OUR HISTORY

Church is a word with two meanings: a group of believers and a building where believers meet to worship. The word church usually means a parish church today, and in this guide we will use the word church to mean the building. Christianity was introduced into Britain during the Roman period, and there were probably well-established Christian communities before the end of the second century CE. Holy Trinity Church Thornhill follows the practices and traditions that have come to us from the Anglican Church in England.

By the 1830’s Thornhill had become a thriving pioneer community. Among the many businesses were four grist mills, three saw mills, four tanneries, a brickyard, two distilleries, seven taverns and several stores. It was during this bustle of activity that the church was constructed.

Trinity Church, as it was formerly known, is the oldest original church building still in use in the Diocese. Begun in 1829 and completed in the early summer of 1830, it fulfilled the long felt need of Anglicans in the district for a church of their own. Prior to that they had held services in private homes, and along with other religious denominations had shared the Cober schoolhouse on the site of Langstaff School on Yonge Street at Uplands Avenue. Occasionally parishioners traveled down Yonge Street in order to attend special services at St. John’s Church in York Mills.

In 1828 Thornhill was one of several places selected by Archdeacon Strachan and Bishop Stewart to receive the ministrations of professors of theology and divinity students who were sent here to conduct regular services. Erection of a church building soon became necessary. The two laymen chiefly responsible for the undertaking were William Parsons and his brother-in-law Benjamin Thorne, both who had come to this area from England, and who had both been successful in business. They donated the property for the church and the burial ground. Benjamin Thorne petitioned the government for a post office, and it was after him that Thornhill received its name.

The names of original members of the parish listed in old parish records, include Captain John Arnold, a United Empire Loyalist who settled in Thornhill in about 1800, Sutton Frizzell, who bought property at what is now the north-east corner of Yonge and John Streets in 1810, John Langstaff, who rode horseback from Amboy, New Jersey, in 1808, and became the first teacher in the log schoolhouse which was the forerunner to Langstaff School, and Henry Richards, grandson of Jeremiah Atkinson, builder of the first mill in the hollow on Yonge Street. Mr. Richards was the sexton of Trinity Church for more than 40 years, and his son, Henry, also held that position.

The first wedding to take place in Trinity Church was probably that of Mary Sophia Gapper to Captain Edmund O’Brien, a half pay officer in the British Army, on May 13, 1830. Because the vestry book was lost in a fire, many details of the first 30 years of Trinity Church are missing. However, Mary Sophia Gapper O’Brien left interesting descriptions of early days in the Thornhill area between 1828-1832 in her writings. Mary O’Brien’s original diary is located in the Archives of Ontario, and contains a number of references to the church. An edited copy of this treasured journal is held in the Archives at Holy Trinity Church. When Trinity Church was dedicated on February 28th, 1830, Mary O’Brien wrote, “We had service in the morning in our church. Dr. Strachan came out expressly to officiate. He read for the first lesson the Dedication of the Temple, and preached for an hour and a half, a sermon which, if not perfect as a composition, was so good in matter and feeling that most of the party left the church with most charitable feelings towards the preacher and, it is to be hoped, further benefit. It happened that the Methodist preacher who was expected at a neighbouring place came late, and his congregation agreed to join. Thus we had a very numerous assembly but I have not heard how they were affected. At least the visiting congregation had to sit through a sermon which was equally long as those to which they were accustomed in their own meetings”.

The Rev. George Mortimer, who had come from London, England, and had earned an MA at Cambridge University, was the first full time rector. He followed the Rev. Isaac Fidler, who had stayed only a few months, and then returned to England. The Rev. Mortimer, a frail man, was very much respected and liked in the village, and he made a point of calling on every family. Sadly, and indicative of the risks faced by the early settlers, the Rev. Mortimer died following an accident while being driven in a horse-drawn vehicle down Yonge Street, and when the horse took fright, this well respected spiritual leader was thrown against a tree trunk and died shortly after.

The 15 years after the building of the church were years of prosperity and expansion in Upper Canada. Within a decade, the congregation had grown to such an extent that some change became necessary to accommodate the large numbers attending services. In 1840, with the addition of an aisle to each side of the church, the width was increased to forty-eight feet, and the seating capacity was almost doubled.

In 1866 the old box pews were lowered, and benches for kneeling were added. In 1886 the first stained glass window appeared in the chancel in the west wall above the altar as a memorial to Mr. and Mrs. William Parsons. During this period the church had used the custom of pew rents to augment income. In the Holy Trinity Church Archives there is a pew rent document dated 1856-57. In 1893-94, however, this custom was discontinued when the vestry decided to use an envelope system. In 1910 the old box pews were removed from the church, and sold to Trench Carriage Works in Richmond Hill for use in the manufacture of cutters, and a new set of pews was bought from Valley City Seating Company at a cost of $470.00. Oil lamps were used for lighting.

In 1914 the present altar, a memorial to Joseph Robinson and his family, replaced the original altar that had been made from packing cases. A new pulpit replaced the old high pulpit which had formerly stood on the north side of the church near the vestry door, and which had been reached by several steps. A third improvement in that year was the installation of electric lights, a gift from Dr. L.G. Langstaff.