Colonial churches; a series of sketches of churches in the original colony of Virginia, with pictures of each church, Part 22

Author:
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Richmond, Va., Southern churchman co.
Number of Pages: 404


USA > Virginia > Colonial churches; a series of sketches of churches in the original colony of Virginia, with pictures of each church > Part 22


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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30


The last eight, with Mr. Charles E. Cary, compose the present vestry.


Among the family names prominent in the history of the parish are Curtis, Cooke, Booth, Jones, Lewis, Willis, Todd, Whiting, Throck- morton, Kemp, Tabb, Yateman, Corbin, Wiatt, Page, Ware, Montague, Byrd, Reade, Cary, Baytop, Dabney, Tompkins, Vanbibber, Tomkies, Nelson, Dixon, Davies, Taliaferro, Smith, Field, Roy, Smart, Camp- field and others.


Before closing this article it will be well to note the times Ware church has been repaired. The first we have knowledge of was in 1827, when under the brief ministry of Mr. Carnes, Mr. Thomas Tabb, Col. Thomas Smith, Dr. William Taliaferro, Sr., and others, had it put in order for divine service. (See Bishop Meade's book.)


Mr. Mann, in 1836, was authorized to have chimneys placed in Ware church. Evidently they did not give satisfaction, as they were removed and stovepipes again projected through the walls.


In 1854 the church was again repaired, reroofed, and this time al- tered, the floor of the chancel being extended over the tombs in the east end of the church. The flagstone floor of the aisles was removed and laid with boards to the level of the pew floor, and two modern blocks of pews put in. The space under the gallery was partitioned off from the church and made into a vestibule; the old high pulpit removed from its position near the south door and substituted by a modern one placed within the chancel.


In 1902 a new slate roof was put upon the church, the former chim- neys were reopened and extended and have proved satisfactory.


It is worthy of note that in removing the old roof the timbers were found in excellent condition.


There have probably been few counties in Virginia where a larger number of long rectorships have existed than in Gloucester. Mr. Clack served nearly 45 years; Mr. Gwynn, 16; Rev. Guy Smith, 18; Rev. Emmanuel Jones (in Petsworth) 39; Rev. Mr. Hughes, 25; Mr. Foun-


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taine, 31; Mr. A. Smith, in Mathews and Gloucester, 25 years; Mr. Mann, 40, and the present pastor, 25 years.


From what I can gather of the condition of the church in the Colonial period from private letters, from extracts of wills, from references in sermons and wills, and from epitaphs on tombstones, there were many exalted Christians who loved God and His Church, and tried to live godly lives. They endeavored to instill spiritual teachings and prin- ciples in the hearts of their children.


In my Abingdon article I spoke of Mildred Warner, ancestress of General Washington, as having received religious instruction and training at Abingdon church. Colonial Gloucester and her churches seems to have been one of the seed-beds for raising up great men in the Church and State. As an example, Petsworth Parish gave back to the mother Church Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London; our own Bishop Meade's ancestry goes back through a single line to Gloucester. At Carter's creek, in Abingdon Parish, there once lived and is now buried Lucy Higginson, widow of Maj. Lewis Burwell, after wife of Philip Ludwell, and ancestress of that illustrious Churchman, patriot and statesman, Richard Henry Lee. Another Gloucester Parish, "Kingston" (now in Mathews county), had the honor of training Judith Armistead in the ways of the Church of England to Christian womanhood. She became the wife of Robert Carter, of Lancaster county, Virginia, and thus the ancestress of that Christian gentleman and soldier-a star of the first magnitude in the Church Militant, General Robert Edward Lee.


Such was the work that was being done by "The Old Church in this New Land," in former days, that the enemy of all righteousness sowed seed about and within her to injure her usefulness. Though the Church in Gloucester and throughout Virginia and in the other Colonies was prostrate after the Revolution, God, as of old, was watching over her, abiding His time to raise her up and send her forward upon her great commission to aid in the evangelization of mankind. Let us, then, cease casting aspersions upon her and upon our forefathers within her fold, and instead, pray for her greater cleansing and labor for her up- building.


SUFFOLK PARISH, NANSEMOND COUNTY, VIRGINIA.


BY THE REV. JOHN B. DUNN, RECTOR OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, SUFFOLK, VA.


I N the year 1639, five years after the establishment of Warrasquy- oake as a shire, the latter was subdivided into counties, one of which was called Upper Norfolk. This name was changed in 1645-6 to Nansimum, which subsequently appears under a variety of spellings, as Nandsamund, Nanzemund, Nansemum and Nansemund, until finally it assumed its present form of Nansemond. In 1642 the county was divided into three parishes to be known as South, East and West, respectively. The statute provides that "the gleab and parsonage that now is" shall be appropriated to East Parish. As there was a resident minister in the county before 1642, it is natural to infer that there was a church there. No record of the site or character of this building is extant. The names of the parishes as South, East and West soon gave way to other names, for in 1680 they are referred to as Upper (South), Lower (East), and Chicokatuck (West). In this year for the first time, we learn the names of the clergy resident in the county. Upper Parish was served by the Rev. John Gregory; Lower Parish by the Rev. John Wood, and Chicokatuck (Chuckatuck) by Rev. William Housden, who served in Isle of Wight also.


As early as 1635 Nansemond attracted the attention of settlers. In that year George West granted to Richard Bennett 2,000 acres on Nansemond river, for importing forty persons. Bennett played a con- spicuous part in the life of the county and Colony. He was a member of the Governor's Council, but he was a Roundhead. He gathered about him numbers of the same political and religious creed. In 1641 he sent his brother to New England to request that some Puritan ministers be sent to Virginia. These ministers gained their strongest foothold in Nansemond, where a flourishing church numbering 118 members was soon organized, and they chose as their minister Rev. Mr. Harrison, who had formerly been Governor Berkeley's chaplain, but had turned Puritan. The rapid growth of the Independents dis- turbed the mind of the authorities, and active measures were taken to suppress them. Religion and politics were practically synonymous


ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, NANSEMOND COUNTY, VA.


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in those days, and independence in religion spelled disloyalty in politics. England was in the midst of the fierce struggle between King and Parliament, and Virginia was strongly loyalist.


In 1648, a few months before the execution of Charles I., pressure was brought to bear on the Nansemond Independents, and William Durand, one of their elders, was banished. Durand was a citizen of Lower Norfolk, but was associated with the Nansemond Independents. He retired to Maryland. He is frequently confused in the histories of Virginia with George Durand, who many years later migrated to North Carolina and settled there. Next Rev. Mr. Harrison was expelled from the Colony, and then their other teachers were banished; and when the congregation stubbornly held to the Church of their choice, some of them were imprisoned.


So far the Council had been unable to break their spirit, but an order to disarm all Independents having been given, the spirit of resistance was quenched.


A number of these dissenters having been invited by Governor Stone, Lord Baltimore's deputy, retired to Maryland, and are remembered as among the founders of Anne Arundel county in that State.


Among those who left were Richard Bennett and William Ayres. These refugees prospered in their new abode, and others, induced by their example, removed thither. It was not long, however, before they became dissatisfied with the proprietory government of Roman Catholic Maryland, and they were the leaders in the fierce civil war waged a few years later in Maryland, between Protestants and Catholics.


Another body of Dissenters in the county fared better than the Puritans. This was the Society of Friends. This Society was found- ed in 1648. As early as 1656 some of this sect arrived in Boston but were sent back to England. In 1657 laws were passed in Massachu- setts to prevent the introduction of Quakers, but they flocked thither nevertheless. Virginia also strove to keep them out of the Colony. In the wild enthusiasm of the first years of their existence many of the Quakers were fanatics, courting martyrdom. They made mock of established institutions and rulers, interrupted public worship, and refused obedience to the law of the land. These fanatics gave to the Society a bad name, and beginning with 1660, stringent laws against them were passed by the Virginia Assembly. Captains were fined for bringing them into the Colony. All of them were to be apprehended and committed until they should give security that they would leave the Colony. If they returned they were to be punished, and return-


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ing the second time they were to proceeded against as felons. It was provided, however, that if the convicted Quakers should give security not to meet in unlawful .embly they should be discharged without any punishment whatever. It was only against organized opposition to the government and institutions that the law was directed. The Colony did not interfere with the individual unless he with others combined against the law of the land. Even when a member of the Assembly was accused of being a Quaker, he was not expelled till he had refused to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. Notwith- standing the efforts of the Assembly, the Quakers increased, and con- tinued to hold meetings.


In 1672 George Fox, the founder of the Society, visited Virginia. Fox found a fruitful field of labor in Nansemond. He had meetings "at Nansemond river, where Col. Dew, of the Council, and several officers and magistrates attended, and at Somerton; also at Widow Wright's in Nansemond, where many magistrates, officers and other high people came." The effects of Fox's labors were lasting and a large element of the present citizens of the county number Quakers among their ancestors. Even the great man of the county, Richard Bennett, fell under the spell of Fox; for George Edmondson, the com- panion of Fox, wrote of Bennett: "He was a solid, wise man, received the truth, and died in the same, leaving two Friends his executors."


The records of the Chuckatuck meeting-house (1673-1728), a copy of which is in the possession of the writer, show that the Quakers were numerous and practically unmolested. They had four meeting-houses in the county, "built by the highway side." Their martyrology is a brief one, the most conspicuous martyr being Thomas Jordan. The sketch of this worthy is characteristic. "Thomas Jordan, of Chuckatuck in Nansemond county in Virginia, was born in ye year 1634 and in ye year 1660 he Received ye truth and Abode faithfull in it, and in constant unity with ye faithfull friends thereof; and stood in opposition against all wrong and Desateful spirits, having suffered ye spoiling of his goods and ye imprisonment of his Body for ye truth's sake and continued in ye truth unto the End of his dayes." Jordan refused to pay tithes and defied the magistrates in court. He was sent on to the Governor's Council, where he was dismissed with a reprimand.


In 1703 Governor Nicholson became involved in a quarrel with the vestry of Chuckatuck Parish which became so bitter that it finally involved most of the prominent men in the country. Nicholson


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sent to all the vestries the opinion of Sir Edward Northy, upholding the Governor's claim of the right to fill a vacancy of long standing in a church; and the right to force vestries to present their ministers for induction. The vestry of Chuckatuck recorded, as they were or- dered to do, the opinion of the King's attorney, but added this reso- lution to it: "But as to presenting our present or any other minister for induction, are not of opinion (record is here illegible), but are willing to entertain our present minister upon the usual terms, as formerly hath been used in this Colony."


A leading member of that vestry was Capt. Thomas Swann, who was a candidate for election to the Assembly. Nicholson was bitterly hostile to Swann for his action in the vestry; and tried to bring about his defeat. He carried his hostility even to the friends of Swann. He turned out of office Daniel Sullivan, the efficient county clerk, because he voted and worked for Swann, and substituted a wholly incompetent man in his place. The court refused to accept the Governor's ap- pointee, and Nicholson immediately turned six of the eight justices out of office. Four members of the court were vestrymen of Chuck- atuck. He went even further. He cancelled the commission of Thomas Godwin, colonel of militia. Godwin was also a member of the recal- citrant vestry. Nicholson's arbitrary behavior in this matter, for in every case he proceeded without consulting the Council, was one of the charges brought against him by Commissary Blair.


In 1703, Rev. William Rudd resigned the church in Norfolk to be- come minister at Chuckatuck. He served there for some years and was succeeded by the Rev. Thomas Hassell. In 1728 Colonel Byrd passed through the county and notes that he "passed no less than two Quaker meeting houses," and adds: "That persuasion prevails much in the lower end of Nansemond county for want of ministers to pilot the people a decenter way to Heaven."


Sometime about 1725 Chuckatuck and Lower Parish were united to form one parish and called Suffolk Parish. The name of the parish antedates the town of Suffolk by at least seventeen years, and strangely enough, Suffolk is not in Suffolk Parish, but in the Upper Parish of Nansemond. The union was brought about upon the petition of the two vestries, representing their inability separately to support a min- ister, but the arrangement was unsatisfactory from the beginning. The first evidence of bad feeling is shown in the will of John Yeates, dated 1731. This will is a long and interesting document. It provides a liberal endowment for two free schools in Lower Parish, already


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built by the testator. He gives £10 in cash "to buy books for the poorer sort of inhabitants in the parish, as the Whole Duty of Man; also for procuring Testaments, Psalters, Primers, for my several schools."


He gives to the church a pulpit cloth and cushion; also a silver flagon and silver chalice, and silver plate. He gives to the church for the use of the minister, Bishop Hall's works in large folio, and Bishop Usher's "Sum and Substance of the Christian Religion;" also a large Bible He bequeaths to "my friends, and gentlemen of the vestry living this side of the river, a treat at my house," and to "my worthy friends, the worshipful court of Nansemond county, ten shillings to drink for my sake." He especially provides that Chuckatuck Parish shall not be the beneficiary of his will, for "I never was a gainer, or the Lower Parish, by Chuckatuck Parish, but the contrary."


In 1737 the vestry of Suffolk Parish "upon evident proof of the ruinous condition of the church" in Lower Parish, gave order for the erection of a new brick church, at the place called Jordan's Mill Hill, as more convenient than the old site. The members of the vestry from the Chuckatuck side of the river refused to assist in the work, and the matter was appealed to the Governor in Council, who ordered the immediate erection of the building. This order of Council fixes the date of the erection of the Glebe church (or Bennett's Creek church, as it is called in the Vestry Book) as 1738. The Council also ordered that since Chuckatuck had a majority in the vestry and seemed de- termined to maintain it, none of the inhabitants of Chuckatuck should be chosen vestrymen until there be an equal number of vestrymen from each side of the river.


The old Vestry Book of the parish begins with the year 1749, during the ministry of the Rev. John Mckenzie. At his death in 1754 the Rev. John Agnew was chosen minister. In 1755 the present church at Chuckatuck was built, near the site of the ancient one. In 1758 the vestry of Suffolk Parish was dissolved, by act of Assembly, on peti- tion of the inhabitants of Lower Parish. The vestry held in trust for the Lower Parish valuable lands and a cash donation from Richard Bennett, Thomas Tilly, and Richard Bennett, Jr. According to the terms of the bequests, the poor of Lower Parish alone were to bene- ficiaries. The vestry of the united parishes allowed the Chuckatuck members of their body to colonize the poor of Chuckatuck in Lower Parish, and thus receive the benefit of the Bennett and Tilly bequests. The vestry, whose life-tenure of office was apt to make them arbi-


THE GLEBE CHURCH, NANSEMOND COUNTY, VA,


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trary in their dealings, were taught that they were the representatives of the people and responsible to them for good conduct in office.


Some of the items entered upon the Vestry Book bring a smile to the reader of to-day: The order for the payment of 500 pounds of tobacco to the doctor, "for salevating Mary Brinkley and keeping her salevated," is not a record of persecution, but of kindly care for one of the parish poor.


In 1775 the Assembly passed a law that every person receiving aid from the parish should, "upon the shoulder of the right sleeve, in an open and visible manner, wear a badge with the name of the parish cut either in blue, red or green cloth, and if any poor person neglect or refuse to wear such badge, his or her allowance shall be withdrawn or the offender whipped not exceeding five lashes for each offense." This law seems to have been a dead letter in most parishes, but it was rigidly enforced in Suffolk Parish, at least to the extent of pro- viding the badges and making the allowance to the poor conditional on their wearing the badge.


The provision in Yeates' will for "a treat at my house to my friends, the gentlemen of the vestry," was not in jest, but a recognition of the convivial habits of those gentlemen; for we read in the list of parish expenses an order for the payment of 200 pounds of tobacco to William Johns "for the use of his house for vestry meeting and for liquor."


Forty pounds of tobacco is ordered to be paid "to the Rev'd Agnew for his wife washing the surplis."


In 1764 the Assembly passed an act whereby the ministers and people should be exempt from ferriage when crossing the river to attend service; and that such ferriage be paid by the vestry from the parish levy. The vestry sent a committee to Williamsburg and succeeded in having this act repealed, except in regard to the minister.


When the trouble with Great Britain began Nansemond organized its County Committee. This committee was very active from the beginning. Parson Agnew, the minister, was a zealous supporter of the British cause, and open in his condemnation of the growing spirit of independence. In the spring of 1775 Parson Agnew was ob- served to visit actively among his congregation, urging them to full attendance upon a certain Sunday. The ladies, especially, were in- vited. On the appointed Sunday the church was filled with women, while a crowd of men, numbering 500, stood outside and listened through the windows. The minister read the prayer for the King, and no word of disapproval was heard. He chose for his text, "Render


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unto Caesar the things that are Cæsar's"; and his hearers pricked up their ears, for they knew what was coming. He proceeded to decry the sins of disloyalty and rebellion. Suddenly Mr. William Cowper, a vestryman and magistrate, left his seat in the magistrates' pew, and, mounting the pulpit, ordered the speaker to come down. "I am doing my Master's business," said the parson.


"Which master?" replied Cowper; "your Master in heaven or your master over the seas? You must leave this church, or I will use force."


"I will never be the cause of breeding riot in my Master's house," said Agnew.


The minister then came down from the pulpit and walked down the aisle and through the crowd at the church door, which parted to make a passage for him. He entered his carriage and drove away. The congregation quietly dispersed and Parson Agnew never again entered the church that he had served for so many years. The parson, though driven from his pulpit, continued his activity against what he deemed a great wrong. He was warned by the County Committee, but he still persisted. The matter grew so grave that he was finally arrested. The affair caused a great deal of talk in the county and throughout the Colony. In some quarters the people were much criticized for their treatment of the minister. In order to justify their action, the committee, through its secretary, Mr. John Gregory, sent to the Virginia Gazette a recital of the charges against Agnew.


Virginia Gazette, April 8, 1775 .- "Charges against Parson Agnew: He asserted that it was no hardship to be carried beyond sea for trial of crimes committed here. He declared, when speaking of the Congress, that all such combinations and associations were de- testable; that the Congress did not know what they were about; that the designs of the great men were to ruin the poor people, and that after awhile they would forsake them and lay the whole blame on their shoulders, and by this means make them slaves. He likewise informed Mr. Smith there was an association of the other party up the county and the people were signing it fast; that they had dis- covered their error in signing the present one. Upon the whole, the public will plainly discover the principles this Reverend Gentleman entertains and in what light he views the general resolutions adopted and entered into for our relief from the oppressive hand of power. Had this zealous advocate for despotic rule been as assiduous in the


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discharge of the several duties of his function, as he has been indus- trious in propagating false and erroneous principles, not only in private discourse, but in blending detestable tenets in his angry orations from the pulpit, in order to gain a party in opposition to the common cause, and thereby lending his aid to seduce the very people that gave him bread, to a state of wretchedness, this committee had not been at the trouble to examine the 11th article of the Association, and open- ing his conduct to the censure of the world.


"JOHN GREGORIE (C. C.)"


The vestry also appointed a committee to wait upon the Convention "with a true representation of the conduct and behavior of the Rev. John Agnew." Agnew appealed from the sentence of Court of Com- missioners for Nansemond county, and his appeal was heard by the Committee of Safety on April 10, 1776. The minutes of the Committee of Safety from April 10th to April 20th are lost, so we have no knowledge of the result of the appeal. He left the county sometime during 1776 and entered the British service, becoming chaplain of the Queen's Rangers, in which troop his son, Stair Agnew, was a captain. He and his son were taken prisoners during the Revolu- tion and carried to France. In the Virginia Convention of May, 1776, which gave to the State its first Constitution, William Cowper, who had won popularity by his action in expelling Agnew from the church, was chosen to represent the county.


In September, 1777, Rev. William Bland was elected minister of the parish, but there is no record that he ever served. In October, 1778, Rev. Henry John Burges was received as minister. Just before the arrival of the Rev. Mr. Burges an event occurred which figures prom- inently in Baptist martyrology. In 1778 David Barrow, pastor of the Mill Swamp Baptist church, in Isle of Wight, which had existed for many years previous, and Mr. Mintz, another Baptist minister, preached by invitation at the house of a gentleman on Nansemond river, in Lower Parish. A platform was erected and a crowd assembled. The preaching of the two Baptists stirred up ill-feeling, and a number of young fellows determined to break up the meeting. They jeered and sung songs. This behavior naturally brought on them a stinging re- buke from the preacher. There is no record of what he said, but in the end about twenty men leaped upon the platform and captured the two preachers and carried them down to the river, near at hand, and ducked them. Barrow was the chief sufferer, as they thrust his


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face down into the mud. Mintz, who had given less occasion for ill- feeling, was let off more easily. The affair was evidently the outcome of the reckless spirit of a crowd of youths, who resented the criticism of themselves and their class; and only the fevered imagination of a pious chronicler could make it appear as a part of a systematic per- secution by the Established Church. Attention is called to this in- cident, for it is a characteristic example of that persecution by the Church of which we read so much in the political briefs against the Colonial Church. The concluding words of the record of this event. in the Baptist Book of Martyrs is mediaval in its flavor: "Before these persecuted men could change their clothes they were dragged from the house and driven off by these enraged Churchmen. But three or four of them died in a few weeks in a distracted manner, and one of them wished himself in hell before he had joined the company."




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