USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 35
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In the absence of all records from which to draw the names of vestrymen, and thus ascertain who have been the leading families, from the earliest to the present times, in the parishes of Abington and Ware, we furnish the following imperfect list of families
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known to us, or mentioned to us by one who is better acquainted with the history of the old settlers.
Of the Burwells, who at an early period settled at Carter's Creek, we have already said something when speaking of the family at King's Mill and the Grove, in York and James City. To this we add the Manns, who settled at Timberneck Bay, on York River, not far from Shelly and Rosewell, the Montagues, the Kempes, the Carys, the Tabbs, the Taliaferos, the Dabneys, Thrustons, Catletts, Throckmortons, Roots, Lewises, Nicholsons, Nelsons, Vanbibbers, Pages, of Shelly and Rosewell, Byrds, Cor- bins, Joneses, Ennises, Curtises, Robinses, Harewoods, Dicksons, Roys, and Smarts.
Of old Mrs. Vanbibber and Dr. Taliafero-two of the props of the Church in the day of her adversity-I need not speak to the present generation in Gloucester, as there are still some living who knew their religious worth and continue to dwell upon the same before the younger ones. Of Mrs. Vanbibber some interest- ing notices appeared many years since in one of our religious papers. Of Dr. Taliafero I may say from personal knowledge that it is not often we meet with a more pious and benevolent man or more eminent physician. There is one name on the foregoing list to which I must allude as having, at an early period in the history of Virginia, been characterized by a devotion to the wel- fare of the Church and religion,-that of Kempe. The name often occurs on the vestry-book of Middlesex county in such a way as to show this. The high esteem in which one of the family was held, is seen from the fact that he was the Governor of the Colony in 1644, and the following extract from the first volume of Hen- ning's Statutes will show not only the religious character of those in authority at that day, but the probability that Governor Kempe sympathized in the movement, for the Governors had great power either to promote or prevent such a measure. In 1644 it was
"Enacted by the Governor, Council, and Burgesses of this Grand As- sembly, for God's glory and the public benefit of the Colony, to the end that God might avert his heavy judgments that are upon us, that the last Wednesday in every month be set apart for fast and humiliation, and that it be wholly dedicated to prayers and preaching, &c.
"RICHARD KEMPE, Esq., Governor."
I do not remember ever to have seen such an indefinite and pro- longed period appropriated by a public body to public humiliation. It speaks well for the religion of our public functionaries of that day. What would be thought of such a measure at this ?
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FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
Of Governor Page and his family I have already spoken some- what in treating of the Church in Williamsburg, where the first of his name were buried; but, as the celebrated Rosewell and its graveyard full of tombs with that name are in Abington parish, I shall add something. And first I must take occasion to speak of the great folly of erecting such immense and costly houses as that of Rosewell, even in monarchical and aristocratic days. Richly- carved mahogany wainscotings and capitals and stairways abound, and every brick was English. The house was built, or rather begun to be built, by Mr. Mann Page, grandson of old Sir John Page, who wrote the good book to his son Matthew, father of Mann. I am sure the grandfather would not have approved the act of his grandson. It may be said that, as his mother was the rich heiress of Timberneck Bay, he had a right to do it, and could afford it, as he was the first-born son and chief heir. We do not admit that any one has a right thus to misspend the talent given to him by God to be used for his glory, and God often punishes such misconduct by sending poverty on the persons thus acting, and on their posterity. A most remarkable exemplification of this appears in the case of Mr. Page, who began to build Rosewell, and which was finished by his widow and son.
Whoever will look into the fifth volume and at the 277th page of Henning's Statutes will see an Act of Assembly covering more than seven octavo pages, and describing all the property in lands and servants belonging to Mr. Page, and the former of which his embarrassed son, Mann Page, Jr., petitioned to be allowed to sell, in order to pay off his father's debts in Virginia and England, and which all his real estate, though he had many servants on various estates, was incompetent to discharge. His landed estates were in Prince William, Frederick, Spottsylvania, Essex, James City, Hanover, Gloucester, and King William. He had eight thousand ,acres in Frederick called Pageland, more than ten thousand in Prince William called Pageland also, four thousand five hundred in Spottsylvania, one thousand called Pampatike in King William, two thousand in Hanover, near two thousand in James City, &c., besides other lands not mentioned. Leave is asked and granted that his son Mann might sell them, in order to pay off the debts which had been for many years accumulating by interest, and which the real estate was unable to discharge, and in order to pay the portions of his brothers and sisters. For a long time had he been labouring from the proceeds of the estates to do this, but in vain. Now, it cannot be doubted that the tradition is correct that
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much if not all of the original debt was contracted for the erection of this immense pile of building, every brick of which, and doubt- less much other material, together with the workmen, were imported from England and not paid for, except by his agents and friends there, until the sale of these lands in Virginia enabled his son, long after, to do it. The whole of the roof of this ancient building was covered with heavy lead over the shingles. The result of this im- mense expenditure was not only the entailing a heavy debt upon his estate, and the causing a sale of lands which might have fur- nished his posterity for some generations with farms, but the keep- ing up such an establishment has been a burden on all who have possessed it to the present day, as must be the case with all such establishments. For a long time old Rosewell has been standing on Carter's Creek, in sight of York River, like an old deserted Eng- lish castle, in solitary grandeur, scarce a tree or shrub around it to vary and beautify the scene. No one of the name of him who built it has owned it or could afford to own it for generations. "Some stranger fills the Stuarts' throne." "Sic transit gloria mundi!"
Would that this were the only folly of the kind in ancient or modern Virginia ! The Acts of Assembly give us other instances in old Virginia. Mr. Lewis Burwell, of King's Mill, near Wil- liamsburg, built a large house worthy of his first-born son to live in; and that first-born son, after his father's death, was obliged to petition the Legislature for leave to break the entail and sell a large tract of land in King William to pay for it. The folly is still going on in many parts of our land; the greater folly now, because the law of primogeniture being happily abolished, and different and better views prevailing as to the division of estates among children, the proud homestead must be sold or be an expense and burden to the child who inherits it. Even in England-the land of entails and primogeniture-the philanthropic Howard, a man of birth and inherited wealth, instead of listening to the plea that our houses must be proportioned to our wealth, to the extent even of palaces, and that it was a charity to the poor to employ numbers of them in the erection of stupendous and costly mansions, built one of more moderate size and expense for himself, and employed greater numbers of workmen in rearing neat and comfortable cottages for the poor on his large and numerous estates. How much of that now needlessly expended in building and furnishing large houses might be more rationally and charitably devoted to the improve- ment of the dwellings of the labourers, whether on the plantations of the South or the neighbourhoods of the North!
ROSEWELL HOUSE.
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FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
How much wiser was it in the first William Randolph, of Turkey Island, to live in a house of moderate dimensions himself, though with every comfort, and to build during his lifetime good houses for his numerous children in various parts of the State! How much more becoming Christians, instead of building extravagant mansions for themselves, to see that the houses of worship are comely and comfortable, and that all God's ministers are well pro- vided with houses becoming their station and the means of living in them!
To return from this digression, let me say that Governor Page, though living in this proud mansion of his forefathers, was not him- self a proud man. He was not only a true republican in politics, but an humble man in his religion, and doubtless often wished himself, on more accounts than one, well rid of his large abode. The poor, I doubt not, were often kindly treated at Rosewell, and the ser- vants justly dealt with. There was once a picture-among many others of higher degree-on the walls of Rosewell parlour, which shows that he was not too proud to allow the head of a poor African to be there. It was the head of Selim, an Algerine negro, well known at Rosewell, York, and Williamsburg, which Mr. Page had taken while he was a member of Congress in Philadelphia, and hung up among his portraits. There was something so touching and very remarkable in the captivity, conversion, and latter end of Selim, that the Rev. John H. Rice, a Presbyterian minister of high standing, wrote an account of him, which was published in a Pres- byterian magazine, I think. It is so interesting and so edifying in a religious point of view that I shall insert it in these sketches; and I am the more induced so to do because I am able to add some particulars not contained in Mr. Rice's notice.
Before I introduce this, however, (reserving it for another article,) I will add that Mr. Page was not only the patriot, soldier and politician, the well-read theologian and zealous Churchman,- so that, as I have said before, some wished him to take Orders with a view to being the first Bishop of Virginia,-but he was a most affectionate domestic character. His tenderness as a father and attention to his children is seen in the fact that, when attending a Congress held in New York, he was continually writing very short letters to his little ones, even before they could read them. I have a bundle of them, from which I extract the following :-
"NEW YORK, March 16th, 1789.
"MY DEAR BOBBY :- My letters to your brother Mann and your sisters will inform you how and when I arrived here. I will tell you then what
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I have not told them, and what you, a young traveller, ought to know. This town is not half so large as Philadelphia, nor in any manner to be compared to it for beauty and elegance. Philadelphia, I am well assured, has more inhabitants than Boston and New York together. The streets here are badly paved, very dirty, and narrow as well as crooked, and filled up with a strange variety of wooden, stone, and brick buildings, and full of hogs and mud. The College, St. Paul's Church, and the Hospital are elegant buildings. The Federal Hall also, in which Congress is to sit, is elegant. What is very remarkable here is, that there is but one well of water which furnishes the inhabitants with drink, so that water is bought here by every one that drinks it, except the owner of this well. Four carts are continually going about selling it at three gallons for a copper ; that is, a penny for every three gallons of water. The other wells and pumps serve for washing, and nothing else .* I have not time to say more about this place and the other towns through which I passed, but will by some other opportunity write you whatever may be worth your knowing. You must show this to Frank. Give my love to him, and tell him I will write to him and Judy next. Kiss her for me, and be a good boy, my dear. Give my love to your brothers and sisters and to your cousin Mat and Nat. Tell Beck [a maid-servant] that Sharp [the servant that went with him] is well, and sends his love to her, [his wife, I suppose.] That God Almighty may bless you all, my dear, is the fervent prayer of your affectionate father, JOHN PAGE."
These letters were written on very coarse, stiff, dingy paper, such as no country-merchant would use in wrapping any but his heaviest and roughest goods in at this day. Some of them were sent by the two Randolphs,-John and Theodoric,-who were going to school in New York at that time.t
* In another letter he says that he was mistaken-that there were several good wells.
+ Mr. Page, of Rosewell, was twice married. First to Miss Frances Burwell, of the Isle of Wight, and next to Miss Louther, of New York, whom he met with while in Congress, which sat in that place. I have before me the funeral sermon preached on the occasion of the death of the former by the Rev. James Maury Fontaine, minister of Petsoe parish, and for some time of Ware parish, Gloucester. I quote a few passages from it, not only to show the character of Mrs. Page, but also the theology of Mr. Fontaine :-
"The voice of all proclaim aloud her praise. It was Mrs. Page's peculiar felicity to have no enemies. This is only to be accounted for by her having no competitions with the world but that laudable one, who should outdo in kindness and good offices. A contest of this kind always leaves the victor as amiable as triumphant. To be more particular : she was a faithful member of our Church. Her piety was exem- plary. Her charity was universal. Her patience and fortitude in travelling the painful and gloomy road to dissolution were uncommonly great. She was a fair pattern of conjugal perfection. A better wife never died. She was a complete example to mothers. Sensible of the great blessing of early instruction, she laboured gradually and pleasingly to infuse into the tender minds of her offspring suitable portions of knowledge and virtue, and, knowing the force of good example, she did what she would have her children practise, and was what she wished them
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GLOUCESTER, THE RESIDENCE OF POWHATAN AND POCAHONTAS.
We are now in the region where by general consent the chief residence of King Powhatan has been placed, after discussion and accurate investigation. Mr. Howe, in his laborious though some- times inaccurate History of Virginia, quotes from Captain John Smith as saying that " twenty-five miles lower (than what is now West Point, the junction of the Pamunkey and Mattapony) on the north side of this river (York River) is Werowocomico, where their great king inhabited when I was delivered to him a prisoner," and where Smith in another place says "for the most part he was resident." Mr. Howe says, "Upon a short visit made to that part of Glou- cester county a year or two ago, I was satisfied that Shelly, the
to be. She was an amiable pattern for mistresses; a fast, valuable friend, and emphatically a good neighbour; in fine, a pattern to her sex and an ornament to human nature."
Although we could wish to have seen more of the Gospel throughout the sermon, yet at the close there is a recognition of it which shows that he understood and, we hope, practised it. In exhorting the bereaved members of the family to a proper resignation, he says, "Others have been as deeply afflicted as you. Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, was made perfect through sufferings. He knows how to pity you. And his sorrows have sufficient efficacy in them to convert yours into real blessings. Let patience have her perfect work. Still confide in the power, goodness, and faithfulness of God. Still rely on the mediation, advocacy, and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And still expect those aids and support from the blessed Spirit which you may yet need."
The effects of paternal as well as maternal examples have been seen in the nu- merous descendants of Mr. Page who have embraced the religion and loved the Church of their fathers, instead of abjuring the former and deserting the latter, as too many of that day did. Of one of them I may be permitted to speak a special word. She inherited her mother's name as well as her virtues. I mean the late Mrs. Frances Berkeley, of Hanover. Her first husband was Mr. Thomas Nelson, of York, son of General Nelson, by whom she had a daughter who was dearer to me than life itself. They owned and for a time lived at Old Temple Farm, the an- cient seat of General Spottswood, the head-quarters of Washington during the siege of York, and the place where Cornwallis signed his capitulation. After the death of Mr. Nelson his widow married Dr. Carter Berkeley, of Hanover. Each of them contributed a number of children by their first marriage to the joint family at Edgewood, and others were born to them afterward. Instead of discord and strife, a threefold cord of love was formed, seldom to be seen. Mrs. Berkeley was added to the number of those excellent ones belonging to the much-abused family of step-mothers, who knew no difference between her own and adopted children, while all regarded her equally as their own mother and each other as children of the same parents. She was in mind and person and character one of "nature's nobles," sanctified by divine grace to be among the finest specimens of renewed humanity. Less than this I could not say of one who was to me as a mother.
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seat of Mrs. Mann Page, is the famous Werowocomico. Shelly adjoins Rosewell, formerly the seat of John Page, (sometime Go- vernor of Virginia), and was originally part of the Rosewell plan- tation; and I learned from Mrs. Page, of Shelly, that Governor Page always held Shelly to be the ancient Werowocomico, and ac- cordingly he at first gave it that name, but afterward, on account of the inconvenient length of the word, dropped it and adopted the title of Shelly, on account of the extraordinary accumulation of shells found there. The enormous beds of oyster-shells de- posited there, especially in front of the Shelly House, indicate it to have been a place of great resort among the natives. The situation is highly picturesque and beautiful; and, looking as it does on the lovely and majestic York, it would seem of all others to have been the befitting residence of the lordly Powhatan."
Our worthy fellow-citizen, Mr. Charles Campbell, of Petersburg, after having adopted the above opinion, has renounced it in favour of another place only two or three miles, I believe, lower down York River. On paying a visit a few years since to Shelly and the neighbourhood, for the purpose of examining the question, he became satisfied that Timberneck Bay, in Gloucester, the ancient seat of the Manns, only a mile from Shelly, is the famous spot. Smith, he says, in his work "Newes from Virginia," says "the bay where Powhatan dwelleth hath three creeks in it." "I have visited," says Mr. Campbell, "that part of Gloucester county, and am satisfied that Timberneck Bay is the one referred to by Mr. Smith. On the east bank of this bay stands an old chimney known as 'Powhatan's chimney,' and its site corresponds with We- rowocomico as laid down in Smith's map." Mr. Campbell sup- poses this to be the chimney of the house built by the Colonists to propitiate the favour of Powhatan, and says he is supported by tradition. May not the two opinions be reconciled in the follow- ing manner? Shelly may have been the original place of his resi- dence or of his frequent residence; but when it was offered to build him a house after the English fashion, he may have preferred a situation a few miles off, for reasons best known to his royal majesty. And now, although I have already introduced some documents touching Powhatan and Pocahontas into my article on Jamestown and Henrico, yet, as there is another most worthy of preservation and use, I will do my part toward its perpetuity by inserting it in this place. It is the famous letter of Captain Smith to Queen Anne, soliciting her attention to Pocahontas when in England,-a letter not easily surpassed by any one in any age.
,
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FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
"To the Most High and Virtuous Princess, Queen Anne, of Great Britain :*
" MOST ADMIRED MADAM :- The love I bear my God, my King, and my Church, hath so often emboldened me in the worst of extreme dan- gers, that now honesty doth constrain me to presume thus far beyond my- self, to present to your Majesty this short discourse. If ingratitude be a deadly poison to all honest virtues, I must be guilty of that crime if I should omit any means to be thankful. So it was, that about ten years ago, being in Virginia, and being taken prisoner by the power of Powhatan, their chief king, I received from this great savage exceeding great cour- tesy,-especially from his son, Nantiquaus, the manliest, comeliest, boldest spirit I ever saw in a savage, and his sister Pocahontas, the king's most dear and beloved daughter, being but a child of twelve or thirteen years of age, whose compassionate, pitiful heart of my desperate estate gave me much cause to respect her. I being the first Christian this proud king and his grim attendants ever saw, and thus enthralled in their power, I cannot say I felt the least occasion of want that was in the power of those, my mortal foes, to prevent, notwithstanding all their threats. After some six weeks' fattening among these savage courtiers, at the minute of my execution she hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save mine; and not only that, but so prevailed with her father that I was safely con- ducted to Jamestown, where I found about eight-and-thirty miserable, poor, and sick creatures to keep possession of all those large territories in Virginia. Such was the weakness of this poor Commonwealth, as had not the savages fed us, we directly had starved. And this relief, most gra- cious Queen, was commonly brought us by the Lady Pocahontas.
"Notwithstanding all those passages, when inconstant fortune turned our peace to war, this tender virgin would still not spare to dare to visit us; and by her our fears have been often appeased and our wants still supplied. Were it the policy of her father thus to employ her, or the ordinance of God thus to make her his instrument, or her extraordinary affection to our nation, I know not. But of this I am sure; when her father, with the utmost of his policy and power, sought to surprise me, having but eighteen with me, the dark night could not affright her from coming through the irksome woods, and, with watered eyes, gave me in- telligence with her best advice to escape his fury, which had he seen, he had surely slain her.
" Jamestown, with her wild train, she as freely visited as her father's habitation ; and during the time of two or three years, she, next under God, was still the instrument to preserve this Colony from death, famine, and utter confusion, which in those times had once been dissolved, Vir- ginia might have lain as it was at our first arrival till this day. Since then this business, having been turned and varied by many accidents from what I left it, is most certain ; after a long and troublesome war, since my departure, betwixt her father and our Colony, all which time she was not heard of. About two years after, she herself was taken prisoner, being so detained near two years longer; the Colony by that means was relieved, peace concluded, and at last, rejecting her barbarous condition, she was married to an English gentleman, the first Virginian who ever spake Eng-
* King James's wife was named Anne.
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lish, or had a child in marriage by an Englishman,-a matter surely, if my meaning be truly considered and well understood, well worthy a prince's information. Thus, most gracious lady, I have related to your Majesty what, at your best leisure, our approved histories will recount to you at large, as done in your Majesty's life. And, however this might be presented you from a more worthy pen, it cannot from a more honest heart.
" As yet, I never begged any thing of the State; and it is my want of ability and her exceeding deserts, your birth, means, and authority, her birth, virtue, want, and simplicity, doth make me thus bold humbly to be- seech your Majesty to take this knowledge of her, though it be from one so unworthy to be the reporter as myself, her husband's estate not being able to make her fit to attend your Majesty. The most and least I can do is to tell you this, and the rather of her being of so great a spirit, however her stature. If she should not be well received, seeing this kingdom may rightly have a kingdom by her means, her present love to us and Christianity might turn to such scorn and fury as to divert all this good to the worst of evil; when, finding that so great a Queen should do her more honour than she imagines, for having been kind to her subjects and servants, would so ravish her with content as to endear her dearest blood to effect that your Majesty and all the King's most honest subjects most earnestly desire. And so I humbly kiss your gracious hands, &c.
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