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Bath, Ontario CANADA
Worship | Clergy Message | Stained Glass Windows   |
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Upcoming Community Events in St. John's Hall
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From its vantage point at the top of the hill on Church Street, opposite the Bath Academy, St. John's Church overlooks the historic Village of Bath in Loyalist Township, 25 kilometres west of Kingston, on Lake Ontario.
When United Empire Loyalists, who maintained allegiance to the British Crown, started moving northwards at the end of the American Revolution in 1783, it was the Jessup's Loyal Rangers' Group that settled in the area of Ernestown which gave rise to our present community of Bath. Captain Jeptha Hawley was one of these Loyalists and it was in his home that the earliest religious services in this area took place in 1787. Some time later a log church was built by the settlers. The early log church was soon torn down to be replaced by the second church on the present site in 1795 on land given by Mr. William Fairfield for a church and cemetary two years earlier. The building was frame and resembled our present church. William Fairfield was an United Empire Loyalist who settled in Ernestown in 1784 at age 51, with his wife, Abigail and nine children. The Fairfields were a prominent Loyalist family in Bath. The Fairfield-Gutzeit House, now restored as a museum, is situated along the waterfront and was built in 1796. After surviving a devestating fire in 1919, the second church again caught fire on April 4, 1925, and this time burned to the ground. The cause of both fires was sparks from burning dry grass in the ditches and churchyard. The parishioners lost no time in setting about rebuilding after the 1925 fire, and thus began the construction of our present church building. Our current church is very beautiful and follows much the same exterior lines as the old church building. It is constructed of brick covered with white stucco, with steel beams in the attic for roof support. Electricity was supplied in 1931. The church bell in use today was a gift from St. Mary Magdalene Church in Napanee in 1926, a memorial to Rev. F.T. Dibb, rector of St. John's from 1900 to 1903. |
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There are thirteen beautiful stained glass windows in the present church. They are similar in design and many of these windows were donated by decendants, in memory of their United Empire Loyalist forebears. The decendants of John Davy, a United Empire Loyalist of great importance in the Village of Bath, have donated over half the windows. The present stained glass windows all date after 1925, since the previous seven memorial windows were all lost in the fire that destroyed the second church in that year. Outside St. John's Church is a plaque, erected by the Ontario Archaeological and Historic Sites Board, to the Rev. John Langhorn. Reverend Langhorn served St. John's from 1787 - 1813 and supervised the building of the second church in 1795. The Registry indicates that Rev. Mr. Langhorn administered 640 baptisms, performed 236 marriages and conducted 154 burials. The inscriptions on the tombstones in St. John's Cemetery reveal the names of many early United Empire Loyalist settlers. St. John's Memorial Hall was built in 1970, thanks to the generosity of the late Mrs. Mabel Gutzeit, parishioner, (formerly Mabel Fairfield). The hall is situated on the lot adjacent to St. John's Cemetery. The hall was refurbished and fully modernized in 2006 with the addition of central air conditioning and heating systems. The hall is wheelchair accessible, with modern washrooms and fully equipped kitchen. It serves the wider community and is able to accommodate groups from 10 to 200 people for meetings, dinners, dances, wedding receptions and other events of every description.
Source: The History of St. John's Church, Bath Ontario 1787 - 1987 (Ruth Hudson) |
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© Copyright 2006, St. John's Anglican Church
Daniel ffolliott
Last Updated July 1/2008