USA > Virginia > Colonial churches; a series of sketches of churches in the original colony of Virginia, with pictures of each church > Part 19
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George Spencer, by his will, dated March 23, 1691, gave twenty pounds sterling for a piece of communion plate for St. Mary's White Chapel, and also a "Curpice." The only other piece of silver in pos-
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session of the church is a small silver salver, which is used with the goblet. It is much worn by age and has no inscription or date, but we suppose that it is "that piece of plate."
The old Bible was given by Rawleigh Downman, of Belle Isle, in 1838. The beautiful circular Communion railing remains as in olden days, but the brick aisles have been planked and carpeted, as has the chancel, and fitted up with modern furniture. The old Communion table is still in the vestry room. It once stood in the chancel, and was covered with a green velvet cover with a gilt fringe, and in the center was the Ball coat-of-arms in bas-relief and done in gilt. This was sold years ago to one of the Downmans, whose mater- nal ancestor was a Ball.
In the churchyard are a number of old tombs of massive marble, bearing dates in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Nearly all of the oldest are inscribed with the name of Ball. The first is David Ball, seventh son of William Ball, born 1686; some of the others are Mildred Ball, Juduthum Ball, Mary Ann Ball, daughter of Rev. John Bertrand, Jesse Ball, Mary Ball, daughter of Edwin Conway, and James Ball, her husband; Fanny, daughter of Rawleigh Downman, of Lettuce, third wife of James Ball and daughter of Richard Lee, of Ditchley.
These names show that this church counted among her numbers names of the old Virginia aristocrats of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Among the Churchmen of the eighteenth century we will mention Chinn, Downman, Carter, Ball, Mitchell, Lee, Lewis, Ewell, McCarty, Towles, Chowning, Sneade, Pierce, Robinson and Chilton. The ministers were Rev. Samuel Cole, died 1659; Revs. William White and Benjamin Doggett, died 1682; John Bertrand, died 1701 (he was a Huguenot, is buried at Belle Isle, and counted among his descendants Judge Cyrus Griffith, last president of the Continental Congress) ; Andrew Jackson, died 1710; John Bell, died, 1743; David Currie, died 1792; David Ball, died 1791. Then followed Leland, Page, McNorton, Low, 1832; Ephraim Adams, 1838; Francis McGuire, 1839; Rev. Bryant, 1844; Rev. Richmond, 1850; Rev. Nash, 1853; Rev. Edmund Withers. These were followed by Revs. George May, H. L. Derby, E. B. Burwell, Mr. Micou and the present rector, Rev. L. R. Combs.
In the corner of the churchyard is an old slab, flat on the ground and much broken, inscribed: "To Rev. Jno. Stritchley, born 1669." Then follows a long illegible inscription. We have no record of his having served the church. Col. William Ball, who came to this county from England in 1650, settled at the mouth of the Corrotoman River,
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bringing his family. He died in 1669, leaving two sons and one daughter, Hannah, who married Daniel Fox. William left eight sons. Joseph left no male issue, but General George Washington is his grandson by his youngest daughter, Mary. Mary Ball, grandmother of Washington, lies buried at "Epping Forest," five miles from the church, and a handsome oil picture of her adorns the walls of the court-room at Lancaster, the county seat. None of Col. William Ball's children are buried at the church, but his grandchildren and their de- scendants. Joseph Ball married a Miss Ravenscroft, of England, and settled in London. He was brother of Mary Ball, who was the mother of Washington. His only daughter, Fannie, married Raleigh Down- man in 1750. Her children were Joseph Ball Downman, of Morattico; Fannie, who married Col. James Ball, of Beaudley, and Mr. Raleigh Downman, of Belle Isle.
Mr. Joseph Ball wrote to his nephew, George Washington, after Braddock's defeat, the following letter:
"Stratford, 5th of Sept., 1755.
"It is a sensible pleasure to me to hear that you have behaved with such a martial spirit, in all your engagements with the French, nigh Ohio. Go on as you have begun, and God prosper you. We have heard of Gen. Braddock's defeat. Everybody blames his rash conduct. Every- body commends the courage of the Virginians and Carolina men, which is very agreeable to me. I desire you, as you may have opportunity, to give me a short account how you proceed. I am your mother's brother. I hope you will not deny my request. I heartily wish you good success, and am
"Your loving uncle,
"JOSEPH BALL.
"To Major George Washington, at the Falls of Rappahannock, or elsewhere in Virginia.
"Please direct me at Stratford-by-Bow, nigh London."
Unlike most Colonial churches, St. Mary's did not suffer by the depre- dation of troops during the war 1861-5. The Federal gunboats came up the Rappahanock river, near where the church is located, and threw bomb shells over and around, cutting off the tree tops, but did not hit the church. A company of the Ninth Virginia Calvary, C. S. A., were stationed at the church for a few months in 1861, and had tents all around the church. Col. Merriwether Lewis was then captain, with Mr. Robert Tunstall Pierce as first lieutenant, and James K. Ball, of
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Beaudley, as second lieutenant. The three are to-day "sleeping" near each other in the churchyard, resting "on the old camp ground," and each has a monument to show the reverence and love the living bear to the honored dead.
In 1880 the church ladies organized a society called "The Bee Hive," and since that time have raised nearly a thousand dollars, which has been spent on the church. To-day both the interior and exterior pre- sent a neat and comfortable appearance, and to "the faithful few" who worship within her walls she seems
"A spot of earth supremely blest,
Dearer, more sacred than all the rest."
ABINGDON CHURCH, GLOUCESTER COUNTY, VIRGINIA.
BY THE REV. WILLIAM BYRD LEE, RECTOR.
GOT HE history of the Episcopal Church of Virginia has been, from the very beginning, a most interesting and eventful one beyond that of any other diocese in the Union." We refer the reader to Bishop Meade's "Old Churches and Families of Virginia," from which the foregoing quotation is made. In attempting to write articles on Ware and Abingdon Parishes and their churches, I am embarrassed by finding the county and church records almost wholly destroyed up to the year 1830. Many valuable documents were burned at Jamestown in 1676, when Nathaniel Bacon kindled the first fires of rebellion in the Colony. Again at Williamsburg, in 1776-the War of the Revo- lution-many precious documents were consumed by fire. In 1820 the clerk's office at Botetourt, which is now called Gloucester, the county's old seat, was burned with its contents. A further fire at Rich- mond, on April 2, 1865, destroyed all of Gloucester county records. As a precautionary step, Gloucester being in the lines of the enemy, the records had been carried to Richmond. A mutilated register of Abing- don Parish, from 1677 to 1761, and a like uninjured vestry book of Petsworth Parish, in that county, is all that remains from the fires prior to and including that of 1820. From these old books and other fragments of history we get a dim light of Colonial Church work in Gloucester, telling what our fathers did to perpetuate the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Church of England received and planted it in America.
In the absence of her burned and lost records, Gloucester points to the names and history of her families, to the character of their homes. and family graveyards, to the remaining Colonial churches, Abingdon and Ware, and to remnants of foundations where Kingston and Pets- worth churches and earlier old chapels stood when the State was almost a solid forest. These are monuments to the culture and piety of her people.
In 1608 Capt. John Smith, with his hardy followers, first visited what is now Gloucester county. It is here Pocahontas saved the life of
ABINGDON CHURCH, GLOUCESTER COUNTY, VA.
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Smith. Here also our forefathers in the Church found the first fruits unto Christianity among the Indians, in the person of Pocahontas, the daughter of the Indian king. Her numerous offspring in Virginia and elsewhere occupy positions high in Church and State, and trace their ancestry beyond Jamestown even to Gloucester, when it was the seat of an Indian empire.
Weworocomico, the chief home of Powhatan, is distinctly lo- cated on the map of Captain John Smith, and also on the map of Tyndall, fixing the locality on Purton bay, York river, as the spot where Pocahontas saved the life of Smith.
In the food borne from Gloucester by Smith to the starving people at Jamestown, this county became, as it were, a foster-mother to the stricken colony
Gloucester lies on the north side of York river, about fifteen miles from Jamestown. York river and York county were first called Pa- munkey river and Pamunkey shire. Afterwards they bore the name of Charles river and Charles shire. (One of the original eight shires mentioned in Hen. Stat., Vol. I., page 224.)
In like manner the county bordering on the north side of York river, being once a part of York county, shared the names successively Pa- munkey shire, Charles River shire, York county; and finally Glouces- ter. I mention these changes of names, which together with land grants, to be referred to, will throw light upon the genesis of Glouces- ter county and her parishes.
What is now called Gloucester Point, just across the York river from Yorktown, was first called Tyndall's Point. Subsequently it was called Gloucester Town, which name it bore up to about 1850. Like York- town, it has an imperishable history. Gloucester county was cut out of York county about 1651. Land grants were located in York county on the north side of York river until April, 1651. (See York County Land Book.) Prior to this date, between 1630 and 1644, a considerable white population had settled on the north side of York river. In the absence of history to the contrary, it is probable that public worship of God was first conducted in Gloucester at Tyndall's Point. When the geographical and other advantages of Gloucester became known to the English settlers, they were eager to avail themselves of them. The unusual extent and nature of its water front, the enduring wealth of its land, and the mild, salubrious climate have been well and long known. King Powhatan showed his wisdom by making his permanent home there. It was at a strategic locality.
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A study of the long Gloucester water front and country back of Gloucester town, and also up and down York river shores develop some very interesting features and history that, very likely, controlled the direction of the first farmers' settlements outside of Gloucester town. The "War Path," or "Indian Road," well known in Gloucester, crossed York river at Page Rock, in order to reach the "Indian Field," the red- man's settlement in York county. The "War Path" also ran northward from Shelly, in Gloucester, passing to the west within a few miles of the present site of Abingdon church, and on to within half a mile of where Ware church now stands; then onward to the Piankitank and Rappahannock rivers.
Shelly, about eight miles above Gloucester town, is noted for the great bank of oyster shells left there from Indian feasts in the long past. Timber Neck and Carter's Creek plantations are both close to Shelly, and like the latter place their waters are celebrated for oysters that could be easily taken and were abundant. The Indian needed shallow, quiet waters for oyster gathering. The red warrior would be slow to give up these delightful haunts of his ancestors, and to aban- don the "war trail" that led to his neighbors' wigwams, south and north, in the kingdom of Powhatan. The ruins of what is known as Powhatan's chimney, on the east side of Timber Neck creek, and addi- tional oyster shell mounds on the west side of Carter's creek, at Rose- well, indicate a long-standing and large Indian settlement upon these waters. Therefore it is not probable that the first settlers on Glouces- ter shores spread up the river. What is more likely, they settled east- ward, on the shore line of York river and along Sarah's creek, and an arm of this river close to Gloucester town. Guinea, a very favorably protected peninsula about five miles long, is surrounded by wide waters on three sides, north, south and east. The west side is partly cov- ered by Sarah's creek. This neck, cut off from the Indians, offered ex- cellent pasturage all the year long on its extensive marshes for horses, cattle and hogs of the whites. The pines, wild myrtle and horse bushes protected the stock in bad weather. This peninsula, unique in its location and advantages, was doubtless, with Tyndall's Point, the earliest section of Gloucester settled by the whites. With few excep- tions it has been the home of small farmers and fishermen. Ministers located in Kiskyacke Parish likely visited and administered to these hardy citizens, as Tyndall's Point was at first in that parish.
Abingdon church Colonial register preserves the names of many fam-
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ilies that have lived in Guinea since 1677. Her people were among the earliest worshippers at Tyndall's Point and at Abingdon, and they probably came to church in their boats and a-foot in the early days. Later on the better conditioned drove in the carryall, sulky and stick- gig. The bodies of many of them sleep in Abingdon churchyard, leav- ing the story told of the mother church upon the hearts of the people.
Water courses and the divides of water-sheds most frequently mark the metes and bounds of State, county and parish. As the white set- tlements advanced into the interior, county and parish areas, under the multiplication of settlers, became more contracted and defined. The changes that Gloucester Parish lines underwent, in over two hun- dred years, it is impossible to follow clearly. Settlers had moved into what is now Gloucester county before the second attempted Indian massacre of 1644. In making this second attack the Indians were mind- ful of the struggle between the Roundheads and King Charles I., and took advantage of the disturbed state of affairs. (See Smithey's Hist. of Va., page 68.) From 1640 to 1650 was a most trying period to the settlers in what is now Gloucester county, and doubtless had a retard- ing influence upon the Church development. Settlers were summoned by the Burgesses to return to the south side of York river. After this the country north of the York and on the Rappahannock was not open for settlement until September 1, 1649. (See Acts of House of Bur- gesses, Hen. Stat., Vol. I.)
As early as 1623 the House of Burgesses ordered, "There shall be in every plantation where the people meet for the worship of God, a house ur room sequestered for that purpose." A court was held in York coun- ty in a private home, before a courthouse was built, so we may conclude the same people habitually assembled in private houses for worship of God before a church could be built.
There was a place of worship at "Temple Farm," about two miles below (east) Yorktown. Doubtless hardy spirits, seeking God at that time, from Gloucester town crossed the wide, boisterous river, with its sweeping tides, to worship at the locality where, over one hundred years later, Lord Cornwallis was to ask terms of surrender for his "red coats."
The plantations were at first all on the river (or bay) shore. Farms were patches cut out among the trees. Communication was mostly by boat. (See Men, Women and Manners, Fisher, Vol. I.) It is then not surprising (Gloucester abounding in rivers) that in 1648 (See Hen.
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Hist., Vol. I, page 353), the settlers petitioned the House of Burgesses to allow them to return to Gloucester.
Having called attention to the direction in which the settlers of Gloucester, seeking best natural living advantages and greater security from the Indians, I think the chosen locality for a chapel or church would be at Gloucester town or near it, and overlooking the placid waters of Sarah's creek.
Charles I. was beheaded in 1649. With his downfall many Cavaliers flocked to Virginia and not a few settled in Gloucester. Three years later-November, 1652-Gloucester for the first time appears as a county of the Colony, represented in the House of Burgesses by Col. Hughe Gwynn and Mr. Francis Willis. (See Hen. Stat., Vol. I., page 371.)
Having no church records as to when the Gloucester Parishes of Abingdon, Ware, Petsworth and Kingston (the latter now in Mathews county) were formed, I turn to the Gloucester book of Land Grants. There I find a grant to one John Chapman for four hundred acres of land in Kingston Parish in 1657., Grants were located in Petsworth, Abingdon and Ware Parishes in 1665 and 1666. There is nothing in the York records about these parishes. I think they were established about 1652, because Gloucester being nearer Williamsburg than Lan- caster county, where court records reported two parishes in 1654, one of them bordering Gloucester on the north .*
Abingdon Parish lies in the southeastern part of Gloucester county, fronting on York river and Mobjack bay. It is bounded on the north and west by Ware and Petsworth Parishes. The area is between thirty and forty miles in circumference. The church stands in a walnut grove near the road leading from Gloucester Courthouse to Gloucester Point, and is six miles from the latter. This is the second known
* A most interesting document has been called to light by the above article, from among papers in the hands of Mr. Robert R. Thurston, who has shown me a patent to Francis Ceely for 600 acres of land in Abingdon Parish, dated March 2d, 1648, signed by "William Berke- ley." This paper carries the parish four years back of the earliest date, 1652, given in the above article. As it was a parish in 1648. it is
most probable it was established before the massacre of 1644. It may have been formed as early as 1642, when Kiskiacke, or Chescake Parish, was changed to Hampton Parish. Notwithstanding the silence of the York county Land Books on the subject, it is evident from the fore-mentioned paper that "Abingdon" Parish was first a part of York
county. It may then have embraced the territory of Ware, Petsworth and Kingston parishes, or they may have been cotemporaneous with it. I trust these articles will call forth more light upon the history of the parishes.
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church at this place. The foundations of the first church, close beside the present building, show that it was much smaller than is the church now in use. This first building, which the Rev. Charles Mann said "had been enlarged," is supposed to have been built in early days of this parish, and upon ground donated by Augustine Warner.
The foundations of an old wall that enclosed the Warner gift of half an acre of land for this church and cemetery in which the church stood, are still to be traced. This cemetery was enlarged in Colonial days and enclosed by an excellent brick walk. The sight of these an- cient ruins should awaken profound interest in every true-hearted American. Here Mildred Warner, daughter of Col. Augustine Warner, must have worshipped and received her early religious training. She married Lawrence Washington, of Westmoreland county, Virginia, and was the grandmother of George Washington.
This church was used about one hundred years, when it became un- safe and steps were taken to build the present beautiful Abingdon.
The present church is in the form of a square or maltese cross, ironting the west, the main entrance being at that end. The two out- side faces of the western and eastern ends of the cross are each thirty- six feet wide. The faces of the northern and southern outside ends of the arms of the cross are each thirty-five feet wide. The extreme length of the building from west to east is eighty-one feet. The ex- treme width of the building from north to south is seventy-six feet six inches. The walls are two feet thick. I was unable to measure the height of walls and angle of roof, but both are in fine proportion with the width. I think the walls were built of brick made in Gloucester (from an excavation near the church), and according to the Flemish bond, and with glazed heads. The bricks framing the entrances are of different sizes, color and clay from those in the body of the church, suggesting the probability of their having been imported. But few bricks were imported in the colonies.
I am of the opinion that this structure was completed about 1755, and for these reasons: First, the late Mrs. Robert C. Selden, of Sher- wood, who was born in 1815, and died April, 1906, told me that in her childhood, she remembered her aged aunt Innis, of Warner Hall, say- ing she attended services in the first church when she was a little girl; second, high in the church wall is a brick which I have carefully ex- amined, dated 1734; third, the Williamsburg Gazette of February 14, 1751, has the following:
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"Notice is hereby given, on Wednesday, 27th day of this month, a vestry will be held at Abingdon church, in the county of Gloucester, in order io contract with workmen for building a new church in said parish."
There is still another brick in the southwest corner of the wall, three feet from the ground, with 1755 neatly cut in it, which I think gives the date of its completion. The high Colonial pulpit stood at the southeast re-entrant angle to the right of the chancel.
The beautiful pentagonal reredos is accurately described by Mrs. Fielding Lewis Taylor, as follows:
"It represents the facade of a Greek temple in the bas-relief, about twenty feet in height and extending entirely across the back of the chancel. it is handsomely carved and painted snowy white. Straight across the lintel of the facade runs the first line of the Te Deum, 'We praise Thee, O God.' The roof of the reredos dividing at the apex, sup- ports a pineapple, both in high relief. Between the four fluted pilas- ters of the reredos are set four long black tablets, framed and lettered in gold. These contain the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. Alas! the breath of time has dimmed the beautiful words. The light from the great arched windows (in the head of the cruciform building, on either side of the chancel) shines full upon these four foundation pillars of the Faith once delivered to the saints. The effect of the whole is simple, but beautiful, full of deep spiritual earnestness." Above the apex of the reredos is a gilt cross painted on glass.
Abingdon church, within and without, is exceedingly impressive and beautiful. The main and cross aisles were formerly laid in flagstones, a step below the level of the pew floors. They were probably imported. The pews were large and with high sides, according to Colonial style, with benches on three sides. The chancel occupies the east end of the cross. There are galleries in the arms of the cross, still furnished with the same high pews. In early days the Thruston and Lewis families are said to have occupied the south gallery, and the Burwells and Pages the north gallery. In the rear of these pews benches were placed for servants. There was no flue nor other evidence, nor is there any tradition that the church was heated in any way. As far as I have learned, this condition at Abingdon is not an exception in the first plan of Virginia Colonial churches. The fathers brought from Eng- land the custom of not providing the churches with stoves, but certain
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families, no doubt, brought heating boxes, charcoal braziers, hot bricks and abundant wraps. In later times stoves were introduced, in which wood was burned, the stovepipes passing out through a per- forated sheet of tin substituting a pane of glass. The stoves were in- effectual for heating, and delicate persons were provided with bricks heated on the stove and wrapped in woollens. Uncle Guy, the old negro sexton, did this. A modern furnace is now in use.
In the Colonial section of the cemetery graves are so numerous that it is impossible to find space for an interment in unoccupied g' Jund. "The vestry have forbidden the interment in the old cemetery as a burying-ground. There are numbers of sunken stones that have no lettering or dates. There are three well preserved tombs with legible inscriptions. Two of these have coats-of-arms. A few years ago the late Mrs. Robert Colgate Selden, a descendant of Augustine Warner, gave an acre of ground adjoining the cemetery, for enlarging the graveyard. Recently Mr. Joseph Bryan enclosed the whole ceme- tery, about two and a half acres, with a substantial brick wall. The tendency to use the new section of the cemetery is increasing.
The plantations in this and the adjoining parishes of Gloucester generally have family burying-grounds. In the burying-grounds are handsomely inscribed gravestones-at "Timber Neck," "Carter's 'Creek," "Rosewell," "Warner Hall," "Wareham," "Toddsbury," "High Gate," "Violetbank," and other homes, along with destroyed Petsworth and its abandoned churchyard. From these were gathered some history of our Church.
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