Colonial churches; a series of sketches of churches in the original colony of Virginia, with pictures of each church, Part 5

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 5


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In 1617 Captain Argall arrived in Jamestown, and served as deputy governor. He found the church which De la Warr had renovated again in ruins, and services being conducted in a storehouse. Some time during his tenure of office-i. e., between 1617 and 1619, a new


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church was built at Jamestown, "wholly at the charge of the inhabi- tants of that cittie, of timber, being fifty foot in length and twenty foot in breadth"; and this time the site was removed, and the new church was placed to the eastward of the old stockade (outside of it) and in the midst of or adjacent to the rueful graveyard, where so many victims of hunger, heat, cold, fever, and massacre lay buried. It was erected upon a slender cobblestone and brick foundation, only the length of one brick in thickness. This foundation was discovered by the careful explorations of the Association for the Preser- vation of Virginia Antiquities in 1891, and lies within the foun- dations of the next building, that is, of the one the tower of which is now standing. This slender foundation of the church, built between 1617 and 1619, is the oldest structure which has been discovered at Jamestown. It was within this little building that the first House of Burgesses met in July, 1619-the first representative body of English lawmakers to assemble in America. And “forasmuche as men's af- faires doe little prosper where God's service is neglected, all the bur- gesses stood in their places, until a prayer was said by Mr. Bucke, that it would please God to guide and santifie all our proceedings to His own glory and the good of the Plantation." Then the small, but august body of Burgesses was organized, and the first laws passed in America by a representative body were then enacted for the regula- tion both of the Church and of the State.


How long this little building, the third church, lasted and was used, we do not know, but in 1639, January 18th, the statement is made in a letter from the Governor, Sir John Harvey, and the Council in Vir- ginia, to the Privy Council in London, that "Such hath bene our In- devour herein, that out of our owne purses we have largely contribut- ed to the building of a brick church, and both masters of ships, and others of the ablest Planters have liberally by our persuasion under- writt to this worke." As this letter was dated January 18th, it may be that the church was finished that year, but there is no definite statement as to this.


The same letter makes mention of the first brick house at James- town, which was the residence of Secretary Richard Kemp. It was but sixteen by twenty-four feet in dimensions, but Governor Harvey speaks of it as "the fairest ever known in this country for substance and uniformity." This fourth church, built by Governor Harvey, stood and was used until September, 1676, when it was burned along


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with the rest of Jamestown by Nathaniel Bacon and his men But it is most probable that the tower and walls stood, and that when Jamestown was partially rebuilt between 1676 and 1686, that the origi- nal tower and walls built by Harvey about 1639, were repaired and used. Thus repaired, the church continued to be used for many years. After 1699 the meetings of the House of Burgesses were no longer held in Jamestown, but removed to Williamsburg, and the residents at Jamestown became very few, and the congregation of the church at Jamestown was correspondingly diminished. In 1724 the Rev. William Le Neve reported to the Bishop at London that James City parish was twenty miles long and twelve broad, and that there were seventy-eight families in the parish. He held services at Jamestown two Sundays in three, there being about 130 attendants, and his salary was £60. One Sunday in three he preached at Mulberry Island, where there were about 200 attendants, and his salary was £30 per annum. Every Sunday afternoon he lectured at Williamsburg to about 100 people, his salary being £20. Holy Communion was celebrated four times a year to twenty or thirty communicants. The population was gradu- ally drifting away from Jamestown, and the minister at Jamestown would serve other churches also. The fire of 1776 doubtless destroyed priceless church records, and the names of the clergymen who served James City parish can only be gathered here and there from other records. I have gathered twenty-seven names, but the evidence of their connection with the parish is not satisfactory in all cases.


The last minister in the old church was certainly Bishop James Madison, who served the parish from 1785 to 1812. The old church was in ruins before 1812, and the last services in the parish were held in a brick church a few miles off on the road to Williamsburg, called "The Main" Church- that is, the church on the main land as distin- guished from the island. This church has now disappeared.


The font of the old church and its interesting communion vessels were taken to Bruton church, in the new Colonial capital at Wil- liamsburg, where they are still carefully preserved.


The old tower has kept its lonely watch for more than an hundred years. After long and inexcusable neglect it is now strengthened and guarded. Long may it stand. The principles, the heroic perse- verance, the sufferings, which the very ground of Jamestown brings to mind, together with the imperishable fruits and blessings which went out to the New World from this first English settlement, have


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their fittest monument in the tower of the church which, in the provi- dence of God, was appointed to bring the everlasting Gospel to these shores.


The following is a list of ministers who are recorded by several authorities-Bishop Meade, Dr. Dashiell, E. D. Niell and others-to have served in James City Parish between 1607 and 1800:


MINISTERS IN JAMES CITY PARISH.


1. Robert Hunt, 1607-08.


2. Richard Bucke, 1610.


[He was afterwards minister of the church at Kecoughtan in 1615.]


3. Lord De la Warr's minister, probably William Mease, 1610.


4. David Sandys, E. D. Neill, Virginia Colonial Clergy, page 7, at Captain Sam Matthew's, in James City, 1625.


5. Thomas Harrison, Chaplain to Governor Berkeley, Neill, page 14, 1644.


6. Thomas Hampton, Henning, 1644, Neill, p. 15; Bishop Meade and Dashiell, Digest of the Councils of the Diocese of Virginia, 1645.


7. Morgan Godwin, Neill, pp. 18 and 20, 1665.


8. Rowland Jones, Neill, p. 21; Senate Document, p. 103, 1674-88.


9. John Gouch, buried at Jamestown, 1683.


10. John Clayton, in letter to Dr. Boyle, signs himself parson at James City; Neill, p. 21, 1684.


11. James Sclater; Dashiell, 1688.


12. James Blair, Bishop Meade, Vol. I., p. 94, 1694-1710.


13. Solomon Whateley, Dashiell, 1700.


14. Hugh Jones, Neill, p. 27, previous to 1724.


15. Sharpe Bromscale, Dashiell, 1721.


16. William Le Neve, sent report to Bishop of London, 1724. 1722-1724.


17. Wm. Dawson, Commissary, 1734-1751.


18. Thomas Dawson, Commissary, 1752.


19. William Robinson, Dashiell, 1744.


20. William Yates, Dashiell, 1754.


21. William Preston, Perry's Historical Papers, p. 429, 1755.


22. Rev. Mr. Berkeley, Bishop Meade, Vol. I., p. 95, 1758.


23. James Horrochs, Dashiell, 1762.


24. Mr. Gwatkin, Dashiell, and State Papers, 1771-76.


25. J. Hyde Saunders, ordained for James City 1772. Bishop Meade, Vol. I., p. 95, 1773.


26. Mr. Bland, Bishop Meade, p. 113, note Main Church.


27. James Madison, Bishop Meade, Vol. I., p. 95.


THE OLD BRICK CHURCH, ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA.


BY R. S. THOMAS, OF SMITHFIELD, VA.


T HE Old Brick Church, five miles from Smithfield, Virginia, built in 1632, is the oldest building of English construction in America.


The ruined and vine-clad towers at Jamestown are more pathetic; but they are not as venerable; for they tell only of that church which was built after 1676, when its predecessor-the third or fourth church-was destroyed in the general conflagration caused by the forces under Nathaniel Bacon. The old Bruton church was not completed until after 1686, when its "Steeple and Ring of Bells" were ordered. It was occupied after November, 1683, but it lacked the grace and finish of its "Steeple and Ring of Bells."


The Old Brick Church has come down to us from 1632. The his- torical evidences of this fact were given in full, by the writer, in a paper read before the Virginia Historical Society in 1891, which was published in Volume XI of the Virginia Historical Collections of that year.


In 1884, a great storm caused the roof of the old church to fall, which brought down with it a portion of its eastern wall. In the debris of that wall two bricks were found: one whole, now imbedded in the woodwork of the chancel, with the figures 1632 clean and clear cut on it; the other broken in two, but with the figures 1-32 as clean and clear and distinct as the first; the second figure 6 having been destroyed by the breaking of the brick. These bricks were imbedded in that Eastern wall; the figures 1632 were filled with mortar and con- cealed from view by the plastering of the church. There was neither knowledge nor tradition of them prior to the storm that disclosed their existence; but they came, in a wonderful manner, to substantiate the history and tradition of a fact, which was just as fixed and cer- tain as universal history and tradition could make it.


In 1884 the Rev. David Barr, beholding the havoc the storm had wrought to the church, conceived the idea that he would have it re-


OLD BRICK CHURCH (ST. LUKE'S), ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VA.


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stored to its original condition. He worked for years with splendid enthusiasm, and succeeded in raising the sum of $5,724.23.


He was fortunate enough to receive the gratuitous services of the lamented E. J. N. Stent, church architect and decorator, who also raised $500.00. R. S. Thomas and F. G. Scott succeeded in collecting $2,501.01; making a total of $8,725.24.


The grand old church was rededicated in November, 1894, the ser- vices extending through the 13th and 14th of that month.


The dedicatory sermon was (in the absence of Bishop Randolph) preached by the new Bishop-Coadjutor of the Diocese of Southern Vir- ginia, the Rev. B. D. Tucker, D. D .; and those who were fortunate enough to hear it, still remember it as the supreme effort of his life. The acoustic properties of the church are simply magnificent, and the voice of Mr. Tucker from that tall pulpit and beneath that high sound- ing-board rang out with a fullness, and a resonance that was delight- ful to hear.


But far above the voice of the preacher were his eloquent and ap- propriate sentiments depicting, in glowing and appreciatory language, the piety and missionary spirit of our ancestors, which led them to cross the seas, to build churches in the wilderness of Virginia, and to put as the very first law in the statute books of the Colony "that there shall be in every plantation, where the people use to meete for the worship of God, a house or roome sequestered for that purpose, and not to be for any temporal use whatever, and a place empaled in, se- questered only to the burial of the dead" (1619).


No stronger proof can be given of the vitality and power of this sentiment, than that long list of churches that stood and now stand only ten miles apart from Norfolk to Petersburg. One of these was the Old Brick Church. That church was built under the superinten- dence of one Joseph Bridger, whose son, General Joseph Bridger, Councillor of State in Virginia to King Charles II., died on the 15th of April, 1686, in the fifty-eighth year of his age at his "White Marsh Farm," about two miles distant from the old church.


I have always been struck with the grace and beauty of the old church. I wondered where the architect caught the inspiration of his work. But when I first stood in Westminster and St. Paul's, London, and saw their lines of beauty, I no longer wondered at the source of the power of this wilderness architect. Westminster, St. Paul's, and such cathedrals as Chester, York, Salisbury, and Canterbury, had set


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the soul of the missionary on fire, and he gave it expression in the Old Brick Church, which has no superior in any of the country churches of England.


The church at Stoke Pogis is more renowned, because there is the yew tree, beneath which Thomas Gray wrote his "Elegy in a Country Church-yard"; and where Gray lies buried in the same tomb with his aunt and mother whom he loved so well, on the right-hand side of the church, just as you enter. There, too, are the seats of the Penn family, used by them before and after William Penn became a Quaker.


It is not so poetical, but it is vastly superior to the church at Mount Rydal, where Wordsworth worshipped and over which he has thrown the witchery and song of the Lake country.


It is not quite so large in its seating capacity, perhaps, as the Crosthwaite church, where the superb recumbent statue of Southey draws your attention from the defects of the architecture to the beau- ty and purity of the marble that lies before you. But, in impressive- ness, in devotional feeling, "in the dim religious light" that flickers through primeval foliage, in the glory of its setting, the Old Brick Church beats them all.


I have seen many a window in Trinity, in Grace, in St. Thomas', New York; in the churches and cathedrals of the Old World, that in mere costliness was superior to the east window in the old church; but in effect, in suggestiveness, in grace, in power and in historical associations they cannot stand by the side of the window of this glo- rious old church. Its twelve beautiful sections, with windows to George Washington, to R. E. Lee, to Joseph Bridger, the architect; William Hubbard (its last Colonial rector), James Madison, Channing Moore, William Meade, John Johns, James Blair, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Smith and John Rolfe, tell the whole story of the conquest of the seas, the landing at Jamestown, the planting of Religion and of Law in the continent of America, the struggle of the Colonial Church, the separation of the Colony, the birth and life of the hero of the Western World, the secession of the State, and the career of him who was Washington's equal, if not his superior, in moral greatness, whom Hen- derson has described as "one of the greatest, if not the greatest, sol- dier that ever spoke the English tongue."


The side windows to Pocahontas, to Robert Hunt, Alexander Whita- ker, the Woodleys, the Jordons, the Norsworthys, the Parkers, the Cowpers, the Youngs, the Wrenns, the Thomases, etc., are all appro-


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priate and beautiful; but the window in memory of Daniel Coxe, given by Brixton Coxe, and Mrs. Sophie Bledsoe Herrick, costing five hundred dollars in London, of equal size and dimensions with the other side windows, is a wonder of exquisite beauty, coloring and finish.


The windows to Washington, Lee, Bridger, Hubbard, Madison, Moore, Meade and Johns, cost in London seventy-five dollars apiece.


The windows to Blair, Raleigh, Smith and Rolfe, cost in London forty dollars each.


The windows to Smith and Rolfe and the two windows in the tower were given by the Association for the Preservaion of Virginia Antiqui- ties.


The pulpit and sounding-board, costing $500, were given by Rear- Admiral Glisson.


The communion table, costing $250, was given by Mrs. Elvia Sin- clair Jones.


The font, costing $110.00, was given by Brixton Coxe. The reading desk was bought, I believe, of Lamb, in New York.


The remains of General Joseph Bridger and of Ann Randall, who was buried by his side on the White Marsh Farm. were removed in 1894 to the Old Brick Church, and placed in the aisle of the church.


When preparations were being made for this interment the feet and legs of a lady were found right in front of the pulpit as it now stands, just as Mr. Joseph C. Norsworthy described in 1891; and they are be- lieved to be those of "the Miss Norsworthy, who was buried in the aisle of the church, close to the chancel in 1666," as is related in the paper read in 1891.


Ann Randall was connected by marriage with General Joseph Brid- ger. She married the uncle of his wife.


Thus Joseph Bridger's father and son are forever associated with the Old Brick Church, as John Smith is with the Church of the Sepul. cher, in London, and Pocahontas is with St. George's church, at Graves. end. In that church and within the chancel on the right-hand side of it, is a tablet in white marble, saying she "was buried near this spot on March 21st, 1617." On the left-hand side of the chancel oppo- site is a tablet to Chinese Gordon, saying he was vestryman of the church whilst he commanded at the post.


No one can behold these tablets without feeling and knowing that Pocahontas is as much of a living reality as Chinese Gordon, and no one can think of either without regretting that Chinese Gordon lies buried in Khartoum, and that Pocahontas lies buried at Gravesend,


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strangers in a strange land. More pathetic still, whilst Gordon has received the plaudits of the world, and the fullest recognition by his native State, the Princess Pocahontas has been brutally assailed by Charles Dean, Henry Adams, E. D. Neil, and lesser lights, and her native land knows little and rarely ever refers to her splendid de- fense made by William Wirt Henry, in his address before the Virginia Historical Society, on the 24th of February, 1882. Equally unknown and equally ignored is that masterly defense of John Smith, by Ed- ward Arber, Fellow of King's College, London; F. S. A., Professor of English Language and Literature Sir Josiah Mason's College, Bir- mingham, England, in his book, entitled, "The Complete Works of John Smith," published in 1884-a book of more than a thousand pages, written with extremest care, and with the most painstaking discrimi- nation.


Fortunate will it be if these centennial celebrations and this James- town Exposition shall induce the people of the State to study, atten- tively, its Colonial history, and shall persuade the Episcopal Church to honor its neglected churches, and those forgotten ministers who, like Falkner, Dunster, Otis, Hodgden, Forbes and others of the Old Brick Church, who did their duty nobly as God gave them the power to do it, and were content at last to lie down and die, unhonored and unsung, and even unknown by the Church that they loved and served so well.


BRUTON PARISH CHURCH, WILLIAMSBURG, VA,


BRUTON PARISH CHURCH, WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA.


BY REV. W. A. R. GOODWIN, D. D., RECTOR OF BRUTON PARISH.


B RUTON Parish Church bears witness to the continuity of the life of the Church established at Jamestown in 1607. The history of its beginning and early life lies in that period of obscurity occasioned by the destruction and loss of the writ- ten records of the Church and the county courts of Virginia. From what remains we learn that in 1632 Middle Plantation (subsequently Williamsburg) was "laid out and paled in" seven miles inland from Jamestown in the original county of James City, and shortly there- after a parish bearing the plantation name was created. In 1644 a parish in James City county, called "Harrop," was established, which, on April 1, 1648, was united with Middle Plantation parish, forming the parish of Middletown. In 1674 the parish of Marston (establish- ed in York county in 1654) and Middletown parish were united under the name Bruton parish. The source from which the name was de- rived is suggested by the inscription on the tomb of Sir Thomas Lud- well, which lies at the entrance of the north transept door, which states that he was born "at Bruton, in the county of Summerset, in the King- dom of England, and departed this life in the year 1678."


There was a church building in Williamsburg in 1665, which in 1674 had come to be known as the "Old Church." This fact is es- tablished by an entry in the vestry book of Middlesex parish, which directs that a church be built in that parish, "after the model of the one in Williamsburg." How long this building had been in use is not known, but it had grown old in 1674, at which time the new vestry book opens with the order under date, "April ye 18th," that a "new church be built with brick att ye Middle Plantation." Land sufficient for the church and church-yard was given by Col. John Page, together with twenty pounds sterling to aid in erection of the building. The beginning of Church life in this building, the foundations of which were unearthed during the excavations made in 1905, is noted in the quaint entry under date "November ye 29th, 1683: Whereas, ye Brick


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Church at Middle Plantation is now finished, It is ordered yt all ye Inhabitants of ye said Parish do for the future repair thither to hear Divine Service and ye Word of God preached; And that Mr. Rowland Jones, Minister, do dedicate ye said Church ye sixth of January next, being ye Epiphany."


The records of this period tell of the "old Communion Table," which is to be removed to the minister's house and there remain; of the pur- chase of a "Ring of Bells"; of fees paid in tobacco for registering offi- cial acts, and for digging graves in the church aisle and chancel, and of "ye sum of Sixteen Thousand Six Hundred and Sixty Six pounds of Tobacco and Caske," to be paid annually to Mr. Rowland Jones, minister. Colonel John Page has accorded to him "the privilege to sett a pew for himself and family in the Chancell of the New Church," while the rest of the congregation is made subject to the order "that ye Men sit on the North side of the Church and ye Women on the left." Later on it is ordered that "Ye Gallery be assigned for the use of the College Youth" of William and Mary, to which gallery there is to be "put a door, with a lock and key, the sexton to keep the key." Here the students sat and carved their names, which may be seen to-day, and doubtless indulged in incipient reasoning relative to religious liberty. Thomas Jefferson was among them. In the long records rela- tive to the conflict as to the "right of Induction" we see the evidence of the spirit of liberty and the demand for self-government. The vestry, the representatives of the people, in these conflicts were gain- ing experience in the science of self-government. Their contention that the civil authority should not impose ministers upon the congre- gation without the consent of the people, led to struggles which were prophetic and preparatory to the part which the vestrymen of the Church were subsequently to take in the House of Burgesses as cham- pions of the liberties of the people of Virginia.


Bruton Parish church, upon the removal of the seat of government from Jamestown to Williamsburg in 1699, succeeded to the prestige which pertained to the Church of the Capital of the Colony. From this time there grew about the church an environment of ever-in- creasing interest, and about it gathered an atmosphere which, with the passing years, has caught and reflects the light of other days.


The county road which ran by the churchyard, marking the inward and outward march of English civilization, now rose to the dignity of the Duke of Gloucester street. The newly-designed yard and gar-


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dens of the Governor's palace swept down along the east wall of the church. In spacious yards adjacent rose the stately homes of the Virginia gentry who had resorted to the capital. Nearby towered the walls of the College of William and Mary and the halls of the Virginia House of Burgesses, and facing each other on the open green stood the Court of Justice and the octagon Powder Horn. The church had become the Court Church of Colonial Virginia. His Excellency, the Governor, attended by his Council of State, and sur- rounded by the members of the House of Burgesses, gave to the church an official distinction and a position of unique importance.


The old brick building of 1674 soon became inadequate to the needs of the situation, and in 1710, during the rectorship of the Reverend Commissary James Blair, D. D., it was determined that a new church should be built. Plans were furnished by Governor Alexander Spots- wood, who proposed that the vestry should build the two ends of the church and promised that the Government "would take care of the wings and intervening part." The House of Burgesses, in addition, was pleased to state that they "would appropriate a Sufficient Sum of Money for the building pews for the Governor, Council and the House of Burgesses," and appointed Mr. John Holloway, Mr. Nicholas Meri- wether and Mr. Robert Bolling a committee to co-operate with the vestry in the undertaking.


This building, which was completed in 1715, has remained continu- ously in use and has well withstood the rough usages of war and the devastating touch of time. Its ministers, as shown from contem- poraneous records, were, without a single exception, men of superior culture and godly piety. Most of them were Masters of Arts from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, or full graduates of the Col- lege of William and Mary, and that they served the cause of Christ with devotion and fidelity is attested in every instance by resolutions of the vestry.




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