Rev. Evan Evans

see: page 357 of https://books.google.com/books?id=YCYUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA357&lpg=PA357&d...

• educated in England
• recruited by the SPG for service in the Colonies of America
• after repeated trips to PA he finally settled in Harford County
• excellent chronology: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/h/4bc04ea7-7c90-... (Pennsylvania section of archives at SPG XV1702-1786 American Colonies (39 references)

The Episcopal Spesutia Church is considered the first place of worship erected in St. George's Parish. The name Spesutia is derived from the Latin for Utie's Hope, in honor of Col. Nathaniel Utie, a settler who was granted an island near Havre de Grace.

The first record in the parchment church register is that of "the birth of John Cook, son of John Cook, born at Bush River, on the 25th of September, in the year of our Lord, 1681."

In 1718, under the direction of the Rev. Evan Evans, a second church was built in Perryman.

[Source: History of Harford County, Maryland, by Walter W. Preston; research by Harford County Public Library.]

Notes: St. Georges Episcopal Church, also known as Spesutia Church, where our branch of the Pattersons were baptized and buried. Detailed church records exist going back to the 17th century, showing Pattersons as members of the church and vestry.

Harford County, Maryland was first discovered in 1608 by Captain John Smith of the Virginia Colony, when he made a fairly accurate map of the upper country and its islands and shores. About 1649, Colonel Nathaniel Utie came from Virginia to explore the upper bay region and find a place to settle, and was granted an island located a few hundred yards south of Havre de Grace. He named it Spesutie, using the Latin Spes-Utie, meaning Utie's Hope. The spelling was later changed to Spesutia as it is known today. When the Church of England became the established church of the Palatinate of Maryland, the first Vestry House was erected at Spesutie Parish on the property which belonged by grant to Col. Nathaniel Utie. In 1718, Spesutie Parish was divided into St. George's and St. John's Parishes, and the Spesutia Church of St. George's Parish was erected two miles away at Perryman, where it still stands today.

St. George's Parish Spesutia Road
Perryman, MD 21130
Phone:410-272-6622
Mail Address: P.O. Box 22, Perryman MD 21130

sources

• THE FIRST PARISHES Of the PROVINCE Of MARYLAND By PERCY G. SKIRVEN page 142
• https://tehistory.org/hqda/html/v34/v34n2p075.html