History of Norfolk County, Virginia : and representative citizens, 1637-1900, Part 29

Author: Stewart, William H. (William Henry), 1838-1912
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1054

USA > Virginia > City of Norfolk > City of Norfolk > History of Norfolk County, Virginia : and representative citizens, 1637-1900 > Part 29

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August 10, 1648, Capt. John Sibsey, Fran- cis Mason, Thomas Lambert, John Hill, Cor- nelius Lloyd, Henry Catlin and Thomas Saver, vestrymen of Elizabeth River Parish, met and elected Mathew Phillips, Thomas Browne, John Fferinghaugh and Thomas Ivy to fill vacancies in the vestry. They adjourned to meet in October, when they added Sheriff Richard Conquest to their body and directed that Rev. Richard Powis, who had been preaching to the inhabitants of the parish for about four years, should have and receive one year's full tithes in tobacco and corn. John Hill and William Crouch were elected. churchwardens for Elizabeth River Parish. In 1649 William Crouch and James Warner were churchwar- dens.

The churchwardens were required to keep the church in repair, provide books and orna- ments, to collect minister's dues, and render an account of disbursements, to present to court blasphemous, wicked and dissolute persons, to

cause vestries to be summoned to meet within one month after receiving order for proces- sioning land, to give notice at church of per- sons and times appointed to procession, to ex- amine in presence of vestries, and compare with . the originals, the registers of returns made by processioners, and certify the same, to bind out by order of court children of poor persons unable to maintain or educate them.

The law required that 12 of the most able men of each parish should be chosen by the major part of the parish to be a vestry, out of which number the minister and vestry were to make choice of two churchwardens yearly.

On the 17th day of January. 1734. Rev. Moses Robertson, John Ellegcod, churchwar- den. Col. George Newton, Maj. Samuel Boush. Stephen Wright. John Corprew, Thomas Wright and Willis Wilson, Gents., vestrymen, conveyed to Samuel Smith the Glebe. now em- braced in the city of Norfolk. On the 5th of March, 1761, the General Assembly at Will- iamsburg. Virginia, upon the petition of the in- habitants setting forth the great inconveniences of so large a parish, divided Elizabeth River Parish into three distinct parishes from the Ist of May. 1761. All that part of the old parish lying northward and eastward of the Elizabeth River and the Eastern Branch was to retain the name of Elizabeth River Parish. All that section between the Eastern and Southern Branches of the Elizabeth River, running up New Mill Creek to Rothery's Mill. thence south 30 degrees west to the great Dis- mal Swamp, as far as the line dividing the Colony from North Carolina, and then down the said line to the line of Princess AAnne Coun- ty, thence along that line to the Eastern Branch. was named St. Bride's Parish. And all that section west of this parish was named Ports- mouth Parish. St. Bride's alludes to the spirit- ual marriage of St. Catharine who, according" to legend, had the bridal ring placed on her finger by our Savier in his childhood. As St. Catharine was never married corporcally, she has been called the "Bride of Heaven," that is "Saint Bride." The vestry of the old Eliza-

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beth River Parish having been guilty of illegal practices oppressive to the inhabitants was dis- solved, and all the acts were declared null and void. The sheriff was directed to advertise one month before the 8th day of June a con- venient time and place where the freel Iders and house-keepers of the parishes, respectively. should meet and elect 12 of the most able and discreet per- ns of the respective parishes to be vestrymen. The vestry of St. Bride's Par- ish was directed to sell the glebe land of the old parish and divide the purchase money be- tween the three vestries to be applied toward purchasing glebes in their respective parishes for the use and benefit of the ministers.

The vestry of the old parish, having levied and collected considerable money to build walls around the churchyards, was directed to make division thereof between the three parishes in proportion to the number of tithables in each parish, to be used toward building churches and such other public uses as the vestries should think proper. The first election for vestry- men in the three new parishes resulted as follows :

ELIZABETH RIVER PARISH.

No. of Votes. Votes.

No. of

Mathew Godfrey. 201

Saunders Calvert . 15%

John Hutchings .. 193

Lewis Hansford 146

Joshua Nicholson 188

Charles Sweny 144

George Abyvon .. 181

Christopher Perkins .. 13:

Robert Tucker 171

John Tucker 131

William Orange

167

William Ivy. 109

June 4th, 1761.

PORTSMOUTH PARISH.

No. of Votes.

lohn Tatem. 281

George Veale 219

Thomas Creech. 280

Thomas V'eale. 219

James Ives 279

Thomas Grimes 169

John Ferebee. 279

William Crawford 159

Giles Randolph. 278

Jeremiah Creech 129

John Herbert 253

Richard Carney 128

June 5th, 1761.

ST. BRIDE'S PARISH.

No. of Votes.

John l'ortlock

251

Samuel Happer ... 932

Robert Tucker. 250 James Wilson 228

James Webb. 249

Henry Herbert 205

Joshua Corprew 219

John Wilson. 1×6

William Smith. 240

Malachi Wilson, Jr .. 176

Thomas Nash, Jr. 239 William Happer. 155

June 6th, 1761.

These vestrymen-elect subsequently ap- peared in court and qualified by taking and subscribing to the following oaths :

1 -. do declare, that I do believe that there is not any transubstantiation in the sacrament of the Lord's supper, or in the elements of Bread and Wine at or after the consecration thereof by any per- son whatsoever. 1. --- do declare that I will be conformable to the doctrine and Discipline of the Church of Eng- land.

As provided in the Act of General As- sembly dividing Elizabeth River Parish into three. Henry Herbert, William Smith, John Portlock, Thomas Nash, Jr., James Wilson, Joshua Corprew and John Wilson, vestrymen of St. Bride's Parish, sold the glele land at public auction to John Tucker for three pounds and six pence per acre. 172 acres, amounting to 520 pounds and six shillings,-their deed is ciated October 20. 1761.

August 1. 1763. William Smith and Ann his wife conveyed to James Pasteur. minister, John Portlock, churchwarden, and James Webb, Joshua Corprew. Robert Tucker, Jr., Thomas Nash, Jr., Samuel Happer, William Happer. Malachi Wilson, Jr .. John Wilson, James Wilson, Jr .. and Henry Herbert, vestry- men of St. Bride's Parish, 200 acres of land in said parish for £350.

October 12, 1765, Samuel Bonsh and Cath- arine his wife, in consideration of £125. con- veyed to Rev. Thomas Davis, minister. Will- iam Orange and Joshua Nicholson, church- wardens, and John Hutchings. Sr., William Ivy, Robert Tucker, George Abyvon, Lewis Hansford. Mathew Godfrey, John Willough- by. John Hutchings, Jr., and Paul Loyall. vestrymen of Elizabeth River Parish, four lots or two acres of land known by the numbers 49. 50, 57 and 58.

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In connection with the above, the follow- ing receipt will be of interest :

Rec'ed 30th Janry 1775 from Captain A. B. C. (Ex- ecutor), by the Hands of Mr. Tabb forty shillings for preaching a sermon at the funeral of the late X. Y. Z. THOS. DAVIS.

In 1764, Thomas Nash and Samuel Happer were churchwardens for St. Bride's Parish ; Mathew Godfrey and Lewis Hansford for Elizabeth River Parish; and Thomas Creech and Amos Etheridge for Portsmouth Parish. In 1767, John Whiddon and John Corprew qualified as vestrymen for St. Bride's Parish. In 1771 Arthur Boush and Matthew Phripp qualified as vestrymen for Elizabeth River Parish,-in 1772, John Taylor was elected ves- tryman for the parish.

On the 17th day of December, 1773, the · County Court ordered the sheriff to "Advertise the Parish land and negroes will be hired out on the first of January next." William Hap- per and John Corprew were churchwardens for St. Bride's Parish in 1774, and Mathew Phripp and John Hutchings for Elizabeth River Parish in 1775.

Under the Commonwealth the vestries of Portsmouth and Elizabeth River parishes were dissolved and new vestries ordered before April 1, 1779. Pursuant to this, January 18, 1779,-"This day Thomas Veale, John Her- bert, Samuel Veale, John Morris, William Baily, William Booker. George W. Burgess, John Baine, William More, David Porter, Joshua Miers and John Powers took the oath of vestrymen of the Parish of Portsmouth and entered upon the duties of their office." AAnd on the 18th of March. Mathew Godfrey, James Taylor, Mathew Phripp, Thomas Newton, Jr., Paul Loyall, George Abyvon, John Tabb, Goodrich Boush, John Willoughby and Pruson Bowdoin took the oath as vestrymen of Eliza- beth River Parish and entered upon the duties of their office. These were the first church officials in Norfolk County who qualified under the Commonwealth of Virginia. On the 16th of October, 1783, Isaac Luke and William Por-

ter qualified as vestrymen of Portsmouth Parish.

On the 16th day of July, 1784, James Tay- lor, Gent., produced to the County Court an account of the hire of the negroes belonging to the several parishes in the county, amount- in to £81, 198. 7d. ; after deducting sundry ex- penses, it was ordered that the said Taylor should pay to the churchwardens of each par- ish their proportion of the said money in his hands. On the 19th of September, 1788, Paul Proby and Paul Loyall were ordered by the court to pay the overseers of the poor £7, IIS. 11/2dl., the balance in their hands, and to col- lect the money due for the hire of the par- ish negroes for 1785. and the clerk was di- rected to deliver them a copy of the said ac- count of the hire of the negroes.

St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church.

NORFOLK LONG AGO AND ITS OLD MOTHER CHURCH.

A lecture delivered in St. Paul's Sunday-school room Muy 12, 1879. by Col. William Lamb at the re- quest of the Ladies' Parish Aid Society of St. Paul's Church, Elisabeth River Parish.

I would not presume to come before this or any other audience in the capacity of a public lecturer of my own volition, but I was invited by the ladies of the Parish Aid Society to de- liver one of this course of lectures, and I thought it my duty to accept. I have come, however, with no such interesting or instructive literary or scientific effort as you have heard from the distinguished gentleman who has pre- ceded me, but with a plain story of Norfolk Long Ago and its Old Mother Church, with some common place incidents in a boy's life associated with old St. Paul's:

I have chosen this subject because I had a right to feel that all who would assemble here this evening must be more or less interested in that ancient, ivy-covered building, from its broad foundation, to its sheltering eves, where the sparrows build their nests, up to the peaks of its homely gables and in every thing con- nected with its history and surroundings. That

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Old Church and its God's acre compose our Westminster Abbey. Here the worthy fore- fathers of Norfolk sleep. It is true they had no titles in the books of heraldry, but the ties of consanguinity and marriage gave them titles more precious to the loved and loving ones than any that Parliament, or King or Queen, could possibly bestow.

In 1680, an Act was passed by the Colonial Assembly of the Colony of Virginia for the purchase of 50 acres of land at convenient points in the Colony, "for the establishment of towns for the encouragement of trade and manufacture."

U'nder this Act 50 acres were purchased -August 16. 1682, from Nicholas Wise, a house carpenter of Elizabeth River Parish, in the county of Lower Norfolk, by Capt. William Robinson and Lieut .- Col. Anthony Lawson, feofees, in trust for said county, for and in consideration of the sum of 10,000 pounds of good merchantable tobacco and caske. The grant embraced all the land on the Elizabeth River from the eastern to the western limits of the present Main street, bounded on the north by Back Creek, which at that time flowed from the river eastwardly nearly to Church street. Its owner. Nicholas Wise, could not write his name, so he made his mark to the deed, and affixed his seal in the presence of four witnesses. This was the first of "Norfolk Towne."

In 1705, a considerable population had been attracted to this place by its favorable situation for health and trade, and in October of that year Norfolk was incorporated as a town.

In September, 1736. Norfolk Borough was established by royal charter, it being consid- ered by King George II a healthful and pleas- ant place, commodious for trade and naviga- tion. Samuel Boush. Gent., was appointed mayor under the charter, but he died before qualifying, and in November following George Newton, Gent., was elected to fill the vacancy. In 1739. three years after the borough was in-

corporated, our Old Church was built, as we learn from the date on its southern gable.

Forrest in his "History of Norfolk." pub- lished in 1853, says: "Samuel Boush, Esq., the first mayor of the Borough of Norfolk, three years after his appointment, presented to the parish the grounds occupied by St. Paul's Church, including the oldl graveyard. The initials of his name may be seen in large capi- tals in the brick work of the south end of the church with the date 1739." Bishop Meade in his "Old Churches of Virginia," published in 1857, in speaking of the vestry in 1749. says : "Among the first was Col. Samuel Boush, who gave the land on which St. Paul's and its graveyard stands, and whose tomb- stone, at the door of the church, tells where his body lies." In December, 1828, when the trustees of Christ Church refused Dr. French the use of the Old Church of which they were temporary custodians, they said: "That this property, as they are advised, was a donation from Mr. Samuel Boush for the exclusive use of the congregation of the church they repre- sent and none other, under a forfeiture of the same." These statements were made in good faith from tradition, but the record contradicts them.

Mr. Forrest makes Mr. Boush, the first mayor of our borough, present the land three years after his decease, while Bishop Meade makes the son, Colonel Boush, the Joner. The trustees of Christ Church seem to have been advised that it was a gift or legacy from the father to the parish upon certain conditions. Now neither Samuel Boush. Sr., nor his son, Colonel Bouch. could have given or devised this land except by deed or will of record in the clerk's office of Norfolk County, and I have diligently searched the complete records of (leeds and wills from 1680 to the will of Col- onel Boush recorded in 1,50: neither father nor son gave any land to Elizabeth River Par- ish within the limits of Norfolk County. I found from the deed of Peter Malbone .- con- veying to his daughter, AApphia Malbene. ". 1.

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lott of land in Norfolk Towne 12 acre begin- ning at a white stone, the southernmost corner- stone of my first lot, next to the Church,"- that a church stood, August 19, 1726. in the church grounds, where we now are and not far from the present Cove street. The deed of Col. Samuel Boush to Capt. Simon Hancock, November, 1737. and the deed of Peter Mal- bone to Capt. Nathaniel Tatem, November, 1738, also show that the first church was stand- ing next to and north of Malbone's land, and on Church street, which last recital contradicts the tradition that the present church, erected in1 1739, gave the name to Church street. Un- doubtedly when the corporate limits were ex- tended under the charter of 1736 to Town Bridge, the present Church street was laid out and given its name from the former church, which was then taken down after the erection of the present one.

llaving found that this cemetery was not the gift of Samuel Boush, let us inquire when it was dedicated to the dead.

By a general law, passed in the Colony in 1067. the right was vested in the County Courts, when expedient, to set aside and ap- propriate not more than two acres of land for church and burial purposes. As one and three- fourths acres is the area of this cemetery. it was doubtless thus appropriated to its present uses. "Norfolk Towne" was laid out in 1682. and soon became inhabited. Capt. Samuel Boush gave a chalice to the "Parish Church of Norfolk Towne," in March, 1700, showing that a church must have been erected. But in 1686, 14 years before this and four years after the town was laid out. Francis Lord Howard. Governor, gave "with the advice and consent of the Counsell of State" 100 acres of land adjoining Norfolk for a glebe for Elizabeth River Parish.

.As these glebes, together with the payment of tithes of tobacco and corn, were for the sup- port of the minister and church in each parish. it is not reasonable to suppose that 1686 is the date of the erection of the first church on these grounds, 53 years before the present structure

was built? Tradition informs us that Col. Samuel Boush imported and gave the bricks toward the erection of the present church. It may be that he had the initials of his father's name put upon the southern gable as a memo- rial of one who had been so long and so con- spicuously associated with the parish; or the vestry may have put his initials there in con- sideration of his liberality. Whether they were intended for the initials of father or son, the history of Elizabeth River Parish, from 1700 down to the Revolution, shows no name more worthy of being thus perpetuated than that of Samuel Boush. Three generations of the same name during that period were prominent in the affairs of the parish.

There is no doubt that this graveyard has been the burial-ground of our fathers for nearly 200 years. Tradition so reports it, and I have conversed with our oldest people and they have never heard of any other used before it. I called on old Capt. Edward L. Young a few weeks before his recent death. He was in his 97th year, and for more than half a century had occupied positions which made him familiar with the topography of Norfolk and its surroundings. Although his physical sight was gone, his mental vision was unimpaired, and he was very positive that no public burial- ground existed prior to the establishment of this cemetery for Norfolk. If there had been, he would undoubtedly have found some evidences of it while he was the public surveyor for the borough and city of Norfolk. I have been re- peatedly informed that tier upon tier of cof- fins have been unearthed in this yard by the sexton when digging graves previous to the es- tablishment of Cedar Grove Cemetery. There is no monument to be found, except the two recently brought from James River, with a date anterior to 1744, and one with this date was removed from the private burial place of the Taylor family, which was on the site of the present Custom House lot. But the absence of ancient monuments proves nothing against the claim that this was the original God's acre of "Norfolk Towne." for within the memory

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of some of our present inhabitants two-thirds of the monuments which were in this vard in their day have disappeared. Many were doubtless destroyed and carried away during the occupancy of our Old Church and its grave- vard by British troops during the Revolution. and some from being constructed of soft sand stone have crumbled with age. There were numberless graves in this yard that never had a headstone, for tombstones at that early day had to be imported and were necessarily ex- pensive.

.A century and more ago it was a common custom to have family vaults for burials ad- joining the residences of the wealthier class of citizens. The remains of some of them can still be found in different parts of our city. and in my boyhood gave rise to many negro superstitions of haunted houses. It seems a strange taste to us in these modern times, when more than two generations of a family seldom occupy the same residence, but the early days of our town and borough were the days of primogeniture and entails. When men accumu- lated wealth they did not have the present thirst for public noteriety. Official position was not then the gift of the multitude. Commissions came 3.000 miles across the sea. and were of- ten brought by the fortunate recipients of royal favor. Our solid forefathers sought to found a name in the community in which they lived by establishing a home for their descendants. They built for themselves substantial resi- dences, surrounded by convenient out-houses and enclosed by brick walls, storm proof against the cquinoctial gales; and when their loved ones died, they buried them in a family vault in the garden, under the shadow of their roof- tree. and away from the crowd's ignoble strife. We do not think these houses of the olden times would suit our habits and customs now. but they were grand old establishments. I can recollect some of them before the light of other days had clean gone out on the oldl hearth- stones, and their memory has been mellowed and hallowed by time. I recall one representa- tive home. standing at a corner, with its thick

walls, two stories and a half high. A broad wainscoated hall running through the build- ing : a capacious parler with its brass andirons and lion-legged fender on one side: a sunny sitting room and a big hospitable dining room on the other : the broad sideboard, as dissipated- locking as the tap room of an old time country tavern : no carpets, but waxed hard-pine floors, with an occasional rug, and on the large one in the dining room its constant companion, the house dog: no counterfeit chromos nor das with Dutch gilt frames disfigured the walls. litt some masterpieces adorned the parlor. a pair of hunting scenes in water colors enlivened the dining room, while in the hall ancestors with pretty faces emerged out of indescribable dresses, with no waists to speak of, and intelli- gent and brave-looking gentlemen were nar- rowly escaping strangulation in villainous stocks. Upstairs was redolent with rose-leaves in vinegar: the bed rooms, with great. high- pest bedsteads, with curtains defying the changes of temperature without. The kitchen. a Dutch-roofed. one-story brick house. with tremendous chimneys at either end. sufficiently far from the mansion to prevent the smell of co king even with a favoring wind : and a large square smoking-house, where the family bacon was cured. stood in the paved yard : then there was the stable for the horse and the inevitable cow. which an English poet said every lady in Norfolk kept somehow : the wood-shed with its autumn-pile, reminding one of a steamboat landing on the James River in the olden time. Then the flower garden flanking the residence. with the old-fashioned lilacs. snow balls, wall flowers and roses : and the big back garden for vegetables, with a stray sunflower or two. and in it. enclosed by a forbidding wall. the fam- ily burial vault. We do not believe your med- ern cook, with all her cooking stoves and patented contrivances, could ever reach the per- fection of those old Virginia negroes who pre- sided over the old-time kitchen. And such a kitchen! The capacious chimney, large enough to roast an ox. with the huge crane that could swing pots enough to boil the oil for Mor-

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giania to scald the "Forty Thieves," with the back-log of oak smouldering away, and the hickory sticks cracking, singing and treading snow in front. How the Lynnhavens would open their mouths before that fire! And the steak and chops and cuts of venison would broil superlatively on those living coals! The dinners of our forefathers often gave the gout, but dyspepsia, never.

Of a wintry night, when the December winds would howl around the old Dutch- roofed kitchen, how the old Guinea negro nurse would make the white teeth of the piccaninnies chatter, and the older heads roll their eyes. when she would tell how on such a night, long time ago, she had seen with her own eyes "Old Massa," who was buried in the garden, looking sad and distressed, because "Young Missis," who was of one of the first families in Virginia, had "done gone" and married one of the "poor white trash." And then the blasts of wind, stirring the leaves and slamming the blinds, would make those "darkies" start and listen, until they became so scared that none would go to bed that night, but break of day would find them fast asleep around the kitchen fire.

We admit with modern philosophers that the world has grown better with advancing years ; we suppose that to doubt it would be to question the humanizing influences of Chris- tianity, but in those days individual character was as grand and massive as it is now. Those sterling men who moulded our institutions have no superiors in our times. Doubtless the great mass of humanity had not attained the in- tellectual and spiritual elevation that has since been reached. but the professional and middle classes seem, looking at them through the vista of the past, to have had a solidity that we sel- dom find now. Like our Old Church many may have had a seemingly rude exterior, but they had all the elements of true greatness within. They had not become imbued with the modern idea of becoming great men, and leaving their foot-prints in the sands of time.

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History of Norfolk County, Virginia : and representative citizens, 1637-1900, Part 29

Author: Stewart, William H. (William Henry), 1838-1912 Publication date: 1902 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1054

Author: Stewart, William H. (William Henry), 1838-1912
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1054