USA > Virginia > King and Queen County > King and Queen County > King and Queen County, Virginia (history printed in 1908) > Part 9
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" On the 29th of May, 1825, Robert Courtney, John Bagby, and John C. Richards were ordained deacons;
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27th of May, 1826, Hugh Campbell resigned as clerk and John Bagby was elected in his stead. On the 26th of April, 1827, Robert Ryland was publicly ordained to the Gospel ministry. In 1828 John Duval was elected as associate pastor and accepted (the pastor, Dr. Semple, had changed his residence to Fredericksburg, and Dr. Duval filled the pulpit on the third Sunday in his place) .
"Dr. Semple died December 25th, 1831, having served the church from the time of its constitution to the day of his death. This eminent servant of God de- serves our highest testimonial of gratitude and thanks- giving. Under his ministry the church was uniformly happy and prosperous. A few years before his death he was called to a high and important position; but re- mained pastor here until he died. His annual salary probably did not exceed $100. In 1814 the member- ship was three hundred; in 1824, three hundred and fifty. In 1818, fifty baptisms were reported, and in 1831, one hundred and two. In December, 1818, a plan was devised for increasing interest in, and securing contributions for, missions. Revs. John Clark and Rob- ert S. Jones belonged here. The Dover Association met with the church in 1792, 1805, and 1820.
" Elder Richard Claybrook * was chosen as Dr. Sem- ple's successor April 14th, 1832. He was a most worthy man, and seems to have been greatly loved by the church. He died December 4th, 1834, having had a most suc- cessful pastorate. In 1832 the membership was four hundred and sixty-five; in 1834, four hundred and eighty- three. Rev. Robert Ryland preached at the church one Sunday in each month for a period of fourteen months. About this time a fund was established for the maintenance of the poor.
" Claybrook was succeeded by Rev. Eli Ball, who was chosen December 27, 1834, to preach two Sundays in each month and on Saturday before the first Sunday. July 4, 1840, Elder Ball resigned, having been called to an important work for the denomination. This pas- torate seems also to have been remarkably successful,
* Richard Claybrook, b. 1785, in King William.
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the church reaching a membership of five hundred and eighty-six. The church during this period was active, too, in works of practical benevolence. A Sunday school was begun; as also temperance agitation, tract distribution, and an educational society. Regular weekly prayer meetings also were established; these were held mostly at private houses. It was in this pastorate, also, that regular collections were first taken for missionary purposes. It is notable that Mr. Charles Hill, a gen- tleman in the neighborhood of exemplary character, though not a professor of religion, gave his cordial help in the Sunday school. In 1836 brethren Thomas Haynes and Samuel P. Ryland were appointed superin- tendents of the Sunday school; brother Haynes acted in that capacity for the most part until 1846, when he re- moved to Washington city, brother Ryland succeeding him. Meetings were also arranged for the benefit of the colored people, and a committee appointed to super- vise these meetings. In 1837 Thomas Haynes, S. P. Ryland, and Alexander Fleet were elected deacons.
" The church being now again without a pastor, a day of fasting and prayer was observed, looking to the election of some one as under-shepherd. Elder William Southwood * agreed to supply the pulpit for one year from August Ist, 1840. August 29th Elder T. W. Sydnor was elected pastor and accepted for one year. He began work in January, 1841. The treasurer re- ported for this year (1841) $755.82 collected for be- nevolent objects. Twelve baptisms are reported. Elder Sydnor declined to serve a second year. By arrange- ment made in January, 1842, Elder William Southwood was to fill the pulpit on the first and fourth Sundays, R. H. Bagby on the second, and John O. Turpin on the third. June 11th, 1842, R. H. Bagby was elected pas- tor. By many he was regarded as an answer to the prayers of the church. December, 1852, the church en- gaged with its pastor for preaching every Sunday, and
* William Southwood, pastor in the latter part of 1840, was b. in England, October, 1783; d. October, 1850, and was buried under the church at St. Stevens.
HON. J. H. C. JONES
Judge of the County Court of King and Queen, President of the Baptist General Association of Virginia.
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fixed his salary at $500. On the first Sunday in Jan- uary, 1853, Alfred Bagby was publicly ordained to the ministry; July 28th of the same year William S. Ryland was ordained. In 1856 the church resolved not to retain in fellowship a member retailing ardent spirits.
" In January, 1858, Joseph Ryland, James R. Fleet, and Leland Cosby were elected deacons, and on Sunday George F. Bagby was ordained to the ministry. During 1858 $900.77 was collected for benevolent objects. May 31, 1863, Charles H. Ryland was ordained to the ministry; December 3 Ist John W. Ryland was ordained. A Sabbath school for the colored children of the neigh- borhood was organized in 1863, with John Bagby, Jr., as Superintendent, and Alexander Fleet, Jr., as assistant. The school was conducted under an arbor in the church- yard. The Rappahannock Association met with the church in 1858 and 1866.
" Elder Bagby's pastorate was counted a great suc- cess, and when he resigned, in 18-, to enter upon work as field secretary of the State Mission Board, it was a matter of universal regret. His death on October 29th, 1870, was a sad blow to the cause. His body and that of his wife, as also those of Dr. and Mrs. Semple, re- pose in the church cemetery near by."
THE WINNING OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.
The following sketch appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 11, 1906, under the head- ing :
" VIRGINIA'S FIGHT FOR FREE RELIGION."
With a few verbal corrections it is inserted here as a valuable contribution to the ecclesiastical history of Virginia, and thus, by its subject matter, of broad in- terest to the history of King and Queen County.
" A collection of specially interesting and important manuscripts will be put on exhibition in the portrait gal- lery of the State Library this week by the Department of Archives and History. This collection is that of ' religious petitions,' which were presented to the Gen-
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eral Assembly during the momentous years of the Revo- lution and the years succeeding. These documents will be so arranged, with accompanying cards, that the progress of the struggle which ended in complete re- ligious freedom may be studied from beginning to end. A number of these religious petitions will be included among the State Library's exhibit at the Jamestown Exposition.
" Interesting as the history of the overthrow of estab- lished religion in Virginia is, the majority of people are ignorant of it. The story of the struggle is told in these petitions with a fullness seldom found, and conse- quently the collection will have a more than usual interest for those who love the history of the State. In fact, the religious petitions are the only source for certain phases of the religious conflict in Virginia, and this is the first time that they have been exhibited.
" Origin of Petitions .- For a proper understanding of their value, it is necessary to know something of the conditions which produced them and the grievances that they endeavored to remedy. It is difficult for us, with our acquaintance with the present condition of things in Virginia, spiritual and temporal, to appreciate the conditions existing in the State at the beginning of the Revolution.
" There was an established church in Virginia, the Church of England. The people were required to at- tend its services, and were taxed for its support. In return the people received the services of a somewhat inferior clergy, which was criticised as being unlearned, unenthusiastic and generally acquainted with the world, the flesh, and the devil. The criticism was probably overdrawn, but there can be no doubt that the clergy exercised little influence upon their parishioners. The burning zeal of the dissenting preachers, their rivals, may have thrown the clergy of the Established Church into a different relief from that in which they would stand to-day.
" At all events, things religious were out of joint in Virginia for some years prior to the Revolution. The spirit of rebellion against authority was on foot through-
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out the Colony, and applied to religion as well as to politics. The Established Church, the Church of Eng- land in Virginia, became unpopular with many people be- cause of its connection with royal authority, the character of its clergymen, and, not the least, because of the taxes extorted for its maintenance. The local tyranny exer- cised by many vestries in church matters did not enhance the popularity of the Establishment. Indeed, some writers attribute the deficiencies of the Established Church to its lack of ecclesiastical control and the cor- responding power of the vestries. The church, they say, was not episcopal.
"Wonderful Awakening .- Popular discontent with the church found expression in the celebrated 'Parsons' Cause,' in 1763, when the youthful Patrick Henry be- gan his fine agitating career. The clergy of some par- ishes attempted to collect their tithes of tobacco, as fixed by the law at so many pounds, at a time when tobacco was high. The law was appealed to; the par- sons were legally right, but Henry's tongue confounded them.
" Conditions were ripe in Virginia for the growth of active dissent. The means of growth were supplied by one of those religious movements which have so often convulsed the British people. This was the great re- vival of the Wesleys, Whitefield, and Edwards. The conception of religion as a conscious and intimate rela- tionship between the soul and God was preached as never before, and awoke the slumbering religious in- stincts of the English-speaking people.
" The Presbyterians were the first dissenting sect to enter Virginia as a sect. They were chiefly Scotch-Irish, of the West, and they did not all at once affect eastern Virginia. But some years before the Revolution the Presbyterians began to make headway in Hanover and the adjoining counties, and presently Baptists, Quakers, Methodists and others entered the Colony and propa- gated their doctrines. The Baptists, especially, grew rapidly, and disturbed the conventional and unemotional Virginia of the eighteenth century to its depths.
"Indeed, the effects of a burning evangelical Chris-
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tianity, preached crudely, but with utmost sincerity, were marvelous. The old Virginia of that day was used to dull and sleepy lectures upon morality, delivered un- enthusiastically to high-backed pews and powdered dig- nity. Into this drowsy land the itinerant exhorters flocked and vividly painted heaven and hell, disturbing the peace of mind of the whole community.
"Persecution Followed .- The first case of imprison- ment seems to have taken place in Fredericksburg in 1768. John Waller, Lewis Craig, James Childs, and others, were hauled up before three magistrates, who offered to release them if they would promise to spare the county their sermons for a year and a day. They refused, and were marched to jail, singing as they went through the streets: 'Broad is the way that leads to death.' Some of the natives believe that the curse of this persecution stopped the growth of the town for a hundred years.
" A number of similar cases of imprisonment fol- lowed, and legal persecution was sometimes accompanied by mob outrage, as the powerful emotions awakened by the religious revival antagonized those whom it did not attract. Persecution, as is sometimes the case, but not always, aided the growth of the persecuted sect.
" The Baptists increased in numbers, as did the Pres- byterians, while many Quakers and other sectarians came into the State from the North.
" It was now the beginning of the Revolution. The chief questions that strained the relations between King and Colonies were political, and religious matters might not necessarily have entered into the conflict to a great extent. This was certainly the preference of a majority of the leading patriots, who were churchmen, while they were rebels. But revolutions sometimes accomplish more than they aim at. The dissenters, now largely outnumbering the churchmen, were determined that re- ligious as well as political liberty should be secured, and the dissenters had the sympathy of some of the strongest men of the day.
" A political motive for assisting the dissenters lay in the fact that the State would need their warm support
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in the coming struggle. To men as broad as Jefferson, Madison, and Mason, the occasion called for the general assertion of liberal principles. When the Convention of 1775 met as a convention, and no longer as the House of Burgesses, the dissenters began to send in petitions, and it was by petitions attacking or defending the Estab- lished Church that the struggle was chiefly waged.
" The Baptists, in a petition dated August 14, 1775, expressed sympathy for the patriot cause and asked that their ministers might have the liberty of preaching to the Virginia troops. The Convention could not well re- fuse this request, and passed a resolution permitting dis- senting clergymen to preach to the soldiers "for the ease of such scrupulous consciences as may not choose to attend divine services as celebrated by the chaplain."
" The dissenters had not yet begun to attack the church in their petitions. The first move for complete religious freedom came from the convention of 1776, in the Bill of Rights. In this notable body sat Archibald Cary, Robert Carter Nicholas, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Thomas Ludwell Lee, John Blair, Meriwether Smith, James Mercer, Edmund Pendleton, Edmund Randolph, Henry Tazewell, James Madison, George Mason, and other men of mark. Some of them were strong defenders of the Establishment, but the genuine love of liberty which animated Mason, Madison, and their followers, as well as the necessities of the moment, prevailed, and the famous sixteenth article of the Bill of Rights was passed. It reads: 'That religion, or the duty we owe to our Creator, and the manner of dis- charging it, can be directed only by reason and convic- tion, and not by force or violence; and, therefore, all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love and charity towards each other.'
" Baptist and Presbyterian Onslaught .- This article was adopted June 12, 1776, and on June 20 the Bap- tists attacked the Establishment in a petition asking that they be allowed to maintain their ministers and enjoy the ministrations of these without the necessity of sup-
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porting the clergy of 'other denominations '-mean- ing, of course, the clergy of the Establishment.
" The first General Assembly of Virginia met in Octo- ber, 1776. The attack on the Establishment then became general, and many petitions, chiefly from the Presbyterians, poured in upon the legislature. The Presbytery of Hanover asked for the repeal of laws countenancing religious denominations and enforcing taxation for their benefit. One immense petition, signed by 10,000 names, and many yards in length, attested to the number and unanimity of the dissenters.
" The Assembly bowed before the public will, and passed a law on December 9th, 1776, exempting dis- senters from the support of the church. This bill was carried only after a severe struggle, in which Pendleton and Nicholas led the conservatives.
" Dissenters were relieved of the burden of supporting the Establishment with their taxes, but the question of State interference in religious matters was not yet settled. It was still a debated question whether there should be taxation for ecclesiastical purposes. Meanwhile, the opponents of the Establishment secured a postponement of the payment to it of any taxes at all. This condition of abeyance lasted through the years 1776-1779, in which time a number of petitions were presented, asking for the overthrow of the Establishment, or opposing the system of church taxation, which was called assessment.
"Jefferson's Act Held Up .- In the session of 1779 the opponents of the Established Church made a deter- mined assault upon it, and succeeded in crippling it seri- ously, although they were not able to secure their full demands. Taxation for the benefit of the clergy of the Establishment had been suspended for three years. Five suspending acts were passed, and in 1779 the laws for the support of the clergy were repealed. It now became impossible for the old Establishment to hope for an ex- clusive benefit from taxation, although the question of taxation itself still remained undecided.
" The settlement of the latter could have been accom- plished by the passage of Jefferson's 'Act for Estab- lishing Religious Freedom in Virginia.' The bill for
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religious freedom was reported in the House of Dele- gates in June, 1779. It was held up, the enemy being too strong. The act, as finally passed, reads : ' Be it en- acted by the General Assembly, that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or ministry whatsoever, nor shall he be enforced, restrained, molested or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall he otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but that all men shall be free to pro- fess and by argument to maintain their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities.'
" The bill was not passed, however, at this session, and for a number of sessions to come. The bill failed to pass for several reasons. In 1780-'81 the State was deeply involved in the progress of the war. After the establishment of peace in 1783, the old church, which had been paralyzed by the war, began to show signs of reviving. A plan was brought forward to secure the property still held loosely by the church, by means of an act of incorporation, and to provide for the support of the clergy by a system of general taxation of all the citizens of the State for the benefit of the various churches.
" This law would give each person the right to choose the church which should receive his tax. In this way the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists-if they considered themselves separate-and other sects, would be established, as well as the Protestant Episcopal Church, which was the successor and heir of the old Establishment.
" Several Makeshifts .- The plan was formidable through its leading advocate, who was none other than Patrick Henry. Time and responsibility had cooled the once ardent radical and he had become the maintainer instead of the upsetter of systems. A num- ber of Presbyterians, and perhaps some other dissenters, seem to have favored this plan, which would have had the merit of making preaching a somewhat less pre- carious profession than it was.
" A large part of the Assembly was Episcopalian. It
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was accordingly possible to do something for the bat- tered old church. As a result, a law was passed in 1784 providing for the incorporation of the Episcopal Church.
" By this law vestries were empowered to acquire property of a certain income; they might indulge in lawsuits or be sued, and (principally) they might hold the glebes and other church property formerly belong- ing to the Establishment, and now claimed by the Epis- copal Church as heir. This act was followed in December, 1784, by ' A bill establishing a provision for the teachers of the Christian religion.' The bill em- bodied the plan for the general support of religion and religious sects by means of taxation.
" It was true that this bill gave the same right to all sects which called themselves Christians, a term that in those days was largely inclusive. It was not, however, in the line of religious freedom, and small consolation would the irreligious taxpayer have found in the privi- lege of choosing a destination for his unwillingly paid taxes. Immediately the war of petitions was renewed as never before, and from almost every county of the State came denunciations of the plan, or fervent appeals for its support.
" Madison to the Rescue .- James Madison was the leader in the fight against incorporations and assessment. He put forth his famous 'Remonstrance,' which at once had great effect throughout Virginia. The balance went decidedly against the taxation plan. The Presby- terians, who had in some instances favored assessment, now closed up solidly against it, and the Baptists, who had been solidly against it all along, refreshed their zeal. Madison seized the opportunity to bring forward once more Jefferson's bill for religious freedom.
" Modest James had proved to be a trusty guardian of the bill which his great and good friend, Jefferson, had fathered, and had stood by it through many disap- pointments. The bill passed the House on December 17th, 1785, and put an end to all church establishment, general or particular.
" But the Episcopal Church was still incorporated,
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and the other religious sects sent in petition after peti- tion opposing it, signed apparently by nearly all the in- habitants of the State. As long as the church continued incorporated, its title to the old glebes and other prop- erty handed down to it remained good. The Legislature bowed again before what was mainly the popular will, and in 1786 repealed the incorporating act. The glebes continued to remain in the hands of the vestries, where there were any vestries, but they were held by a very uncertain tenure.
" It was the object of the Baptists to change this un- certain possession into certain dispossession. The principle of republican equality was on their side. From 1786 until the end of the century the Baptists, and pos- sibly other dissenters, continually put in petitions for the sale of the glebes and the appropriation of the proceeds for other purposes than the support of religious denomi- nations,-delenda est Carthago!
" The Episcopalians struggled pathetically against the loss of this last privilege, which appeared to them as an absolute right. 'That conceiving their society hath under laws passed more than a century previous to the Revolution,' said one of their petitions, dated in 1797, ' the same right to their glebe and church as each indi- vidual has to his property legally vested during the royal government, they have continued to hold and use them for their appropriate purposes : in all other respects con- sidering themselves in a state of perfect equality with their brethren of other societies,-ardently wishing to live in peace and harmony, and the intercourse of benev- olence and charity, with all.' This was a strong plea, but the opponents of the Episcopal glebes were able to put forth the argument that the glebes in many cases represented the taxation of all the inhabitants, dissenters as well as churchmen, for the benefit of the old Estab- lishment alone, and, therefore, that no single church had the right to property so gotten; consequently that the State should use the property for purposes which would benefit all.
" The unfailing supply of petitions at last produced their effect. In January, 1802, the Assembly passed an
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act directing the sale of the glebes, and the proceeds were devoted chiefly to the poor. The last scene of the religious drama in Virginia was thus played, and the Establishment totally passed away."
The supporters of ecclesiastical establishment and tax- ation had argued that the withdrawal of all State sup- port from religion would mean the overthrow of reli- gion; that religion in this world of evil cannot stand alone. Dissenters retorted with a reminder of the friend- less but healthy condition of the primeval church. In the early years of the nineteenth century the former seemed to have the best of the argument, for religion was in a sad state of decline. This came about, how- ever, from other causes than disestablishment. It was chiefly due to the license bred by war and upheaval, and to the propagation of " French principles " in the State. Virginia became full of skepticism and atheism. Curi- ously enough, skepticism and atheism flourished as a green bay-tree,-and yet withered, for before many years had passed there was a great and general revival of reli- gion in the old commonwealth, and the French influence lingered as only a memory.
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