99% Sure | Ep 10: How Much Did a Pew Cost?

How much did it cost to buy a box pew at Old North Church? The answer to this simple question is not so simple! In this new episode of 99% Sure, our researcher T.J. Todd takes a deep dive into the economics of owning a pew at Old North. Learn more about Old North's box pews in our "Extras" at the end of this blog: https://www.oldnorth.com/blog/how-muc... Share this video, and don't forget to tag us! Facebook: @oldnorth1723 Instagram: @oldnorth1723 Twitter: @oldnorth1723 #OldNorthChurch #99PercentSure Sources The archives of the Old North Church: pew records, vestry notes. Originals held at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Select scanned copies held at the Old North Foundation offices. Babcock, Mary Kent Davey. Christ Church, Salem Street Boston-The Old North Church of Paul Revere Fame: Historical Sketches (Colonial Period, 1723-1775). Boston: Thomas Todd Company. 1947. For more on Anglican pews in England (a system that was even more complicated), see: Bennett, J.C. “Informal Pew-Renting and Pew-Openers in English Anglican Churches.” Church History and Religious Culture 100 (2-3) (September 2020): 364–82. https://doi.org/10.1163/18712428-bja1.... Newton, Ross A. “Patrons, Politics, and Pews: Boston Anglicans and the Shaping of the Anglo-Atlantic, 1686-1805.” PhD diss., Northeastern University, 2016. “The Restoration of the Old North Church” and “The Re-opening of Christ Church,” The Church Militant, January 1913, 10-15.