3 - Thomas Wren: Portsmouth’s Patron of American Liberty

Summary

The German bombers flew in a series of massed wave attacks against Portsmouth, England, on Friday evening, January 10, 1941, and again the following morning. According to one report specially cabled to the New York Times, the Nazi raiders dropped “many hundreds of explosive and incendiary bombs that killed or injured many civilians, damaged or destroyed six churches, several movie theaters, stores and houses, and rendered many persons homeless.” One of Portsmouth’s destroyed churches was High Street’s venerable John Pounds Memorial Chapel, founded by Presbyterians, but since the early nineteenth century a Unitarian house of worship. Among the chapel ruins was a monument which had displayed this 150-year-old epitaph:

Thomas Wren DD

Born in Keswick

In the County of Cumberland

Died October the 30th, 1787: aged 63 years

Distinguished for sound judgement

Useful learning, and unaffected piety:

He was no less eminent

For the peculiar virtues of the Christian profession

Meekness of spirit, gentleness of manner,

And an active and universal benevolence,

The congregation of Protestant dissenters

Assembling in this place,

Where he preached for more than thirty years,

And was a most faithful and affectionate pastor,

In testimony of his services and their own

gratitudes,

Have erected this monument to his memory.

Thomas Wren may have been illustrious to his communicants who erected the monument, but his name has not been in the forefront of either the histories of Portsmouth or of his native Cumberland. Similarly, American histories have been singularly neglectful of his mention despite the fact that this mild, unpretentious Presbyterian minister rendered very noteworthy services during the United States’ long struggle for independence. Today his monument, unlike his High Street Chapel, remains unrestored, which reflects the undeserved obscurity of the man and his work. So perhaps it is time that the character and career of the little publicized Thomas Wren deserves elaboration for Britons and Americans alike.

Thomas Wren (no relation to Sir Christopher Wren) was born, reportedly in the autumn of 1725, in the tiny hamlet of Grange, four miles south of the old market town of Keswick in England’s Lake District, famed for its rustic beauty and breathtaking scenery of mountains, waterfalls, lakes, and lush valleys.