USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. II > Part 22
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secluded chamber, distant from that formerly occupied. The manage- ment of the family devolved on my brother and second sister. My eldest married two or three years previous to this period. I was left pretty much to my own management. The education of my brother and sister was so far finished that they not only held what they had acquired, but con- tinued to improve ; but alas, poor me ! I as usual refused every thing like study, but became, unfortunately, immoderately fond of books. The key of the library was now within my power, and the few romances it con- tained were devoured. Poetry and a botanical work with plates came next. This gave me a useless, superficial knowledge of what might have been useful, but what in this indigested way was far otherwise. The Tattler, Guardian, and Spectator were the only works I read which con- tained beneficial instruction ; and of these I only read the amusing papers ; and, taking the beautiful and sublime allegories which abound with moral instruction in a literal sense, I read them as amusing tales. This kind of reading made up a pernicious mass of chaotic matter that darkened while it seemed to enlighten my mind, and I soon became romantic and exceedingly ridiculous,-turned the branches of trees together and called them a bower, and fancied I could write poetry, and many other silly things. My dear mother suffered greatly toward the close of her life with a cancer : for this she visited the medicinal springs, and I was chosen to attend her. It was a crowded and gay scene for me, who had lived almost entirely in seclusion. I did not mix in its gayest circle; yet it was of service to me, as it gave me the first view of real life that ever I had. My beloved parent was not desirous of confining me; but I rejoice at the recollection that I very seldom could be prevailed on to leave her. There I first became the favourite and devoted friend of your most excellent mother. Forgive the vanity of this boast, my dear cousin, but I cannot help observing that she afterward told me that it was the manner in which I discharged this duty that won her esteem and love. At this place I first met with General Wood, who visited me soon after my return home, and became my husband four years after."
The time of Mr. Moncure's death is seen from the following letter from that true patriot and statesman, Mr. George Mason, of Guns- ton, Fairfax county, Virginia. As he signs himself the kinsman of Mrs. Moncure, the relationship must have come from connection between the Browns, of Maryland, and Masons. Dr. Brown came to this country from Scotland in 1708, and married in Maryland.
" GUNSTON, 12th March, 1764.
" DEAR MADAM :- I have your letter by Peter yesterday, and the day before I had one from Mr. Scott, who sent up Gustin Brown on purpose with it. I entirely agree with Mr. Scott in preferring a funeral sermon at Aquia Church, without any invitation to the house. Mr. Moncure's cha- racter and general acquaintance will draw together much company, besides a great part of his parishioners, and I am sure you are not in a condition to bear such a scene; and it would be very inconvenient for a number of people to come so far from church in the afternoon after the sermon. As Mr. Moncure did not desire to be buried in any particular place, and as it is usual to bury clergymen in their own churches, I think the corpse being
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deposited in the church where he had so long preached is both decent and proper, and it is probable, could he have chosen himself, he would have preferred it. Mr. Scott writes to me that it is intended Mr. Green shall preach the funeral sermon on the 20th of this month, if fair; if not, the next fair day; and I shall write to Mr. Green to-morrow to that purpose, and inform him that you expect Mrs. Green and him at your house on the day before; and, if God grants me strength sufficient either to ride on horseback or in a chair, I will certainly attend to pay the last duty to the memory of my friend; but I am really so weak at present that I can't walk without crutches and very little with them, and have never been out of the house but once or twice, and then, though I stayed but two or three minutes at a time, it gave me such a cold as greatly to increase my dis- order. Mr. Green has lately been very sick, and was not able to attend his church yesterday, (which I did not know when I wrote to Mr. Scott :) if he should not recover soon, so as to be able to come down, I will inform you or Mr. Scott in time, that some other clergyman may be applied to.
"I beseech you, dear madam, not to give way to melancholy reflections, or to think that you are without friends. I know nobody that has reason to expect more, and those that will not be friends to you and your chil- dren now Mr. Moncure is gone were not friends to him when he was living, let their professions be what they would. If, therefore, you should find any such, you have no cause to lament the loss, for such friendship is not worth anybody's concern.
"I am very glad to hear that Mr. Scott purposes to apply for Over- wharton parish. It will be a great comfort to you and your sister to be so near one another, and I know the goodness of Mr. Scott's heart so well, that I am sure he will take a pleasure in doing you every good office in his power, and I had much rather he should succeed Mr. Moncure than any other person. I hope you will not impute my not visiting you to any coldness or disrespect. It gives me great concern that I am not able to see you. You may depend upon my coming down as soon as my disorder will permit, and I hope you know me too well to need any assurance that I shall gladly embrace all opportunities of testifying my regard to my de- ceased friend by doing every good office in my power to his family.
"I am, with my wife's kindest respects and my own, dear madam, your most affectionate kinsman, GEORGE MASON."
As to the successor of Mr. Moncure in this parish, it is probable that the Rev. Mr. Green, mentioned in the above letter, took his place in 1764. It is certain that Mr. Scott did not. In the years 1774 and 1776 the Rev. Clement Brooke was minister. After the Revolution, in the Convention of 1785, called for organizing the diocese and considering the question of a general confederation of Episcopalians throughout the Union, we find the Rev. Robert Buchan the minister of Overwharton parish, and the Rev. Mr. Thornton of Brunswick parish, which had been taken from King George and given to Stafford when St. Paul's was taken from Staf- ford and given to King George. The lay delegates at that Con- vention were Mr. Charles Carter, representing Overwharton parish, and Mr. William Fitzhugh, of Chatham, representing Brunswick
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parish, which lay on the Rappahannock and reached to Hanover parish in King George. In the year 1786 we find Mr. Fitzhugh again representing Brunswick parish; and this is the last notice we have of the Church in Stafford until some years after the revival of Conventions. In the year 1819, the Rev. Thomas Allen, the present devoted missionary to the poor in Philadelphia, took charge of this parish and laboured hard for its resuscitation, preaching alternately at Dumfries and Aquia Churches. At a subsequent period the Rev. Mr. Prestman, afterward of New Castle, Delaware, gave all his energies to the work of its revival. The labours of both were of some avail to preserve it from utter extinction, but not to raise it to any thing like prosperity. The Rev. Mr. Johnson also made some ineffectual efforts in its behalf as a missionary. In the year 1838, I visited Old Aquia Church as Assistant-Bishop. It stands upon a high eminence, not very far from the main road from Alexandria to Fredericksburg. It was a melancholy sight to be- hold the vacant space around the house, which in other days had been filled with horses and carriages and footmen, now overgrown with trees and bushes, the limbs of the green cedars not only cast- ing their shadows but resting their arms on the dingy walls and thrusting them through the broken windows, thus giving an air of pensiveness and gloom to the whole scene. The very pathway up the commanding eminence on which it stood was filled with young trees, while the arms of the older ones so embraced each other over it that it was difficult to ascend. The church had a noble exterior, being a high two-story house, of the figure of the cross. On its top was an observatory, which you reached by a flight of stairs leading from the gallery, and from which the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, which are not far distant from each other, and much of the surrounding country, might be seen. Not a great way off, on an- other eminence, there might be seen the high, tottering walls of the Old Potomac Church, one of the largest in Virginia, and long be- fore this time a deserted one. The soldiers during the last war with England, when English vessels were in the Potomac, had quartered in it; and it was said to have been sometimes used as a nursery for caterpillars, a manufactory of silk having been set up almost at its doors. The worshippers in it had disappeared from the country long before it ceased to be a fit place for prayer. But there is hope even now for the once desolated region about which we have becn speaking. At my visit to Old Aquia Church in the year 1837, to which I allude, I baptized five of the children of the present Judge Moncure, in the venerable old building in which his first ancestor
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had preached and so many of his other relatives had worshipped. He had been saving them for that house and that day. I visited once more, during the last spring, that interesting spot. Had I been suddenly dropped down upon it, I should not have recognised the place or building. The trees and brushwood and rubbish had been cleared away. The light of heaven had been let in upon the once gloomy sanctuary. At the expense of eighteen hundred dollars, (almost all of it contributed by the descendants of Mr. Moncure,) the house had been repaired within, without, and above. The dingy walls were painted white and looked new and fresh, and to me it appeared one of the best and most imposing temples in our land. The congregation was a good one. The descendants of Mr. Moncure, still bearing his name, formed a large portion. I was told that all those whom I had baptized eighteen years ago (some of whom, of course, were not babes at the time) were there and meant to make it their home. The country, which seemed some time since as if it were about to be deserted of its inhabitants by reason of sickness and worn-out fields, is putting on a new aspect. Agri- culture is improving. A better population is establishing itself in the county, and at the end of a century there is an encouraging prospect that a good society and an Episcopal congregation will be again seen around and within Old Aquia Church. The Rev. Mr. Wall is now their minister.
The Hon. Judge Daniel, of the Supreme Court, has been kind enough to supply me with the following letter, which, with the accompanying extracts from the county records, will be an im- portant addition to my notices of this parish :-
"WASHINGTON, November 12, 1855.
" DEAR SIR :- In reply to your inquiries concerning the Old Potomac Church and its neighbourhood, I give you the following statement, founded in part upon tradition and partly upon my own recollection. My maternal grandfather, John Moncure, a native of Scotland, was the regular minister both of Aquia and Potomac Churches. He was succeeded in the ministry in these churches by a clergyman named Brooke, who removed to the State of Maryland. The Rev. Mr. Buchan succeeded him : he was tutor in my father's family, and educated John Thompson Mason, General Mason, of Georgetown, Judge Nicholas Fitzhugh, and many others. Going back to a period somewhat remote in enumerating those who lived in the vicinity of Potomac Church, I will mention my great-grandfather, Rowleigh Travers, one of the most extensive landed proprietors in that section of the country, and who married Hannah Ball, half-sister of Mary Ball, the mother of General George Washington. From Rowleigh Travers and Hannah Ball descended two daughters, Elizabeth and Sarah Travers: the former married a man named Cooke, and the latter my grandfather,
ACQUIA CHURCH, STAFFORD CO., VA.
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.
Peter Daniel. To Peter and Sarah Daniel was born an only son,-Travers Daniel, my father,-who married Frances Moncure, my mother, the daugh- ter of the Rev. John Moncure and Frances Brown, daughter of Dr. Gus- tavus Brown, of Maryland. The nearest and the coterminous neighbour of my father was John Mercer, of Marlborough, a native of Ireland, a distinguished lawyer; the compiler of 'Mercer's Abridgment of the Vir- ginia Laws;' the father of Colonel George Mercer, an officer in the British service, and who died in England about the commencement of the Revo- lution ; the father also of Judge James Mercer, father of Charles F. Mercer, of John Francis Mercer, who in my boyhood resided at Marlborough, in Stafford, and was afterward Governor of Maryland; of Robert Mercer, who lived and died in Fredericksburg; of Ann Mercer, who married Samuel Selden, of Selvington, Stafford; of Maria Mercer, who married Richard Brooke, of King William, father of General George M. Brooke; and of another daughter, whose name is not recollected,-the wife of Muscoe Garnett and mother of the late James M. Garnett.
Proceeding according to contiguity were Elijah Threlheld, John Hedgeman, who married a daughter of Parson Spencer Grayson, of Prince William; Thomas Mountjoy, William Mountjoy, and John Mount- joy, the last-mentioned of whom emigrated to Kentucky, having sold his farm to Mr. John T. Brooke, the brother of the late Judge Francis T. Brooke, and who married Ann Cary Selden, daughter of Ann Mercer and grand-daughter of John Mercer. Next in the progression was the residence of John Brown, who married Hannah Cooke, daughter of Eliza- beth Travers and grand-daughter of Hannah Ball, wife of Rowleigh Travers. Next was the glebe, the residence of the Rev. Robert Buchan. Adjoining this was the residence, (in the immediate vicinity of the church,) called Berry Hill, of Colonel Thomas Ludwell Lec, who possessed another plantation, on the opposite side of Potomac Creek, called Bellevue. The son of the gentleman last named, and bearing the same name, removed to London. Of his daughters, one married Daniel Carroll Brent, of Richland, Stafford, and the other Dr. John Dalrymple Orr, of Prince William. Next to Berry Hill was the plantation of John Withers, on the stream forming the head of Potomac Creek. Crossing this stream were those of John James, Thomas Fitzhugh, of Boscobel, Major Henry Fitzhugh, of Belle Air, Samuel Selden, of Selvington, the husband of Ann Mercer, and lastly, Belle Plaine, the estate of Gaury Waugh, and, after his death, of his sons, George Lee Waugh and Robert Waugh. I have thus, sir, without much attention to system or style, attempted a compliance with your request, and shall be gratified if the attempt should prove either serviceable or gratifying. I would remark that the enumeration given you, limited to a space of some eight or ten miles square, comprises none but substantial people, some of them deemed wealthy in their day, several of them per- sons of education, polish, and refinement.
"With great respect, yours,
P. V. DANIEL."
The present clerk of Stafford county (Mr. Conway) has also been kind enough to search through the old records, going back to the year 1664, for such things as may answer my purpose. Among the items furnished is the presentment, in the year 1693, by Rich- ard Gipson, of George and Robert Brent as being Popish recusants.
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He calls upon the court to insist upon their taking the test-oath in order to the practice of law. That oath is abjuration of tran- substantiation. The court sustains the presentment and requires them to take the oath; but they refuse, and appeal to the General Court in Williamsburg. What was the issue we know not, but believe that they were leading men at the bar after that. One of them was associated in the practice with the first William Fitzhugh, and one of them joint sponsor with the first George Mason at the baptism of an Indian boy whom they had taken prisoner.
We find also presentments for swearing, for pitching and playing on the Sabbath, for not attending church. The fines were five to ten shillings, to be paid to the churchwardens for the poor of the parish. To the great kindness and diligence of Mr. Conway I am indebted for a list of the justices from the year 1664 to 1857. Of course it is a long list. I shall only select the surnames of those most familiar to our ears :-
Williams, Alexander, Mason in great numbers, Osburn, Fitzhugh in great numbers, Buckner, Thompson, Withers, Maddocks, Massey, Ander- son, Waugh, West, Hoe, Washington in great numbers, Sumner, Jameson, Dade, Harrison, Storkey, Broadwater, Linton, Berryman, Farrow, Thorn- ton, McCarty, Triplett, Grigsby, French, Aubrey, Hedgeman, Markam, Lee, Carter, Brent, Fowke, Bernard, Foote, Doniphan, Peyton in numbers, Grant, Daniel in numbers, Scott, Walker, Waller, Chapman, Meroer, Strother, Stewart, Stith, Seldon, Moncure, Bronaugh, Edrington, James, Adie, Brown, Banks, Mountjoy, Hewett, Vowles, Morson, Hood, Nicholas, Eustace, Ficklin, Richards, Botts, Wallace, Fox, Brooke, Bristoe, Lewis, Lane, Seddon, Tolson, Voss, Crutcher, Forbes, Skinker, Rose, Beale, Grayson, Hill, Cooke, Norman, Briggs, Morton, Bowen, Kendall, Conway, Green, Benson, Chinn, Browne, Stone, Irvine, Slaughter, O'Bannon, Harding, Hickerson, Clift.
We must not in our minds confine all these to Stafford as it now is, but think of its original dimensions.
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ARTICLE LXV.
Dettingen Parish, Prince William County.
THIS was taken out of Hamilton parish, which, in 1745, covered all of what is now Prince William and Fauquier. It is supposed to have been named after a town in Germany, called Dettingen, " near which the English gained a victory in the year 1743,-two years before. The parish register having been destroyed in the Clerk's office in Fauquier, as we shall hereafter see, we have no record of the parish of Dettingen previous to the year 1745. All that I can learn is that the Rev. Mr. Keith, the grandfather of Chief-Justice Marshall, was the minister of Hamilton parish pre- vious to the division, and continued to be the minister of that part called Hamilton after the division. My information concerning Dettingen parish is derived from a vestry-book in the Clerk's office of Princo William, commenced in the year 1745 and continued to the year 1785. It commences with the following test, signed by the vestry :- "We do declare that we do believe there is not any transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, or in the elements of bread and wine, at or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever." It would seem that the above was the only test subscribed in this parish, showing that there was at this time some peculiar fear and detestation of Popery, it being about the time of the last efforts in England in behalf of the Pretender. Although a form of the subscription of vestrymen was prescribed by Act of the Assembly, which was generally used, the vestries did not always conform to it, but adopted several different ones, as we shall show hereafter. The first minister of this parish after its separation from Hamilton was the Rev. James Scott, of whom we have already spoken as coming over to this country by the invitation of his elder brother, Mr. Alexander Scott, minister of the adjoining parish of Overwharton, in Stafford. How long Mr. James Scott had been in America is not known. The following resolution of the vestry shows that he was living in Staf-
rd at the time of his election, and also the probability that he
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was married at that time .* "Ordered, that the Rev. James Scott be received into this parish on condition of his moving into it as soon as a glebe and house is prepared." The following letters from Governor Gooch and Commissary Dawson speak well in his behalf.
" WILLIAMSBURG, April 26, 1745.
"GENTLEMEN :- As your parish is at present unfurnished with a mi- nister, I recommend to your approbation and choice the Rev. Mr. Scott, who, in my opinion, is a man of discretion, understanding, and integrity, and in every way qualified to discharge the sacred office to your satisfac- tion. I am your affectionate friend and humble servant,
"WILLIAM GOOCH."
FROM THE COMMISSARY.
"GENTLEMEN :- I hope and believe that your parish will be worthily supplied by the Rev. Mr. James Scott. His merit having been long known to you, I need not dwell upon it. That you may be greatly benefited by his good life and doctrine, and mutually happy with each other, and all the souls committed to his charge may be saved, is the daily prayer of,
"Gentlemen, your most affectionate, humble servant, " WILLIAM DAWSON.
" WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE, April 26, 1745."
In the above letter, Mr. Scott is said to have been long known to the vestry of Dettingen parish. It is supposed that he was for some years assistant or curate to his brother Alexander Scott in
* The Rev. James Scott, who married Sarah Brown, had several sons and daugh- ters,-viz. : James Scott, (the father of Alexander Scott, Mrs. Dr. Horner, and Mrs. Brown, of Fauquier, ) the Rev. John Scott, (father of the late Judge Scott, of Fauquier, and Mrs. Peyton, of Gordonsdale ; of a daughter, who first married Mr. Y. Peyton, then Mr. Charles Lee, and lastly, Mr. Glassell,)-Gustavus, (the father of Robert and John Scott, and Mrs. Rankin.) One of the daughters of Rev. James Scott married Judge Bullett, father of Judge Bullett, of Maryland, and of Mr. Alexander Bullett, an eminent lawyer of Louisville, Kentucky, who has left a num-
ber of descendants. Another married Colonel Blackburn, of Rippon Lodge, not very far from Dumfries, father of Mr. Thomas Blackburn, who married Miss Sin- clair; and of Richard Blackburn, father of Mrs. Jane and Polly Washington, of Jefferson county, Miss Christian Blackburn, and Miss Judy Blackburn, now Mrs. Alexander, of King George. Colonel Blackburn, of Rippon Lodge, was also the father of Mrs. Washington, of Mount Vernon, wife of Judge Washington, and of Mrs. Henry Turner, of Jefferson county, Virginia. Mrs. Blackburn, mentioned above, was long known, loved, and revered, as one of the most exemplary members of our Church in the parish of Wickliff, in old Frederick county. From my first entrance on the ministry, the house of Mrs. Blackburn was my frequent resort. I have never known a family of children and servants more faithfully regulated by Christian principles than was hers, and by herself, for she was a widow at an early age. She left three children, who are members of the Episcopal Church, and who seek to follow her example in the regulation of their household. One of the daughters of the Rev. James Scott married Dr. Brown, of Alexandria, who was at one time General Washington's family physician.
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Stafford, and was succeeded in that station by the Rev. Mr. Moncure. A glebe was purchased for Mr. Scott on Quantico Creek, which runs up the Potomac to Dumfries. It consisted of four hundred acres of land, and was bought of Mr. Thomas Harrison, for one hundred and thirty-five pounds sterling. So far as I have ascer- tained, but few of the glebes cost that much, and when rented out, as they often were, seldom brought more than twenty or thirty pounds. Mr. Scott continued the minister of that parish until his death in 1782, being minister of the parish for thirty-seven years. He lived most of the time at his own estate of Westwood, the gift, it is believed, of his brother. Before we proceed to make mention of his successors in office, there are some things worthy of notice, in relation to the parish, which had better be disposed of in this place. There were two churches in the parish, between which the services of the minister were equally divided. One of them was very near Dumfries, the other near the two streams Broad Run and Slater Run, and sometimes called by either name. At the time of the division of the parish, there was an old and indifferent one near Dumfries, which, in the year 1752, was sold for fifteen hundred- weight of tobacco, and a new one costing one hundred thousand- weight was ordered. The contractor for it was a Mr. Waite, an- cestor to the worthy member and lay reader of our Church in Winchester, Mr. Obed Waite. The church at Broad Run was also contracted for in 1752. Both were of brick, and very substantial ones. It has not been many years since the roof and walls of the latter fell to the ground. Some remnant of the ruins of the former may perhaps be seen near Dumfries at this time. I have often seen them, when more abundant, in my travels through that region. Dumfries itself, once the mart of that part of Virginia, the scene of gayety and fashion, the abode of wealthy merchants from Scot- land, who named it after a city of that name in the mother-country, is now in ruins, almost as complete as those of the old church. Quantico Creek, through which the trade from Europe came, is now filled up, while the pines have covered the spot where the church once stood near its banks. Desolation reigns around. The old court-house was fitted up some thirty-five or forty years ago for worship, but that has long since been abandoned for want of wor- shippers. A few years since I spent a night in the neighbourhood, in a worthy Baptist family, and, while conversing on the past, the lady of the family mentioned that she had in her possession some things belonging to the old church, which she would be glad to put into my hands, as she wished to be clear of them. After hunting for VOL. II .- 14
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