Also Known As: The English Church
Built: 1828
Location: Church Road Vepery Madras
Consecrated: 1842
Denomination: Protestant
List of Priests and Chaplains:
1826 - 1829 RICHARD WILLIAM MOORSOM
1826 - 1830 WILLIAM ROY
1830 - 1831 HENRY HARPER
1831 - 1831 FREDERICK SPRING
1832 - 1833 HENRY WILLIAM STUART
1834 - 1836 GEORGE JAMES CUBITT
1837 - 1841 HENRY COTTERILL
1847 - 1851 FREDERICK GRUEBER LUGARD
Notes: If one takes into account the old church that stood here two centuries ago, St. Matthias is the second oldest Anglican Church this side of the Suez after St. Marys Church in Fort St. George. The Danish missionary, John Fabricius, performed the wedding ceremony of Robert Clive and Margaret Maskelyne here.
The other name by which it is referred to - the English Church, at Vepery, is because earlier on, it had passed hands from the French to the Portuguese and finally into the English (Protestants).
Major De Havilland of the Madras Engineers was asked in 1821 to arrange for the repair and enlargement of the old church, but he reported that it was beyond repair. John Law, an Anglo-Indian, designed a plan to cost Rs.31,600, for which the SPCK offered to provide Rs.20,000. The Madras Government offered to give the difference on conditions which ensured the appropriation of the Church only for worship according to the rites of the Church of England. The officiating Bishop Spencer of Madras consecrated the church officially on St. Matthias day only in 1842. Lady Munro took a close personal interest in the construction work throughout the period. Until a few decades ago, the church could be seen nestling amidst a lovely big garden. Not many know that it is the congregation of St. Matthias which built St. Pauls which is nearby.
References: The Church In Madras, Rev Frank Perry, (1904)