Rector Bolton Enjoined

The Court Forbids Him to Sell the Old Church Bell

West Chester, April 17. The war in the Church of the Holy Trintiy as broken out afresh. Rector Bolton is controlled by an injunction which forbids him from disposing of the old bell which has hung in the belfry of the church for nearly half a century. Rector Bolton had sold the bell to the McShane Company, of Baltimore, who manufactured the new chime for the church, against the expressed wish of the vestry, and they in turn sold it to the vestry of St. John's P.E. Church at Concord, Delaware County.

The vestry of Holy Trinity knew nothing of the transaction until L. E. Buckley, a member of St. John's vestry, came to West Chester after the bell. He had been telephoned by Mr. Bolton to come, but the vestry interfered, and he was finally compelled to return without the bell.1

[Note: an article from March 25, 1890 in the Harrisburg Patriot adds the following infromation about the issues at Holy Trinity: "Rev. John Bolton, of West Chester, denounced from the pulpit the action of his vestrymen who ordered pews restored which their rector had caused to be removed."

• 1. Philadelphia Inquirer, 4/18/1890