RECTOR OF KING'S CHAPEL.
Henry Caner, D. D., was graduated at Yale College in 1724, and was the "son of Mr. Caner who built the first college and rector's house" at New Haven, Connecticut. For three years after leaving college he lived under the theological teaching of Mr. Johnson of Stratford, who had the general supervision of the Episcopal students of divinity, and who had been his college tutor. Though too young to be ordained, he assisted Mr. Johnson as a catechist and schoolmaster at Fairfield. In 1727 he went to England for ordination. For some years, subsequently, his ministry was confined to Norwalk and Fairfield, Connecticut, and he became a great worker among the missions. His health became impaired by his severe labors and in 1736 he sought relief by a voyage to England, where on the recommendation of Archbishop Potter he had been created M. A. by a diploma at Oxford March 8, 1735. His father died in 1731 at the age of sixty. The name was long preserved in New Haven by "Caner's Pond." The name is also written sometimes Canner, or Conner.
In 1747 the successful missionary was inducted into office as rector of the First Episcopal church (King's Chapel) Boston. On being invited to King's Chapel he received a deserved promotion to the most conspicuous Episcopal pulpit in America; after a laborious ministry of twenty-two years in the mission at Fairfield, Connecticut. On his removal to Boston he left behind him two hundred and three communicants, a large number of those days, in a mission where he had found but twelve. Also a handsome church and a large convenient parsonage nearby.
The old chapel in Boston was built between 1687-1689. In 1710 it was rebuilt to twice its original size under Governor Shirley. After the lapse of nearly half a century King's Chapel was found to be in a ruinous condition and measures were taken to rebuild, which resulted in the well known King's Chapel now standing upon the spot. The erection of this building in 1749 is largely due to the efforts of Dr. Caner, who was then rector.
There is no trace of his printed discourses later than 1765, but the traditions of his preaching give him a high rank as a man of learning and fine intellectual endowments. The first Episcopal church in New England was, prior to the revolution, in a flourishing state. Later, while the British ships were in the harbor and the British troops in the town, many of their officers regularly worshipped at the chapel. When becoming quite infirm in his seventy-seventh year, his age and position placed Dr. Caner at the head of the Church of England clergy in this part of the country. Records show abundantly the pastoral labor which devolved upon him, especially in his military congregation. The last burial records by his trembling hand are those of three soldiers of his Majesty's 65th Regiment of Foot. The Register of burials also notes the funeral, on March 18, 1752, of Ann, "the Pious and Virtuous Consort of Rev. Henry Caner, aged forty-six."
He was a devoted Loyalist, and when it was evident he could no longer be useful in Boston, he went with the British troops to Halifax. In one of the record books of King's Chapel, Dr. Caner made the following entry: "An unnatural rebellion of the colonies against his Majesty's government obliged the loyal part of his subjects to evacuate their dwellings and substance and take refuge in Halifax, London and elsewhere; by which means the public worship at King's Chapel became suspended, and it is likely to remain so until it shall please God, in the course of his providence, to change the hearts of the rebels, or give success to his Majesty's arms for suppressing the rebellion. Two boxes of church plate and a silver christening basin were left in the hands of the Rev. Dr. Breynton at Halifax, to be delivered to me or my order, agreeable to his note receipt in my hands." After being a rector in Boston for twenty-eight years this aged clergyman was driven from his home and native land. Dr. Caner's escape from Boston is thus described by himself in a letter dated Halifax, May 10, 1776: "As to the clergy of Boston, indeed they have for eleven months past been exposed to difficulty and distress in every shape; and as to myself, having determined to maintain my post as long as possible, I continued to officiate to the small remains of my parishioners, though without support, till the 10th of March, when I suddenly and unexpectedly received notice that the King's troops would immediately evacuate the town. It is not easy to paint the distress and confusion of the inhabitants on the occasion. I had but six or seven hours allowed to prepare for this measure, being obliged to embark the same day for Halifax, where we arrived the first of April. This sudden movement prevented me from saving my books, furniture, or any part of my interest, except bedding, wearing apparel, and a little provision for my small family during the passage.
"I am now at Halifax with my daughter and servant, but with no means of support, except what I receive from the benevolence of the worthy Dr. Breynton."
No less than eighteen Episcopal clergymen from Boston and its neighborhood sailed away with the fleet that bore Dr. Caner, and the town of Boston would have been left without any Episcopal clergymen at all, only for Dr. Andrew Eliot, the pastor of the New North church, who called upon Rev. Samuel Parker, assistant to Rev. William Walter of Trinity church. Mr. Parker was packing up his library preparing to depart when called upon by Dr. Eliot, who with true Christian candor, represented to him the destitute situation in which the Episcopalians would be left who should remain in the country, with all their ministers gone, that although it might be prudent for the elder gentlemen to go, who had made known their sentiments, that he, a young man, who had done nothing to render himself obnoxious to the rebels, would be perfectly safe, that it was a duty he owed to that part of the community to stand by them, finally he prevailed upon him to stay, a circumstance that Bishop Parker always acknowledged with gratitude.
REV. HENRY CANER.
Born in New Haven, Conn, 1700. Rector of King's Chapel, Boston, 1747-76. Died in England Feb. 11, 1793.
From Halifax Dr. Caner went to England. An extract from the diary of Thomas Hutchinson in 1776 says, "I went with Dr. Caner to Lambeth, to introduce him to the Archbishop who was very gracious to him, and gave him an order for One Hundred Pounds on the Treasurer of the moneys received for the clergy of America." He was proscribed and banished, under the statute of Massachusetts, in 1778, and his estate confiscated. A fellow Loyalist wrote in 1785: "By letters from London, I am informed that Dr. Caner had retired with his young wife to Cardiff, in Wales."
Dr. Caner died in England at the close of the year 1792 in his ninety-third year. One of his daughters married a Mr. Gove of Boston. The Boston Gazette (No. 2002) of February 11, 1793, contains the following: "At Long-Ashton, Somersetshire, England, aged ninety-three, the Rev. Dr. Henry Caner, a very respectable character, many years minister of the Chapel church in this town." Foote in his "Annals of King's Chapel" says, "I am informed by Mr. Henry O. B. O'Donoghue of Long-Ashton, near Bristol, that there is no tombstone in the churchyard with Dr. Caner's name, nor any trace to be found of such a person ever having lived in the Parish." It has been said, also, that Dr. Caner died in London in 1792.
Dr. Caner's house stood close to King's chapel on the north side of the old burying-ground, and was a rough wooden structure. This spot was afterwards occupied by the Boston Athenaeum, and later by a Savings Bank. It next was occupied by the Massachusetts Historical Society, who sold it to the city of Boston, and it is now used as an annex to City Hall.
On the evacuation of Boston the church vestments, plate, registers and records were taken from the church, a part of which last was recovered from Dr. Caner's heirs in 1805. King's Chapel and Christ church are now without doubt the only historical buildings remaining unchanged from before the revolution of all those in which Boston was once so rich.
The vestry of the chapel in 1784 applied to Rev. Dr. Caner to have restored to them the "Church Plate and Linnen which he carried away." This he refused to do as his estate was taken from him by the public. He however turned it over to the "Society for Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," who afterwards disposed of it in the Provinces that remained loyal. In 1787 a silver flagon and covered cup which was presented to the chapel by Governor Hutchinson, having the name of King William and Queen Mary engraved on it, was claimed by Dr. Thomas Bulfinch, Warden, as the property of the King's Chapel, it then being in the hands of Rev. Dr. Parker of Trinity church for safe-keeping. It is now the property of the chapel.
LIST OF CONFISCATED ESTATES BELONGING TO REV. HENRY CANER IN SUFFOLK COUNTY AND TO WHOM SOLD.
To Samuel Henly, Sept. 30, 1793; Lib. 177, fol. 82; Land and dwelling-house in Boston. Tremont St. W.; Chapel Burying Ground and heirs of Middlecott Cook deceased S.; John Rowe E.; William Brattle, an absentee, N.