St. Peter's Churchyard

St. Peter's Churchyard. . , When St. Peter's was built 1758-61, the surrounding land was open country with a pond and pasture for nearby residents' cows. The first burial took place in 1760. The people interred here, famous or not, are part of Philadelphia's history., Revolutionary War Figures , 🅐 John Nixon, a founder of the church, Lieutenant Colonel and Sheriff of Philadelphia. He had the risky task of the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 8, 1776., 🅑 Benjamin Chew, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania and lawyer to the Penn family. Chew's country home Cliveden was the site of the Battle of Germantown., 🅒 Samuel Fraunces, supplied the Continental Army through his tavern in New York, then was President Washington's household steward in Philadelphia., 🅓 Gustavus Conyngham, Captain of the privateer Surprise who attacked many British ships off the French coast., National Political Figures , 🅔 Nicholas Biddle, President of the Second Bank of the United States, editor of the Lewis and Clark papers., 🅕 George Mifflin Dallas, Mayor of Philadelphia, Vice-President of the U.S. (1845-49) for whom Dallas, Texas was presumably named., Arts Figures , 🅖 Charles Willson Peale, portrait painter and founder of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and his son Raphaelle, also a painter., 🅗 Benjamin Carr, conductor, composer, founder of the Musical Fund Society and St. Peter's organist and choirmaster. His Grecian gravestone was designed by William Strickland., Founders of the Church , 🅘 The stones of founders William Bingham (not legible) and Joseph Sims are on the east wall of the church. With them is Jacob Duché, son of a founder, third Rector and first Chaplain of the Continental Congress. But he had a change of heart and fled to England, only returning after the Revolution was over. Note that the coat of arms on the Sims tablet and the name of the stone cutter who carved the monument., Other Figures , 🅙 Among the many family vaults in this section is that of Samuel Breck, the owner of Sweetbriar mansion in Fairmount Park., 🅚 The monument to Benjamin Chew Wilcocks, donor of the church bells in 1842, represents the St. Peter's tower and spire., 🅛 Commodore Stephen Decatur. Famed for winning the Battle of Tripoli in 1814, he was killed in a duel in 1820., 🅜 The Chiefs of Eight Indian Tribes. Although their gravesites are unknown, their story is told on an interpretive marker at the west end of the churchyard., The brick wall was built in 1784 to replace the original wooden fencing confiscated by the British for firewood during their occupation of the city in 1777-78. The varied trees in the churchyard include Osage oranges, descendants of seedlings sent back from the West by Lewis and Clark in 1805.