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Gc 975.501 H39m 1139214
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02341 392 2
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ANNALS OF HENRICO PARISH BY Rt. Rev. L. W. BURTON,
Bishop of the Diocese of Lexington, Ky., and for nine years Rector of St. John's Church.
HISTORY OF ST. JOHN'S P. E. CHURCH, TOGETHER WITH The Names, Portraits, Time of Service, and Sketches of the Bishops of Virginia. As also of the Ministers and Assistant Ministers.
A Complete Roster of the Vestries, from 1741 to 1904. List of Communicants, Marriages, Baptisms, Deaths and Burials, together with the Inscriptions upon the Tombstones.
Records of the Parish of Henrico in their Entirety, with their Quaint and Antique Language and Entries, from the Original Vestry Book, from 1730 to 1773, with Notes by Dr. R. A. Brock.
The Famous Liberty Speech of Patrick Henry, Delivered in the Old Church.
Oration of Rt. Rev. A. M. Randolph, and the Address of Hon. Wm. Wirt Henry, Delivered in the Church on its 150th Anniversary, in 1891.
Edited and Compiled by J. STAUNTON MOORE, Richmond, Va.
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AUTHORIZED BY THE VESTRY.
COPYRIGHTED 1904. Cyrus Bossieux, J. F. Mayer, R. E. Shine, Trustees St. John's P. E. Church. - All rights reserved.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
1133214
PAGE.
Preface, by Rev. L. W. Burton 3
Authorities and references cited by Dr. Burton. 3, 4
Annals of Henrico Parish by Rev. L. W. Burton 4 Introduction to History of St. John's Church, by J. S. Moore. 57 History of St. John's church from 1884 to 1904, by J. Staunton
Moore 62
Succession of Bishops of Virginia 103
Succession of Ministers of Henrico Parish as far as known 105
Succession of Vestrymen of St. John's Church. 107 The Famous Liberty Speech of Patrick Henry in St. John's, 1775 113 Address of Bishop A. M. Randolph at the 150th anniversary ... 117 Address of Hon. William Wirt Henry (grandson of Patrick
Henry) at the 150th anniversary of St. John's Church 133
Sketches of Bishops and Assistant Bishops of Virginia. 163 Pewholders, 1845, St. John's Church 189 Heads of families. 190
List of communicants to 1904. 197
List of marriages from 1682 to 1904. 215 22
Baptisms from 1815 to 1904. 263
Burials, 1826 to 1904. 349
Inscriptions on the tombstones of St. John's churchyard. 413 Addenda-Vestry Book of Henrico Parish 1730-1773. 530
ERRATA.
Page 64, line 3, instead of induced was, read was induced.
Page 105, third line, read Thomas Bargrave for Thomas Hargrave.
Page 176, first line of sketch of Rt. Rev. John Johns, read fourth instead of third Bishop, error of biographer.
OMISSION.
The Editor and Compiler of this volume desires to express under this heading his regrets at not having mentioned the fact that reso- lutions in memory of Mr. James W. Shields, for many years Senior Warden, and one of the most faithful and active members of St. John's Church, were adopted, and a blank page in the vestry minute book dedicated to his memory at a meeting of the vestry February 2, 1897. His death is recorded on page 400, and mention of his death on page 90 also. The error was not discovered until after the printing had been completed and the sheets were in the hands of the binder.
ANNALS
OF
HENRICO PARISH,
DIOCESE OF VIRGINIA,
AND ESPECIALLY OF
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH,
THE PRESENT MOTHER CHURCH OF THE PARISH,
From 1611 to 1884, BY
LEWIS W. BURTON, Rector of St. John's Church.
" TENETE DONEC VENIAM."
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WILLIAMS PRINTING COMPANY, RICHMOND, VA. 1904.
ERRATA.
Page 64, line 3, instead of induced was, read was induced.
Page 105, third line, read Thomas Bargrave for Thomas Hargrave. Page 176, first line of sketch of Rt. Rev. John Johns, read fourth instead of third Bishop, error of biographer.
OMISSION.
The Editor and Compiler of this volume desires to express under this heading his regrets at not having mentioned the fact that reso- lutions in memory of Mr. James W. Shields, for many years Senior Warden, and one of the most faithful and active members of St. John's Church, were adopted, and a blank page in the vestry minute book dedicated to his memory at a meeting of the vestry February 2, 1897. His death is recorded on page 400, and mention of his death on page 90 also. The error was not discovered until after the printing had been completed and the sheets were in the hands of the binder.
ANNALS
OF
HENRICO PARISH,
DIOCESE OF VIRGINIA,
AND ESPECIALLY OF
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH,
THE PRESENT MOTHER CHURCH OF THE PARISH,
From 1611 to 1884,
BY
LEWIS W. BURTON, Rector of St. John's Church.
" TENETE DONEC VENIAM."
WILLIAMS PRINTING COMPANY, RICHMOND, VA.
1904.
NAT HANAHO & NHẠC TO
INTERIOR OF ST. JOHN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, RICHMOND, VA. The star marks the spot where Patrick Henry stood in 1775, when he uttered the immortal words: "Give me
PREFACE.
The Annals of Henrico Parish down to Easter, 1884, were originally prepared by me at the request of Bishop Randolph, to furnish him with the facts of the history of St. John's for the preparation of his discourse for the Sesqui-Centennial, celebrated June 10, 1891. Shortly after that anniversary, I made up the Annals into an address and delivered it in St. John's, as Bishop Randolph had quoted only slightly from my gathered facts, his treatment of his theme having been rather philosophical.
The annals of my own rectorship, as I say more particu- larly in the introduction thereto, are not meant for publica- tion or expected to be generally read. I do not pretend to be a historian of my own time; much less do I wish to appear as magnifying my own ministry. Some of the minute de- tails are of no importance in themselves, and probably will have no interest to the future historian of the parish, who may seek material in these pages; but they are put on record for the sake of those concerned, to whom the smallest things and simplest facts in and about the Church of their love are sacred and precious. On the other hand, I have told of things which everybody, now a member of St. John's, sees or knows; but I have been mindful of a time when these things may have disappeared or those who know of their history may have departed.
The difficulties I found in preparing the facts concerning St. John's Church, through the one hundred and fifty years of its existence as a building, influenced me not a little in this matter.
Authorities and references to which grateful acknowledg- ment is now, once for all, given :
The Vestry Books of the Parish and of St. John's Church. Notes and introduction to the first Vestry Book, by Mr. R.
4
HISTORY HENRICO PARISH.
A. Brock, Secretary of the Virginia Historical Society, etc., 1874.
Journals of the Diocesan Councils, including introductory matter by Rev. T. G. Dashiell, D. D., Secretary of the Council. These date from the reorganization of the Diocese, in 1785.
Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia, in two volumes, by Bishop Meade.
Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of the United States, by Rev. Dr. F. L. Hawks ; Vol. 1, Virginia.
Appendix to Perry's History of the Church of England, containing a Sketch of the History of the Protestant Episco- pal Church in the United States of America.
A History of the Monumental Church, by Geo. D. Fisher. Virginia : A History of the People, by John Esten Cooke.
Manuscript Reminiscences of Old St. John's Church, by Rev. Prof. Cornelius Walker, D. D.
Manuscript Notes and data concerning St. John's, gathered and compiled by Mr. Peyton R. Carrington, of Richmond, Va.
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ANNALS OF HENRICO PARISH.
BY RT. REV. LEWIS W. BURTON, D. D.
The picturesque ruins of Jamestown mark the beginning of the Church in Virginia, in 1607. The history of Hen- rico Parish begins with the second established settlement in the colony. During the interregnum between the governor- ships of Lord De la War and Sir Thomas Gates, Sir Thomas Dale had acted as regent under the title of High Marshall of Virginia. On the arrival of Gates, Dale, by agreement, took advantage of the opportunity to carry out the cherished pro- ject of founding for himself a settlement. In the early part of September, 1611, at the head of 350 men, chiefly German laborers, he pushed up the river. He founded Henricopolis on the peninsula now insulated by Dutch Gap canal. Dale was almost a religious fanatic. He had named his new city in honor of Prince Henry, the eldest son of James I. After this prince's sudden death, Dale writes: "My glorious mas- ter is gone, that would have enamelled with his favors the labors I undertake for God's cause and his immortal honor. He was the great captain of our Israel; the hope to have builded up this heavenly new Jerusalem be interred, I think ; the whole frame of this business fell into his grave."
The Rev. Alexander Whitaker accompanied Dale. He calls the latter "Our religious and valiant Governor." He describes him as "a man of great knowledge in divinity, and of a good conscience in all things, both which," he adds, "be rare in a martial man."
The settlement of Henrico, therefore, had from the first a decidedly religious character. Prominent and earliest among the buildings erected by Dale was a church. He built it even before he had laid the foundation of his own residence. Its site was near the line of the present Dutch Gap canal. A more handsome structure of brick was speedily undertaken.
6
HISTORY HENRICO PARISH,
For defensive purposes, Dale located another settlement at the western angle of the junction of the Appomattox with the James. This received the name of Bermuda Hundred, by which it is still known. It quickly began to outshine its sister village of Henricopolis. The governor of the colony sometimes took up his residence at Bermuda Hundred.
But the earlier settlement gave the name of Henrico to the county and parish with which we are concerned.
When, in 1634, the colony was divided into eight shires, after the English fashion, the bounds of Henrico were made to include present Chesterfield and Powhatan counties, on the south of the river, and Goochland on the north. The parish lines were coincident with those of the shire. Mr. Whitaker was, of course, first rector of the parish. Dale enclosed a glebe of 100 acres and built a parsonage on the south side of the river, at a point convenient to both settlements. It was called, and the site is still known by the name of Rock Hall.
Mr. Whitaker's father was Dr. William Whitaker, Master of St. John's College, an eminent theologian and controver- sialist of Cambridge, and a friend of the "judicious Hooker." Alexander Whitaker himself was a graduate of Cambridge. For some years he had been a minister in the north of Eng- land, beloved and well supported by his people. He enjoyed besides a handsome heritage from his parents. He seems to have come to this country purely under the influence of the highest missionary spirit, believing himself to have been called by God to do so. He experienced all the struggles with himself and all the opposition of friends that try the foreign missionary's soul. A contemporary thus writes of him *: "He did voluntarily leave his warme nest; and to the wonder of his kindred and amazement of them that knew him, under- tooke this hard, but, in my judgement, heroicall resolution to go to Virginia, and helpe to beare the name of God unto the gentiles." The unanimous opinion of him seems to be that he was "purest of men," "truly pious," and most zealous in that missionary work, especially among the Indians, to which he had devoted himself. "Every Sabbath day," he writes to a friend in London, "we preach in the forenoon and catechize
*The effort is made here and throughout this history to reproduce as nearly as possible all quotations and records.
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ST. JOHN'S CHURCH.
in the afternoon. Every Saturday, at night, I exercise (ex- hort) in Sir Thomas Dale's house."
Meanwhile, in 1612, Pocahontas had been taken prisoner by the English, and Dale had succeeded Gates as Governor. Dale labored long to ground the faith of Jesus Christ in the heart of this Indian princess. Of her he wrote: "Were it but for the gaining of this one soul, I will think my time, toils, and present stay well spent." Mr. Whitaker was un- doubtedly his glad agent in the effort to evangelize this child of the forest. At any rate, this excellent clergyman had the delight of baptizing her under the name of Rebecca. In April of 1613 or 1614 he also married her to John Rolfe. Shortly she and her husband removed into the neighborhood of Henricopolis, where Rolfe had a plantation. They continued to be members of this parish until Pocahontas left Virginia.
Whitaker sent a sermon of his to England, in which he had written : "Though my promise of three yeeres' seruice to my countrey be expired, will abide in my vocation here untill I be lawfully called from hence." He added an earnest and loving exhortation to others to come over and help. He re- sisted the temptation to return to England in 1616 with his attached friend, Dale. But within a brief time he was in- deed "lawfully called" by Him whose providence is supreme.
In the spring of 1617, this our first rector, the gentle, ear- nest Whitaker, known to history as the "Apostle of Virginia," was accidentally drowned in the James.
A Mr. Wickham had served as an assistant to Mr. Whit- aker, apparently laboring at Henricopolis while Mr. Whit- aker gave most of his time to the larger and more prominent settlement of Bermuda.
John Rolfe, when in England with his wife, Pocahontas, wrote to King James concerning the Virginia colony. He speaks of "Mr. William Wickham" as the "minister" at Hen- rico, and as one "who, in his life and doctrine, gave good ex- amples and godly instructions to the people."
Some authorities describe him as "a pious man without Episcopal ordination." Certainly he could only have been in deacon's orders, for Governor Argall, successor to Dale, begs that a minister be sent to Henrico, as Mr. Whitaker was drowned, and Mr. Wickham was unable to administer the
8
HISTORY HENRICO PARISH,
sacraments. A Rev. Mr. Stockham is by some spoken of as a successor to Messrs. Whitaker and Wickham. The Rev. Jonah Stockton did come to the colony in January, 1621. The clergyman whom these historians have in mind must have been he. If so, he must have followed Mr. Bargrave. By 1619 a successor to Mr. Whitaker had been found in the person of Rev. Thomas Bargrave. If any modern mission- ary finds it hard to make ends meet with a small salary poorly paid, he may find some cool philosophizing on the subject in the legislation of this early day.
"It was enacted that each clergyman should receive from his parishioners 1,500 pounds of tobacco and 16 barrels of corn." But if the "levy should prove unequal in value to 200 pounds, the law proceeded to declare that 'the minister was to be content with less.' "
It was under Mr. Bargrave's administration that the parish of Henrico was chosen to be the site of a great university. It was founded to supply both the English and the natives with that education which is the handmaid of religion. Fif- teen thousand acres on the side of the settlement towards the falls were set apart as college lands by the Virginia Com- pany. Large subscriptions had been secured in England in response to an appeal of King James, through the Archbishop of Canterbury. Laborers were sent over to till the lands appropriated to the college. Young women of good charac- ter were persuaded to cross over to be their wives. The colonists themselves were enthusiastically interested. The rector, Mr. Bargrave, donated his library. George Thorpe, a devoted philanthropist and pious scholar, was superinten- dent of operations. Happy progress was being made in the establishment of the institution. The Rev. Mr. Copland, who had been appointed its president, and who was still in England, was requested to deliver a thanksgiving sermon in London, for all the late mercies of God to the colony and for the bright prospects before them.
Suddenly, without the slightest warning, there burst upon the fair scene a storm cloud. Its thunderbolt shattered for- ever this pious project. The city of Henrico never recovered from the blow. For four years a conspiracy among the thirty Indian nations had been forming. On the 22d of March,
MARRIAGE OF POCAHONTAS.
9
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH.
1622, it was ripe. That day Henricopolis shared the fate of thirty other settlements. The inhabitants that escaped fled to Jamestown. There the governor concentrated the relics of his colony. The fatal day was by the next Assembly solemn- ized as a holy day.
The result of this terrible catastrophe was a great revul- sion of feeling on both sides of the water. Missionary effort with the Indians was considered a failure. Their conversion was deemed hopeless. A further severe blow was given to the cause of religion in these parts in the dissolution of the Virginia Company by the King in 1624. From this time on down to 1730 the annals of Henrico Parish are fragmentary and uncertain. The Rev. James Blair was the rector from 1685 to 1694. He was a determined and courageous Scotch- man, who had been educated at Edinburg University. While still rector of this parish, in 1689, he was appointed commis- sary of the Bishop of London, Dr. Compton, who ex-officio had ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the colonies. Mr. Blair efficiently occupied this position of great responsibility and trust till his death, fifty-four years afterward. He resigned the parish to become founder and first president of William and Mary College. He was also a member of the Colonial Council. He resided first at Jamestown, preaching there and at a church eight miles off in an adjacent parish. In 1710 he removed to Williamsburg and took charge of Bruton parish. After filling with honorable and distinguished suc- cess a most prominent and trying part in the ecclesiastical history of the colonv. he was laid to rest in the old graveyard at Jamestown August 3, 1743, at the ripe age of 88.
The Rev. George Robinson is understood to have been in charge of Henrico parish in 1695. Nothing seems to be known of him besides that fact.
In 1724 the clergy of the colony were called upon for a report by the Bishop of London. The name of the incumbent of Henrico Parish has been torn from the manuscript of his report .* He mentions that he had been in the parish four- teen years. Its bounds were 18 by 25 miles. It contained two churches and one chapel. There were 400 families and 1,100 tithable persons resident. The attendance at church
*This was undoubtedly Rev. Jacob Ware .- J. S. M.
10
HISTORY HENRICO PARISH,
sometimes numbered from one to two hundred. The number accustomed to commune at any one time was about twenty. To the parents and teachers was left the catechizing of the children. The families were so distant that it was difficult to gather the children together, and, like those of our day, when they grew to any bigness, they did not like to be pub- licly catechized. As for the servants, the masters did nothing for them except to let some of them, now and then, go to church. There was no public school for the youth.
In 1730 we come to terra firma in our history. With October 28th of that year begins the record book of the Ves- try of Henrico Parish. It is a folio 7} by 123 inches, bound in vellum. It contains 191 manuscript pages, and covers the period extending to September 24, 1774. It was accidentally discovered by Mr. Peyton R. Carrington in August, 1867, among the old records of Henrico County Court. With the permission of the Presiding Justice, he delivered it to the then rector, Rev. Dr. Wm. Norwood. He placed it in the possession of the Vestry of St. John's Church. It was printed in 1874, with an interesting introduction and valu- able notes by Mr. R. A. Brock, Secretary of the Virginia His- torical Society.
The minutes of ten meetings of the Vestry, from April 8, 1807, to December 16, 1817, both inclusive, were written on sixteen pages of foolscap naner. The manuscript was found in the third story of the house of Mrs. George M. Carrington, at the corner of Twenty-eighth and Franklin streets, in 1867, by Mr. Peyton R. Carrington.
Virginia vestries a century and a half ago were elected by the freeholders and housekeepers. Among the earliest mem- bers of the vestry in Henrico Parish were men whose names are intertwined with the whole of the social and political history of our Commonwealth.
The income of the Parish was derived from tithes. For example, by the earliest resolution of our Vestry which has been preserved to us, it was
"Ordered That Capte Joseph Royal do receive according to Law of
Every Tithable
3 1833 02341 392 2
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ST. JOHN'S CHURCH.
"P'son within this Parish thirty pounds of tobacco, being the parish Levy for this year,
"and that he pay the Several Allowances before mentioned to the respective persons to whom "the Same are due."
At that date tobacco was the medium of exchange. Its value may be estimated from the fact, that in 1739 the wardens were forbidden to sell at private sale the levied tobacco for less than 12s. 6d. per hundred. At that rate the rector's salary was 100 pounds sterling, or about 500 dollars.
In this connection it is interesting to recall the fact that Patrick Henry's genius as an orator first shone publicly in what was known as the "Parson's Cause," a case in which a minister of the Church of England brought suit for arrear- ages in salary : The Virginia Burgesses having decreed that, because of a failure of the crop, all debts payable in that com- modity might be met in money at the rate of two pence per pound; the King having decided against this act, because tobacco was rated at six pence a pound when the salary of 16,000 pounds of tobacco was made the legal compensation of the clergy.
This first Vestry book is principally filled with the trans- actions belonging to that body, as a factor in the civil govern- ment, under the establishment of the Church of England. These were chiefly what was known as processioning the land-that is, going around the bounds of each person's land and renewing the landmarks by chopping the trees. There was also committed to the vestries of that day, and especially to the church wardens, the care of the poor. We have among the accounts entered in this vestry book such as these :-
"To John Jones for keeping his Daughter, being a Fool- 300 (lbs. of tobacco).
"To Doctor Hopper for Cuting off Cowsells arm-500 (lbs. of tobacco).
"Ordd that the Chwdns do agree with any person for the Cure of Pridgeon Waddles nose not exceedg* ten Pounds."
*Where a letter is italicised it is written above the line in the original.
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HISTORY HENRICO PARISH,
When this vestry book was begun the principal church o. the parish was situated on a plantation known as Curle's lying on the north side of the James, some miles below the present city of Richmond. The church itself was called by the name of the plantation on which it stood. It is said t have been demolished within the past forty years. But the writer in a visit to the locality could get no certain informa tion as to where its exact position was. The bowl of the baptismal font now in St. John's is the sole relic of the Curle' Church. It was discovered by Mrs. Margaret Pickett som miles away from Curle's Church, in the cellar of a house int which her family had just moved. It had been used as : mortar for beating hominy. Dr. John Adams, her father brought it to Richmond and placed it in the hands of a stone cutter. Being very much mutilated, it was reduced to a diam eter of 11, 9-16 inches. The original shape, however, wa preserved. Dr. Adams then presented it as a "precious and sacred" relic to the Vestry of St. John's Church, May 13 1826; and it was directed by them that it should be placed in the chancel.
It is hardly to be wondered at that, when, in 1850, a mem ber of St. John's presented to it a new marble font, the con gregation was dissatisfied at the removal of the one piece o furniture that bound their present edifice to its predecessor! in the parish, and after only a few years insisted upon it: return. Mr. P. R. Carrington thinks that the new font and two oaken chairs given by the same gentlemen are now in the church in Ashland.
To revert to our history, there was at this time also & "chapple," probably the one called in 1735 "the falls Chap pel." Indeed, there had been a feeble attempt at a settlement at the Falls of James river before that at Henricopolis. Ir all probability this was the "one chapel" reported to the Bishop of London in 1724. Probably Curle's Church als( was one of the "two churches" reported at the same time Perhaps the other one of the two was the old church at Hen ricopolis. It is more likely to have been that one for which Mr. Thomas Jefferson, an ancestor of the President, had con tracted in 1723, to be erected near Rock Hall. William Randolph had bought the whole of the 5,000 acres embracec
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