Discreetly pretentious is the mustard dome that rises loftily from behind tall iron gates opposite a decrepit Kashmiri Gate, at the intersection of Church Road and Lothian Road. This is the dome of the first ever church built in Delhi – St. James’ Church commissioned by Colonel James Skinner. It was designed by two officers of Bengal engineers. Major Robert Smith who built it up to the cornice and Captain De Bude who completed it. Also referred to as Skinner’s Church it was built between 1926-36 to resemble a Greek cross called the cruciform plan with three porticoed porches, stained glass windows and an octagonal dome topping the whole thing. The dome was much damaged during the siege of Delhi in 1857 and was subsequently restored. The copper ball and cross adorning the crest of the dome are replacements for the original which were supposedly used for target practice by sepoys during the 1857 revolt and destroyed.
One hundred and seventy six years later on a Sunday morning we stand in the courtyard of this historic building a little before the congregation assembled for prayers to check out for ourselves what Perceval Spear and William Dalrymple had to say about Skinner sahib and William Fraser, and of course the fine church that Skinner built. This church was a gesture of thanksgiving to God by James Skinner as he lay dying on the battlefield in the battle of Uniara in 1800. He vowed to build a church for the Lord if he lived to see the day and his grateful piety probably was fervent enough to create a church that has been drawing believers to itself for over a hundred years.
In 1836, its Mustard Dome and outstretched porticoed arms must have dominated the skyline of Shajahanabad- the seventh city of Delhi built by the Mughal emperor Shahjahan as he shifted his capital from Agra to Delhi. By locating the church in the prestigious Kashmiri gate area, where lay the mansions and lovely gardens of the Mughal princes including that of Prince Dara Shikoh which were later occupied by British officers for their homes, offices and seat of power by modifying them, Skinner, by design or otherwise bestowed the Church with longevity. It is believed that the church stands on a mango orchard that belonged to Prince Dara Shikoh.
As early as in 1851, Sir Thomas Theophilus Metcalfe, Governor General’s agent at the imperial Court writing about the Church and the funeral of Colonel James Skinner in the accompanying manuscript of “Reminiscences of Imperial Delhi’, an album consisting of 89 folios containing approximately 130 paintings of views of the Mughal and pre-Mughal monuments of Delhi, as well as other contemporary material :
Saint James’ Church Dehlie
Erected by the late Colonel James Skinner C.B., at his own expense, and at a cost of 95,000 Rupees, was consecrated on the 21st November 1836 by the Right Reverend Daniel Wilson D.D. Bishop of Calcutta. On the 4th December 1841, the munificent Founder and truly good man was suddenly removed from his sphere of usefulness on Earth, lamented by all, and of the poorer classes by the thousands who had shared his Bounty. His Mortal Remains were at first consigned to the Cantonment Burial Ground at Hansie from whence, after a period of 40 days, they were conveyed to Dehlie, escorted by 200 men of his own Regiment of Irregular Horse and were finally deposited in their most fitting resting place, within the Sacred Edifice he had dedicated to his God………………
A suitable mural Tablet has also been erected, at the East end of the Church and on the left of the Altar by the family of the deceased.
[St. Jame’s Church was commissioned by Colonel James Skinner (1778-1841), a distinguished military officer, famous for the cavalry regiment Skinner’s Horse. While lying wounded on the field of battle, he made a vow that if he survived he would build a church in thanks for his life being saved. The church designed by Major Robert Smith was started in 1826 and completed ten years later. It is the oldest church in Delhi and is built in the shape of a Greek cross, with a dome reminiscent of the Renaissance style….
On the north side of the church is the graveyard with a large portion taken up Skinner family. Just opposite the main portals of the Church prominently positioned is the tomb of William Fraser, a very close friend and confidant of Skinner. Before he became the resident Fraser spent a large part of his official life in Delhi territory, was acting resident twice and was dismissed in his second tenure for being unduly tender to his great friend Edward Colbrooke, the British resident who was charged with and dismissed for corruption. It is believed and accepted that Fraser built built a palatial building for himself which was subsequently bought over by Hindu Rao, a brother in law of Scindia. However Spear writes that there is a suggestion which is neither proved nor disproved, that Fraser, unlike Colbrooke had neither the money nor taste for such lavish activities and that it was actually Colbrooke who built that mansion, but Fraser out of his devotion to Colbrooke who was in trouble with the Government, gave his name to it. A large section of this mansion was destroyed during the revolt but central section which survived is part of the Hindu Rao hospital located in the civil lines in North Delhi.
Finally as the Resident of Delhi in 1834, Fraser became personally involved in the inheritance struggle between the sons of Nawab Ahmed Baksh Khan. He paid for this interference with his life when he was murdered at the instance of the Nawab’s son who was humiliated by Fraser. A grieving Skinner exhumed the body of Fraser from the British cemetery near the residency and reburied it in a great white tomb he built for his friend. This tomb was destroyed beyond repair during the revolt. In fact all attempts to reconstruct it were in vain as the blue prints of the original tomb could not be located anywhere. The India Office Library is reported to have prints of St. James’ Church of 1835 – before Fraser died and prints of the church in 1857- after the tomb was destroyed. So what we know today is from the writings of Sir Sayyad Ahmed Khan and one Mrs. Fanny Parks. All that remains of it today is the epitaph written by Skinner which reads :
THE REMAINS
INTERRED BENEATH THIS MONUMENT
WERE ONCE ANIMATED
BY AS BRAVE AND SINCERE
A SOUL
AS WAS VOUCHSAFED TO MAN
BY HIS
CREATOR.
A BROTHER IN FRIENDSHIP
HAS CAUSED IT BE ERECTED
THAT WHEN HIS OWN FRAME IS DUST
IT MAY REMAIN
AS A
MEMORIAL
FOR THOSE WHO CAN PARTICIPATE IN LAMENTING
THE SUDDEN AND MELANCHOLY LOSS
OF ONE
DEAR TO HIM AS LIFE
WILLIAM FRASER
DIED 22 MARC 1835
In the northeast corner of the graveyard lies the grave of Sir John Theophilus Metcalfe, son of Sir Thomas Metcalfe who was the Governor Generals’ agent to the Moghul emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. Theo Metcalfe who was the joint magistrate of Delhi in 1857 had a narrow escape and became unforgiving in his attitude to Indians in the following years.Writing about the aftermath of the siege of Delhi, Spear recounts that The Delhi Gazetteer of 1883-4 recorded the case of a village which gave up a servant of Sir John Metcalfe to the king during the revolt and was punished by having twenty one of its leading villagers summarily shot.That was one vindictive man!
The giant cross visible today in the garden of the church was raised by the British after the crushing the revolt of 1857 in memory of dead Britishers. On the walls of the church are displayed plaques in memory of Master Ram Chandra – a distinguished mathematician of the Delhi College and a Brahmin. The other was and Dr. Chiman Lal, a Kayasth sub assistant surgeon who attended on Bahadur Shah Zafar – also one of the early converts to Christianity before the 1857 revolt.
Inside the church in a vault of white marble just below the communion table where lies the grave of Colonel James Skinner himself. Skinner died in 1841 at the age of 64 and was buried in his country estate of Hansi in Haryana. But his remains were disinterred and brought to St. James church and reinterred in 1942 in the vault we see immediately as we enter the church today from the side entrance..
HERE REST THE
REMAINS OF THE LATE
COLONEL JAMES SKINNER C.B.
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE,
AT HANSI
4TH DECEMBER 1841
THE BODY WAS DISINTERRED,
REMOVED FROM HANSI AND BUTIED UNDER
THIS ON THE 19TH JANUARY 1842
Skinner was a colourful figure who raised the “Skinners Horse” in 1803, an irregular cavalry that went on to win large swathes of territory for the British army. The eldest of a brood of sons and daughters of lieutenant colonel Hercules Skinner of the British East India company’s army and a Rajput mother, Skinner, suffered and benefited simultaneously because of his mixed parentage. Denied commission into the East India Company’s forces for being Indian, he joined the service of the Scindia under the French General M. de Boigne and distinguished himself. However in 1803 when he refused to fight the english army when war broke out between the Marathas and British he was dismissed from the Maratha army. Skinner then joined the the English camp and soon after the capture of Delhi was given command of a body of horsemen who had deserted from the enemy which became Skinner’s Horse.
Straddling two worlds because of his birth, Skinner was equally at ease in both. He was as proficient in Persian as he was in English if not more and lived like an Indian Zamindar on his estate at Hansi as well as in his mansion near Kashmir gate in Delhi. This leader of the “Yellow boys” so called because of their yellow uniforms, was a man who imbibed the adventure and passion of the age suffered its prejudices and intolerance, did not live to see his irregular cavalry become the Duke of York’s own Lancers but his memory lives on in the Skinners Horse, a regiment of the Indian army today which celebrated its Bicentenary in 2003.
St. James’ Church, built a hundred and seventy six years ago by the flamboyant Sikander Sahib has as much temporal significance as spiritual eminence even today. While the church grounds are a little neglected especially the garden and graveyard, the inside of the church is meticulously clean and well maintained. Substantial and consistent conservation efforts have always been a part of the Church’s history. Damaged extensively during the revolt of 1857 the church was restored by the British government. St. James’ Church, which in 1911 became the semi official Church of Government of India after the proclamation of Delhi as the imperial capital and has suffered the ravages of time, is a very important part of Delhi’s architectural heritage – a precursor to the eighth Delhi that English men would begin to build in less than a century.
