USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51
To these I will only add a few words as to the spirit cherished and the course pursued toward our Christian brethren who walk not with us in all things of Church order and worship. Long and bitter was the strife that subsisted between them and our fathers, violent the prejudices that raged against us, and it would have been easy to enter on the work of revival in the spirit of retalia- tion and fierce opposition. But would it have been right, and as our Master would have had us do? Our forefathers had done religion much and them some wrong. God made use of them for good. Many of them were doubtless most sincere in their fear of us and opposition to us. It became us rather to win them over by' love, and secure their esteem by living and preaching dif- ferently from our predecessors. Such was the conciliatory course
1
60
OLD CHURCHES, MINISTERS, AND
pursued by our deceased father in God, and followed by those who perceived the good effects of his example, and most happy was the effect of the same. But while we have reason, at thought of our present by comparison with our past condition, to exclaim, "What hath God done!" "to thank him and take courage," yet should we beware of boasting, or of supposing that all is done, or that what remains will certainly and easily be done. I consider it as the great error of many in our Church, that we are too much given to boasting, too apt to overrate our own successes, and cal- culate too largely on far greater, while underrating the present or probable future successes of others. God will, in his own way, correct us, if we be guilty of presumption. Our Jacob is still small, and it becomes us now, as of old, to ask, By whom shall he arise ? Much is yet to be done, and there are many difficulties in the way. Though we have a goodly number of ministers, yet there are by no means enough to carry on the work of enlargement as we could wish, and as the door seems opening to us. Although we have many churches, yet how many of the congregations are small and not rapidly increasing, being still unable to afford even a moderate support to the ministry! Many are the discourage- ments which meet us in our efforts to sustain some of the old and to raise up new congregations. Among the most painful is the difficulty of attaching the poor of this world to our communion. When our Lord was on earth he gave, as one of the signs of his heavenly descent, the blessed fact that "to the poor the Gospel is preached," and "the common people," it is written, "heard him gladly,"-" the multitudes followed him." Such should be our constant endeavour; and if, from the causes alluded to in the past history of our Church, one description of the poor of Vir- ginia have been almost entirely alienated from us, let us rejoice to know that there is another description not less acceptable in the sight of Heaven, who, if we are kind to them and will take due pains to win them over, may more easily be led to come under the faithful preaching of the word. The poor servants will. if we persevere in our labours of love toward them, and be to them what God's faithful pastors in every age have been to the poor, be benefited by our ministry, and may-if we will, in con- junction with their owners, attend to them betimes, as we do to our own children-become regular and pious members of our com- munion. But whether we think of the rich or of the poor, or of those of any and every condition and character among us, with the hope of converting them to Christ and attaching them to
61.
FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
the communion of our Church, we need not expect much success without great zeal and diligence, such as was put forth in our first efforts for its resuscitation. Our State is not one of those whose population is rapidly increasing, in which flourishing villages are springing up in every direction calling for neat churches to fill up the measure of their beauty and excellency, and where the sup- port of the ministry is sure, so that our Zion must needs lengthen her cords and strengthen her stakes. Very different is it with us now, has it been for many years, and will it in all probability be for many years to come. It is only by patient perseverance in well-doing that we can hope to make advances in the establish- ment of our Church. Much self-denial and enduring of hardship and abounding in labours and itinerant zeal and contentedness with a little of this world's goods, on the part of many of our ministers, are indispensable to the growth of the Church in Vir- ginia much beyond her present attainment. Without these things she may, except in the towns, continue stationary, or even retro- grade in some places, during years to come.
To the foregoing I only add that in the summer of 1829 I was consecrated Assistant Bishop of Virginia, and continued to perform the duties of that office until, by the death of Bishop Moore, in 1841, I succeeded to the place which he occupied. During all that time, I can with truth say that not the slightest circumstance ever occurred to interrupt for a moment a most har- monious and pleasant relation between us. Bishop Johns was consecrated Assistant Bishop in the fall of 1842; and I can as truly say that thus far the same harmony has existed, and I feel confident that it will exist until death or some other circumstance shall dissolve the connection. Such is the extent of the Diocese, and such was the difficulty of traversing it, that, for the first twelve or thirteen years, I was engaged in visitation during eight months of each year, travelling over large portions of it on horse- back, or in an open one-horse carriage. During the latter period, six months suffice for such duties as devolved upon me, and these could not possibly be performed but for the greatly-improved modes of conveyance. I need not add, what is so well known, that they are most imperfectly performed.
62
OLD CHURCHES, MINISTERS, AND
ARTICLE III.
The Parish of James City.
I NOW enter upon the Parish of James City-the landing-place of our first forefathers-the seat of the first civil and religious es- tablishment on the shores of North America. It dates its begin- ning about two hundred and fifty years ago. But it found a place in the hearts of pious and philanthropic men at a still earlier period, and we must go back to that period with our preparatory remarks. We are greatly mistaken, if we suppose that the mis- sionary spirit, after slumbering from the early ages, was aroused to life and action only within the last hundred years. Instances may be shown, in which Kings and Queens of our mother-country and Church, moved to it by the pious zeal of Bishops and other ministers, have commanded, that together with the sword and artil- lery of war, and the implements of commerce and husbandry, the sword of the Spirit and the trumpet of the Gospel should be sent, with armies and navies and colonists, to the uncivilized nations of the earth. I confine my references to what the religious principle has done in behalf of the Colony of Virginia.
The domestic troubles of the English State and Church, the controversies with Romanists, Puritans, and other disaffected bodies, delayed and hindered any great schemes for Christian colonization and missionary enterprise, just as civil wars prevent foreign ag- gressions and conquests. To the Rev. Richard Hakluyt the chief praise is due, for stirring up the minds of Christian statesmen and people to the duty of finding out barbarous countries, in order to their conversion to the Christian faith. To his friend, Sir Philip Sydney, he dedicates his first collection of voyages and discoveries, in 1570. In 1587, he republishes Peter Martyr's history of the New World, with a preface, dedicating it to Sir Walter Raleigh, together with another work on Florida, in which he urges him to persevere in the good work he had begun in Virginia .* In both of them he urges Sir Walter to prosecute the work from the only true
* In the year 1588, Sir Walter Raleigh gave £100 for the propagation of Chris- tianity in Virginia.
63
FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
motive and design, the extension of Christ's religion, -" The glo- rie of God, and the saving of the soules of the poor and blinded infidels." The numerous volumes collected and published by this laborious and zealous man on this subject have come down to our day, and are a most valuable depository of missionary information. After holding various preferments, he settled down as Prebendary of Westminster, and continued till his death, in 1616, to watch over the infant Colony of Virginia. The honour of being buried in Westminster Abbey was conferred on this man of a large soul. It deserves to be mentioned, that he not only by his pen and the press urged on the Christian colonization of Virginia, but sought and obtained the honour of being one of those to whom Virginia was consigned, by letters-patent from King James, that he might the more effectually labour for her welfare. To his exertions the expeditions in 1603, and again in 1605, may in a great measure be ascribed. The language used by the King, in the terms of the patent for Virginia, in 1606, shows also the religious character of the movement. One design was, that "so noble a work may, by the Providence of God, hereafter tend to the glorie of his divine majestie, in propagating of Christian religion to such people as sit in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God, and may in time bring the infidels and savages (living in those parts) to human civility and quiet government." Another evidence of the operation of the religious feeling in those who first engaged in the settlement of Virginia may be seen in what one writes, who went out with Weymouth in 1605, in regard to a proposal of some of the natives, that "the company would push their discoveries further." It was declined, he says, on this ground :- "We would not hazard so hopefull a businesse as this was, either for our private or particular ends, being more regardful of a public goode, and promulgating God's holy Church, by plant- ing Christianity, which was the interest of our adventurers as well as ours."
In the following year, December, 1606, the first little colony came to Virginia, bringing with it the first minister of James City, the Rev. Robert Hunt. Mr. Wingfield, the first President of the Colony, gives the following account of his appointment :- "For my first worke, which was to make right choice of a spiritual pas-
* In the instructions of the King, in 1606, it was enjoined, that "all persons should kindly treat the savages and heathen people in these parts, and use all pro- per means to draw them to the true service and knowledge of God."
.
64
OLD CHURCHES, MINISTERS, AND
tor, I appeal to my Lord of Canterbury,-his grace,-who gave me very gracious audience in my request. And the world knoweth whom I took with me, truely a man, in my opinion, not any waie to be touched with the rebellious humour of a papist spirit, nor blemished with the least suspicion of a factious schismatic." In a narrative, kept by Stukeley and others, it is written, "On the 19th of December, 1606, we set sail from Blackwell, but by unpros- perous winds were kept six weeks in sight of England ; all which time Mr. Hunt, our preacher, was so weake and sicke that few ex- pected his recovery. Yet allthough we were but twenty miles from his habitation, (the time we were in the Downes,) and notwithstand- ing the stormy weather, nor the scandalous speeches of some few, little better than atheists, of the greatest rank among us, suggested against him, all this could never force from him so much as a seeming desire to leave the businesse, but preferred the service of God, in so good a voyage, before any affection to contest with his godless foes, whose disastrous designs, could they have prevailed, had even then overthrown the businesse, so many discontents did there arise, had he not only with the water of patience and his godly exhortations, but chiefly by his devoted example, quenched those flames of envy and dissention."* It is very certain, that
notwithstanding the piety which prompted the expedition, and the devotion of Mr. Hunt and some others who embarked in that vessel, there was a considerable proportion of most unworthy materials on board, as shown by their opposition to Hunt and Cap- tain Smith, two men who seemed to know no fear, but that of God. The future conduct of the larger portion of the Colonists, after their arrival, too well established this fact. The company in Eng- land appears to have apprehended something of this, from their instructions, in which they say to the Colonists at their departure, that " the way to prosper and have success was to make themselves all of one mind, for their own and their country's good; and to serve and fear God, the giver of all goodness, since every planta- tion which he did not plant would certainly be rooted out." Al- though Captain Smith was appointed one of the Council of the
* The log church first erected was burned down the following winter, with many other houses. Mr. Hunt lost all his books and every thing else but the clothes on his back. "Yet none ever saw him repine at his loss." "Upon any alarm he was as ready at defence as any, and till he could not speak he never ceased to his ut- most to animate us constantly to persist,-whose soul, questionless, is with God." -Captain Smith's History of Virginia.
65
FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
Company, a violent opposition was made to his having a seat on their arrival. "Many," it is said in the narrative already quoted, " were the mischiefs which daily sprung from their ignorant yet ambitious spirits ; but the good doctrine and exhortation of our preacher, Mr. Hunt, reconciled them, and caused Captain Smith to be admitted of the Council." The next day, the Holy Communion was, for the first time, administered in Virginia. The number composing the first congregation at Jamestown was one hundred and four or five. "A circumstance," says the Rev. Mr. Anderson, author of three most laborious and interesting volumes on the Colonial Churches, "is mentioned in President Wingfield's manuscript, which I cannot find recorded elsewhere, which shows, in a very remarkable manner, the careful and pious reverence mani- fested by the Colonists for the due celebration of Christ's holy ordinance, in their sad extremity." He says that when "the com- mon store of oil, sack, vinegar, and aqua-vitæ, were all spent, saving two gallons of each, the sack was reserved for the com- munion-table."*
* The Rev. James S. M. Anderson, of England, one of the Queen's Chaplains, has been for some years, with great labour and research, preparing the history of the Colonial Churches. In a letter just received, he informs me that his third and last volume is in print. Being consulted by him, a few years since, in relation to the Episcopal Church of Virginia, and receiving his first two volumes, a channel has been established through which I obtain information, on some points, only to be gotten by those who have access to old documents in England. The manuscript of Wingfield, the first President of the Colony, from which some of the foregoing extracts are taken, has been discovered by his careful research. I shall be indebted to his volumes for many passages concerning the early history of the Church of Virginia. To our worthy fellow-citizens, Mr. Conway Robinson, of Richmond, and Mr. Charles Campbell, of Petersburg, both of whom are imbued with a large share of antiquarian spirit, I am already indebted for some documents which will be of much service to me in the preparation of these notices. Mr. Robinson visited Eng- land a few years since, mainly, I believe, on this errand, and the first acquaintance he formed was with the Rev. Mr. Anderson. Mr. Robinson not only sought out and copied some things of interest in the civil and religious history of Virginia, but established a channel through which much else may be procured, which would help to accomplish a work much needed in Virginia, viz .: a full history of the Co- lony and State from the beginning, consisting of the most important parts of those numerous documents, some of which have never been published, and others lie scattered through old volumes in England and America, but which are inaccessible to numbers whose patriotic and Virginian feelings would delight to read them. Such a work should be executed under the patronage of the State, as an accompa- niment to Henning's Statutes at Large, which is at present our best history, in connection with the brief one by Mr. Campbell. If such a lover of antiquities and so laborious a workman as Mr. Robinson were appointed to this duty, and fur- nished with sufficient means, and would undertake it, a great desideratum would be
5
66
OLD CHURCHES, MINISTERS, AND
In proof of the religious character of Captain Smith, as a part of the history of James City Parish, I quote the following account of the first place of worship in the same, in a pamphlet published in 1631, by Mr. Smith, some years after his History of Virginia, and entitled, "Advertisements for the unexperienced planters of New England, or elsewhere, &c." To the Rev. Mr. Anderson's labours we are indebted for the revival of this pamphlet.
"Now, because I have spoken so much for the body, give me leave to say somewhat of the soul; and the rather, because I have been demanded by so many, how we began to preach the Gospel in Virginia, and by what authority, what churches we had, our order of service, and maintenance for our ministers ; therefore I think it not amiss to satisfie their demands, it being the mother of all our Plantations, entreating pride to spare laughter, to understand her simple beginnings and proceedings. When I went first to Virginia, I well remember, we did hang an awning (which is an old sail) to three or four trees, to shadow us from the sun ; our walls were rails of wood, our seats unhewed trees, till we cut planks, our pulpit a bar of wood nailed to two neighbouring trees ; in foul weather we shifted into an old rotten tent, for we had few better, and this came by way of adventure for new. This was our church, till we built a homely thing like a barn, set upon crotchetts, covered with rafts, sedge, and earth, so was also the walls. The best of our houses were of the like curiosity, but the most part far much worse workmanship, that could neither well defend wind nor rain, yet we had daily Common Prayer morning and evening, every Sunday two sermons, and every three months the holy communion, till our minister died, (the Rev. Mr. Hunt.) But (after that) our prayers daily with an homily on Sundays, we continued two or three years after, till more preachers came, and surely God did most mercifully hear us, till the continual inundations of mistaking directions, factions, and numbers of unprovided libertines near consumed us all, as the Israelites in the wil- derness." "Notwithstanding, (he says,) out of the relicks of our mercies, time and experience had brought that country to a great happiness, had they not so much doated on their Tobacco, on whose fumish foundation there is small stability."*
Of the piety of Captain Smith we have further evidence, in the account given of the survey of Virginia, when he and his valiant comrades fell into so many perils among the Indians. "Our order was daily to have prayer with a psalm, at which solemnity the poor savages much wondered." On Smith's return to Jamestown, not- withstanding all former opposition, such were his merits and such its difficulties, that the Council elected him President of the Co-
supplied to all true Virginians and the lovers of history everywhere through the land.
* Of the many evils to Church and State, resulting from the culture and use of tobacco, we have some account to give before we close these pages.
67
FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
lony; and the first thing done was to repair the church, which, during his absence among the Indians, had, with other houses, been destroyed by fire. Characteristic, and evincive of piety in him, is the statement of it :- "Now the building of the palace was stayed as a thing needless, and the church was repaired."
In what year the first minister, Mr. Hunt, died, is not now known, but that there was a vacancy for some years is declared in the foregoing passage from Captain Smith's last pamphlet. The next was the Rev. Mr. Bucke, who came over with Lord De la War, in the year 1610. The many disasters which had befallen the first emigrants to Virginia, so far from discouraging either the statesmen or the Christians in England, and causing them to aban- don the enterprise, only stirred them up to more active exertion. In the year 1609, a new company, called the London Company, was formed, and a new charter, with a larger territory and more privileges, was granted. Twenty-one of the peers, including a number of the bishops, and many of the first clergy and mer- chants of the kingdom, were among those who are mentioned in the charter. Mr. Edwin Sandys, the pupil of Hooker, the two brothers John and Nicholas Ferrar, one of them a pious divine, and both of them most active members of the board which managed the concerns of the company, are worthy of special mention. That a spirit of true piety to God and love for the souls of the heathen burned in the breasts of many of the members of the company, cannot be questioned. It is evident from the selection of the Go- vernor, who was a man of sincere piety ; and had his health been continued, so as to allow of a longer residence in America, much might have been expected from his example and zeal. The spirit which predominated in the company may also be seen in the minis- ter chosen for the new expedition, the Rev. Mr. Bucke, a worthy successor to Mr. Hunt, and from the sermons preached at their embarkation. Two of them were published, and are still extant. One of them, the first ever preached in England on such an occa- sion, was by the Rev. Mr. Crashaw, preacher at the Temple. "Remember," he says, "that the end of this voyage is the de- struction of the devil's kingdom, and the propagation of the Gos- pel." After upbraiding those who were anxious for acquiring wealth by voyages, but indifferent to this, he says, "But tell them of planting a church, of saving ten thousand souls, and they are senseless as stones; they stir no more than if men spoke to them of toys and trifles ; they laugh in their sleeves at the silliness of such as engage themselves in such matters." To Lord De la War
68
OLD CHURCHES, MINISTERS, AND
himself, who was present, he speaks as follows :- "And thou, most noble Lord, whom God hath stirred up to neglect the pleasures of England, and, with Abraham, to go from thy country and forsake thy kindred and thy father's house, to go to a land which God will show thee, give me leave to speak the truth. Thy ancestor many hundred years ago gained great honour to thy house, but by this action thou augmentest it. He took a king prisoner in the field of his own land, but by the godly managing of this business thou shalt take the Devil prisoner in open field and in his own kingdom; nay, the Gospel which thou carriest with thee shall bind him in chains, and his angels in stronger fetters than iron, and execute upon them the judgment that is written ; yea, it shall lead cap- tivity captive, and redeem the souls of men from bondage, and thus thy glory and the honour of thy house is more at the last than at the first. Go forward therefore in the strength of the Lord, and make mention of his righteousness only. Looke princi- pally to religion. You go to commend it to the heathen: then practise it yourself; make the name of Christ honourable, not hateful unto them." Another sermon was preached at White Chapel, London, in the presence of many honourable, worshipful adventurers and planters for Virginia. At its close he says, "If it be God's purpose that the Gospel shall be preached through the world for a witness, then ought ministers to be careful and willing to spread it abroad, in such good services as this that is intended. Sure it is a great shame to us of the ministry, that can be better content to set and rest us here idle, than undergoe so good a worke. Our pretence of zeal is clear discovered to be but hypocrisy, when we rather choose to mind unprofitable questions at home, than gaining souls abroad." From the above we shall see that the true missionary spirit, and missionary sermons and addresses to those about to embark on some foreign work, are not peculiar to our day, though, blessed be God, they are increased among us. For some cause, which need not now be dwelt upon, Lord De la War did not sail until the following year, though Mr. Bucke went over sooner, in a vessel with Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Summers. On reaching there, after having been wrecked themselves, and long detained at the Bermuda Islands, they found the Colony in a most deplorable condition, the greater part having been cut off by the Indians, and the remainder almost in a state of starvation .* On
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.