Manual of The Mother Church/Appendix/Deed of Trust
Deed of Trust
The following is a Copy of the Deed of Trust Conveying Land for Church Edifice.
Know all Men by these Presents,
That I Mary Baker G. Eddy of Concord in the County of Merrimack and State of New Hampshire in consideration of one dollar to me paid by Ira O. Knapp of Boston, Massachusetts, William B. Johnson of Boston, Massachusetts, Joseph S. Eastaman of Chelsea, Massachusetts, and Stephen A. Chase of Fall River, Massachusetts, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, and, also in consideration of the trusts and uses hereinafter mentioned and established, do hereby give, bargain, sell, and convey to the said Ira O. Knapp, William B. Johnson, Joseph S. Eastaman, and Stephen A. Chase as trustees as hereinafter provided and to their legitimate successors in office forever, a certain parcel of land situate on Falmouth street in said Boston, bounded and described as follows: Beginning at the junction of Falmouth street, and a forty-foot street now called Caledonia street; thence running Southwest on said Falmouth street one hundred and sixteen and eighty-eight hundredths feet; thence Northwest at a right angle to a point where a line drawn at right angles to said forty-foot street at a point thereon one hundred and sixteen and fifty-five hundredths feet Northwest from the point of beginning meets the said boundary at right angles to Falmouth street, sixty-six and seventy-eight hundredths feet; thence at an obtuse angle on said line at right angles to said forty-foot street sixty-seven and thirty-five hundredths feet to said forty-foot street; thence Southeasterly on said forty-foot street one hundred and sixteen and fifty-five hundredths feet to the point of beginning; containing seven thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight square feet more or less, and subject to the agreements and restrictions mentioned in a deed recorded in Suffolk Registry of Deeds Lib. 1719, Fol. 83 so far as the same are now legally operative.
This deed of conveyance is made upon the following express trusts and conditions which the said grantees by accepting this deed agree and covenant for themselves and their successors in office to fully perform and fulfil.
1. Said grantees shall be known as the “Christian
Science Board of Directors,” and shall
constitute a perpetual body or corporation under and
in accordance with section one, Chapter 39 of the
Public Statutes of Massachusetts.[1] Whenever a
vacancy occurs in said Board the remaining
members shall within thirty days fill the same by
election; but no one shall be eligible to that office
who is not in the opinion of the remaining
members of the Board a firm and consistent believer
in the doctrines of Christian Science as taught in
a book entitled “Science and Health,” by Mary
Baker G. Eddy beginning with the seventy-first
edition thereof.
2. Said Board shall within five years from the date hereof build or cause to be built upon said lot of land a suitable and convenient church edifice, the cost of which shall not be less than fifty thousand dollars.
3. When said church building is completed said Board shall elect a pastor, reader or speaker to fill the pulpit who shall be a genuine Christian Scientist; they shall maintain public worship in accordance with the doctrines of Christian Science in said church, and for this purpose they are fully empowered to make any and all necessary rules and regulations.
4. Said Board of Directors shall not suffer or allow any building to be erected upon said lot except a church building or edifice, nor shall they allow said church building or any part thereof to be used for any other purpose than for the ordinary and usual uses of a church.
5. Said Board of Directors shall not allow or permit in said church building any preaching or other religious services which shall not be consonant and in strict harmony with the doctrines and practice of Christian Science as taught and explained by Mary Baker G. Eddy in the seventy-first edition of her book entitled “Science and Health,” which is soon to be issued, and in any subsequent edition thereof.
6. The congregation which shall worship in said church shall be styled “The First Church of Christ, Scientist.”
7. Said Directors shall not sell or mortgage the land hereby conveyed; but they shall see that all taxes and legal assessments on said property are promptly paid.
8. Said church building shall not be removed from said lot except for the purpose of rebuilding thereon a more expensive or a more convenient structure in which said doctrines of Christian Science only shall be preached and practised. If said church building is removed for either of the purposes above set forth, any and all tablets and inscriptions which are or shall be upon said church building at the time of removal shall be removed therefrom and placed upon the walls of the new edifice. If said building is burned, the Directors shall forthwith proceed to rebuild the church.
9. Said Directors shall maintain regular preaching, reading or speaking in said church on each Sabbath, and an omission to have and maintain such preaching, reading or speaking for one year in succession shall be deemed a breach of this condition.
10. Whenever said Directors shall determine that it is inexpedient to maintain preaching, reading or speaking in said church in accordance with the terms of this deed, they are authorized and required to reconvey forthwith said lot of land with the building thereon to Mary Baker G. Eddy, her heirs and assigns forever by a proper deed of conveyance.
11. The omission or neglect on the part of said Directors to strictly comply with any of the conditions herein contained shall constitute a breach thereof, and the title hereby conveyed shall revert to the grantor Mary Baker G. Eddy, her heirs and assigns forever, upon her entry upon said land and taking possession thereof for such breach.
To Have and to Hold the above granted premises with all the privileges and appurtenances thereon belonging to said grantees and their successors in office to the uses and trusts above described forever.
And the said grantor for herself and her heirs, executors and administrators covenants with the said grantees and their successors in office that she is lawfully seized in fee simple of the aforesaid premises, that they are free from all incumbrances not herein mentioned or referred to, that she has good right to sell and convey the same to the said grantees and their successors in office as aforesaid, and that she will and her heirs, executors, and administrators shall, warrant and defend the same to the said grantees and their successors in office forever against the lawful claims and demands of all persons.
In witness whereof I the said Mary Baker G. Eddy have hereto set my hand and seal this 1st day of September, 1892.
Signed, sealed, and delivered in presence of
| Laura E. Sargent. |
| R. E. Walker. |
| State of New Hampshire, | ss. | |
| Merrimack. |
Then personally appeared the above named Mary Baker G. Eddy and acknowledged the foregoing instrument to be her free act and deed,
Before me
Notary Public.
September 2, 1892.
Suffolk Registry of Deeds, Lib. 2081, Fol. 257.
- ↑ The deacons, church wardens, or other similar officers of churches or other religious societies, and the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal churches appointed according to the discipline and usages thereof, shall, if citizens of this commonwealth, be deemed bodies corporate for the purpose of taking and holding in succession all the grants and donations, whether of real or personal estate, made either to them and their successors, or to their respective churches, or to the poor of the churches.