-in-law, who has now got $3,500 per annum, for herself and children. The other son-in-law de Ferussac, has also prevailed against his papa, and the whole family is broken up. Thorn himself is eyed jealously, and has more suits depending with Jauncey’s heirs.³²

Thorn had left much of his family behind in Europe, his daughter Angelina having married Louis Augustus DePau, as noted; his daughter Mary Jauncey Thorn having eloped with and then married the Baron Camille de Varaigne du Bourg, his daughter Jane having married in 1842 in the Church of Saint-Roch the Baron Stephane dePierres, his daughter Alice having married in 1845 in the Church of Sainte-Clotilde the Comte Amedee d’Audebard de Ferussac, his son James Jauncey Thorn in 1834 the Baroness Therese von Leykam, sister-in-law of Metternich, and his son Alfred in 1847 Clotilde Barrili, half-sister of Mme. Patti.³³ Daughter Jane was regarded as a notable beauty, and became a lady-in waiting to the Empress Eugénie. She appears in one of Winterhalter’s group portraits of the court, Les Dames du Palais sitting at Eugénie’s feet.³⁴ A reference to Jane, twenty-five years after her marriage, is given by another notable beauty who appears in Holy Trinity’s history, Mrs. Lillie Moulton, admired both by Dr. Evans and by Napoleon III, in August 1866:

We were invited to go out to Fontainebleau. On reaching the palace we were met by the Vicomte Walsh, who led the way to the apartment of the Baroness de Pierres one of the dame’s d’honneur of the Empress (an American lady, formerly Miss Thorne of New York) who was expecting us. You may imagine my astonishment at seeing her smoking - What do you think? Nothing less than a real common clay pipe.³⁵

With the departure of Colonel Thorn from Paris about 1846, if not before, American Episcopal services ceased for a time being offered; American Episcopalians were constrained to return to British Anglican services on the Avenue Marboeuf or on the rue d’Aguesseau. It is stated that at his departure Colonel Thorn presented his stock of American Books of Common Prayer to the Chapel Marboeuf.³⁶ There is some slight evidence that Americans tended to be more involved in the religious activities at the Chapel Marboeuf than at the rue d’Aguesseau counterpart, the British Embassy Chapel.

Yet another Anglican bishop, the Rt. Rev. George Trevor Spencer, appeared in this era on the Paris scene. Bishop Spencer had served as the second Bishop of Madras in India from 1837-1849, from which country he returned invalided.³⁷

By 1856 Bishop Spencer had had the offer of the Marboeuf Chapel. Since he found he could only spend three months a year in Paris, he sought a chaplain to undertake the major work, and appointed to that post the Rev. Francis Pigou. That young clergyman served the Marboeuf Chapel from 1856 to 1858, the period immediately preceding the organization of the American Episcopal congregation, and recorded the presence of a number of prominent local Americans in his congregation:

I cannot speak too gratefully of the kindness I used to receive at the hands of Americans. I had the privilege of the friendship of Mr. Mason, the representative of the United States, who kept a place daily for me at his dinner-table, with that general invitation of which I often availed myself. I used to meet there the crême de la crême of American society. How charming and intelligent are the educated American women! Mr. Mason was a large slave-owner, and rarely lost an opportunity of assuring me that under a kind master, slaves were often better off than many servants under inconsiderate masters and mistresses. I hold also in grateful memory Mr. L. Aspinwall, a name familiar as a household word in the United States, and a constant attendant at Marboeuf….³⁸

The American Minister, John Y. Mason, above, was one of the first burials in the American Episcopal congregation, October, 1859.³⁹ L. Aspinwall was presumably Lloyd Aspinwall, export merchant, whose brother William Henry Aspinwall achieved greater celebrity.⁴⁰

Of course, if principles of nationality took precedence over principles of religion, American Episcopalians were free to participate in the Evangelical Protestant services in English which were a fairly steady feature of the Paris scene from just after the Fall of Napoleon. One source states that Church of England services in the Oratoire were formally instituted by the Rev. Mr. Bruen in 1817.⁴¹ Another source indicates that It was probably the first regular Evangelical service commenced in the English language in this city.⁴² Sometime later Evangelical services were revived by the Rev. Mark Wilks, a British Congregational clergyman, for the joint benefit of Americans and British of an Evangelical persuasion, the latter of which were advertised, e.g., as at the Chapelle Taitbout, 9 rue Taitbout, by the Rev. Mark Wilks.⁴³ Meanwhile many of the British Evangelicals were being served at an Evangelical service at no. 10, rue du Bouloi.⁴⁴ Also in 1834 the French Association of New York had sponsored the Rev. Flavel S. Mines for a year in Paris, conducting an American Service.:

On the abandonment of this plan, and the return of Mr. Mines the committee resolved to select some suitable person who should make Paris his home for a few years. The committee invited the Rev. Mr. [Robert] Baird to undertake this important and delicate mission. Having accepted the appointment Mr. Baird spent the last two months of the year 1834 and the month of January 1835 in visiting a number of gentlemen in New York, Boston, Albany, and Philadelphia … securing the greater part of the funds necessary for its support during the following three years… He was requested at once upon his arrival in Paris to call upon the most prominent and active Christian gentlemen living in Paris, both Englishmen and Americans. He was to learn what were their feelings respecting the English-American chapel. … Mr. Baird established a regular gathering at his house which was kept up during the entire stay at the French capital from 1835 to 1842, the only interruption of importance that occurred being in 1839 and 1840, whilst Mr. Baird was in America. Every Saturday evening a considerable number of Americans with some English persons met in his parlor.⁴⁵

It is interesting to note that the Rev. Mr. Baird’s residence in Paris almost exactly corresponded (1835-1842) with notices of Colonel Thorn’s chapel. Conceivably it was Mr. Baird’s presence which actuated Colonel Thorn to make his chapel services available to Americans, so that American Episcopalians would not be drawn to Mr. Baird’s evening evangelical services.

An American Service, rue Taitbout … in English, at a quarter past three was listed regularly.⁴⁶ During the course of the year 1840 it became necessary to relocate the Chapelle Taitbout from no. 9, rue Taitbout, to no. 44, rue de Provence.⁴⁷ Chapelle Taitbout afternoon services in English continued to be advertised.⁴⁸

Meanwhile, an American Chapel was being listed at no. 55, rue Sainte-Anne, with service every Sunday morning.⁴⁹ On 22 December 1838 a sermon by the Rev. Mr. Kirk of New York was promised for that location. Regular listings continued for the rue Sainte-Anne.⁵⁰

Marbeuf Chapel. Opened 1824 and served as meeting place for Episcopalians in Paris.

Chapelle Taitbout. Evangelical services for British and Americans 1835 – 1841. American Episcopal service on 8-15-1858.

James Fenimore Cooper. Attended services with his family as early as 1831.

Eglise de l’oratorie. English Episcopal services started 1834. American Episcopal service on 9-12-1858.

Herman Thorn. Provided his private chapel to American Episcopalians using the American Book of Common Prayer 1835 – 1846."

2:

The Gathering of the American Episcopal Church Congregation in Paris

T HE HISTORY OF the two current American church congregations in Paris is so intertwined that the history of one cannot be understood apart from the other. For that reason it is necessary to return to the development of the unified evangelical congregation.

That evangelical American congregation continued to meet in various locations and on a varied schedule. Regular adherents to the enterprise apparently grew restless over the unpredictability of its ongoing character. As early as 1839 the concept of an American evangelical congregation to spearhead the evangelization of France for Protestantism had been bruited about.⁵¹ On Sunday, 10 June 1853 at a little prayer-meeting of Americans at the house of a good lady resident here … it was proposed to make an effort to establish an American Church in Paris.⁵² After further meetings a committee was formed to draw up a circular explaining the object of the subscription which they invited our countrymen to make. The circular was issued in 1855, signed by A. W. Little, Charles S. Wurts, and J. D. B. Curtis, and thus quoted from the then-current American Book of Common Prayer:

It is an acknowledged principle in all branches of the Protestant Church… that in the worship of Almighty God, different forms and usages may be allowed, provided the substance of the faith be kept entire, and, therefore, such forms and usages may be by common consent, altered, abridged, enlarged, or otherwise modified, as may seem most convenient for the edification of the people, according to the various exigencies of times, places, and occasions.⁵³

Obviously as of this date, with this appeal to language employed in the Episcopal Prayer Book, the idea was already being planted of attempting an organization broad enough to gain the adherence of the significant number of American Episcopalians in Paris to a union congregation. Thus funds were solicited from both Episcopalians and non-Episcopalians; the founding pastor, the Rev. Edward Norris Kirk, later stated: To the credit of our Episcopal friends, my largest receipts for this union evangelical enterprise were from members of that body.⁵⁴ Another contemporary witness to extensive Episcopal involvement was:

The Rev. Mr. Field (Presbyterian) [who] thus writes from Paris, after attending services at the American Chapel there:

But that which pleased me most was the aspect of the congregation, which was reverent and devout. Since the chapel was finished the attendance has been quite full, and the congregation is composed of the very best class of American residents in Paris. It was my privilege to be with them two Sabbaths, and I felt it a great happiness, thus far from home, to join in the same prayers and hymns, and to listen to the same sacred words, which I had so often heard in my own happy, Christian land. The service was partly Episcopal in its form. To this some of our sturdy Presbyterian and Congregational brethren in America might object. But such should remember that the majority of the congregation is Episcopalians; that the greater part of the money to build the chapel was given by them; and that the officers of the church are, since in the whole congregation there is not a single Presbyterian elder or a Congregational deacon! Surely it is but just that a proper respect should be paid to the preferences of these excellent brethren. Indeed, I am disposed to consider it a proof of very unusual liberality on their part, that they were willing to meet with those of another communion on equal ground, and so far to yield to the wishes of others as to accept a Congregational pastor, and to consent that the services for half the time should be according to the most strict Puritan simplicity.⁵⁵

We can glean from the extant subscription list to this American Chapel such interesting names as W. H. Aspinwall, friend of the Rev. Francis Pigou at the Marboeuf Anglican Chapel; and Mrs. DePau, Herman Thorn’s daughter. After further negotiation this committee contacted the American and Foreign Christian Union in New York, an 1849 merger of three separate enterprises. In that Union the Rev. Robert Baird, former Protestant clergyman in Paris, was most prominent. By April of 1856 the committee has ascertained the practicability of obtaining a suitable lot of ground in a very desirable part of the city, as a site for the edifice … and the practicability of its being placed permanently under the control of the Board of the American and Foreign Christian Union in New York. On 4. April 1856 the Board met specially to hear and act on the communication of the President of the Association of Americans, A. W. Little, Esq., who had lately arrived in this country from Paris. ⁵⁶

The Board very promptly dispatched a clergyman to Europe, the Rev. S. S. Dickinson, to set the project on its feet. Unfortunately, he died in transit. The Board replaced him by another clergyman with extensive Paris experience, the Rev. Edward Norris Kirk. He sailed for Europe on 21 January 1857 on the Asia.⁵⁷ Mr. Kirk arrived in Paris on 6 February 1857, and prior to Sunday, 8 February 1857, had made arrangements to make use of the Chapelle Taitbout for his inaugural service that day. The Chapelle Taitbout, at 44, rue de Provence, was a free congregation unconnected with the French Reformed Church, and had been shared by its French congregation with American and British evangelicals many years earlier.

It was necessary to continue using the Chapelle Taitbout for the succeeding year because a plan had fallen through to purchase from the Rev. William Chamier, successor to Bishop Luscombe, the temporarily vacant British Embassy Church on the rue d’Aguesseau. By May 1857 the Rev. Mr. Chamier had apparently agreed to sell his privately owned church on the rue d’Aguesseau to some American gentlemen (including Dr. Thomas W. Evans), representing the American Chapel group.⁵⁸ This agreement led to a series of indignation meetings among the British residents at the Meurice Hôtel.⁵⁹ Unsuccessful efforts were made to have Mr. Chamier’s church purchased by the British Government; ultimately the Colonial Church and School Society (later renamed the Colonial and Continental Church Society) stepped in to provide the money to save the rue d’Aguesseau church for the English community. ⁶⁰

At his first service in the Chapelle Taitbout, 8 February 1857, the Rev. Mr. Kirk read a notice which contained the following language:

The desire has long existed to establish the public worship of God in an edifice which the citizens of the United States visiting Paris could regard as their own. The main hindrance to the accomplishing of this important object has been found in our different forms of worship … The American and Foreign Church Union, a society representing the entire evangelical church of the States in its unity, has engaged me to come as their commissioner, and establish a service, and to open as soon as possible a house of worship. … We accordingly ask in all our countrymen, for the exercise of a spirit of conciliation and compromise, so far as the scruples of conscience may permit. With the successful example of our Wesleyan brethren before me, I deemed the proper course to be the employment of the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church in the United States. As long therefore as we cannot assemble in the morning, the Evening Prayers will be used in our service. It should be understood that no person is excluded; the seats are free to all who choose to occupy them. The brethren of the Taitbout Church have generously come to our relief, and have offered us the use of this convenient room every Sunday afternoon at 3 o’clock.⁶¹

On 12, 13 and 14 February 1857 the following advertisement appeared in Galignani’s Messenger of Paris:

The American Church

The Rev. Dr. Kirk, of Boston, has been deputed by churches in the United States to superintend the formation of a church, and to establish public worship for the citizens of America permanently or transiently residing in Paris. Immediate measures will be adopted for securing a chapel. In the meantime, the French Church worshipping in the rue de Provence has kindly offered him the use of their convenient edifice.

Divine Service will therefore be conducted hence forward in the English Language in the Chapel Taitbout, rue de Provence, 54, commencing on Sunday, the 15th inst. (next Sunday), at 3 o’clock p.m.⁶²

The Rev. Dr. Kirk’s undertaking to employ the American Book of Common Prayer in the service immediately engendered uneasiness on ‘the part of numerous of his supporters. One of the most prominent was Jos. D. B. Curtis. On 26 February 1857 Mr. Curtis wrote Dr. Kirk as follows:

The conversation which we had this morning regarding the form of service decided upon for the American church in Paris and which you have so efficiently and acceptably performed thus far, but which has, as I understood from your remarks, caused the illiberal animadversions of certain persons, and causes me to reflect upon the position which I should occupy in case it should ever be changed. I trust that it will not be lost sight of, that the subscriptions were given with the express understanding that the form of service should be after the manner of the Wesleyan chapel in the rue Royale and which you have so well commenced; with that understanding I have paid my subscription to-day, and I should be much obliged to you if you would write me a line as agent of the Am: Christian Union stating that the subscriptions are received with that understanding. Then I should be armed in case those who subscribed, through my solicitation, should ever accuse me of obtaining their money upon erroneous representations - for it was stated to all in the presence of Dr. McClure that the service should be after the Wesleyan form.⁶³

Dr. Kirk replied to Mr. Curtis almost immediately, undated, but it is said to have been on 27 February 1857:

The request you propose is very reasonable. Only it induces me to think I may have conveyed to you too strong an impression of the opposition made to the course I have taken in regard to the employment of a liturgy in the American Chapel. I am happy to reply to you, and to have my views on the subject put on paper for future reference. Personally, I have no desire to use a written prayer in my addresses to the Deity. And I should consider the want of ability to express the religious feelings and necessities of an assembly with propriety, as a sufficient reason for not assuming the office of a leader of public worship. In coming to the employment of a liturgy therefore, I have made a compromise with those of my brethren who regard the use of liturgies as in itself desirable, a compromise not of principle but of feeling, a compromise too in which I have aimed at nothing that is not entirely honorable and Christian, nor is there any hesitation or reluctance in adopting this course. Nay, I am happy to have been called, before quitting the church militant on earth, to occupy just such a post, in which I can show how much more value I attach to charity and Christian fellowship than to modes and forms. Had my objections to a liturgy been such that I could not most sincerely and cordially address God through the medium of it, nothing would induce me to engage in the blasphemous mockery of using the solemn words of those prayers as addresses to the Most High. But I have no such difficulty for those prayers never can utter all I feel at any particular time, I can always feel all they utter.

I wish then to state definitely in answer to your inquiries; first, that I propose to continue the use of a liturgical service so long as I shall minister in the church we are now forming. And secondly: that in so doing, I am but executing the wishes of the Directors of the American and Foreign Christian Union. I cannot bind my successors by any act or word of mine; but my view of the case is, that there is an obligation of honor, to say the least, resting on those who succeed me, to pursue substantially the course I have