USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 15
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Large tracts of land, called the College lands and the Com- pany's lands, to the amount of fifteen thousand acres, had been set apart on both sides of the river for the purpose of promoting the College and settlement. Between one and two hundred la- bourers were imported to cultivate them. One hundred young women, of good character, were ordered over to be wives to the workmen here and elsewhere. Eighty of them actually came. The massacre fell heavily on them upon both sides of the river. Despairing of success, at length the lands were otherwise dis- posed of.
We are informed, by one of the descendants, that Mr. William Randolph bought at one time the whole of Sir Thomas Dale's set- tlement, amounting to five thousand acres of land, and as much more of other persons, reaching down to Four-Mile Creek, on James River. The two settlements of Varina and Curls, so long the property and abodes of the Randolphs, were on this estate. The estate of Bacon, the rebel, once formed a part of this tract, and there are still some remains of the fort which he erected when contending with the Indians. The estate called Varina, which continued longest in possession of the Randolphs, was so called from a place of that name in Spain, because the tobacco raised at both places so resembled each other in flavour.
As to the ministers and churches, we have seen that Mr. Whit- taker, who died in 1619, ministered to the people at Henricopolis and at Bermuda Hundred. He was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Wickam, and he by the Rev. Mr. Stockam. After these we have no authentic account of any minister until the time of the Rev. James Blair, who settled here in 1685, and was the rector until the year 1694, when he went to Jamestown and became Commis- sary and President of the College of William and Mary. The next account we have of the parish is in the year 1724, in an
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answer to the circular of the Bishop of London ; but unfortunately the name of the minister is cut off from the manuscript which is before us, and we can only give the report itself. The minister (whose name is lost) had been in the parish fourteen years ; that is, since 1710. There were two churches and one chapel. The parish was eighteen miles by twenty-five. There were eleven hun- dred tithables and four hundred families in it. The masters do nothing for their servants, but let some of them now and then go to church. One or two hundred persons are sometimes at church. The families are so distant that it is difficult to have the children brought to catechism, and when they grow to any bigness they do not like to be publicly catechized. The teachers and parents do whatever is done in that way. There was no public school for youth. There were only about twenty communicants at a time, when the sacrament was administered.
The same evil is complained of here as is often elsewhere. The large estates on the river separate the families, so that it is difficult to get to church. It is so to this day along our rivers. Where the two churches and the chapel were at that time, we are at a loss to tell. Perhaps one may still have been at Henricopolis, the first settlement by Sir Thomas Dale. After a time, one was built by the first of the Richard Randolphs, which was called sometimes Four-Mile Creek Church, sometimes Curls Church, as it lay between these places. Whether there was a chapel at that time at the Falls-that is, Richmond-is not certainly known, but is probable. At a later period, the minister officiated alternately at the Four- Mile Creek Church, or Curls Church, on the north side of James River, and at a church on the south side, near Rock Hall, called Jefferson's Church.
This was the case in the time of Mr. Stith, who wrote his His- tory about the year 1740, at Varina, when he was minister of Henrico parish. He removed to Williamsburg to preside over the College in the year 1752 .* The building of the church at Four-
* William Stith was the only son of Captain John Stith, of the county of Charles City, and of Mary, a daughter of "William Randolph, gentleman," of Turkey Island, in the adjoining county, Henrico, in the Colony of Virginia : their son Wil- liam was born in the year 1689. On the death of her husband, Mrs. Stith, at the instance of her brother, Sir John Randolph, removed to Williamsburg and placed her son in the grammar-school attached to the College of William and Mary, where he pursued his academic studies and graduated. His theological studies were com- pleted in England, where he was ordained a minister in the Episcopal Church. On his return to Virginia, in the year 1731, he was elected master of the grammar- school in the College and chaplain to the House of Burgesses. In June, 1788, he
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Mile Creek, or Curls, is clearly ascertained, as to the time and the erection of it, by an extract from a letter of the eldest Richard Randolph, of Curls, to his son Richard, in 1748, in which he says, " Pray assist Wilkinson all you can in getting the church finished, and get the shells that will be wanted carted before the roads get bad. The joiner can inform you what shells I have at the Falls. If more are wanted you must get them." Some thirty or forty years ago, when this church was without Episcopal services, a man claimed it, and declared his intention to take it, when a great- grandson of old Mr. Randolph, of the same name, repaired to the place, and informed him that as soon as he touched it he would have him arrested. The desired effect was produced. It has, however, now disappeared; and none, I believe, bearing the name of Randolph, owns a rood of that immense tract of land on which their fathers once lived .*
was called as rector to Henrico parish, in the county of Henrico. He married his cousin Judith, a daughter of Thomas Randolph, of Tuckahoe, the second son of William Randolph, of Turkey Island, and resided in the parsonage on the glebe near Varina, the seat of justice for the county of Henrico. There he wrote his History of Virginia, which was printed and bound in the city of Williamsburg, at the only printing-press then in the Colony. In August, 1752, he was elected Pre- sident of William and Mary College, to which he removed and over which he presided until his death, in 1755.
* The connection of so many of the Randolphs, not only with the Episcopal Church, but ministry, both in England and America, merits some special notice of the family. It shall be very brief by comparison with the numbers and respect- ability of it. I leave it to some one of the name to trace back its history through the Church and State in England, and through the numerous branches which have spread themselves over Virginia and other parts of our land. I only abridge some of the genealogies placed in my hands, by giving a list of some of the earliest of the family, from whom all others have proceeded. The first of the name who settled in Virginia, Mr. William Randolph, became possessed of the large estate on James River called Turkey Island, bordering on Charles City, to which he added numerous other estates, on which he settled his sons, building excellent houses for all of them. He married Miss Mary Isham, daughter of Henry and Catherine Isham, of Bermuda Hundred, on the opposite side of the river.
They had seven sons and two daughters. 1st. William, of Turkey Island, who married Miss Beverly, of Gloucester. 2d. Thomas, of Tuckahoe, who married Miss Flemming. 3d. Isham, of Dungeness, who married a Miss Rojers, of Eng- land. 4th. Richard, of Curls, who married a Miss Bolling, descendant of Poca- hontas. 5th. Henry, who died without issue. 6th. Sir John Randolph, of Wil- liamsburg, who married Miss Beverly, sister of his brother William's wife. 7th. Edward, who married an heiress in England,-a Miss Groves. He was a captain of a ship. Some of his children settled in England and some in Virginia. Two of his daughters married the Revs. William and Robert Yates, of Gloucester county. A third married William Stith, and was the mother of the Rev. Mr. Stith, the his- torian of Virginia, minister of Henrico, and afterward President of William and
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To proceed with the history of the ministers of Henrico parish : we find, on the lists of the clergy in Virginia, that the Rev. Miles
Mary College. His sister married Commissary Dawson, and he himself married Miss Judith Randolph, of Tuckahoe. Another of the family married the Rev. Mr. Keith, who settled in Fauquier, and was the ancestor of Judge Marshall. Another married Mr. Anthony Walke, of Norfolk county, and was the mother of the Rev. Anthony Walke, of that county. To their connection with the sanctuary in Vir- ginia may be added one in our Mother-Church of which the family may well be proud. Bishop Randolph, of the latter part of the last century, was frst Arch- deacon of Jersey, then Bishop of Oxford, and then of London, in all which stations he was most highly esteemed. His collection of tracts for the benefit of young stu- dents for the ministry show him to have been a Bishop of sound doctrines and of a truly catholic spirit. As to piety and active zeal, he is thought to have been consi- derably in advance of the generality of the Bishops of his day. It may not be amiss to state that Thomas Randolph, the poet, of England, was uncle to William Randolph, of Turkey Island, and that the nephew is said to have possessed something of his poetic genius. We must here stop, and only say that the family of Ran- dolphs is henceforth to be found mixed up with the Beverlys, Harrisons, Jennings, Lees, Grymes, Wormleys, Nelsons, Burwells, Lightfoots, Bollings, Spotwoods, Pages, Singletons, Flemings, Berkeleys, Stiths, Carys, Jeffersons, Carrs, Pleasants, Meades, Hackleys, Woods, Mumfords, Armsteads, and others, known and unknown and too numerous to mention.
I add the following brief account from Campbell's History of Virginia :- "Several of the sons of the first William Randolph, of Turkey Island, father of the family in Virginia, were men of distinction. William was a member of the Council and Trea- surer of the Colony. Isham was member of the House of Burgesses, in 1740, from Goochland, and Adjutant-General of the Colony. Richard was a member of the House of Burgesses in 1740, from Henrico, and succeeded his brother as Treasurer. Sir John was Speaker of the House of Burgesses, and Attorney-General. Peter, son of the second William Randolph, was Clerk of the House of Burgesses, and Attor- ney-General. Peyton, son of Sir John, was Speaker of the House of Burgesscs and President of the first Congress held at Philadelphia. Thomas Mann Randolph, great-grandson of William, of Turkey Island, was a member of the Virginia Con- vention in 1775, from Goochland. Beverly Randolph was member of the Assembly from Cumberland, during the Revolution, and Governor of Virginia. Robert Ran- dolph, son of Peter, Richard Randolph, grandson of Peter, and David Meade Ran . dolph, grandson of the second Richard, of Curls, were cavalry-officers in the Revo- lution. David Meade Randolph was Marshal of Virginia. John Randolph, of Roanoke, member of Congress and minister to Russia, was grandson of the first Richard. Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., was member of Congress, of the Legisla- ture of Virginia, and Governor of Virginia." To this we add, that Edmund Ran- dolph was Secretary of State of the United States and Governor of Virginia, besides holding other offices.
Mr. Campbell remarks that the members of the numerous families of the Randolphs, in several instances, adopted the names of their seats, for purposes of distinction, as, Thomas of Tuckahoe, Isham of Dungeness, Richard of Curls, John of Roanoke. The following were the seats of the Randolphs on James River. Tuckahoe, Dungeness, Chattsworth, Wilton, Varina, Curls, Bremo, Turkey Island. In a work on the old families, &c. of the Church in Virginia, the above is not too much for one, whose branches have, with few exceptions, been so steadfast to her, and some of whom have contributed so liberally to her support, as old Mr. Richard
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Selden was minister in 1758 and also in 1776, from which we infer that he was the minister from 1758 to 1776; how long before 1758 or after 1776, does not appear. Nor have I been able to ascertain any thing particular concerning him .*
HENRICO PARISH AFTER THE REVOLUTION.
Previous to the Revolution, it is probable that the families of the Randolphs at Turkey Island, Curls, Varina, Wilton, and Chatts- worth, with a few others in the neighbourhood of the old settle- ment of Sir Thomas Dale, formed the main strength of the Epis- copal Church in Henrico, and that the ministers resided at the parsonage and on the glebe at Varina. But the scene will now be changed to Richmond, which, though still a very small place, became the seat of government during the war.t
Randolph, of Curls, Mr. Thomas Mann Randolph, of Tuckahoe, and Colonel Robert Randolph, of Fauquier.
* I have obtained the following notice of the Rev. Wm. Selden, a relative of Mr. Miles Selden :-- " The Rev. Wm. Selden was son of John Selden and Grace Rose- well, and grandson of the first of the name who came to Virginia, about 1690, and settled in the Northern Neck. Wm. Selden was born in 1741, was educated at Wil- liam and Mary College, studied law and practised it some years. Disliking the profession, he studied for the ministry, and went to London, where he was ordained in 1771. Returning to Virginia, he became the minister of Elizabeth parish. He continued in charge of this parish until a short time before his death. He married Mary Ann Hancock, of Princess Ann county, by whom he had many children, two only of whom grew up and had issue,-viz. : Dr. W. B. Selden, of Norfolk, only two of whose sons survive, viz., Dr. Wm. Selden, of Norfolk, and Robert Selden, of Gloucester, two others, Dr. Henry Selden and Miss Susan Selden, having fallen victims to the late epidemic in Norfolk. Mrs. Bagnal, the other child of the Rev. W. Selden who left issue, has now living two children,-Mrs. Mary Grace, of Glou- cester, and W. D. Bagnal, of Norfolk. The Rev. Miles Selden, of Henrico, was the son of Joseph, the youngest son of the first settler, and, consequently, the first- cousin of the Rev. Wm. Selden." From their continuance during their ministry in the parishes which called them, and other considerations, we have reason to believe that they were both exemplary men.
+ The following account of Richmond at this time is from the papers of Mrs. Colonel Carrington, from which I have already borrowed so largely, and, I am sure, so acceptably to my readers :-
"RICHMOND AT THE TIME OF THE REMOVAL OF THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT THI- THER .- It is indeed a lovely situation, and may at some future period be a great city, but at present it will afford scarce one comfort of life. With the exception of two or three families, this little town is made up of Scotch factors, who inhabit small tenements here and there from the river to the hill, some of which looking- as Colonel Marshal (afterward Judge Marshal) observes-as if the poor Caledo- nians had brought them over on their backs, the weaker of whom were glad to stop at the bottom of the hill ; others a little stronger proceeded higher ; while a few of the stoutest and boldest reached the summit, which, once accomplished, affords a situation beautiful and picturesque. One of these hardy Scots has thought proper
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, RICHMOND, VA.
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St. John's Church, on Richmond Hill, whose age we are unable to ascertain, had been the sanctuary of patriotism, as well as of religion, more than once before and during the war, in which the voices of our Randolphs, Lees, Henrys, and Masons roused the citizens to arms. Beneath it, on the river Powhatan, (the ancient name of James River, and which ought never to have been changed,) lay the spot where the old King Powhatan sometimes held his court when warring with the fierce Monacans or Mana- kins, who never allowed him to extend his conquests above the Falls. Although it is clearly shown that Pocahontas was born and trained at a place far distant from this, and baptized and married at Jamestown, and though it is all a fable that it was here she rescued the gallant Smith, yet, during her residence with Rolph at Henricopolis, she may have visited the spot before any Chris- tian church was reared on its brows.
From this time forward we have the sure guide of a vestry-book in tracing the history of this parish. The one before us opens with the first meeting of the parishioners, in March, 1785, to elect a vestry under the act of incorporation by the Legislature, which had before put down the Episcopal Church as an Establishment. The first vestrymen were Edmund Randolph, Turner Southall, Jaqueline Ambler, Nathaniel Wilkinson, Hobson Owen, William Fouchee, William Burton, Daniel L. Hylton, Miles Selden, Thomas Prosser, John Ellis, Bowler Cocke, of whom Edmund Randolph and Bowler Cocke were chosen churchwardens, and the former elected to the Convention about to meet in the May following. Previous to that meeting, the Rev. John Buchanon was elected minister of the parish. He had been the minister of Amherst parish some years before this. The following resolution of the vestry in the year 1789 will show their sense of the importance of religion, and their testimony to its low condition at that time :-
"We, the undersigned, (it was intended for vestrymen and others,) considering that the principles of true religion have a powerful tendency to promote as well the order and good government of the society at large, as the peace and happiness of those individuals who are influenced by them, and that there has been found no surer mode of establishing and rivetting such principles on the mind, and the uniform exercise of and attendance on public worship, and deeply deploring the almost total de- cline of divine worship for some years past, and the consequent deprava-
to vacate his little dwelling on the hill; and, though our whole family can scarcely stand up all together in it, my father has determined to rent it as the only decent tenement on the hill."
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tion of morals of every denomination among us, and earnestly wishing for a reformation on that head, more particularly on account of the rising generation, that the seeds of piety and virtue may be sown in their tender minds, and preserve them from the contagion and irreligion and the prac- tices of an evil world. To effectuate these important purposes, as far as our influence and circumstances admit, we have entered into the present association for the support of religion and the maintenance of regular divine worship, and do therefore hereby oblige ourselves, our heirs, &c. to pay or cause to be paid unto Jaqueline Ambler, Treasurer of the Protest- ant Episcopal Church in the parish of Henrico," &c.
So low, however, was the condition of the church, that a very small sum was raised in this way for the support of the ministry, and Mr. Buchannon received but little beside the rent of the glebe and perquisites during the whole of his ministry; and that little was always given to others. Having some property of his own, through the death of his brother, Mr. James Buchanon, and living with simplicity and economy, he did not need a salary for himself .*
In the year 1790, the vestry passed a resolution permitting the churchwardens to allow ministers of other denominations to preach in our country churches in the daytime, when not occupied by Dr. Buchanon, provided they did not leave them open or injure them. At a later period, Mr. Blair is allowed to preach every other Sun- day in St. John's Church. This not only shows their kind feelings toward the other denominations, but that they considered the churches as not made common property by the law, as some have contended. In the year 1791, a committee appointed to inquire into the property of the parish report that the glebe consists of one hundred and ninety-six acres of land by an old patent, that the houses are out of repair, that the glebe rents for forty pounds,
* The following letter from Mrs. Colonel Edward Carrington, of Richmond, to her friend Miss Caines, of London, (who had lived in Virginia, ) will show what was the state of things at this time, in the year 1792, the date of the letter :-
"This evil" (the want of public worship) "increases daily ; nor have we left in our extensive State three churches that are decently supported. Our metropolis even would be left destitute of this blessing but for the kind offices of our friend Buchanon, whom you remember well, an inmate of our family. He, from sheer benevolence, continues to preach in our capital, to what we now call the New School,-that is to say, to a set of modern philosophers who merely attend because they know not what else to do with themselves. But, blessed be God, in spite of the enlightened, as they call themselves, and in spite of Godwin, Paine, &c., we still, at times, particularly on our great Church-days, repair with a choice few to our old church on the hill, (St. John's,) and, by contributing our mite, endeavour to preserve the religion of our fathers. Delightful hours we sometimes pass
there," &c.
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and is supposed to be worth one thousand pounds, that there is one silver cup and salver. In the year 1714, the vestry elected the Rev. David Moore, son of Bishop Moore, to act as assistant to Dr. Buchanon ; but the offer was declined. In the year 1715, the Rev. William Hart was chosen and accepted. In the year 1722, Dr. Buchanon died, and Mr. Hart succeeded to the entire rectorship of the church.
On the 13th of May, 1826, Dr. John Adams presented to the vestry a marble font, which was obtained from Curls Church. In July of the year 1828, the Rev. Mr. Hart resigned and the Rev. William F. Lee was elected. Soon after Mr. Lee's entrance on the duties of rector, a proposition was made to remove the old church below the hill, or build or purchase a new one. This re- sulted in the resignation of Mr. Lee and of a number of the ves- trymen, and the formation of a new congregation and purchase of a Presbyterian church, since called Christ Church, in whose ser- vice Mr. Lee ended his days.
In the year 1830, the Rev. Mr. Peet was chosen the minister of St. John's. In the year 1833, the Rev. Mr. Peet resigned and the Rev. Robert Croes was elected. Mr. Croes resigned in 1836, and the Rev. Mr. Hart was re-elected to his old parish, and continued its minister until the year 1842. In the following year, the Rev. Mr. Morrison was elected, and continued the minister until 1848. In the following year, the Rev. Mr. Kepler was called to be the minister of this parish, and continues such to this time.
I close my notice of St. John's Church by referring to a subject on which I find that the vestry took action in the years 1826 and 1828. At an early period, two hundred acres of land were laid off from the College or Company lands near Henricopolis or Dale's settlement, for a glebe, court-house, prison, &c., one hundred and ninety-six being for the former. It continued to be the residence and property of the successive ministers until the death of Dr. Buchanon, in 1822. A short time subsequent to this, the over- seers of the poor laid claim to it and offered it for sale. The Rev. Mr. Hart, assistant and successor to Dr. Buchanon, enjoined the proceedings, and filed a bill in Chancery to obtain ownership; whereupon the Chancellor, at the January term of his court in 1826, decided in favour of the church and against all claims of the overseers of the poor. It was then resolved by the vestry to sell their right and interest in the glebe to Mr. Pleasant Aiken, of Petersburg, in such manner as shall appear for the best interests of the parish. An appeal from the decision of the Chancellor was
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taken by the overseers of the poor, and Mr. Aiken declined closing the bargain until the decision of the Court of Appeals. In the month of March, 1828, the vestry direct the rector to lease the glebe-lands adjoining the Varina estate, and belonging to the parish, to such person and upon such terms as he may think will best secure their preservation. This is the last entry upon the ves- try-book concerning it. I am privately informed that the vestry withdrew their claim, or did not prosecute it, rather than involve the church in what might prove a long and bitter controversy with the overseers of the poor representing the citizens of Henrico, although well persuaded that the Chancellor was right in his deci- sion. I presume that the claim of the vestry rested on the fact that this glebe was not purchased for the parish by a levy of the vestry on the people, as was the case of the glebes generally, and on which account the law for selling them was passed, but was a gift to the parish by the London Company out of the lands set apart for the College and the general uses of HIenrico. In ceasing to contend for their rights, the vestrymen of Henrico only did what other vestrymen have done, preferring rather to suffer loss than promote strife and thereby injure the cause of religion. It has been the general sentiment of the clergy and laity of our Church in Virginia, with whom I have been acquainted, that, though the glebes may have been wrongfully taken away, (about which there has been diversity of opinion,) yet even if they could be recovered by law, the effort should not be made, because of the discord and unhappiness which would certainly attend it.
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