The First Century

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• The Boston Episcopal Charitable Society was originally founded by 27 men as a way to pool resources and provide for the needs of those who had “fallen on hard times.”

• In the 18th century, Massachusetts was still predominately Congregationalist. Though the government was through the English monarch, Anglicans were in the minority, and there were only a handful of Anglican parishes.

• In the Colonial period there were few public, social services, so this fund helped those who were ill or injured, widowed or impoverished by fire or natural disaster.

• A Society member, Dr. Oliver Smith, also developed a program of buying medicines in bulk to offer them at a discount to needy people.

• The Society used some of its resources to help finance the building of new Anglican Churches, including Trinity Church and St. Paul’s, Dedham.

• The Revolution was a period of great upheaval for Anglicans, and the Society had to be restarted in the 1780s, having lost almost all of its funds during the war years.