The causes of the American Revolution were many and varied; not least among these was the legal position of the Church of England as established by law in Maryland as well as in some of the other colonies. Under this system men were taxed for the support of the Church and the ministry but were denied any part in the appointment of ministers or relief from priests who failed to fulfill their office to the satisfaction of the taxed. At least some of the cases of supposed neglect of duty may be considered from the standpoint of the legal aspects of the case entirely apart from the character of the individuals involved.

Eighteenth century Delaware has one example of interchurch co-operation which is of interest to those engaged in such movements in our own day. Although the field of activity between the Church of Sweden and the Church of England extends beyond the borders of northern Delaware, yet in this limited area all the essential characteristics of the movement are to be found and can be examined in some detail. Beginning as two separate and distinct national churches, by means of friendly co-operation they became one church within less than a century.

When the British Army entered Philadelphia on September 26, 1777, they entered the largest town in the colonies. But Philadelphians of today might be amused by the extent of the great metropolis, Philadelphia proper extended from Vine Street to South Street and westward to Fifth. “There were few houses west of Sixth street and most of these were on Chestnut and Market streets…”1 Fifth Street was really the western boundary of the town as we may see from the number of cemeteries along its entire length, For example, at Cherry Street there were two Lutheran graveyards; (diagonally opposite at the northwest corner of Arch was the Presbyterian yard. At the southeast corner of this same street was the Episcopal yard; farther down, just below Market Street, was the graveyard of the Baptists. On the east side of Fifth below Walnut was the Romanists' cemetery and on the west side was that of the Free Quakers. Phjladelphians at least had the grace to remove their graveyards to the extreme limits of the town. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why colonial Philadelphia missed some of the worst epidemics.