USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 48
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I conclude the little I have to say of the parish of Manchester and Falling Creek Church with the following notice of it by a young brother in the ministry, who visited them both a few years since :-
FALLING CREEK CHURCH.
" I visited Falling Creek Church in 1849, and note the following par- ticulars concerning it :-
" This church is in Chesterfield county, about thirteen miles southwest of Richmond. It is situated in what is now a very secluded spot. I in- stinctively raised my hat as I crossed the old decaying threshold and stood under the roof of this ancient edifice. It is a wooden building, the tim- bers of the very best quality, and even at the time [1849] in a state of almost perfect preservation. After the old style, we find the clerk's desk at the foot of the reading-desk, and, rising above both, the pulpit,-the latter of octagonal form, with a sounding-board. These were at the side of the church. At the end of the aisle, and opposite the main entrance, were the chancel and communion-table. A side-door faces the pulpit. The window-shutters were, with one or two exceptions, all missing. The sashes had been taken from the windows and scattered about the church and yard, and none of them appeared to have ever had a single pane of glass, so carefully had the work of appropriation been carried on. The pews are square, with seats on all four sides, and capable of accommo- dating about fifteen or twenty persons cach. About two hundred persons could have been comfortably seated on the floor of the church, while many additional sittings might have been found in a gallery which ran across the end of the house opposite the chancel.
" A gray-haired old negro-not very talkative, but a coloured gentleman of the old school, for his manners were almost courtly-informed me that he could ' just remember when the church was built, being then a mere boy.' He said that it was always crowded 'when the clergyman with the black gown preached.' He remembered, too, ' when the British soldiers camped in the churchyard,'-at whose appearance his master and mistress, and all their family, hurriedly fled. The name of his master I have forgotten. He pointed out one of the largest trees in the churchyard, and told me he had seen that tree planted as a scion at the head of an infant's grave. He had forgotten whose child it was. The Baptists had used the church for some time, until of late years, when they abandoned it, owing to its retired position. It was taken possession of by those who did not feel it was holy ground, for its walls were desecrated with scribbling unsuited to the sacredness of the place ; and about a month before my visit the dead body of a poor creature, noted in the neighbourhood for his drunken habits, was discovered lying at the foot of the clerk's desk, much defaced by the rats. Better that the owls and the bats should have undisturbed possession, than that God's image should thus be defiled in the house of prayer."
There was a warm friend of the Church living near this place, of whom it becomes us to make some mention. Mr. Archibald
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Cary, of Amphill, in Chesterfield, appears in the Episcopal Con- ventions in the years 1785 and 1786. as delegate from Dale parish. In the last of these years he died. I refer my readers to Mr. Grigsby's work on the Convention of 1776, for a sketch of the po- litical character and patriotic services of Mr. Cary. He was among the very foremost of the patriots of Virginia. " It was from his lips, as Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, that the words of the resolution of Independence, of the Declaration of Rights, and a plan of government, first fell upon the public ear." The following is a brief sketch of one branch of the Carys, from Mr. Grigsby's book :-
" Miles Cary, the son of John Cary, of Bristol, England, came to Vir- ginia in 1640, and settled in the county of Warwick, which, in 1659, he re- presented in the House of Burgesses. In 1667 he died, leaving four sons. His son Henry, father of Archibald, was appointed to superintend the building of the capitol at Williamsburg, (when the seat of government was removed from Jamestown ;) also at a later period to superintend the rebuilding of the college, which had been burnt. He married a daughter of Richard Randolph, of Curles, and left five daughters, who married Thos. Mann Randolph, of Tuckahoe, Thos. Isham Randolph, of Dungeness, Archibald Bolling, Carter Page, of Cumberland, and Joseph Kincade."
This branch has been denominated the Iron Carys, from the fact that Archibald Cary was called "Old Iron," either, says Mr. Grigsby, because of his "capacity of physical endurance" or " his indomitable courage," or because he had an iron furnace and mills at Falling Creek, on the site of one established by Colonel Berkeley, who, with a number of his men, was murdered by the Indians in 1622. Mr. Cary's mills were burned by Colonel Tarleton in the American war.
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ARTICLE XLII.
St. James Northam, Goochland County.
GOOCHLAND COUNTY was cut off from Henrico in 1727. In the year 1744 the parish of St. James Northam, was restricted to the north side of the river, and that on the south side was called St. James Southam, both of them being in Goochland, which still lay on both sides of the river, and extended from the Louisa line to Appomattox River. Albemarle county and parish were also in this year taken from Goochland, by a line from Louisa to the Appo- mattox. We shall now speak of the parish of St. James Northam, in Goochland, on the north of James River. The vestry-book which we have commences at its division in 1744. How long it had been supplied with services before this we are unable to ascer- tain. The vestry-book begins with stating that, the parish being divided into three parts, each parish was at liberty to choose its own minister, and since the Rev. Mr. Gavin, who had been the minister of the undivided parish, was disliked by many, the vestry would procure another. To this Mr. Gavin did not agree, but in- sisted on choosing this part, and did continue the minister until his death in 1749. There is no charge brought against the character of Mr. Gavin, but only that he was not acceptable to many of the people. The following letter of Mr. Gavin to the Bishop of Lon- don may perhaps throw some light upon the subject :-
Mr. Gavin to the Bishop of London.
"ST. JAMES PARISH, GOOCHLAND, August 5, 1738.
"RIGHT REV. FATHER IN GOD :- I received your Lordship's blessing in May, 1735, and by bad weather we were obliged to go up to Maryland, and from thence five weeks after I came to Williamsburg, and was kindly received by our Governor and Mr. Commissary Blair. I got immediately a parish, which I served nine months; but hearing that a frontier-parish was vacant, and that the people of the mountains had never seen a clergy- man since they were settled there, I desired the Governor's consent to leave an easy parish for this I do now serve. I have three churches, twenty-three and twenty-four miles from the glebe, in which I officiate every third Sunday; and, besides these three, I have seven places of service up in the mountains, where the clerks read prayers,-four clerks in the seven places. I go twice a year to preach in twelve places, which I reckon better than four hundred miles backward and forward, and ford nineteen
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times the North and South Rivers. I have taken four trips already, and the 20th instant I go up again. In my first journey I baptized white people, 209; blacks, 172; Quakers, 15; Anabaptists, 2; and of the white people there were baptized from twenty to twenty-five years of age, 4; from twelve to twenty, 35; and from eight to twelve, 189. I found, on my first coming into the parish, but six persons that received the Sacra- ment, which my predecessors never administered but in the lower church ; and, blessed be God, I have now one hundred and thirty-six that receive twice a year, and in the lower part three times a year, which fills my heart with joy, and makes all my pains and fatigues very agreeable to me. I struggle with many difficulties with Quakers, who are countenanced by high-minded men, but I wrestle with wickedness in high places, and the Lord gives me utterance to speak boldly as I ought to speak. I find that my strength faileth me; but I hope the Lord will be my strength and helper, that I may fight the good fight and finish my course in the minis- try which is given me to fulfil the word of God.
"There is one thing which grieves my heart,-viz. : to see Episcopacy so little regarded in this Colony, and the cognizance of spiritual affairs left to Governors and Council by the laws of this Colony. And next to this, it gives me a great deal of uneasiness to see the greatest part of our brethren taken up in farming and buying slaves, which in my humble opinion is unlawful for any Christian and particularly for clergymen. By this the souls committed to their care must suffer; and this evil cannot be redressed, for want of a yearly convocation, which has not been called these ten years.
"The Rev. Mr. Blair I really believe is a good man, and has been a good minister, but he cannot act in his commission as it is required, and I have always wished that your Lordship would send as a Deputy-Commis- sary a clergyman of known zeal, courage, and resolution, and such as could redress some great neglects of duty in our brethren, and bring Epis- copacy to be regarded ; for even some of the clergymen born and educated in this Colony are guilty in this point.
" Pardon, my Lord, these my open expressions. I think myself obliged in conscience to acquaint your Lordship with these evils, in hopes that God will direct you to prevent them in some measure; for, though I know how things go with us in this world, we do not know what shall become of us in the next.
" And that God may bless and preserve your Lordship, and grant plen- teousness to your family, is, has been, and shall be, the daily prayer of,
"My Lord, your Lordship's most obedient and submissive son and servant in Jesus, ANTHONY GAVIN."
From the foregoing it may be inferred that he was a zealous and laborious man, and very plain in his speech. His views of slavery were sufficient, if expressed, to make him very unacceptable to many of his parishioners. It would seem, also, that there had been ministers in the parish before him, but they confined their labours to the lower church,-probably that at Dover, nearest to Richmond, -whereas he extended his to the mountains, at least fifty or sixty miles farther up.
Immediately after his death the Rev. Mr. Douglass was chosen.
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He entered on his duties in 1750. His history and character de- serve some notice, and must be acceptable to his numerous and re- spectable descendants. They are gathered chiefly from a large regis- ter of baptisms, funerals, marriages, sermons, &c., interspersed with other notices, throwing some light upon the peculiarities which dis- tinguished him. The Rev. William Douglass was from Scotland. In the year 1735 he married Miss Nicholas Hunter, by whom he had only one child,-a daughter named Margaret. In the year 1748 or 1749, leaving them behind, he came over as teacher in the family of Colonel Monroe, of Westmoreland, father of President Monroe, who was one of his pupils, as was also Mr. Jefferson after- ward, in Goochland. After some time, returning to England, he was ordained, and brought back his wife and daughter in the year 1750, and in the same year settled himself in Goochland. His daughter Margaret, whom he always called Peggy, married Mr. Nicholas Meriwether, of Albemarle, and they were the ancestors of many of that name in Virginia. He brought with him, or had sent to him, two nephews from Scotland, whom he adopted, edu- cated, and called his children. He had a brother named James, who settled in New York and left a numerous posterity there. Perhaps some of that name who have ministered in our Church may be his descendants. A few years since a Mr. George Douglass and two daughters from this family in New York paid a visit to Albemarle to see their relatives in that county, when a happy family meeting occurred. One of the adopted sons of Mr. Douglass (William) returned to Scotland and inherited a title. The other (James) went to New York and became a successful merchant. One of his daughters married James Monroe, (the nephew and adopted son of President Monroe,) who some years since represented the city of New York in Congress. After this biographical notice of himself and family, I return to his register, from which we learn some things concerning the early history of this parish nowhere else to be found. He states, as coming to him from good authority, that the church at Dover was undertaken by Mr. Thomas Mann Randolph in 1720; that it was finished in 1724 at a cost of fifty- four thousand nine hundred and ninety pounds of tobacco; that it was fifty by twenty-four feet in size; that the Rev. Mr. Finnie was employed during those four years to preach once a month; that the Rev. Mr. Murdaugh was then received as a minister ; that he was to preach the last Sunday in every month alternately at the plantation of Mr. Robert Carter, on the south side of James River, and of Major Bolling, on the north side of James River. We learn,
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also, that in the year 1727 the Rev. Mr. Brooke preached once per month for them; and that in the same year the Rev. Mr. Beckett was received into the parish as a minister. We learn also, from his diary kept in this register, that ministers were very scarce in the surrounding counties, so that Mr. Douglass had much duty to per- form in the way of funerals, marriages, &c. He records one thou- sand three hundred and eighty-eight marriages and four thousand and sixty-nine baptisms. His views of doctrine and ministerial character may be seen from the favourable notice taken of Turre- tine, Doddridge, Walker, Hill, and Whitefield,-also, of Shower's Sacramental Discourses. In one of Doddridge's works-his Ser- mons to Young Men-he has written on a blank leaf these lines to his children :-
"This, with all Doddridge's other writings, I leave as my best legacy to my dear children, to supply my deficiencies in your education, which I now sadly remember has been shamefully neglected. Part with none of his works for gold or silver, but let your children enjoy them, if you will not.
" I am your loving father, "WILLIAM DOUGLASS."
To this I add an extract from a letter to one of his nephews, just married, not long before his death :-
" Industry, frugality, good contrivance, with the divine blessing, are the only schemes to make us happy for this world and another. That was your father's and grandfather's scheme; and oh, Billy and Martha, make it yours ! Set up, by all means, the worship of God in your family; and let others about you do what they will, and heap up riches by every method, but as for you and your family, do you serve God. As for me, I am quite unfit for this world, and am daily waiting till my change come.'
As to the time in which the churches were completed, with the exception of that at Dover, it is not easy to determine. The three churches at which Mr. Douglass officiated were Dover, Beaver Dam, and Licking Hole. In the year 1777, after a minis- try of twenty-seven years, he resigned his charge, and settled on a farm in Louisa, where he spent the remainder of his years, which were not many. In that year the Rev. Mr. Hall was ap- pointed for twelve months, to be continued or rejected at pleasure when the time expired. In the year 1781 the Rev. Mr. Hill was minister. In that year the glebe rented for only five hundred- weight of tobacco. In the year 1787, a tax of three pounds and ten shillings was levied, or called for, in order to defray the ex-
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penses of the Rev. Mr. Griffith's consecration as Bishop, of which Mr. Thomas Mann Randolph paid three pounds. So many of the parishes failed of their contributions that the consecration did not take place. In the year 1789, the Rev. Mr. Hopkins was chosen minister, and continued such until his death, in 1807, when the old vestry-book ceased. All the accounts received of the Rev. Mr. Hopkins are of the most favourable kind. His first minis- terial years were spent among the Methodists; but in conse- quence of some dissensions among them, or their separation from the Episcopal Church, he entered into the ministry of the latter. Tradition says that he was ordained by Bishop White, at a time when the Congress of the United States and the General Con- vention of the Episcopal Church were both sitting in Philadelphia : that, being called on to preach before civil and ecclesiastical digni- taries, and especially with General Washington full in view, he was for a time overwhelmed, but roused himself up to boldness by remembering "that a mightier than Washington was there." Soon after his ordination he became the minister of Hollowing Creek and Allen's Creek Churches, in Hanover county, supply- ing also the Manakin and Peterville Churches, in Powhatan. In 1787, he became minister of Beaver Dam and Licking Hole Churches, Dover Church being left out. He died in the seventieth year of his age, universally esteemed and beloved. He was mar- ried twice, and had eleven children by each wife. His first wife was a Miss Pollard, the second a Miss Anderson .*
After a long and dreary interval of utter destitution, the hopes and efforts of the few remaining friends and members of the Church in Goochland and the neighbouring counties were aroused, in the year 1726, by the missionary labours of the Rev. William Lee. As to body, Mr. Lee being little more than thin air, or a
* I have obtained the following information concerning the ancestors of Mr. Hopkins. Toward the close of the seventeenth century, three brothers emigrated to this country from Wales,-one of whom settled in Massachusetts, one in Penn- sylvania, and one in Virginia,-from whom it is probable that great numbers of the name of Hopkins in this country have sprung. Of the twenty-two children of the Rev. Mr. Hopkins, I believe only three are now alive. The oldest of these, a most worthy man, lives on James River, in Goochland. The two youngest-Mr. George W. Hopkins, of Washington county, and Henry L. Hopkins, of Powhatan- have been honoured with various offices,-both of these having been, repeatedly, members of the Virginia Assembly, and each of them of the State Convention; both of them having been Speakers of the House of Delegates; one of them sent on a mission to Portugal, and now Judge of the Circuit Court, and the other a member of the Council and Commonwealth's Attorney.
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light feather, as he galloped over these counties, his horse felt not the rider on his back; but the people felt the weight and power of a strong mind and will, and the pressure of a heart and soul devoted to the love of God and man. He laid the foundation anew of the churches in Goochland, Powhatan, Amelia, and Chesterfield, and, like another Allen, lived to see them all sup- plied by ministers. His physical power being incompetent to these itinerant labours, he took charge of the Church of St. John's, in Richmond, and afterward of that in the Valley, now a mission- ary church. His health failing even for this, he devoted himself to the press, and was the first editor of the Southern Churchman, establishing it in Richmond. He continued to edit the same until his part of the work was performed, when lying on a sick-bed, his proof-sheets corrected, his selections made and editorials written, while propped up with bolsters and pillows, thus, to the last, spend- ing and being spent in his Master's service. During his stay in Richmond, he was as a right hand to Bishop Moore, who not only loved him for his amiable qualities and zealous piety, but respected him for his good judgment, which he often consulted.
In April, 1839, the Rev. Mr. Doughen took charge of the parish, but only continued a short time. He was succeeded, in the same year, by the Rev. Richard Wilmer, who continued, with a short interval, until the summer or fall of 1843. In the year 1844, the Rev. Joseph Wilmer took charge of it, and continued until the year 1849; and he was succeeded by the Rev. Francis Whittle, who resigned in 1852. The Rev. Mr. Rodman has re- cently become its pastor.
The following list of vestrymen is copied from the vestry-book, beginning in the year 1744. The Christian names are omitted, for the sake of brevity, except where necessary to distinguish from those of the same surname :-
Cocke, Hopkins, Smith, Martin, Burton, Miller, William Randolph, Woods, Tarlton Fleming, Holman, Bates, Lewis, Peter Jefferson, (father of the President,) Jordan, Pollard, Cole, Pryor, Stamps, Thomas Mann Randolph, Woodson, Thomas and John Bolling, Underwood, Sampson, Vaughan, Morris, Curd, Bryce, Perkins, Massie, Pemberton, Leake, Harris, William Bolling, Carter, Eldridge. After 1826: Ferguson, Pleasants, T. K. Harrison, Garland, Vashon, Edward Cunningham, Carter Harrison, J. A. Cunningham, Randolph Harrison, James and William Galt, Weisiger, Stillman, Jackson, Thomas Bolling, Nelson, Watkins, Stanard, Julian Harrison, Logan, Turner, Skipwith, Morson, Taylor, Selden, Anderson.
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To this it is proper to add, that Mr. William Bolling, in the year 1840, presented a house and fifty acres of land to the church for a parsonage. St. Paul's, a brick church, was built in the same year, and, being burned down some years since, was rebuilt in 1855.
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ARTICLE LXIII. King William Parish, or Manakintown, the Huguenot Settlement on James River.
THIS parish was originally in Henrico county, which extended thus far and far beyond it on either side of James River. It is now in Powhatan county, whose name is taken from the ancient name of the river and the old King Powhatan. By Act of Assembly in 1790, it was assigned to the French refugees who were driven from their country by the persecutions of Louis XIV., and sought an asylum in Virginia, as hundreds of thousands did in all the various countries of Protestant Christendom. Before giving that brief detail of the parish which its tattered records afford, it will be proper to allude to the history of that most cruel persecution. Though the Re- formation had so far succeeded in France as to number one million of its most resolute converts, yet there were twenty millions of bigoted adherents to the Papacy. By uniting their influence and arms with other Protestants around, the Huguenots, however, had for a century been a terror to the monarchs of France and the Papal throne. The bloody massacre of St. Bartholomew's eve, in 1572, only served to increase their resolution. By their aid was Henry IV. placed upon the throne of France. Out of policy he de- clared himself a Romanist, though it was believed he was more of a Protestant at heart. He soon determined to put a stop to the persecution and wars which had been carried on, and while declaring the Papal the true and established Church, and the Protestant the "Pretended Reformed Religion," secured them both in their reli- gious privileges, by the Edict of Nantes, in the year 1685 .* This continued in force during the reign of Louis XIII. and the minority of his son, Louis XIV. On his accession to the throne, he de- termined on a different course. The dupe of Jesuits, confessors,
* The clergy and Parliament opposed the edict violently, but Henry said, "I have enacted the edict. I wish it to be observed. My will must be observed as the reason why. In an obedient State, reasons are never demanded of the prince. I am King. I speak to you as a King. I will be obeyed." The Protestants, also, who were dissatisfied at his declaring himself for the Romish Church, complained and threatened ; but he spoke as decisively to them.
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Madame Maintenon, and Cardinal Mazarin, he set about converting the Huguenots to the Catholic Church. He did not for some time repeal the Edict of Nantes by a formal decree, but set it aside by various acts which rendered it of no avail. He declared his de- termination to convert all his subjects to the true faith of Rome. This he attempted by bribery, using large sums for the purpose ; by persecution of various kinds; by destroying their churches and requiring them to attend the Romish worship. Immense numbers stole away from the country, though death and confiscation were the penalties. At length the formal decree was passed. The Edict of Nantes was revoked. The Protestant clergy must be converted, or leave the kingdom in fifteen days, or be sent to work in the galleys. Great numbers of false-hearted ones, chiefly of the laity, were converted, either by gold or the sword,-for dragoons were the chief ministers of the King, therefore converting was called dra- gooning. It is computed that by emigration alone not less than three hundred thousand were lost to the country. All the nations of Protestant Christendom, and even Russia, were shocked at the scene, and, deeply sympathizing with the sufferers, threw open their doors to receive them, and vied with each other who should afford most succour and most immunities and privileges. They thus found their way into every Protestant country of Europe, and into many parts of the United States, especially into New York, Virginia, and South Carolina, where their names are to this day the names of some of the most respectable families of the land. Dearly has France and the Romish Church paid for the inhuman treatment of these brave soldiers of the cross. Ardent lovers of religious liberty, they have been in every land the most strenuous asserters of it; and, sound in the faith, they have boldly contended against the false docrines of Rome. Trained from generation to generation to con- tend for their rights on the battle-field, in gratitude to those who have afforded them an asylum, they have on many a field of Europe revenged their own and their fathers' wrongs. Nor did Louis suc- ceed in his design to banish them from the land. The blood of the martyrs was again the seed of the Church. Some faithful ones were kept there by the arm of the Lord, as in the hollow of his hand, who have increased and multiplied to this day; and it is be- lieved that at this time the proportion of Protestants in France to the Catholics is as great as in the days of Louis the persecutor. Then there was one million to twenty, now one million eight hun- dred thousand to thirty-four millions; and the same policy by the Bonapartes has been found necessary as that adopted by Henry
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