Monday, August 2, 2010

Collegiate Church of St Mary the Virgin Algoa Bay Port Elizabeth



Picture Source: http://www.oocities.com/kruisstaf/StMarysE.html#ixzz0vSu1drgr

Quote:
“Bishop Webb granted the collegiate church a coat of arms and seal on 3 April 1894. The seal is in the form of a vesica – a double-pointed oval, well suited to ecclesiastical arms as they can comfortably contain a shield in the lower half and a mitre in the upper.
The original of this document was lost when the church building was destroyed by fire in 1895, and a duplicate deed of grant was made the following year by Bishop Webb and signed on 4 March 1896….
St Mary’s, the first Anglican church erected in what came to be called the Eastern Province of the Cape Colony, was founded in 1825 by the Rev Francis McCleland, an Irish 1820 Settler who in that year was appointed Colonial Chaplain to the settlement of some 500 people.
The Irish settlers had initially been sent to live at Clanwilliam, some 200 km north of Cape Town, on the grounds that the volatile Irish were likely to clash violently with the other settlers. However, they had felt isolated in that environment and requested permission to join the English, Welsh and Scottish settlers in the Eastern Cape…..

Read the entire history more Armoria ecclesiastica: http://www.oocities.com/kruisstaf/StMarysE.html#ixzz0vSu1drgr

See www.oocities.com/kruisstaf/StMarysE.html