Ritual time in British Plantation Colonies, 1650-1780

Church History, Sept, 2007 by Nicholas M. Beasley

II. SUNDAY IN THE PLANTATION COLONIES

The most basic time cycle in the plantation colonies was from Sunday to Sunday. (39) Sunday worship in many places was well attended, filling many churches to capacity, especially in the urban parishes. St. Philip's in Charles Town reported 260 regular worshippers in the 1720s and a "usual auditory" of "Six or Seven Hundred People" in the 1760s, likely a very full house. (40) Eliza Pinckney noted in 1742 that "St. Phillips Church in Charles Town is a very Eligant one, and much frequented. There are several more places of publick worship in this town and the generality of people [are] of a religious turn of mind. 41 St. Andrew s parish, up the neck from Charles Town, had 60 or 70 families most Sundays. (42) None of the country parishes in Carolina reported fewer than 50 worshippers on Sunday in the 1720s. St. Thomas's and Christ Church had as many as 70, while the Goose Creek and Santee parishes regularly accommodated 100 worshippers. (43) Such numbers likely came close to filling the small churches of the rural low country. (44)

Barbados in the 1720s also reported a respectable level of church attendance on Sunday. The rector of St. Michael's in the Barbadian metropolis of Bridgetown reported that "in dry weather every pew in it is pretty full, so that I can ... affirm that are no congregations in England more regular, very few larger, and not many so large as mine." (45) Even in the plantation districts of the island, Joseph Holt of St. Joseph's could report that when "ye Weather is favourable we have a full and (blessed be God) conformable Congregation." (46) The rectors of St. Philip's and St. Peter's assured the bishop that their services were well attended. (47) St. Thomas's had as many as 120 worshippers, while St. Andrew's had 70 or 80. (48) Late in the period the clerk of St. Michael's recorded the destruction of their church by a hurricane, lamenting the loss of a fine building that "had often held more than 3000 souls at one time." (49) John Oldmixon's English readers were assured that the same church was "as large as many of our Cathedrals," clearly meant to seat large numbers of persons. (50) The neglect of Sunday worship in the plantation colonies reported by some visitors is often not borne out in the archival record.

Even the principal Jamaican parishes, on an island notorious in the literature for its irreligion, reported tolerable congregations in the 1720s. William May of Kingston found that on Sunday morning, "the Church is generally pretty full, but very thin at other at other times," (51) thus bemoaning only a lack of attendance at weekday liturgies. Enlargements of the Kingston Parish church over the eighteenth century eventually produced a building that could seat 1300 worshippers. (52) John Scott of St. Catherine's parish in Spanish Town wrote that he could "assure you Lordship a considerable Number of the Parishioners constantly and religiously attend." (53) Though usually lacking the Sabbatarian rigor of their New England cousins, residents of Barbados, Jamaica, and South Carolina set the Lord's Day aside as a special one in the week. The "time of divine service" was meant to be a quiet time apart in the community's life, one that was sometimes observed both morning and afternoon. (54) In addition to providing opportunities for divine worship, Sunday offered time for recreation that other days did not permit and a chance to wear Sunday-best clothing. For slaves, the arrival of Sunday usually meant the week's one day of respite. The suspension of regular work meant a chance to gather the dispersed slave community for social, religious, and commercial purposes. Sunday was thus a day apart, one that offered the entire community relief from the ordinary strictures of the six days that followed. The black majorities of the plantation colonies meant that Sunday was a day that whites both welcomed and feared.