Church of St. James the Greater (Bristol)

In 1702, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) sent George Keith to America to promote Anglican worship in the colonies.

He became the first rector of St. Mary's Church in Burlington, and he also preached to a small group of Anglicans in Bristol on Sunday afternoons, crossing the Delaware River by rowboat.

George W. Ridgely (rector from 1830–1832), St. James helped establish mission churches at Hulmeville (Grace) and Newtown (St. Luke's).

The original church was torn down in 1856, and the present building, designed by Philadelphia architect [citation needed] Samuel Sloan, was built in 1857 at a cost of $13,000.

The large symbol in the center contains the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, Alpha and Omega, signifying that God is the beginning and the end of all things.

At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the women of the parish formed the Ladies Church Aid Society for “the collection of clothing and delicacies for the soldiers at the front.” Augmented by women from other churches, the Society produced an enormous amount of underclothes, sent mostly to the U.S. Hospital at Point Lookout, Maryland, whose chief surgeon was a former Bristolian.

The organization continued after the war and provided the funds to build the Parish House in 1877, replicating the architectural style of the church and using the same materials, at a cost of nearly $12,000.

[6] Family plots and stones carry many names that are significant in the history of the greater Philadelphia area and the Episcopal Church.