USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. II > Part 13
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To the foregoing notices of Christ Church from my report to the Convention of 1838, I add the following from memory. Of the two days spent in this hallowed spot, the one following the day of humiliation was a dark and gloomy one,-the sky being overcast
CHRIST CHURCH, LANCASTER CO., VA.
FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
with heavy clouds, from which showers were descending upon the earth. To be in that old building, with only two-thirds of the glass in the windows, on such a day, had a peculiar interest in it to a soul at all inclined to the love of ancient things. The weather being mild, there was nothing to interrupt the indulgence of such a feel- ing. There was also something to encourage it, in the fact that an aged lady, (the descendant of Mr. Carter,) whose two nieces-the eldest daughters of Mr. Tomlin, who lived near at hand-had on the preceding day ratified their baptismal vows, desired on this occasion to do the same. I can never forget my feelings as I stood in the old chancel administering the rite, while only a few indi- viduals, and they chiefly the descendants of the builder of the house, were here and there to be seen in the large double pews adjoining the pulpit and chancel. There was a circumstance which occurred at that time not unworthy to be mentioned, as showing that we of this day of progressive improvement are not in all things in advance of our fathers, but in some rather the con- trary. I spent the night intervening between the two above-men- tioned days at Mr. Tomlin's house, which was a new one scarcely finished, and, while lying in bed early in the morning and looking toward the ceiling, suddenly saw a large portion of the plastering giving way just above me, leaving only time to draw the covering over my head before it fell upon my body, and not without a slight bruise. I could not help then and often since instituting a com- parison between the fidelity and durability of ancient and modern architecture. Here was the ceiling of a private house, not a year old, tumbling over me, and there was the heavy plastering of an old church, built one hundred and twenty or thirty years before, perfectly sound and impervious to rain, except in one or two small spots where it was a little discoloured underneath the gutter, where the shingles had decayed. Where is the house, built in these degenerate days of slight modern architecture, which may com- pare with Old Christ Church, either within or without ? When a few years since it was repaired, as I in my report expressed the belief that it would be, the only repairs required were a new roof, (and but for the failure in the gutters that would have been un- necessary,) the renewal of the cornices, supplying the broken glass, and painting the pews, pulpit, &c. All the rest was in a most perfect state of soundness. The shingles, except in the decayed gutters, were so good that they were sold to the neighbours around, and will probably now last longer than many new ones just gotten from the woods,-having become hardened by age on the steep and
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taunt roofs from which the rains of more than a century rushed downward, not stopping for a moment to settle in the joints. That is one reason why all of the old roofs were more durable than the modern,-the fashionable taste for low or flat ones leading to their speedier decay. Another is the fact that in former days worms, so destructive now to timber, appear not to have abounded as at present, or else some method for drying and hardening all the ma- terials used was adopted, which is now neglected. In taking off the roof of Old Christ Church for the purpose of renewing it, one secret of the durability of the plastering was discovered. Besides having mortar of the most tenacious kind and of the purest white, and laths much thicker and stronger than those now in use, and old English wrought nails,-our modern factories not then being known,-the mortar was not only pressed with a strong hand through the openings of the laths, but clinched on the other side by a trowel in the hand of one above, so as to be fast keyed and kept from falling.
In all respects the house appears to have been built in the most durable manner, but without any of the mere trinkets of archi- tecture. The form and proportion of the house are also most excel- lent, and make a deep impression on the eye and mind of the beholder. Though the walls are three feet thick, yet such is their height and such the short distance between the windows and doors, and such the effect of the figure of the cross, that there is no ap- pearance of heaviness about them. The roof or roofs are also very steep and high, and take the place of tower or steeple. A steeple or tower would indeed injure the whole aspect of the building.
For the repairing of this house we are indebted mainly to the liberality of two brothers,-Mr. Kelleys,-descendants of old Epis- copalians of the Northern Neck. Not only did they furnish far the larger part of the fifteen hundred dollars required for it, but superintended most carefully the expenditure of the same. Their bodies lie side by side within a strong iron enclosure near the church. The eldest of the brothers has died within the last two years, leaving, among other bequests, two thousand dollars to our Theological Seminary and High School.
I am sure the reader will be pleased in having the following epitaphs added to the foregoing notices of Old Christ Church.
I.
This incription is to the north of the chancel, in the east end of the church :-
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FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
" Here lyeth buried ye body of John Carter, Esq., who died ye 10th of June, Anno Domini 1669; and also Jane, ye daughter of Mr. Morgan Glyn, and George her son, and Elenor Carter, and Ann, ye daughter of Mr. Cleave Carter, and Sarah, ye daughter of Mr. Gabriel Ludlow, and Sarah her daughter, which were all his wives successively, and died before him.
"'Blessed are ye dead which die in ye Lord ; even soe, saith ye Spirit, for they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.'"
II.
This inscription is in the centre of the church, at the intersec- tion of the aisles :-
"Here lyeth the body of Mr. David Miles, who died the 29th of De- cember, 1674, and in ye 40th year of his age.
" Hodie mihi, cras tibi." (Mine to-day, yours to-morrow.)
III.
This tombstone is at the east end of the church :-
"H. S. E.
" Vir honorabilis Robertus Carter, Armiger, qui genus honestum dotibus eximiis et moribus antiquis illustravit. Collegium Gulielmi et Mariæ temporibus difficillimis propugnavit, Gubernator.
" Senatus Rogator et Quaestor sub serenissimis Principibus Gulielmo, Anna, Georgio Primo et Secundo.
"A publicis concilliis concillii per sexennium præses; plus anno Colonia Præfectus, cum regiam dignitatem et publicam libertatem æquali jure asseruit.
" Opibus amplissimis bene partis instructus, ædem hanc sacram, in Deum pietatis grande monumentum propriis sumptibus extruit. Locu- pletavit.
"In omnes quos humaniter excepit nec prodigus nec parcus hospes. Liberalitatem insignem testantur debita munifice remissa.
"Primo Juditham, Johannis Armistead, Armigeri, filiam; deinde Betty, generosa Landonorum stirpe oriundam, sibi connubio junetas habuit : e quibus prolem numerosam suscepit, in qua erudienda pecunia vim maxi- mam insumpsit.
" Tandem honorum et dierum satur, cum omnia vitæ munera egregiæ præstitisset, obiit Pri. Non. Aug. An. Dom. 1732, æt. 69.
" Miseri solamen, viduæ præsiduum, orbi patrem, ademptum lugent."
EAST OF THE CHURCH.
IV.
" Here lyeth buried the body of Judith Carter, the wife of Robert Carter, Esq., and eldest daughter of the Hon. John Armistead, Esq., and Judith his wife. She departed this life the 23d day of February, Anno 1699, in the - year of her age, and in the eleventh year of her mar- riage, having borne to her husband five children, four daughters and a
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son, two whereof, Sarah and Judith Carter, died before, and are buried near her. Piously she lived, and comfortably dicd, in the joyful assurance of a happy eternitie, leaving to her friends the sweet perfume of a good reputation."
EAST OF THE CHURCH, AND MUTILATED.
V.
"To the memory of Betty Carter, second wife of Robert Carter, Esq., youngest daughter of Thomas Landon, Esq., and Mary his wife, of Grednal, in the county of Hereford, the ancient scat of the family and place of her nativity. She bore to her husband ten children, five sons and five daugh- ters, three of whom-Sarah, Betty, and Ludlow-died before her and are buried near her. She was a person of great and exemplary piety and charity in every relation wherein she stood : whether considered as a Christian, a wife, a mother, a mistress, a neighbour, or a friend, her con- duct was equalled by few, excelled by none. She changed this life for, a better on the 3d of July, 1710, in the 36th year of her age and 19th of her marriage. May her descendants make their mother's virtues and graces the pattern of their lives and actions !"
EAST OF THE CHURCH. VI.
" Under this stone are the remains of Mary Carter, the affectionate wife of Charles Carter, of Corotoman, who died on the 30th of. January, 1770, after a painful illness of three months, during which time she discovered a truly Christian fortitude, aged 34 years."
Mr. Carter moved to Shirly, on James River, in 1776, and mar- ried Ann Butler Moore,-his second wife.
The following translation of Mr. Robert Carter's epitaph may be a help to some of our readers :-
" Here lies buried Robert Carter, Esq., an honourable man, who by noble endowments and pure morals gave lustre to his gentle birth.
" Rector of William and Mary, he sustained that institution in its most trying times. He was Speaker of the House of Burgesses, and Treasurer under the most serene Princes William, Anne, George I. and II.
"Elected by the House its Speaker six years, and Governor of the Colony for more than a year, he upheld equally the regal dignity and the public freedom.
" Possessed of ample wealth, blamelessly acquired, he built and endowed, at his own expense, this sacred edifice,-a signal monument of his piety toward God. He furnished it richly.
" Entertaining his friends kindly, he was neither a prodigal nor a par- simonious host.
" His first wife was Judith, daughter of John Armistead, Esq .; his second Betty, a descendant of the noble family of Landons. By these wives he had many children, on whose education he expended large sums of money.
" At length, full of honours and of years, when he had well performed all the duties of an exemplary life, he departed from this world on the 4th day of August, in the 69th year of his age.
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FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
"The unhappy lament their lost comforter, the widows their lost pro- tector, and the orphans their lost father."
MINISTERS OF THE PARISHES OF CHRIST CHURCH AND ST. MARY'S.
We have already stated that the same ministers served both parishes. Who the first minister or ministers were, we are unable to state; but upon the vestry-book, whose loss we lament, there was one whose name and history were too striking to be forgotten. His name was Andrew Jackson, and, for what cause we know not, some one wrote his name, and he made his mark, beneath the name of one of the John Carters. He was not Episcopally ordained, and this led to a correspondence between the vestry and one of the Governors of Virginia,-most probably Governor Nicholson,-at a time when an order came from England that the law requiring all holding livings in the Church to be Episcopally ordained should be enforced in Virginia." The vestry remonstrated earnestly with. the Governor against its execution in the case of their minister, Mr. Jackson. They plead that he had been serving the parish . faithfully for twenty-five years, that he was much esteemed and beloved, had brought up a large family of children, and laid up something for them from his industrious culture of the glebe, (then and now a good farm near the church,) and the people were very unwilling to part with him. They urged one argument very em- phatically,-viz. : that, by reason of the inferiority of the quality of tobacco raised in the Northern Neck of Virginia, by comparison with that in many other parts, it being worth less by twopence per pound, the parish was not on an equal footing with a large number elsewhere in procuring suitable ministers, and that, therefore, they ought to be allowed to retain the one whom they had. What was the issue of the controversy either did not appear or is not recol- lected. My impression is that it took place early in the last century, and that he was succeeded by the Rev. John Bell, who was cer- tainly the minister in 1713, and continued so until the year 1743, when, at his death, the Rev. David Currie succeeded, and continued until his death in 1792,-nearly fifty years. If such be the case, then were the people of Lancaster served for more than one hundred years by three ministers, who were esteemed and loved by them. In my previous account of the Carter family I have spoken more particularly of Mr. Currie, whose descendants are numerous and respectable and have adhered to the Church of their worthy an- cestor. At the death of Mr. Currie, in 1791, the Rev. David Ball appears for one year on the list of our clerical delegates to the
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Convention, and for one only. Whether he was of the large family of Balls belonging to Lancaster, or whence he came, or whither he went, I know not. He was followed by a Rev. Mr. Leland and a Rev. Mr. Page, each for a short time. Of each of these I shall speak in another place. In 1794, no clerical delegate appears ; but there were two laymen,-Mr. Raleigh Downman and Mr. William Eustace. From the year 1796 to the year 1805, the Rev. Daniel McNaughton is on our list as minister of this parish. James Ball, Martin Shearman, and William Montague appear as lay delegates. In 1812, Raleigh Downman and J. M. Smith are lay delegates. In 1813, the Rev. Samuel Low is minister. Be- tween him and his friends, and Mr. McNaughton, there was for some time a contest for the parish and the use of the churches. On one occasion Mr. Low had all the congregation in the church- yard, and preached from the seat behind a carriage, while Mr McNaughton had the pulpit and the empty pews within. They were both of them such unworthy characters, though in different · ways, that we shall not waste time and words upon them. In the year 1824, the Rev. Ira Parker, an ignorant and incompetent minister, took charge of the parish, but soon left it for some other. After floating about for a few years, he adopted the system of Swedenborg, and was dismissed from the ministry. In the year 1832, the Rev. Ephraim Adams took charge of the parish and continued its minister for four years. He was a worthy man, but, by reason of some peculiarities, unfitted for much usefulness. In 1838, the Rev. Francis McGuire was its minister; and, in 1839, the Rev. Mr. Bryant, of whom we have spoken elsewhere, succeeded. In 1844 and 1845, the Rev. Mr. Richmond was its minister. In 1850 and 1851, the Rev. Mr. Nash. In 1853, its present minister, the Rev. Edmund Withers, took charge of it. Within the last few years a small church has been built at Kilmarnock, about four miles from Old Christ Church. It being more convenient. to the majority of the people in that region than the old one, services are held there alternately. Although but few attend generally at the old and venerable one, by reason of its inconvenient location, yet at my recent visit to it, although there were other services near at hand, one hundred and seventy-five persons might be counted there on a Sabbath morning. It is somewhat remarkable that Kilmar- nock is the very spot on which the vestry determined to build a new church nearly one hundred and fifty years ago, deeming it the most central and convenient place, when Mr. Carter offered to build one at his own expense, if allowed to locate it nearer to his
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FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
residence at Corotoman. Tradition says that the bricks of which . the church is built were brought from England. It is far more probable that it is true in this case than in most of the other houses, public or private, of which the same report has come down to us; for Mr. Carter, having so many vessels from England as- signed to him, may, at little cost, have had English bricks put in as ballast, and then conveyed in flatboats up the creek, within a short distance of the place where the church stands. Piles of stones thus coming from England may yet be seen near the river- bank at Corotoman, there cast to prevent the waves from depre- dating on the bank near his house.
List of Vestrymen in St. Mary's Parish, before the union of the parishes, from 1739 to 1756, and of both parishes after the union.
William Bertrand, William Ball, Jr., Joseph Ball, Joseph Heale, Jos. Chinn, Martin Shearman, Raleigh Chinn, Richard Chichester, Jesse Ball, Robert Mitchell, Colonel Ball, Major Ball, (making five Balls in one vestry,) Joseph Carter, Thomas Chinn. In the year 1743, the following vestrymen from Christ Church met with the vestry of St. Mary's White Chapel,-viz .: Henry Carter, Henry Lawson, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Steptoe, Mr. Martin, Captain Tayloe, Colonel Conway, Thomas Lawson, John Steptoe, Mr. Pinkard. At this time six of each vestry are appointed to form a general vestry, and it is sometimes difficult to determine to which parish each one belongs. Hugh Bent, from Christ Church, James Ball, Jr., Dale Carter, Stephen Towles, George Payne, Merryman Payne, Rich- ard Selden, Thomas Chinn, Solomon Ewell, John Fleet, William Dymer, Charles Carter, John Chinn, James Kiok, Thaddeus McCarty, Thomas Griffin, Thomas Lawson, Edwin Conway, William Montague, in place of Charles Carter, in 1776, Henry Towles, James Newby, William Sydnor, John Berryman, Colonel John Taylor, James Brent, William Chewning, James Ball, Jr.
In 1786, Cyrus Griffin is appointed to attend the Episcopal Convention in Richmond, and James Ball to attend the examination of the Rev. Edward Jones at the court-house. For what purpose and of what character that examination was, is not certainly known, but it is believed to have been a kind of trial under a canon of Virginia. Thus ends the vestry-book.
WHITE CHAPEL CHURCH.
The first church was torn down. From the vestry-book it appears that the present was built in 1740. It was contracted for with Mr. James Jones. In that year Major James Ball and Mr. Joseph Ball are allowed to build a gallery in the church for their families, provided it be completed at the same time with the church, and finished in the same style with the west gallery. Leave is also granted to two
.
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of the Balls and two Mr. Burgesses to build an end-gallery on the same terms. The house was originally in the form of a cross. The two wings have been taken down, and it is now an oblong square.
In the early part of the last century the parishes must have been in a flourishing condition, so far as numbers and attendants go. In the year 1724, Mr. Bell, who had then been their minister for twelve years, informs the Bishop of London that there were three hundred families in it ; that the churches were thronged; that almost all the white persons in the parish attended; that there were a great many negroes who neither understood his language, nor he theirs; that the old church was opened to them, and the word preached, and the sacraments administered with circumspection. He says at that time the two parishes were united in one, and called Trinity : but of this we read nothing, either in the Acts of Assembly or in the vestry-book.
Around Old White Chapel Church, under the venerable pines which enclose it on two sides, and near an old county road, lie a number of those strong, heavy tombstones which betoken a deep regard of the living for the dead. Almost all of them are inscribed with the name of Ball,-a name which so abounds in the vestry- book, the county, and the State. Through the attention of a friend I have a document of more ancient date than any tombstone in- scription there. It is a description of the coat of arms of the family of Ball, brought to this country about the year 1650, by the first of the name who came to Virginia. The coat of arms has much that is bold about it, as a lion rampant, with a globe in his paw, and there is helmet and shield and vizor, and coat of mail, and other things betokening strength and courage; but none of these suit my work. There is, however, one thing which does. On the scroll which belongs to it are these words :- " Columque tueri." They were taken, of course, from these lines of Ovid :-
" Pronaque cum spectant animalia cætera terram Os homini sublime dedit, cælumque tueri."
May it be a memento to all his posterity to look upward, and " seek the things which are above." On the back of the original copy of this armorial document are the following words, in a bold hand, such as was common in those days :- "The coat of arms of Colonel William Ball, who came from England with his family about the year 1650, and settled at the mouth of Corotoman River, in Lancaster county, Virginia, and died in 1669, leaving two sons, William and Joseph, and one daughter, Hannah, who married Daniel Fox. William left eight sons, (and one daughter,) five of
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whom have now (Anno Domini 1779) male issue. Joseph's male issue is extinct. General George Washington is his grandson, by his youngest daughter, Mary. Colonel Burgess Ball is the only child of Jeduthun, who was the third and youngest son of James, the third son of said William." On the tombstones around the church there is no inscription of the first William Ball or any of his children, but only of his grandchildren and other descendants. The first is over the grave of David Ball, seventh son of Captain William Ball, who was born in 1686. The others are the tomb- stones of Mildred Ball, Jeduthun Ball, Mary Ann Ball, daughter of the Rev. John Bertrand, of Jesse Ball, of Mary Ball, daughter of Edwin Conway, of James Ball, her husband, of William Ball, "who died in a steadfast faith in Christ and full hope of a joyful resurrection," of James Ball and Fanny, his wife, daughter of Ra- leigh, and Frances Downman, of Lettuce, third wife of James Ball, and daughter of Richard Lee, of Ditchley, of Colonel James Ball, of James Ball, second son of James and Mary.
P.S .- Since the above was written I have received a communi- cation from a friend who has looked into the earliest records of Lancaster county, when Middlesex and Lancaster were one. They go back to 1650. A few years after this, in the absence of a vestry, the court appointed the Rev. Samuel Cole the minister of the whole county on both sides of the river. This is the same minister who appears on the vestry-book of Middlesex in the year 1664. The court also appointed churchwardens and sidesmen, as in the Eng- lish Church, on both sides of the river. They were John Taylor, William Clapham, John Merryman, Edmund Lurin, George Kibble, and William Leech. Other names also appear on the records, as Thomas Powell, Cuthbert Powell, Edward Digges, W. Berkeley, Robert Chewning, Henry Corbyn, David Fox, John Washington, of Westmoreland. In the year 1661, a general vestry is formed, and Mr. John Carter, Henry Corbyn, David Fox, and William Leech, are appointed to take up subscriptions for the support of the minister. They were chosen from each side of the river. An instance is recorded at this early period of a man being fined five thousand pounds of tobacco by the court for profane swearing.
In the year 1685, we find John Chilton fined, and required to appear four times on his bended knees, and ask pardon each time, for a misdemeanour committed in their presence.
In the year 1699, we find that none are allowed to be teachers of youth except such as are commissioned by the Bishop of London, and, in the same year, that inquiries were ordered as to any reli-
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gious meetings except those of the Established Church. These things were under the mild reign of the amiable Governor Nicholson. In the year 1727, we find presentments for being absent from church one month and two months, for swearing, for selling craw- fish and posting accounts on Sunday.
In addition to the above, it may be stated that the county records, as well as vestry-books, show that the family of Balls was very active in promoting good things. At an early period of our history, it is stated that a measure was set on foot for educating a number of Virginia youths for the ministry, in order to a larger and better supply. It would appear from the county records that this mea- sure originated, in 1729, with Mr. Joseph Ball, of Lancaster. The following is the entry :-
" A proposition of Joseph Ball, gentleman, in behalf of himself and the rest of the inhabitants of Virginia, directed to the Honourable the General Assembly, concerning the instructing a certain number of young gentlemen, Virginians born, in the study of divinity, at the county's charge, was this day presented in court by the said Joseph Ball, and on his prayer ordered to be certified to the General Assembly."
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