USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 41
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Having disposed of the ministers, we now give a list of the vestry so far as furnished by the vestry-book from the year 1685 to the year 1758. They are as follows-George Jones, William Bassett,
* The Rev. Farley Berkeley officiated some time before this as missionary at St. Peter's Church.
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Stephen Carlton, Henry Wyatt, Thomas Mitchell, John Park, William Paisley, J. Renor, Cornelius Dabnee, (Dabney,) Gideon Macon, Matthew Page, George Smith, George Joands, John Rojor, (Roger,) David Craford, James Moss, John Lydall, Mr. Forster, W. Clopton, John Lewis, Nicholas Merriwether, John Park, Jr., Richard Littlepage, Thomas Butts, Thomas Massie, William Waddell, Henry Childs, Robert Anderson, Richard Allen, Samuel Gray, Ebenezer Adams, Charles Lewis, Charles Massie, Walton Clopton, William Macon, W. Brown, W. Marston, John Nether- land, William Chamberlayne, David Patterson, Michael Sherman, John Dandridge, Daniel Parke Custis, Matthew Anderson, George Webb, W. Hopkins, Jesse Scott, Edmund Bacon, William Vaughan, William Clayton, John Roper.
It deserves to be mentioned to the credit of the vestry, that it does not appear to have been unmindful of its duty as guardian of the public morals. On more than one occasion, at an early period, it enjoins on the churchwardens to see that the laws are enforced against such as violated the seventh commandment; and in the year 1736, when some unworthy persons disturbed the congre- gation during service, an order was passed that a pair of stocks should be put up in the yard, in order to confine any who should thus offend.
It appears also from the vestry-book that the parish was divided in 1704, and St. Paul's, in Hanover, taken off.
St. Peter's Church was built in 1703, at a cost of one hundred and forty-six thousand-weight of tobacco. The steeple was not built until twelve years after. If the early history of this parish be not creditable to its piety, let not those unto whom in the won- derful providence of God it has been transmitted, and who are per- mitted to worship in the venerable church of St. Peter's, be dis- couraged. The first sometimes become last and the last first. So may it be with this parish! May its latter end greatly increase in all that is good ! That it yet survives is proof that God has a favour toward it, and will strengthen the things which seemed ready to perish .*
* Mr. Jarratt, as will appear hereafter in his memoirs, speaks of cards, racing, dancing, and cockfighting, as most prevalent in this parish, and of himself as being trained to them. At that time the Church had nearly come to an end. In the course of my travels through the State, and my recent researches into its past his- tory, I find that in those parts of it where such things most prevailed, there religion and morality sank to the lowest ebb. Where gambling, racing, and even the low practice of cockfighting, were encouraged, there were the lost estates, the ruined,
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OF BLISSLAND PARISH.
A few words will suffice for the little we have to say of this. No vestry-book remains to tell its history.
Though a small parish, yet being near to Williamsburg it was doubtless continually supplied, from its establishment in 1684 or 1685, until the year 1785, when we lose sight of it from the list of clergy and parishes and the journals of Conventions.
In the year 1724 the Rev. Daniel Clayton was the minister, and had been for twenty years, as he writes to the Bishop of London. There were two churches in it. The parish had one hundred and thirty-six families. His salary was eighty pounds per annum. The glebe was worth nothing. No school or library was in the parish.
In the year 1758 the Rev. Chichely Thacker was the minister. In the years 1773, 1774, 1776, and 1785, the Rev. Price Davies was the rector. In the latter year he appears in the Convention at Richmond, attended by Mr. Burwell Bassett as lay delegate, while the Rev. James Semple and Mr. William Hartwell Macon represented St. Peter's parish. What has become of the churches of Blissland parish I am unable to say. Perhaps I may yet learn. I think one of them was an old brick church, on the roadside from New Kent to Williamsburg, about twelve miles from the latter, and which I have seen in former days,-the walls still good, and nothing else remaining.
scattered families; there were the blasted hopes of parents, the idle, intemperate sons, and the sacrificed daughters. Now that horse-racing has become so discredit- able that it has gone into the hands of a lower order of characters, and cockfighting is deemed too mean even to be encouraged by those, we can scarcely realize that such idle and destructive diversions as the former, and such a cruel and degrading one as the latter, should ever have found the favour which was once shown them. That they should ever regain that favour, we delight to think of as a moral impos- sibility ; but, in order to this, Christian parents should train their children to an utter abhorrence of them, and Christian gentlemen frown upon them and avoid them, as unworthy of genteel society, remembering the past and consulting for the future
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ARTICLE XXXV.
Parishes in Essex County .- No. 1. South Farnham.
THIS parish was erected in 1692. It was called South Farn- ham to distinguish it from one in Richmond county, on the north side of the Rappahannock, called North Farnham.
There were two churches in this parish, called Upper and Lower Piscataway. The first minister of the parish of whom we have any account was the Rev. Lewis Latane, a Huguenot, who came to this country and settled in this parish in the year 1700. He must have taken charge of the parish very soon after his arrival, as a letter from Governor Spottswood to the vestry of South Farnham -found among his papers, and bearing date 17th De- cember, 1716-speaks of Mr. Latane as having been the minister of the parish for nearly sixteen years. This letter is in relation to an attempt on the part of the vestry to displace Mr. Latane, and severely reprehends their conduct, and threatens to interpose the authority of the Governor if persisted in. It must have been abandoned, as appears from the journal of a Mr. John Fontaine, who, travelling from Williamsburg through this region of country, heard Mr. Latane preach at the parish church, as he called it, in 1717, and speaks of his sermon and himself in high terms of com- mendation. This was the year after the date of the letter re- ferred to. Mr. Latane seems to have been a quiet man, moving on in the even tenor of his way, but feeling keenly the injustice done him by his vestry. The opposition to him was not on the ground of immorality or ministerial unfaithfulness or inefficiency, but on account of his dialect, to which Mr. Latane thought they ought now to have become accustomed. He felt aggrieved that, after preaching for them so many years, the objection should be made at so late a day. An anecdote connected with this matter is related of him, which seems to be characteristic of the man. He was riding with one of his parishioners, when the subject of his removal was talked over by them. The other expressed his sor- row, but thought it better on the ground that Mr. Latane's ser- mons were rendered unintelligible by his foreign brogue. Before separating they came to the minister's gate. "Go by," he said,
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"and get something to drink;" which was readily agreed to. This he said to prove him. "Now," said the minister, "you can readily understand me when I tempt you to do wrong, but you can't understand me when I counsel you to do right."
How long he continued to officiate in the parish church cannot be ascertained. No records of the parish pertaining to the church are to be found, even after diligent inquisition made. The pro- ceedings of the vestry of South Farnham, in relation to the work of processioners who were appointed by the vestry under authority and by direction of the court of Essex, have been found; but they only show who were the ministers and who the vestrymen of the parish at each meeting for that business. The first meeting was held in 1739, when the Rev. William Philips was present. Nothing but the name of this person can be gathered from this or any other source. He is mentioned as being present at subsequent meetings up to 1744.
An interval of eight years occurs, and the Rev. Alexander Cruden appears in 1752 and continues until 1773. There is no one living in the parish who can remember any thing of Mr. Cruden. Vague tradition represents him as having been a fine preacher in his day. Nothing is known as to his piety. He was a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, as is believed, and returned to that country during the Revolutionary War. He must have relinquished his charge two years before the war commenced. There was no minister in the parish from that time till 1792, when the Rev. Andrew Syme, of Glasgow, Scotland, came to the village of Tappahannock as tutor in the family of Dr. John Brockenbrough, and preached in the churches of South Farnham. He received a small salary raised by voluntary contribution. What were the fruits of his ministerial work: whether the scattered sheep were collected and their drooping spirits revived, or the tide of infidelity which was then rising and afterward spread over this region was stayed by his labours, does not appear. Being the first minister after the Revolution, he doubtless had many difficulties to contend with, and his usefulness must have been lessened by his school. He removed from Essex to Petersburg in 1794. More than twenty years elapsed before there were again any regu- lar services in the parish. The Rev. Mr. Mathews, of St. Anne's parish, Essex, the Rev. Mr. Carter, of Drysdale parish, King and Queen county, and the Rev. Mr. Krew, of Middlesex county, offi- ciated in South Farnham for the rites of baptism, marriage, and burial, when sent for by the few remaining followers of the Epis-
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copal Church. When regular services were again resumed, it was under the ministry of the Rev. John Reynolds, in 1822, who came to this country from England a Wesleyan Methodist and after- ward entered the ministry of the Episcopal Church. He was called by the two parishes of Essex united. The parishes con- tinued so under the ministry of the Rev. J. P. McGuire, who was called to the rectorship of St. Anne's and South Farnham parishes in 1825. When he resigned, in 1852, the parishes were each able to support its own minister. During the dreary interval in the history of the Church in South Farnham parish referred to, the influence of the Church had waned until it seemed almost lost. That it should be revived, humanly viewed, seemed more im- probable than that it should become extinct. It was "the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes." The few remaining friends were now without minister or temple. Both churches in the parish had been destroyed,-one being pulled down, the other burned. The feeling of hostility to the Church engendered by the establishment under the Colonial Government, and transmitted from generation to generation, was greatly increased in this vicinity by the imprisonment of some of the Dissenting ministers, -a proceeding which was unjustly identified with the Episcopal Church. This feeling, at its height when the influence of the Church was at the lowest, joined with the stronger feeling of rapacity, led, as may be supposed, to wholesale plunder of the churches and church-property. The destruction in this parish has been complete. Nothing is to be found but the durable mate- rials of which the buildings were made. The bricks may be re- cognised where seen ; but they are nowhere found except in other buildings. The flagstones, too, from the aisles, may be seen in walks and in hearths; but not a whole brick, much less one upon another, nor a piece of timber, is to be seen where the temples of the living God stood. The monuments of the dead were not even spared in the general depredation. These were dragged from their resting-places and made into grindstones, and may still be identified by parts of the original inscriptions.
As mentioned, no vestry-book is to be found belonging to the parish, no Bible, Prayer Book, font, nor Communion-table; and the strange fact can only be accounted for by supposing that they shared one common ruin with the churches.
One of these buildings was preserved from destruction by a worthy old gentleman who is said to have watched, with his servants, night after night, to protect the house of God. When
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he died, the work of destruction went on, nor ceased till nothing was left to tempt the cupidity of the plunderers. The other was spared, to meet, if possible, a worse fate. The bricks and nails were the most tempting materials in this house; and, as the readiest way to obtain these was to fire the building, this was done accordingly. But the first attempt to burn it was unsuc- cessful ; the fire, after burning for a time, went out of itself. No one of sensibility could see this house of God as it then stood- charred and blackened by fire, hacked by axes, and otherwise injured by Vandal hands-and not have his feelings deeply moved. But this condition did not suffice the spirit that was bent on its destruction. It stood a short time longer, was again fired, and burned to the ground. It had been a noble structure of the kind, must have been one of the oldest Colonial churches, and, until within a few years of its destruction, had much of venerable gran- deur in its appearance. Having, up to the time of its destruction, so far withstood the influence of three natural elements, and a still worse and more cruel in the bosom of man, with no guardians left but the venerable oaks which had watched over it in better days, and were still stretching out their arms toward it as if to afford help in its fallen state, it was an object of peculiar interest. Few indeed must have been the friends then to ask, " Who saw this house in its first glory, and how do ye see it now?" or they had not had so soon to take up the lamentation, " Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire, and all our pleasant things are laid waste." But there was "a remnant, according to the election of grace," who " sighed for the abominations" they could not prevent, mourned over the desolations of Zion, "who took pleasure in her stones, and favoured the dust thereof." They were as the " two or three berries on the top of the uppermost bough" left after the vintage. But they were "mothers in Israel," and nourished a seed for the future Church. The glebe belonging to the parish, together with the plate belonging to both churches, was sold, and the fund ac- cruing invested for the support of the parish poor. The fund yields about one thousand dollars per annum. The plate was massive, and sold, at a sacrifice, for some three hundred or four hundred dollars.
The glebe was a donation from Rev. Lewis Latane, the first minister of the parish. Had this plea been urged, after proper steps to establish it,-as might have been done in the bar of the sale,-it had no doubt been prevented. The following are the
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names of persons who constituted the vestry of South Farnham parish from 1739 to 1779 :-
" Hon. John Robinson, Captain Nicholas Smith, William Roane, Mr. William Covington, Isaac Scandrith, John Vass, Captain William Danger- field, Alexander Parker, Abraham Montague, James Reynolds, Captain Francis Smith, Mr. Henry Young, James Webb, John Clements, John Upshaw, Henry Vass, James Mills, William Montague, William Young, Thomas Roane, Samuel Peachy, Merriwether Smith, Archibald Ritchie, John Richards, James Campbell, William Smith, James Edmonson, New- man Brockenbrough, John Beal, John Edmonson.
"The Rev. Lewis Latane fled from France to England after the revo- cation of the Edict of Nantes, in October, 1685, and remained there until the year 1700. He was ordained Deacon, September 22, and Priest, Oc- tober 18, of that year; reached Virginia, March 5, 1701, and took charge of the parish of South Farnham, April 5 of that year. He was married once before he came to this country, and twice afterward. His third wife, of whom alone any thing is known, was Miss Mary Dean, a relative and protégé of Mr. William Beverley, of Blandfield, in Essex county, and of the adjoining parish of St. Anne's. Mr. Latane died in 1732, leaving a widow, and one son named John, and five daughters. In his will we have the following characteristic trait of him :- ' My will is, that whatsoever I am justly indebted to any person be duly paid by my executor; and whereas Mrs. Phoebe Kater, in her last will and testa- ment, disposed of such things to my daughters C., P., and S., as were not in her power to give, my will is that none of my said daughters shall have any of the said legacies paid them. But, if any of them shall be so re- fractory as to insist on having any of the said legacies paid them, then I give to each of my said daughters twelvepence, in full of all the legacies hereafter in this my will to them given and bequeathed.'"
Faithfully have the descendants of this upright and conscientious man followed the example of his integrity. Perhaps there is no instance to be found in Virginia, where a whole family have been more remarkable for truth and fidelity in all their dealings and character. John, his only surviving son, married a Miss Mary Allen. William, his only surviving son, married a Miss Ann Waring, leaving a large number of sons and daughters. His daughter Lucy, third in descent from Mr. Latane, married Mr. Payne Waring, of Essex, so well known as the zealous and liberal friend of the Church in that county and in the diocese, and father of the present Mrs. Richard Baylor. His son Henry, now seventy- three years of age, has several children who are members of the Church, one of whom is preparing for the ministry. His daughter Mary married Mr. John Temple, one of whose sons is the minister of Old South Farnham parish at this time, and one of whom died at the University in the year 1829, a model of piety and all excel- lence. A brief tribute is due to his memory. In the year 1829,
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a most pestilential and fatal disease broke out in the village of Charlottesville and at the University. Nine of the students in the latter fell victims to it, and among them young Temple. Being invited by the authorities of the University to improve that most afflictive dispensation, I prepared and delivered a discourse, which was published. From it I extract the concluding sentences, which will show in what high esteem young Temple was held :-
"Is there upon earth a sight so interesting as that of a young man, at a seat of learning, in the midst of temptation, surrounded by other youths of widely-differing sentiments, yet steadily holding on 'the even tenor of his way,' resisting pleasure, avoiding evil communication, acting from reli- gious principle, and not ashamed to call himself by the name and seal himself with the seal of Christ? Have you seen none such, my young hearers ? Amidst all your young associates, was there not one who loved his Saviour, one whom you all loved, all esteemed, whom you could not but love and esteem, and who was a witness to the truth of that which I have spoken to-day ?
" Was young Temple less beloved by you all because young Temple was a Christian, because a portion of his Sabbaths was spent in teaching the young and ignorant, because the Bible was his daily study ? And, when death was sent to summon him away, was he less happy ? Which one of you present, now in your own mind hostile to religion and in your con- duct furthest removed from it, but would, if called to die, rather be as young Temple was, than as you now are ?"
The following documents explain themselves :-
" At a Council held at the Capitol, the 23d day of January, 1716, pre- sent the Governor and Council.
"On reading at this Board a representation from Mr. Commissary Blair, setting forth that the vestry of South Farnham parish, in Essex county, have taken upon them to suspend Mr. Lewis Latane, their minister, from the exercise of his ministerial office, without any previous accusation or conviction of any crime ; and that the said vestry have also prohibited the performance of divine service in the said parish, by causing the church- doors to be shut, and praying the consideration of this therein, and the order of the vestry for suspending Mr. Latane being also read, it is the unani- mous opinion of this Board that the said vestry have no power to turn out their minister in the manner they have done; and, therefore, it is ordered that the churchwardens cause the doors of the church to be opened, and that the said Mr. Latane be permitted to exercise his ministerial functions therein, until he be legally tried and convicted of such crime as renders him unworthy to be continued, for which there are proper judicatures to which the said vestry may apply, if they have any thing to charge him with. And it is further resolved, that in case the said vestry shall refuse to pay their minister, in the mean time, his salary due by law, that proper measures be taken for obliging them to do him justice.
"(Copied.) WM. ROBERTSON, Clerk of Council "
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Letter of Governor Spottswood to the Churchwardens and Vestry of South Farnham Parish in Essex.
" WILLIAMSBURG, December 17th, 1716.
"GENTLEMEN :- I'm not a little surprised at the sight of an order of yours, wherein you take upon you to suspend from his office a clergyman who, for near sixteen years, has served as your minister, and that without assigning any manner of reason for your so doing. I look upon it that the British subjects in these Plantations ought to conform to the Constitu- tion of their mother-country in all cases wherein the laws of the several Colonies have not otherwise decided; and, as no vestry in England ever pretended to set themselves up as judges over their ministers, so I know no law of this country that has given such authority to the vestry here. If a clergyman transgresses against the canons of the Church, he is to be tried before a proper judicature; and though in this country there be no Bishops to apply to, yet there is the substitute of the Bishop, who is your diocesan, and who can take cognizance of the offences of the clergy ; and I cannot believe there is any vestry here so ignorant but to know that the Governor, for the time-being, has the honour to be intrusted with the power of collating to all benefits, and ought, in reason, to be made ac- quainted with the crime which unqualifies a clergyman from holding a benefice of which he is once legally possessed. In case of the mis- behaviour of your minister, you may be his accusers, but in no case his judges ; but much less are you empowered to turn him out without show- ing any cause. But your churchwardens, ordering the church to be shut up, and thereby taking upon them to lay the parish under an interdict, is such an exorbitant act of power, that even the Pope of Rome never pre- tended to a greater; and if your churchwardens persist in it, they will find themselves involved in greater troubles than they are aware of.
" By the small number of vestrymen present at the making the late order, and the dissent of several that were, I apprehend the turning out of Mr. Latane, and what has followed on it since, to be the effect of some sudden heat, and therefore I am willing to believe that, upon cooler de- liberation in a full vestry, you will think fit to reverse that order, and give your minister the opportunity of a fair trial, if you have any thing to accuse him of, which is what every subject ought to have before he is condemned. But if, contrary to my expectations, you persist in that un- warrantable way you have begun, I recommend to your inquiry what suc- cess a vestry who took upon them the like power met with at Kichotan, (Hampton) But I hope, without obliging me to exert that authority his Majesty has intrusted me with, in this case you will rather choose to be reconciled to your minister, which will be more for the quiet of your parish, and much more obliging to,
"Gentlemen, your most humble servant,
A. SPOTTSWOOD."
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ARTICLE XXXVI. Parishes in Essex .- No. 2. St. Anne's Parish.
THIS parish was established in 1692, the same year with the neighbouring parish of South Farnham, of which we have just given some account. We are unable to ascertain* who were its ministers previous to 1725. We learn from his own journal that the Rev. Robert Rose became its minister in February, 1725. Nor do we learn any thing of his ministry until the year 1746, as his journal does not commence until that year, which he says was the twenty- first of his incumbency in the parish of St. Anne. This journal has been an object of great interest and desire to the antiquaries of Virginia. Mr. Charles Campbell, of Petersburg, in his valuable History of Virginia, laments its supposed loss in the Western wilds, whither it had been carried by some of his descendants. I am so fortunate as to have it in temporary possession, through the kind- ness of Mr. Henry Carter, of Caroline county, Virginia, who has recently gotten it from the West,-Mr. Carter being one of the pos- terity of Mr. Rose. It will, in one important respect, disappoint
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