April 2, 1823 – March 7, 1908

by David Curtis Skaggs, Christ Episcopal Church, New Bern, NC, 2016

Ann Margaret Donnell was born in New Bern to Judge John Robert Donnell and Margaret Spaight Donnell. Governor Richard Dobbs Spaight was her grandfather, and her brother, Richard Spaight Donnell, was a United States Congressman.

Few individuals gave more generously than Ann Donnell to the restoration of Christ Church after fire consumed the second church building in 1871. In her popular 1977 seven-lecture series at Christ Church, Gertrude Carraway provided these details: “Miss Ann M. Donnell, baptized in Christ Church Aug. 5, 1829, when she was six years old, retained her deep interest in the church after she moved from New Bern to New Jersey and was one of its most generous donors. She gave the marble baptismal font in memory of the Rev. Henry F. Green, the 1854-57 rector; the stained-glass windows for her parents, Judge and Mrs. John Robert Donnell; the 110-foot landmark steeple, completed in 1885; and the church bell, which is considered unusually loud and melodious.”

Carraway then provided confirmation for the gift of the church bell: “While recently inspecting the area above the church ceiling, Joseph M. Freemon, engineer, and John C. Thomas, contractor, both former vestrymen, copied the inscription on the huge, heavy, iron bell. It showed that it was presented to Christ Church in 1871 by Miss Donnell and that it had been manufactured that year, shortly after the January fire which had burned the second church, by the Meneely and Kimberly Foundry of Troy, New York.”*

Miss Donnell died in Wilmington. According to her obituary, she “was a consistent and loyal member of the Episcopal church” and was “well-known throughout this State and highly esteemed.”

*Accessed 11-27-17: https://archive.org/stream/historicchristch00carr/historicchristch00carr_djvu.txt