USA > Virginia > A history of Bristol Parish, Va. : with genealogies of families connected therewith, and historical illustrations > Part 2
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The tide of immigration continued to flow and re- vive the waste places. In 1629, Shirley Hundred Isl- and, and the Mayne, were represented in the House of Burgesses. In 1631-32, Commissioners were appointed for the corporations of Charles City and Henrico. In 1632, Shirley Hundred, Mayne, and Cawsey's Cave (quere Cawson's?) were represented, and in the same year a store for the inspection of all tobacco grown above Weyanoke was established at Shirley Hundred Island. Such were the symptoms of recovery in this region.
As early as 1618, the Governor and Council were in- structed to divide the Colony into Counties (Ist Hon- ing, 115) but there is no record of their having done so, until 1634, when they divided it into eight shires (counties) of which Charles City and Henrico were two,-both embracing the south side of James river,- the former covering the territory below the Appomat- tox down to Chippoak's creek -- the latter the territory
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above the Appomattox, and both with an undefined Western frontier. This is the birth of Charles City county, and its first appearance on record. What then and where was the Charles City, which was repre- sented in the Ist Assembly (1619)? and was judged the most commodious site for the East India School, which was to be tributary to Henrico College; and in 1623 held monthly courts, &c., so often referred to in the "Briefe Declaration of the Planters," 1624. (Co- nial Records, pp. 76-80.) All the historians are si- 1.it but Bishop Meade and Campbell, who conjecture that the city in question was within the limits of the present county of Charles City, therefore on the north 1 e of the James. But in "Particulars of all the nds" granted by patent (Sainsbury's Calendar, So- \':Donald pp. 307-317), is a grant of land to the orporation of Charles City. There are in the list subordinate heads, and one of these, under the head " Corporation of Charles City," is as follows: "Upon A ppamattuck River," under which we read, "There, is land laid out for Charles Cittie and the common land." (Burke 333.)
It is incredible that this could have been any where but at the mouth of the Appomattox; and it is just as incredible that it could have been above or north of the river, as Charles City (town) was the nucleus around which the county was formed, as Henrico county from Henrico city, Jamies City county from James City (town), Elizabeth City county from Eliza- beth. City (town), and, therefore, it points with almost abs te certainty to our modern City Point as the ori: 1 Charles City (town) and thence called City Poi
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BRISTOL PARISH.
We have now by gradual steps come to the estab- lishment of Bristol Parish (1642). The act of Assem- bly was in these words:
"Be it also enacted and confirmed, for the conve- nieney of the inhabitants on both sides of the Appo- mattock River, being farr remote from the parish church of the said plantation upon Appomattock be bounded into a parish by themselves, as followeth, to begin at Cawson's ffeild within the mouth of the Ap- pomattock River, on the eastward side, and at Powell's Creek on the westward side of the river; and so to ex- tend up the river to the falls on both sides, and the said parish to be called by the name of Bristoll."
All writers hitherto have assumed that the mother- church of Bristol Parish was at Bermuda Hundred. Bishop Mcade thought this was evident from the fact that the vestry ordered a ferry to be kept at City Point for the convenience of persons going over on Sunday to the mother-church. But the vestry book does not say City Point, but only at the Point; which Bishop Meade naturally supposed to be City Point, and there- fore added in brackets (City Point). There were other points on the river, and ferries. From 1720 (the date of the vestry book) Mrs. Elizabeth Kennon, who lived at Conjurer's Neck (the Brick House) in what was then Henrico, now Chesterfield county, was paid an- nually by the vestry for keeping up a ferry, and there- fore that may have been the point of passage to the mother-church. The line of Bristol Parish on the north side of the Appomattox river was Poweil's creek, which would exclude Bermuda Hundred from Bristol Parish. And the vestry book of Henrico Par- ish, edited by Mr. R. A. Brock, shows that Henrico
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Parish exercised jurisdiction to Powell's creek to 1734, when Dale Parish absorbed all of Bristol and Henrico Parishes north of the Appomattox. The rational con- clusion then is that the mother-church was above Pow- ell's creek, and the indications point to old "Wood's Church." *
* Wood's Church .- This old church, five miles from Petersburg, in Chesterfield county, was built in 1707, and is consequently older than the Blandford church. It is of wood, and has been often re- paired, nothing now remaining of the original structure but the skeleton frame-work, which being of heart pine is still well pre- served. It is within the limits of the original Bristol Parish, and many indications point to it as the " Mother Church." Between 1692 and 1707, there must have been other churches in the Parish, but before the building of Blandford church, a " Mother Church " is spoken of in connection with the family of Dysons, who have lived immemorially near the site of Wood's church. After the formation of Dale Parish, 1735-6, the " Mother Church" is not mentioned, and there is no vestry-book of Dale extant. The tra- dition is that it was named after Major Abram Wood, who repre- sented, with Wyatt, the " Appamattucke Country," 10.15-6. If liv- ing in 1707, he must have been a very old man. There may have been a previous church on the same site, or it may have been named from the son of the first Abram. There was certainly a James, and also an Aaron Wood, living here in 1724-9. as they had children baptized at that period, one of whom was Richard. Aaron may have been a clerical error for Abram. One of the Peter Jonescs (of whom there were many) married a daugther of Aaron Wood, and had one daughter, who married a Newsom, who had two daughters, one of whom married John Dorrell and the other Erasmus Gill, the father of that good mother in Israel, the late Mrs. - Hinton, who has many representatives in Peters- burg. The ministers of Wood's Church have been : Rev. George Robertson, Rev. George Frazier, 1754: kev. --- McRoberts to 1773-6; Rev. Wm. Leigh, 1785-6, who was the father of the emi- nent jurist and statesman, Benjamin Watkins Leigh, who officiated also at Ware Bottom church and was succeeded by Rev. Needler Robinson, who lived to 1823. The church has been recently re- paired and painted and is used by the Methodists.
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BRISTOL PARISH.
In 1645-'46 an act was passed for the erection of a Ffort at the Falls of Appamatucke named ffort Henry, which with 600 acres of land was afterwards granted to Captain Abram Wood, on condition that he kept ten men in it for three years, to prevent the salvages (savages) from fishing in Bristol alias Appamatucke river (Ist Hening 315). In 1646, in response to a petition from Wood and Wyatt, delegates to the Grand Assembly from the Appomatucke country, it was or- defed, that two courts be held in Charles City county, one on the north and one on the south side of James river. In 1653 the inhabitants were authorized to hold courts, appeals lying to Charles City and Henrico county courts.
We are in the dark as to the Parish until 16So, when a list of the parishes and their incumbents in the Colo- nial Records shows that the Rev. John Ball was minis- tering to the church at Varina in Henrico Parish, and to that "half of Bristol North of the Appomatox;" while the half of Bristol and Jordan's, in Charles City county, had lay readers only. This is the first time that Varina and Jordan's appear as sites of churches. No one, so far as we know, has noted the fact, that in 1657-58 the county courts were empowered to divide the counties into Parishes, and the Parishes were en- titled to send Burgesses to the General Assembly. Hence some parishes appear in history, of whose es- tablishment, by act of Assembly, there is no record. Plantations, as Jordan's, were represented as burghs and parishes. In 1680, fifty acres of land were laid off' for a town at Varina, where the court-house is, and at fflower de hundred .- (2nd Hening 472.)
1693. We now come to the incumbency of the
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Rev. George Robertson, who had been chaplain to a man-of-war in 1692. In answer to queries put to cach of the clergy by the Bishop of London in 1724, he says: "He was licensed by Dr. Compton, Bishop of London, as a missionary in Virginia, and had been in charge of Bristol Parish in the upper part of James river since 1693, which Parish is forty odd miles long, and twenty miles wide, though in some parts thinly seated, and that there are about four hundred and thirty families therein, and eleven hundred tyth- ables. There are no infidels in it, but negro slaves, and a few Indian servants; that he had several times exhorted their masters to send such of them as could speak English to be catechized, but they would not, though some masters instructed their slaves at home and brought them to baptism; that he had one service every Sunday, alternately at the church and the chapel, and his congregations were good in good wea- ther, sometimes more than the pews would hold ; that he administered the Lord's supper at Christmas, Easter and Whitsunday, and catechized after the second les- son; this had been intermitted for past two years. but would be resumed this summer; that his salary was sixteen thousand pounds Orinococ tobacco, but this was not so valuable as 'the sweet-scented parishes ;' that he had a glebe of forty acres of barren land, not deserving a house, and consequently has none, and never had-' Non entis nulla sunt accidentia.' There is no Parish library and no public school, but several private ones, to teach children to read and cipher, for which fathers pay out of their own pockets; and that finally all things are provided in the church for the decent observance of divine service,"
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BRISTOL PARISH.
The vestry book extant, begins in 1720, and the ves- try meeting after that date, until 1737, were held at the Ferry chapel and then at the Brick church (Bland- ford). The first meeting of the vestry recorded in the vestry book was at the Ferry chapel, on the 30th Oc- tober, 1720. Present: Rev. Geo. Robertson, minister, Capt. Peter Jones, Justant Hall, Lewis Green, Major Robert Bolling (Ch. Warden), Major Robert Munford (Ch. Warden), Major William Kennon, Capt. Henry Randolph.
On the minutes of the vestry we find the following item, which may amuse our modern choirs, viz: Bris- tol Parish Dr. to Mr. Henry Tatum for setting the Psalms, 500 lbs. tobacco.
Prince George county had been taken from Charles City county in 1702. In 1707 Woods church, about five miles from Petersburg, on the north side of the Appo- mattox was built. It may have derived its name from Major Abram Wood, who had been a leading man of the section. In 1720, the General Assembly passed an act for building a church in Bristol Parish. This chapel was built in 1723. The contractor for this church was Thomas Jefferson. At this time there were S48 tyth- ables in the Parish, from which its population may be inferred, as all male persons of the age of sixteen and upwards, and all negro, mulatto and Indian women of the same age (not being free ), except such as the vestry for charitable reasons might excuse, were tythable, ac- cording to law. We have seen that the minister esti- mated the population in 1724 as 1100 tythables and 400 families.
As an example of some of the duties of the vestry
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in that time, we extract from their records the follow- ing order, dated June 29, 1724:
"In pursuance of an Act of Assembly for the more effectual improvement of the staple of tobacco, it is or- dered by the vestry that the southside of the Parish be divided into precincts, viz: To begin at Appomatox Ferry, thence along Mouck's Neck road to Stony Creek Bridge, thence up Stony Creek to the upper road to Nottoway river, thence up between the same and Appomatox river to the extent of the Parish ; Capt. Peter Jones and his son William are appointed to count tobacco plants for said precinct. Thomas Bott is appointed counter on the north side of the precinct be- tween old Town creek and Appomatox; William Row- lett between old Town creek and Swift creek, and William Chambliss between Swift creek and Henrico Parish."
In 1725 the population of the Parish having ad- vanced towards the west and settled upon Saponey and Namozine creeks, Major Robert Bolling and Major Munford were instructed by the vestry to contract for two chapels for the accommodation of the frontier in- habitants of the Parish. The committee agreed with Mr. James to build a chapel upon the upper side of Namozine creek, as near the river as it could be placed, for 135 pounds current money of Virginia, and with Mr. Colwell to build a chapel upon the land of Mr. Stith, upon Saponey, convenient to the upper Notto- way river road, for 140 pounds. These chapels were to be good substantial frame buildings, forty by twenty feet, with "good sills, and underpinned with block or
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rock-stone, to be weather-boarded with good clap boards and covered with shingles; the inside to be common plain work, the seats to be single benches, except the two upper pews and these to be double with doors. Each chapel to be sealed with 1% inch plank, a common plain gallery, reading-desk and Communion Table."
In 1727 four surplices were ordered, and when the above chapels were finished, Major William Kennon was directed to provide them with baptismal fonts, books and fitting ornaments. In 1730 Mr. H. Boley contracted to build an addition of twenty feet to Sa- poney chapel for {125 in tobacco, "at the price the London stores gave." Major William Kennon agreed to add twenty feet to the chapel at Namozine, on the same terms. In 1731 it was ordered by the vestry that a ferry be kept at the Point, and that it be attended when the sermon is at the "Mother-Church," and that the minister pass when he hath occasion. As there was but one minister in the Parish, having the mother- church and several chapels under his care, at which he officiated in turn, lay readers were appointed for each congregation, with a salary, so that there should be no intermission in the regular services of the church.
In 1,32, the vestry, with an admirable zeal, which prompted them to lose no time in providing church accommodations commensurate with a rapidly increas- ing population, in response to a petition from the runote inhabitants of the Parish, contracted with Rich- ard Booker, gentleman, to build a chapel upon the Jind of Samuel Cobbs, on Flat creek, of the same dimensions and style of workmanship of the chapel at Namozine, and appropriated 695 current money to
.
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that end: Mr. Booker to have the privilege of putting up a pew for his own family, by the side of the com- munion table, at his own charge. This chapel was covered with tar, a fashionable substitute for paint in those primitive days.
January 1733, the church wardens were directed to examine into the condition of the chapel at the ferry, and if it could be well repaired to employ workmen to do the same. At a meeting of the vestry soon after- wards it was determined to build a new church of brick. The church wardens were instructed to pur- chase an acre of land, on Wells' hill, of John Low, as a site for the church. The vestry met the workmen at the time appointed, 4th May, at Thomas Hardaway's, and agreed with Captain Thomas Ravenscroft to build a church on Wells' hill for the sum of 584 pounds cur- rent money of Virginia.
According to the articles of agreement, the church was to be of brick, sixty by twenty-five feet in the clear, fifteen feet from the spring of the arch to the floor, which was to
be eighteen inches above the highest part of the ground, three bricks thick to the water table, and two and a half afterwards; the aisle to be six feet wide and laid with Bristol stone; a gallery at the west end, with a window in the same, as large as the pitch will admit. The floor to be well laid with good inch and a quarter plank, the pews to be framed and the fronts to be raised a panel and a quarter around, with a decent pulpit and a decent rail around the altar place, and a table suitable thereto as usual; the roof to be covered with plank and shingled with good cypress heart shingles, with cornice eaves, large board eaves, and suitable doors; the work to be
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done in the best plain manner, strong and workman like. Major Robert Bolling, William Poythress and William Starke were deputed to superintend the build ing.
In August, 1734, Dale Parish was established. Th act of Assembly says: "All that part of Henrico Parish which lies south of James River, together with that part of Bristol Parish, north of the Appomator River, in the County of Henrico, shall be erected inte a distinct Parish, and called Dale." This act also pro- vides that the vestrymen of Bristol, living north of the Appomattox, shall be vestrymen of Dale, and others shall be elected before June, 1738, to make the num. ber twelve, and no more. At the same session Prince George county and Bristol Parish were divided by a line from the mouth of Namozine creek, up the main branch to Hamlin fork, thence up the south branch thereof to White-oak Hunting Path, thence by a south course to Nottoway river, and all along the said courses, bounded by Great Nottoway river, including part of Brunswick county and St. Andrew's Parish, along the ridge between Roanoke and Appomattox rivers, thence to the Great Mountains, westwardly by said mountains, and northerly by the southern boun- daries of Goochland and Henrico, be erected into a Estinet county and Parish, to be called "Amelia County and Raleigh Parish." The governor (Gooch), for reasons not given, ordered the work on the church ( Blandford) to be suspended. The reason probably why, that the vestry of Bristol had levied the sum of twelve pounds tobacco per poll upon the whole Parish, after the acts for severing the parishes of Raleigh and Dale from it had been passed.
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In August, 1736, the General Assembly ordered the Parish of Bristol to refund to Dale and Raleigh the levies collected within their bounds at the next levy. The refunding of this tobacco raised the levy of Bristol to forty-three pounds tobacco per poll. The church was then finished.
Such is the early history of the old Brick church at Blandford, which has now become historical, a shrine to which pilgrims wend their way, and which has waked the muse of poetry. We shall have more to say in the appendix of this lone relic of the past.
On the 13th August, 1737, the vestry met for the first time at the Brick church. Present: Col. Robert Bolling, Capt. Robert Munford, Capt. John Banister, Major Will'am Poythress, Capt. Francis Poythress, Capt. Wm. Starke, and Capt. Daniel Walker.
In May, 1738, Messrs. Banister, Munford, Hamlin and Poythress were appointed to choose a site for a chapel on Hatcher's run, and in the following summer a contract was made with Isham Eppes for building a chapel on the land of Allen Tye, on the north side of Hatcher's run, for which he was to receive 119 pounds. This chapel was burned and rebuilt in 1740.
On 22nd October, 1739, Messrs. Bolling, Poythress and Eppes were instructed to choose a site for a chapel in the lower part of the Parish. Mr. John Ravenscroft erected this chapel on Jones' Hole creek for 134 pounds, ro shillings.
The Rev. George Robertson having died in 1739, the Rev. Richard Hartwell was chosen. Some misun- derstanding having arisen between this gentleman and the vestry, as to the terms of the contract, he was dis- charged on the following day, the vestry having re-
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solved, "that Mr. Hartwell should not be the minister of the Parish on the original terms of the contract or on any other terms whatever." Nothing has been known of this incumbent of a day, but we have just noted for the first time an item in a letter of Commis- sary Blair to the bishops of London, dated May 29, 1740. Blair says, "one of our oldest ministers, George Robinson is dead. There is one Mr. Richard Hart- well come up into this country, from Liverpool, about a year ago, in Deacon's orders. He was ordained by the Bishop of Rochester, Sep. 21, 1735. He brought no letters of recommendation with him, and came very unprovided with books, or anything else. He preached in several churches and has a taking way of delivery, but no Parish seems desirous of having him, chiefly because he cannot administer the Lord's Supper, which they are very pressing for. especially on their death beds. The Governor has recommended him to some gentlemen of the Parish, which was Mr. Robertson's, and he has gone there, but I hear meets with great opposition. I want your Lordship's direction about him. I am somewhat diffident of his character in Eng- land, by reason of his coming away so abruptly, and that he has been so long Deacon without receiving Priest's orders, and seems averse to repairing to Eng- land for complete orders."
The vacancy in the Parish was supplied by the Rev. Mr. Stith, minister of Henrico Parish, residing at Va- rina, where, says Campbell, he composed his history of Virginia.
On the 20th March, 17.10, the Rev. Mr. Ferguson was chosen minister of the Parish, and John May, sec- retary of the vestry.
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In December, 1741, the vestry purchased 200 acres of land for a glebe, with the necessary appurtenances for a dwelling, for which they gave the sum of 200 pounds current money. Hitherto there had been an allowance of 4,000 lbs. tobacco instead of a glebe, to which he was entitled by law.
January, 1742, the following act was passed by the General Assembly: "Whereas, by reason of the great extent of the Parish of Bristol the ministers and the inhabitants thereof labor under many inconveniences, be it enacted that after the Ist day of May next, the new Parish shall be divided by a line beginning at Ma- jor James Munford's mill on the Appomatox River, running thence a course parallel to the lower line of said Parish to Stony Creek, and down said creek to Surrey County, and all that part of the Parish below said line be a distinct Parish, retaining the name of Bristol, and all that part of the Parish above said line be another distinct Parish, and called Bath." Some difficulties having arisen between the two parishes in consequence of this division, it was ordered by the vestry of Bristol that a representation of the unequal division of the two parislies be certified at the next court for certifying propositions and grievances to the next General Assembly, and that Colonel Robert Boll- ing and Colonel Theodoric Bland attend the house on
the part of this Parish. The case came before the general court, and was formally settled by an act of Assembly in 1744, reännexing a part of Bath to Bris- tol, and making the line between them run from Ap- pomattox river on the east side of Wallace's creek to Surry county. Messrs. Bolling and Bland were also instructed to petition the Assembly for an act directing
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the sale of the glebe in Dale Parish, which had been purchased by Bristol before its division, and that Bris- tol should be paid its proportion of the proceeds of the sale; that the church ornaments of velvet, fringed with gold, and such plate as has the name of Bristol thereon. now in the possession of the Parish of Dale, to be returned to the Parish of Bristol. Accordingly, in 1747, the Assembly passed an act directing the sale of the glebe in Dale, and the division of the proceeds between the two parishes.
As another example of the duties devolved by law upon the vestries of the line, I take from the record the following order dated 1747 :- "Ordered, that John May and John Edwards' procession from Indian Town run to the Parish line, Robert Birchett and Thomas Cheves between Blackwater swamp and Second swamp, John Peterson and Sam. Jordan from Puddledock run to Nottoway road, William Batte and Drury Thweat from Parish line to Nottoway road, James Sturdivant and John Gilliam from Puddledock run to City run."
In 1748. Our narrative in its progress has now reached the foundation of the towns of Petersburg and Blandford. As early as 1728, Col. Byrd, one of the commissioners for running the line between Vir- ginia and North Carolina, on his return, speaks of the site of Petersburg thus: "At the end of 38 miles we reached Col. Bolling's (Kippax), where from a primi- tive course of life we began to relax into luxury. This gentleman lives within hearing of the falls of the Ap- pomattox, which are very noisy, when a flood happens to roll a larger stream of water over the rocks. The river is navigable to the falls, and at some distance from them fetches a compass and runs nearly parallel
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