USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 25
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To the above I add a passage from the article of Mr. McCabe, which had escaped my notice while preparing the above :-
"The vestry-book here is defaced for some years, owing, we presume, to the fact that in the change of the Church from that of England to the
Mrs. Carrington) corresponded for a long time after the former returned to England, as she was only a temporary sojourner in Virginia. The following extracts from one of Mrs. Carrington's letters to her old friend, Miss C., in 1820, will, I am sure, be gratifying to my readers, not only on account of what refers to young Warring- ton, but what relates to other subjects :-
" At our advanced age, my respected friend, it would seem incredible that a renewal of intercourse should take place between us. Years have passed since I have had the pleasure of hearing from you, and but for the visit of my cousin (John Jaqueline Ambler) to England, I might probably have gone to my grave without knowing what had become of you. Who can tell but it may be a foretaste of a reunion in a better world that a merciful God has in store for us ? The little book you presented to my cousin brought to my recollection the one you presented to me some forty years ago, entitled 'Sacred Dramas.' It was a precious gift to me, and led me to peruse every succeeding work of that excellent author (Miss Hannah More) with delight, and, I hope, with advantage. What a woman is she ! And what a gift have her writings been even to our remote corner of the world ! Whenever England is brought to my mind, I somehow or other so connect the names of Frances Caines, Hannah More, and the hallowed spot of Barley Wood, that altogether it seems a paradise. In one of your last letters you say, 'Can it be possible that the Captain Warrington I have seen announced in the Liverpool papers, as lately arrived in England with despatches from America, is our dear little Louis?' It was the same little Louis that we so fondly doted on. His conduct through life has been distinguished, -has raised him to high standing in our navy,-and no doubt some future historian will do him ample justice in his naval character. In private life he has been alike deserving."
Mrs. Carrington then mentions, in proof of his generosity, his dividing a thou- sand pounds, which had been left him by the aunt of Miss Caines, with two half- sisters who were in need. She speaks also of his having married a Miss Cary King, "a sprightly and amiable girl, an old schoolmate of hers." "They are now living in great comfort near Norfolk ; he holding some office in the navy-yard, and stand- ing high in the confidence of his country. It has been some years since I saw him, and on his last visit to Richmond my health was too bad to admit of my inviting him. It was a visit, however, of great interest to many, and produced an excite- ment that is rarely experienced. How would you have felt, my dear friend, had you seen him hailed as one of the choicest guardians of his country, called by the united voice of Virginia to receive a splendid sword as a token of her love and gratitude to him ? It is impossible for me to describe the emotions produced in my mind when I heard every voice united in commendation, and in rapture describe his modest manliness as he entered the Senate-Hall to receive his merited reward. In an instant my thoughts flew back to your aunt's room, where you first saw the lovely boy ; and busy recollection carried me still further back,-two years previous, -when on a visit to Williamsburg I was ushered in to see your aunt, who laid him on my lap, and in agony left the room."
Mrs. Carrington adds a passage from a projected novel of her aunt Jaqueline, in which Louis Warrington was to be the hero :- "This must ever be the lot of our
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Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, begun in 1783, con- summated in 1787, and the first Convention in Philadelphia, July 28, 1789, with Bishops of our own presiding, this parish did not procure a minister during that period. A tomb has recently been erected, from which we infer that the Rev. Mr. Skyren was probably the first minister after the Revolution. The inscription on the tomb reads as follows :- 'Sacred to the memory of the Rev. Henry Skyren, rector of Elizabeth City parish. Born in Whitehaven, England, anno domini 1729. Died in Hampton, Virginia, A.D. 1795. This monument is erected by his surviving children, Elizabeth Temple and John Spottswood Skyren.'"
The following inscription, on a stone near the east entrance to the church, will show that very soon after the change spoken of above, the parish was supplied with regular services :- " Sacred to the memory of the Rev. John Jones Spooner, rector of the church in Elizabeth City county, who departed this life September 15th, 1799, aged forty-two years." And then, to the right of the door entering from the east, another, bearing the following :- " Departed this life January 17th, 1806, the Rev. Benjamin Brown, rector of Elizabeth City parish, aged thirty-nine years."
Another extract also I take the liberty of making :-
poor clergy,-a scanty subsistence while living, and at their death poverty and misery is their children's only inheritance." In which, however, we must beg leave widely to differ from this excellent lady ; and must class this sentiment and asser- tion among many others in novels, projected or executed, as we believe the de- scendants of pious clergymen have many special blessings entailed upon them. The prayers and example of Commodore Warrington's pious grandfather may have been among the means appointed of Providence for promoting the future greatness, and, what is infinitely better, the future piety, of Commodore Warrington. My resi- dence in Norfolk, as minister of Christ Church, for two years, enabled me to form a just estimate of his character. Though his station was at the navy-yard in Gos- port, and his residence there, he was a most punctual attendant on the Sabbath in Christ Church, Norfolk. Mrs. Carrington speaks of the modest manliness, admired of all, with which he entered the Senate-Chamber to receive the sword which was voted him by the Legislature of Virginia. I have seen him on every succeeding Sabbath for the greater part of two years in a much more desirable and honourable place, when walking up the middle aisle of Christ Church with the same "modest manliness." There was in him the dignity of the soldier and the modesty of the Christian blended together. He was not then in full membership with the Church, though all thought he might with propriety have been. But, even then, his devout behaviour and respectful use of the Prayer Book was an example to all others. As through life he had always, so far as I know and believe, been the friend of religion, and manifested it in those public ways required of naval officers, so, in his latter days, he sealed that testimony by entering into full communion with the Church of his choice and of his ancestors.
P.S .- I have since discovered that the lady who patronized Louis Warrington was Mrs. Riddle, sister of the Rev. Thomas Warrington and great-aunt of Commodore Warrington.
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, HAMPTON. : A.
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" During the last war with Great Britain, Hampton was sacked, its inhabitants pillaged, one of its aged citizens, sick and infirm, wantonly murdered in the arms of his wife, and other crimes committed by hireling soldiers and by brutalized officers, over which the chaste historian must draw a veil. The Church of God itself was not spared during the satur- nalia of lust and violence. His temple was profaned and his altars desecrated. What British ruthlessness had left scattered and prostrate was soon looked upon with neglect. The moles and bats held their revels undisturbed within its once hallowed courts, and the obscene owl nestled and brought forth in the ark of the covenant. The church in which our fathers worshipped stabled the horse and stalled the ox. The very tomb of the dead, sacred in all lands, became a slaughter-ground of the butcher, and an arena for pugilistic contests. A few faithful ones wept when they remembered Zion in her day of prosperity and beheld her in her hour of homeless travail, and uttered their cry, 'How long, oh Lord, how long ?'"
The following preamble, accompanying a subscription, tells the story of her woes, and breathes the language of returning hope :-
" Whereas, from a variety of circumstances, the Episcopal Church in the ' town of Hampton is in a state of dilapidation, and will ere long moulder into ruins unless some friendly hand be extended to its relief, and, in the opinion of the vestry, the only method that can be pursued to accomplish the laudable design of restoring it to the order in which our forefathers bequeathed it to their children, is to resort to subscription, they do earnestly solicit pecuniary aid from all its friends, in a full belief that our appeal will not be made in vain. And, hoping that God will put it into the hearts of the people to be benevolently disposed toward our long- neglected Zion," &c.
A committee was appointed to take counsel with Bishop Moore as to the best method of raising funds for the purpose. The sub- scription-paper was circulated, not merely in Hampton, but sent to some whose fathers had once worshipped in the old house, and the desired object was attained. Among the subscribers we notice Commodore Warrington for fifty dollars; Commodore James Bar- ron, one hundred ; the latter, as well as his brother, who was also a commodore in the American navy, having been born in the parish.
Funds being raised, the church was thoroughly repaired. It was consecrated by Bishop Moore on Friday, the 8th of January, 1830, and is now one of the most interesting and comfortable places of worship in Virginia.
A list of the vestrymen from 1751 to 1826 will close our notice of this parish :-
Mr. Booth Armistead, George Wray, William Armistead, Henry King, Wilson Miles Cary, William Mallory, William Wager, Jas. Wallace, John Tabb, Joseph Selden, Miles King, Cary Selden, Warlock Westwood, Merit Sweny, Robert Armistead, John Allen, Anthony Tucker, Baldwin
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Shephard, William Westwood, Charles King, Charles Jennings, West- wood Armistead, William Parsons, John Moore, Jacob Walker, Thomas Latimer, James Wallace, William Latimer, William Armistead, Booth Armistead, Wilson Miles Cary, William Mallory, Joseph Selden, Miles King, Robert Bright, William Brough, Thomas Allen, Robert Armistead, John Cowper, James Latimer, Thomas Watts, Samuel Watts, Miles Cary, William Loury, Benjamin Philips, William Armistead, Thomas Latimer, Robert Lively, John Cary, Dr. Wm. Hope, J. W. Jones, Westwood T. Armistead, Col. G. A. Cary, Capt. T. Hope, Capt. J. Herbert, Dr. R. G. Banks, Capt. John F. Wray, Richard C. Servant, Samuel Dewbre.
The last-named vestryman but one-Mr. Richard B. Servant- was for many years, and to the close of the vestry-book, the secre- tary of the vestry. It has now been many years since he left Virginia and moved to Illinois, which was once a county of Vir- ginia, made so for special purposes, at a time when Virginia's western boundary was the Eastern Ocean, and embraced even modern California, at least in theory or by royal grant. Mr. Ser- vant, as may be seen by the following letter, has not forgotten the old State and Church of Virginia :-
" CHESTER, ILLINOIS, Nov. 27, 1856.
"RT. REV. AND VERY DEAR SIR :- I have read with deep and filial interest your reminiscenses published in the Southern Churchman, and I send you a memorandum, hastily made from recollection. I have no disposition to have my name appear in print, but if you have not already all the information that you may desire in regard to Elizabeth City parish and the old church at Hampton, you may use such parts of the following memorandum as may suit you :-
" ' I think that the record will show that Parson Brown was the last settled minister, and I think his immediate predecessor was Parson Simms, said to be the best reader in the diocese, but a great "fox-hunter ;" and, to the best of my recollection, Parson George Halson, who was also principal of the Hampton Academy, was the incumbent,-whether regular or not I am not sure, but the record will explain. He officiated until the war of 1812. During the interval between Parson Brown and the war, the framework of the tower, which stood on the west end of the church, be- came so decayed that the "Old Queen Anne Bell" had to be taken down and was placed in the angle made by the church and the tower. From that position it was removed, by the order of Major Crutchfield, who com- manded the troops encamped on Little England Farm, to the " guard- house " of that encampment, and a short time after the tongue became loose, an axe was used to strike the hour, and the bell cracked. We had it recast about the year 1825. It was probably the best bell in the Colony.
"' After the British troops evacuated Hampton, on, I think, the 27th of June, 1813, I, then a boy twelve years old, went into town; and the first thing that attracted my attention was, that the enemy had used the churchyard, where the last mortal remains of my ancestors for one hun- dred and fifty years or more had been deposited, for slaughtering cattle, and the walls were smoked in numerous paces where they had made fires with which to cook their provisions, The venerable old church was also
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much misused in the interior, as that seemed to have been used as a com- mon barrack.
"""From this time until about the year 1824, the church and the walls surrounding it were rapidly going to decay,-the church a common shelter for horses, cattle, and hogs, and was profaned by men and boys also. I had often said to my dear sainted mother, that if I lived to be a man I would stir up the people to repair the old church and walls. In the year 1822 or 1823, just as I was arriving to manhood, an incident occurred which I shall never forget. Mrs. Jane Hope, eldest daughter of the late Commodore James Barron, was spending the evening with my mother, (who resided on the lot adjoining, west of the church,) and she proposed a visit to the graves of our ancestors; and, while standing at the front door of the church, within a foot of the graves of my ancestors, she re- marked to me, " Cousin, if I were a man I would have these walls built up." Her words were like electricity, and from that moment my deter- mination was fixed. The very next day I called on the late Westwood Armi- stead, Dr. William Hope, Captain Robert Lively, and Colonel Wilson W. Jones; and the result of our interview was, that we should prepare a sub- scription-paper to have the wall around the old graveyard repaired, little thinking then that the repairs of the " old church" would follow. I com- menced on the same day, and, after raising all that I could in the parish, proceeded to Norfolk, and with the assistance of Commodores Barron and Warrington, (the grandfather of the latter having been one of the ministers of the church,) Miles King, late Navy Agent, and Dr. William Selden, whose ancestors were buried in the old churchyard, Judge Strange, of North Carolina, who also had a relative buried there, and subscribed liberally, raised a sufficient sum to repair the walls around the graveyard, which in a short time were completed, and a substantial wrought-iron gate placed at the entrance.
"' About the year 1824 or 1825, (the record will show,) a meeting of the friends of the church was called, a vestry elected, and an effort made to repair the church, which, with the assistance of our friends at Norfolk, was successful beyond our most sanguine anticipations. A short time after, the Rev. Mark L. Chevers was elected rector : of this, however, and what has followed, the record will show.
"'When we undertook to repair the church there was nothing standing but the bare walls and a leaky roof,-not a vestige of doors, windows, or floors. In order to give an impetus to our proceedings, we prevailed upon good old Bishop Moore to pay us a visit, and, to make his visit the more effective, we had the accumulated filth cleansed out, and the old walls, after a lapse of many years, resounded with prayer and praise. I sat on the bare tiles ; but what a seat, and what a day ! It was manifest to all that " the glory of the Lord filled the house." Dr. Ducachet occasionally came over to preach for us, and at every visit the remark was that "some more nails were driven into the church."
"' Upon the election of the vestry there was not a vestige of the church- furniture to be found. We, however, succeeded in finding the old vestry- book, which had been carefully preserved by the late Samuel Watts, or, as he was more familiarly called, "Uncle Sammy."
""' I doubt very much whether, upon the reorganization and resuscitation of the parish, there were a half-dozen Prayer Books in the parish.'
"You will see that I have written the foregoing just as circumstances
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occurred to me : if you can cull any thing out of it and put it in shape, you can use it.
"I am, with great esteem, "Your brother in Christ, " R. B. SERVANT.
"P.S .- My great-grandfather was commandant of the garrison at Old Point Comfort, more than one hundred and eighty years ago, and since that time there has not been a Dissenter in the family. Do you ask how this happened, when the church had sunk so low that there was scarcely any to do it reverence? I answer, the habitual use of the Prayer Book and FAMILY PRAYERS. My father died when I was sixteen years old, and my mother had an aversion to leading in prayer, but she insisted that I should do so, and our family were kept together in the 'one fold' by means of FAMILY PRAYER."
PARISH OF WARWICK.
Of this we can say but little. The county was one of the eight original shires in 1634. It is a small county on the lower part of James River, lying alongside of Elizabeth City and York counties. Of course it became a parish and county at the same time, and they have always been known by the same names. The first information we have of its ministers is in 1754, when the Rev. Roscoe Cole had charge of the parish. In the year 1758 the Rev. Thomas Davis was minister. In the years 1773, 1774, and 1776, the Rev. William Hubard was there. In the year 1785 the Rev. William Bland, of whom we have already written, was in the Con- vention which organized the diocese, with Mr. Richard Cary as his lay delegate. The Carys were a very ancient and most re- spectable family in that part of Virginia. It is our purpose to visit their ancient seat and the Clerk's Office of the county, in the hope of finding something worth adding to this meagre account; and, in the mean while, would be thankful to any member of the family for some account of it .*
* We enlarge our notices of Warwick a little by the following account of the Digges, some of whom lived in it. The family of Digges is most ancient and honourable. Virginians and Episcopalians need not wish to go further back than to the Hon. Dudley Digges, one of the most active members of that most noble and Christian association, the London Company,-far more of a missionary institution than any of that day. The minutes of the London Company show him to have ever been at his post in the meetings of the committee, with such men as the Earl of Southampton, the Ferrars, and others. Mr. Burk, after speaking the praises of this Company for purity of morals, for noble motives, and even a tolerant spirit of religion, which was high commendation from an infidel as he was, then extols its literary character,-representing Southampton as the friend of Shakspeare, and
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CHARLES, OR CHARLES RIVER PARISH, YORK COUNTY.
This was separated from York-Hampton parish before the year 1754, but how long we have been unable as yet to ascertain. The Rev. Thomas Warrington was ordained in 1747 and was its minis- ter in 1754, and until he went to Hampton in 1756. As I do not see his name as belonging to any other parish, it is probable that he entered at once on the ministry in this parish.
The Rev. Joseph Davenport was the minister in 1773, 1774, and also in 1785. In the last year he appears in the Convention with Mr. Robert Shield as lay delegate. This is all we can learn as to the parish of Charles,-so called because on York River, which was once called Charles River, and because York county was once called Charles River county.
Before crossing York River to treat of the parishes of Glouces- ter and Mathews, it may be well to observe that at an early period there may be found the names of a number of parishes which once
George Sandys, the Company's Treasurer in Virginia, as translating Ovid in the wilds of Virginia,-concluding thus :- "Sir Edwin Sandys, Sir Dudley Digges, Sir John Saville, with several other members of the London Company, were considered the most elegant scholars and the most eloquent speakers in the nation." The name of Digges was soon transferred to Virginia. We read of Digges's Hundred among the early settlements on James River. We read in 1654 of Edward Digges made one of the Council, and so approving himself in that office as to be called to preside over the Colony ; and then, at the expiration of his term, to be requested to con- tinue in it as long as he continued in the country, with other marks of distinction. Thence onward we meet with the name in the lists of vestrymen and Burgesses, until the period came in our country's history which tried the souls even of the bravest, when, in 1773, we find the name of Dudley Digges on the first committee for correspondence with the other Colonies about our grievances; and in 1776 the names of Dudley Digges and William Digges as members from York with General Nelson in the great Convention. And ever since that time it has been our happiness to find that name often enrolled on the lists of vestrymen and communicants of our Church. One of the descendants of the Digges, who died in 1700, was named Cole Digges, a man of large property, owning Chilham Castle near York, Bellfield on York River, between York and Williamsburg, and Denbigh in Warwick. His sons were Edward, William, and Dudley. Among his grandchildren were William, who married his cousin Elizabeth, of Denbigh; Dudley, who married his cousin Louisa : Thomas and Edward moved to Fauquier and had families. One grand- daughter married a Mr. Powell, of Petersburg. Two married Fitzhughs, of Fau- quier. The first wife of the first Dudley was a Miss Armistead; the second, Miss Wormley, of Rosegill. He had two sons, Cole and Dudley, and several daughters, one of whom married a Burwell, another a Stratton, of the Eastern Shore, a third a Digges, and two of them married Nicolsons. The wife of the Rev. Mr. Wood- bridge is daughter of one of the last. One daughter of the first Cole Digges mar ried Nathaniel Harrison, of Brandon; another, Nathaniel Harrison, of Wakefield
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existed in that part of Virginia lying between Warwick and Charles City, below and above Jamestown and round about Wil- liamsburg; as, for instance, Southwark, Chiskiack, Middletown, Harop, Nutmeg and Denbigh, Wilmington, Marston, which were soon merged into James City, York-Hampton, Bruton, and West- over parish. Soon after the settlement of the country, when the Indians abounded and it was dangerous to go far to worship, every little plantation or settlement in that region was made a parish. There is one parish, by the name of Westminster, which as yet I have been unable to locate, and which made a report to the Bishop of London in 1724. Its communicants only numbered sixteen. I incline to think it was somewhere on the Chickahominy. Its minis- ter was the Rev. Mr. Cox.
In accordance with the determination expressed above, I have visited old Warwick, which, though the least of all shires of Vir- ginia, was one of the most fruitful nurseries of the families of Virginia. Its contiguity to James River and Jamestown rendered it a safe place for carly Colonists to settle in. It was probably at one time, according to its dimensions, the most populous of all the counties. In evidence of which, I find from an examination of the records of the Clerk's Office, which extend back to about 1642, that there were, at one time, not less than eight parishes in War- wick. Two of these were on Mulberry Island,-one called Stanley Hundred, and the other Nutmeg Quarter. It is really not an island, as Jamestown was not an island, though both of them so called. Mulberry Island joined the mainland in its upper part, and one of its parishes at least-Stanley Hundred-was at one time connected with the church at Jamestown, and had much the largest congre- gation. The result of my hasty examination of the old and de- cayed records at Warwick Court-house, some of which are like the exhumed volumes from the long-buried towns of the East, and will scarce bear handling, was the discovery that the following were the most prominent names in this county in times long since gone by : - Fauntleroy, Hill, Bushrodd, Ryland, Ballard, Purnell, Ashton, Clayborne, Cary, Dade, Griffith, Whittaker, Pritchard, Hurd, Harwood, Bassett, Watkins, Smith, Digges, Dudley, Petit, Radford, Stephens, Wood, Bradford, Stratton, Glascock, Patti- son, Barber, Allsop, Browninge, Killpatricke, Nowell, Lewellin, Goodale, Dawson, Cosby, Wythe, Reade, Bolton, Dixon, Lang- horne, Morgan, Fenton, Chisman, Watkins, John, Lang, Parker, West. No one can look over this list without exclaiming, " What
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