USA > Virginia > City of Norfolk > City of Norfolk > History of Norfolk County, Virginia : and representative citizens, 1637-1900 > Part 30
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They had the good sense to realize that few can reach the pinnacle of earthly fame; that their noblest work was to act well their part in their day and generation, for the winds of heaven will cover over, and the tides of ocean will wash out, all footprints on the sand be- fore the moon can wax and wane. Where are the footprints left by the hundreds who now sleep silently around us? And yet. who would not rather choose the lot of many who lie in these forgotten graves, than of those who, to gain an earthly name, stirred from its depths man's mad ambition, deluged once smiling lands in human blood, and sowed the seeds of sorrow in countless broken hearts.
Like some aged Nestor, our Old Church has stood while a hundred and forty years
come from the vault and walk around the lot, | have rolled over its head. It was erected in the Colony of Virginia which, under the fos- tering administration of Governor Gooch, was then peopling the lovely valley beyond the Blue Ridge with that splendid stock of Scotch- Irish, whose descendants have done so much toward the elevation of Virginia character. It was about the same time that the rich lands bordering on the Shenandoah were settled by the Germans from Pennsylvania, who long af- ter retained their language, correct habits and simplicity, of manners. Bancroft, the histo- rian, in writing of this period, says: "The 18th century was the age of commercial am- bition, and Virginia relinquished its commerce to foreign factors. It was the age when na- tions rushed into debt, when stock-jobbers and bankers competed with landholders for po- litical power; and Virginia paid its taxes in tobacco, and alone of all the Colonies, alone of all civilized States, resisting the universal tendency of the age, had no debts, no banks, no bills of credit. no paper money.'
It was the very year, 1739. that England declared war against Spain, and the "Mistress of the Seas," in sending her fleets to capture the Colonies of the discoverers of America, took the first step which led the way to the in- dependence of her own.
France and Spain were allies, and the loyal
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Colony of Virginia, and her principal seaport. Norfolk, sympathized with the mother coun- try. The Indian wars had not then been in- cited upon our Western borders by the French, but the Colonists were in the midst of exciting times, for we find in the carly records of the borough, in September, 1741, three years af- ter the erection of our church, a resolution by the board of aldermen, that for the future the inhabitants of this borough shall, to prevent any invasion or insurrection, be armed at the church on Sundays, and other days of worship or Divine service, under penalty of five shill- ings. Imagine our present congregation at- tending church armed! The vestrymen pass- ing the plates with swords dangling at their sides, and the squad of young men who bal- ance themselves on the curbstone in Church street, when the people are passing out, each with his gun, presenting arms to the young ladies as they pass in review !
In 1746, we find the inhabitants of the borough manifesting their loyalty by a grand procession in celebration of the defeat of the Pretender, by His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, at the battle of Culloden. It was a gay affair. They had an effigy of the Pretender seated in an arm-chair drawn in a cart, musicians of every description were in the crowd, and a nurse carrying a warming- pan with a child peeping out of it was an at- tractive feature of the occasion. AA vast crowd came from the surrounding country to see the sights. The effigy was hung, liquor was plenti- fully distributed, salutes were fired and the borough illuminated. At night the effigy was burned, and the ladies were entertained with a ball. A correspondent of the Williamsburg Gazette wrote: "The evening concluded with innocent mirth and unaffected joy, becoming a people loyal to their King and zealous for their country's good."
The crowds from the surrounding country which are always reported at the fairs and celebrations in Norfolk in the olden time, re- mind us of an Act of the General Assembly in 1757. which teaches us a lesson that it would
be well for our city fathers to heed. The Act recites that whereas most of the inhabitants are obliged to pass over the five ferries lead- ing to Norfolk in order to get to church, court and general muster, and that by expenses of ferriage many poor people are prevented from bringing their small wares and commodities to the market of the borough, therefore a tax is levied and the ferries made free to all living in the county. Others, besides the inhabitants of the county, had to pay a small amount for the support of the ferries. In our boasted age of progress no one from the surrounding coun- try can get to Norfolk for business or pleasure. without paying for it. We are surrounded by a cordon of toll-gates and toll-houses. And in mentioning this fact. I mean no reflection on the public-spirited gestlemen who in the last decade have added much to the attractiveness of our surroundings by the substantial bridges and shell roads which lead into our city. While speaking of ferries. I would venture the opin- ion that if our forefathers in 1757 could re- visit these scenes, nothing would excite their surprise more than the improvement in the means of transportation between Norfolk and Portsmouth, especially as managed by the pres- ent efficient superintendent of the ferry. Capt. William H. Murdaugh, of the United States and Confederate States navies, who has spared no efforts to add to the convenience. comfort and safety of passengers.
I am indebted to my friend William Port- lock, clerk of the Circuit Court of Norfolk County, for finding for me in his office, when I had well nigh 'given up the search. the old vestry book of Elizabeth River Parish from 1749 to 1761. It is the only parish vestry book I know of in existence, between 1739 and the election of a vestry in 1832, upon the reinvest- ment of the Old Mother Church. The first record is dated October 18. 1749. Rev. Charles Smith was the minister from the time the ves- try book commences, until it ends, upon the division of the parish in 1761. when he re- moved to Portsmouth, where Trinity Church was built the next year, 1762, which church
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was rebuilt and enlarged in 1829. The mand the highest prices. So much for fash- ion. Mother Church paid the minister 16,000 pounds of tobacco, and Tanner's Creek Chapel. 4.000 pounds of tobacco, annually. After 1753. the minister was allowed 4 per cent. for shrinkage.
The following appear as vestrymen at dif- ferent periods between 1749 and 1761. In the first meeting was Col. George Newton, Col. William Craford, Col. Samuel Boush, Capt. William Hodges, Capt. Willis Wilson, Jr .. Charles Sweny. Capt. James Ivy. Capt. John Phripp and Samuel Boush. The last two had just taken the place of John Scott and Capt. Samuel Langley, former vestrymen. To these were afterward added to fill vacancies from deaths and resignations: Capt. William Ivy. Col. Robert Tucker. Mathew Godfrey, James Webb. Thomas Newton, Maj. John Willowby. Capt. George Veale and Robert Tucker. Thomas Nash was clerk of Great Bridge Chap- el. and the Southern Branch Chapel, and Sampson Powers, and afterwards Thomas Granberry, was clerk of the Western Branch Chapel. James Pastetir signs the proceedings as clerk of the vestry in 1751. In 1755 George Chamberlaine is clerk of the vestry of Tanner's Creek Chapel, and clerk of the Mother Church. October 9. 1750, at a meeting of the vestry, it was ordered. "That Capt. John Cook. Capt. John Phripp. Capt. Max. Calvert and Mr. Charles Sweny, shall have leave and are hereby empowered. to build a gallery in the Church in Norfolk Towne, reaching from the gallery of Mr. John Taylor, deceased, to the school-boys' gallery, equally betwix them, and their heirs forever to have and to hold." Ordered. "That Mr. Matt. Godfrey, Mr. Wm. Nash, Capt. Tri- magan Tatem and Mr. Win. Ashley shall have leave and are hereby empowered, to build a gal- lery in the Church in Norfolk Towne, reach- ing from the pulpit to the schoolboy's gallery. equally betwixt them, etc." In old times the people of quality seemed to have preferred the galleries both in the churches and theatres. Now the ground floor in the churches, and what was formerly the pit in the theatres, com-
Ordered. "That James Pasteur do have the bricks and timbers of the Old Church to build a house on the school land of such dimensions as shall be agreed upon betwixt he, the said James Pasteur, and those who shall grant him liberty to build on the said land." This same year Joseph Mitchell contracts to build a house for the vestry, 50 by 20, with a porch 10 feet wide and a chimney in the middle with four fire-places, which we suppose was for the poor of the parish. Dr. AArchibald Campbell was employed by the vestry as the physician of the parish. The Old Church was a slaveholder at this time, and the vestry hired out Davy in 1750 for £8 15s., Soll for £6 Ios. and Ishmael, Sarah and Nell at fi ros. each.
At a meeting held October 8. 1751. the fol- lowing interesting entry was made: "Receiv- ed into the vestry Capt. George Whitwell. Commander of His Majesty's Ship 'Triton,' a silver-plate as a compliment for his wife. Mary Whitwell, being interred in the Church." AAnd this reminds me of another piece of silver. a large flagron, given to the Old Church, the year after the division of the parish, which bears the following inscription :
The Gift of Christopher Perkins, To the Church of Norfolk in Virginia. In Memory of Elizabeth, his wife. Who was interred therein Ist September. 1762.
How touchingly these beautiful gifts. now gone from the Old Church,* rtmind us of the beauty, the grace and the loveliness that lie forgotten here. O Death. in this world, thou hast thy sting! O Grave. in this world, thou hast thy victory !
October 26, 1756 .- "Dr. John Ramsey came into the vestry and agreed to attend and administer physick, etc., to all the poor be-
*Strange as it may appear, these pieces of silver. although found, have never been returned to the Old Church to which they were given.
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longing to this Parish, within two miles of the Borough of Norfolk, and if he crosses the ferry, his ferriages to be paid, for the sum of £20 per year, to commence from this day, to be in tobacco; but in case he doth not chuse to take tobacco at such price as the vestry shall rate the same. then the £20 is to be paid him in cash." October 30, 1759 .- "The vestry agrees with Dr. John Ramsey, that for the future he is not obliged to administer medicine to, nor attend, any sick but those at the Poor House for the sallery formerly agreed on."
December 17. 1756. it is recorded : "Where- as the Poor House was burnt by accident ( doubtless the house built by Mitchell in 1750). a new one is ordered to be erected near the same place 34 by 28, two windows in front and two in back, lower floor tiled and upper floor plank. Fire-place in each room. Bricks to be well burnt, and mortar made of three bushels of lime to one of sand."
October 24. 1758: the vestry were evident- ly opposed to tramps. for it is ordered : "That the clerk of the vestry do publickly advertise that all persons who shall hereafter take any strouling, sick or indigent person into their houses, without an order or the consent of the Churchwardens or any of the vestrymen for the time being, shall at their own cost bear all damages that shall accrue by reason of having so taken him."
November. 1759. was the date of the com- mencement of our cemetery wall, for we find it ordered: "That Mr. Matthew Godfrey and Mr. James Webb be continned Church Ward- ens for the ensuing year, and they are hereby empowered to let out the Building the walls round the Church Yards, to the lowest bidder at such time as they shall think proper." 1 judge from this order that the yard which Craford gave the parish in 1752. when he laid out Portsmouth, was included in the order. although the church was not erected for several years after this. I know of no other church- yards in the original limits of Elizabeth River Parish, except these two, which were sur- rounded by walls.
October. 17, 1760, it was ordered : "That Mr. Joseph Mitchell have the bricks of the Old Church, on condition that he clears the Church- vard of all the rubbish." I infer from this entry that Pasteur did not avail himself of the order passed 10 years previous, allowing him the bricks and timber of the Old Church, to build a house on the school land.
April 20. 1761 .- The last meeting of the vestry in the original Elizabeth River Parish was held, and we copy the entire proceedings : "Ordered that Robert Tucker, Gent., apply to John Randolph, Esq., clerk of the House of Burgesses, for a copy of the law for dividing the Parish of Elizabeth River, and that the said Robert Tucker. Gent., deliver the same to Benj. Waller, Gent., for his opinion thereon. to know whether the poor belonging to the other Parishes in the Division, now at the Poor-house in this Parish, are not to be sent to the respective Parishes, asd whether the pres- ent vestry should not meet before the time of dissolution, to proportion the expense of the poor, minister's stipend and other necessary charges on the inhabitants. to be collected at the time of the collection by law appointed on the whole, as when the Parish was intire."
Thus end the records of the old vestry book, from which we have made these ex- tracts, believing they would be of interest to You.
In 1759. there was considerable ill feeling in many of the parishes of Virginia. between the clergy and laity, because ministers were made to receive money instead of tobacco. for their salaries. Tobacco at that time command- ed a high price and the clergy justly con- tended that as they were forced to receive to- bacco when it was a drug on the market, they should be allowed to profit by any rise in its value. The records of this parish, however. show no controversy on this subject, and in 1764. an Act was passed by the General .As- sembly, allowing the minister to live in Nor- folk and to have his salary paid in money, our lands having become too poor to produce to- bacco to advantage. I would mention that in
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1734. two years before the borough was char- tered, an Act was passed authorizing the sale of 86 acres of the glebe, given by Lord How- ard, on account of its unproductiveness, and the purchase of land elsewhere in Norfolk County. This glebe comprised within its lim- its that portion of our city lying west of a line drawn from the residence of one of our vestry- men, Richard H. Baker, Esq., to the home of the venerable Mrs. Keeling, on Bute street, as well as portions north of it.
Our fathers in the early days of the Old Church were loyal to the parent government. but it was not the loyalty that comes from fear. but that better quality which springs from filial love. They were justly proud of that constitutional monarchy, which made every man's home his castle, preserved to him and his offspring, life, liberty, and the undisturbed pursuit of happiness ; with the writ of habeas corpus, trial by jury, and exemption from tax- ation without representation. When therefore repeated wars had burdened the mother coun- try with debt, and made its inhabitants groan under taxation, Parliament in an evil hour sought by the passage of the Stamp Act and other unjust measures to wring from the Col- onies, without their consent, a revenue to re- lieve the embarassment of the realm. True to their innate love of liberty and right, our Virginia fathers protested against this flagrant wrong. They organized in Norfolk, March, 1766, an association called "The Sons of Lib- erty" at a public meeting at the Court House. on Market Square, and Rev. Thomas Davis. rector of our Old Church, was chosen chair- mlan.
A manly and patriotic protest, in the shape of a preamble and resolutioss, was unani- mously adopted, and signed by 57 of the lead- ing inhabitants of the borough, the secretary. James Holt, signing first and our minister next. They declared that, "Having taken into con- sideration the evil tendency of that oppressive and unconstitutional Act of Parliament, com- ' monly called the Stamp Act, and being desirous that our sentiments should be known to pos-
terity, and recollecting that we are a part of that Colony who first, in General Assembly, openly expressed their detestation of the said Act, which is pregnant with ruin and produc- tive of the most pernicious consequences ; and unwilling to rivet the shackles of slavery and oppression on ourselves and millions yet un- born, have unanimously come to the following resolutions :
I. Resolved, that we acknowledge our Sovereign Lord, King George III, to be our rightful and lawful King, and that we will, at all times, to the utmost of our power and ability, support and defend his most sacred person, crown and dignity ; and will be always ready. when constitutionally called upon, to assist His Majesty with our lives and fortunes, and defend all his just rights and prerogatives.
2. Resolved, that we will, by all lawful ways and means which Divine Providence hath put into our hands, defend ourselves in the full enjoyment of, and preserve inviolate to posterity, those inestimable priv- ileges of all free-born British subjects, of being taxed by none but representatives of their own colonies, and of being tried only by a jury of their own peers; for if we quietly submit to the execution of the said Stamp Act, all our claims to civil liberty will be lost, and we and our posterity become absolute slaves.
3. Resolved, that we will on any future occasion sacrifice our lives and fortunes, in concurrence with the other Sons of Liberty, in the American provinces, to defend and preserve those invaluable blessings trans- mitted by our ancestors.
4. Resolved, that whoever is concerned directly or indirectly, in using, or causing to be used, in any way or manner whatever within this Colony, unless author- ized by the General Assembly thereof, those detestable papers called the Stamps, shall be deemed to all in- tents and purposes an cnemy to his country, and by the Sons of Liberty treated accordingly, etc.
It is hard for us in this day to realize the exalted courage and patriotism of those men who thus declared in advance the great prin- ciples which were subsequently adopted in our Declaration of Independence, and upon which our American Republic was constructed. The people of Norfolk need not go to Virginia's ancient capital, or visit the plains of Yorktown, in search of consecrated ground, filled with the spirit of an unselfish patriotismn and hallowed by the memories of heroic sacrifice. We stand on holy ground! The pastor and 56 of the congregation of the Old_Church pledged their lives and fortunes to bequeath to tis the great
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principles of civil liberty, and they kept like true men their plighted faith to God and man. The battle-fields of the Revolution could tell that some of these gave their lives; and that they gave their fortunes, the smouldering ruins of their once happy homes in the old borough showed, on that dismal New Year's night. when vonder church was left alone to mark the spot of the most flourishing seaport in the American Colonies. The dust and ashes of many are now beneath the sod in this sanctuary of the dead, and the Old Church, with its battle scar, stands a fitting monument to those whose memories should never perish so long as liberty has her abode in the old borough they loved and served so well.
From this time forward British misrule was slowly but steadily advancing the cause of colonial independence, and vet in the midst of those thoughtful times, our forefathers had their sports and jolly good times. There was no sombre Quakerism or sour Puritanism ap- parently in the old borough. Here is a letter we find in the Virginia Gasette, published in Williamsburg in 1774:
NORFOLK, May 3d, 1774.
Yesterday was celebrated in this place the anni- ver-ary of St. Tamminy. the tutelar Saint of the Amer- ican Colonies. At one o'clock a royal salute of twenty- one guns, from a battery erected for the purpose, ush- ered in the rejoicings of the day; and in the evening a grand entertainment was given at the Mason's Hall. by the Sons of the Saint. to which there was a general invitation, and the company exceedingly numerous and brilliant, consisting of near 400 persons. At six the ball was opened by one of our Burgesses in the charac- ter of King Tamminy, properly accoutered in the an- cient habit of this country, at which time another royal salute was given. The ladies, whose fair bosoms on this occasion seemed more particularly animated with a generous love of their country, indulged the company with their presence till four in the morning, and after their retirement the Sons of St. Tamminy, according to the immemorial custom of the countries, encircled their King and practiced the ancient mysterious war- dance. so highly descriptive of the warmest attachment anl freedom of spirit. The whole was conducted with the strictest decorum, and to the universal satisfaction of the assembly: while the cordiality with which the wm- of the Brother saints. St. George. St. Andrew. St. Patrick, and St. David, entered into the general mirth of the evening, gave particular pleasure, and was truly emblematical of that happy U'nion which has long
subsisted between the parent State and her Colonies. while Britain was just and America was frec. and which every lover of his country would wish should still subsist for ages yet to come.
Think of the girls dancing until four in the morning in the month of May! Who would have imagined that our great-grand- mothers could have been guilty of such dis- sipation ! But they had an excuse for it, that the girls haven't got now : there were no street lamps in those days, and we don't blame them for not wanting to go stumbling home in the dark, even with a St. David, a St. George or a St. Patrick for a guide.
I have come now to the American Revolu- tion, a most interesting period in the history of the Old Church, and while I would like to (well upon it, to give in detail the accounts of the bombardment of Norfolk by the frigate "Liverpool" and other vessels of Dunmore's fleet, and to give you a picture of the scenes enacted within the walls of the cemetery, and how the women and children of the old bor- ough, who had not been able to get away, gathered under the shadow of the walls of the Old Church, as in a citadel, to protect them from the shots of the enemy; but the history of that period would furnish material for a lecture in itself, and I have not time to dwell upon it. I would only mention one matter as associated with the Old Church. It is com- monly reported that the British carried away the baptismal font, which was of marble, to Scotland. This we think is an error, arising from that fact that the communion plate was taken by the enemy to Scotland. It was doubt- less a valuable service. Under Act XIN of the Colonial Assembly, Charles II. 1661-62. it was enacted that the churchwardens take care and be empowered during their churchwarden- ship "to keepe the church in repaire, provide books, and decent ornaments, viz: A great Bible, two common prayer books, a communion cloth and napkin, a pulpit and cushion this present year, and after annually, something to- ward commtinion plate, pulpit cloth and bell. as the ability of the parish will permit, etc." As
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this was the wealthiest parish next to Bruton, at Williamsburg, in the Colony, there can be no doubt that the wardens had accumulated a fund which enabled them to get a beautiful and probably a massive communion service, which tempted the enemy to carry it home as a trophy.
Bishop Meade tells us in his "Old Churches of Virginia," in 1857, that some tidings of the communion plate had recently been re- ceived, and hopes are entertained of its recor- ery. Over 20 years have passed since then. and the Old Mother Church has not yet re- covered her communion set, but the ladies of our congregation have in the last few years supplied the parish with a silver service, and the lost plate would be chiefly valuable now as a sacred relic of the past. "God moves in a mysterious way," and perhaps after an absence of a century the communion plate will be re- stored to the vestry of the Old Church from which it was taken during the Revolution.
No records have yet been found of the vestry of the Old Church since 1761. It is al- most certain, however, that with the rebuilding of Norfolk after the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. October. 1781, that the Old Church was soon repaired, and that after the meeting of the first convention in Richmond, in 1785. Rev. Walker Maury took charge and continued its minister until October. 1788. when he died in his 36th year, and was buried in this yard. After this comes the trying pe- riod in the life of the old parish church, which created much scandal, and contributed largely to building up the other Evangelical denomina- tions, notably the Presbyterian, in the borough.
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