Fort Vancouver Historic Structures Report

Furnishings

No specific information seems to be available concerning the furnishings and decorations in the Old Catholic Church. It is known, however, that a fairly large assortment of religious objects was available for the chapel at Fort Vancouver and for the other missions in the Columbia District. Evidently it was in the spring of 1839 that "boxes" arrived at the depot from Canada by way of London containing "ornaments, images, crucifixes, rosaries, and lastly books." [21] The next year there were received from Paris two boxes, one containing books and the other church ornaments. [22] It is virtually certain that additional shipments came during subsequent years.

Although it is reasonably certain that Anglican services were never held in the Roman Catholic Chapel during Outfit 1845, there was, as has been seen, a chance that the two denominations shared the Old Catholic Church at least for a time during earlier years. Perhaps unfortunately for the purposes of this chapter, much more is known about the religious objects associated with the Anglican services at Fort Vancouver than about those employed by the Catholic priests. For these reasons, together with the fact that there seems to be no other logical place to record them, the articles belonging to the Anglican "Church Establishment" at Fort Vancouver are listed in this chapter.

It will be recalled that the Anglican minister, the Reverend Mr. Herbert Beaver, was sent out by the Company to serve as chaplain at Fort Vancouver. He arrived on September 6, 1836. Four months earlier the firm's barque Columbia had delivered a pulpit, surplice, altar cloth, silver communion service, Bible, prayer books, register books, and a bell, all forwarded by the Governor and Committee for Beaver's use. After a stormy two years at the depot, the chaplain departed for home, but he left behind the religious books and equipment. These items remained at Fort Vancouver until Chief Factor James Douglas moved the headquarters of the Columbia District to Fort Victoria in 1849. The Bible, the registers, and the communion service may be seen today in Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria, British Columbia (see Plates LXIX and LXX).

The list below is from the Columbia Depot inventory of "articles in use" taken in the spring of 1844, but, except for a few variations in spelling, there were no changes in the inventories examined through that taken in the spring of 1848. With the reminder that these objects probably were stored in the Big House where the Church of England services were normally held, the list follows: