Old Trinity Church - Congregation and Pastors

Congregation and Pastors

A log meetinghouse on the site was used by the followers of George Keith, who from 1691 separated from the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), some joining the Church of England and others becoming Baptists and Seventh-Day Baptists. Church of England services were held at the site as early as 1698.

The church was founded with the help of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The church's first pastor, the Rev. John Clubb, who served from about 1705 to 1715, and later the Rev. Robert Weyman, who served during the 1720s, were paid by the Society and shared duties between Oxford and St. David's Church in Radnor, about 20 miles to the west.

In 1713, Queen Anne presented several silver utensils, including a chalice, to the church.

Among the church's rectors were Rev. Aeneas Ross, 1742–1758, brother of George Ross, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and father-in-law of Betsy Ross; the Rev. Dr. William Smith, 1766–1779 and 1791–1798, who went on to found, and serve as the first Provost of, the College of Philadelphia (afterward the University of Pennsylvania); the Rev. John Henry Hobart, 1798–1801, who became Bishop of New York and founded Hobart College; and Edward Young Buchanan, 1854–1882, brother of President James Buchanan.

The church was admitted to the Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania in 1786.