USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 47
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A few words concerning Petersburg and Blandford will close my remarks. We naturally like to know the origin of the names of places in which we take interest. In looking over documents which have been furnished me, I find the name of Petersburg ascribed to the fact that a great number of persons by the name of Peter, especially of the family of Jones, were among the first settlers .* As to Blandford, which was, as to the time of its settlement, con- siderably in the advance of Petersburg, the name is supposed to have been given it because so much of the property around was once in the possession of the family of Blands. Concerning the venerable old church at Blandford, now and for a long time past only used for funeral services of those who are buried around it, and which reminds the traveller of the "moss-grown battlements and ivy-mantled towers" of our fatherland, I need only present to the reader the following lines of some unknown one, which are
* Colonel Byrd, in his visit to Eden (as he calls his land on the Roanoke) in the year 1733, took with him a Mr. Peter Jones. In his journal he says, "When we got home, we laid the foundation of two cities,-one at Shocco's, to be called Rich- mond, and the other at the point of Appomattox River, to be called Petersburg. Thus we did not only build castles in the air, but cities also." We learn that the locality was first called Peter's Point, subsequently changed to Petersburg.
In the year 1762 the town of Petersburg was enlarged by taking in twenty-eight acres of land belonging to one Peter Jones, and the following gentlemen, with very large powers, made trustees of the town,-viz. : Robert Bolling, Roger Atkinson, William Eaton, John Bannister, Robert Ruffin, Thomas Jones, Henry Walker, George Turnbull, and James Field. It appears that until the year 1784 there were four towns clustered together in that place,-viz. : Blandford, Petersburg, Pocahontas, and Ravenscroft, all of which, by an act of the Legislature of that year, were united under the one name of Petersburg.
OLD BLANDFORD CHURCH, PETERSBURG, VA
"Lone relie of the past! old mouldering pile, Where twines the ivy round its ruins gray "
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engraven on its walls, and refer them to the not less exquisite ones to be found in Mr. Slaughter's pamphlet,
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" Thou art crumbling to the dust, old pile, Thou art hastening to thy fall, And around thee in thy loneliness Clings the ivy to thy wall. The worshippers are scatter'd now Who met before thy shrine, And silence reigns where anthems rose In days of old lang syne.
" And rudely sighs the wandering wind, Where oft, in years gone by, Prayer rose from many hearts to Him, The highest of the high. The tramp of many a busy foot Which sought thy aisles is o'er, And many a weary heart around Is still'd for evermore.
" How oft ambition's hope takes wing ! How droop the spirits now! We hear the distant city's din : The dead are mute below. The sun which shone upon their paths Now gilds their lonely graves; The zephyrs which once fann'd their brows The grass above them waves.
" Oh, could we call the many back Who've gather'd here in vain, Who careless roved where we do now, Who'll never meet again,- How would our souls be stirr'd To meet the earnest gaze Of the lovely and the beautiful, The light of other days !"
The following is a list of the vestrymen whose names are in the record from the year 1720 to 1788. For the continuation of the list, reference is made to the fuller sketch of this parish by the Rev. Mr. Slaughter :- Robert Bolling, Robert Munford, A. Hall, L. Green, Henry Randolph, Thomas Bott, William Kennon, G. Wilson, Peter Jones, George Archer, Robert Kennon, I. Herbert, Drury Bolling, William Poythress, Theophilus Field, A. Bevell, Charles Fisher, William Starke, D. Walker, F. Poythress, J. Bannister, William Hamlin, Theodoric Bland, T. Short, W. Eppes, G. Smith, L. Dewey, J. Gordon, J. Boisseau, J. Murray, A. Walker, T. Wil-
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liams, Alexander Bolling, William Eaton, Roger Atkinson, G. Nicholas, Sir William Skipwith, N. Raines, John Ruffin, R. Bolling, William Kall, Dr. Theodoric Bland, (afterward Colonel Bland of the Revolution,) Richard Taylor, Thomas Jones, Peter Jones, J. P. Wheat, Robert Skipwith, W. Brown, William Robertson, John Kirby, R. Bolling, James Field, William Diggs, B. Kirby, R. Turn- bull, John Shore, T. G. Peachy, A. G. Strachan, J. Hull, J. Geddy, R. Gregory, J. Bonner, E. Harrison, A. Gracie, T. Bolling, J. Campbell, R. Williams, D. Hardaway, John Grammar, Sr., George Keith Taylor, Thomas Withers, A. Macrae, W. Prentiss, E. Stott, J. Osburne, R. Moore, D. Maitland.
To this we add, that, on examining the list of baptisms from 1720 and onward, we find the following names, among many others :- Birchett, Bolling, Hardaway, Jones, Poythress, Buchan, Peebles, Hinton, Vaughan, Pegram, Peterson, Walthall, Sturdivant, Stith, Rowlett, Bragg, Batte, Bannister, Guilliam, Hammond, Bland, Chambliss, &c.
THE GENEALOGY OF THE BLANDS.
From the genealogy of the Blands preserved at Jordans, we take a few extracts, sufficient to comply with the character of these sketches,-their religious character. It is an old and highly-respect- able English family. I leave it to others to speak of the gallant conduct and fatal end of Giles Bland in Bacon's Rebellion, and be- gin with Theodoric Bland, who settled at Westover, in Charles City, in 1654, and died in 1671. He was buried in the chancel of the church, which church he built and gave it, with ten acres of land, a court-house and prison, for the county and parish. His tomb is now to be seen in old Westover graveyard, lying between those of two of his friends, William Perry and Walter Aston. The church is fallen down. He was one of the King's Council for Virginia, and was both in fortune and understanding inferior to none in the Colony. He left three sons,-Theodoric, Richard, and John. We confine ourselves to his son Richard and his posterity. He was born at Berkeley, the neighbouring estate, in 1665, and married first a Miss Swan, and secondly Elizabeth, daughter of William Randolph, of Turkey Island. His daughters, three in number, married Henry Lee, William Beverley, and Robert Monford. His sons were Richard and Theodoric, who moved to Prince George and lived at Jordans and Causons, near City Point. Richard was the one who took so active a part in the affairs of both Church and State before and during the war of the Revolution. He wrote a treatise on Baptism
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against the Quakers, of which sect some of his ancestors or relatives in England had been. He died in 1776, and was buried at Jordans. He married a Miss Poythress and had twelve children. The other son of Richard Bland, Sr., was Theodoric, who lived at Causons. He married a Miss Bolling, descendant of Pocahontas, and had one son Theodoric, and five daughters, who married Messrs. Ban- nister, Ruffin, Eaton, Haynes, and Randolph of Roanoke, father of John Randolph, member of Congress. At Mr. Randolph's death she married St. George Tucker, who was afterward Judge of the Court of Appeals. His son Theodoric was Lieutenant of the county, Clerk, Burgess, and vestryman. He was active to the close of the war, as his letter to Colonel Theodoric Bland, his son, shows. His son received a complete English education, being in England eleven years, and returning a thorough-bred physician. But, not liking that profession, and engaging warmly in the dispute with England, he entered the army and signalized himself. He attained to the rank of colonel, and stood high in the esteem of Washington. His letters to Lord Dunmore, at the opening of the war, have not a little of the spirit and genius of Junius in them. In the year 1769, while living at Blandford, or Petersburg, and practicing me- dicine, we find his name on the list of vestrymen, thus following his father's footsteps.
Of old Mr. and Mrs. Grammar, on whom for a considerable time, by general consent, the very existence of the Episcopal Church in Petersburg seemed to hang, I need not speak, or seek for any epitaph. They live in the hearts of children and children's chil- dren yet alive, and in the memories of many others who revere their characters and endeavour to follow their example. The social prayer-meetings held at their house, when the old lady was unable any longer to go to the house of God, were refreshing seasons to ministers and people.
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ARTICLE XLI. 1
Parishes in Chesterfield, Dale, and Manchester.
CHESTERFIELD was originally part of Henrico shire and parish, as established in 1632. In -, that part of the parish lying some miles north of the Appomattox was taken into Bristol parish, but at the establishment of Dale parish was incorporated into it. Dale parish, therefore, included the whole of Chesterfield until Manchester parish was separated from it. In this region were some of the earliest settlements. Bermuda Hundred was esta- blished in 1611, by Sir Thomas Dale. A large portion of the College Lands were laid along James River, on its northern bank, toward Manchester. Here the Indian massacre in 1622 was great. On Colonel Berkeley's plantation alone-at Falling Creek-him- self and twenty others were destroyed. At an early period settle- ments were made on James River and the Appomattox, from City Point to what are now Manchester and Petersburg.
The first ministers were in one corner of the county, at Bermuda Hundred, Whittaker, Wickham, and Stockham, of whom we have already spoken. In the sketch of Bristol parish we have given the names of those who have ministered in this part of the State from 1693 to the time of the establishment of Dale parish.
The first of whom we read after this is the Rev. George Frazer, in 1754, who was also minister in 1758. How long he continued afterward cannot be ascertained. In the years 1773-74-76, the Rev. Archibald McRoberts is on the list of clergy as minister of this parish. Having been ordained in 1763, he may have been there some years before. He was the bosom-friend of Mr. Jarratt for a number of years, but left the Church about the year 1779, during the war, and after the Church had become very unpopular. His defence of this act will, I think, be considered by nearly all as a very weak one. He was not the minister of Dale parish at the time, but of one in Prince Edward. His letter in reply to two written to him by Mr. Jarratt, inquiring into the truth of his re- ported change, and as to his reasons for it, is dated Providence,
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July 13, 1780. This was the name of the glebe near Prince Edward Court-house. In it he says,-
" Upon the strictest inquiry it appears to me that the Church of Christ is truly and properly independent ; and I am a Dissenter under that de- nomination. Ecclesiastical matters among the Presbyterians I find every day verging toward my sentiments, and will, I believe, terminate there. There is very little that divides us even now. They constantly attend my poor ministry. Several of Mr. Sanky's people have joined my congrega- tion, and I have lately had a most delightful communion-season at Cum- berland, where I assisted Mr. Smith, at the urgent request of himself and the elders. Soon after my dissent, as my concern for the people had suf- fered no change, I drew up a set of articles including the essential parts of natural and revealed religion, together with the Constitution and Dis- cipline of the Christian Church, and proposed them to their consideration ; since which they have formed a congregation at the chapel, and a few have acceded at French's and Sandy River .* I preach at the churches by permission, and intend to continue, God willing, until the first of January, at which time, if congregations should not be formed at the lower churches, my time will be confined to the chapel, and such other place or places as Providence may point out and the good spirit of God unite his people at."
It appears that, failing to attach his old Episcopal congregations to the Independent Church, which he was endeavouring to establish, he afterward connected himself with the Presbyterian, which was then gaining ground in that region, as we find him spoken of as a minister of that communion. Of his subsequent history we know little. That he was a pious and conscientious man we are well con- vinced.t
* These are the distinguishing-names of the three churches in the parish in which he had been minister.
+ A correspondent, (not of the Episcopal communion, ) who seems well acquainted with the history of this period and region, writes thus concerning Mr. McRoberts :- " He was, like many other of the old Episcopal clergy, a Scotchman by birth. The opinion you express concerning him was, I dare say, the general one, and is certainly the judgment of charity. There were persons, however, who thought that be showed something of the wariness of his countrymen in abandoning a sinking ship. He married a daughter of Robert Munford, of Mechlenburg, (whose wife was Maria Bland.) Mrs. McRoberts was amiable indeed, but more remarkable for genius than for those domestic virtues which best befit a minister's wife." My cor- respondent also mentions an anecdote of Mr. McRoberts which will not be without interest to our readers :- " Most of the able-bodied men of Prince Edward were off with the army, on duty elsewhere, when Tarleton with his troop of cavalry made his foray through that and the neighbouring counties. He visited sundry houses in Prince Edward, attempted to frighten women and children, destroyed much fur- niture, and otherwise did wanton mischief. A detachment was also sent to the glebe, and Mf. McRoberts had hardly time to escape. They ripped open feather-beds,
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After Mr. McRoberts, in 1776, we have no records to inform us who was the minister of Dale parish until the Convention of 1785, the first after the Establishment was put down, when the Rev. Wil- liam Leigh, who was ordained by the Bishop of London in 1772, was the clerical delegate. His name does not appear after this, and I am informed that he died in the year 1786 or '87, aged thirty- nine years. In the year 1776, I find he was the minister of Man- chester parish in the same county. He was the only son of Fer- dinand Leigh, of West Point, in King and Queen county, Virginia. His father early dedicated him to the ministry. He was educated at William and Mary College. He married the daughter of Ben- jamin Watkins, Clerk of Chesterfield county. He lived at Dale glebe, near Petersburg, and preached at Wood's Church and Ware Bottom, or Osburne's, alternately, and sometimes at Saponey Church, of Chesterfield. Mr. Leigh was the father of Judge William Leigh, of Halifax county, and Benjamin Watkins Leigh, of Richmond, both of them so well known in Virginia,-the one as lawyer and judge, the other as lawyer and statesman; also of two sisters, Mrs. Finnie and Mrs. Harris, zealous members of our Church .*
broke mirrors, &c., and went off, having set fire to the house. It burned slowly at first, but the building would have been consumed had not a shower of rain come up suddenly and extinguished the flames. Mr. McRoberts, who regarded this as a special interposition of Providence, called the place Providence,-a name it has borne to this day. When the glebe was sold he became the purchaser. It after- ward became the property of Colonel Venable, one of whose children still owns it."
* The name of Watkins is often to be found on our vestry-books as members of the vestries in different parishes. Many of the name have for a century past been found in different connections. In the year 1745, a Mr. Thomas Watkins, of Henrico, son of Edward Watkins, is presented for reflecting upon the Established Church, and saying, "Your churches and chapels are no better than synagogues of Satan." Ile was, however, dismissed without fine or injury. This was probably the com- mencement of defection in that family from the Established Church. I have be- fore me a pamphlet by Mr. Francis Watkins, of Prince Edward, in which is contained a full genealogy of all the branches of this wide-spread and respectable family, so far as it can be ascertained, to the present time. It is supposed to be of Welsh descent. The name of James Watkins appears among the early emigrants to Virginia in 1607 or 1608. He was a companion of Smith in his perilous voyages of discovery in Virginia, and may, it is supposed, have been the first ancestor of the family ; but nothing was certainly known except of the descendants of Thomas Watkins, of Swift Creek, Cumberland county, -now Powhatan, -whose will bears date 1760. He had eight children. His eldest son, Thomas, of Chickahominy, is spoken of thus by the late Benjamin Watkins Leigh, his great-nephew :- " Of Thomas Watkins, of Chickahominy, I have heard very full accounts from my mother (wife of the Rev. William Leigh, of Chesterfield) and from my uncle Thomas, both of whom knew him well. He was a man of the highest respectability in every point
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Of the Rev. Mr. Leigh, the testimony of children and of many others speaks nothing but what is good. He was succeeded by the Rev. Needler Robinson, whose name first appears on our journal as its minister in 1790. He continued to be its minister-nomi- nally at least-until his death, in 1823. The Episcopal Church in Chesterfield nearly disappeared during the period of his ministry. Indeed, his time and labours were chiefly devoted to a school from the first. Although he lived so many years after our Conventions in Richmond were renewed, and was so near the place, he never attended them.
I have been furnished with a few leaves from the vestry-book of Dale parish, from the years 1790 to 1799, from which I am able to give a list of the vestrymen during that period. They are as follows :- Jerman Baker, John Botts, George Robertson, Richard Bosker, Blackman Morly, Thomas Bolling, King Graves, Arch. Walthall, Arch. Bass, Jesse Coghill, Daniel McCallum, Charles
of view, and in particular a man of indefatigable industry." He reared a large family of children, four sons and seven daughters, from whom have proceeded nu- merous families of numerous names, in and out of Virginia. Of his son Joel Wat- kins, of Charlotte, Mr. John Randolph of Roanoke, in a manuscript left behind him, says,-" On Sunday, the second of January, departed this life Colonel Joel Watkins, beloved, honoured, and lamented by all who knew him. Without shining abilities or the advantages of an education, by plain, straightforward industry, under the guidance of old-fashioned honesty and practical good sense, he accumu- lated an ample fortune, in which it is firmly believed there was not one dirty shil- ling." Much is said of the worth and piety of other children of Thomas Watkins, in the pamphlet referred to, and of the descendants of the same, which is worthy of perusal. In the appendix of the same there is a special notice of his brother Ben- jamin Watkins, youngest son of the first Thomas, of Powhatan, who married Miss Cary, of Warwick. He was the first clerk of Chesterfield county, which office he held until his death. He was a man of genius, a scholar and patriot, took an active part in the affairs of the Revolution, and was a member of the Convention of 1776. The Rev. Mr. Leigh, of Chesterfield, married his daughter, and was the father of the late Benjamin Watkins Leigh, of Richmond, and the present Judge William Leigh, of Halifax ; also of Mrs. Finnie, of Powhatan, and Mrs. Harris, of Petersburg. One of the sons (Thomas) of Benjamin Watkins, the clerk of Ches- terfield, married Rebecca Selden, daughter of Miles Selden, of Henrico parish. Their daughter Mary was the first wife of Benjamin Watkins Leigh. Their daugh- ter Rebecca married Judge William Leigh, of Halifax, and their daughter Hannah Dr. John Barksdale, of Halifax. The eldest daughter (Hannah) of Benjamin Wat- kins married a Mr. William Finnie, of Amelia, from whom have descended nume- rous families of Finnies, Royalls, Woreshams, Sydnors, and others in Virginia, South Carolina, and the West. It will be remembered that we have spoken of a Rev. Alexander Finnie, as a minister in Prince George in the year 1774, and probably before and after that. On inquiry we find that he was connected with this family, but how nearly cannot be ascertained. He may have been closely allied to the first-named William Finnie, of Amelia.
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Graves, George Woodson, Henry Winfree, Roger Atkinson, Tho- mas Friend, Charles Duncan, Daniel Dyson, John Hill, Henry Archer.
On the same loose leaves we have a number of subscription-lists, on which are names well known to us at this day. The object, we presume, was for repairing the churches about the year 1790. Among them, besides the above-named vestrymen, were the follow- ing,-a few among many :- Osborne, Rowlett, Burton, Roisseau, Taylor, Gibbs, Royall, Shore, Worsham, Branch, Tanner, Ran- dolph, Burwell, Goode, Ward, Clarke, Hardaway, Walke, Barber, Donald, Bragg, Epps, Belcher, Hodges, Marshall, &c.
Nothing is heard of this parish for a long and dark period.
In the year 1835, the Rev. Farley Berkeley takes charge of Raleigh parish, Amelia, and extends his labours to Old Saponey Church, in the neighbourhood of a few zealous friends of it,-the Thweats, Johnsons, and others. He has been succeeded for some years by the Rev. Mr. Tizzard, who devotes his whole time and labours to the county of Chesterfield.
The Old Saponey is deserted : a new church has been erected some miles off, in a more convenient location. Wood's Church is still standing. The following communication in relation to it comes from such a source that I feel sure I shall not do injustice to any one in publishing it :-
"About 1831 or 1832, the old deserted church was repaired by the united efforts of two bodies of Christians, and occupied by them until it was abandoned by both in 1848. Another repairing being found neces- sary, it was undertaken by a gentleman attached to the Episcopal Church. By him it was restored to the Episcopalians, and at his invitation the first sermon preached by a minister of that body. Before the next Sunday, however, the house had been entered, the main door fastened up, a lock put upon a side-door, and the building taken possession of by one of those bodies which had deserted it. Anxious to recover their lawful right to this venerable building, the Episcopalians of the neighbourhood made ap- plication to the judge to appoint two of their number to hold it as Epis- copal property. The application was rejected, on the ground that it was public property, and belonged no more to Episcopalians than to any other body of Christians. During the last repair the workmen discovered on one of the upright beams the figures 1707, showing that it was built thirty years before the Old Blandford Church."
In regard to the right of property I have before said, that that most eminent jurist, Mr. Chapman Johnson, after the most tho- rough examination of the question, gave it as his opinion that the right of the Church to the old houses of worship was not impaired
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by any Act of the Virginia Assembly. It would appear very un . likely that such a body would pass an act so well calculated to engage all bodies of Christians in such disgraceful broils as must ensue from declaring them common property, to be used as art or violence might determine. It would have been far better to offer them to the highest bidder,-as was done in regard to the glebes and parsonages, which were, as the churches, built by levies on all the tithables. As when Episcopalians have abandoned their churches and others take possession, so, when these in turn have abandoned them, and we, under altered circumstances, repair and re-enter them, it would seem just and reasonable that we be allowed so to do.
MANCHESTER PARISH, CHESTERFIELD COUNTY.
This parish was taken from Dale parish in 1772. The dividing- line commenced at the mouth of Falling Creek, on James River, and ended at the mouth of Winterbock Creek, on the Appomattox. In the following year the line was altered; the upper part, includ- ing Manchester, was Manchester parish. At Falling Creek there are, I believe, still the remains of an old and venerable church,- whether built before or after the division I am unable to say, but most probably before I presume there must also have been one in or near Manchester. The troublous times of the Revolution being at hand when it became a parish, it is probable that nothing was done toward building churches in it after the division.
As to ministers, we read of the Rev. William Leigh, who took charge of it in 1773 and kept it until 1777; how much longer we cannot say, as we have no lists of the clergy after that until 1785, and in 1786 he was minister of Dale parish. In 1785, the Rev. Paul Clay is minister for one year. In the year 1790, the Rev. William Cameron, brother of Dr. John Cameron, was minister, and continued so for four years. In the year 1799, the Rev. John Dunn is the minister. After this there is no delegation from this parish, except when the names of Mr. David Patterson and James Patterson appear as laymen in 1805. I remember the former well, as a constant attendant at our Conventions in Richmond after their revival in 1812. He took a deep interest in all the movements of the Church until his death. If not a reader at Falling Creek Church before, he was appointed such by Bishop Moore, and con- tinued to the last to officiate to the few who remained in our com- munion around the old temple.
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