USA > Virginia > Culpeper County > Culpeper County > A history of St. Mark's Parish, Culpeper County, Virginia, with notes of old churches and old families, and illustrations of the manners and customs of the olden time > Part 3
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CULPEPER COUNTY.
same, describing all the runs and creeks that run into it." Colonel Byrd says :- " While we stayed at Fred- ericksburg we lodged at Colonel Henry Willis's, but kept a magnificent table at the ordinary, and enter- tained all gentlemen who came to visit us, which were many. We then went to the fork of the river, and found the North branch to be wider by three poles and nine links, though it was objected by my Lord's Commissioners that the South was made narrower by an island that ran along the south shore. We carried a surloin of beef from Colonel Carter's, and picked it as clean as a pack of wolves would those of a wounded deer. The same gentleman fur- nished us with strong beer, but forgot to bring a vessel to drink it from. However, we supplied that want with the shell of a poor terrapin, which we destroyed, as Henry VIII. did Cardinal Wolsey, for the sake of his house. We then proceeded to Ger- mantown, where Governor Spotswood received us very courteously, and lest we should have forgotten the battles of Marlborough, he fought them all over again, for the nine-and-fortieth time. There we took the depositions of Taliaferro, Thornton, and Russell, as follows :- Jno. Taliaferro, gentleman, aged forty-nine years, being summoned, saith :- ' About the year 1707 he came to live where he now lives, above Snow Creek, nine miles below the falls, and there were then but three settlements above his house, on the south side of the river. He had been acquainted with the fork of the river above twenty- four years, and that one of the forks was called South River until Governor Spotswood, above twenty years ago, named the south branch Rapidan, and it has ever since been so called.' Francis Thornton, of Caro- C
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ST. MARK'S PARISH.
line, gentleman, aged fifty-three years and upwards, being sworn, declared :-- ' Abont thirty years ago he came to dwell where he now lives, on the lower side of Snow Creek, and there were but two settlements above his house, the uppermost of which was about four miles below the Falls. He had been acquainted with the forks of the river about twenty-seven years, and that one was called the South and the other the North Branch.' William Russell, aged fifty-six years, being sworn, saith :- 'He has known the Great Fork of the Rappahannock River thirty-five years as a hunter, and one of the branches was always called South River until he heard Governor Spots- wood named Sonth River Rapidan, and the other river has been called Rappahannock ; that the upper- most settlement thirty years ago was Montjoy's tobacco-house, now Colonel Carter's quarter, on the north side of the river; that he saw some posts of the house on Mott's land, three or four miles above the Falls, which was said to have been burned by the Indians near thirty years ago."
On the 3d August, 1736, the King's Commissioners met at Williamsburg. Major Mayo attended with an elegant map, delineating elearly the branches of the Rappahannock up to their sources, and with copies of their field-notes. The commissioners of the King made their report. Lord Fairfax took the report of his commissioners to England with him, and got the matter referred to the Lords of Trade, to report all the facts and their opinion to the Lords of the Com- mittee of Council. All the reports and papers were laid before the latter. The question was argued by able counsel ; and without going into further details, let it suffice to say, that it was finally decided in .
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CULPEPER COUNTY.
favor of Lord Fairfax; making that branch of the Rapidan, called the Conway, the head-stream of the Rappahannock River, and the southern boundary of the Northern Neck ; and thus adding the original county of Culpeper to the princely plantation of Lord Fairfax. The Rapidan, named after an English Queen, prevailed over the Indian Rappahan- nock. Queen Ann's name and reign are perpetuated in Rapidan, North and South Anna, Fluvanna,
Ridge
The Little
Hedeman
nly
Battle MO
Fork
Rapal" Riv No
Red OakM.
Yew Hills
-
The
Conway R.
Staunton's R .
Orange
Rapahannock River S.º Branch
Court houfe
Thornton
CZ2 R.
called Rapidan
Wilderness run
County Road
Rivanna, Germanna, &c. Authorities differ as to the orthography of the name of the river in question. Many spell it Rapid Ann ; and yet in the proceed- ings of the commissioners for settling the bound- aries of the Northern Neck, and throughout Henning's Statutes at large, it always has the form Rapiddan or Rapidan. The decision referred to was ratified by the formal assent of the General Assembly, and by the authority of the highest judicial tribunals.
The Great Fork
ranch lately called.
Riv!called Robertfon
Court Ving ForK
The Boundary Line
Blem
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ST. MARK'S PARISH.
1749. William Green is chosen vestryman in the place of Capt. Robert Green, deceased. The county of Culpeper was now honored by the presence and services of George Washington in the humble office of County Surveyor. The marriage of his brother Lawrence with Miss Fairfax made him known to the proprictor of the Northern Neck, who gave him the appointment of Surveyor. In 1748 he was employed in the valley of the Shenandoah. His compensation was a doubloon ($7.20) a day. In the following year he was made a public surveyor by the President of William and Mary College; and in the County Court of Culpeper we find the following record :
July 20th, 1749. "George Washington, gentle- man, produced a commission from the President of William and Mary College, appointing him Surveyor of this county, which was received ; and thereupon took the usual oaths to his Majesty's person and government ; and took and subscribed the abjuration oath and test, and then took the oath of surveyor, according to law."
Washington was now in his seventeenth year, and continued in office for three years. As no one had the sagacity to see the undeveloped germs of great- ness which lay hid in this unfledged youth, his daily life passed without special observation. Had it been otherwise, we should in all probability have found, in our old parish register, the record that he was the surveyor who laid off our glebes and sites of churches, and ran some of our parish lines.
1750. A " chapel of ease" was ordered at the Little Fork, and the vestry agreed to meet at or near
A BOOK OF SURVEY'S
Began
JULY 224 1749
D
Francis Slaughter'sLand
Jno. Roberts' Land
E
Road
>C
B
Waste Land
Run
Flat
Mount Poney
1
Main
Norman's Land
F
Barnes'Land
A
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ST. MARK'S PARISHI.
the old muster-field at the forks of the road, to choose the site, and contract with Thomas Brown to nnder- take it.
1751. Thomas Slaughter is chosen vestryman in place of Robert Slaughter, Jr., removed from the parish ; and James Pendleton in place of Capt. Ball, deceased. Gabriel Jones is paid 200 pounds tobacco for attorney's fees, Dr. Thomas Howison 1000 pounds tobacco for medical attendance on the poor, and Wm. Peyton 200 pounds tobacco for procession- ing lands.
1752. St. Mark's Parish is again divided by the Meander or Crooked Run, falling into the Robinson River, up to Col. John Spotswood's corner on that run, thence by his line, north 28 degrees east to Bloodsworth's road, then by a straight line to Crooked Run, a branch of the north fork of the Gourdvine River, where the main road called Duncan's crosses the said run, thence by the said run up to the head thereof; thence to the head of White Oak Run, thence by that run down to the North River. All below that line, except so much as lies in the county of Orange, to be one distinct parish, and retain the name of St. Mark's; and all above said bounds, to- gether with so much of St. Thomas as lies in Culpeper, which is hereby added to and made part of the same, be another distinct parish and called Bromfield (see 6th Henning 256). As this division threw Tennant's Church into the Parish of Bromfield, the church wardens were ordered to provide benches or seats in the court-house for the accommodation of so much of that congregation as remained in St. Mark's. This gives the date of the first church services held at Culpeper Courthouse. The churchwardens were
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ST. MARK'S PARISH.
also ordered to apply to the surveyor to run the lines between the parishes, and Henry Field and Philip Clayton were directed to attend the surveyor when running these lines. Mr. Brown was also ordered to remove the materials for the intended chapel in the Little Fork, and to erect a church, instead of a chapel, with them, on a ridge between Freeman's* Mill Run and the river, in the edge of Freeman's old field -the church to be ceiled with plank instead of clapboards, and to bave wainscot instead of plain pews, in the best manner. A new church was also ordered upon Col. Spotswood's land, near the cool spring above John Leavell's, on or near Buck Run. The present writer well remembers to have seen, in his boyhood, the relics of the burying-ground of this old church, which stood in a grove upon the hill, above and across Buck Run from the dwelling where old Capt. Moore then resided, and Capt. John Strother now lives.
1753 to 1757. Some of the leaves of the vestry book have been torn out, leaving a gap in the record from 1753 to 1757, which Bishop Meade has passed over. I propose to fill that gap from the folio, which is entire, and with inevitable inferences from other known facts. One of these inferences is, that there was a church at Mount Poney. The ground of this inference is the fact that an appropriation had been made for a church at that place in 1752; and one of Mr. Thompson's manuscript sermons (still extant) is
* This Freemau was the grandfather of Mrs. Waller Yager. His father and Major Eastham came from Gloucester county, and were among the early set- tlers In what is now Culpeper. Mrs. Yager's father was one of the first members of Little Fork Church. His father owned a large body of land there. He dled in the 96th year of his age, les ving five sons sud four daughters.
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ST. MARK'S PARISH.
endorsed as having been preached at Mount Poney Church some years after.
The names of the following persons appear in a record before me as having served in a campaign against the French and Indians about this date, viz: Col. Robert Slaughter, Lieut .- Col. Wm. Russell, Capt. Wm. Brown, Capt. John Strother, Lieut. John Field, Lieut. William Slaughter, Martin Nalle, Wm. Nalle, Charles Yancey, Wm. Lightfoot, Reuben Long, Thomas Slaughter, William Robertson, Wm. Yager, Henry Gaines, Henry Stringfellow, and Wm. Roberts. All these names have their representatives still in Culpeper, and they are reproduced as items of interest to their descendants. Robert Slaughter, Robert Coleman, Daniel Brown, Philip Rootes, Reuben Long, and Wm. Williams, are spoken of as being neighbors. Dr. Michael Wallace presented an account to the vestry for 800 pounds of tobacco, for curing Eliza Maddox. Daniel Brown, James Spillman, and Henry Field, are credited with services rendered ; and C. Hutchins is allowed 100 pounds of tobacco for grubbing the churchyard at Little Fork.
1757. The vestry met at the vestry-house, and the following gentlemen were present :- Rev. Mr. Thomp- son, minister; Wm. Lightfoot, Robert Green, Goodrich Lightfoot, Wm. Green, James Pendleton, Francis Slaughter, Robert Slaughter, Philip Clayton, Benj. Roberts, and Henry Field. James Pendleton was continued as Clerk (Lay Reader) of Little Fork Church ; Nat. Pendleton, Clerk of the Lower Church; Richard Young, Clerk of Buck Run Church, and Wm. Peyton, Clerk of the Vestry. The church- wardens were directed to provide two new surplices
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ST. MARK'S PARISH.
and two prayer-books for the use of the parish. Col. Wm. Green and Col. Wm. Russell were made church- wardens for the ensuing year, and Robert Eastham- vestryman, in place of Thomas Stubblefield, deceased. Divers poor and infirm persons were exempted from paying parish levy, and appropriations were made for the support of all poor and disabled people. Last Monday in November, 1757, vestry met at the new church on Buck Run. H. Field reported that he had paid the quit-rents for the glebe and church for 1755- 56. Thomas Covington was paid for tarring the church, grubbing the yard, and making the horse-block at Buck Run.
1758. Dec. 1st, Robert Eastham and Robert Green churchwardens for the ensuing year. Thos .? Slaughter and Anthony Garnett made vestrymen, in place of Wm. Stubblefield, deceased, and Wm. Light- foot, removed out of the parish. James Pendleton, Sheriff, gave bond and security as collector of parish levy.
1759. In February, Act of the General Assembly established the town of Fairfax, on a "high and pleasant situation in the county of Culpeper, where the courthouse now stands "; and set apart thirty acres of Robert Coleman's land, to be laid off into lots and streets by the trustees, Thomas Slaughter, Wm. Green, Philip Clayton, Nat Pendleton, and Wm. Williams. This land was held by Benjamin Davis, lessee of Coleman, who was permitted to hold his houses, and have one-fifth of his rent deducted. Hence the names of Davis and Coleman Streets. Nov. 26th, 1759, payments were made to William Russell, R. D. Parks, J. M. Tackett, Charles Morgan, and J. Carnager, R. Wright and Joseph Newman,
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ST. MARK'S PARISH.
for providing for certain poor persons. Thomas Slaughter and Anthony Garnett made church wardens for ensuing year.
1760. Robert Slaughter and Francis Slaughter appointed churchwardens for 1761, and James Slanghter collector. The wardens are instructed to provide any number of benches that may be needed, to stand in and about the Little Fork Church. This order would seem to indicate that the congregations of Mr. Thompson were too large to be accommodated in the regular seats. Wm. Williams is chosen vestryman in place of Robert Eastham, removed out of the parish.
1761. Sept. 1st, an addition to Little Fork Church, 32 feet long and 22 feet wide, was ordered. Thos. Covington, with Lewis Davis Yancey as his security, gave his bond to build it for 100 pounds. Nov. 1761, the usual annual appropriations for the poor were made. 1500 pounds tobacco were ordered to be sold out of the depositum for cash, to pay 100 pounds to Covington for additions to Little Fork Church. Goodrich Lightfoot and William Williams were chosen churchwardens for the ensuing year, and John Green collector.
1762. Sept. 1st, Wm. Pollard was elected clerk of the Lower Church. An order of Bromfield Parish being exhibited by Ambrose Powell and Martin Nalle, gentlemen of the vestry of said parish, to join them in the division of the two parishes, it is ordered that the same lie for the further consideration of the vestry. From this entry it would seem that although the two parishes had been separated for ten years, the parish lines had not been run. Dec. 18th, 1762, at a vestry at Little Fork Church the
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ST. MARK'S PARISH.
usual routine business was gone through, and Henry Field and Benjamin Roberts made churchwardens for the ensuing year.
1763. April 8th, Wm. Ball was chosen vestryman in the room of James Pendleton, deceased, and Henry Field, Jr., in the place of Henry Field, Sr., resigned. Philip Clayton was chosen to succeed Henry Field as churchwarden.
Dec. 19th, " Wm. Ball, and Henry Field, Jr., having in the court of Culpeper taken the oath to his Majesty, and subscribed the test, and in the vestry subscribed to be conformable to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England as by law established, took their places as vestrymen accord- ingly." The above entry is more circumstantial than usual, but it only describes in detail what always took place when a new vestryman was qualified. Wm. Ball and Henry Field made churchwardens for the ensuing year. 5500 lbs. of tobacco were set apart for repairing the Lower Church, and 3000 lbs. for paying allowances to the poor.
1764. Nov. 19th, appropriated to Thos. Coving- ton, in full satisfaction for repairing the church, vestry-house, dial-post, stand and six benches, 700 lbs. of tobacco, he having already received 3500 lbs.
The Rev. Mr. Thompson having represented to the vestry that the glebe-land of this parish is in- sufficient to furnish timber, fire-wood and fences, the vestry do order that a petition be presented to the General Assembly for an act enabling the vestry to sell the glebe and purchase another in lieu thereof. Mr. Thompson having asked for leave to build a gallery in Lower Church for the use of his family, the vestry consent, provided the lower part of the gallery
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ST. MARK'S PARISH.
be above the windows and not inconvenient to any part of the church, except the back pew, in which the stairs are to be carried up. John Green and Robert Green are appointed church wardens.
1765. Nov. 26th, the usual routine business being dispatched, the vestry adjourned to meet at Frederiek Zimmerman's on the 17th Dec.
Dee. 17th, ordered, that the churchwardens agree with workmen to build a house at Buek Run Church, and another at the Fork Church, each 12 feet wide and 16 feet long, well framed and covered with shingles free from sap, weather-boarded with feather-edged plank, underpinned with brick or stone 18 inches from the surface of the earth, a brick or stone chimney to each, sash windows to each with eight lights of glass 8 by 10 inches, with. a plank floor above and below. We give the style of these houses in detail because they are specimens of the vestry-houses of that day, and illustrate some other points. James Slaughter and James Pen- dleton were elected vestrymen in the room of Francis Slaughter, gentleman, deceased, and Thos. Slaughter, who had removed from the parish. Goodrich Lightfoot and William Williams church wardens for next year.
1766. Nov. 17th, Samuel Clayton chosen vestry- man in room of Major Philip Clayton. Benjamin Roberts and James Pendleton made church wardens for next year, and appropriations for current ex- penses.
1767. Nov. 24th, James Slaughter and Samuel Clayton churchwardens. Samuel Clayton, Jr., in behalf of the congregation of Buck Run Church, moved that R. Young be removed from being Reader
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ST. MARK'S PARISH.
at said church, and said Young is ordered to answer the complaint on the 18th of December. Mr. Young soon after came into the vestry and resigned. The cause of complaint is not stated.
1768. February 23d, an addition to Buck Run Church twenty-eight feet wide and three feet long, sills, sleepers, posts and braces all of oak, and under- pinned with brick or stone, is ordered; and Captain William Brown being the lowest bidder at 11,500 lbs. of tobacco, it is let to him upon his entering into bond with security that it be done in a workman- like manner, and finished by October of the ensuing year.
November 23d, James Pendleton and G. Lightfoot church wardens for the ensuing year, and Cadwallader Slaughter appointed vestryman in the place of Robert Slaughter, deceased.
1770. Leave is given to Samuel Henning to build a gallery in Buck Run Church at his own expense. The wardens are instructed to advertise the glebe for sale in the Virginia Gazette, and to buy a more convenient site for a glebe. The glebe was sold to Samuel Henning for one hundred and ninety-nine pounds current money. Goodrich Lightfoot and others reported that they had viewed several tracts of land, and that Francis Slaughter's or George Cat- lett's was the most convenient for a glebe. The vestry adjourned to meet at Lawrence Catlett's and decide upon the site. John Green vestryman in the room of William Green, deceased.
November, the vestry this day bought three hun- dred acres of the tract on which Francis Slaughter lives (Francis Slaughter owned a large tract of land, including the old glebe tract, near what is now
D
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ST. MARK'S PARISH.
called Brandy Station), and adjoining the lands of Reuben Slaughter and Cad wallader Slaughter, gentle- men, for 199 pounds in money and 10,000 pounds of tobacco. An overseer's house, a quarter, a barn and a corn-house are ordered to be built on the glebe immediately.
1771. At a vestry at Buck Run Church, French Strother, gentleman, and John Gray, gentleman, are made vestrymen, in place of Goodrich Lightfoot and Henry Field, gentlemen, removed from the parish. Philip Pendleton is made clerk of the vestry in place of William Peyton, deceased. Mr. Peyton had served the vestry as clerk for forty years continu- ously. An addition is ordered to the south side of Little Fork Church, to correspond to the other addi- tion. These enlargements of the church, new gal- leries and extra benches, would seem to show that Mr. Thompson's ministry was attended by large and growing congregations. Mr. Wangh chosen a vestry- man in 1772. Colonel James Slaughter, gentleman, agreed to have the glebe-house built for 35,900 pounds of tobacco. The plans and specifications are minutely detailed in the vestry-book. This was the glebe-house so long occupied by the reverend and venerable John Woodville, and afterwards by Messrs. Glassell and Wager. The original glebe-house was burned ; perhaps some of the outbuildings may be standing.
The glebe-house, the plan of which is described in the last chapter, was built for the Rev. John Thomp- son; but man proposes and God disposes. Before this earthly tabernacle was finished, Mr. Thompson was called to "a house not made with hands, eternal
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ST. MARK'S PARISH.
in the heavens." After a laborious and fruitful ministry of more than thirty years, the brave soldier of the Cross laid aside his armor and put on his crown. He was buried at the brick house near Stevensburg so long tenanted by the Hansbroughs, and now owned and occupied by Dr. Grayson. By his first wife (Lady Spotswood) he had two children, viz: Anne, who in her fifteenth year married Francis Thornton of Fall Hill, near Fredericksburg. Mr. Thompson had also a son by Mrs. Spotswood, named William, who married Miss Sally Carter of Cleve. Among their descendants were Commodore Thomp- son of the U. S. Navy, and many of the Thompsons of Kentucky.
After the death of his first wife, the Rev. John Thompson married Miss Rootes. One of their children was the Hon. Philip Rootes Thompson, who once represented the district of Fauquier and Cul- peper in Congress, and then moved to the county of Kanhawa, where his family was the nucleus around which was gathered the Episcopal Church and Parish at the mouth of Coal, one of the tributaries of the Kanhawa River.
The second wife of the Hon. P. R. Thompson was a daughter of the old patriarchal vestryman, Robert Slaughter of Culpeper. Bishop Meade said of her, "She was esteemed and loved by all who knew her, as one of the humblest and most devoted members of the church in Virginia. I have always (he adds) felt my own sense of the Divine power and excellency of religion strengthened by every visit to her abode. She exchanged it some years since for a better one above."
After the death of Mr. Thompson, the Rev. Charles
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ST. MARK'S PARISH.
Woodmason was employed to do some service in the parish. This is all that seems to have been known by our historians of this person; but I have found in " Perry's Collection," a memorial to the Bishop of London signed by him, in which he says :- " Through much sickness, brought on by fatigue in traversing the back part of Carolina, I had accepted for my health the Parish of Bromfield in Culpeper county. Being delayed so long in waiting for a successor, Bromfield was granted away, fearing its lapse to the Governor, while I was on my way. I might have gotten some other parish, had not the Virginians entered into resolves not to elect any man for their minister but a native of America." This explains the whole matter, and shows the patriotic spirit of the vestry of St. Mark's, among whom were some persons who soon became conspicuous in the war of the Revolution. November, 1772, the vestry proceeded to consider of a proper person to recommend to the Governor as minister of the parish, when the Rev. Edward Jones, of Carolina, was unanimously nomi- nated. James Slaughter and John Gray were chosen church wardens. January 6th, 1773, the Rev. Edw. Jones produced his induction from the Governor, appointing him minister of this parish, agreeable to a presentation of a former vestry, and took his seat in vestry accordingly. April 21st, 1773, the vestry met to fix on a site for the mansion on the glebe, and finding no place where water was convenient, agreed with Mr. Francis Slaughter for 100 acres of land adjoining the former purchase, for the sum of £150 current money. October 26th, 1773, the church in the Little Fork having been burned, the vestry met on the ground, and concluded to erect one of wood, sixty feet long and forty feet wide, on Robert Free-
41
ST MARK'S PARISH
man's or Peter Bowman's land. It was also ordered that William Williams, John Green, James Slaughter, and Cadwallader Slaughter have James Pendleton's tobacco-house repaired for Divine worship until the church be finished. December, 1773, the vestry reconsidered their former order and resolved to build a church of brick, eighty feet long and thirty feet wide in the clear, with twenty feet pitch, to be finished completely in the best manner by first day of November, 1776. Thirty thousand pounds of tobacco to be paid next summer, and the balance to be paid in three equal annual payments.
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