USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 42
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* On examination of the Lambeth Records, I find that the Rev. Jolin Bagge was the predecessor of the Rev. Robert Rose; that he came into the Colony in 1709, in Deacons' Orders, but was allowed to take charge of St. Anne's parish. He soon after settled in another, but says he was driven out by an influential layman. In 1717 he returned to England for Priests' Orders, then had a difficulty with a Rev. Mr. Ransford about St. Anne's parish, in which Governor Spottswood took his part but could not support him. We find him, however, the minister of St. Anne's in 1724, but, dying soon after, he is succeeded by the Rev. Robert Rose. He speaks of Governor Spottswood as a valiant defender of the rights of the clergy and the Go- vernor against the usurpations of the vestries, but acknowledges the failure of his efforts. He admits that there were not more than four inducted ministers in the Colony. There were two churches in the parish of St. Anne. His salary was from sixty to eighty pounds, according to the quality and price of tobacco,-his per- quisites about twelve hundred-weight of tobacco. On the counties bordering on North Carolina, he says that the tobacco is so mean, and of so little value, that but little is made, and the ministers are obliged to receive their salaries in tar, pitch, pork, and other commodities, and that it is difficult to get ministers to settle there. This agrees with Colonel Byrd's account of the border-parishes a few years after this. Mr. Bagge mentions seven or eight parishes, in different parts of the State, then vacant. He says that they have no parish library or public school.
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the expectations of those who have longed for it. It only covers the last five or six years of his life,-from January 21, 1746, to June 13, 1751, soon after which he died. It is, however, in some respects an interesting narrative, exhibiting the character of its author to the life, and casting light on men and things of that early period. Mr. Rose came from Scotland early in the last century. It is confidently believed that he came under the auspices of Go- ' vernor Spottswood. There was certainly a great intimacy between them to the day of General Spottswood's death. Mr. Rose was, I presume, from a large account-book bound up with his journal, or to which his journal is appended, going back to the year 1727, his executor. He certainly had much to do with the settlement of the estate, and with his widow and children after the death of General Spottswood in 1737. Mr. Rose partook very much of the character of General Spottswood, being a man of great labour, decision, bene- volence, and of extraordinary business-talents. If the previous years of his life partook in any good degree of the character of the last five or six, he must have done an amount of labour such as few men ever accomplish,-too much indeed of a secular kind to consist with that spirituality which ought ever to characterize a minister of the Gospel. He was the executor of various persons besides General Spottswood. It is due to him to say that a benevolent feeling seems to have prompted to this, for the widow and the orphan were the objects of his care. At an early period after his settlement in Essex, we find him taking charge of the estate and family of the Rev. Mr. Bagge. It is also due to him to say that he never seems to have neglected the duty of preaching. Wherever he was on the Sabbath, whether in his own parish or on his journeys, he records his preaching. Very often also he speaks of preaching during the week at private houses, and baptizing children. About the time his journal commences, he was preparing to move into Nelson county, where he had purchased lands at a cheap rate, and where he settled his four sons, Hugh, Patrick, Henry, and Charles. His journal mentions all his visits to and fro between Nelson and Essex ; in making which he passes through Stafford, Spottsylvania, Louisa, Orange, Albemarle, Culpepper, and calls on all the first families in these counties, sometimes preaching, sometimes marrying, at other times baptizing. Wherever he went, accounts are brought out to him for examination and settlement, as though there was none other capable of it. His judgment as to farms is often consulted. He would not only visit them, but sometimes help to survey them. He was equally good at settling family disputes, and was often engaged
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in it. He was also a man of much public spirit. He once visited Western Virginia with some friends, going as far as the Cow Pas- ture, sleeping out at nights in cold weather, and drinking, as he records, wretched whiskey for want of something better,-though he was still a sober man. He was the first to descend James River, with one or two others, in an open canoe, as far as Richmond, and thus establish its navigability. At that and at other times, when travelling by land, we find him passing through all the counties lying between Nelson and York, stopping at all the chief places on James River,-at Colonel Jefferson's, in Goochland, (father of the President,) at Tuckahoe, Curls, Westover, &c. We find him re- peatedly at Williamsburg,-having business with the court and Legislature,-dining or supping with the Governor and Council, with Commissary Blair, President Burwell, Speaker Beverley, with the Nelsons and others at York,-then passing through Gloucester to Middlesex,-visiting at Brandon and Rosegill,-thence to his parish in Essex. About twice a year for five years he seems to have made excursions of this kind, more or less extensive. He was doubtless a very popular man in Virginia, and enjoyed the affection and confidence of the first men and families in the State. The manner and place in which he terminated his life is one proof of this. When the city of Richmond was about to be laid out, he was invited, by those to whom the duty was intrusted, to meet with them and aid by his counsel. It was while thus engaged that he sickened and died. He lies buried in the graveyard of the old church on Richmond Hill, with the following inscription :-
" Here lyeth the body of Robert Rose, Rector of Albemarle parish. His extraordinary genius and capacity in all the polite and useful arts of life, though equalled by few, were yet exceeded by the great goodness of his heart. Humanity, benevolence, and charity ran through the whole course of his life, and were exerted with uncommon penetration. In his friendship he was warm and steady; in his manners gentle and easy; in his conversation entertaining and instructive. With the most tender piety he discharged all the domestic duties of husband, father, son, and brother .* In short, he was a friend of the whole human race, and upon that principle a strenuous asserter and defender of liberty. He died the 30th day of June, 1751, in the 47th year of his age."
* Mr. Rose had four brothers, who, from his journal, must have settled some- where in Virginia not very far from him. His brother Charles was the minister of Cople parish, in Westmoreland county. In his journal he speaks of visiting him there. Visits are also exchanged with his other brothers, though their residences are not so exactly defined. He speaks affectionately of his brothers, wife, and children.
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He must have entered on his charge in Essex when he was but twenty-one years of age, for in his journal of February 1, 1746, he says that that was the twenty-first year of his incumbency in St. Anne's parish. If ordained Deacon during the year preceding his entrance into the parish, he must have been in his forty-third year at the time of this entry on the journal ; and he lived five years. and five months after this. It is difficult to reconcile these dates, and there may be a mistake either in the entry or the inscription.
I doubt not but that the inscription is far more just to his cha- racter than most of the records of that period. I have not been able to meet with any of the sermons of Mr. Rose, and therefore cannot speak of his theology or style of preaching; and there is nothing in his entries which give us any light into his religious cha- racter and sentiments, or the state of religion at that time. He only records his sermons, their texts, and the times and places of their delivery, and some baptisms and communions. Once only does he mention meeting with a Baptist,-an ignorant ploughman,-who tried to get him into a controversy about election and reprobation, and to whom the only advice he gave was, as he says, that of John the Baptist, that every man attend to his own business. The Bap- tists were then making considerable progress in Virginia, and I have no idea that Mr. Rose or any of the clergy of the Episcopal Church of that day were calculated to oppose them successfully. The style of the sermons and the delivery of the same were altogether too tame for that purpose. They were written, in almost every instance that I have seen, in a very small hand, and with very close lines, as if paper was too scarce and dear to admit of any thing else. They must have read very closely in order to get through with such manuscripts. The location and form of their pulpits were also such as to show that they kept their eyes very near to the manuscript, and did not care to look at the congregation. The pulpits in the old churches were always either on the side of the church, if oblong, or on one of the angles, if cruciform. The aisles were wide, and a cross aisle and door nearly opposite the pulpit, so that only a small portion of the congregation could be seen by the minister. It was also so deep, that unless he were a very tall man his head only could be seen. In the earlier part of my ministry I have often been much at a loss how to elevate myself in many of these old churches which I visited, and have sometimes hurried to church be- fore the congregation assembled, in order to gather up stones, bricks, and pieces of plank to raise a little platform under me, and which was not always very steady. I have preached repeatedly in two of
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the old churches, built under the auspices of Mr. Rose, whose pul- pits were remarkably deep. In one of them, a large round block sawed from the body of a tree, more than a foot high, had been provided by some one of his successors, and stood in the centre of the pulpit ; and even on this I found it uncomfortable to stand and preach. All of these old pulpits have been lowered and their loca- tion changed.
But I have something more to say of Mr. Rose from his journal. He was a kind of universal genius. Now he is in the house reading Cicero's Orations, now on the farm engaged in all kinds of employ- ment, now at his neighbours', instructing and helping them in various operations. Now he writes in his journal a recipe for the best mode of curing tobacco .* His visits to friends in neighbouring parishes are recorded. We find him in the Northern Neck, at the Fitzhughs' and Stewarts'; then going over to Maryland, visiting at Dr. Gus- tavus Brown's, five of whose daughters married clergymen, as we shall see hereafter ; at Dr. John Key's, who married another; as- sociating with some of the Romish clergy, who treated him very kindly. His association with numbers of the clergy of Virginia is mentioned. He speaks of Mr. Stewart, of King George,-then Stafford,-as an eloquent preacher, as being an exception to the scriptural rule, for he was a prophet who had honour in his own country. He mentions in an account-book Mr. Alexander Scott, of Stafford, as being minister in 1727, and Mr. Moncure, his suc- cessor, at a later period. He visits Mr. Mayre, of Fredericksburg,
* The following information is from a reliable source :-
" During the early part of my life,-say some fifty years ago or more,-I heard my grandfather, or my great-uncle, I do not recollect exactly which of them, relate an anecdote of Parson Robert Rose. There had been a year of great drought, pro- ducing, if not a famine the succeeding year, great scarcity and tribulation among the settlers of the upper part of Amherst and Nelson counties.
"Parson Rose, hearing of the distress of the people, gave information, by ad- vertising, that he had a quantity of corn which he could spare, and all those wish- ing to get a share should come to his house on a certain day. Many of the good people attended promptly to his summons, and when he thought they had all arrived he requested all those who wanted corn that they should form a line. They did so. When the line was formed, he asked the applicants whether they had the money to pay for the corn : many of them, rejoicing, cried out, ' We have the money ;' whilst the greater portion, with looks and eyes cast down, said, ' We have no money.' The par- son, with good-humour, commanded all those that had money to step one pace in front. After they had done so he said to them, 'You all have money ?' The cry was, 'Yes, yes ;' when he again, in great good-nature, said to them, 'As you have money, you are able to get corn anywhere ; but as to these poor fellows who have no money, they are to get my corn.' And it was so done."
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-Mr. Dixon, one of the successors of Mr. Latane in South Farn- ham parish,-mentions Mr. Thompson, of Culpepper, who married the widow of General Spottswood, and between whom and the family, who opposed the marriage, he effected a reconciliation. He speaks particularly of the Rev. Mr. Smelt, who, through his influ- ence, succeeded him in Essex. In his journal, after hearing him preach, he thus writes :- "Rev. Mr. Smelt preached on John, 4th chap. 8-36 verses, (Tillotson's,) delivered modestly and dis- tinctly."* Borrowing sermons was very common in those days. Other ministers also are mentioned, as Mr. Maury, of Albemarle, Mr. Douglass, of Goochland, Mr. Barrett, of Louisa, Mr. Yates, of Middlesex, Mr. Camm, of Williamsburg, Mr. Stith, of Curls Neck, and Mr. Cruden. With the leading families of his parish he ap- pears to have lived on the most intimate terms. He is continually breakfasting, dining, or staying all night, at Colonel Brooke's, at Mr. Beverley's of Blanfield, at Mr. Tarent's, Mr. Fitzhugh's, at Mr. Garnett's, Mr. Rowzie's, Fairfax's, Parker's, Mercer's, and Lomax's. He appears to have been a man of energy and business in Church matters also. When elected minister in Nelson, then part of Albe- marle, and in what was called St. Anne's parish, at one meeting of the vestry in 1749 he had an order passed for four new churches,- the Forge, Balinger's, Rooker's, and at New Glasgow, the two for- mer on the Green Mountain, and the latter in what is now Amherst, though he did not live to see them all finished. The habits of Mr. Rose were doubtless temperate. He speaks of turning away an overseer for getting drunk on a certain occasion ; and yet, in evidence of the habits of the times, he speaks of bringing home with him one day from Leighton's, on the Rappahannock, "rum and wine and other necessaries," and at another time of carrying a quarter- cask of wine into Nelson, the first that ever crossed Tye River, although the Cabels, Higgenbottoms, and Frys then lived there.t In further proof of the manner and habits of the age, I mention the entry of a visit to one of the leading families of his parish, when he found that the head of it had gone to Newcastle (which was in
* The Rev. Mr. Smelt was the grandfather of Miss Caroline Smelt, whose memoirs were written in the year 1818 by the Rev. Moses Waddell, of South Carolina. Mr. Smelt was an Englishman, and a graduate of Oxford. His son Dennis Smelt, after receiving his literary education at William and Mary College, went to England and obtained a medical one. On returning to America he settled in Augusta, Georgia, where he married a Miss Cooper. The religious exercises and character of their daughter Caroline were such as to justify the publication of her memoirs. t This is questioned.
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another county, and a considerable distance off) to a cockfight. I read of him also as being at a horse-race at Tye River, (probably at New Market, where were races afterward,) but then he adds :- "Memorandum : suffer it no more," as though he had power to pre- vent it and would do so. I bring this notice to a close by stating that Mr. Rose was twice married. Who his first wife was, or whence she came, I know not. At the death of a daughter in 1748, there is the following entry :- "Buried my daughter's body by the side of her mother and brother Robert, at Mr. Brooke's plantation." His second wife was Miss Ann Fitzhugh, of Stafford, not far from Fredericksburg. With all the families of Fitzhughs in Stafford, King George, and Essex, he seems to have lived on the most affec- tionate terms. His last wife survived him, but how many years I am unable to say. His four sons, Hugh, Patrick, Henry, and Charles, settled on the farms in Nelson and Amherst left them by their father. His son Colonel Hugh Rose was a man of great de- cision of character, and for many years acted as lay reader in two of the churches of Amherst,-viz. : Rooker's, and that at New Glasgow. After the war of the Revolution, and when the church was without a minister, a young preacher of another denomination, coming from a distance, and understanding that there was no mi- nister in the parish, gave notice that on the following Sunday he would officiate in the church at New Glasgow. On the Sabbath morning he took possession of the pulpit. Soon after, Colonel Hugh came in, prepared to execute his office. Seeing the pulpit occupied, and learning by whom, he ascended and politely informed him that it was his church, and that he could not give place to another. Whereupon the occupant came down, and the lay reader performed his part. Being an accomplished gentleman, however, as well as staunch Churchman, he insisted on his going home with him, where he treated him with so much kindness and hospitality as to make a deep impression on the young preacher, who took pleasure ever after in speaking of the whole affair.
As to the successors of Mr. Rose in Essex, we are unable to speak fully, for want of documents. Mr. Smelt succeeded him in 1749, and was there in 1758, according to a list which I have from an English paper. I have no other lists of ministers until the year 1774 and 1776. In two Virginia almanacs of those dates, the Rev. John Matthews is set down as the minister of St. Anne's parish. From 1776 to 1814 there is no account of it. No delegation, either clerical or lay, appear in any of the Conventions from 1784 to 1805. After the renewal of our Convention, in 1812, two years elapsed
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n
before there was any representative. In 1814 the Rev. Mr. Norris and myself passed through the Northern Neck and Essex, on our way to Richmond, when the Hon. James Hunter and Thomas Mathews were appointed delegates. In the year 1817 the Hon. James Garnett was sent, and, in the year 1820, Mr. Robert Bever- ley. In the year 1822 the Rev. John Reynolds took his seat as minister of both of the parishes of Essex. In the year 1826 the Rev. John P. McGuire appears as minister of the same. He con- tinued faithfully serving them for twenty-four years, and performing a large amount of missionary labour in the adjoining counties. During his ministry the old and venerable brick church called Vauter's (built most probably about the year 1731) was repaired, and two others built in St. Anne's parish,-one a very handsome frame building in Tappahannock, the other about ten miles off. The Rev. Mr. Temple, fourth in descent from Mr. Latane, is the minister of the latter, and the Rev. E. C. McGuire, son of the Rev. Dr. McGuire, of Fredericksburg, and nephew of the former minister, the Rev. J. P. McGuire, is the rector of the former,-viz .: Vau- ter's Church, St. Anne's parish. Some of the descendants of the old families mentioned in Mr. Rose's journal still help to sustain the Church in this region. Many of them are scattered far and wide through the land.
The following communication concerning Old Vauter's Church, from Mr. Richard Baylor, of Essex, is worthy of a place in an article on St. Anne's parish :-
" Upon a branch of Blackburn's Creek, called Church Swamp, stands Vauter's Church, built, as indicated by a date inscribed upon its walls, in 1731. This church, as you know, is in a good state of preservation,- though it has been twice thoroughly shingled and otherwise repaired and modernized within my recollection. The walls over the doors and win- dows have cracked somewhat, but with proper attention Old Vauter's will yet serve many generations. The first thing that I recollect, as con- nected with the old sanctuary, is, that my father used to keep the old English Bible at Marl Bank, and when the casual services of a passing Episcopal minister were to be held there, a servant took the old Bible on his head, and accompanied the family, a near walking-way, across this same Blackburn's Creek, and after service brought it back. I still have the old Bible at Kinlock, [the name of Mr. B.'s place,] valued for its an- tiquity, and on its blank leaves are numerous references in my father's handwriting. I remember when the church-doors always stood wide open, if, indeed, they could be closed, and have taken refuge myself from a storm in the body of the church, leading my horse in with me. Before the old Bible was kept by my father or others, it laid upon the desk; and I have heard that a man told upon himself that he once took the Bible, intending, no doubt, to appropriate it to his own or worse uses, carried it
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some miles or more homeward from the church, when he became so conscience-smitten that he returned and restored it to its own place. I was told by the late Robert B. Starke, of Norfolk, that many years ago he attended, as surgeon, one of a party who fought a duel in Vauter's Churchyard, before the door facing toward Loretto. The parties were the late General Bankhead and a Mr. Buckner, who, after an exchange of one or two shots without physical effect, retired satisfied. We are now indebted to the firm friendship of a lady that Vauter's Church did not share the same fate of other such sanctuaries,-as, for instance, the church at Leedstown, just across the river. So soon as Mrs. Muscoe Garnett heard that persons had commenced carrying away the paving- stones of the aisles, and perhaps some of the bricks, she claimed the church as her own, and threatened prosecution to the next offender. The ground on which she placed her claim was that the church stood on her land, or that of her family. Around the church are numerous graves, all now levelled down; and no one knows, or seems to care to know, who tenants them. The only tombstones to be seen are those over Mr. Ander- son and Mr. Miller, who both lived and died at Brooke's Bank. Messrs. Anderson and Miller were merchants, and Brooke's Bank an old trading- place on the Rappahannock."
A friend has furnished me with the following information and sta- tistics, which are well worthy of insertion as a supplement to the two articles on the parishes in Essex county. It will be remembered that, from 1652 to the year 1695, what is now Essex was a part of Rap- pahannock county, and what are now South Farnham and St. Anne parishes were part of Littenburne parish. The only list of vestry- men in Rappahannock parish is that of the first vestry after its establishment, under a minister by the name of Francis Doughty. In place of the names of vestrymen, the old records of the court furnish us with a list of the magistrates and clerks ; and a friend has transcribed the following, who acted from 1680 to 1800 :-
Names of Justices of Rappahannock County from 1680 to 1695, when Essex County was established.
Henry Aubrey, Major Henry Smith, Captain George Taylor, Mr. Thos. Harrison, Colonel Jno. Stone, Colonel Leroy Griffin, Major Robinson, Colonel Wm. Loyd, Captain Samuel Bloomfield, Wm. Fauntleroy, Samuel Peachy, William Soughter, Cadwallader Jones, Henry Williamson. Clerks of the Court, Robert Davis, Edward Crosk.
Essex County, 1695. Names of Justices from 1695 to 1700.
Captain John Caslett, Captain William Moseley, Robert Brocky, John Taliafero, Thomas Edmunson, Francis Taliafero, Captain John Battaile, Bernard Gaines, James Baughan, Francis Gaulman, Richard Covington. Clerk of Court, William Colson.
From 1700 to 1720: William Tomlin, Samuel Thrasher, Dobyns, Robert Coleman, Thomas Meriwether, Colonel John Lomax, Colonel
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William Dangerfield, Paul Micou, Major Benjamin Robinson, Captain Thomas Waring, Francis Thornton, Joshua Fry. Clerk of Court, Francis Meriwether.
From 1720 to 1740 : William, son of Colonel William Dangerfield, Captain Salvator Muscoe, Robert Brooky, Captain Nicholas Smith, Alexander Parker, Thomas Sthreshley, Major Thomas Waring, James Garnett, Richard Tyler, Jr., Mungo Roy, Benjamin Winslow, Thomas Jones, Francis Smith, William Roane. Clerk of Court, William Be- verley.
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