Register to the Records of St. Stephen's Church, Providence

University of Rhode Island Library

Special Collections and Archives

Register to the Records of St. Stephen's Church, Providence


Overview of the Collection
Creator:	St. Stephen's Church (Providence, R.I.)
Title:	Records of St. Stephen's Church, Providence
Dates:	1833-1988
Quantity:	33 box(es) (24 linear feet)
Abstract:	The records described here document the administrative, fiscal and religious activities of St. Stephen's Church. Though the Church was chartered in 1839, the large majority of the records are from the twentieth century. The financial records of the parish are the most comprehensive, while administrative and religious activities are less completely documented.
Identification:	Mss. Gr. 98
Language:	The records are in English.
Repository:	University of Rhode Island Library, Special Collections and Archives Unit 15 Lippitt Road Kingston, RI 02881-2011 http://www.uri.edu/library/special_collections/

Scope and Content Note

The records of St. Stephen's Church documents the administrative activities of the parish and includes minutes of the parish's annual meetings, minutes of vestry and Parish Corporation meetings, a parish guest book, correspondence, bound copies of the Sunday Bulletin of the parish entitled The Kalendar, a typed chronology of significant events in parish history and a published history of the parish entitled St. Stephen's Church in Providence, 1839-1964.

Additional materials are bound volumes in which are recorded the details of religious services as well as listings of communicants, marriages, baptisms, confirmations, and burials held in the parish. The information recorded includes the date, the type of service, the place of service, the number of people in attendance, the name of the officiating priest and celebrant.

The bulk of the records detail the financial activities of the parish and includes balance sheets, check registers, cash receipts and disbursement ledgers, general ledgers, payroll ledgers, pledges and offering ledgers, treasurer's reports and treasurers' monthly statements. Further financial records include pew rental ledgers, and deeds to pews both in bound volumes and in loose pages.

The final grouping of documents consists of bound volumes of the parish's monthly newsletter entitled St. Stephen.

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Arrangement

After processing, the collection was organized into five series as follows:

List of Series

Series I. Subject Files, 1833-1988

Series II. Registers of Church Services, 1837-1983

Series III. Pew Records, 1840-1915

Series IV. Financial Records, 1864-1984

Series V. St. Stephen,1885-1960

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Restrictions

Open for research.

Terms governing use and reproduction: Photocopying and scanning of materials is a fee based service available in the repository and is allowed at the discretion of the Archivist when in compliance to the Unit's policy on copyright and publication.

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Index Terms

These records are indexed under the following headings in the HELIN catalog. Researchers wishing to find related materials should search the catalog under these index terms.

Episcopal Church -- Rhode Island -- History -- Sources

Providence (R.I.) -- Church history|vSources

St. Stephen's Church (Providence, R.I.) -- History -- Sources

St. Stephen's Church (Providence, R.I.) -- Records and correspondence

St. Stephen's Church (Providence, R.I.) --- Registers

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Related Material

See Mss. Gr. 41, Records of the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island, 1715-1990, and Mss. Gr. 41.1, Records of the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island, 1810-2003, for additional related materials regarding St. Stephen's Church.

There are no known separate materials.

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Administrative Information

Custodial History

Housed in the parish office prior to their transfer, the records are in generally good physical condition. In 2003 the parish deposited an additional 2 linear feet of records consisting of 8 bound registers of communicants, marriages, baptisms, confirmations, and burials in Special Collections. These were added to Series II. The records contained in this collection represent the inactive records of the parish. The most recent active records are still housed in the parish offices.

Preferred Citation

Records of St. Stephen's Church, Providence, Mss. Gr. 98, University of Rhode Island Special Collections

Acquisitions Information

The records of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Providence were deposited in the Special Collections Department of the University Library in 1989 by the priest-in-charge, the Rev. S. W. Martin.

Processing Information

The records were processed in 1991.

Finding aid prepared by Kevin J. Logan and Beth Ullucci.

Finding aid encoded by Russell M. Franks on 2007 July 29

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Inventory

Series:

Subject Files

Dates:

1833-1988

Extent:

4 box(es) (3 linear feet)

Types of Materials:

church bulletins
histories
letters (correspondence)
manuscripts
minutes
visitors' books

Scope and Content Note

The records in this series document the administrative and religious activities of St. Stephen's Church in Providence, Rhode Island. Topics include the annual meetings of the parish, the Parish Corporation, the vestry, fundraising, the history of the parish, renovation of the Parish House, the Ladies Sewing Circle, and the Women's League.

Types of records represented include minutes of meetings of the vestry, and the Parish Corporation, bound volumes of the minutes of parish annual meetings; the parish guest book; typed "historic notes" of the parish; contracts and plans for renovation of the Parish House; bound volumes of The Kalendar, the Sunday Bulletin of the parish; correspondence; and a history of the parish published on the occasion of its one hundred twenty-fifth anniversary and entitled St. Stephen's Church in Providence, 1839-1964.

Arrangement

The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by subject or type of record and chronologically within folders.

Box

Folder

Title

Date(s)

Annual Meetings, Minutes of

1969, 1971-1972

Centenary Luncheon Program

1939

Corporation and Vestry Meetings, Minutes of. See also: Vestry Meetings, Minutes of

Apr 6, 1896; Nov 14, 1940

Fundraising Brochure

1954

Guest Book

1984-1988

Historical Notes (Typed mss.)

ca. 1932

Box

Folder

Title

Date(s)

The Kalendar

1932-1956

Box

Folder

Title

Date(s)

The Kalendar

1957-1979

Box

Folder

Title

Date(s)

Ladies Sewing Circle: Accounts

1838-1844

Ordination Service

1868

Parish House Renovations: Contract and Plans

1955

Photograph: St. Stephen's

n.d.

Report of the Rector to the Convention

1839?

Saint Stephen's Church in Providence, the History of a New England Tractarian Parish 1839-1964, by Norman Joseph Catir, Jr. 1964.

1964

Subscriptions for the Erection of St. Steven's

1833?

Vestry: Miscellaneous

1967-1974, n.d.

Women's League of St. Stephen's: Meetings

1956-1962

Women's League of St. Stephen's: Meetings

1963-1971

Series:

Registers of Church Services

Dates:

1837-1983

Extent:

4 box(es) plus 5 oversized boxes (2 linear feet)

Types of Materials:

baptismal registers
burial registers
confirmations
marriage registers

Scope and Content Note

This series consists of bound volumes in which are recorded the details of religious services as well as listings of communicants, marriages, baptisms, confirmations, and burials held in the parish. The information recorded includes the date, the type of service, the place of service, the number of people in attendance, the name of the officiating priest and celebrant.

Arrangement

The registers are arranged chronologically.

Box

Folder

Title

Date(s)

Sept 7, 1924- Dec 9, 1949

Dec 10, 1949-July 24, 1953

Aug 2, 1953-May 23, 1957

Box

Folder

Title

Date(s)

May 24, 1957- Dec 13, 1961

Dec 14,1961- Nov 2, 1962

Nov 3, 1962-Apr 6, 1964

Apr 7, 1964-Nov 5, 1965

Nov 6, 1965-Mar 8, 1967

Box

Folder

Title

Date(s)

Mar 8, 1967-Aug 28, 1968

Aug 28, 1968-Mar 4, 1970

Mar 5, 1970-Oct 29, 1972

Oct 30, 1972-Nov 8, 1973

Box

Folder

Title

Date(s)

Nov 9, 1973-Oct 29, 1975

Oct 30, 1975-July 10, 1977

July 10, 1977-Mar 14, 1979

Mar 15, 1979-Feb 4, 1981

1837 - 1872

1874 - 1893

1893 - 1905

1905 - 1922

1922 - 1931

1931 - 1947

1947 - 1962

1962 - 1983

Series:

Pew Records

Dates:

1840-1915

Extent:

2 box(es) (1 linear feet)

Types of Materials:

deed registers

Scope and Content Note

The records in this series document the rental and transfer of pews in St. Stephen's Church. Included are bound volumes of deeds to pews, unbound copies of deeds, and pew rental and tax ledgers.

Until well into the twentieth century, the Episcopal churches in Rhode Island continued the practice of assigning specific pews in the church to families or individuals who paid a one time fee plus additional rental fees or taxes for the privilege of having a pew assigned to them. The individual or family received a deed to the pew and could will it or assign it to an heir or another parishioner as long as the rental fee or tax payments were current.

Arrangement

The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by type of record and chronologically within folders.

Box

Folder

Title

Date(s)

Deed Book

1840-1862, scattered

Deed Book

1862-1915, scattered

Deeds

1840-1863, scattered

Deeds

1867-1898, scattered

Box

Folder

Title

Date(s)

Rent Ledger

1844-1856

Rent Ledger

1856-1862

Rent Ledger

1862-1866

Rent and Taxes Ledger. See: Oversize

1864-1900

Rent and Taxes Ledger. See: Oversize

1900-1908

Series:

Financial records

Dates:

1864-1984

Extent:

8 box(es) plus 7 oversized boxes (7 linear feet)

Types of Materials:

annual reports
ledgers (account books)

Scope and Content Note

The records contained in this series document the financial activities of St. Stephen's Church. Included are trial balance sheets, check registers, cash receipts and disbursement ledgers, general ledgers, payroll ledgers, pledges and offerings ledgers, and the monthly and annual reports of the treasurer.

Arrangement

The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by type of record and chronologically within folders.

Box

Folder

Title

Date(s)

Balance Sheets

1968, 1972-1976

Balance Sheets

1977-1980

Cash Book (In oversize 6)

Apr 30, 1864-Jan 21, 1889

Cash Book (In oversize 6)

Jan 21, 1889-Aug 1, 1902

Cash Book (In oversize 6)

Aug 1, 1902-Apr 20, 1908

Cash Book

Apr 21, 1908-Apr 5, 1915