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 8
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and the first court, composed of John Taliaferro and others, was holden 1st August, 1722. An appropria- tion was made by the General Assembly of £500 for a church, a prison, a pillory and stocks. The Act of Assembly contains this clanse, doubtless for the benefit of the Germans: "Because foreign Protes- tants may not understand English readily, if any such shall entertain a minister of their own, they and their tithables shall be free from taxes for ten years."-
By the help of Governor Spotswood a church was built, and Spotsylvania County, named after Spots- wood, and St. George's Parish began their career at Germanna, named from the Germans and Queen Anne. Governor Spotswood soon after made his home at Germanna. The Rev. Hugh Jones, in his "Present State of Virginia," published about 1724, thus describes Germanna :- " Beyond Governor Spots- wood's furnace, within view of the vast mountains, he has founded a town called Germanna, from the Germans sent over by Queen Anne, who are now removed up further. Herc Spotswood has servants and workmen of most handicraft trades; and he is building a church, courthouse, and dwelling-house for himself, and has cleared plantations about it, encouraging people to come and settle in that unin- habited part of the country, lately erected into a county. Beyond this (continues Jones) is seated the colony of the Germans Palatine."
These Germans Palatine were probably the found- ers of Germantown in Fauquier. However this may be, it is certain that the records of Fauquier develop the fact that in 1718 Jacob Spillman, John Hoffman, John and Herman Fishback, Peter Hitt, Jacob
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Holtzclaw, and William Weaver, not finding room at Germanna, moved to Germantown. Only three of these (Hoffman, Fishback and Weaver) having been naturalized, they were sent to enter lands at Ger- mantown. The title was in these three, and they were to make leases for ninety-nine years. The patent was issued in 1724. Copies of the leases are on record. Tillman Weaver, in his last will (1754, Dec. 14tb), devises property to Tillman W., to Ann, wife of Jno. Kemper, and Mary, wife of Herman Hitt, Eva, wife of Samuel Porter, Jacob, Elizabeth, Catharine, &c. Peter Hitt in bis will, 1771, devises to John, Jos., Herman, Peter, and to Mary, wife of Jacob Rector. Peter Hitt married Sarah James, and Jos. Hitt married Mary Coons. Several of these persons have their representatives in Fauquier, Cul- peper and Madison Counties.
Colonel Byrd, already quoted, said that in 1732, wbile on a visit to Colonel Spotswood, he saw the ruinous tenements which they, the Germans, had occupied at Germanna, and adds that they bad moved higher up to the forks of the Rappahannock (the Rapidan) to lands of their own, which must mean what is now the County of Madison, which lies within that fork. From the testimony of these witnesses the Germans must have migrated to Madi- son before 1724. The tradition is that they were disgusted with the poverty of the soil and the harsh treatment of their overseers in the mines, and resolved to seek their fortunes on the banks of the Robinson River; and from them bas descended the very thrifty German element in the population of Madison County. What was the fato of their petition to London for a minister is not known. Had it suc-
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ceeded we might have had a flourishing German Episcopal church in Virginia. The Church of Eng- land being subject to the State, and the British Ministry being generally governed in their policy to the Church by considerations of political expediency, may not have acted in the premises. However that may have been, the tradition is that our German friends procured subscriptions in Europe for building a Lutheran church, which was erected about 1740, near the junction of White Oak Run and the Robinson River, and still stands in good condition. It is in the form of a Maltese cross. Money was also raised in Europe to buy a pipe-organ of good size, which I believe is still in use. Subscriptions were taken in Sweden too, perhaps for a communion service and other purposes, and the King of Sweden was said to have been one of the subscribers. General Banks of Madison, we are told, had seen one of these subscrip- tion papers. The church was endowed, held a glebe, and has money at interest. By the kindness of Governor Kemper I have a copy of the deed from William Carpenter to Michael Cook and Michael Smith, wardens and trustees of the German church, and people inhabiting the fork of Rappahannock River, in St. Mark's Parish and County of Spotsyl- vania, and their successors, for a glebe for the use of the minister of the said German people and his successors, a tract of land in the first fork of the Rapidan River, containing one hundred and ninety- three acres, more or less, &c. The deed is dated 1733, and signed, sealed and delivered by William Carpenter in the presence of Jno. Waller, Robert Turner, Ed. Broughton, James King and William Henderson. This Michael Cook was no doubt the
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same who, with George Woots, was appointed by the vestry in 1729 to count all the tobacco-plants from the mouth of the Robinson River up to the Great Mountains, including Mark Jones's plantation. The services in this church were originally in German, then once a month in English, and subsequently entirely in the English tongue.
Our interest in the history of this church is enhanced by the interchange of courtesies between the Lutherans and Episcopalians. The late Samuel Slaughter of this county remembered to have seen these Lutherans, when they had no minister of their own, come to Back Run Episcopal church in Culpeper to receive the holy communion ; and the late vener- able Mrs. Sarah Lewis, the great-grandmother of Mrs. Dr. Robert Lewis of Culpeper, remembered when the Lutheran minister, Mr. Carpenter, used to baptize and perform other ministerial offiees for the Episco- palians of Madison when they had no minister. Many of the first grist-mills on the Robinson River and its tributaries were built by German mechanics. The first German settlers arc said to have suffered occasionally from the incursions of the Indians. There is a tradition that the last person killed by the Indians in this region was murdered near what is now New Hope Church. There are some large Old German Bibles extant which have descended as heirlooms from the primitive Germans. We are indebted to the venerable John Spotswood of Orange Grove, and to Dr. Andrew Grinnan of Madison, for some of the traditions referred to in the above chapter.
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EXTRACT FROM THE DIARY OF CAPTAIN PHILIP SLAUGHTER,
BEGINNING IN 1775 AND CONTINUED TO 1849.
December 4th, 1849 .- I am this day 81 years old. I was born in 1758 at my grandfather's, Major Philip Clayton's, who lived at Catalpa, where the Hon. J. S. Barbour now lives. My father, Col. James Slaughter, then lived on the Rappahannock River where Jones Green now lives. I went to school to John Wigginton, a first-rate English teacher in the Little Fork. My father sold this farm to Gavin Lawson, and bought another of his brother, Col. Francis Slaughter, near Culpeper C. H., where Samuel Rixey now lives. When we moved to the latter place, I went to write in the clerk's office with my grandfather, Major Clayton, who did the duties of that office for Roger Dixon, the clerk, whose home was in the lower country. After Dixon's death, John Jameson, who had served a regular apprenticeship in the clerk's office, was made clerk of the county. After several years' service in the office with Clayton and Jameson, my father withdrew me and sent me to a " Grammar School " of which Adam Goodlet (a Scotchman) was master, and which was the first public school in which Latin and Greek were taught in Culpeper County .*
After going to school to Goodlet 18 months, the American Revolution began, and I, not yet 17 years old, entered in Capt. John Jameson's company
* Adam Goodlet afterwards taught school in the Taylor Settlement in Orange. Col. F. Taylor often speaks of him in his diary, and mentions James Madison, Jr., (the future President) examining Goodlet's scholars.
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DIARY OF CAPT. PHILIP SLAUGHTER.
of minute-men. Culpeper, Fauquier, and Orange having agreed to raise a regiment, with Lawrence Taliaferro of Orange as Colonel, Edward Stevens of Culpeper as Lieutenant-Colonel, and Thomas Mar- shall of Fauquier as Major, the regiment met in Major Clayton's old field, near Culpeper C. H., to drill, in strong brown linen hunting-shirts, dyed with leaves, and the words "Liberty or Death " worked in large white letters on the breast, buck- tails in each hat, and a leather belt about the shoulders with tomahawk and scalping-knife. In a few days an express came from Patrick Henry, com- mander of the First Virginia Continental Regiment, saying that Dunmore had attempted to carry the military stores from the magazine at Williamsburg to the ships, &c. We marched immediately, and in a few days were in Williamsburg. The people hear- ing that we came from the backwoods, and seeing our savage-looking equipments, seemed as much afraid of us as if we had been Indians. We took pride in demeaning ourselves as patriots and gentle- men, and the people soon treated us with respect and great kindness. Most of us had only fowling- pieces and squirrel-guns. Dunmore having gone on board of a British man-of-war, half of the minute- men were discharged.
My father, Col. James Slaughter, with Col. Mar- shall and others, had the honor of being in the first battle (the Great Bridge) fought in Virginia. I was sent home to school. In the spring of 1776 I again left school and entered in Col. John Jameson's troop of cavalry for three years. But before we marched I was appointed by the Committee of Safety of Culpeper a Lieutenant in Capt. Gabriel
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Long's company of riflemen, and we marched to join the army under Washington in New York. In 1777 we were attached to the 11th Continental Regi- ment, commanded by Daniel Morgan.
Lt. Slaughter was promoted to a captaincy in 1778, and served during the war, being in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, &c. He was one of the sufferers at Valley Forge. His messmates were the two Porterfields, Johnson, and Lt. John (Chief Justice) Marshall. They were reduced sometimes to a single shirt, having to wrap themselves in a blanket when that was washed; not one soldier in five had a blanket. The snow was knee-deep all the winter, and stained with the blood from the naked feet of the soldiers. From the body of their shirts the officers had collars and wrist-bands made to appear on parade.
Capt. Slaughter kept a diary of his campaigns, which was lost in the wreck of so many fine libra- ries in the late war. Among the many anecdotes with which it abounded was the following concern- ing the late Chief Justice Marshall, at a camp on a night or two before the battle of Brandywine :- "At ten in the night we were aroused from sleep. Lt. Marshall had raked up some leaves to sleep on; he had pulled off one of his stockings in the night (the only pair of silk stockings in the regiment), and not being able to find it in the dark, he set fire to the leaves, and before we saw it a large hole had been burnt in it. He pulled it on so, and away we went," &c.
Capt. Slaughter's diary after the Revolution is preserved to. 1849, when he died and was buried in Richmond.
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LEWIS LITTLEPAGE.
LEWIS LITTLEPAGE.
As was said in the text of this history, the Rev. J. Stevenson married Fanny, the sister of Lewis Little- page. This gentleman was born in Hanover County, Va., on 19th December, 1762, and died in Fredericks- burg, July 19th, 1802. His career was brief, brilliant and unique ; and yet there are but few who seem to have heard of the battles, sieges, fortunes he had passed, the many accidents by flood and field, and his hair-breadth 'scapes, &c. His name has nearly lapsed from history, or rather he never had a niche in our temple of fame; for Europe, and not America, was the theatre on which he played his part. I am indebted to Dr. Payne, the great-grand- son of Mr. Stevenson, for an original letter, in which he narrates to his family the story of his life from 1785 to 1798. From the Memoirs of Elkanah Watson I am able to supply some incidents of his life up to the time when the narrative in his own letter begins.
Mr. Watson says :- " During my residence at Nantes I became intimately acquainted with Lewis Littlepage, one of the most remarkable characters of the age. He arrived in Nantes during the winter of 1779-80 on his way to Madrid, under the patronage of Mr. Jay, our stern and able minister to the court of Spain. He was then a mere youth, of fine manly figure, with a dark, penetrating black eye, and a physiognomy peculiar and striking. At that early period he was regarded as a prodigy of genius and acquirements. When I again heard of him he had separated from Mr. Jay's family, and entered as a volunteer aide to the Duke de Cuillon at the siege of K
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Minorca. At the attack of Gibraltar he was on one of the floating batteries, and was blown up, but saved. He participated in a conspicuous manner in the thrilling incidents of that memorable siege. After his catastrophe in the floating battery he got a situation on the Spanish admiral's ship, and in one of the engagements he stood upon the quarter-deck during the battle and sketched the various pontoons of the fleet. On the return of the Spanish fleet to Cadiz he was sent with an officer to Madrid with dispatches, and exhibited to the minister a curious and scientific view of the battle, and was received with great applause and distinction at the court of Madrid. In the April following the close of the war I dined with him at Dr. Franklin's, in Passy, and saw the sketch. At Paris and Versailles he moved in the first circles and attracted marked attention. In June he made a visit to my bachelor hall in Berkeley Square, London. I never saw him again. He made the tour of Europe and established himself at Warsaw, and became, in effect, Prime Minister, went to St. Petersburg as ambassador from Poland, acquitted himself with distinguished ability, and became one of the favorites of the Empress Catherine," &c.
The following letter of Lewis Littlepage to Lewis Holliday takes up the story of his life where Watson's narrative ends, and completes the account of his eventful career in Europe.
ALTONA, 9th January, 1801.
DEAR SIR :-
I have this day received your letter of the 22nd August, 1800 ... Since my existence is called in question, I give you, for the satisfaction of my family and friends, a short account
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LEWIS LITTLEPAGE.
of all that has happened to me in Europe since 1785. On the 2nd March, 1786, I was sworn into the King of Poland's Cabinet as his first confidential secretary, with the rank of Chamberlain. In February, 1787, I was sent to negotiate a treaty with the Empress of Russia at Kiovia, which I effected. The same year I was sent as secret and special envoy to the court of France to assist in the negotiations for the grand Quadruple Alliance, which failed. In 1788 I was recalled, and sent to Prince Potemkin's army in the Turkish war, where I commanded a division, acting at the same time in a political character. In 1789 I was compelled to leave Poland and travel to Italy. Shortly after I received orders to repair to Madrid upon a high political mission, in which I completely suc- ceeded. In 1790 I was recalled from Spain and ordered to wait ultimate instructions at Paris. I afterwards received orders to repair by the way of Berlin to Warsaw for the revolution of the 3d May, 1791. In 1792 120,000 Russians invaded Poland. I was nominated Aide-de-camp-general to the King, with the rank of Major-General. He signed the confederation of Fargowitz, and in April, 1793, sent me once more as his special envoy to Petersburg to prevent the division of Poland. I was stopped by the Russian Govern- ment on the road, and the division took place. In 1794 Kosciusko and Madalinski began another revolution in Poland. Ou 17th April the garrison and inhabitants of War- saw rose in arms against the Russians; to save the life of my unfortunate friend and king I was obliged to take part with Poland, and that dreadful battle ended in the slaughter of 10,000 Russians. The Empress Catherine II. never for- gave me my conduct upon that occasion. She was more irritated against me by hearing that I had consented to accept as commander-in-chief under the revolutionary government, although I was destined to act against Russia. My having assisted in repelling the Russian armies in their attempt to storm Willna, gave also offence. In short, I had gone so far in the revolution that I should have gone much farther had I not been defeated with my friend Prince Joseph Poniatoski, the King's nephew, by the late King of Russia on the 26th August, 1794. That event lost me all my popularity. It was very near getting me hanged, for I was regarded as the acting
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person, although, upon my honor, Prince Poniatoski acted that day against my advice. The King of Russia attacked us with about three times our force, both in men and artillery, and Kosciusko afforded us no, support until we were beaten beyond redemption, although neither his left nor centre were engaged the whole day otherwise than in cannonsding!
After the battle of 26th August I took no further part in military affairs until the storming of Prague, which cost the lives of 22,000 Polanders. On the 7th January, 1795, the King of Poland was taken from Warsaw by the Russians to be con- veyed to Grodno. I was separated from bim by express orders of the Empress, and it was hinted to me that nothing less than my former services in the Turkish wsr could have saved me from sharing the fate of the other chiefs of the revo- lution of 1794. After the departure of the King I set out for Vienna, but was immediately ordered to lesve that metropolis, which produced a public altercation between me and the Austrisn ministry, but which ended to my satisfaction, as Russia came forward and did me justice. The King of Prussia, Frederick Willism II., sfterwards allowed me to return to Warsaw, then under his dominion, where I remained until the death of the Empress Catherine II. I was then invited to go to Petersburg with the King of Poland, but refused unless reparstion was made to me for the treatment I hsd recently experienced. The Emperor ssid that "all that regarded his mother; as he had given no offence, he should make no reparation." I perhaps might have gone at last to Russia, but was prevented by the sudden death of my friend, my master, my more than father, Stanislaus Augustus, King of Poland, who expired at Petersburg 12th Feb'y, 1798. After that melancholy event a long correspondence took pisce between the Emperor of Russis and myself, which ended in his paying me in s very noble manner the sum assigned me by the King of Poland ss a reward of my long and dangerous services.
I arrived in Hamburg in October last. My intention was to go either to France or England, but I found myself strangely embroiled with both these governments. I have settled matters in France, but not yet in England. The ministers there persist in believing me to be sent upon a secret envoy
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LEWIS LITTLEPAGE.
from the Emperor of Russia, who is now at variance with England. God knows I am sick of European politics. I intended to have spent the wiuter in Hamburg, but was driven from that sink of iniquity by a most atrocious plot against my life and fortune. The latter is in safety, and should I perish even here under the hospitable government of Denmark, I shall leave nine or ten thousand pounds sterling so disposed of that my assassins canuot prevent its coming to my family. That sum is all I have saved from the wreck of my fortunes in Poland. In the spring I shall proceed to America, either by the way of France or directly from hence, provided I escape the daggers and poison with which I am threatened here.
My duty and affection to my motber, and kindest remem- brance to all relations and friends.
Ever yours, my dear Sir,
LEWIS LITTLEPAGE.
LEWIS HOLLIDAY.
If the adventurous career of Lewis Littlepage needed confirmation, incidental proof and illustration of it will be found in the personal souvenirs devised by him to Waller Holladay and inherited by Col. Alexander Holladay, by whom they were kindly shown to the author :
1. The original patent conferring the position of chamberlain upon Lewis Littlepage upon his entrance into the Polish Cabinet, 1787, signed by the King.
2. The original patent of Knighthood of the Order of St. Stanislaus, 1790, signed by the King.
3. The letter from the Prince of Nassau requesting the Marshal de Ligne to give Lewis Littlepage a captaincy in the regiment Royale l'Allemande, re- citing Littlepage's distinguished service at Port Mahon and Gibraltar.
4. The letter of the Duque de Cuillon assigning Lewis Littlepage to his staff.
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HISTORICAL EXCURSIONS.
5. The letter of Count Florda Blanca recommend- ing Lewis Littlepage.
6. The passport of Lewis Littlepage for his mission to France.
7. Lewis Littlepage's gold-hilted rapier presented to him by the Queen of Spain.
8. Lewis Littlepage's gold key, his badge as cham- berlain to the King of Poland.
9. The portrait of the King of Poland presented to Lewis Littlepage by the King on their final parting at Grodno.
Dr. Payne has too the insignia of Littlepage's knighthood, the Star of the Order of Stanislaus. In the centre is a convex silver plate, on which, formed of small ruby sets, are the initials S. A. R., Stanislaus Augustus Rex ; surrounding this, wrought with gold thread, is the motto, Incitat Proemiando. Around this is a brilliant green border with gilt leaves. The rays of the star are silver spangles.
THE TOBACCO PLANT.
A very curious article might be written on the literature of tobacco, involving its relation to the church and the state, and its influence on the indi- vidual mind and body, on manners and habits, and the general wealth and happiness of the world. Such an article might be illustrated by the authority of statesmen, lawyers, medical men, merchants, farmers, and political economists, and adorned with gems of wisdom and of wit from nearly all the Eng- lish scholars and poets, from King James's " Counter- blast" to Charles Lamb's "Farewell to Tobacco,"
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THE TOBACCO PLANT.
in which praises and curses alternate with amusing felicity. It is interwoven with the history of Vir- ginia at every stage of its progress. In colonial times many Acts of Assembly were passed regulat- ing its culture, and one office of the early vestries was to appoint reputable freeholders to count tobacco plants in each parish. Thus, as early as 1728, Good- rich Lightfoot and Robert Slaughter counted the plants from the mouth of Mountain Run (in what is now Culpeper) up to Joseph Howe's plantation, and across to the mouth of the Robinson River ; Robert Green and Francis Kirtley on the other side of Mountain Run to the North River ; George Woots and Michael Cook from the mouth of the Robinson River up to the Great Mountains. The salaries of ministers and civil officers were paid in tobacco, and it, or notes representing it in the warehouses, were the currency of the country. Some of these notes are now before us. Parishes too were known as "Orinoco " and "Sweet-scented " parishes, according to the kind of tobacco grown in them. The salary of a minister was 16,000 lbs. of tobacco, the value of which varied from £40 to £80 in money. A sweet- scented parish was worth much more than an Orinoco parish. There was a deduction of 8 per cent. for cash, and tobacco was sometimes as low as six shillings current money. A minister's tobacco was worth less than other like bulks of tobacco, because it was so mixed. Many flourishing towns, as Dumfries and Falmonth, &c., where Scotch mer- chants grew rich in this trade, sprang up in Virginia. In Glasgow there is now a "Virginia Street," and that city received a great impulse from becoming the entrepot whence the farmers-general of France de- rived their supplies of tobacco from Virginia.
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HISTORICAL EXCURSIONS.
THE PINE TREE AND ITS FRUITS-SALARIES PAID IN TAR.
These two were subjects of legislation. Tar was once in great demand for tarring the roofs of public and private buildings. Special instructions were given by the General Assembly of Virginia for pre- paring pine-trees by stripping the bark from the trunk of the trees, eight feet from the root, leaving a small slip to keep the tree alive, when in a short time, it was said, the sun would draw the turpentine to the surface, and the whole trunk would become light-wood.
It may not generally be known that towards the North Carolina line, where little or no tobacco was grown, the minister was paid in tar, pitch, and pork ; so says the Rev. Mr. Bagg in his report (1724) to the Bishop of London.
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