The First English-Speaking Service in America
Of the following groups of people, which was the first to hold an English-language church service in the western hemisphere?
- 12% said Christopher Columbus and his crew at landfall in the Caribbean.
- Of the people in this list, Columbus and his crew were indeed the first to arrive in the western hemisphere. However, they didn’t speak English. Their church services would have have been in Latin, because they were Roman Catholics.
- 12% said the pilgrims in Massachusetts.
- While the pilgrims spoke English and worshipped in English, they didn’t arrive in Massachusetts until 1620, thirteen years after Jamestown was founded in Virginia.
- 12% said the troops in the fort at St. Augustine, Florida:
- While it is true that St. Augustine was founded in and probably had church services before the other permanent settlement in this list, the troops were Spanish. If anything, the church services were in Latin, because they were Roman Catholics.
- 16% said William Penn and the Quakers in Pennsylvania:
- The Quakers did hold their services in English, but they arrived later than the pilgrims in Massachusetts or the settlers in Jamestown, Virginia. William Penn wasn’t even born until 1644, 24 years after the founding of Plymouth Colony and 37 years after the founding of Jamestown.
- 48% said the settlers of Jamestown, Virginia:
- This is correct! Virginia was founded by loyal members of the Church of England, and in fact, the Church of England was Virginia’s official state church until Thomas Jefferson pushed through a law to disestablish it. The settlers landed at Jamestown in 1607 and held their church service using the Book of Common Prayer, which was in English. So they held the first English-language church service in the western hemisphere.