Blog
From Our History
Stories from more than four centuries of St. John’s and Elizabeth City Parish.
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Our Church in the 20s — the 1620s!
As we enter a new decade of worship at St. John’s it is interesting to look back through the centuries at the history of our parish.
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Tucker Descendant Visits St. John’s
William Tucker is an important name in St. John’s history. Four hundred years later the baby William Tucker has thousands of descendants, speculates Shelton Tucker, and he is one of them.
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A Piece of History: The First Africans in 1619
St. John’s, founded in 1610, is the oldest church in continuous service in English-speaking North America. As the church was in the community when the first documented Africans arrived at Point Comfort in 1619, the…
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Descendants of Capt. Thomas Graves View the Parish’s 1618 Communion Silver
On Friday, October 27th we had a group of 30 visitors, all descendants of Capt. Thomas Graves, a 1608 settler of Jamestown.
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Repairing the World War I Honor Roll Plaque
On the south wall of the nave of the church is a lovely wooden plaque which honors those parishioners who served in the first World War. It was unveiled on Sunday, December 26, 1920, and…
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St. John’s, Hampton and the Story of Race Relations
St. John’s Church and the City of Hampton both have very extensive and interconnected histories. One of the most complex chapters would be the story of race relations in Hampton.
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Restored Photographs of St. John’s Former Rectors
We have photographs of our former rectors starting with the Rev. John J. Norwood who served St. John’s in 1871 and 1872. Many of these old photographs were beginning to fade badly and were in…
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A Restored Stained Glass Window Panel for the Parish Hall Stage
This old window was discovered in the Heritage Room with no indication of its history. Gene Higgins of Epiphany Studios determined that based on size, age, and style, the window once hung in the church…
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Jacob Heffelfinger and St. John’s Church
He searched for the site of the second church, on the east side of the Hampton River, which had been lost for well over a century when he rediscovered it in 1910.
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The Heritage Committee’s 2014: Vestry Minutes, Rectors’ Portraits and the Gundry Room
Much of the year has been spent in the “Gundry Room,” which had become the repository of St. John’s material of all sorts. St. John’s has a long history and our goal is to organize…