USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. II > Part 20
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* Stafford is first mentioned among the counties in 1666, in the following manner. It seems that, besides the private looms of weavers, there was required by Act of Assembly a public one in each county, with certain exceptions :- " Provided that the executing hereof in the counties of Rappahannock, Stafford, Westmoreland, and Northumberland, who, by the newness of their ground, pretend themselves in- capable of making provision for the soon employment of a weaver, be respited for fowre years after the date hereof." From this Act we may see what was the state of the whole Northern Neck of Virginia in 1666, nearly sixty years after the first settlement of the Colony. It either was not, or pretended not to be, able to support one weaver at public expense. It is pleasing to think that there was a better state uf things as to religion, and that there were several ministers in the district at the above-mentioned period.
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There was also a church in Falmouth which belonged to this parish, and in which I have preached at an early day of my ministry.
In Hanover parish there were, from 1779 to 1796, two churches, -viz. : Strother's, between Port Conway and Oakenbrough, and Round Hill, under the charge of the ministers of the parish. Until the year 1777, Round Hill Church was in Washington parish, Westmoreland, but certain changes in the boundaries of King George and Westmoreland in that year threw Round Hill Church into King George county and Hanover parish. As we have but little to say of Hanover parish, we will say it at once. We cannot ascertain the precise time of its establishment. It was in existence in 1720, and probably established in that year, as King George was then cut off from Richmond county. In 1753, we find on one of our lists the name of William Davis as its rector. In the years 1773, 1774, and 1776, we find the Rev. William Davies. But in the mean time the Rev. Mr. Boucher was the minister of the parish for some years.
We have nothing on any of our lists, or in the vestry-book of this parish, concerning this distinguished man, and for the plain reason that we have no list or vestry-book covering the period of his ministry in Hanover parish. He was ordained for this parish in 1762, having been resident in Virginia since he was sixteen years of age, and probably in that part of Virginia. He was an intimate friend of General Washington, and, as has been stated in the article on Caroline county, dedicated a volume of sermons to Washington. He was selected by the General as a travelling-com- panion and guide to young Custis, son of Mrs. Washington, when it was contemplated that he should make the tour of Europe. The following extract from a letter of General Washington on the subject will at the same time explain the causes of the relinquish- ment of this plan, and show the amiableness and sound judgment displayed by him on the occasion. Mr. Boucher was the tutor to young Custis at Annapolis, in the year 1771, when the letter was written of which the following is an extract :-
"Upon the whole, it is impossible for me at this time to give a more decisive answer, however strongly inclined I may be to put you upon a certainty in this affair, than I have done; and I should think myself want- ing in candour, if I concealed any circumstance from you which leads me to fear that there is a possibility, if not a probability, that the whole design may be totally defeated. Before I ever thought myself at liberty to encourage the plan, I judged it highly reasonable and necessary that his mother should be consulted. I laid your first letter and proposals before her, and desired that she would reflect well before she resolved, as
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an unsteady behaviour might be a disadvantage to you. Her determina- tion was, that if it appeared to be his inclination to undertake this tour and it should be judged for his benefit, she would not oppose it, whatever pangs it might give her to part with him. To this declaration she still adheres, but in so faint a manner, that I think, with her fears and his in- difference, it would soon be declared that he had no inclination to go. I do not say that this will be the case. I cannot speak positively ; but, as this is the result of my own reflections on the matter, I thought it but fair to communicate it to you. Several causes have, I believe, concurred to make her view his departure, as the time approaches, with more reluc- tance than she expected. The unhappy situation of her daughter has in some degree fixed her eyes upon him as her only hope. To what I have already said, I can only add, that my warmest wishes are to see him pro- secute a plan, at a proper period, which I may be sure will redound to his advantage, and that nothing shall be wanting on my part to aid and assist him."
It seems that Mr. Custis preferred an early marriage to a Euro- pean tour, and so the matter ended.
We return from this digression to the other ministers of Hanover parish. We have a vestry-book beginning in 1779, which shows that in 1780 the Rev. Rodham Kennor (an old Virginia name) was chosen its minister. In 1785, he resigned and removed to his farm in Fauquier. The next year the Rev. John Low became its minister, and continued until 1796, when he was allowed to preside in the vestry till the end of the year, on condition that he would resign at that time, which he did in a letter recorded in the vestry-book. We know of no other minister being in this parish until its reor- ganization and the election of the Rev. Mr. Friend, who has recently left it. The following list of vestrymen . from 1779 to 1796 will show who were the leading friends of the Church in that parish. Messrs. Piper, Woffendall, Kendall, Jett, Boon, Lovall, Marshall, Kirk, Conway, Washington, Bernard, Johnson, Dade, Stewart, Dishman, Flood, Oldham, Berry. Mr. Johnson was reader at Round Hill Church, and Mr. Thornby at Strother's. Two orders on the vestry-book serve to throw light on the manners of the parish. One directs Mr. Ashton to try to procure four locks for the glebe-house, evidently showing that there was difficulty and uncertainty about it. This speaks well for the honesty of the times, locks being so little used that they were hard to be gotten. The other is not so creditable to the temperance of the times and parish, as it directs that "forty pounds of tobacco be paid for two quarts of brandy for burying a poor woman,"-that is, for use at the funeral.
A few words will suffice for the history of the parish since the year 1796. Some years since, a number of families in the upper
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part of it-the Tayloes, Masons, Turners, &c .- united in building a neat brick church near the court-house, for which they secured the partial services of the Rev. Mr. Friend, by which means a very respectable congregation has been formed. As stated above, Mr. Friend has recently resigned his charge.
Since writing the above, we have been indebted to the kindness and diligence of one or two friends for some further information concerning this parish, obtained from the old records of the court. In the years 1725, 1727, and 1737, the names of the Rev. Mr. Skaife, Mr. Edyard, and Mr. Mackay, appear on the record, though it is not known with what parishes they were connected. The fol- lowing were the names of vestrymen between the years 1723 and 1779 :- John Grimsley, James Kay, William Strother, Rowland Thornton, Thomas Turner,* John Furguson, Jos. Strother, Maxi- milian Robinson, William Thornton, Joseph Murdock, Joseph Jones, George Tankersley, George Riding, Thomas Vivian, Isaac Arnold, Samuel Skinker, Harry Turner, Charles Carter, John Triplett, Thomas Jett, Thomas Hodges, Richard Payne, Thomas Berry, Horatio Dade, John Skinker, William Robinson, George Marshall, John Washington, Townsend Dade, Robert Stith, Henry Fitzhugh, Jr., Laurence Washington, Sen., John Pollard, William Fitzhugh, Laurence Ashton, Thomas Hood, William Newton, William Bruce, James Kenyon, John Taliafero, Joseph Jones, James Hunton, John Taliafero, Jr. Whether all these belonged to Hanover parish I think doubtful. In the year 1744, there is a suit in King George Court in the name of Henry Downs and Zachary Taylor, (doubt- less the ancestor of our late President,) the churchwardens of St. Thomas's Church, Orange county.
* The families of Tayloes and Turners are the most ancient with which I am acquainted in the parish of Hanover. Of the former I have given some account in my article on Lunenburg parish, Richmond county. The first of the Turners was a physician who came to Virginia about 1650 or 1660, and settled in the very region now occupied by his descendants, on the banks of the Rappahannock, in Hanover parish. He left two sons, Harry and Thomas. The latter died young. Harry mar- ried the only surviving daughter of Mr. Nicholas Smith, of "Smith's Mount," in Westmoreland, by whom he became possessed of that estate, which he bequeathed to his posterity, and which has gone by the name of the seat of the Turner family. He and his wife Elizabeth are both buried there, as are also their parents. The tombstones still remain and testify of them. Mr. Harry Turner left only one son, Thomas, who married a daughter of Colonel William Fauntleroy, of Naylor's Hole, in Richmond county, about the year 1767, and left a family of eight children,-four sons and four daughters. The sons were Henry, Thomas, Richard, and George,- the descendants of whom, as well as of the daughters, are dispersed throughout the State; a number of them living in King George, where, as we have said, the first ancestors settled.
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BRUNSWICK PARISH.
A short notice will suffice for Brunswick parish. This was also in existence in 1720. In 1754 and 1758, the Rev. Daniel McDo- nald was its minister. In the year 1786, we find the parish, or a portion of it, included in Stafford county. It was no doubt taken into it at the establishment of the new boundaries between it and King George, in the year 1776. I have already mentioned that there was a church a few miles from Fredericksburg, within the parish of Brunswick. It was called Muddy Creek Church, and about nine miles from Fredericksburg. Muddy Creek is now the boundary-line between King George and Stafford. At a later period, Lamb's Creek Church was the church of Brunswick parish. The stepping-stone at the door bears the date of 1782, but the church may have been built before that. From the records of the court we find that a Mr. Anthony Hainy was churchwarden in this parish as far back as 1734, and Mr. Charles Carter and John Champe in 1739. Mr. Charles Carter was also vestryman in 1750.
ST. PAUL'S PARISH, KING GEORGE COUNTY.
Our authority for the earlier part of the history of this parish is a vestry-book beginning in 1766, during the rectorship of the Rev. William Stuart, who, according to the Rev. Robert Rose, was a man of eloquence and popularity and high character.
There is also a register of the marriages, and of the births, bap- tisms, and deaths of both white and black. Much of it is torn out. Its first entry is in 1722. At that time, and long before, the Rev. David Stuart was the minister. He continued to be so until his death, in 1749, when he was succeeded by his son, William Stuart, who was probably his father's assistant for some time before his death. The son died in 1796. The earlier part of my mother's life was spent under his ministry, and I have often heard her speak in high praise of him. He was in bad health for some years before his death. The following is his letter of resignation :-
" TO THE VESTRY OF ST. PAUL'S PARISH.
" GENTLEMEN :- I have been curate of this parish upward of forty years. My own conscience bears me witness, and I trust my parishioners (though many of them have fallen asleep) will also witness, that until age and infirmities disabled me I always, so far as my infirmities would allow, faithfully discharged my duties as a minister of the Gospel. It has given me many hours of anxious concern that the services of the Church should be so long discontinued on my account. The spirit indeed is willing, but
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the flesh is weak. I therefore entreat the favour of you to provide me a successor as soon as you can, that divine service may be discontinued no longer ; and at the end of the year the glebe shall be given up to him by your affectionate servant,
" WILLIAM STUART."
It is most probable that the father's term of service was equal to that of his son's ; and if so, we should go back to near the be- ginning of the century with the ministry of the two,-and that would carry us to a period not far from that in which the first of the Fitzhughs-Mr. William Fitzhugh-of this region wrote to the Bishop of London urging him to send them a sober and pious minister. Mr. Fitzhugh lived at Bedford, in what is now King George but was then Westmoreland, and there was a church and graveyard near his residence (Bedford) on the Potomac. A second church was built near the present, and a few miles only from the first. Before closing our notice of Mr. William Stuart, I must ex- tract from the record an entry which shows that, though he lived some years after his resignation, his zeal for theChurch did not abate : though unable to preach, he was able and willing to give. When a subscription was raised for his successor, Mr. Parsons, (the Esta- blishment being put down,) his name stands first on the list for ten pounds,-no other exceeding three. The voluntary system was then in its infancy, and only fifty-seven pounds were raised; but this was as much as the most of the parishes paid their ministers under the Establishment. Mr. Parsons was never admitted to Priests' Orders : for what reason I am unable to say. It is not wonderful that on this account the religious condition of the parish should have rapidly declined, and at his death, in 1808, was in so deplorable a state. The house of worship, which, at successive periods from the year 1766, had been begun, completed, and re- paired, and become one of the best of the cruciform churches in Virginia, was permitted to fall into ruins,-except its well-built walls. In the year 1838, I gave the following account of a visit paid to it many years before :-
" On Thursday and Friday, services were performed in St. Paul's Church, King George county. I preached in the morning of each day, and Mr. Nelson and Mr. Friend in the afternoon. Here I baptized three children and confirmed two persons and administered the Communion. About twenty-six years ago, (in the year 1812 or 1813,) the Rev. Mr. Norris and myself visited this place together. St. Paul's was then in ruins. The roof was ready to fall ; and not a window, door, pew, or timber remained below. Nevertheless, notice was given that we would preach there. A rude, temporary pulpit or stand was raised at one angle of the cross, and
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from that we performed service and addressed the people. On the night before the meeting a heavy rain had fallen, and the water was in small pools here and there where the floor once was, so that it was difficult to find a dry spot on which the attendants might stand. Such was its con- dition twenty-six years ago, and thus did it continue for some years after, until the Legislature granted leave to citizens of the county to convert it into an academy. This being done, it was used conjointly as a seminary of learning and place of worship. At length, the seminary being neglected, and the house useless for purposes of education, as well as inconvenient for public worship, the neighbours petitioned the Legislature to restore it to its rightful owners'and original purposes; which being done, it was con- verted back again into a temple of God,-one part of it being divided into three small rooms for the residence of a minister, and the other part- three-fourths of the whole house-being handsomely fitted up for public worship. It is now one of the most convenient and delightful churches in Virginia."*
The following extract from the letters of a friend and relative in King George, (Dr. Abraham Hooe,) who has long faithfully served as vestryman of the parish, and who has carefully examined its records, will complete our notice of it :-
" At a meeting of the vestry on the 19th of January, 1797, the re- signation was accepted by the following order :- ' That the Rev. William Stuart having resigned as rector of St. Paul's parish, and having petitioned the vestry to appoint him a successor, we, the vestry of said parish, do receive the Rev. John Parsons to officiate as Deacon agreeably to the canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church.'
" Mr. Parsons survived until some time in 1808, as I learned. I sup- pose it was subsequent to his death that the church went into ruins. Then the glebes were sold, and the very life of the Church here seems to have gone out. During the interval between the death of Mr. Parsons and 1817, you and others would occasionally come and minister to our fathers and mothers, and afford them the opportunity of placing their dear chil- dren in covenant with their God; and I believe the late Dr. Keith, of the Seminary,-at that time a private tutor in the parish,-was in the habit of lay-reading within the ruins. But these ruins were not only used for occasional religious services ; they were a resort (for shelter they furnished none) for the beasts of the field as well as for the soldiers of the camp, and furnished material for plunder to all the ruthless of the land. In men- tioning the kindness of those who would come among us, I cannot omit to refer to that of the Rev. John McGuire, who had so often taken part in
* An old African woman, who, in her youth, had been brought to Virginia and piously brought up in some good family, near St. Paul's, and carried there every Sunday and taught to join in the service, became so attached to the place and mode of worship, that after the church was deserted of minister and people, and her fellow-servants were all going to other meetings and joining in other ways of praying, used regularly to go to the old place and sit upon one of the naked sleepers by her- self, for some time every Sabbath. Upon being questioned and perhaps ridiculed for this, she said it did her more good to go to the old church and think over by herself the old prayers she was used to, than to go into any of the new ways.
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those 'associations' which, though of course less frequent, at one time seemed to be looked for with almost the same regularity as the stated services of the Church, and with no less interest. On the 18th of May, 1816, a vestry was again organized, and Richard Stuart and Townshend S. Dade, son and grandson of the late rector, Mr. Stuart, were appointed delegates to the Convention to be held in Richmond, thus reorganizing the parish after an interval of so many years. The vestry elected con- sisted of Richard Stuart, Townshend S. Dade, Abraham B. Hooe, Lang- horne Dade, John J. Stuart, William F. Grymes, Cadwallader I. Dade, and Charles Massey, Sen .; but not until the 11th of December, 1817, were the services of a minister obtained. Then the Rev. Joseph R. An- drews, also a private tutor in the neighbourhood, was elected as rector. This gentle and godly man officiated in the Academy and, I believe, at King George Court-House, as well as at Port Royal, for several years, when, feeling himself called to the work of missions, (honoured of Heaven,) he left his native land to find an early martyr's grave on the unfriendly shore of Africa, and I have the pleasant recollection of having helped him to pack his little all in my father's house.
"In 1822, the Rev. Josias Clapham was called to the charge of this parish, and his last official signature on the vestry-book bears date May 3, 1824. How long subsequently he may have continued in charge does not appear, and, being from home for several years about that time, I do not know myself. He, however, preached in Washington parish, Westmoreland county, and in a small meeting-house near Round Hill Church in this county, for some years afterward, when he removed to Halifax county, from which time his history is unknown to me further than to be able to say I am sure he has received the reward of the righteous, for he was a good man and a faithful and strict follower of his Lord and Master. Even the days just spoken of were days of destitution with us; but, as in the days of the ruins, so in those of our destitution, one and another minister of our Church would once and again come to preach the word to us; and none were more kind and true in so doing than the Rev. Charles Mann, now of this diocese, but then rector of William and Mary parish, just across the Potomac River, in Charles county, Maryland, the grateful re- collection of which kindness can only cease with the lives of those of us who remember it.
"It was also customary in those days for the Methodists to have stated appointments to preach at the Academy, as did occasionally the Baptists and Presbyterians, up to the time of the Repeal Act restoring to us our church. On the 11th of January, 1828, the Rev. Edward W. Peet, now at Des Moines, Iowa, was chosen minister of the parish. He, I think, had been at first, in 1827, sent to us by the Diocesan Missionary Society, and, having been elected as above, he continued our minister until 1830, when he resigned, to take charge of St. John's Church, Richmond, and was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Goldsmith, who was elected on the 20th of August of that year. It was mainly owing to the exertions of Mr. Peet that the restoration of the church to its former and rightful proprietors may be attributed, as was certainly the new roofing of Lamb's Creek, mentioned above. During his ministry there is reason to believe much interest in the cause of religion was awakened among us, and from that time on, the borders of the Church have been enlarged. The Rev. Mr. Goldsmith con- tinued in charge of our parish and of Lamb's Creek united, most of the time until his resignation of the former in April, 1837; and it was during
T
ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, KING GEORGE CO., YA
RECTORY.
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his ministry that the consecration of the church took place. On the 22d of July following, the Rev. Charles Goodrich, Deacon, was chosen as rector of this and Lamb's Creek Churches, and entered on his duties on the 1st of October, 1837. Of his services among us I need only say his praise is on all our lips, and the love of him fills all our hearts. He left us at the end of a year for New Orleans, where he has been faithfully labouring in his Master's cause. From October, 1838, to the fall of 1840, we were without the regular services of the Church. Repeated unavailing attempts were made to secure them, and in the mean time our kind and good neigh- bour, the Rev. William Friend, as he always has done in our need, would come among us and minister to us, as his convenience would allow or cir- cumstances might require. On the 26th of June, 1840, the Rev. John Martin, now of Maryland, was elected, and continued as minister of this parish and Washington parish, in Westmoreland, until July, 1844, when he resigned, and was succeeded by the Rev. Lewis Walke, Deacon. Diffi- culty in maintaining a minister in conjunction with other parishes having become manifest, it was determined to endeavour to do so ourselves, and Mr. Walke's services were obtained for our parish exclusively, and he continued to officiate for us most faithfully until the summer of 1848, when the parish was again vacant until the fall of 1851, when the Rev. B. B. Leacock took charge of it, and we were favoured with his valuable services for one year, when he resigned, owing to ill health, as well as with a view to a mission to Africa, and was succeeded by the Rev. Joseph A. Russell, our present rector. Of the glebes I can only say they were sold after the death of the last incumbent, Mr. Parsons, and as much of the proceeds of the sales as was needful were appropriated as before referred to,-the re- mainder being now a fund in the hands of a board of school-commissioners for the county, to aid in a system of education established under a late Act of the Legislature. The earliest notice of the plate of this parish is an entry on the vestry-book as follows :- ' On the 4th day of June, 1802, the following articles of church-plate belonging to this parish,-viz. : one large silver can, a silver chalice and bread-plate,-were deposited in the care of Mr. John Parsons, the then incumbent.
" 'Signed,
TOWNSEND DADE, Warden.'"
These same articles of plate are now in possession of the parish, and I am sure are familiar to you. They had been, at some period prior to the above date, the gift of Colonel Henry Fitzhugh, of Stafford, in this county, as appears from the following inscription on each piece :- "Given by Henry Fitzhugh, of Stafford county, St. Paul's parish, Gent., for the use of your church." There are also a large Bible and Prayer-Book belonging to the parish. The first has the following inscription in gilt letters on the back :- "Given for the use of the church in St. Paul's parish, by the Rev. Wm. Stuart, rector of the same, 1762." It is a Cambridge edition, appointed by his Majesty's special command to be read in churches, "Cum privilegiis," and its dedication is, "To our most high and mighty Prince James, by the grace of God King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, the translators of the
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