The year 1824 is associated in the history of the Church at San Thome with the advent of the Rev. Robert Carver, an earnest and experienced Methodist Missionary from Ceylon who, after a meritorious service of nine years, had sustained a grievous bereavement. He appears to have succeeded in securing the goodwill not only of Sir Thomas Munro, the Governor of Fort St. George, but also of Bishop Heber, and took charge both of the work of the old Vepery Mission and of that at Poonamallee, St. Thomas Mount and Pallavaram. His services were greatly valued by all non-Roman residents in the district, whether British, ‘Eurasians,’ or ‘native’, for among other things that he did, he used in his ministrations the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England.

Visiting San Thome in 1830, Bishop Turner of Calcutta felt that, in view of the many European residents in the place – then a popular health resort, especially for sick officers and their families – there should be a proper Church and an episcopally ordained minister. To this end, he himself contributed a sum of money, and a site was purchased, but nothing further was done, and the ground lay waste for years until1836, when Bishop Daniel Corrie of Madras wrote to the Home Society and obtained a grant of 200 pounds. ‘By means of subscriptions chiefly raised by the exertions of the Bishop’s daughter, and some of her female friends, a catechist had been engaged, whose business would be to seek out and collect together the Christians scattered around this place, and read the scriptures amongst them. However, the sudden death of Bishop Corrie in 1837, while presiding over a meeting of the S.P.G. in Madras, together with the esteem in which Carver was held by the Europeans of San Thome, was responsible for the delay in the erection of a Church.