USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. II > Part 21
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Bible wish grace, mercy, and peace, through our Lord Jesus Christ." The inscription on the Prayer-Book is, "Presented to St. Paul's Church, King George county, by Miss Jane S. Parke, 1831." Miss Parke was great grand-daughter to the Rev. William Stuart, the former rector.
P.S .- Since the foregoing was written, the Rev. Mr. Russell has left the parish, and the Rev. Mr. Stuart has taken his place.
The following is the list of vestrymen of this parish from the year 1720 to the present time :-
Richard Bernard, John Hooe, Richard Foote, Captain John Alex- ander, Captain Baldwin Dade, Colonel Henry Fitzhugh, Jerard Fowke, John Stith, Cadwallader Dade, John Stewart, John Alexander, Jr., Francis Thornton, John Washington, Thomas Pratt, Thomas Bunbury, (Thomas Stribling, reader,) Henry Fitzhugh, Jr., Wm. Fitzhugh, Wm. Fitzhugh, Jr., Samuel Washington, Laurence Washington, Townsend Dade, in the place of Samuel Washington, who removed in 1770; John Berryman, in 1771, in place of William Fitzhugh, removed out of the county ; Robert Washington, Andrew Grant, Robert Stith, W. G. Stuart, William Hooe, Daniel Fitzhugh, Wm. Thornton, Wm. Stith, Henry Fitz- hugh, Robert Yates, Wm. Stork, Wm. Quarles, Thomas Short, Benjamin Grymes, Thomas Washington, Rice W. Hooe, John B. Fitzhugh, John Waugh, Langhorne Dade, William Stone, Henry A. Ashton, Charles Stuart, J. K. Washington, Abraham B. Hooe, J. J. Stuart, William F. Grymes, Charles Massey, J. Queensbury, Robert Chesley, Needam Wash- ington, Alexander Keech, Francis C. Fitzhugh, B. O. Tayloe, Thomas Smith, Dr. Robert Parsons, G. B. Alexander, Henry Mustin, Gustavus B. Alexander, Hezekiah Potts, T. L. Lomax, Jacob W. Stuart, Henry T. Washington, Drury B. Fitzhugh, Benjamin R. Grymes, John T. Wash- ington, W. E. Stuart, M. Tenent.
AN ACCOUNT OF THE FITZHUGH FAMILY; ESPECIALLY OF THE FIRST ANCESTOR, WILLIAM FITZHUGH.
The Fitzhugh family is a very ancient and honourable one in England. Some of its members were high in office and favour during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The name is a com- bination of the two names Fitz and Hugh. Sometimes one, some- times the other, would precede, until at length they were united in Fitzhugh. The first who settled in this country was William Fitz- hugh. His father was a lawyer in London, and himself of that profession. He settled in Westmoreland county, Virginia, when a young man, and married a Miss Tucker, of that county. He was born in the year 1650, and died in 1701. He left five sons,-Wil- liam, Henry, Thomas, George, and John,-between whom, at his death, he divided 54,054 acres of land in King George, Stafford, and perhaps Essex. His sons and their descendants owned the
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seats called Eagle-nest and Bedford in King George, and Bellaire and Boscobel in Stafford. He had one daughter named Rosamond, who married Colonel Oberton, of Westmoreland, but died without issue. His son William married Miss Lee, of Westmoreland. Henry married Miss Cooke, of Gloucester. . Thomas and George married daughters of Colonel George Mason, of Stafford, and John, Miss McCarty, of Westmoreland. From these have sprung all the families of Fitzhughs in Virginia, Maryland, and Western New York. The Rev. Robert Rose married Ann, the daughter of Henry Fitzhugh, of Eagle-nest, in the year 1740. She lived to the year 1789, surviving her husband thirty-five years. There are some things in the life and character of the father of this large family of Fitzhughs worthy to be mentioned for the benefit and satisfac- tion of his posterity. I draw them from his pious and carefully- written will, and from a large manuscript volume of his letters, a copy of which was some years since gotten from the library of Cam- bridge, Massachusetts, by one of his descendants, and which is now in the rooms of the Historical Society of Virginia.
It appears that he was, during the period that he exercised his profession, an eminent and most successful lawyer, and published in England a work on the laws of Virginia. He was much engaged in the management of land-causes for the great landholders, whether residing in England or America. He was counsellor for the cele- brated Robert Beverley, the first of the name, and who was perse- cuted and imprisoned for too much independence. He transacted business for, and purchased lands from, Lord Culpepper, when he held a grant from King Charles for all Virginia. In all these transactions he appears to have acted with uprightness and without covetousness, for in his private letters to his friends he speaks of being neither in want nor abundance, but being content and happy; though before he died he acquired large tracts of lands at a cheap rate. The true cause of this was his being a sincere Christian. This appears from his letters to his mother and sister, to whom he remitted pecuniary assistance according to his ability, increasing it as his ability increased. The following brief letter to his mother in the year 1694 will exhibit his filial and pious dispo- sition :-
" DEAR MOTHER :- I heartily condole with you in your present sickness and indisposition, which your age now every day contracts. God's grace will make you bear it patiently, to your comfort, his glory, and your ever- lasting salvation. I cannot enough thank you for the present of your choice Bible. The money that you say you had present occasion for l VOL. II .- 18
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have ordered Mr. Cooper to enlarge, and you will see by his letter that it is doubled. Before I was ten years old, as I am sure you will remember, I looked upon this life here as but going to an inn, and no permanent being. By God's grace I continue the same good thoughts and notions, therefore am always prepared for my dissolution, which I can't be per- suaded to prolong by a wish. Now, dear mother, if you should be neces- sitated for eight or ten pound extraordinary, please to apply to Mr. Cooper, and he upon sight of this letter will furnish it to you."
He adds a postcript to the letter, saying, "My sister died a true penitent of the Church of England." .
His sister had come over to America at his instance some years before and married here, but died without children. Other letters to his mother, who it seems was much afflicted with some troubles, which are not mentioned, he writes in a very consoling manner, bidding her regard her sorrows as from Heaven, and thanks her for pious instruction of him. His habits were strictly temperate. In writing to a friend who was much afflicted with the gout, he tells him the secret of his freedom from it,-viz. : that he never was ad- dicted to the orgies of Bacchus, or to the adoration of Ceres or Venus, never courted unlawful pleasures, avoided feasting and the surfeit thereof, and bids him tell the physician this.
Mr. Fitzhugh was not merely a moral man, but a sincerely reli- gious man, beyond the measure of that day. He is not ashamed in one of his legal opinions to quote Scripture as the highest author- ity. He was a leading member of the Episcopal Church in his - parish. Through him presents of Communion-plate and other things' from English friends were made to the parish. Referring to the unworthiness of many of the ministers who came over from Eng- land, he communicated with his friends and with the Bishop of London, asking that sober, reputable, and educated men might be sent over instead of such as did come. All this appears from pas- sages in his letters to England. But, were there none of these letters extant, the following extract from his will would testify to his sound and evangelical views of our blessed religion.
Extract from the will of Colonel William Fitzhugh, of Stafford county,
Virginia, who died in October, 1701. He was the parent of the Fitz- hugh family in Virginia, and the patentee of Ravensworth :-
"At a court held for Stafford county, December 10, 1701. Present her Majesty's Justices for said county.
"In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Trinity in Unity, Unity in Trinity, Three Persons and One God, blessed forever. Amen. I, William Fitzhugh, of Stafford county, in Virginia, being by God's grace bound for England, and knowing the frailty and uncertainty of men's lives, and being at present in perfect health and memory, do now ordain, consti-
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tute, and appoint this my last will and testament, revoking all other and former, or other wills, this 5th day of April, 1701.
"Imprimis : I recommend my soul into the hands of God, through the mediation and intercession of my blessed Saviour and Redeemer, hoping by the merits of his death to have my sins washed away in his blood, nailed to his cross, and buried in his grave, and by his merits and passion to obtain everlasting life; therefore, now do bequeath and dispose such estate as it hath pleased God to bestow in his mercy upon me, after this manner following,
" After they have disposed of my body to decent interment, without noise, feasting and drink, or tumult, which I not only leave to, but enjoin, my executors, hereafter named, to see decently performed.
" Item : I give and bequeath to my eldest son, William Fitzhugh, all these tracts of land following," &c. &c.
(Then follow the bequests to the various members of the family.)
It is evident that in the foregoing will there is much more than the usual formal recognition of a God and future state. Here is to be seen a true acknowledgment of the Holy Trinity, and an entire reliance on the merits of the Saviour's death and the cleansing of his blood, such as no orthodox divine could better express.
None can doubt but that the recorded sentiments and the con- sistent life of this father of a numerous family must have had its effect upon many of his posterity. I have known many, and heard of others, who imbibed his excellent spirit, and not in Virginia only, but in other States, to which they have emigrated. One there was, too well known to the writer of these lines, and to whom for Chris- tian nurture and example he was too much indebted, ever to be forgotten. A beloved mother was a lineal descendant of this good man, born and nurtured on the soil which his economy and dili- gence had bequeathed to a numerous posterity. To her example and tuition, under God, am I indebted for having escaped the snares laid for the youth of our land and for having embraced the blessed religion of Christ. And if I may be permitted to single out one from the numerous families of the name, it must needs be that one which was nearest to me, and with which I have been most intimately acquainted from my childhood up. The name of Mr. William Fitzhugh, of Chatham, in the county of Stafford, as a perfect gen- tleman, as a most hospitable entertainer, and a true son of Virginia in her Councils, will not soon be forgotten. His name is not only on the journals of our civil Legislature, but may be seen on the ecclesiastical records of our Church, among those who were the last to give up her regular assemblies and the hope of her prosperity in her darkened days. Nor is it unlawful to proceed to some brief notice of the two children who survived him. His son, William
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Henry Fitzhugh, my associate at college, entered life with as fair a prospect for honour and usefulness as any young man in Virginia. Twice only, I believe, did he appear in the legislative hall of our State, and once in a Convention of the same; but such a promise of political distinction was there given, that it could not but be felt that a few years would find him in the higher Councils of the land. It pleased Providence to interfere, and by a sudden and early death to remove him from this earthly scene. Before this decree of Heaven was executed, as if admonished of its coming, he had, after pleading by his pen and voice for the American Coloni- zation Society, directed that all his slaves-amounting, I believe, to about two hundred-should be prepared for, and allowed to choose, Africa as their home.
But I must not lay down my pen, though the heart bleed at its further use, without the tribute of affection, of gratitude, and reve- rence to one who was to me as sister, mother, and faithful monitor. Mrs. Mary Custis, of Arlington, the wife of Mr. Washington Custis, grandson of Mrs. General Washington, was the daughter of Mr. William Fitzhugh, of Chatham. Scarcely is there a Christian lady in our land more honoured than she was, and none more loved and esteemed. For good sense, prudence, sincerity, benevolence, un- affected piety, disinterested zeal in every good work, deep humility and retiring modesty,-for all the virtues which adorn the wife, the mother, and the friend,-I never knew her superior. A husband yet lives to feel her loss. An only daughter, with a numerous family of children, also survive, to imitate, I trust, her blessed example.
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ARTICLE LXIV.
Overwharton Parish, Stafford County.
I COME now to Overwharton parish in Stafford county. The county and parish take their names from the corresponding ones in England. Stafford county once extended up to the Blue Ridge Mountain. In the year 1730, Prince William county was formed from the "heads of King George and Stafford." Overwharton parish was also coextensive with Stafford before Prince William was taken off. In the same year,-1730,-Overwharton parish was divided and Hamilton parish taken off. Overwharton covered the narrow county of Stafford, and Hamilton the large county of Prince William before Fauquier, Fairfax, and Loudoun were taken away. Stafford, in its original dimensions, first appears as a county in 1666. When it was erected into a parish is not known,- but most probably about the same time. Its division in 1730 is the first mention of it. The Rev. Robert Rose in his account- book mentions the Rev. Alexander Scott as a minister in it in 1727; and it is well known that he was the minister of this parish for many years .* He came from Scotland,-being obliged to leave, it is supposed, after some unsuccessful rebellion. He never mar- ried. Having acquired considerable property, he invited his younger brother, the Rev. James Scott, to come over and inherit it. He had one estate in Stafford called Dipple, at which he lived. His
* The Rev. Alexander Scott was minister in this parish in 1724, and for thirteen years before, as appears from his report to the Bishop of London. Being then a frontier-county, its limits were not known ; but it was inhabited about eighty miles along the Potomac and from three to twenty miles in the interior. There were six hundred and fifty families, eighty to one hundred communicants, in attendance, one church, and several chapels. Glebe so inconvenient that he rented it out and bought one more convenient for himself. His church and chapels as full as they could hold. Epitaph of Rev. Alexander Scott, who was buried at Dipple, his seat on the Po- tomac :- " Here lies the body of Rev. Alexander Scott, A.M., and presbyter of the Church of England, who lived near twenty-eight years minister of Overwharton parish, and died in the fifty-third year of his age,-he being born the 20th day of July, A.D. 1686, and departed this life the 1st day of April, 1738.
" Gaudia Nuncio Magna."
This is written upon his coat of arms, which is engraved upon his tomb.
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brother came over, and after some time became the minister of the adjoining parish of Dettingen in Prince William, which was sepa- rated from Hamilton when Fauquier was taken from Prince William, and in which he ministered for thirty-seven years. Mr. Alexander Scott had as his assistant or curate, for a short time before his death, the Rev. Mr. Moncure, a Scotchman, but descend- ant of a Huguenot refugee who fled from France at the revoca- tion of the Edict of Nantes. Mr. Moncure was the successor of Mr. Scott. In what year he entered on his duties I have been unable to ascertain, but his name is still to be seen painted on one of the panels of the gallery in Old Aquia Church, together with those of the vestry in 1757. The first church was burned in the year 1751. I here give the names of the minister and vestry as painted on the gallery in the year 1757, when it is supposed the second church was finished. John Moncure, minister. Peter Houseman, John Mercer, John Lee, Mott Donithan, Henry Tyler, William Mountjoy, Benjamin Strother, Thomas Fitzhugh, Peter Daniel, Traverse Cooke, John Fitzhugh, John Peyton, vestrymen. It is gratifying to know that the descendants of the above are, with probably but few exceptions, in some part of our State or land still attached to the Episcopal Church. Their names are a guarantee for their fidelity to the Church of their fathers. Of the minister, the Rev. J. Moncure, the following extract from a letter of one of his daughters, who married General-afterward Governor-Wood, of Virginia, will give a more interesting account than any which could possibly be collected from all other sources. It was written in the year 1820, to a female relative, the grand-daughter of the Rev. James Scott, who married a sister of the Rev. Mr. Moncure's wife, and daughter of Dr. Gustavus Brown, of Port Tobacco, Maryland :-
" I was only ten years old when I lost my doar father. He was a Scotch- man descended from a French ancestor, who fled among the first Protest- ants who left France in consequence of the persecution that took place soon after the Reformation. He had an excellent education, and had made considerable progress in the study of medicine, when an invitation to seek an establishment in Virginia induced him to cross the Atlantic, and his first engagement was in Northumberland county, where he lived two years in a gentleman's family as private tutor. During that time, although teach- ing others, he was closely engaged in the study of divinity, and, at the com- mencement of the third year from his first arrival, returned to Great Britain and was ordained a minister of the then Established Church ; came back to Virginia and engaged as curate to your great-uncle, Alexander Scott, who at that time was minister of Overwharton parish, in Stafford county, and resided at his seat of Dipple. Your uncle died a short time after, and
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my dear father succeeded him in his parish and resided at the glebe-house. Your grandfather, the Rev. James Scott, who inherited Dipple, continued there until he settled at Westwood, in Prince William. He was my father's dearest, kindest friend, and one of the best of men. Their in- timacy brought my father and my mother acquainted, who was sister to your grandmother Scott. Old Dr. Gustavus Brown, of Maryland, my ma- ternal grandfather, objected to the marriage of my father and mother. Although he thought highly of my father, he did not think him an eligible match for his daughter. He was poor, and very delicate in his health. Dr. Brown did not, however, forbid their union, and it accordingly took place. The old gentleman received them as visitors and visited them again, but would not pay down my mother's intended dowry until he saw how they could get along, and ' to let them see that they could not live on love without other sauce.'* I have often heard my dear mother relate the circumstanocs of her first housekeeping with tears of tender and delightful recollection. They went home from your grandpapa's, where they were. married, with a slenderly-supplied purse and to an empty house,-except a few absolute necessaries from their kind friends. When thus arrived, they found some of my good father's parishioners there : one had brought some wood, another some fowls, a third some meal, and so on. One good neighbour would insist on washing for them, another would milk, and another would tend the garden; and they all delighted to serve their good minister and his wife. Notwithstanding these aids, my mother found much to initiate her into the habits of an industrious housewife, and my father into those of an active, practical farmer and gardener, which they never gave up. When the business of preparing their meal was over, a small writing-stand was their table, the stair-steps furnished one a seat, and a trunk the other. Often, when provisions were scarce, my father took his gun or his fishing-rod and with his dog sallied forth to provide their dinner, which, when he returned, his happy wife dressed ; and often would she
* The opposition of Dr. Brown to the marriage of his eldest daughter with a poor clergyman does not seem to have been attended with the evils which he doubt- less apprehended, for Mr. Moncure prospered both in temporal and spiritual things. He has numerous descendants who have also prospered, and many of them are living on the very lands bequeathed to them by their ancestor, who purchased them at a cheap rate during his ministry. They are also zealous friends of the Church wherever we hear of them. Dr. Brown had many other daughters, four of whom followed the example of their eldest sister and married clergymen of the Episcopal Church. The Rev. James Scott, of Dettingen parish, Prince William, married one, who is the maternal ancestor of numerous families in Virginia of whom we shall soon speak. The Rev. Mr. Campbell and the Rev. Mr. Hopkins and the Rev. Samuel Claggett, of Maryland, (doubtless a relative, perhaps a brother, of Bishop Claggett, ) married the fifth, so that the family of Browns were thoroughly identified with the Episcopal Church and ministry.
Epitaph of Mrs. Frances Brown, who was buried at Dipple, the seat of the Rev. Alexander Scott, on the Potomac :- " Here lyeth the body of Frances, the wife of Dr. Gustavus Brown, of Charles county, Maryland. By her he had twelve children, of whom one son and seven daughters survived her. She was a daughter of Mr. Gerard Fowke, late of Maryland, and descended from the Fowkes of Gunster Hall, in Staffordshire, England. She was born February the 2d, 1691, and died, much amented, on the 8th of November, 1744, in the fifty-fourth year of her age."
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accompany him a-fishing or fowling, for she said that they were too poor to have full employment in domestic business. Though destitute of every luxury, they had a small, well-chosen library which my father had collected while a student and tutor. This was their evening's regale. While my mother worked with her needle he read to her. This mode of enjoyment pleasantly brought round the close of the first year. When the minister's salary was paid they were now comparatively rich. My dearest father exchanged his shabby black coat for a new one, and the next year was affluent. By this time the neighbouring gentry found out the value of their minister and his wife, and contended for their society by soliciting visits and making them presents of many comforts. Frequently these grandees would come in their splendid equipages to spend a day at the glebe, and bring every thing requisite to prevent trouble or expense to its owners,-merely for the enjoyment of the society of the humble in- habitants of this humble dwelling. In the lapse of a few years, by fru- gality and industry in the management of a good salary, these dear parents became quite easy in their circumstances. My father purchased a large tract of land on the river Potomac. He settled this principally by tenants ; but on the most beautiful eminence that I ever beheld, he built a good house, and soon improved it into a very sweet establishment. Here I was born : my brother and two sisters, considerably my seniors, were born at the glebe. My brother, who was intended for the Church, had a private tutor in the house. This man attended also to my two sisters, who previously to his residence in the family were under the care of an Englishman, who lived in the house, but also kept a public school under my father's direc- tion about a mile from his house. Unhappily for me, I was the youngest, and very sickly. My father and mother would not allow me to be com- pelled to attend to my books or my needle, and to both I had a decided aversion, unless voluntarily resorted to as an amusement. In this I was in- dulged. I would sometimes read a lesson to my sister or the housekeeper, or, if their authority was resisted, I was called to my mother's side. All this amounted to my being an ignorant child at my father's death, which was a death-stroke to my dearest mother. The incurable grief into which it plunged her could scarcely be a matter of surprise, when the uncommonly tender affection which united them is considered. They were rather more than middle-aged when I was first old enough to remember them; yet I well recol- lect their inseparable and undeviating association. They were rarely seen asunder. My mother was an active walker and a good rider. Whenever she could do so, she accompanied him in his pastoral visits,-a faithful white servant attending in her absence from home. They walked hand in hand, and often rode hand in hand,-were both uncommonly fond of the cultiva- tion of flowers, fruits, and rare plants. They watched the opening buds together,-together admired the beauty of the full-blown blossoms, and gathered the ripening fruit or seed. While he wrote or read, she worked near his table,-which always occupied the pleasantest place in their cham- ber, where he chose to study, often laying down his pen to read and com- ment on an impressive passage. Frequently, when our evening repast was over, (if the family were together,) some book, amusing and instructive, was read aloud by my dear father, and those of the children or their young associates who could not be silent were sent to bed after evening worship,-which always took place immediately after supper. Under the void which this sad separation occasioned, my poor mother's spirits sunk and never rallied. The first six or eight months were spent in a dark,
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