St. Anne's Church (Annapolis, Maryland)

St. Anne's Episcopal Church
St. Anne's Church viewed from West Street, 1910
Location	199 Duke Of Gloucester St, Annapolis, MD 21401
Country	United States
Denomination	Episcopal
Website	Official Website
History
Founded	1692
Architecture
Years built	Three Churches Built from 1672-Present Day First Church- 1704 Second Church- 1792 Third Church- 1858
Administration
Diocese	Maryland
Clergy
Rector	Rev. Dr. Amy E. Richter

Three Churches Built from 1672-Present Day

St. Anne's Episcopal Church is an historic Episcopal church located in Church Circle, Annapolis. The first church in Annapolis, it was founded in 1692 to serve as the parish church for the newly created Middle Neck Parish, one of the original 30 Anglican parishes in the Province of Maryland.

St. Anne's was founded in 1692 after the passing of the Establishment Act. The Act allowed for the construction of the State House, King William's School, and St. Anne's, though due to the limited work force and insufficient funds, all of the projects were finished much later than expected.

Work on St. Anne's started out slowly. In 1699 the General Assembly specified that the dimensions of the church were to be 65 ft wide (20 m) and 30 ft long (9.1 m) with a porch and a tower that would hang a bell. But due to the insufficient funds, no progress was made until 1700, when the government invested enough money to begin construction. By 1704, the church was finished, though some changes were made in the structure. It served Chapel River until 1715, when the Province of Maryland was returned to Lord Baltimore. A bell, which would call parishioners to services until it was destroyed by fire in 1858, was donated to St. Anne's by Queen Anne.

Since St. Anne's was often referred to by writers of the time as a "barn" rather than a "proper place of worship", many locals asked the government for a new church in 1775. Their wish was granted, and in late 1775, the church was razed.

In 1758, Benedict Swingate Calvert (c.1730-1788), the illegitimate son of Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, the third Proprietor Governor of Maryland was married to his cousin, Elizabeth Calvert, in St Anne's Church, by the Reverend John Gordon. Elizabeth was the daughter of Maryland Governor Captain Charles Calvert Butler. The parish also became the focus of a dual patronage scandal in 1776-68, under its 17th rector, Bennet Allen and Governor Horatio Sharpe. Allen also acquired the living at St. James Herring Bay and attempted to hire it out, contrary to Maryland law and the vestry's instructions. Allen ultimately gave up St. Anne's (but not St. James) upon securing the most lucrative parish in the Colony, All Saints Church in Frederick, Maryland, although that vestry locked him out shortly after his arrival and forced him to flee to Philadelphia and hire a curate, before returning to England during the American Revolutionary War.