reduced 3% and £1,213.18.3 reduced 32% were sold and the proceeds invested for the sake of higher interest, in Russia. In 1874 the capital consisted of £1,110 Russian 5% of 1822, £300 Russian 4% % of 1850 and £200 Moscow-Jaroslaw 5% yielding a total interest of £79 a year. In July, 1874, the whole of this capital was sold with the approval of the Right Rev. James F. Wood, then bishop of Philadelphia, and the proceeds of the sale £1,596.16.3, together with the balance of interest accrued, £193.7.1, amounting to £1,790.3.4 were paid to the said bishop, who acknowledged the receipt thereof by his letter of July 31, 1874, and also gave in the same letter an assurance that the fund should "be so invested as to secure in perpetuity the application of the interest to the object intended by Sir John James." Such is the information given by Rev. W. A. Johnson, "Chancellor of the Diocese of Westminster and Secretary to His Eminence Cardinal Vaughan," in a letter to Archbishop Ryan, September 5, 1895. A copy of this letter is in the archives of our SOCIETY. The letter conveying the fund to Bishop Wood reads as follows: "MY DEAR LORD: "ARCHBISHOP'S HOUSE, "S. W. LONDON, July 17, 1874. "I have the pleasure of enclosing a draft payable to your order of £1790.3.4. the value (capital and interest) of what is entered in our Ledger as Sir John James' Fund (1748) for the support of Missions in Pennsylvania' "When I gave your Lordship a statement of the Fund in March last it had of the Moscow-Jaroslaw 5 per cents only £100 but afterwards another £100 was purchased out of the accumulated interest. "All the stock has been sold out now for the sum of £1596 16 3 and I enclosed the stock broker certificate. The balance of the draft (193.7.1) is for the interest that had accumulated. "It is not necessary that your Lordship should draw up any formal document; a few lines will suffice, acknowledging the receipt of the money, and stating that you will have it so invested as safely and in perpetuity to fulfil the Founder's object. I speak of investment, because with regard to our own funds we are most careful-whenever it is not expressly stated that the capital may be spent-to keep up the capital and to spend only the interest. "I am leaving London to-day for 5 weeks. Probably about the time of my return I shall have the pleasure of knowing that the draft has been received. "I was glad to find, by your Lordship's letter of June 3rd that my letter of May 4th had given you complete satisfaction with regard to previous payments. Asking your blessing, "I remain My Dear Lord, "Your very faithful servant, "W. A. JOHNSON, Sec." "The RT. REV. JAS. F. WOOD "Bishop of Philadelphia." Dr. Shea in U. S. Cath. His. Magazine (Jan. 1888), says, "the Fund never at any time passed into the hands of the Jesuits." Here is evidence, showing the Jesuits of Maryland as early as 1759 to "empower" the English Provincial to receive the £80 per annum. No. "6" is a paper drawn up and signed by the contracting parties, Henry Corbie, Provincial and George Hunter, Superior, April 2d, 1759-its object was to arrange the financial relations between the Mother Province of England and the American Mission. "6. Mis Mary-d, by timely draughts or otherwise will empower Mrs. Provincial to receive £80 per an. Sir John James's foundation for Pennsylvania to answer Life Rents, or other contracts, charging herself with the payment of the same sum in Pennsylvania." [Jesuit Records.] Rev. George Hunter, S. J., in his report for 1765 to Rev. James Dennett, provincial of the Jesuits in England, reported the income from this Fund applicable to the Pennsylvania missions as £80. It was equally divided between St. Mary's Mission, Philadelphia, Mission of St. Paul at Goshenhoppen, Mission of St. John Nepomucene at Lancaster and Mission of St. Francis Regis at Conewago. By the "Proceedings of the Corporation Roman Catholic Clergy of Maryland" held at St. Thomas August 21st, 1795, a resolution was adopted to "pay to Bishop Carroll balance an account of German Salaries arising from Sir J. James' foundation." At a meeting at White Marsh, February 25th, 1794, £50 was allowed per annum to the pastor at Lancaster. So the Jesuits had control of the income of the Fund sent them from London. The Fund was founded for the Jesuits as Missioners in Pennsylvania." During Bishop Carroll's administration he seems to have received it and passed it over to the corporation, which disbursed the Fund, as shown by the records of 1794 and 1795. After his death the income came to Archbishop Marechal who sent it to the Bishop of Philadelphia. I have found no mention of what bishop Egan did with the money. Bishop Conwell claimed it as his own. In a letter, not dated, but written in 1832 or '33 by Bishop Conwell, he complains of the actions of Bishop Kenrick and says: "Mr. Kenrick got possession of the annual sum of £53 sterling which was the interest of a funded deposit, lodged in a bank in London, nearly one hundred years since, and which had been usually given to the priest on the mission in Lancaster County, by reason of which it was called the Lancasterian fund, which was afterwards appropriated to my use, and in consequence of which His Holiness Pius VII gave me a collation in commendam to St. Mary's Church of Lancaster, as my mensale; I have, therefore, a claim on Mr. Kenrick for the said £53 sterling yearly, for these five or six years past, which he should, in conscience, refund." Bishop Kenrick, I doubt not, used it for the general purposes of religion, as did his successors, Bishops Neumann and Wood. Under the present Archbishop the Fund was used for general diocesan purposes, but since 1871 it is "appropriated among the dioceses of the Province of Philadelphia." Thus all Pennsylvania is now enjoying the beneficent zeal for religion of one who has been dead more than one hundred and fifty years. CATHOLIC CHRONICLES OF LANCASTER COUNTY, PA. LANCASTER COUNTY (PA.) NOTES. SOME DATA RELATING TO ST. PETER'S CHURCH AT THESE RECORDS IN 1893. BY FRANCIS X. REuss. Since the appearance of the paper on this old Mission Church, referred to ahead, Samuel M. Sener, of Lancaster, has sent me a "blue print," purporting to represent the church, as it appeared after Rev. Dr. Balfe had lengthened the building. This print, it is stated by Mr. Sener, was drawn according to the lines as remembered by an old parishioner of St. Peter's. The recollection of the person is however entirely at fault, as the print gives the impression that the church was of two stories, whereas the door (with the two windows) at the rear end of the side-wall of the building belonged to the basement entrance, which was entirely below the level of the main floor of the church. Again: The windows of the church, six in number (all above this basement) extended from a point about three feet above the main floor to about seven above. The paling fence (represented in the print) is partly correct, as it really ran past the front of the church, enclosing thereby the land owned by the congregation. The present front lot then unused, having been exchanged a few years before with Mr. Wright. In the Memoir of Rev. Joseph Balfe, D. D. in RECORDS * * * of March, 1898, (Vol. IX,) a proper view may be had of St. Peter's Church at Columbia. The corner-stone of this church building was laid by Father Keenan, of Lancaster, in 1828, and the church dedicated by Bishop Kenrick. A letter from a Lancaster correspondent to the Catholic Press, of Hartford, Conn., dated October 2, 1830, says—“* Bishop Kenrick came to Lancaster on Saturday, September II, 1830. ** *. The same day he went to Columbia a considerable town ten miles west from here, where he dedicated a beautiful little church, which owes its erection to the Catholics of that place, inspired by the exertions of the Rev. B. Keenan. It measures about 45 by 30 feet, and though small, the stranger who enters it must admire the elegant simplicity of the altar and the neatness of the decorations. The bishop's remarks about the ceremonies, and the sacrament of confirmation, which he was about to administer, were brief but expressive; and the observations, which he made upon the Psalm, Miserere mei, and others, to a numerous and respectable audience, were eloquent. A number of the congregation went to Holy Communion, and upwards of sixty persons were confirmed. In the evening the bishop, assisted by the pastor and Rev. Michael Curren of Harrisburg, blessed the burying ground, situated a short distance from the church." Father Francis X. Varin, coadjutor of Father Keenan, (p. 95 in original Sketch). He was the second priest sent as assistant to Fr. Keenan. Born at Schoenwalt, Saxony, September 14, 1777. In a letter of Bishop Egan is this reference to him: "Varin, a Dutch clergyman from Guttenberg, arrived here (in May or June 1813).” See Life of Bishop Egan, by M. I. J. Griffin. "Varin was a secular priest," a great linguist, had been professor of German at Georgetown College. In his old age he was sent by Father Mulledy, S. J. (Provincial) to Goshenhoppen, to end his days there with the pastor of that mission, where he died of old age and infirmities, May 21, 1840, aged *This was the original site bought for the church, but afterwards changed. (See p. 91 in original Sketch.) |