USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 40
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" I can with truth assure your Lordship, I have always lived in the great- est harmony with my parishioners, and I believe no minister can be more respected by them than I am. I have always studiously avoided giving any just cause of offence to any one, especially those in authority. Your Lordship, I hope, will excuse my saying so much in my own behalf; but
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there is a time when it is requisite for a man to praise himself; and as to the truth of what I have said, I can appeal to my whole parish."*
* The first of the Robinson family of whom we have any account was John Robin- son, of Cleasby, Yorkshire, (England,) who married Elizabeth Potter, of Cleasby, daughter of Christopher Potter, from whom no doubt the name of Christopher, so common in the family, was derived. The fourth son of John Robinson was Dr. John Robinson, Bishop of Bristol, and, while Bishop, was British Envoy for some years at the court of Sweden, writing, while there, a history of Sweden. He was also British Plenipotentiary at the Treaty of Utrecht, being, it is supposed, the last Bishop or clergyman employed in a public service of that kind. He afterward became Bishop of London, in which office he continued until his death, in 1723. He was twice mar- ried, but left no issue. He devised his real estate to the eldest son of his brother Christopher, who had migrated to what was Rappahannock, on the Rappahannock River. He was one of the first vestrymen mentioned on the vestry-book in Middle- sex county, in 1664, and married Miss Bertram. His oldest son, who inherited the Bishop of London's estate, was John Robinson, who was born in 1683, who was also a vestryman of Middlesex, and became President of the Council of Vir- ginia. He married Catharine Beverley, daughter of Robert Beverley, author of the "History of Virginia" published in 1708. He had seven children; one of them, named John Robinson, was Treasurer and Speaker of the Colony. Another -Henry-married a Miss Waring. Another married in New York. Christopher Robinson, who first came over to Virginia, had six children. Of John, the eldest, we have already spoken. Christopher married a daughter of Christopher Wormley, of Essex. Benjamin, Clerk of Caroline county, married a Miss King, and was the father of the Rev. William Robinson, minister of Stratton Major, in King and Queen. His daughter Clara married Mr. James Walker, of Urbanna, in Middlesex. His daughter Anne married Dr. John Hay. Of his daughter Agatha nothing is known. One of the descendants of the family married Mr. Carter Brax- ton, and others intermarried with the Wormleys, Berkeleys, Smiths, &c. The worthy family of Robinsons, in Norfolk and Richmond,-also those in Hanover,- were derived from the same stock. A branch of this family moved to Canada ; and some of them have held high civil and military station under the English Govern- ment there, and in the mother-country. The reputation of Mr. Speaker Robinson suffered from the fact that as Treasurer he loaned to some of his friends large sums of the public money. The Government, however, sustained no loss, as it was all made good out of his private estate at his death. In all other respects he stood high in the public confidence. He was never suspected of using the public money for his own private advantage. He was held in high esteem by General Washington, as their correspondence shows.
The following epitaph has been furnished me :-
EPITAPH.
" Beneath this place lieth all that could die of the late worthy John Robinson, Esq., who was a Representative of the county of King and Queen, and Speaker to the House of Burgesses above twenty-eight years. How eminently he supplied that dignified office, and with what fidelity he acted as Treasurer to the country beside, is well known to us, and it is not unlikely future ages will relate, He was a tender husband, a loving father, a kind master, a sincere friend, a generous benefactor, and a solid Christian. Go, reader, and to the utmost of your power imitate his virtues."
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FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
379
ST. STEPHEN'S PARISH, KING AND QUEEN.
This parish was probably established in 1691, there being no certain account of it .* In the years 1754 and 1758, and again in the years 1773-74 and 1776, the Rev. Mr. Dunbar was minister of this parish. No minister appears on our journals to represent this parish until the year 1793, when the Rev. Thomas Andrews ap- pears from St. Stephen's parish, but whether St. Stephen's of King and Queen, or of Northumberland, does not appear; but there were some faithful laymen in that parish, who steadily adhered to its falling fortunes. Anderson Scott and Henry Young appear as lay delegates in 1785 and 1786. Mr. Thomas Hill and William Fleet are lay delegates in 1796. Mr. Thomas Hill had attended alone, without minister or associate layman, during several of the preceding Conventions; but, after 1796, St. Stephen's parish ap- pears to be deserted.
Of the churches in this parish I know nothing, unless the follow- ing is a description of one of them :- " In the northwest of the county, in an old and venerable grove, stands St. Stephen's Church, I think in the form of a cross. There is no wall around it, but it is in good repair. It is principally used by the Baptists, but Epis- copal services have sometimes been held in it of late years, and one of the Bishops has visited it, I believe."
From this whole county Episcopalians have nearly disappeared, either by death, removal, or union with other denominations.
KING WILLIAM COUNTY AND THE PARISHES IN IT.
King William was taken out of King and Queen in 1701. At that time St. John's parish was the only one in the county. In 1721, St. Margarett's parish was established. A part of this being in Caroline, when that county was established in the year 1744, St. Margarett's was divided, and that part in Caroline was called St. Margarett's still, and that in King William called St. David's, so that the two parishes in King William were henceforth St. John's and St. David's. In the year 1754, the Rev. Alexander White, afterward minister in Hanover county, and one of those
* In 1724 the Rev. John Goodwin was minister. The parish was thirty miles long, had three hundred families, sixty communicants, a very poor house and glebe, two or three little schools, unendowed. The parish-library consisted of three books,-the Book of Homilies, the Whole Duty of Man, and the Singing Psalms.
-
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who opposed the Two-Penny Act by a lawsuit, was the minister of St. David's, and Mr. John Robertson of St. John's parish. The same continued in these parishes in 1758. In the years 1773-74- 76, the Rev. Alexander White is still the minister of St. David's, and the Rev. William Skyren of St. John's. At the first Con- vention in 1785, the Rev. William Skyren is still the minister of St. John's, attended by Mr. Carter Braxton as lay delegate, Mr. William Temple being the lay delegate from St. David's. In 1786, the Rev. Mr. Skyren is still in St. John's; Mr. Carter Braxton the lay delegate from the same, and Mr. Benjamin Temple and William Spiller from St. David's. In 1787, Mr. Skyren still from St. John's, and his lay delegates, William D. Claiborne, William Spiller, and Benjamin Temple, from St. David's. In the year 1790, Rev. Reuben Clopton appears in Convention from St. Da- vid's, with Nathaniel Burwell as lay delegate. There was no representative from St. John's, the Rev. Mr. Skyren having re- moved to Hampton. In 1791, Mr. Clopton is still the minister of St. David's; also in 1792, with Mr. Nathaniel Burwell as lay dele- gate. St. John's is once more represented by Carter Braxton, Jr. as lay delegate, in 1792. In 1794, St. David's is represented by Mr. Joseph Guathney as lay delegate, and in the following year by Mr. Thomas Fox and Mr. William Dabney. In the year 1797, the Rev. Thomas Hughes and Mr. Benjamin Temple represent St. David's, and the Rev. John Dunn and Mr. James Ruffin represent St. John's. In the year 1799, the Rev. Thomas Hughes and Mr. Thomas Fox represent St. David's, and Mr. Edward Chamberlayne and John Lord represent St. John's. In the year 1805, the Rev. Duncan McNaughton and Mr. John Hull represent St. Stephen's parish, but whether the parish of that name in Northumberland or King William is not known. This concludes the list of ministers of King William county, until the Rev. Farley Berkeley was sent there as missionary, who remained one year.
The Rev. John McGuire, while minister in Essex, often visited one or more of the old churches in King William, and since his removal the Rev. Mr. Temple has done the same; but the revival of the Church in that county is at this time very unpromising, the old Episcopal families having long since either removed or united with other denominations.
Of the old churches in King William I have received the follow- ing account :-
" King William has still not less than four old Episcopal churches.
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FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
First, West Point Church, or St. John's, in the central part of the lower section. There is neither grove or graveyard now around it. The pulpit was of the ancient and customary shape,-that of a bottle turned upside down, the neck of the bottle representing the stem on which the body was sustained. The stem is said to be still preserved somewhere in the church. A new and ruder pulpit has been substituted. The second is called Acquinton Church. It is a large old church, in the form of a cross, having the aisles paved with flagstones. The third is St. David's, about ten miles higher up, which is a regular quadrangular building, and is sometimes called Cattail. Fourth, Mangochick Church, in the upper part of the county,-which is also quadrangular. All of the churches are said to be in pretty good preservation. The old high-back pews have in some, perhaps in all of them, given place to benches, and the Commandments disappeared, except in two of them, from the walls. They have been re- garded and used as common property for a long time. I have officiated in two of them. In one of them I found the old pulpit still standing, though a new one or a kind of stage has been erected in another part of it, and used, I was informed, by one of two contending parties, who officiated in the church,-the others still preferring the old pulpit.
POSTSCRIPTS TO THE ARTICLES ON THE PARISHES OF KING AND QUEEN, AND KING WILLIAM.
Two letters from brethren who are well acquainted with these counties enable me to correct some errors in the preceding account. As to King and Queen, I was mistaken in supposing that I may have once passed by the large church in Stratton Major parish, which was built on Mr. Corbin's land, called Goliath's Field. The one I saw was in St. Stephen's parish, and is still standing, being in possession of the Baptists. The Stratton Major Church has been sold, some years since, and the bricks entirely removed. There is still one church standing in Stratton Major parish. A third was destroyed by fire. There was also another church in St. Stephen's parish, called the Apple-Tree Church. Among the families be- longing to St. Stephen's parish may be mentioned the Temples, Hoskins, Scotts, Youngs, Hills, and Fleets.
The following account of the Rev. Henry Skyren, the last of the ministers who regularly officiated in the churches of King William and King and Queen, will be read with deep interest :-
" The Rev. Henry Skyren was born at White Haven, England. The date of his birth I am unable to give, as the family Bible was lost, though it may be seen on his tombstone at Hampton. The exact time of his arrival in this country is not known ; but the first field of his ministry was in King and Queen and King William counties, preaching alternately in two or three of the old Colonial churches, and residing in the family of Colonel Corbin, of Laneville. In 1774, he married Miss Lucy Moore, the youngest of the three daughters of General Bernard Moore and Kate
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Spottswood, whose education he had completed, having resided in her father's family for several years previous to his marriage. He continued in the same parish for four or five years ; afterward removed to Hampton, where, after officiating for six years, he died universally beloved and la- mented. It is much to be regretted that his widow, who was too amiable to refuse a favour, no matter how unreasonable, allowed the ministers of the neighbouring parishes to pick over and take away the best of his ser- mons, which were never returned ; so that when her brothers-in-law, Mr. Walker, of Albemarle, and Mr. Charles Carter, of Shirley, sent to her for them for publication, only a few fragments could be collected.
" He was said to be an elegant scholar and accomplished gentleman, who was alike remarkable for his eloquence and piety, never participating in any of the worldly amusements so common in that day with the clergy.
" These last facts we have learned from the elder residents in Norfolk and Hampton, many of whom a few years back were living, who retained a perfect recollection of him; and there is a lady living in this place, (Fredericksburg,) Mrs. John Scott, Sr., who recollects to have heard him spoken of in her early youth as the most eminent divine of the age in this diocese. He left three sons and three daughters. None of his sons ever married, and the name became extinct in this country with the death of Colonel John Spottswood Skyren. His eldest daughter first married Mr. Frazier, of Washington, and afterward Dr. Lewis, of King William. The youngest married Mr. Tebbs, of Culpepper. The second, the only one of his children now living, married the late Robert Temple, of Ampthill, eldest son of Colonel Benjamin Temple, of King William, and is now residing in Fredericksburg. Her children and grandchildren number upward of fifty, many of whom still cling to the Church of their fathers with a strong affection, mingled with veneration and love for the memory of their ancestors ; and it may be well to add that Colonel Benjamin Temple and Parson Skyren were both members of the first Episcopal Con- vention ever held in Virginia. A reliable witness says that, when Mr Skyren preached in King William, ' the Acquinton Church was always so crowded that the people used to bring their seats and fill up the aisle after the pews were full. The other churches in which he preached were Cat- tail, and what was called the Lower Church. The church at Hampton was in a very flourishing condition, and it was with difficulty Mr. Skyren could get the consent of his congregation to preach in Norfolk, where he was frequently invited.' "
During the ministry of the Rev. Mr. Dalrymple in New Kent, in the years 1843 and 1844, he made an effort to revive the old churches in King William, by preaching there, and the parishes were received into the Convention. The Rev. Edward McGuire, who succeeded him, also officiated occasionally, I believe ; but suf- ficient encouragement was not afforded for the settlement of a minister among them. We will not, however, despair.
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FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
ARTICLE XXXIV.
Parishes in New Kent .- St. Peter's and Blissland Parishes.
NEW KENT was cut off from the upper part of York county in 1654. It commenced on Scimon's Creek, on the north of York River, some distance above Williamsburg, and extended to the heads of Pamunkey and Mattapony Rivers, and returned again on the north of Mattapony to the Prepotanke Creek, north of York River, including what are now King William and King and Queen counties, as well as Hanover county to the west. On the north of the York and Pamunkey Rivers there was a parish called St. John's ; on the south, one called St. Peter's. . About the year 1684 or 1685, a parish, east of St. Peter's, on Pamunkey and York Rivers, toward Williamsburg, was formed, by the name of Blissland, which continued to have a minister until after the Revolutionary War. We shall begin with such notices as we have been able to obtain of St. Peter's parish. We have an old vestry-book, which probably commenced in 1682, though we can only use it from 1685, the pre- vious pages having been torn out. A friend, however, has sup- plied the deficiency in some measure. Our materials from English archives enable us to go back yet further, and furnish us also with some information of a later date, not to be found in the vestry-book. We begin with these. In the year 1699, Governor Nicholson ad- dressed the following letter to the High-Sheriff of New Kent county, ordering a meeting of the clergy in Jamestown. It will not only show the spirit of the age and of those in authority, but the peculiarly dogmatic spirit of the man :-
" SIR :- I do hereby, in his Majesty's name, will and require you to acquaint the minister or ministers within your county, that (God willing) they do not fail of meeting me here on Wednesday, being the 10th of April next, and that they bring with them their Priests' and Deacons' Orders, as likewise the Rt. Rev. the Father in God, the Lord-Bishop of London his license for their preaching, or whatever license they have, and withall a copy out of the vestry-books of the agreement they have made with the parish or parishes where they officiate. If there be any parish or parishes within your county who have no minister, I do hereby, in his Majesty's name, command that the vestry of said parish or parishes do, by the said 10th of April, return me an account how long they have been without a minister,
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and the reason thereof, as also if they have any person that reads the Common Prayer on Sundays and at their church. This account must be signed by them, and they may send it by the minister who lives next to them. So, not doubting of your compliances therein, I remain your loving friend, FRANCIS NICHOLSON.
" You are not to fail of making a return to these my orders, as you will answer the contrary to me. FRANCIS NICHOLSON."
The first notice I find of the religious condition of the parish and of the neighbouring parishes is from a letter in the year 1696, from the Rev. Nicholas Moreau, who was the minister of St. Peter's for two years. He appears to have been a pious man, and was pro- bably one of the French Huguenots who were driven to America about this time by the persecution growing out of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
The following extract is from a letter to the Bishop of London :-
"Your clergy in these parts are of a very ill example. No discipline nor canons of the Church are observed. Several ministers have caused such high scandal of late, and have raised such prejudices amongst the people against the clergy, that hardly can they be persuaded to take a clergyman into their parish. As to me, my lord, I have got into the very worst parish of Virginia, and most troublesome nevertheless. But I must tell you I find abundance of good people who are willing to serve God, but they want good ministers,-ministers that be very pious, and not wedded to this world as the best of them are. God has blessed my endea- vours so far already, that with his assistance I have brought again to church two families who had gone to the Quakers' meeting for three years past. If ministers were as they ought to be, I dare say there would be no Quakers or Dissenters among them. A learned sermon signifies nothing without good example. I wish God would put it into your mind, my lord, to send here an eminent Bishop, who, by his piety, charity, and severity in keeping the canons of the Church, might quicken these base ministers, and force them to mind the whole duty of their charge." Again : "An eminent Bishop being sent over here will make hell tremble, and settle the Church of England here forever. This work, my lord, is God's work; and if it doth happen that I see a Bishop come over here, I will say, as St. Bernard saith in his Epistle to Eugenius, 'Tertius hic digitus Dei est.'"
The next information is from the report of the condition of this parish to the Bishop of London in 1724, by the Rev. Henry Col- lings. His parish had two hundred and four families in it, forty or fifty communicants, only one church, (St. Peter's,) about one hundred and seventy or one hundred and eighty attendants. His salary eighty pounds, more or less. Glebe and parsonage rented out for six pounds five shillings per annum. Catechizing had been much neglected : he intended to introduce it.
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FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
The next is from the Rev. Mr. Lang, who succeeded Mr. Collings in 1725 and continued two years.
The Rev. Mr. Lang came highly recommended from England to Governor Drysdale and Commissary Blair, and by them as highly to the parish of St. Peter's, in New Kent. On the 7th of February, 1725-26, he writes thus to the Bishop of London :- "I observe the people here are very zealous for our Holy Church, as it is es- tablished in England, so that (except some few inconsiderablo Quakers) there are scarce any Dissenters from our communion, and yet at the same time supinely ignorant in the very principles of religion, and very debauched in morals. This, I apprehend, is chiefly owing to the general neglect of the clergy in not taking pains to instruct youth in the fundamentals of religion, or to examine people come to years of discretion before they are permitted to come to Church privileges." He speaks of the gross ignorance of many, who on their death-beds, or on Christmas-day, desire to re- ceive the sacraments; of the great ignorance of those who offer themselves as sponsors ; of the evil lives of the servants who have been presented by their owners to baptism. "The great cause of all which" (he says) "I humbly conceive to be in the clergy, the sober part being slothful and negligent, and others so debauched that they are the foremost and most bent on all manner of vices. Drunkenness is the common vice." He goes on to specify in- stances among clergy and laity of great unworthiness, concluding as to the former by saying :- " How dreadful it is to think that men authorized by the Church to preach repentance and forgiveness through Christ should be first in the very sins which they reprove !" It is not wonderful that this should be among the first parts of our State in which dissent began, as we are informed was the case under Samuel Davies, some twenty or thirty years after the date of Mr. Lang's letter.
I now proceed with a list of the ministers of St. Peter's Church from the year 1682. The Rev. William Sellake was minister in 1682. Rev. John Carr from 1684 to 1686. Rev. John Hall from 1686 to 1687. The Rev. John Page from 1687 to 1688. The Rev. Mr. Williams officiated for a short time in 1689. Rev. Jacob Ward from 1690 to 1696. Rev. Nicholas Moreau from 1696 to 1698. Rev. James Bowker from 1698 to 1703. Rev. Richard Squire from 1703 to 1707. Rev. Daniel Taylor from 1707 to 1708. Rev. Daniel Gray from 1708 to 1709. Rev. Benjamin Goodwin from 1709 to 1710. From the year 1710 to 1720 the Rev. William Brodie. During the two following years the Revs. Thomas Sharp,
25
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OLD CHURCHES, MINISTERS, AND
Broomscale, Brooke, Forbess, and Francis Fontaine, officiated there. From 1722 to 1725 the Rev. Henry Collings. From 1725 to 1727 the Rev. Mr. Lang. He was succeeded by the Rev. David Mossom, who continued the minister for forty years. He was the person who officiated at the nuptials of General Washington, at the White House, a few miles from St. Peter's Church. It was in that parish, and under the ministry of Mr. Mossom, that the Rev. Devereux Jarratt was born and trained. In his Autobiography he gives a poor account of the state of morals and religion in New Kent. He considers himself as a brand plucked from the burning by the grace of God. Illustrative of the condition of things, he mentions a quarrel between Mr. Mossom and his clerk, in which the former assailed the latter from the pulpit in his sermon, and the latter, to avenge himself, gave out from the desk the psalm in which were these lines :-
" With restless and ungovern'd rage, Why do the heathen storm ? Why in such rash attempts engage As they can ne'er perform ?"
Nevertheless, from the long continuance of Mossom in this parish, we doubt not that he was a more respectable man than many of his day. He was married four times, and much harassed by his last wife, as Colonel Bassett has often told me, which may account for and somewhat excuse a little peevishness. He came from Newbury- port, Massachusetts, and was, according to his epitaph in St. Peter's Church, the first native American admitted to the office of Presby- ter in the Church of England.
Mr. Mossom was followed by the Rev. James Semple, who con- tinued the minister of the parish for twenty-two years. The Rev. Benjamin Blagrove was the minister in the year 1789. The Rev. Benjamin Brown was the minister in the year 1797.
After a long and dreary interval of nearly fifty years, we find the Rev. E. A. Dalrymple the minister from 1843 to 1845 .* Then the Rev. E. B. Maguire from 1845 to 1851. Then the Rev. Wil- liam Norwood from 1852 to 1854. Then the Rev. David Caldwell from 1854 to 1856.
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