USA > Virginia > City of Norfolk > City of Norfolk > History of Norfolk County, Virginia and representative citizens, V.1 > Part 30
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The following appear as vestrymen at dif- : James Pasteur, and those who shall grant him 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. Sanmiel Langley. former vestrymen. To these were afterward added to fill vacancies from deaths and resignations: Capt. William Ivy. Cel. 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 Pasteur 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. 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. 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-bovs' 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. ; 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 licuse on the school land of such dimensions as shall be agreed upon betwixt he. the said liberty to build on the said land." This same vear 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. Archibald 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 £8 155 .. Soll for £6 tos. and Ishmael. Sarah and Nell at fr ros. each.
At a meeting hield October 8. 1751. the fol- Icwing 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." And this reminds me of another piece of silver, a large flagron, given to the Old Church. the vear after the division of the parish, which bears the following inscription :
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. thon 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 equally betwixt them, etc." In old times the . 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 suni of flo per year, te 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 continued 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- vards 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- yard 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 cther Parishes in the Division, now at the Poor-honse 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 . I.s- senibly, 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 II. 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 lovalty 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- mail.
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. wlien constitutionally called upon, to assist His Majesty with our lives and fortunes, and defend all his just riglits 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 enemy 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 patriotism and hallowed on holy ground! The pastor and 36 of the congregation of the Old Church pledged their lives and fortunes to bequeath to us the great
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 , by the memories of heroic sacrifice. We stand and unconstitutional Act of Parliament, com- monly called the Stamp Act, and being desirous that our sentiments should be known to pos-
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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 yonder 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- versary 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 hall 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 stute 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 and 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 sons 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 Union 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 dwell 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 XIV 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: \ great Bible, two common prayer books, a communion cloth and napkin, a pulpit and cushion this present year, and after annually, something to- ward communion 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.
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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 recov- 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 vaid. 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- tious, notably the Presbyterian, in the borough.
In 1789-91. Rev. James Whitehead appears , tions of 1789 and 1790 are reported to have
in the several conventions, as minister of Eliza- beth River Parish, Norfolk: after this the Old Church was not again represented until the convention in Alexandria, in 1832. It was during the ministry of Mr. Whitehead that a most unfortunate controversy occurred in the . congregation of the Old Church concerning the rival claims of himself and Rey. William Bland for the possession of the edifice. Mr. White-
head was a fine scholar, and had charge of the Norfolk Academy, was a leading Mason, and a gentleman of high social influence. He was also a man of property, if we can judge from the following squib in the Norfolk Herald, April 1. 1800: "It is understood that Parson W. owns some very valuable property in Water street, part of which is now a mere sink. It he will use his exertions to fill it up and make that part of the town passable, he shall have the prayers of his congregation." Bishop Meade said that from all accounts he had re- ceived, Mr. Whitehead was a worthy minister of the Gospel.
Parson Bland, as he was called, was a man of culture, an attractive preacher, very popular with some of the old families on account of his zealous patriotism during the Revolution, and an especial favorite with the sea-captains who frequented the borough, many of whom attended his week-day, as well as Sunday. services. He was unfortunately a man of strong passions, and not as temperate in his habits as he should have been while in Norfolk. It is said he would repeatedly exhort his con- gregation to do as he told them and not as he did. It is stated that the controversy between the rival parsons was carried on in the news- papers in Norfolk during the week, and also in the pulpit on the Sabbath. the same pulpit serving both ministers, the one in the morn- ing, and the other in the afternoon : each party had their separate vestries who had respective- ly elected them rector. I have searched the files of all the Norfolk papers I could obtain from 1794 to 1800. but found no allusion in theni to any controversy. . As the diocesan conven- decided in favor of Parson Whitehead's vestrý. it may be the newspaper controversy took place at that time, but I could find no Norfolk papers of those years. I have it from a reliable source that the rivalry for the possession of the Old Church did not altogether interrupt the social relations of the two Episcopal parsons. \1- though Mr. Whitehead had much the larger proportion of the Episcopalians with him, and
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had the recognition of the diocesan convention in 17go, yct he was unable to get complete control of ,the Old Church, and therefore sometime prior to the fall of 1798, he and his supporters left the Mother Church of Elizabeth River Parish in the undisputed . possession of Mr. Bland, his vestiy and friends. Mr. Whitehead and his congrega- tion, after leaving the Old Church, wor- shiped in the Court House on East Main street. In the spring of 1800 he announced in the papers a subscription on foot for the building of an Episcopal Church, and the sup- -- porters of the new movement, after subscribing a sufficient amount for the purpose, erected a splendid building on the present site of the First Presbyterian Church. On St. John's Day, the 24th of June, 1800, the corner-stone of Christ Church was laid with Masonic cere- monies and a sermon preached by Mr. White- head in the Old Church, the proceedings end- : ing with a sumptuous dinner at the borough tavern.
eral meeting assembled. And the experiment resulted in the establishment of a congregation, which has been an ornament and an honor to the Episcopal Church in Virginia for more than three-quarters of a century, abounding in exemplary piety and good works. But while cheerfully according our admiration, we cannot admit the claim of this congregation to be the Mother Church of Elizabeth River Parish. No! That belongs to our Old Church, who, although-for awhile sleeping as deathlike as the dead around her, has now risen from her slum- ber to be our mother still. Had Mr. White- head's congregation left the old parish building under protest. and elected a vestry according to the canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Virginia. it might have had a strong claim to the title of the Mother Church, but it seems to be a thing impossible. that a congregation without a vestry, electing its minister and trus- tees contrary to canon law, could be the legal successor of the parish church, organized and governed strictly in accordance with the laws and customs of the English Church. What constitutes a parish church? Parishes under the colonial government had metes and bounds established by civil as well as ecclesiasticai law, but the Act of the General Assembly of 1798 wiped out the last vestige of Church and State in Virginia, and with it the legal existence of parish divisions, except so far as their organ- ization was preserved by the canons, customs and traditions of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Virginia. How then could a con- gregation ignoring all obedience to those can- ons, customs and traditions, so far as they re- lated to parish government, justly claim to be the successor of a congregation which .had never departed from them? This principle we think was recognized by the congregation of Christ Church in May, 1866, when by a vote of 56 ayes to 14 noes, they adopted the follow- ing resolutions, offered by Tazewell Taylor,. Esq. viz:
The establishment of Christ Church. Nor- folk, was one of the grand results of religious liberty in Virginia. After the Revolution. it was natural that those who dissented from the doctrines of the Church of England should set up for themselves their own forms of church government, but this was the first example of a church in the Diocese of Virginia, Protestant Episcopal in faith but Congregational in gov- ernment .. It was an American idea, born of the principles of the great struggle for civil and religious liberty. Church and State had been divorced, but the men who projected this new movement were tired of the want of dis- cipline under the old regime; they demanded the right to choose their own spiritual advisers, and while true to the doctrines of the English Church, they carried into ecclesiastical matters the principle they maintained in temporal af- fairs, of opposition to taxation without repre- sentation, and ignoring the old custom of the election of a vestry to govern the parish, they appointed a minister, trustees and other of- Resolved. * that the care and manage- ment of the Church be hereafter confided to a vestry ficer, by the votes of the pew-holders in gen- of the Church, so to be chosen, and this Church shall
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