USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 19
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"We do not want Bishops; and yet, from our principles, I hardly think we should oppose such an establishment. Nor will the laity apply for them,-Colonel Corbin having assured me that he has received no petition to be signed, nor any thing else about it from Dr. Porteus ; but Mr. Hor-
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rocks, the Bishop of London's Commissary here, hath invited all the clergy of the Colony to meet him soon, in order to consider of an appli- cation for this purpose ; which he tells me he has done in compliance with the pressing instances of some of the Episcopal clergy northward. This gentleman goes to England for his health this summer ; possibly a mitre may be his polar star, for we know that there is much magnetic virtue in such dignities, and I tell him he will be too late if he does not embark soon .* To which he, with the usual modesty on such occasions, replies, 'Nolo Episcopari.'"
As the clergy met in secret, the President could not then tell what they were about, but promises to write his friend hereafter.
The vestry-book ceases in the year 1769, while Mr. Horrocks was minister, all the leaves being filled up. Doubtless a new one was gotten and records made in it; but it is nowhere to be found. Mr. Horrocks was rector of the parish, President of the College, and Commissary as late as 1771. He was succeeded in all these by the Rev. John Camm, who continued until 1777, when Mr. Madison became President of the College.
We must here cease from the private history of the parish for a brief space, in order to introduce a memorable passage from the history of the State, which occurred within the bounds of this parish. The decisive step was now about to be taken by the Co- lonies in relation to the mother-country. They had denounced and renounced her as a cruel step-mother; they were about to take up arms and appeal to the God of battles to aid them in the defence of their just rights. The patriots of Virginia determined to do this with the most solemn forms of religion. On the 24th of May, 1774, the members of the Assembly, at their meeting in Williams- burg, after setting forth in a well-written preamble the condition of the country, the evils already oppressing us, the dangers to be feared, and their determination to assert our just rights, "re- solved to set apart a day for fasting, humiliation, and prayer; and ordered that the members of the House do attend in their places, at the hour of ten in the morning, on the first day of June next, in order to proceed, with the Speaker and the mace, to the church in this city for the purpose aforesaid; and that the Rev. Mr. Price be requested to read prayers, and the Rev. Mr. Gwatkin to preach
* I suppose he meant that the Government, if favourable to the measure, would give it to some one in England. It is a fact clearly proved by his own letters to Governor Hunter, of New York, that when at some previous period it was thought probable that a Bishop would be sent to America, Dean Swift wished and expected to be the Bishop.
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a sermon suitable to the occasion." The following extract of a letter from George Mason, of Fairfax, a neighbour and friend of Washington, who was in Williamsburg at the time, though not a member of the House, (Washington being the delegate,) will show the religious feeling of the members. It is addressed to Martin Cockburn, one of his pious neighbours.
"Enclosed you have the Boston Trade Act and a resolve of our House of Burgesses. You will observe that it is confined to the members of their own House; but they would wish to see the example followed through the country ; for which purpose the members, at their own pri- vate expense, are sending expresses with the resolve to their respective counties. Mr. Massie (the minister of Fairfax) will receive a copy of the resolve from Colonel Washington ; and, should a day of prayer and fasting be appointed in our county, please to tell my dear little family that I charge them to pay a strict attention to it, and that I desire my three eldest sons and my two oldest daughters may attend church in mourning, if they have it, as I believe they have."
This speaks well for the faith, and humble dependence on God, which dwelt in the breasts of our Virginia patriots. There were those, even then, among them, who had unhappily imbibed the infidel principles of France; but they were too few to raise their voices against those of Washington, Nicholas, Pendleton, Ran- dolph, Mason, Lee, Nelson, and such like. And in proof that they were disposed to go further than mere prayer and fasting, a few years after, in the year 1778, when the American Congress added to their appointment of a day of prayer and humiliation, a condemnation of certain evil customs and practices as offensive to the God whose favour they sought to propitiate, we find our dele- gates, Richard Henry Lee and Marsden Smith, uniting with others in voting for and carrying the measure. The resolution is as follows :-
"Whereas, true religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty and happiness, Resolved, that it be, and is, hereby earnestly recommended to the several States, to take the most effectual measures for the encouragement thereof, and for the suppressing of theatrical en- tertainments, horse-racing, and gaming, and such other diversions as are productive of idleness, dissipation, and a general depravity of manners."
Had there not been in all parts of our land a goodly number of our citizens of such a spirit and views, God might not have in- trusted such a gift as national independence to our keeping. It is, however, deeply to be lamented that the successful termination of the war, and all the rich blessings attending it, did not produce the
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gratitude to the Giver which was promised by the hearts of our people in the day of danger and supplication. The intimacy pro- duced between infidel France and our own country, by the union of our arms against the common foe, was most baneful in its influence with our citizens generally, and on none more than those of Virginia. The grain of mustard-seed which was planted at Williamsburg, about the middle of the century, had taken root there and sprung up and spread its branches over the whole State, -the stock still enlarging and strengthening itself there, and the roots shooting deeper into the soil. At the end of the century the College of William and Mary was regarded as the hotbed of infi- delity and of the wild politics of France. Strong as the Virginia feeling was in favour of the Alma Mater of their parents, the Northern Colleges were filled with the sons of Virginia's best men. No wonder that God for so long a time withdrew the light of his countenance from it .*
* Many years before the war the College was in a most unhappy condition. The Visitors and the Faculty were at variance, as the following correspondence will show :-
Substance of a letter written by the Visitors to the Bishop of London, dated July 15, 1767.
They informed the Bishop that Dr. Halyburton, whom he had recommended to the Professorship of Moral Philosophy in the College, had arrived a few weeks before, when they had reason to expect him more than ten months ago. They fear that his Lordship had been imposed upon in regard to the qualifications of this person, whom, by his own confessions, they find was totally unqualified to dis- charge the duties of the Professorship. They say that Dr. H.'s letter " breathes so great levity, not to say profaneness, of sentiment," that they would think them- selves unpardonable should they admit him to the College. They complain, also, that those have been frequently sent to them "who were extremely unfit for the employments assigned them;" and, on that account, the education of the youth has been very defective; "a natural consequence of which have been riots, con- tentions, and a dissipation of manners as unbecoming their characters as vitally destructive of the ends of their appointment." They quote the following from the letter of the Bishop, dated July 4, 1766 :- "From the discouragements which have been in the College, and the power which the Visitors seem desirous of exert- ing, in displacing at their pleasure the Professors and Masters, it was no easy matter to prevail upon any person to enter upon so precarious a situation." In reply to this, they said that they had censured some former Professors for immoralities and remissness in their duty; and, a few years since, some were deprived for their contumacious behaviour. They then go on to give an account of the contests between the Visitors and the Professors, arising out of the conflicting authority of the two bodies in the appointment of Ushers for the Grammar-School; and also on account of a statute enacted by the Visitors, prohibiting the Masters and Professors from engaging in any employment out of College without special permission. In justification of this statute, they say that one Professor had
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Brief must be our remaining notice of the ministry, the Church, and the Presidents of the College. Dr. Bracken became the minis- ter in the year 1773, and continued so to be, in connection with the Professorship of Humanity in the College, until his death in 1818. Bishop Madison became President in 1777, and continued such until his death in 1812. After a temporary Presidency of one year by Dr. Bracken, Dr. Augustine Smith, a Virginian, and son of one of our most respectable clergymen, then the Professor in a Medical College in New York, was called to preside over the College. On entering upon its duties, he was conscious that the aid of heaven, through his Church and ministry, ought to be had in order to success, and therefore petitioned the now reviving Epis- copal Church of Virginia to establish a Professorship of Divinity in the College. The result was, the sending the Rev. Dr. Keith for that purpose, who succeeded Dr. Bracken as minister of the parish, and made the experiment. After the trial of a few years, being satisfied that success could not attend the effort at that time, he resigned, and became the head of the Seminary at Alexandria. Dr. Smith met with a good degree of success in increasing the number of the students, but not enough to encourage his continu-
engaged in the practice of medicine; that others had held parochial cures in the vicinity and at greater distances, causing them to neglect their duties in College, and more particularly on Saturdays and Sundays, when the students, being left without any supervision, engaged in riotous conduct. According to that account of the matter, there had been a contest between the Visitors and Professors during the past twelve years, to the great detriment of the interests of the College. That now these differences are happily settled, and harmony in a degree restored ; and they ask his Lordship to recommend to them suitable persons to fill the Pro- fessorships of Moral Philosophy and Mathematics; the salary to be £100 per annum, with board and lodgings, in the College building.
In reply to this letter, the Bishop exhorts them to bury all former animosities, and speaks of the difficulty of finding men qualified for Professorships, who would be willing to go to a distant and unhealthy country for an advance of thirty or forty pounds per annum beyond what they might receive at home.
By a statute of the Visitors, passed in 1770, provision is made for the salaries of eight undergraduates, of £30 per annum each; to be chosen, two each year, from the body of students, for their proficiency in learning and their exemplary conduct. They were to complete a full course of studies, probably including divi- nity, as the statute closes with these words :- " Let those who shall have completed this course of education and propose to go home for orders be entitled to a bounty of £50 sterling, for their encouragement and to defray the expenses of their voyage." In 1775, James Madison was allowed £50 by the Visitors, to defray his expenses in going to England for holy orders. In the year 1775, Messrs. Gwatkin and Henly returned to England. In the year 1777, Messrs. Camm, Jones, and Dixon have difficulties with the Visitors. The two latter resign, and Mr. Camm, denying the authority of the board, is displaced. Mr. Madison is made President.
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ance beyond the year 1826. At his resignation, the Rev. Dr. Wil- liam H. Wilmer, of Alexandria, was called to the rectorship of the church and Presidency of the College, both of which he discharged with zeal and ability, and with considerable success, during one year, at the end of which he died of fever, deeply lamented by all the friends of the church and College. The means of awakening pious fervour in the friends of the Church and of converting the irreligious youth had never been so earnestly employed before his time. Besides the regular services of the Sabbath and temple, lectures, exhortations, and prayers were most earnestly used in private houses twice in the week, and well attended. It was hoped that a genuine revival of true religion was about to take place in the College and town. The first-fruits of it had already appeared. Nor did he rely on moral suasion alone to govern the youth, but, when occasion called, resorted to proper discipline. One instance is worthy of being recorded. At Williamsburg, as at some other places, it was thought to be an exploit, becoming students, to annoy all around by ringing the College bell or some other to which access could be had. The large bell of the old church, in the midst of the town, was resorted to for this purpose by some troublesome youths. After due warning and admonition, Dr. Wilmer deter- mined to detect and punish the offenders. On the sound of the bell one night, he promptly reached the place, taking with him one of the chief citizens of the town, rather against his will. While the bell was still ringing, followed by his companion, he ascended in the dark the steps of the belfry leading up to the bell, not knowing who or how many he had to encounter, and, seizing on one of them, effectually secured him. Such resolution is not often to be found. At the death of Dr. Wilmer, the Rev. Dr. Empie was chosen his successor in both stations. He continued in them for eight or nine years, when he accepted a call to St. James Church, Richmond. As pastor and preacher he was admired, es- teemed, and beloved, as he had been elsewhere before, and was in Richmond afterward. He still lives. His many and increasing infirmities of body amply justify his retirement from public service, and his many excellencies secure him the affection and esteem of all who know him. His place in the College was supplied by Mr. Dew, a Virginia gentleman, a graduate of the College, and a scholar. His amiable disposition, fine talents, tact at management, great zeal, and unwearied assiduity, were the means of raising the College to as great prosperity as perhaps had ever been its lot at any time since its first establishment, notwithstanding many op-
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posing difficulties. To this we must make one exception,-viz. : as to the classical and mathematical departments, under some of the old and ripe scholars from England, before the Revolution. Mr. Dew being arrested by the hand of death in a foreign land, in the year 1846, the College was left in the temporary charge of Pro- fessor Saunders and Mr. Benjamin Ewell during the years 1847 and 1848, when, by an arrangement with the Episcopal Church of Virginia, the Visitors secured the services of Bishop Johns for a few years. During the five years of his continuance, notwithstand- ing the arduous labours of his Episcopal office, he so diligently and wisely conducted the management of the College as to produce a regular increase of the number of students until they had nearly reached the maximum of former times, established a better dis- cipline than perhaps ever before had prevailed in the institution, and attracted more students of divinity to its lectures than had ever been seen there in the memory of any now living. At his resignation in 1854, Mr. Ewell resumed the government, and is now the President.
Renewing and concluding the list of the ministers of Williams- burg,-the Rev. Mr. Hodges succeeded Dr. Empie, and continued for many years to fill the pulpit and perform all the duties of the pastoral office most acceptably to the congregation. He was a great favourite with a congregation of coloured persons, who, though belonging to another denomination, preferred him as their minister ; and to the uttermost of his physical abilities he did for many years act as such. At the resignation of Mr. Hodges, the Rev. Mr. Denison became their pastor, and continued such for a number of years. The Rev. George Wilmer, son of the former rector and President, is their present pastor.
List of vestrymen in the church at Williamsburg from the year 1674 to 1769 :-
Hon. Daniel Parke, Colonel John Page, James Besouth, Robert Cobb, Mr. Bray, Captain Chesley, Mr. Aylott, Hon. Thomas Ludwell, Hon. Thomas Ballard, James Vaux, William Korker, George Poindexter, Thomas Whaley, Captain Otho Thorpe, Captain Thomas Williams, Mar- tin Gardiner, Daniel Wyld, Thomas Taylor, Christopher Pierson, Gideon Macon, Robert Spring, George Martin, Abraham Vinckler, Samuel Tim- son, John Ownes, Captain Francis Page, Thomas Pettus, Colonel Thomas Ballard, Ralph Graves, Captain James Archer, George Norvell, John Dormar, Edward Jones, Thomas Thorp, Daniel Parke, Jr., Hon. Edmund Jennings, Hugh Norvell, William Pinkethman, Henry Tyler, John Ken- dall, Baldwin Mathews, Philip Ludwell, Jr., Robert Crawley, Timothy Pinkethman, Joseph White, James Whaley, Hon. John Page, Jr., Wil- liam Hansford, William Timson, Frederick Jones, David Bray, James Bray,
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Ambrose Cobb, James Hubard, Nathaniel Crowley, Matthew Pierce, John Custis, Henry Carey, John Holloway, Archibald Blair, Michael Archer, Baldwin Mathews, John Clayton, Lewis Burwell, David Bray, Jr., Thomas Jones, Samuel Timson, Sir John Randolph, George Nicholas, William Robertson, Hon. John Blair, Sen., Thomas Cobbs, Ralph Graves, Edward Barradale, James Barber, Daniel Needler, James Bray, Jr., Henry Tyler, Jr., John Harmer, James Wray, Matthew Pierce, Edward Barradale, Jr., Benjamin Waller, William Parks, Peyton Randolph, William Prentiss, William Timson, Jr., John Holt, William Graves, Armstead Burwell, John Palmer, Pinkethman Eaton, Robert Carter Nicholas, Thomas Eve- rard, Nathaniel Shields, Frederick Bryan, George Wythe, John Prentiss, John Power, William Eaton.
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ARTICLE XIV.
Williamsburg, Bruton Parish .- No. 4.
ACCORDING to promise, I proceed to some notices of a few of the vestrymen of Bruton parish. There are doubtless others equally worthy of praise, but I have no information from which to speak. Mr. Daniel Parke, whose name stands first on the list of the first vestry in 1676, was from Surrey, England, and married a Miss Evelyn .* A tablet of him was placed in the first church at Williamsburg, and afterwards was transferred to the second. He appears to have been a man of worth and dis- tinction. Mr. John Custis, of Arlington, Northampton county, Eastern Shore of Virginia, married his daughter, and was also a vestryman. George Washington Parke Custis, of Arlington, Fair- fax county, grandson of Mrs. General Washington, was descended from the above-mentioned Daniel Parke and John Custis. It could be wished that the record of Daniel Parke his son, whose name is also on the vestry-book, were as worthy of notice. He was indeed more notorious than his father, but for other reasons. He conceived a great dislike to Mr. Blair, the minister of James- town, the President of the College, and who was living near Williamsburg. Having no pew in the church at Williamsburg, his wife was indebted to the kindness of Mr. Ludlow, of Green Spring, whose daughter Mr. Parke married, for a seat. On a certain Sun- day, Mr. Parke, determined to mortify Mr. Blair by insulting his wife, in his absence (and doubtless in the absence of Mr. Ludlow, who afterward complained of it) came into the church, and, rudely seizing Mrs. Blair by the arm, drew her out of the pew, saying
* If this Miss Evelyn whom Mr. Parke married was daughter or relative of the Mr. Evelyn whose name appears among the pious benefactors of that day in Eng- land, then was she connected with one of the truest friends of the Church of America. In all that was done by the two great societies for the promotion of Chris- tianity in foreign lands,-the Propagation and Christian Knowledge Societies,-Mr. Evelyn was among the foremost. Of him, at his death in 1705, it is said, " Evelyn, full of years and honour, and breathing to the last the spirit of prayer and thankful- ness, entered into his rest."
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she should not sit there. He was a man of great violence of character, as otherwise appears. This is recorded in the archives of Lambeth, and speaks ill for the decorum and chivalry of the times. "In the Rev. Mr. Anderson's Colonial History of this period, we have the following account of a Mr. Daniel Parke, which answers but too well to the foregoing :-
"The offences of Parke's early life had compelled him to flee from Vir- ginia, the land of his birth, to England, where he purchased an estate in Hampshire and obtained a seat in Parliament. Not long afterward, he was expelled the House for bribery; and the provocation of fresh crimes drove him again a fugitive to Holland, where he entered as a volunteer in the army of the Duke of Marlborough, and was made his aid-de-camp. He carried home, in a brief note written upon the field by Marlborough to his Duchess, the first tidings of the victory of Blenheim, and, through the interest which then prevailed at the Court of Anne, obtained the Govern- ment of Antigua. His arbitary and oppressive conduct in public matters and the gross licentiousness of his private life soon stirred up against him the hatred of all classes of its inhabitants. The home Government ordered his recall ; but he, refusing to obey it, persisted with arrogant insolence in his course of tyranny. At length it could be endured no longer, and on the morning of the 7th of December, 1710, a body of five hundred men with numbers of the Assembly at their head, marched to the Government- House, determined to drive him from it by force. The orders of Parke that they should disperse, and the attempts of his enemies to negotiate, were alike fruitless. The attack was made, and resisted with equal vio- lence by the soldiers and others whom Parke had summoned to his aid ; but the assailants in a few hours conquered, and Parke fell a victim to their fury. It was a lawless punishment of a lawless act, and excited great indignation in England. But the catalogue of Parke's offences had been so enormous, and the effusion of blood would have been so great had the sentence of capital punishment gone forth against all, or even the leaders of those who had been concerned in his violent death, that it was judged expedient to issue a general pardon."
Of old Mr. Page, who stands next to Colonel Daniel Parke the elder, I have already spoken. Early on the list of vestrymen was Mr. John Randolph, alias Sir John Randolph, who was the father of Mr. John Randolph and Mr. Peyton Randolph, all of whom were in succession Attorney-Generals of Virginia. The father is spoken of as a most eminent man in his profession, and of high character. His son Peyton Randolph was also a vestryman of the church, and gave early signs of a too independent spirit to be very acceptable to the English Government. Being sent over to England on account of some of our complaints, and speaking his mind too freely for the Court and Cabinet, he was displaced from his office, and his brother John, who had been acting in his absence, was installed. At the breaking out of the war, John went to Eng-
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land and was succeeded by his son Edmond. The former, bitterly repenting of his choice, died of a broken heart, and directed his remains to be brought back to Virginia. They are interred in the College Chapel. Mr. Peyton Randolph ever showed himself the warm and steady friend of the Church as well as of his country. He went by the name of Speaker Randolph, being for a long time the presiding officer in the House of Burgesses. He was also chosen Speaker of the first, second, and third Congress, but sud- denly died of apoplexy, during the last. He was buried for a time in Philadelphia, but afterward removed to Williamsburg. In con- nection with the foregoing notice of Mr. Peyton Randolph, I add something concerning his nephew and adopted son, Edmund Ran- dolph, of whose religious sentiments I have spoken in a former number.
Extract from a paper written by Edmund Randolph, soon after the death of his wife, and addressed to his children.
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