USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 38
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"I, Duell Read, late of Middlesex, in Virginia, having lived in the said county for at least seven years past, and received divers kindnesses from the parishioners thereof, and Almighty God in his great goodness having preserved me through many dangers in my return to England, and being most kindly received by my Right Honourable and Right Rev. Henry Lord Bishop of London, do, in point of gratitude to Almighty God and in honour for the Church of England, freely give and bestow, for the use of my successors in the said parish, four milch-cows and calves, four breeding sows, a mare and colt, to be delivered on the glebe of said parish to the next incumbent, he to enjoy them and their increase for his own use, and leaving the like number and quality on his death to his suc- cessors; humbly requesting my aforesaid Right Rev. Diocesan to give charge to his Commissary there to take due care herein, and to settle it in such manner as to him shall seem fit, according to the true intent hereof.
" Witness my hand, in London, this 12th day of November, in the second year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord and Lady, King William and Queen Mary, &c.
" DUELL READ."
Should any smile at the value and character of the bequests, they should remember that they were, in all probability, his whole pro- perty, not to be despised until the widow's mite has lost its value with heaven. Nor were they so valueless as some might suppose. In those days a few such animals were of great use and worth. In proof of which I adduce the following act of the vestry in this parish, in the year 1665 :-
" The following gentlemen, vestrymen of the parish,-viz .: Henry Corbin, Richard Perrott, Abraham Weeks, John Hastewood, Richard Cock, Robert Chewning, agree, each of them, to mark one cow-calf with a crop in the right ear, to be kept as well as their own cattle until they be two years old, then given to the vestry as stock for the parish."
In the year 1692 the Rev. Matthew Lidford was chosen minister of the parish for one year, but soon died. He was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Gray, who agreed, in 1698, to relinquish, for a certain amount of tobacco, all claim on the parish arising from his induc- tion. Mr. Gray was a most unworthy minister. The records of the court show him to have been much engaged in lawsuits,-either suing or being sued for property. At length he caused the death of one of his slaves, by severe whipping, and was tried for his life. This, it is presumed, was the occasion of his resignation.
In the year 1699 the Rev. Robert Yates is minister, and con- tinues so until the year 1703 or 1704, when he returned to Eng- land in ill health. He appears to have been esteemed by his vestry, who continued his salary for some time in the hope of his return. The Rev. Bartholomew Yates (believed to be his son) succeeded
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him. After eighteen years of faithful service, the parish of York- Hampton, a more desirable one, endeavoured to obtain his services. The vestry of Middlesex, however, raised his salary to twenty thousand pounds of tobacco, and enlarged and improved his house. The following entry shows that, in order to raise his salary, they thought it necessary to make application to the Legislature :-
" To the Honourable the General Assembly :-
" The humble petition of the vestry held for Christ Church parish the 7th day of May, 1722, showeth that this vestry, taking into consideration the great satisfaction given to this parish for about eighteen years, and the general good character of our minister, Mr. Bartholomew Yates, which we are apprehensive has induced some other parishes to entertain thoughts of endeavouring to prevail with him to quit this parish for some of those more convenient, humbly pray they may be enabled to make use of such measures as may be proper and reasonable to secure so great a good to the parish.
" And they shall pray, &c. " JOHN ROBINSON."
Such were the manifestations of regard for him that he continued their minister until his death, in 1734, being more than thirty-one years their pastor. Having sons in England at college, the vestry waited for two years until his son Bartholomew was ordained. In the interval the parish was served by the Revs. John Reade and Emanuel Jones, from neighbouring parishes. He served them until the year 1767. In 1758, we also find the Rev. William Yates and the Rev. Robert Yates, ministers of the adjoining parishes of Petsworth and Abington, in Gloucester county, be- lieved to be either sons or grandsons of the elder Bartholomew Yates, and grandsons or great-grandsons of the Rev. Robert Yates. All of them are believed to have been worthy ministers of the Gospel. They have been often quoted as proof that there were some deserving ones among the old clergy of Virginia, and that ministers' sons are not always the worst in the parish, as some enemies of religion say. A large tombstone was placed, by the parishioners, over the grave of the elder Bartholomew Yates, which is still in good order and the inscription legible. It is as follows :-
" Here lie the remains of the Rev. Bartholomew Yates, who departed this life the 26th day of July, 1734, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. He was one of the visitors of William and Mary College, as also Professor of Divinity in that Royal Foundation. In the conscientious discharge of his duty few ever equalled him, none ever surpassed him. He explained the doctrine by his practice, and taught and led the way to heaven. Cheer-
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fulness-the result of innocence-always sparkled in his face, and, by the sweetness of his temper, he gained universal good-will. His consort enjoyed in him a tender husband, his children an indulgent father, his servants a gentle master, his acquaintance a faithful friend. He was minister of this parish upward of thirty years; and, to perpetuate his memory, this monument is erected at the charge of his friends and parishioners."
The descendants of Mr. Yates are numerous, and scattered over the State. One of them-the late Mr. Yates, of Jefferson county, Virginia-charged all his children in turn to protect and preserve this tomb.
The Rev. John Klug succeeded to Mr. Yates in 1767, and, it is believed, continued until his death, in 1795. · His name appears on the list of delegates to the two first Conventions of the Church in Virginia, in 1785 and 1786. He is represented to have been a pious and efficient minister. He was followed by the Rev. Mr. Heffernon, who was a dishonour to the Church for eighteen years. To him I have alluded in my first article. He married into one of the most respectable families of that part of Virginia, but, happily, left no posterity to be ashamed of their father's name, which was a by-word and proverb at that day, and continues so to the present time. Hunting, gambling, drinking, were his constant occupations. I have before me the following copy of an extract of the will of Mr. William Churchill, in 1711 :-
"I give £100 sterling to the vestry of Christ Church parish in Middle- sex, which said £100 I would have put to interest, and the interest- money to be given to the minister for preaching four quarterly sermons yearly, against the four reigning vices,-viz. : atheism and irreligion, swearing and cursing, fornication and adultery, and drunkenness ; and this I would have done forever. I give to the said parish and vestry aforesaid £25 sterling, to be put to interest, and the interest-money to be given yearly to the clerk and sexton attending said sermon."*
Mr. Heffernon, with all his vices, preached-or professed to preach-these sermons in one of the churches, and received the benefit of this bequest. I have often heard old Mr. Nelson, my father-in-law, say that the last time he saw Mr. Heffernon was in
* By atheism we must not understand a denial of the existence of a God, but rather irreligion,-a living without God in the world; for, at this time, infidelity was un- known in the Colony. In the year 1724-thirteen years later-the clergy informed the Bishop of London that there were no infidels in Virginia but Indians and ne- groes. When the first infidel book was imported into Virginia, after the year 1730, it produced such an excitement that the Governor and Commissary communicated on the subject with the authorities in England.
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a tavern-porch in Urbanna, reeling to and fro with a bowl of toddy in his hand, inviting the passers-by to come and drink with him .* From the year 1813-the time of Mr. Heffernon's death-no effort was made to have any services in that church. Indeed, it is presumed that there were none for many years before his death. The prostration of the church seemed to be complete. There was, however, a kind of farce following that sad tragedy, to which I must refer. In the year 1836, at the Convention in Fredericks- burg, a person calling himself Robinson, and professing to be a minister of the Episcopal Church of England, presented himself to Bishop Moore and myself, and produced some worn and dingy papers, purporting to be letters of Orders. We neither of us were pleased either with him or his papers. Bishop Moore soon turned him over to me. He expressed a wish to unite with the Church in Virginia; said that he did not care for salary, being in abundant circumstances; that he wished to settle in some good society, and not far from the ocean; that he had some of the best English breed of sheep and Durham cattle, and wished to purchase a farm. I told him plainly my opinion as to his course of duty; that, if he wished to be useful in the ministry, he had better dis- pose of his cattle and engage earnestly in the duties of it. He expressed surprise that I should seem to think an attention to fine cattle inconsistent with the duties of the ministry, and spoke of one or more of the English Bishops who were great patrons of cattle. We soon parted, mutually dissatisfied with each other, and I never met him again. He took a fancy to the lower part of Middlesex, in sight of the bay, bought or rented a farm there, and moved some cattle to it, I believe. He had quite a library and a great deal of English plate. He invited company, and entertained at late fashionable hours. He also preached, either at some old church or the court-house. His robes were those of English Fel- lows or Doctors, having several pieces of different colours, besides the gown and surplice. The same dress, I am told, he used when performing the service at the White Sulphur Springs, in Western Virginia, making changes in it during the service. How long he continued in Virginia I know not; but, determining on a visit to England, he wrote me a long letter, containing many questions concerning the Church in America, which he said would doubtless
* What became of that fund I have not yet been able to ascertain. It ought to be carefully inquired for, and sacredly applied according to the will of the testator. Surely the overseers of the poor could not have claimed this ?
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be proposed on his return to England, and to which he wished for answers. My reply to him was very short, and such as he would take care not to show. A few months after this, we received intelli- gence that he was taken up as an impostor and swindler in Liver- pool, and was then on his way to Botany Bay. All that he had brought with him to America was stolen, and he went back to re- plenish his treasury, and had wellnigh, by a forged note, robbed the bank at Liverpool of a very large sum of money. Indeed, he had it in his possession, and was on the point of sailing to Ame- rica, when pursued and overtaken. This closes, I hope, forever, the disgrace of the Church in Middlesex. Henceforth we look for better times. But before we enter upon those I wish to add some- thing concerning the laity of the old Middlesex parish.
P.S .- A recent communication states that this impostor got away from his place of exile and reached California, where he died a few years since.
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ARTICLE XXXII.
Parishes in Middlesex .- No. 2.
HITHERTO we have been entirely occupied with the history of the clergy of this county. This being an early settlement, lying on one of the finest rivers in Virginia, and near the bay, we might expect to find here many of the ancestors of some of the most respectable families of Virginia. As the ves- trymen were chosen from the leading citizens of each parish, we shall give, in the order in which they appear on the vestry-book for more than one hundred years, a full list of all who served the parish in that capacity. Those who have any acquaintance with the Virginia families, and with many who have dispersed them- selves throughout the West and South, will readily trace great numbers to the parish of which we are treating. For the sake of brevity we shall only mention the surnames, and afterward be more specific as to a few of them. Corbin, Perrott, Chewning, Potter, Vause, Weeks, Willis, Cock, Curtis, Smith, Dudley, Thacher, Skip- with, Beverley, Wormley, Jones, Miller, Scarborough, Woodley, Whitaker, Robinson, Warwick, Gordon, Chichester, Midge, Church- ill, Burnham, Wormley 2d, Kemp, Smith 2d, Cary, Dudley 2d, Smith 3d, Daniel, Price, Mann, Seager, Vause 2d, Cock 2d, Cant, Skipwith 2d, Wormley 3d, Thacher 2d, Grimes, Beverley 2d, Kil- bee, Kemp 2d, Corbin 2d, Robinson 2d, Walker, Jones 2d, Wormley 4th, Stanard, Churchill 2d, Robinson 3d, Walker 2d, Robinson 4th, Hardin, Wormley 5th, Corbin 3d, Smith 4th, Grymes 2d, Stanard 2d, Reid, Carter 2d, Elliot, Miles, Montague, Grymes 3d, Nelson, Smith 5th. (The figures 2, 3, 4, 5 signify how many of the same name and family held the office of vestrymen at different times. They were probably sons, grandsons, &c.) The old English aristo- cracy is apparent on the vestry-books. Sir Henry Chichely, Baronet and Knight, (he was once Deputy-Governor of Virginia,) Sir William Skipwith, Baronet and Knight, appear always at the head of the vestrymen as written in the vestry-books, these titles giving them the precedence. They appear to have been active and liberal, giving
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land and plate to the churches. John Grymes and Edmund Berkeley appear to have been churchwardens for a longer period than any others. The Thackers and Robinsons were also constant attendants and active churchwardens for a long time. So also the Smiths, Churchills, Curtises, Corbins, and Beverleys. Many of the above- mentioned vestrymen were members of the Council, and held other offices in the Colonial Government. The first Beverley on the list was the celebrated Robert Beverley, so noted in the early history of Virginia as a martyr in the cause of liberty. He was Clerk to the House of Burgesses, and father of Robert Beverley, the historian of Virginia, and ancestor of the other Beverleys. There were always three lay readers, one to each of the churches,-the middle or mother, or Great Church, and the upper and lower. We read the names of Chewning, Baldwin, and Stevens, among the lay readers. They were required not only to read Homilies, but to catechize the chil- dren and see that every thing about the churches was kept clean and in order, that the leaves around the churches (which were built in the woods) should be burnt, in order to preserve the churches from being destroyed by some of the great fires which were common in the woods. It was not always easy to get suitable persons as lay readers. We find at one meeting an express act of the vestry, requiring that they be sober and reputable men; and this was only an echo of the Act of Assembly. Complaints appear on the vestry- books of the irregular attendance of the members, and a fine was imposed of so much tobacco for each failure. The vestry appear on several occasions to have taxed themselves with something extra for the clergyman, though for every thing done and furnished for the church, even the wealthiest made charges, as for communion- wine, putting up a horse-block, &c. The duties of the vestrymen were to see that the salaries of the ministers be collected, which was no easy matter, seeing that it must be gotten from the whole country. They also took care of the poor, of orphan and ille- gitimate children, imposed fines, and appointed persons to procession the lands,-that is, renew the landmarks from time to time. Certain offences against good morals were sometimes punished by them. In one instance a lady of respectable family was fined five hundred- weight of tobacco for breaking the seventh commandment .* The
* It is due to these times to say that the courts and juries were not entirely negligent of their duties, but sometimes set examples which those of our day would do well to follow. The following extracts from the presentments of a Grand Jury of Middlesex in 1704 are proofs of this :-
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greatest difficulty which they appear to have had was with the hired servants, of whom, at an early period, great numbers came over to this country, binding themselves to the richer families. The num- ber of illegitimate children born of them and thrown upon the parish led to much action on the part of the vestries and the legis- lature. The lower order of persons in Virginia, in a great measure, sprang from those apprenticed servants and from poor exiled culprits. It is not wonderful that there should have been much debasement of character among the poorest population, and that the negroes of the first families should always have considered themselves a more respectable class. To this day there are many who look upon poor white folks (for so they call them) as much beneath themselves ; and, in truth, they are so in many respects. The churchwardens in this parish, among other things, were directed to assign seats in the churches to the different families, which they no doubt did with some reference to family and wealth, as in England. Mr. Matthew Kemp, as churchwarden, received the commendation of the vestry for displacing an unworthy woman, who insisted on taking a pew above her degree. Four of the families of Wormley, Grymes, Churchill, and Berkeley, obtained leave of the vestry to put an addition of twenty feet square to one of the churches (the lower one) for their special use. It was very common, as we shall see hereafter, for certain families to build galleries for themselves after the manner of their forefathers in England, and it was hard some- times to dislodge their descendants, even when their position was uncomfortable and not very safe. There was one very important duty which the vestries had to perform, and which was sometimes a subject of dispute between them and the Governor of Virginia,- viz .: to maintain their rights, as representing the people, in the choice and settlement of ministers. In the English Church the congregation have no part in the choice of their ministers. Patrons appoint them, and livings support them. In Virginia, as the salary was drawn directly from the people by the vestries, the vestries sometimes claimed not only the right to choose the ministers, but to turn them away at pleasure. In the absence of Bishops and
" 1st. We present Thomas Sims for travelling on the road on the Sabbath-day with a loaded beast.
"2d. We present William Montague and Garrett Minor for bringing oysters ashore on the Sabbath-day.
" 3d. We present James Lewis for swearing and cursing on the Sabbath-day.
"Ordered, That John Hutney be fined according to law for being drunk on the Sabbath-day."
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canons to try the ministers, it is evident that there would be a strong temptation on the part of the vestries to act arbitrarily if the power was entirely vested in them. To prevent this, the Governor claimed to be the ordinary, and to act as Bishop in relation to this point. He, appealing to an English canon, allowed the vestries the right of choosing their minister and presenting to him for induction. Being inducted, the minister could not be displaced by the vestry : he had a right to the salary, and might enforce it by an appeal to law, unless, indeed, for misconduct, he could be deprived by some difficult and tedious process under the direction of the Governor. Should the vestry not appoint a minister within six months after a vacancy, then the Governor might send one, and induct him as the permanent minister, not to be removed by the vestry. The Governor of Virginia in 1703, Mr. Nicholson, at the time about which I am writing, maintained also that he had a right to send a temporary supply to any parish immediately on the occurrence of a vacancy, which supply might be superseded by one of their own choice within the six months. It is the same power which some have proposed to vest in our Bishops in relation to a temporary supply of vacant parishes. It is evident that such a power would very much interfere with the free choice of ministers by the vestries, since the minister thus sent as the supply would have a great ad- vantage over others who might be obtained. To refuse him after trial would be to condemn the choice of the Bishop, and be an of- fence to himself. The above is the view taken of the relative power of the vestry and Governor, in an opinion of the Queen's Attorney-General, Mr. Edward Northy, which was sent by the Governor to all the vestries of the Church, and directed to be put on record .* The action of the vestries uniformly show their deter- mination to defend themselves as well as they could against the evils consequent upon such a construction of the law. As to the immediate temporary supply of the vacancies, that does not appear to have been attempted by the Governor, although the right was claimed. In order to prevent the minister being suddenly inducted and put upon them for life, (whether one of their own choice or of the Governor,) who might soon prove unworthy, while in reality there was no method of getting rid of him, since no civil Governor
* Beverley, in his History, expresses the following opinion of Governor Nicholson :- " And lastly, Governor Nicholson, a man the least acquainted with the law of any of them, endeavoured to introduce all the quirks of the English proceedings, by the help of some wretched pettifoggers, who had the direction both of his con- science and his understanding."
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could depose a minister, the vestries fell upon the expedient of em- ploying ministers for a limited time, generally twelve months, sometimes less, repeating the same again and again until they were sufficiently satisfied of their worthiness and suitableness, and then of presenting him to the Governor for induction and permanent settlement. Against this there was no law, and the Governor acquiesced in it. And who can blame them for adopting such a course ? Bad as the state of things was even under that wise pre- caution, how much worse would it have been, if the choice of the vestry or the appointment of the Governor, after such a slight acquaintance as either of them were likely to have with foreigners, must be perpetuated for better for worse, even as the marriages of some in that day, who imported their wives from England without knowing them! It is but justice to the vestries to say, that as a general thing, when they secured the services of a respectable minister, they retained him during life. Although I shall shortly show one instance to the contrary, I shall also show a number in confirmation of it. It is also due to the vestries to say, that, in compliance with the decision of the Governor, they always allowed to the ministers who were not inducted the same rights, perquisites, and privileges with those who were inducted. This principle is, I believe, confirmed by one of the canons of our General Convention.
If now it be asked what was the state of morals and religion in the parish where the leading men, the nobility and the gentry, took such an active part in support of the public service of God, and when the moral character of the ministers appears to have been good, whatever may have been the substance and style of their preaching, I must point to the fact that a pious man, Mr. William Churchill, being a churchwarden, by his last will, in the year 1711, left a sum of money, whose interest was to be used for the encou- ragement of the minister to preach "against the four reigning vices of atheism and irreligion, of swearing and cursing, fornication and adultery, and drunkenness." They must have been prevalent in that day to have prompted such a bequest. That they increased more and more, even to the time of the French Revolution, is but too probable. It was so with all ranks of the community. The seats of the rich and the educated were the scenes of a more refined voluptnousness, while many of the abodes of the poor were filled with the lowest vices. And what has been the end of these things ? But for the uneducated and sometimes fanatical ministers, who, in the providence of God, were after a time permitted to preach the Gospel to the poor in Middlesex, where would have been the Church
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