USA > Virginia > Henrico County > Henrico County > Annals of Henrico parish > Part 3
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On the 15th of June, 1785, the first convention of the re- organized Diocese of Virginia was held in Richmond. Prob- ably the sessions for business were held in the capitol ; but by resolution the Convention attended divine service on Thurs- day, at 9 A. M., in this, at that time, "the Church in this city," and listened to an "excellent sermon" preached in this pulpit by the Rev. John Bracken. It was a correspondence between the Rev. David Griffith and the rector of Henrico parish that led to the resuscitation of the Church in Vir- ginia. Both Mr. Buchanan and the lay delegate of this par- ish, Edmund Randolph, took prominent parts in this Conven- tion. Mr. Randolph was afterward Governor of Virginia and Attorney-General and Secretary of State in Washington's Cabinet.
*The Rev. John Buchanan may have been made Assistant Min- ister.
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Mr. Buchanan was elected treasurer of the Diocese. HE 200 faithfully and efficiently occupied that position for nearly thirty years, until increased age and consequent infirmities compelled him to decline reappointment. Mr. Randolph was on a committee to prepare an address "to the members of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Virginia, representing the condition of that Church, and exhorting them to unite in its support."
Its words have become famous in American Church his- tory : "Of what is the Church now possessed ? Nothing but the glebes and your affections." Mr. Randolph also reported, in behalf of a committee, the resolution that declared the willingness of the Virginia Convention "to unite in a general ecclesiastical convention with the members of the Protestant Episcopal Church." June 28, 1785, the Vestry acted on the recommendation of the late Convention and appointed a com- mittee to prepare subscription papers for the expenses of con- secrating and maintaining a Bishop, one subscription paper to be circulated by each member of the Vestry.
A sad picture is drawn for us in a statement prefixed, April 2, 1789, by the Vestry, to other subscription papers, which they subsequently circulated. The minister and other officers had been serving for several years with little or no compensation ; also they deeply deplore "the almost total de- cline of divine worship for some years past, and the conse- quent depravation of the morals of every denomination amongst us." A letter of Mrs. Edward Carrington, to an English friend, dated 1792, and quoted by Bishop Meade, reveals still more of the spiritual darkness then prevailing :
"This evil (the want of public worship) increases daily ; nor have we left in our extensive State three churches that are decently supported. Our metropolis even would be left des- titute of this blessing but for the kind offices of our friend, Buchanan, whom you remember well, an inmate of our fam- ily. He, from sheer benevolence, continues to preach in our capitol to what we now call the New School-that is to say, to a set of modern philosophers who merely attend because they know not what else to do with themselves. But, blessed be God, in spite of the enlightened, as they call themselves; and in spite of Godwin, Paine, etc., we still, at times, par-
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ticularly on our great Church days, repair with a choice few to our old church on the hill (St. John's) and by contributing our mite endeavor to preserve the religion of our fathers. Delightful hours we sometimes pass there," etc.
Mr. Buchanan had come to Richmond from Lexington Parish, Amherst county, Va. He left there a salary of 10,000 pounds of tobacco. In all his ministry in this parish he received little beside the rent of the glebe and the per- quisites of the office. That little was mostly bestowed in charity upon others. He was a frugal bachelor, and for ten years eked out his scanty pittance here by tutoring in the family of one of his kindest vestrymen, Mr. Jaquelin Am- bler, for many years Treasurer of the Commonwealth. After- ward he was made comfortable by the inheritance of the property of his brother James, who had been a well-to-do merchant in this city. The Vestry, however, tried to fulfill its obligations to the rector. At its April meeting in 1789, it adopted a plan for securing a revenue, which it continued to
follow for years. The city was divided into four wardships. Canvassers were appointed for each. As a result, on the 23d of May following they were able to pay Mr. Buchanan 20 pounds, the clerk and the sexton each two pounds eight shillings, and to appropriate a surplus of 3 pounds 14 shil- lings to repairs and other contingencies. The following De- cember Mr. Buchanan was paid sixty pounds for the preced- ing half year's services.
But the other evil mentioned by the Vestry-viz: the de- cline in church attendance-was not so easily overcome. In 1790 this church had been practically abandoned. Even the triennial elections of the Vestry were appointed to be held at the Capitol, the day to be subject to the weather. It was opened for service only at the great festivals, Christmas, Easter and Whit Sunday, when the Lord's Supper was administered. Thenceforth for years the services of our Church were held in the Capitol on alternate Sundays with the Presbyterians. Mr. P. R. Carrington says that Mr. Thos. H. Drew, who removed to Richmond in 1800, told him that, from that date until about 1815, Dr. Buchanan held service at St. John's only three times each year, Easter, Whit Sunday and Christ- mas, when the Holy Communion was administered and con-
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firmations were held. The congregation in its personnel was much the same every Sunday. Between the pastor of the Presbyterians, Rev. John D. Blair, and Mr. Buchanan, the most delightful fraternity existed. The spirit of Church unity engendered by this joint worship prompted the Vestry, in this same year, 1790, to extend permission to any regular minister of any denomination whatever, professing Chris- tianity, to use the country churches of the parish, when not used by the Rev. Mr. Buchanan or any other minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church. And in 1812 the custom of alternating services with the Presbyterians was transferred to this, the parish Church.
A little glimpse into the musical features of the parochial history is now afforded us. July 24, 1790, the rector was requested "to contract with Mr. Purrington to conduct Psal- mody every Sunday for three months in the time of divine service, for which he was authorized to promise Mr. Pur- rington six shillings for each day's attendance, or being ready to attend." It appears that the rector had to advance and wait some time for a repayment of the chorister's salary.
Already the question of a new organ had been prominent. February 15, 1791, the Vestry had in hand £34, the proceeds of a concert and the sale of an old organ. This amount they determined to appropriate for a new instrument. But prob ably because the fund did not increase sufficiently for this purpose, the money was in 1794 loaned out to the minister.
April 25, 1791, an inventory of property was taken. The glebe was reported to be worth about £1,000, and at the time was renting for £40 per annum. Its houses were out of re- pair. The personal property consisted of "one silver cup and salver." The older of the present patens and chalices bear the London Goldsmiths Co.'s mark of 1718. They are quite likely the communion vessels referred to in this inventory.
In 1792 begins the lamentation which wails forth from many a modern Vestry book. Great difficulty was experienced in collecting money which had been subscribed or pledged for the support of the parish. But the Vestry of that day applied heroic measures. The balances due on subscriptions for 1791 were delivered to the town sergeant for collection. Where immediate payment could not be obtained, notes payable in
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three months were requested. In 1793 it was declared that promissory notes were preferable to subscriptions. And in 1794 it was determined that all arrearages up to the end of 1793 should be put into the hands of a collector, with instruc- tions to commence suit on every delinquent that would not make immediate payment.
All previous troubles and perplexities, however, were only as the penumbra of the eclipse now at hand. There is no re- cord of a Vestry meeting between April 29, 1794, and May 12, 1812, except one held April 8, 1807. Indeed, the de- pressed condition of the whole Church in Virginia was so great between 1799 and 1812 that even the annual conventions were discontinued for several years. When the Vestry did meet in 1807 it was only to confess failure. For then was begun a movement looking to the purchase of ground and the erection of a church to accommodate the many members of the Protestant Episcopal Church who felt that it was no longer convenient to attend the services on Church Hill. Bishop Meade paints a distressing picture of the condition of the parish at this time. "My next Sabbath (that is, after his ordination at Williamsburg, February 24, 1811,) was spent in Richmond, where the condition of things was little better. Although there was a church in the older part of the town, it was never used but on Communion days. The place of wor- ship was an apartment in the Capitol, which held a few hun- dred persons at most; and as the Presbyterians had no church at all in Richmond at that time, the use of the room was divided between them and the Episcopalians, each having service every other Sabbath morning, and no oftener. Even two years after this, being in Richmond, on a Communion Sunday, I assisted the rector, Dr. Buchanan, in the old church, when only two gentlemen and a few ladies communed. One of these gentlemen, the elder son of Judge Marshall, was a resident in the upper county."
In the fall of 1812 correspondence began with a view to securing an assistant minister for the parish. Meanwhile the rector was requested to obtain help when necessary for any of the churches in the parish. But in the providence of God an event occurred which solved many perplexing prob- lems, though apparently not at all for the advantage of this
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particular church. The terrible calamity of the destruction of the Richmond Theatre by fire, and the consequent hold caust of prominent citizens and precious lives had led to th erection on the fatal spot of a memorial church. This, i 1814, was opened for worship under the name of the Monu mental Church.
The Vestry of Henrico Parish welcomed the new addition so soon as they learned it was to be Protestant Episcopal il character. Thus at once was met the desire for a new an more convenient church on the part of those who had located around the Capitol on Shockoe Hill. And shortly an assist ant, whose need had been felt as early as 1812, was also thu secured. Bishop Madison had died in 1812. In 181 Bishop Moore was elected Bishop of the Diocese. Dr. Bu chanan himself received one vote for the office. Bishop Moore also accepted the rectorship of Monumental Church Thereupon Monumental Vestry proposed to pay $200 per an num to the Vestry of Henrico Parish towards an assistan minister for "the Richmond Hill Church," provided that, iz the absence of the Bishop on Diocesan duties, that assistan should officiate once every Sabbath, alternately morning and evening, in the Monumental Church. The Vestry of Henric Parish readily acquiesced and appropriated one thousand dol lars per annum for three years as its share toward the assist ant's salary. A unanimous ballot was cast for the Rev. Davic Moore, of New York, the eldest son of the Bishop by his first marriage. And in the following November the right of suc cession to the rectorship was given to Mr. Moore. Mr. Moore did not accept.
The Rev. Wm. H. Hart, who had married a niece of Bishop Moore, laid before the Vestry testimonials as to "his good conduct for three years past," "as required by the 31st Canon of the Church of the United States." May 1, 1815, he was elected assistant minister, with the right of succession to the rectorship. He is described as stout, weighing about 170 pounds, and being 5 feet 10 or 11 inches in height.
And yet the erection of Monumental sealed for many long years the fate of that congregation, whose history we are espe- cially pursuing, to be weak and struggling. Monumental was spacious and handsome. In it was centered the melancholy and
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curious interest attaching to the awful calamity, from whose ashes it had sprung. It had the prestige of having for its rector the learned, godly, courtly and eloquent Bishop of the Diocese. It was situated near the brow of that hill on which the Capitol was the nucleus for the gathering of wealth and fashion. The statistics of the parochial reports in the Con- vention Journals tell the inevitable result. In 1816 Monu- mental had 120 communicants; "the Church on Richmond Hill" about 30. Before Bishop Moore arrived, Dr. Bu- chanan had generally preached at Monumental on Sundays. After the Bishop took charge, the Doctor frequently read the service. One of his auditors has left on record the judg- ment : "He was, I think, the best reader I have ever heard." And even after an assistant of Henrico Parish had been se- cured, according to the proposition of Monumental Vestry, it would seem that Dr. Buchanan himself assumed the duty of officiating at Monumental when the Bishop was absent. Dr. Buchanan had also been appointed, according to a plan then followed in the Diocese of Virginia, a sort of rural dean or presiding elder over the neighboring counties of Goochland and Louisa, as well as over Henrico itself. Even after the burden of years had weighed down Dr. Buchanan, Bishop Moore reports him as engaging every Sunday in ministerial duties without pay.
The Bishop gratefully acknowledged his assistance at Mon- umental. While Dr. Buchanan thus devoted himself to Monumental and general church duties, his assistant, the Rev. Mr. Hart, was producing a revival of material pros- perity in the congregation worshipping on the other hill. In 1815 and 1816 $988.32 had been spent on repairs to the church, which even then was beginning to be called "old." In 1816 Mr. Hart had been authorized to treat for and pur- chase an organ from a New York builder at a cost of $1,100. In 1818 the size of the church was deemed inadequate to the accommodation of all its members. It was determined to build a new, spacious and handsome brick edifice. The site chosen, according to the testimony of living citizens, was the northeast corner of Broad and Twenty-third streets. It is a matter of record, according to Mr. Chas. P. Rady, historian of "Richmond Randolph" Lodge of the Masonic Fraternity,
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that on June 24, 1818, a procession marched from its hall to "the old church on Richmond Hill"; that there an appro- priate address was delivered by the Rev. Wm. Henry Hart; and that after the discourse the lodges present proceeded to the site chosen and laid the corner-stone of the new church amidst a large concourse of citizens.
In 1819 the annual parochial report to the Bishop at the Convention noted that the new church had been begun, and was nearing completion. The Sunday school was reported to be flourishing. And the number of communicants had at- tained what proved to be high-water mark for years. The truth of the matter is the times were inflated; there was a "boom." Dr. Walker says that speculators insisted that Richmond would rival New York. Various additions to the manufacturing establishments of the city were located on and near Church Hill. And according to Dr. Walker, the bald scars on its sides tell the tale of uncompleted improvements.
But before the year 1820 had reached its noon a terrible financial reaction had thrown the congregation back into weakness and despair. Already in 1817 there was evidence that the organ and other purchases had overstrained the con- gregation. The organ had cost $1,420.86. Only $978 had been paid. The balance was still due, even in June, 1825. Special means were taken to raise money. In 1819 there was in financial circles what we call to-day a "panic." So that to the Convention of 1820 the minister in charge reported that the congregation had almost been crushed by the pressure of the times.
We hear no more of the proposed new and elegant church at the corner of Broad and Twenty-third streets. But Dr. Walker says its skeleton was not taken down until 1828 or 1829. As he remembers it, it had the appearance of a large, square building of fine red brick, with projections, making it almost hexagonal, a shape probably suggested by the Monu- mental Church, of which, I dare say, it was to be a rival. Its four sided roof rose to a point. There were to be three galleries. The structure was more than half finished when the work was abandoned.
But the depression did not last long. The improvement that set in showed that the chastening had had its divinely
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intended effect. Thenceforth the growth of the church was rather spiritual than material.
At this period the church yard began to receive attention. In 1799 the municipal authorities had purchased from John Adams and from Richard Adams, Jr., the latter being the executor of Thos. B. Adams, the two lots lying between the church's property and Broad street, and had enclosed the whole square with a brick wall at the city's expense. At the same time the church yard was open as a burying ground for the city at large. An arrangement was subsequently entered into by the Vestry and the city fathers by which the church resigned the management of the burying ground in return for the city's bearing the expenses of the church yard.
We are indebted to Mr. P. R. Carrington for a resumé of the city's action at this time with reference to the burying ground.
July 18, 1814, an abortive effort was made at a meeting of the "City Hall" to provide an ordinance for "regulating the mode of interment in the burying ground belonging to the Corporation adjoining the Episcopal Church on Richmond Hill." But on the 19th of June, 1815, in "an ordinance for regulating the public burying grounds of this city," it was stated that "an arrangement had been entered into by the City Hall and the Vestry of the Parish of Henrico, by which all the grounds appropriated to the interment of the dead, which belonged to said Parish and situated on Richmond Hill, had been enclosed by one common wall with the lands which be- longed to the corporation adjoining thereto, and that it was well understood that the Common Hall should at all times have power to establish such regulations as they might think most proper for the government of the same, and should moreover incur and defray all necessary expenses attending the erection of gates and steps and keeping the brick wall in good repair." It was ordained that the Church Wardens should have authority to appoint the sexton or keeper, and to remove him as well as to have authority over him during his term of office. No respect of religious denomination was to be allowed in interments; and the fee was fixed. The Wardens were to draw on the Chamberlain of the City for an amount not exceeding $50 per annum for repairing the wall, gates 3
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and steps to grounds. No subsequent changes were made for some time, save as to fees. But the whole arrangement was evidently merely a formal one for years; for in 1828 the Vestry gave the rector charge of the graveyard and author- ized him to pay the sexton for care of the church out of the receipts from grave digging. And we are told by Mr. P. R. Carrington that the first "keeper" was appointed May 18, 1863, by City Council.
Twenty years had now elapsed since the city's addition to the church yard in 1799. It must be remembered that this was the only public cemetery in the city until the opening of that known as Shockoe Cemetery, in 1826. The whole square had now been filled with graves. The Vestry protested against further interments therein. In November, 1820, they appointed a committee to obtain a burying ground else- where, and to secure subscriptions from the citizens generally to that object. The committee reported in May of the follow- ing year that it had been unable to secure a convenient site for the location of the proposed new burying ground on ac- count of the high price charged for land. October 9, 1821, the Vestry requested the Wardens, "hereafter to prohibit the sexton from digging any graves in the old part of the burying ground without written permission from one of them."
One who has carefully examined the records, reports that at this Vestry meeting, October 9, 1821, the first mention of the parsonage is made in the minutes.
The plan of renting pews had been agreed upon in 1812. Only one-half of the whole number were at first offered for rent, and that only for one year. They were disposed of at public auction. Later the period was increased to three years, and the number of pews offered for rent was made two- thirds instead of one-half. The wardens reported that "the measure of renting the pews appeared very pleasing to a great portion of our parishioners." By 1816 the pew renting system had been so thoroughly engrafted on the congregation that in that year the Vestry was elected by the pew renters. In 1820, however, through the inadequacy of receipts to meet current expenses, the custom of weekly collections for volun- tary contributions was added. This feature does not seem to have met with favor. For after seven months of trial the collections were confined to the first Sunday in the month.
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And now once more the question of a new church was agi- tated. A Mr. Day, of Maryland, had made certain propo- sitions respecting the building of a new church on the site of the old one. July 1, 1822, a committee of two was appointed to act thereupon and report to the next meeting of the Vestry. But the project seems to have been "pigeon-holed" by the committee.
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December 19, 1822, the Parish was afflicted in the death of its rector, the Rev. John Buchanan, D. D. (William and Mary, 1794). The whole community mourned his departure. He was buried beneath the chancel, to the right of the com- munion table. Among the obituaries which appeared at the time in the secular press of Richmond, were such tributes as these: "He was faithful to the duties of a minister and a man." "One who left few equals and no superior ; one whose loss is literally irreparable." "So good, so humane, and so benevolent a man. Always hapnv. always cheerful, always loving and beloved. He was the very soul of his com- panions."
Mrs. Lydia H. Hart (wife of the Rev. Wm. H. Hart, his assistant and successor), on December 28, 1822, wrote:
"Along the church-way path I saw him borne; * * * * * X
Beneath the altar had the grave been made;
And there with solemn awe and reverence due, His dear remains were laid."
Eight days after Dr. Buchanan's death Mr. Hart, in ful- filment of the arrangement made at his appointment to the assistantship, was requested to assume the rectorship. One of the first achievements of his rectorate was to save the glebe to the parish. It will be remembered that this property was situated on the north side of the James river, next to the Varina estate. There is no evidence that it had been pur- chased by a levy of the Vestry on the people. On the con- trary, there is every probability that it was a gift to the parish by the London Company, and that it was secured to the parish by an old patent.
Mr. P. R. Carrington states that the patent was from Sir William Berkeley, Governor, and was dated April 16, 1666.
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The boundaries given are 198 acres, three roods, 16 poles. The entry in the patent book in the Virginia Land Office is under date October 9, 1672.
In 1817 the Vestry had protested against its confiscation, on the ground partly that it had been in all probability a private donation to the parish, and partly that the incumbent was still living. As soon as Dr. Buchanan was dead, the overseers of the poor pounced upon the glebe again and of- fered it for sale. But Mr. Hart obtained, in 1826, a decree in chancery in favor of this Church against all claims of the overseers of the poor. A purchaser for the glebe was found by the Vestry. But meanwhile the overseers had taken an appeal. The intending purchaser naturally declined closing the bargain until a final decision was obtained. The Vestry asked the overseers to unite with them in a petition for an immediate decision of the case.
Under the succeeding rector an effort was made by the Vestry through him to lease the lands. But the record of this action, taken March 26, 1829, is the last entry on the Vestry book in reference to this matter. Bishop Meade says : "I am privately informed that the Vestry withdrew their claim or did not prosecute it, rather than involve the Church in what might prove a long and bitter controversy with the overseers of the poor, representing the citizens of Henrico, although well persuaded that the Chancellor was right in his decision."
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