Thomas Cradock's Sermon on the Governance of Maryland's Established Church

T. ANNE's Church looked more like a barn than a place of worship. Only its 280 guinea organ received favorable comment from visitors. Around the edifice almost in [the] form of an 0 was an unpaved road. The rest of Annapolis was similarly unimpressive. It had a commanding view of the Chesapeake, but the town's bland architecture seemed to be awaiting the presence of William Buckland, whose craftsmanship would do much to make it the quaint city we know today.' Yet within that church was displayed on October 7, I753, all the pomp and circumstance colonial Maryland could offer. Attending services of the established church were the newly installed governor, Horatio Sharpe, the members of His Lordship's Council, and the delegates to the lower house of the General Assembly. As assembly sessions always brought the colony's social season to its peak, the wives and children of the gentry plus the city's tradesmen and artisans packed the small edifice. Since the governor and the assembly were meeting one another for the first time, everyone wore his finest clothes and practiced his best manners. It was certainly the time for an address of importance. To the pulpit came portly Thomas Cradock, A.M., rector of St. Thomas Parish, Baltimore County. Parson Cradock's sermon touched the core of Maryland society and government, it ran against the grain of proprietary privilege and the desires of the laity, and it opened wounds * Mr. Skaggs is a member of the Department of History, Bowling Green State University, Ohio

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