USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 50
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OLD CHURCHES, MINISTERS, AND
The explanation of this was as follows :- Mr. Jarratt took his place in a pew on one side of the pulpit, in a corner, where he sat with a handkerchief over his head. The excuse which Bishop Madison offers for ordaining one or more of them, whom he admitted to be unworthy, was the same which Governors and Commissaries formerly did for not disgracing such,-viz .: that " ministers were so scarce, we must not be too strict." The Convention of 1792 was the last Mr. Jarratt attended. In the year 1795, he says, "I have now lived in the world just sixty-two years." Infirmities of body were now coming over him. The use of one eye had long been lost to him. A tumour on his face, which ultimately proved to be a cancer, began to make its appearance. Notwithstanding this, he says, "old and afflicted as I am, I travelled more than one hundred miles last week, was at three funerals, and married two couples. Within less than three months, I think, I wrote about nine hundred pages in quarto. Part of them I copied for the press ; part I extracted and abridged ; part I composed in prose and poetry. But now it is probable I have wellnigh finished my work." Still, he went on with his public duties. "I wish," he says, "to go to church every Sunday at least, and join in her most excellent system of public worship,-a system to which I am particularly attached, because it is noble, beautiful, and complete in all its parts, and, in my judg- ment, well calculated to answer the end designed. And will such a system ever be permitted to fall to the ground ? I fondly hope it will not; though, alas ! the prospect here in Virginia is gloomy enough. Churches are little attended,-in most places (I judge from report) not more than a dozen, one Sunday with another ; and sometimes half that number. By a letter from a Presbyterian minister, I learn that religion is at a low ebb among them. The Baptists, I suppose, are equally declining. I seldom hear any thing about them. The Methodists are splitting and falling to pieces." As to himself, he says, "I have yet tolerable congregations, but the people have sat under the sound of it so long, that they appear gospel-hardened." He speaks of the condition of a minister in Virginia as most discou- raging. He was labouring without any compensation; and yet, he says, "it is pretended that I have an itching palm." This he disproves by declaring that from 1776 to 1785 he received not one farthing, and that after the Church was organized in Virginia, and a subscription was set on foot in his parish, he only received about thirty or forty shillings the first year, and nothing since.
To this brief sketch, taken from his own letters to Mr. Coleman, I only add the following remarks by the editor :-
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"Mr. Jarratt meddled very little with politics. He had enough to do to attend to the duties of his profession. He considered himself ar am- bassador of Christ. His business was to call sinners to repentance, and to teach mankind the way of salvation without regard to parties or opinions. Had he been asked what countryman he was, in the spirit of universal philanthropy he might have answered, like Socrates, 'I am a citizen of the world;' but when the rights of his country were invaded, or her interests endangered, the amor patria which dwelt in his bosom would not permit him to be an unconcerned looker-on. Many circumstances took place during the Revolution, and all well known in Virginia, which unite to evince his attachment to the interests of America. When the Governor of Virginia (Lord Dunmore) left the seat of Government, and issued a proclamation for all the loyalists to join him, it was necessary to guard the seaport-towns from depredations. Many of his parishioners and even his pupils turned out as volunteers in defence of their country, and with his approbation. I remember the circumstances well, being out myself in 1776; and a fellow-student of mine (Mr. Daniel Eppes) read the Declaration of Independence to the army. During the contest between England and America, his dress was generally homespun. By precept and example he encouraged economy, frugality, and industry. I have often heard him recommend these virtues to his fellow-citizens, and even to go patch upon patch rather than suffer their just rights to be infringed."
Mr. Jarratt died on the 29th of January, 1801, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and the thirty-eighth of his ministry. His excellent widow survived him a number of years. She was the daughter of a Mr. Clayborne, of Dinwiddie or Brunswick. They had no children. Mrs. Jarratt was one of the first and most liberal contri- butors to our Theological Seminary.
Though fifty-five years have elapsed since the death of Mr. Jarratt, the history of his successors is brief. With one exception all are now living, and therefore my pen is hindered. The Rev. Wright Tucker, like-minded with Mr. Jarratt, succeeded him. In the year 1805, he is in the Convention at Richmond. There had been no Conventions, or else no journals of them, since 1795. Another interval of seven years elapsed without Conventions. Mr. Tucker was not at the Convention of 1812, but appeared in 1813. How long he lived and ministered after this is not known to the writer. His name is not on the journals afterward. Nor is it known that there were any regular ministrations there, until the year 1827, when the Rev. John Grammar-a son of the two props to the church in Petersburg, already mentioned, one of whom was an old parishioner of Mr. Jarratt-took charge of the parish, in connection with that of St. Andrew's in Brunswick. From the time of his settlement to the present, there have been six ministers besides himself,-the Rev. Thos. Castleman, the Rev. Mr. Massie, the Rev. Mr. Banister, the Rev. Mr. Webb, and the Rev. Thomas
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Ambler. A new brick church has been built at the court-house Old Saponey still stands, and is the only one of the three in which Mr. Jarratt officiated that has any existence so far as we know and believe. No bishop or other minister can enter that plain but venerable building without associations of the most sacred character. Although only a very few now live who remember to have seen old Father Jarratt, even in their early years, yet his name and memory have been handed down from generation to generation with the highest respect, and not only the Old Saponey, but the Episcopal Church itself in that region, used to be known and called by some of the inhabitants " Old Father Jarratt's Church."
As to the families which once dwelt around that spot and wor- shipped in that house, where are they ? One at least remains to remind us of former days. Hard by the old church still lives the aged widow of Mr. Thomas Withers, the friend of Mr. Jarratt, the prop of Old Saponey in many ways. To the old mansion, as by instinct, the clergy always repair, when the service is over, and love to ask and hear of former days and of Father Jarratt. The descendants and relatives of old Mr. Withers and his still surviving widow are numerous, and many of them active members of the Church, and one of them in the ministry: but where are they ? Old Saponey knows them no morc.
BRUNSWICK COUNTY AND ST. ANDREW'S PARISH.
The county of Brunswick and parish of St. Andrew's were esta- blished in 1720, being cut off from the counties of Isle of Wight and Surrey and the parishes of the same, by Act of Assembly. Being a frontier-county, arms and ammunition were assigned to the settlers, taxes remitted for ten years, and five hundred pounds given to Na- thaniel Harrison, Jonathan Allen, Henry Harrison, and William Edwards, to be by them laid out in building a church, court-house, prison, pillory and stocks, where they shall think fit. Twelve years after this, in the year 1732, other portions of the Isle of Wight and Surrey were added to Brunswick. Having had access to the vestry- book of this parish, which commences in the year 1732, when the county and parish were then completed, we are able to give a more accurate account of the church and its ministers than of some others. It is evident that there had been previous vestries, and that the church ordered by the Assembly had been built, (where is not known,) and there may have been a minister or ministers before the commencement of this vestry-book. But in 1733 the vestry met and chose the Rev. Mr. Beatty, at the recommendation
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of the Governor. He was to preach at the church already built, and some place on Meherrin, where a chapel was to be built. At a meeting in 1734, two chapels, instead of one, were ordered, and the places selected, but objection, it is supposed, being made, and complaints sent to the Governor and Council, that body gave direc- tions where they were to be placed. The one was to be on Me- herrin, and called Meherrin Church, and the other on or near Roanoke, to be called Roanoke Church, the old church to be called the Mother-Church. In the year 1739, another church is deter- mined on, and in 1742, mention is made of the new church. In 1744, it is resolved to build a church on the south side of Roanoke. In 1746, it is resolved to build a church on the south side of Meherrin. In the year 1750, mention is made of Duke's Chapel, and Rattlesnake Chapel. These, we presume, were additional to the two on either side of Meherrin, and the two on either side of Roanoke, and the Mother-Church,-being seven in all. As to their location I can form no conjecture. The problem must be solved by the citizens of Brunswick and Greensville, the latter county,
with one or more of the churches, having been cut off from the former at a later period. In the year 1750, the Rev. Mr. Beatty disappears from the record, having served the parish seventeen years. In the same year the Rev. George Purdie is elected minister for six months. At the end of the year the Rev. William Pow,-the same no doubt who was soon after the minister in Bath parish,-being recommended by the Hon. Lewis Burwell, President, and the Commissary, is chosen. In six months after, the Rev. Mr. Purdie is again the minister, though with the remonstrance of four of the vestry. In November, 1752, the name of another chapel-Reedy Creek-appears, and in the year 1754 another by the name of Kittle Stick. At the same date the Rev. Mr. Purdie is allowed to preach once in three months at Red Oak School-House,- probably the place where Red Oak Church afterward stood.
At a vestry-meeting in 1755 the following entry is found :-
" The vestry, being of opinion that the Rev. George Purdie has for some time past neglected his duty, and behaved himself in a manner which is a scandal to a person of his function, do order and direct Drury Stith, Edward Goodrich, and Littleton Tazwell, or any two of them, to wait on the Commissary and acquaint him as soon as possible with the behaviour and conduct of said Purdie for some time past, and request him to make use of his authority in silencing him, (if any such he hath,) and if not, that he will join with us in a remonstrance to the Bishop of London, or such other person or persons as he shall advise, to have the said Purdie removed from the parish."
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Under the same date we find mention of the Old Court-House Church, and an order that the Surveyor of the county make a plan of it, as it will be necessary to build three other chapels.
In the year 1757, we find the case of Mr. Purdie before the vestry, the Commissary having ordered a trial. The witnesses appear, when Mr. Purdie acknowledges guilt and resigns his charge, but the vestry agree to try him for one year more. At the end of that time, one month's trial was allowed him. They are not relieved from him until April, 1760. His case is mentioned in other documents which I have. The Rev. Patrick Lunan and the Rev. Gronon Owen next present themselves as candidates, and are both admitted on trial for one year, the salary to be equally divided between them. The Rev. Mr. Lunan was doubtless the one who gave such trouble to the parish in Suffolk soon after this. The Rev. Mr. Owen had been recommended by the Governor, but the recommendation did not come until the application of Mr. Lunan had been made. Therefore they were both put on trial, but at the end of the year neither was chosen. Governor Fauquier then presented Mr. Owen, who was accepted. There was probably some understanding between the vestry and Governor to this effect, or else the Governor, being an authoritative man, insisted upon his right of presentation and induction,-a thing seldom done by any of his predecessors. Mr. Owen continued to be the minister until 1769, and died there. We should have had no knowledge what- ever of Mr. Owen but for a recent communication from a literary society in London, from which it appears that he was a man of talents and worth. The communication referred to makes inquiry concerning him and his posterity, and their history in this country. It seems that he was a Welshman, a man of great genius and a fine scholar, who wrote one of the best poems in the Welsh language, concerning Wales ; and a Welsh society in England is desirous to erect some monument to his memory in that country. All the information which could be returned was, that some worthy grand- children-two females-were living in Brunswick in reduced cir- cumstances. No tombstone, no inscription, exists. Perhaps the place of his interment is unknown. In the year 1769, the Rev. Mr. Lundie produces a certificate from the Bishop of London of his ordination, and is received as the minister.
The entries in the vestry-book now become irregular and brief. The war of the Revolution was at hand. The best men were on the field or in the councils of the country. Henry Tazwell, an active member of the vestry, was taking an active part in the
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affairs of the country. The ministers lost their salaries; the glebes were for the most part scarcely worth having, and the glebe-houses tumbling over their heads. The Rev. Mr. Lundie was among the few who continued at his post during the war. His name is seen on the Journal of the Convention in 1785, which met in Richmond to organize the diocese and unite in the general confederation of the Church in America. He was then the minister of the churches in Greensville as well as Brunswick. After this he became a minis- ter of the Methodist communion. The names of Drury Stith, John Jones, Thomas Claiborne, appear among the lay delegates. They were probably among the last who despaired of the Church in this region. It is believed that the Rev. Mr. Grammar in 1827 was, longo intervallo, the regular successor to Mr. Lundie. The Rev. Messrs. Jarratt, Tucker, and Cameron, from the adjoining counties of Dinwiddie and Lunenburg, doubtless performed many ministerial offices there during their ministries.
In giving a list of the clergy in Bath parish, from Mr. Grammar's time to the present, we have given the list of the ministers of St. Andrew's parish, as they were under the same ministry, with the exception of the three last,-the Revs. Messrs. Berger, Johnson, and Mower, whose services have been confined to Brunswick, while Bath parish had its own. Under the auspices of these ministers of our resuscitated Church in Brunswick, three new churches have been built, one at Lawrenceville, another about twelve miles off, called Wilkin's Chapel, from the name of him who built it at his own ex- pense, and the third about eighteen miles from Lawrenceville.
The following is the list of vestrymen from the year 1732 to 1786 :- Henry Embra, John Wall, Richard Burch, Wmn. Machen, Wm. Wynne, Charles King, Wm. Smith, Thomas Wilson, Robert Dyer, Nicholas Lanier, Wm. Hagwood, Batt Peterson, Nathaniel Edwards, James Mitchell, Clement Read, George Walter, John Ligleport, Littleton Tazwell, Nicholas Edmonds, John Clack, Thomas Switty, Henry Edmonds, Robert Briggs, Edward Good- rich, Heagle Williams, John Petway, Samson Lanier, William Thornton, W. Edwards, Henry Cocke, Alexander Watson, Thomas Stith, Frederick Machen, Francis Willis, Henry Tazwell, Joseph Poeples, Richard Elliott, William Batte, Thomas Edmonds, Wm. Machen, Buckner Stith, Benjamin Blick, Birrus Jones, Andrew Meade, John Stith, John B. Goldsberry. Among the above- mentioned vestrymen we read the names of Clement Read, Little- ton and Henry Tazwell. Of the first we shall speak when we find his name on the vestry-book of Cumberland parish, Lunenburg, when
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separated from Brunswick. For notices of the two Tazwells, we refer to Mr. Grigsby's book on the Convention of 1776. The first was descended from William Tazwell, who came from Somer- setshire in 1715, and married a daughter of Colonel Southey Littleton. His son Littleton resided in Brunswick and was an active vestryman and churchwarden. His grandson Henry was born there, and became a lawyer of eminence. He married a Miss Waller. He was the father of the present Littleton Waller Taz- well. After distinguishing himself as a statesman and patriot in the House of Burgesses, and in other causes during and after the war, he was raised to the bench of the Court of Appeals, and then appointed Senator of the United States in the place of Mr. John Taylor, of Caroline, and in opposition to Mr. Madison.
MEHERRIN PARISH IN THE COUNTY OF GREENSVILLE.
This parish was separated from St. Andrew's parish, Brunswick, in 1753. No vestry-book being extant or in our possession if extant, we can only ascertain, from such lists of the ministers as we have, who belonged to this parish. In the year 1754 we find the name of John Navison, and also in 1758, as the pastor of this parish. In the years 1773-74-76, the Rev. Arthur Emmerson was the minister. In the year 1791 the Rev. Stephen Johnson was the minister for that year, and that only. From that time it is supposed a deathlike silence pervaded the churches, so far as Episcopal services were concerned, until of late years. The Rev. Edward E. McGuire was sent as missionary to Greensville, Sussex, and Southampton, in 1842. The Rev. Mr. Withers succeeded him in Sussex and Southampton, and was succeeded in Greensville by the Rev. Mr. Sprigg in 1846. The Rev. W. D. Hanson also spent one year in Greensville. In the time of Mr. Sprigg, in the year 1848, a neat and comfortable house of worship was formed out of a large barn or stable, and, under the ministry of the Rev. Mr. Robert and of his predecessors, a tolerable congregation has been raised up in this waste place of our Zion. I am further informed, by a letter which had escaped my notice when writing the fore- going, that before the division of Meherrin from St. Andrew's there were two churches in it, to which two more were added, one near the Carolina line, and one on the Meherrin River, three or four miles west of Hicksford. A third was Grassy Pond Church, the traces of whose foundation may yet be seen ; the fourth was near Poplar Mount. All of them being cheap churches, of wood, as nine- tenths of the Colonial churches were, soon perished. There is a
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tradition, that, besides the above, a Mr. Fanning was the minister of this parish, and was too favourable to the British; but I cannot find his name on any of my lists, before, during, and after the war, and do not believe that there was one of his name in Virginia. That the British under Arnold did not receive favour in the whole of the parish is proved by the fact that there is a place near one of the churches to this day called Dry Bread, because they would let them have nothing else to eat there. There are two churches now in the county, of recent erection,-Christ Church, Hicksford, and Grace Church, twelve miles off.
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ARTICLE XLV.
Parishes in Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, and Charlotte Counties. Cumberland Parish.
IN the year 1745, Lunenburg county and Cumberland parish were cut off from Brunswick. In the year 1764, Lunenburg county embraced all that is now Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, and Charlotte. There had been, previous to this. three parishes in it,-viz .: Cum- berland, St. James's, and Cornwall. In that year it was divided into three counties also, commensurate with the above-mentioned parishes,-Cumberland parish being in Lunenburg, St. James's in Mecklenburg, and Cornwall in Charlotte. We shall now present what information we have about the parish of Cumberland, in Lu- nenburg. The vestry-book which we have commences in 1746, just after the parish and county were cut off from Brunswick, and when they embraced all of Mecklenburg and Charlotte, and that which was afterward, in 1752, cut off and made Halifax county and Antrim parish, which, as we shall see, was again divided into Pittsylvania and Halifax. At the time we commence with Cum- berland parish, it therefore comprehended all the territory which is now Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Charlotte, Halifax, and Pittsyl- vania, to which we may add Henry, Franklin, and Patrick.
In the first year after the establishment of the parish,-viz. : 1746,-the vestry ordered a chapel forty-eight feet by twenty- four to be built near Reedy Creek. This was near Lunenburg Court-House. It was consumed by fire between thirty and forty years since, during the ministry of Rev. Mr. Philips. Committees also were appointed to select places for a chapel and reading- house, near Otter River and the Fork of Roanoke ; and another committee the following year for purchasing a site for a chapel on Little Roanoke. In the year 1748, the following communication between the vestry and the Governor confirms what I have pre- viously said as to the relation between vestries and Governors :-
"Letters commendatory from Sir William Gooch, Baronett and Lieutenant-Governor, and Mr. Commissary Dawson, in favour of the
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Rev. John Brunskill being presented to the vestry: they are willing to pay all due respect and deference to the Governor's and Mr. Commis- sary's recommendation, and are willing to receive the said Mr. Brunskill into this parish as a minister of the Gospel for one year, and at the expiration thereof to cause to be paid him the salary by law appointed. But, forasmuch as they are not willing to be compelled to entertain and receive any minister other than such as may answer the end of his ministerial function, they only intend to entertain and receive him as a probationer for one year, being fully minded and desirous that, if they should in that time disapprove his conduct or behaviour, they may have it in their power to choose another."
This was signed by Lewis Deloney, Clement Read,* William Howard, Lyddall Bacon, David Stokes, Thomas Bouldin, Abraham Martin, John Twitty, Matthew Talbot, vestrymen.
It would appear that the vestrymen had not been inactive in the erection of churches during the two years since entering on their office, for the contract with Mr. Brunskill, to preach at the four churches already built, and at another place on South River, and two others, are determined on this year. Mr. Brunskill remained but one year ; and, if he was the man who so disgraced himself and the Church in Fauquier soon after this, the vestry did wisely in their mode of engaging with him. There were three John Bruns- kills in the Church of Virginia at this time,-one of whom died in Amelia. The Rev. George Purdie is the next minister. They are yet more careful in their contract with him ; for, although re- commended by the President of the Council, Mr. Burwell, and Com- missary Dawson, they will only receive him on trial for six months, and agree with him that either party may dissolve the connection by giving six months' notice. He remained about eighteen months, and, having occasion to visit England, resigned his charge. The vestry, however, speak well of his conduct while he was their minis- ter. On his return from England, (if he went,) he became in the following year minister of St. Andrew's in Brunswick, as we have seen. In the year 1751, the Rev. William Kay, of whom we shall have more to say in another place, became the minister on a pro-
* Clement Read, mentioned above, was one of the most influential men in Lunenburg, as that county originally was laid out. He was the first clerk of the court, having been appointed in 1745, and became the head of a numerous family. His son Isaac was the lieutenant-colonel of the 4th Virginia Regiment, and died in the service at Philadelphia. His son Thomas was also a leading man in the Revolution, was county-lieutenant of Charlotte, and was clerk of the court of Char- lotte for almost half a century. One of the daughters of Clement Read married Judge Paul Carrington the elder, and nearly all the Carringtons of Charlotte and Halifax are the results of that marriage."
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bation of two years, with the understanding that either party might be released at the end of one year. Mr. Kay, being a worthy minister, remained with them until his death in 1755. In 1756, the Rev. Mr. Barclay became the minister, on the condition that he or the vestry might aissolve the relation at a moment's warning. After continuing one year and some months, Mr. Barclay resigns, and recommends to the vestry to give a title to the parish to Mr. James Craig, student of divinity, in order that he might ob- tain Orders,-that being necessary according to the English canons. They agree to this, as they did a few years after to Mr. Jarratt, but only on condition of his entering into bond, with proper secu- rity, that he shall not by virtue of this title insist upon being the minister of this parish if he shall not be found agreeable to the gentlemen of the vestry and the parishioners, after trial. This was the common custom of the vestries in Virginia in regard to those who were only candidates for the ministry and wished to be able to comply with the canon and obtain Orders. In the year 1759, the Rev. James Craig becomes their minister. About this time several other chapels are ordered.
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