USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. II > Part 19
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" We are your Christian brethren and friends of true religion, "BENJAMIN SMITH, WILLIAM PEACHY,
. "B. MCCARTY, JOHN SYDNOR,
"WALKER TOMLIN, JOHN FAUNTLEROY,
"RICHARD BEALE, SAMUEL HIPKINS."
Great pains were taken to circulate this; and yet on the ap- pointed day less than thirty persons assembled, and half of these after two o'clock, and so there was no election. f Five or six of those present agreed to appoint Whit-Monday for another meeting, and
* It should probably be Mckay, though it is written Mackay in our printed lists. + This was probably less than the number hitherto required by law.
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to get a neighbouring minister to preach on that day. This was successful, and they paid the minister four pounds ten shillings for coming.
The vestry direct Mr. William Peachy to write to Bishop Madi- son for a minister, to which the following answer was received :-
" WILLIAMSBURG, August 1, 1794.
"DEAR SIR :- It would afford me great pleasure, could I give you an assurance of being speedily supplied with a worthy minister. I sincerely regret the deserted situation of too many of our parishes, and lament the evils that must ensue. Finding that few persons, natives of this State, were desirous of qualifying themselves for the ministerial office, I have written to some of the Northern States, and have reason to expect several young clergymen who have been liberally educated, of unexceptionable moral character, and who, I flatter myself, will also be generally desirous of establishing an academy for the instruction of youth, wherever they may reside. Should they arrive, or should any other opportunity present itself of recommmending a worthy minister, I beg you to be assured, if your advertisement proves unsuccessful, that I shall pay due attention to the application of the worthy trustees of North Farnham.
" With great respect, I am, dear sir, " Your most ob't servant,
" JAMES MADISON."
The Bishop, it seems, was as much troubled about getting a meeting of the Convention as the friends of the Church in Farnham had been to get an election of vestrymen. The following circular will too surely establish that :-
" WILLIAMSBURG, December 13, 1795.
" REVEREND SIR :- It is, no doubt, well known to you that the failure last May in holding a Convention at the time and place agreed upon was matter of deep regret to every sincere friend of our Church. To prevent, if possible, a similar calamity at the next stated time for holding Con- ventions, the deputies who met last May requested me to send circular letters to the different parishes, exhorting them to pay a stricter regard to one of the fundamental canons of the Church. I fulfil the duty with alacrity, because the necessity of regular Conventions is urged by conside- rations as obvious as they are weighty. I need not here enter into a detail of those considerations ; but I will ask, at what time was the fostering care of the guardians-nay, of every member-of the Church more necessary than at this period ? Who doth not know that indifference to her interests must inevitably inflict a mortal wound, over which the wise and the good may in vain weep, when they behold that wound baffling every effort to arrest its fatal progress ? Who doth not know that irreligion and im- piety sleep not whilst we slumber? Who doth not know that there are other enemies who laugh at our negligent supineness and deem it their victory ?
" But, independent of these general considerations, there are matters of the first moment to our Church, which require the fullest representation
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at the ensuing Convention. Those parishes which, faithful to their duty, have not failed on former occasions to send forward their deputies, as di- rected by the injunction of the Church, need no exhortation on this subject. The same laudable sentiments which have hitherto directed their conduct will doubtless continue to produce a similar effect. But to those which have been neglectful in making the necessary appointment of deputies, and in supplying the means for their attendance, I address myself with peculiar so- licitude. Let me then, sir, through your agency, and, where there is no minister, let me through the agency of the churchwardens or vestry, exhort and entreat such parishes to be no longer unmindful of the interests of their Church,-no longer to be languid and indifferent in what concerns her essential welfare,-no longer to treat her injunctions with disrespect,- but, on the contrary, animated by a warm and laudable zeal, and satisfied how much the holy cause of religion must depend on wise and prudent exertions, let them evince, at the approaching Convention, that they will not abandon a Church which they cannot fail to love and to venerate so long as piety and virtue shall continue to maintain the least portion of influence in the hearts of men. Permit me only to add, that I feel a confidence that this exhortation will not be disregarded, and that the next Convention, which is to be holden on the first Tuesday in May next, will manifest to the Church and to the world that the zeal of both clergy and laity remains unabated. Such is the confidence and such the sincere prayer of
Your brother in Christ, " JAMES MADISON, "Bishop of the Prot. Epis. Church in Virginia."
In the year 1796, the vestry obtained the services of the Rev. George Young, for one Sunday in three, (the other two being engaged to the adjoining parish of Lunenburg,) agreeing to pay him the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars, besides the rent of the glebe. In the year 1799, the Rev. John Seward offers his services one Sunday in three, and receives two hundred dollars with the glebe. Here the vestry-book ends, except an entry of an election of vestrymen in 1802.
The following is a list of the vestrymen from 1787 to 1802 :-
William Peachy, William Miskell, John Fauntleroy, John Sydnor, Leroy Peachy, Griffin Fauntleroy, Thaddeus Williams, J. Hammond, Benjamin Smith, Samuel Hipkins, Epaphroditus Sydnor, Jno. Smith, Walker Tomlin, Richard Beale, Bartholomew McCarty, David Williams, Ezekiel Levy, Charles Smith, Abner Dobyns, William McCarty, William Palmer, John G. Chinn, Vincent Branham, W. T. Colston, George Miskell, Peter Tem- ple, J. M. Yerby.
If there were any other minister or ministers in this parish until the Rev. Washington Nelson, in 1835, took charge of it in con- nection with Lunenburg parish, of the same county, and Cople parish, Westmoreland, we have not been able to ascertain the fact. Under Mr. Nelson's charge the Old Farnham Church was
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repaired at a cost of fourteen hundred dollars, and a new church built at the court-house, by the side of whose walls his body is interred. Mr. Nelson was succeeded in all his congregations by the Rev. William Ward. The Rev. Mr. Coffin succeeded him in Farnham and at the court-house, and continued about two years, resigning them both in the summer of 1856.
CHURCHES IN NORTH FARNHAM PARISH.
Besides the one now standing, there was another about half-way between it and the court-house, the foundation of which may yet be seen. It was probably deserted at the time that North Farnham Church was built ; but when that was, cannot be discovered. We have mentioned that among the families once prominent in this parish-though now dispersed-were those of the Fauntleroys and Colstons. To each of these, within a few miles of Farnham Church, there were those unhappy receptacles of the dead, called vaults, which were so common from an early period in the Northern Neck. What the precise condition of the former is, we have not heard, though we believe a bad one. As to the latter, the follow- ing note, which I find among my papers, gives what I doubt not is a true account :-
" The burying-place of the Colston family is on the Rappahannock River, about seven miles from North Farnham Church. The vault is in a dilapi- dated condition. It was originally arched over with brick. A number of bones are exposed,-so much so, that with but little difficulty an entire human frame could be collected.
The following account of Old Farnham Church in my report to the Convention of 1838 will complete my notices of this parish :-
"My appointment next in order was at Farnham Church, which had recently been so much refitted, that on this account-because it is believed that none of the old churches were ever consecrated-it was on Tuesday, the 20th of June, set apart to the worship of God, according to the pre- scribed form. A considerable congregation assembled on the occasion, when I preached,-the service having been read by the Rev. Francis McGuire, and the deed of consecration by Mr. Nelson, the pastor of the congregation. This church was first built more than a hundred years ago, after the form of the cross, and in the best style of ancient archi- tecture. Its situation is pleasant and interesting,-being immediately on the main county road leading from Richmond Court-House to Lancaster Court-House.
" What causes led to its carly desertion, premature spoliation, and shameless profanation, I am unable to state ; but it is said by the neigh- bours not to have been used for the last thirty or forty years. Thus deserted as a house of God, it became a prey to any and every spoiler. VOL. II .- 12
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An extensive brick wall which surrounded the church and guarded the graves of the dead was torn down and used for hearths, chimneys, and other purposes, all the county round. The interior of the house soon sunk into decay and was carried piecemeal away. For many years it was the common receptacle of every beast of the field and fowl of the air. It was used as a granary, stable, a resort for hogs, and every thing that chose to shelter there. Would that I could stop here! but I am too credibly in- formed that for years it was also used as a distillery of poisonous liquors ; and that on the very spot where now the sacred pulpit stands, that vessel was placed in which the precious fruits of Heaven were concocted and evaporated into a fell poison, equally fatal to the souls and bodies of men ; while the marble font was circulated from house to house, on every occa- sion of mirth and folly,-being used to prepare materials for feasting and drunkenness,-until at length it was found bruised, battered, and deeply sunk in the cellar of some deserted tavern. But even that sacred vessel has been redeemed, and, having been carefully repaired, has resumed its place within the sacred enclosure. Although the doors of the house had been enlarged, by tearing away the bricks, to make a passage for the wagons that conveyed the fruits that were to be distilled into the means of disease and death ; although the windows were gone and the roof sunk into decay,-the walls only remaining,-yet were they so faithfully exe- cuted by the workmen of other days as to bid defiance to storms and tempests, and to stand not merely as monuments of the fidelity of ancient architecture, but as signals from Providence, held out to the pious and liberal to come forward and repair the desolation. Nor have these signals been held out in vain to some fast friends of the Church of their fathers in the parish of North Farnham. At an expense of fourteen hundred dollars, they have made Old Farnham one of the most agreeable, con- venient, and beautiful churches in Virginia. It should also be mentioned that the handsome desk, pulpit, and sounding-board now to be seen in Farnham Church were once in Christ Church, Baltimore, when the Rev. Mr. Johns officiated in the same. They were a present from the minister and vestry of that church; and few events could give more pleasure to the congregation at Farnham than to see them again occupied by the former tenant, and to hear from his lips, if only one or two of those im- pressive appeals which have so often been heard from the same."
LUNENBURG PARISH, RICHMOND COUNTY.
The first information we have of this parish is from communi- cations made to the Bishop of London by the Rev. Mr. Kay, its minister, between the years 1740 and 1750, as well as my memory serves me, not having the documents before me at this time. A most painful and protracted controversy took place between him and a portion of his vestry,-especially Colonel Landon Carter. Though the doors of the church were closed against Mr. Kay, such was the advocacy of him by a portion of the vestry and many of the people that he preached in the churchyard for some time. The dispute appears to have been about the right of Mr. Kay to the parish in preference to another who was desired by some of the
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vestry and people. The cause was carried before the Governor and Council, and from thence to the higher court in England. The sympathy of the Commissary and the clergy appears to have been with Mr. Kay. How it was finally settled in the English courts does not appear, but we find Mr. Kay in Cumberland parish, Lunenburg county, in the year 1754 .* In that year the Rev. Mr. Simpson becomes minister of Lunenburg parish, Richmond county. How long he continues, and whether any one intervenes between him and the Rev. William Giberne, who becomes the minister in 1762, is not known. The name and memory of Mr. Giberne have come down to our times with considerable celebrity. The first notice I have of him is in a letter to the Bishop of London, in which he inveighs with severity on some things in the Church of Virginia. On the Bishop of London's writing to Commissary Robinson con- cerning them, the Commissary denies the charge in its fulness, and says that it comes with ill grace from Mr. Giberne, who himself sets an ill example, being addicted to card-playing and other things unbecoming the clerical character.
All the accounts I have received of him correspond with this. He was a man of talents, of great wit and humour, and his home a pleasant place to the like-minded,-especially attractive to the young. He lived at the place now owned by the Brockenbrough family, near Richmond Court-House. He married a daughter of Moore Fauntleroy and Margaret Micou. Her father was Paul Micou, a Huguenot who fled from Nantes in 1711.1 In the follow- ing communication from a friend in Richmond county there is more particular mention of Mr. Giberne, in connection with some inte- resting particulars about the two churches in Lunenburg parish.
" The church here, which I remember, was situated near the public road, near our court-house, and was surrounded by large and beautiful trees, affording a fine shade in summer to those visiting the church. The ground was enclosed by a brick wall, which was finally overthrown by the . growing roots of a magnificent oak. Like most of the old churches in Vir- ginia, it was built of brick, finished in the best manner, and cruciform in shape; the pulpit was very elevated, and placed on the south side at an
* In different vestry-books I find the name sometimes Kay and at others Key. There may have been ministers of both names.
t At the old Port Micou estate on the Rappahannock may still be seen the large, heavy, iron-stone or black marble tombstone of this Paul Micou, the first of the name who came into this country. By reason of its weight and the lightness of the soil, it sinks every few years somewhat beneath the earth, but is raised up again. The inscription is as follows :- " Here lies the body of Paul Micou, who departed this life the 23d of May, 1736, in the seventy-eighth year of his age."
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angle near the centre of the building. The aisles were floored with large stones, square and smoothly dressed, and the pews with planks. They were high at the sides and panelled, and better suited for devotion than our churches at the present day. The church was claimed by an individual, when in ruins, and the materials from time to time removed and used for various domestic purposes.
" It was built, according to the recollection of an individual now living, in 1737, and he remembers to have seen the date marked in the mortar, ' Built in 1737.' This building remained until about 1813, when its walls were thrown down by the outward pressure of the roof, which had fallen from decay. The Rev. Isaac Wm. Giberne was the pastor of this church. He was an Englishman, and I think the nephew of the Bishop of Durham. I ascertained the fact from an inscription in an old Prayer-Book, which was in the possession of Mr. Giberne, and which after his death came into my hands. It had belonged to her Majesty Queen Anne, and was used by her in her private chapel : on her demise it was retained by her chap- lain. The inscription further stated it was intended to be presented to the 'Bodleian Library,' in which the Prayer-Books of two of the crowned heads of England had been preserved.
" Mr. Giberne commenced his services in this church in January, 1762, as we learn from the parish register, and continued to officiate in this and the 'Upper Church,' as it was called, until incapacitated by age. He was a man of great goodness of heart and Christian benevolence, highly educated, well read, and extensively acquainted with the ancient and English classic writers.
"After an interval of some eight or ten years or more, Mr. Giberne was followed in his pastoral duties by the Rev. W. George Young, an English- man, who, I believe, occupied the glebe in 1800 or 1802. I am unable to learn how long he continued, but he removed, and the glebe, like many others, was sold under an Act of Assembly.
" The silver vessels consisted of a massive silver tankard, goblet, and plate. These remained in the keeping of our family until sold by a decree of the Court. They were purchased by the late Colonel John Taylor, of Mount Airy, and by him presented to St. John's Church, Washington.
"The principal families attached to the old church here were the Car- ters, Tayloes, Lees, (Colonel F. L. Lee, of Manakin,) Beckwiths, Neales, Garlands, Belfields, Brockenbroughs, Rusts, Balls, Tomlins, &c.
" The 'Upper Church,' as it was commonly called, situated in the upper part of this county, has been long a ruin, the spot marked only by the mounds of crumbling bricks. Mr. Giberne was the last minister who regularly officiated in it. The families chiefly belonging to its congrega- tion were the Fauntleroys, Lees, Belfields, Beales, Mitchells, Jenningses, &c. It would be impossible to ascertain at this time, I presume, when this church was built.
" There was but one other church in 'old times' in the county of Rich- mond : it was Farnham Church, which continued in tolerable repair until after 1800. I think in 1802 there was regular service in this church by a Mr. Brockenbrough, a minister of the Church, a remarkably small man, as I recollect him, so diminutive that he required a block in the pulpit to stand on. He did not live at the glebe, but at Cedar Grove, the property of a Miss McCall, and kept a grammar-school there. After this time the church became dilapidated, and no service was performed in it; in truth, it was completely desecrated, and served as a shelter for cattle, hogs, and
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horses for many years. Its walls, however, were permitted to stand, and its magnificent oaks allowed to grace the place and to give their friendly shade to the weary traveller who halted at the neighbouring tavern to re- fresh himself and horse. When we look back on this period of infidelity and heathenism in this county, when the old churches were pulled down or permitted to fall to decay, when no religious instruction was to be found, no declaration of the Gospel but by an itinerant preacher, little calculated to awaken the slumbering people, we are led to wonder how the land escaped some signal mark of divine vengeance,-that some calamity had not overshadowed it to call its thoughtless and wicked inhabitants back to the Christian fold.
" I have never heard what became of the sacred vessels belonging to this church. The glebe was in the occupancy of Dr. Thomas Tarpley, a well-educated and highly-polished man; how it came into his possession I never knew,-probably by purchase at public sale."
After the Rev. Mr. Young, mentioned in the foregoing commu- nication, I know of no minister until the Rev. Washington Nelson, in 1834 or 1835, who took charge of this parish in connection with those of North Farnham and Cople. At his death the Rev. Mr. Ward succeeded to all three of the parishes, and at his resignation, a young man, whose name I forget, was minister of Lunenburg for part of a year. He was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Coffin for two years.
The most remarkable of the old seats in this parish, known to the writer, are those of Sabine Hall, belonging to the Carters, and of Mount Airy, belonging to the Tayloes. Having in a preceding article given some account of the Carter family, which has so abounded in the Northern Neck, I subjoin a brief genealogy of the Tayloes, who have appeared on our vestry-books in the Northern Neck from their first settlement to the present time.
THE TAYLOE FAMILY.
" William Taylor, (probably Taylor at that day,) of London, emigrated to Virginia about 1650. He married Anne, a daughter of Henry Corbin, (who was settled in King and Queen county,) the ancestor of the Corbins. John Taylor, son of William and Anne, married Mrs. Elizabeth Lyde, daughter of Major Gwyn, of Essex county. Their children were William, John, Betty, and Anne Corbin. The first died young. John was the founder of Mount Airy. Betty married Colonel Richard Corbin, grand- son of Henry Corbin. Anne Corbin married Mann Page, of Mansfield, near Fredericksburg.
" The last-named John Taylor, of Mount Airy, was a member of the Council of Virginia, before the War of the Revolution, and was re-elected with his colleague by the House of Burgesses during the progress of the war. He died suddenly on the 18th April, 1779, leaving a large family. He had twelve children, of whom eight daughters and one son survived him. His wife was Rebecca Plater, sister of the Honourable Governor
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George Plater, of Maryland, whom he married in 1747. She died in 1787. Their eight daughters married,-1st, Elizabeth, to Governor Edward Lloyd, in 1767, of Maryland; 2d, Rebecca, to Francis Lightfoot Lee, the signer of the Declaration of Independence, in 1769; 3d, Eleanor, to Ralph Wormly, of Middlesex, in 1772; 4th, Anne Corbin, to Thomas Lomax, of Caroline, in 1773; 5th, Mary, to Mann Page, of Spottsylvania, in 1776; 6th, Catherine, to Landon Carter, of Richmond county, in 1780; 7th, Jane, to Robert Beverley, of Essex, in 1791; 8th, Sarah, to Colonel Wm. Augustine Washington, of Westmoreland, in 1799.
"John, son of the foregoing John and Rebecca, third of the name, was born in 1771, the only son in a family of twelve. In 1792 he married Anne, daughter of Governor Benjamin Ogle, of Maryland. He died in Washington in 1828. Their children were fifteen, of whom three died young, and eleven (six sons and five daughters) survived their father. Their mother died in 1855, at the unusual age of eighty-three. Five sons and three daughters have survived her. Their eldest son, John, entered the navy, and was distinguished in the battles of the Constitution with the Guerriere and with the Cyane and Levant. After the first action the State ยท of Virginia presented him with a sword. He was captured in the Levant by a British squadron whilst lying at Port Praya, Cape de Verde Islands. He died in 1824 at Mount Airy, having resigned, shortly before, his rank of lieutenant in the navy, to which he was promoted soon after his first action. Benjamin Ogle Tayloe, the second son, resides in Washington. Three other sons-William, Edward, and George-reside in Virginia, and one in Alabama,-Henry Tayloe, an active member of the Church in that State. John Taylor, a grandson, resides at Chatterton, in the county of King George."
From the earliest accounts of this family, they have been either warm friends of the Church, or in full communion with it. Many of the male members of the family have been active and liberal vestrymen.
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ARTICLE LXIII.
Parishes in King George County.
KING GEORGE county was taken out of Richmond county in the year 1720, at which time Richmond county extended as far on one side of the Rappahannock as Essex did on the other, which was, I believe, near the Falls of the Rappahannock or Fredericksburg. It did not extend from the Rappahannock to the Potomac, as West- moreland and King George now do, for Westmoreland and Stafford* extended along the Potomac, while Richmond and King George lay on the Rappahannock. Formerly there were two parishes in King George,-Hanover and Brunswick, lying along the Rappa- hannock, the latter reaching up to the falls at Fredericksburg, for we find Mr. W. Fitzhugh, of Chatham, opposite Fredericksburg, representing Brunswick parish in the Conventions of 1785 and 1786. In 1776, the boundaries of Stafford and King George were changed, and each of them made to extend from river to river, instead of being divided by a longitudinal line running east and west. At this time St. Paul's parish, and part of Overwharton, formerly in Stafford, were thrown into King George county, and that of Bruns- wick parish into Stafford. There are, therefore, now in King George, St. Paul's parish, on the Potomac side, and Hanover, chiefly on the Rappahannock. In the parish of Brunswick there was formerly a church some miles below Fredericksburg, whose ruins, or the traces of whose foundation, may yet, I am told, be seen.
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