USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 39
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of God in that region, during a long, dark period? What has become of the old Episcopal families, the Skipwiths, Wormleys, Grymeses, Churchills, Robinsons, Berkeleys, and others? What has become of, or who owns, those mansions where were the volup- tuous feasts, the sparkling wine, the flowing bowl, the viol and the dance and the card-table, and the dogs for the chase, and the horses for the turf? I am told, and I believe it, that the whole of that county was at one time in possession of some few of these old families, and that now not a rood of it is owned by one of their name, and scarcely by one in whom is a remnant of their blood. Old Brandon, the seat of my maternal ancestors, the Grymeses, is gone, except a small part of it. Rosegill, where the Wormleys lived in English state, has passed from hand to hand, and is re- duced to less than half its size. Even the places of many others cannot now be found. The ploughshare has been over them, as it has been over the ruins of many an old church in Virginia. But still there were good and holy men and women there, in whom the spirit of the Gospel and of the Prayer Book reigned, and that spirit has possessed many of their exiled posterity. While some of the descendants of those whose names I have recorded have been but too well known in Virginia as unworthy, there have been a good number of both sexes who have proved themselves to be an honour to the State, and active agents in rebuilding the Church of their fathers. Old Middlesex, too, once about to be deserted of its in- habitants by reason of disease, exhaustion, and barrenness, has of late years entered upon a new and unexpected career. Resting as it were on a bed of richest marl, her agriculture has been revolu- tionized, and she bids fair one day, and that not a distant one, to compare with some of the fairest portions of our land. And what has become of the old Mother-Church-the Great Church, as she is styled in her journal-standing in view of the wide Rappahannock, midway between Rosegill and Brandon ? More perhaps than fifty years ago it was deserted. Its roof decayed and fell in. Every thing within it returned to its native dust. But nature abhors a vacuum. A sycamore-tree sprung up within its walls. All know the rapidity of that tree's growth. It filled the void. Its boughs soon rose above and overspread the walls. In the year 1840, when it pleased God to put it into the hearts of some, in whom the spirit of old Virginia Episcopalians still remained, to seek the revival of the Church's dry bones in Middlesex, that huge, overspreading tree must first be removed piecemeal from the house, and the rich mould of fifty years' accumulation, to the depth of two feet, must be dug
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up, before the chancel-floor and the stone aisles could be reached. The walls-faithful workmanship of other days-were uninjured, and may still remain while generations of frail modern structures pass away. The house is now one of our best country-churches. The graves of our ancestors are all around it. In scattered fragments some of the tombstones lie ; others, too substantial to be broken, too heavy to be borne away, now plainly tell whose remains are protected by them. To the attention and kindness of a young female near the spot, I am indebted for the following inscription, selected from many others, and which will not be without interest to some Vir- ginians, and to others who have long since left the old homes of their fathers for the Far South or West:
EPITAPH OF MR. JOHN GRYMES.
" Here lies interred the body of the Honourable John Grymes, Esq., who for many years acted in the public affairs of this Dominion, with honour, fortitude, fidelity to their Majesties King George I. and II. Of the Council of State, of the Royal Prerogative, of the liberty and property of the subject, a zealous asserter. On the seat of judgment, clear, sound, unbiassed. In the office of Receiver-General, punctual, approved. Of the College of William and Mary an ornament, visitor, patron. Beneficent to all, a pattern of true piety. Respected, loved, revered. Lamented by his family, acquaintance, country. He departed this life the 2d day of No- vember, 1748, in the 57th year of his age."t
* Mr. John Grymes was the grandfather of Mrs. General Nelson, of York, and of Mrs. Susan Burwell, first wife of Colonel Nathaniel Burwell, of Carter Hall, Clarke county, Virginia, all now deceased.
¿ In connection with this epitaph on Major John Grymes, who appears to have been highly esteemed in Church and State, we give the following account of the family, which is taken from tradition, the vestry-records, and some registries of baptisms and marriages. It is believed that Thomas Grymes, who was a lieutenant- general in the army of Cromwell, was the father of the first Grymes who came to Virginia; that his son was well pleased to come to Virginia after the fall of Crom- well and the restoration of monarchy, and there is a tradition that he even made some change in his name when coming to this loyal Colony. The son's name was John, who appears on the vestry-book as one of the vestry in 1694. He and Anne his wife were sponsors to a child of the Rev. Mr. Gray, the minister in 1695 and 1696. They lived in Middlesex, near to Piankatank, at a place called Grymesby to this day. Their tombstones still lie in an open field, upon the ground, and the plougshare sometimes passes over them. Although the family has long since parted with the place, I am happy to say that it is in contemplation to remove the monu- ments to the old churchyard, where so many of their descendants are buried. This John Grymes continued to act as vestryman until 1708, when he withdrew,-no doubt from old age or infirmity, as he died not long after. His son John, whose epitaph we have given, was born in 1693, and became a vestryman in 1711, when only eighteen years of age, and continued to be such until his death in 1748,-thirty- seven years. Whether the first John Grymes had other children besides the second
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The following have also been sent me :-
"This monument is erected to the memory of Ralph Wormley, Esq., of Rosegill, who died on the 19th day of January, 1806, in the 62d year of his age. The rules of honour guided the actions of this great man. He was the perfect gentleman and finished scholar, with many virtues founded on Christianity." *
"Beneath this marble lies interred the remains of Mrs. Eleanor Worm- ley, widow of Ralph Wormley, Esq., of Rosegill, and sister of Col. John Tayloe, of Mount Airey, who died the 23d day of February, 1815, in the 60th year of her age. Few women were more eminently distinguished for
John does not certainly appear; but from a baptismal registry we think it probable he had a son named Charles, as one of that name had a child baptized in 1734.
The second John and Lucy his wife had the following children between 1720 and 1733 :- Lucy, Philip, Charles, (who died early, ) Benjamin, Sarah, Charles, Ludwell. Of these, Lucy married Carter Burwell, of The Grove, near Williamsburg; Philip married Mary Randolph, daughter of Mr. John Randolph, of Williamsburg, in 1742; and Benjamin married Miss Fitzhugh, sister of William Fitzhugh, of Chatham, near Fredericksburg. Lucy was the mother of Mr. Nathaniel Burwell, of The Grove, who afterward moved to Frederick.
Philip was the father of Lucy, John, (who died early,) Philip Ludwell, John Randolph, Charles, Benjamin, Susannah, Mary, Peyton, and Betty. Lucy married General Thomas Nelson; Philip Ludwell married, first, a Miss Randolph, daughter of John Randolph who went to England, but had no children, then Miss Wormley, by whom he had Mrs. Sayres and others. John Randolph Grymes followed Mr. John Randolph to England and there married his daughter. Of Charles we know nothing certain. Benjamin married Miss Robinson, of King William, and had nu- merous children, (names of all not known, ) of whom only Peyton Grymes, of Orange, and one sister, survive. Betty married Dr. Pope. Susannah, Mr. Nathaniel Burwell, of The Grove, and afterward of Frederick. Mary married Mr. Robert Nelson, of Malvern Hill, brother of General Nelson. Benjamin, the son of the second John Grymes, and who married Miss Fitzhugh, settled near Fredericksburg and had large iron-works. He was the father of Mrs. Colonel Meade, of Frederick, and of Captain Benjamin Grymes, of King George, by his first wife; and, by a second, of Ludwell Grymes, Charles Grymes, Randolph Grymes, Mrs. Wedderburne, and Mrs. Dudley.
The following is also worthy of insertion :-
" Here lyeth the body of Lucy Berkliey, who departed this life yo 16th day of De- cember, 1716, in ye 33d year of her Age, after she had been married 12 years and 15 days. She left behind her 5 children, viz. : 2 Boys and 3 Girls. I shall not pretend to give her full character: it would take too much room for a Gravestone : shall only say she never neglected her duty to her Creator in Publick or Private, she was Charitable to the Poor, a Kind Mistress, an Indulgent Mother, and Obedient Wife. She never in all the time she lived with her husband gave him so much as once cause to be displeased with her."-Copied from a tombstone at Barn Elm, Middlesex.
* Mr. Wormley attended a number of the Episcopal Conventions after the Revo- lution. After his death, the descendants of Colonel Edmund Berkeley appear to be almost all that remained of the church. That family preserved the vestry-book, from which I have obtained the foregoing information.
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correctness of deportment and for the practice of all the Christian virtues : as a wife she was conjugal, as a widow exemplary, as a mother fond and affectionate, as a neighbour charitable and kind, as a friend steady and sincere."
There were also buried within the church Sir Henry Chichely, Knight, Deputy-Governor of Virginia in 1682. The Rev. John Shephard in the same, and the Honourable Lady Madam Catharine Wormley, wife of the Honourable Ralph Wormley, (the first Ralph Wormley,) in the year 1685. The following is a communication from the present minister of our partly-resuscitated Church in Middlesex, (the Rev. Mr. Carraway.)
"The upper and lower churches or chapels are still standing. One of them is about to be repaired by the Baptists, who will claim the chief though not exclusive use of it. The lower chapel retains some appearance of antiquity, in spite of the efforts to destroy every vestige of Episcopal taste and usage. The high pulpit and sounding-board have been removed, and the reading-desk placed within the chancel, before which is the roughly-carved chest that formerly held the plate and other articles for the decent celebration of the Holy Communion. There were three sets of plate in the parish. A descendant of one of the earliest families, now the wife of one of our Virginia clergy, on removing from this county, took with her, in order to keep from desecration, the service belonging to the lower chapel. She lent it to a rector of one of the churches in Richmond, with the understanding that upon the revival of the parish it must be restored. Application was accordingly made in the year 1840, and the vestry received the value of the plate in money, which was given at their suggestion, they having a full service in their possession. The plate owned by Christ Church was presented by the Hon. Ralph Wormley. It num- bered five pieces. But for the inscription bearing the name of the donor, it would have shared the fate of much that was irreligiously and sacri- legiously disposed of. The administrator of Mr. Wormley deposited it in the bank at Fredericksburg, where it remained for more than thirty years. It has been in use up to a few months since, when, we regret to say, it met with almost entire destruction by fire. Enough has been gathered up to make a service more than sufficient for the present little company of communicants. It will perpetuate the name of the donor and indicate his pious intention. The third set, belonging to the upper chapel, was sold by the overseers of the poor. We omitted to mention in the proper place that there are some slight traces of the foundation of a building, now overgrown with pine-trees, which tradition says was the chapel of the Buckingham farm, the residence of Mr. Henry Corbin."
A few words will suffice for the history of efforts for the revival of the Church in Middlesex. The Rev. Mr. Rooker was employed as missionary, in this and the adjoining county of Mathews, for a few years after 1840. His preaching and labours excited a con- siderable zeal in the few remaining members of the Church in those counties. He was succeeded by its present minister, the Rev. Mr.
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Carraway, who has devoted himself now for about ten years most faithfully and laboriously to those two counties. Though the fields be large and comparatively unproductive, requiring great toil and a large amount of itinerancy, and the salary small, still, no invitations to more promising and less laborious positions have tempted him to leave them. Himself and companion are now, and have been for some years, the welcome inmates of the family of Captain Bailey, who, with his excellent wife, (a pious member of the Church,) is living at old Rosegill, the ancient seat of the Wormleys, on the high banks of the Rappahannock, a few miles from Christ Church. Captain Bailey, (the relative of our old friend Colonel Chewning, of Lancaster, one of whose descendants was vestryman and another lay reader in Middlesex, whose dwelling is on the opposite shore,) when an orphan boy, in a spirit of independence, left Lancaster to seek his fortune in the wide world. He launched forth for Balti- more in a merchant-vessel, traversed many seas, visited many lands and experienced many dangers and hardships, was shipwrecked often, (Mrs. B. being with him in one shipwreck,) but still preserved by a kind Providence. Occasionally, in the midst of his various efforts to realize a fortune, in which he was at length most success- ful, he would return to his native place, and, as Colonel Chewning has often told me, cast a wishful eye on old Rosegill, towering on the high banks of the Rappahannock, and declaring his determination, if Providence spared his life and prospered his efforts, that he would spend the evening of his days as the owner of that mansion. Providence has spared his life and prospered his efforts in laying up a fortune gathered from various seas and countries, and he and his wife are now the hospitable owners of Rosegill. More than half of the huge pile has been removed by him, and the remainder exalted, beautified, and improved. Hospitality, though modified and improved from former times, still distinguishes the place. Captain B. and his excellent wife are glad to have the society of Mr. and Mrs. Carraway as permanent guests, free of all charge. Besides patronizing old Christ Church on the one side of him, he has recently purchased the old court-house in Urbanna on the other, and converted it into a neat and comfortable house of worship. Mr. Carraway's services are very acceptable, and the Episcopal Church is gradually rising in the estimation of the inhabitants of Middlesex.
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ARTICLE XXXIII.
Parishes in King and Queen and King William .- Stratton Major.
THIS is one of our oldest parishes, being established in 1664-65. Of the ministers previous to the year 1724 we know nothing. In that year the Rev. Mr. Skaife, who had been its minister for thir- teen years, and continued to be so for twelve years longer, informs the Bishop of London that his parish was eighteen miles in length and thirteen in breadth ; that there was only one church, and that open every Sunday; that there were three hundred attendants, two hundred and twenty communicants; that his salary was eighty pounds. In answer to the question, Are there any infidels in your parish? the reply is, Generally negroes are unbaptized; they that desire it have it ; the church is open to all. In 1736 the Rev. John Reade becomes minister, and either dies or resigns in 1743. The following year the Rev. Mr. Robinson becomes the minister, and so continues until his death in 1767 or 1768. Of him we shall speak more in a little while. On the 4th of April, 1768, the Rev. William Dunlap is received as their minister. In the year 1773 a letter is received from Mr. Dunlap,-in the West Indies,-asking leave of six months' absence longer, which is granted, and the Rev. Mr. Dixon, from a neighbouring parish, is employed every other Sabbath. In the year 1778 the vestry and their minister, Mr. Dunlap, seem to be involved in a difficulty. The Rev. Mr. Dunlap writes them a letter, which they wish to consider as a resignation, and so record it, directing the churchwardens to advertise his re- signation three times in the Virginia Gazette. This is in April ; but in September of the same year we find the following record :- " Ordered that churchwardens make application to the Rev. William Dunlap and the Rev. Arthur Hamilton about moving from the glebe ; and, provided they refuse to move, the churchwardens are hereby authorized to commence suit against them." In the following year I find the following order :- " That the church- wardens wait on the Rev. Mr. Hamilton, offering him the use of the glebe, house, garden, &c., on condition that he preach once a month and be ready to remove whenever required, and that the church- wardens rent out the glebe." These unhappy notices are the last
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on the record about the ministers of this once flourishing parish. There are subsequent records of vestry-meetings and proceedings, but not a word is written about even an effort to secure the services of a minister. The last entry was in 1783. In vain do we turn over the pages of our journals of Convention from the year 1785 and onward in search of some clerical or lay delegate from this parish. The name of Stratton Major is nowhere to be found upon them.
About twenty-five years ago, for the first and last time, I passed through that part of the county where I think it probable that this old church, of which I shall soon speak, stood. At a little distance from the road I saw (for I had not time to stop, having to travel thirty-five miles that day across three counties to my appointment) a large and venerable old church, which had long been in possession of others. One of the noble trees which almost touched its walls, and gave shade to the house and those around and within, had a short time before been cut down, by some idle and wanton ones, merely to obtain a small quantity of wild honey which was supposed to be in some hollow part of it. Whether its walls are still standing, or what is its condition, I know not.
There never were, so far as the vestry-book shows, but two churches in this parish, called in the entries of the book the Upper and the Lower. In the year 1768, as soon as the new church of which we are about to speak was finished, the vestry order that the Upper Church should have the doors and windows studded and boarded if necessary. It is probable that, after this, the new church, which may have been in some central position, was the only one used.
This new church was probably the largest and best church built in Virginia before that time, and for years after. That in Pets- worth parish, built a few years before, cost eleven hundred pounds, and far exceeded any thing before seen ; but this was contracted for with Mr. Henry Gaines, for thirteen hundred pounds. Its dimen- sions were fifty by eighty feet, and of corresponding height, with galleries. When finished, the pews were not rented or sold as now, but were assigned by the vestry to the individuals and families of the parish. On two pages of the large folio vestry-book are the names of two hundred and seventy-five individuals or heads of families to whom these pews, or seats in them, are assigned. The Hon. Richard Corbin's and John Robinson's (Speaker Robinson, though he was just dead) families seem to be assigned the highest seats. Commissary Robinson and family had one near the pulpit. Then come the Merediths, Roots, Shacklefords, Gaines, Whitings,
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Taliaferos, Metcalfs, Andersons, Hunts, Dudleys, Wares, Wed- derburnes, &c., though it does not appear whether the aristocratic principle was adopted in the general distribution. Whoever would see the names of half the families in King and Queen one century ago would probably find them on this vestry-book.
The following list of vestrymen, commencing in 1739, will show who were the leading men in all the civil and ecclesiastical matters of the parish and county :- Richard Roy, Richard Johnson, Henry Hickman, Edward Ware, Thomas Foster, Thomas Dudley, John Collier, Gawin Corbin, Valentine Ware, Roger Gregory, Richard Anderson, John Robinson, Benjamin Needler, Robert Dudley, John Livingston, Robert Gaines, Philip Roots, John Ware, Richard Shackleford, William Taliafero, John Strakey, William Lyne, Charles Collier, Thomas Thorpe, Thomas Langford, John Shackle- ford, John Foster, Philip Roots, Francis Gaines, John Whiting, Thomas Reade Roots, John Whiting, James Prior, Thomas Dillard, Lyne Shackleford, Hon. Richard Corbin, William Hall, John Tay- lor Corbin, Benjamin Robinson, Humphrey Garrett, Richard Bray, James Didlake, Philip Taliafero, Lyne Shackleford, Jr., Thomas Dillard, John Kidd.
It is painful to sec in this and other vestry-books, how, as the Church began to decline and dissent to increase, and some of the old friends disappeared from the vestries, it was difficult to supply their places. Some who were elected refused to serve, and even some who had served resigned their places. It must be said, how- ever, of the vestry of Stratton Major, from its first beginning to its close, that it seems to have been attentive to all its duties, es- pecially in providing for the comfort of its ministers. While most of the vestries purchased miserable glebes for eighty or a hundred pounds, and were content with glebe-houses in proportion, this ves- try gave seven hundred pounds for one glebe, and when it was ex- pedient to dispose of that bought another for six hundred pounds, and provided all necessary houses upon them of a comfortable kind, even to a hen-house twenty feet long, and a dairy suitable for the purpose. Mr. Richard Corbin is the first instance I have met with who furnished the bread and wine for sacrament gratuitously. He also presented a marble font to one of the churches, and the land on which the new church was built was his gift. It was built on a place not far from his residence, called " Goliath's Field." Its size and walls were answerable to that name. The walls began with five bricks at the foundation, and ended with four at the top, and were twenty-seven feet high.
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The Rev. William Robinson, as appears by the following extract of a letter to the Bishop of London, and the records of the vestry- book, was ordained in 1743, and became minister of Stratton Major in 1744, continuing to be so until his death in 1767 or 1768. He became Commissary in the year 1761. Governor Fauquier was much dissatisfied with his appointment, and so expressed himself in a letter to England. The opposition of the Governor was no sure proof of the unworthiness of Mr. Robinson. He was an arbi- trary and high-tempered man, who could not brook opposition, and Mr. Robinson was no negative submissive character to crouch before authority. They had had one or two serious rencounters. During the six or seven years of his Commissaryship, his correspondence with the Bishop of London on the affairs of the Church was lengthy and able. He espoused the cause of the clergy on the occasion of the Two-Penny Act, or Option Law, with zeal and fearlessness, though without success. He had an independent fortune of his own, and was therefore the less liable to be charged with mercenary motives. The following extract from a letter to the Bishop of Lon- don in 1765 shows that he had reason to believe that he still had enemies whose communications to the ears of the Bishop were un- favourable. The continuance of his labour during the whole of his ministry, for twenty-four years in the same parish, and where there was much of character and wealth and talent, and such zeal and liberality in regard to all Church matters, speaks well in his behalf.
Extract of a letter from Mr. Robinson to the Bishop of London, dated May 23, 1765.
" MY LORD :- I have some reasons to apprehend that endeavours have been made to prejudice your Lordship against me, but in what particular I know not. I must therefore beg your Lordship's patience while I give some account of myself. I was born in Virginia. At ten years old I was sent to England for my education, which was in the year 1729. I con- tinued at school in the country until the year 1737, at which time I was admitted a member of Oriel College, in Oxford. After I had taken my B.A. degree, I was chosen by the Provost and Fellows to one of Dr. Robinson's Bishop of London's exhibitions, (who was my great-uncle,) which I enjoyed for three years, the term limited by his Lordship. In June, 1743, I was ordained Priest by Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London. I returned to my native country in the year 1744, (October;) the November following I was received into Stratton Major parish in King and Queen county, where I have continued rector ever since.
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