USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. II > Part 29
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the Virginia newspapers seldom come into this and several other quarters, perhaps the end would be best answered by sending printed circular letters to all quarters of the State : if circular letters were not sent, many of the clergy might not have timely notice. I would recommend this Convention to be called on the authority of the few clergy contiguous to the seat of government,-the notices to be signed by the whole of them, or one as chairman. I would advise the notices to be couched in general terms, to avoid, as much as possible, assigning reasons for it, especially such as may alarm the Dissenters and rouse them into opposition. The time for send- ing and publishing these notices should be near three months before the intended Convention, that the clergy might with certainty be informed of it and be prepared to leave their homes. As Richmond is near the centre of the State, I think it is the properest place to hold the Convention at. The time for holding the Convention I would recommend to be about the 20th of April next. It will be impossible to have any thing like a full meeting in the winter season ; and, about the season I have mentioned, the weather is generally fine for travelling and the roads settled. Besides, our plans should be agreed upon previous to the session of Assembly, as we must necessarily have recourse to it for the repeal of those existing laws which made a part of the old Establishment, and which, while they do exist, must prove ruinous to the Church in spite of any regulations the clergy may adopt. I have not the pleasure of knowing Mr. Blagrove, chaplain to the House of Assembly, but I think his name, or yours, or both, would not appear improperly at the bottom of the notices, or any thing that will answer the purpose. If the above proposal should be adopted, I shall be much obliged to you for informing me of it as soon as it is determined on. Please direct to me at Alexandria, either by post or some private hand. If a meeting is likely to take place, it would not perhaps be amiss if your- self and our brethren in your neighbourhood were to digest some plan for the consideration of the Convention. If it was well considered by sensible men what regulations were wanting and what reform necessary, it would save abundance of time. If I have timely notice, I will cheerfully devote all the spare time I have to this service. And if the Convention is re- solved on, I will engage to send the notices to all the clergy in the Northern Neck above Falmouth, if the copies or a form are sent me in time. You may remember that when I had the pleasure of seeing you I expressed a wish that a coalition might take place between us and the Dissenters : it is still my most earnest wish, but I am now satisfied it is a vain one : and I think our Church has no chance of preserving any of its ancient and ex- cellent forms of worship, but from the united zeal and efforts of her clergy. I think it is this alone that can preserve her very existence. I am, &c.
"DAVID GRIFFITH."
The following is Dr. Buchanon's answer :-
"DEAR SIR :- I received your letter, favoured by Mr. Fairfax, which reminded me of a conversation which passed between us respecting the low state of the Church whereof we are members, and in which you make inquiry whether any thing has been attempted by any of its clergy to raise it from its distressed situation, and inform me that reflections have been thrown out against them for their remissness and want of zeal in an affair of so much consequence. In order to remedy these evils, you propose a plan for convening the clergy in the month of April next, to the end
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that some form of ecclesiastical government might be established, par- ticularly a mode of ordination; and that an application might be made to the Assembly for redress of grievances and a legal support.
" As I had nothing of consequence to write you by Mr. Fairfax, I desired him verbally to acquaint you that your brethren in this neighbourhood had done nothing to forward the re-establishment of our Church : indeed, they seemed to despair of any thing being done effectually without its originating in the Assembly I showed them your letter: they approved highly of your zeal, but were by no means sanguine in the result of a convocation. It was agreed among us that we should meet on some day most convenient for Mr. Leigh, who lived the greatest distance from this city,* to take into further consideration the subject of your letter. Thus matters stood until the 29th of December, when Mr. Selden received a letter from the above gentleman,-a copy whereof is herein enclosed that you may have a full view of the argument he offers against your plan of a convocation. For my own part, before I was favoured with your ideas I was firmly of opinion that the reformation should first take place in the Legislature ;- that, if they thought public religion essential not only to the good order but to the very existence of government, it behooved them to make a legal provision for its teachers, and to raise them from that state of indigence and dependence which, I will not scruple to say, they them- selves were the cause of; otherwise they cannot reasonably expect that religion will flourish in a country where its ministers are reduced to a state of beggary and contempt. I remember, in a conversation at Wilton, t on this very subject, a Mr. Douglass, lately from England, expressed his surprise that the clergy of our Church had never presented a memorial to the House respecting the state of religion; in which he was joined by the Speaker of the Senate. I gave my opinion as above, and further added, that such an application would give the alarm to the Sectaries, who would, no doubt, throw every obstruction in the way, if not render totally abor- tive every measure we should adopt. The present Governor thought my argument had weight, and said that it was a reproach on Government that they had done nothing in support of religion. I am apt to think that some who are no well-wishers to our persuasion had got intelligence of our de- sign; for, soon after Mr. Fairfax's appearance here, some scurrilous pub- lications appeared in the papers concerning the importation of clergy at forty or fifty pounds a head, according to certain qualifications specified, and other stuff to that purpose. I am told that a petition was last session preferred to the House, representing the fatal decline of religion, and of consequence the great depravity of morals resulting from it, and praying that the House would take into their most serious consideration a subject of so much importance. Some were for putting it off 'to a more convenient season,' but Mr. Henry thought it of too much moment to be deferred to another session. Notwithstanding this, the matter was dropped, and when it will be resumed I know not. At the beginning of the session, you would think that most of the House, from their speeches without-doors, were for doing something effectual; but they no sooner get involved in secular matters, than the idea of religion is obliterated from their minds.
"You observe Mr. Leigh expresses a willingness to meet us at any ap- pointed time, to put into execution the plan you propose, or, if we think
* The Rev. William Leigh, of Chesterfield.
+ A seat of the Randolphs, near Richmond.
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proper, he allows us to put his name down to any notification to our brethren.
" As we have been so long undetermined, nothing, I think, can be done this winter. Should business, or your inclinations, lead you to this city in April, pray send me previous notice of it, that I may inform some of the gentlemen in this neighbourhood. Your presence may rouse us from our lethargy; and for my own part, if you should think a memorial to the House expedient, I will give it my hearty concurrence, or any other plan you may adopt.
"I am, dear sir, with real esteem " Your most obedient servant, "JOHN BUCHANON.
"RICHMOND, February 2, 1784."
Nothing could better exhibit the true condition of things in Vir- ginia than this correspondence. Dr. Buchanon acknowledges that the clergy had brought this ruin upon themselves by their own mis- conduct. Guilt-stricken, they were afraid and ashamed to come forward boldly and call upon the Legislature to do something for the cause of religion and morals, which were both declining. It never seemed to enter into the thoughts of some, as a possibility, to do any thing on the voluntary principle, independent of the State, so accustomed were they to the old English system. Whether any such mecting as that proposed by Dr. Griffith ever took place, I have not the means of ascertaining. In the winter of 1785, the Legislature incorporated the Episcopal Church, tendering the same privilege to others, and in the preamble states that it was done at the petition of the Episcopal clergy. How many united in it, and whether it was done at a general meeting called for the purpose, I know not. In May of that year, 1785, the first Convention of clerical and lay deputies met in Richmond, under the Act of incor- poration. Mr. Griffith, being there, was appointed a delegate to the General Convention in Philadelphia that fall. The second Vir- ginia Convention was held in May, 1786, when the Rev. Dr. Griffith was chosen Bishop, by a vote of thirty-two members. Dr. Bracken received ten, and Mr. Samuel Shield seven. An assessment was made upon the parishes for funds to bear the expenses of his visit to England for consecration ; but such was the depressed condition of the Church, that a sufficiency was not raised, either in that year or the two succeeding ones. In May, 1789, Mr. Griffith resigned his claim upon the office, and in the summer of that year died at the house of Bishop White, while attending the General Convention. At the following Convention, the Rev. James Madison was chosen Bishop by a vote of forty-five,-the Rev. Samuel Shield having nine. To the shame of the Church of Virginia, in that day be it
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said, sufficient funds were not raised for Bishop Madison's conse- . cration. A part was drawn from his private resources, and that worthy man, Graham Franks, of London, of whom we have before spoken as the warm friend of the Church of Virginia, and whose wife lies buried in old York graveyard, contributed five guineas toward it.
List of the Vestrymen.
John West, Wm. Payne, Jr., Wm. Adams, John Dalton, Thomas Wren, Edward Duling, Daniel French, Thomas Shaw, Townshend Dade, Richard Sanford, Charles Broadwater, Edward Blackburn, James Wren, Henry Gunnel, John West, Jr., Richard Conway, Henry Darne, John Hunter, Charles Alexander, Presley Cox, Wm. Chapman, Townshend Hooe, Wm. Herbert, Thomas Triplett, George Gilpin, Wm. Browne, Bryan Fairfax, Robert Powell, Wm. Syles, David Stewart, John Courts, Wm. Hunter, Roger West, John Jackson, Benjamin Harris, Lewis Hipkins, George Gilpin, Nicholas Fitzhugh, Robert T. Hooe, Baldwin Dade, Philip R. Fendall, James P. Nicholls, Ludwell Lee, Wm. Fitzhugh, George Taylor, John Roberts, George Deneale, Daniel McClean, H. Smoot, John Tinker, Edmund I. Lee, Charles Simms, Charles Alexander, Jr., John Tucker, James Kieth, Wm. S. Moore, Cuthbert Powell, John Muncaster, Jonah Thompson, Thomas Swann, Tristam Dalton, Augustin J. Smith, William Hodgson, Anthony Crease, Richard M. Scott, Francis Adams, Wm. H. Fitzhugh, James Kieth, Jr., James H. Hooe, Craven Thompson, Thomas Semmes, Horatio Clagget, Noblet Herbert, Newton Keene, John Roberts, Bernard Hooe, Wm. Herbert, Peyton Thompson, John Lloyd, J. J. Fro- bell, Wm. Fowle, J. A. Washington, James Atkinson, J. H. Crease, W. C. Page, Edward Latham, R. H. Claggett, W. F. Alexander, Daniel Minor, George Johnson, Guy Atkinson, Cassius F. Lee, Solomon Masters, Wm. Morgan, Richard C. Mason, George Fletcher, James Irwin, J. Grubb, General John Mason.
The following names, not in the old vestry-book, have been fur- nished me :-
Louis A. Cazenove, William W. Hoxton, William L. Powell, Edgar Snowden, Edward C. Fletcher, William G. Cazenove, Henry C. Neale, John J. Lloyd, Reuben Johnston, Charles H. Lee, William C. Yeaton, Richard C. Smith, Thomas C. Atkinson, Lawrence B. Taylor, Henry W. Vandegrift, John Crockford, Douglass R. Semmes.
Concerning two of the above-mentioned vestrymen I may be permitted to say a few words. Mr. George Taylor and Edmund I. Lee were churchwardens when I took charge of Christ Church in 1811, and so continued until the removal of one by a change of residence, and the other by death, after a long term of service. They were both of them members of the Standing Committee during the same period. I think I knew them well, and knew them to be sincere Christians, and useful, punctual business-men. Mr. Taylor,
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1 think, nearly reached his century of years, his step still elastic and form crect and countenance fine and temper unruffled,-walk- ing between Washington and Alexandria without weariness almost to the last, and lifting up a distinct voice in the utterance of those prayers in which he delighted,-dying, as he had lived, in the faith of the Gospel. Mr. Lee generally attended on State Conventions, and sometimes the General Convention. He was a man of great decision and perseverance in what he deemed right,-obstinate, some of us thought, even to a fault, when we differed from him. There was no compromise at all in him, with any thing which he thought wrong. He was as fearless as Julius Cæsar. On a certain Sab- bath, while I was performing service in Christ Church, a certain person in the gallery disturbed myself and the congregation by undue vociferation in the responses, and also at the opening of the sermon. I paused, and requested him to desist, and was procced- ing, but Mr. Lee, who was near him, arose and asked me to suspend the sermon. Walking toward the offender, he told him that he must leave the house. As he approached to enforce it, the person raised a loaded whip and struck at him. Mr. Lee, nothing moved, took him by the arms and led him out of the house, and deposited him in the town jail. When mayor of the town, he was a terror to evil-doers. Ascertaining that there was much gambling going on among the gentlemen of the place, and some of the principal ones, he took effective measures for their discovery, brought between thirty and forty before the court, and had them fined. The prose- cuting attorney was his particular friend, and was slightly impli- cated in the evil practice; but he did not spare him. Nor did he wish to be spared, but, coming forward and paying his fine, then did his duty with all the rest. Mr. Lee was of course not a popular man, nor did he seek or care to be, but did his duty entirely re- gardless of all others. He kept our Conventions in good order, by always insisting upon the observance of rules of which the clergy are not always mindful. He was the great advocate of our Bishops' fund, and defended it from all invasions. I not only knew Mr. Lee from my youth up, but I saw him in his last moments, and heard him with the truest humility speak of himself as a poor sin- ner, whose only hope was in Christ. And can I speak of him without remembering that meek and holy woman to whom he was so long a most affectionate husband ? She was the daughter of that Christian patriot, Richard Henry Lee. For more than thirty years she was gradually dying of consumption, and yet in such a way as to admit of the exhibition of all her Christian graces in
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the various relations of life. By universal consent, she was one of the purest specimens of humanity sanctified by the grace of God.
P.S .- It was in this parish that the question of the right of the Church to the glebes, which had been determined against the Church in the Virginia courts, was reconsidered. Being brought before the Supreme Court, the former decision was reversed, so far as the glebe in Fairfax parish was concerned. The opinion of the court, which was drawn up by Judge Story, of Massachusetts, may be seen in the Appendix.
From Sparks's Life of Washington.
" After the French War, while in retirement at Mount Vernon, Wash- ington took a lively interest in Church affairs, regularly attending public worship, and being at different times a vestryman in two parishes.
"The following list of votes for vestrymen in Fairfax parish and Truro parish is copied from a paper in Washington's handwriting, and shows that he was chosen a vestryman in each of those parishes. How long he continued in that station, I have no means of determining. The place of worship in Fairfax parish was at Alexandria; in Truro parish, at Pohick ; the former ten, the latter seven, miles from Mount Vernon."
Vestry chosen for Fairfax parish, 28th March, 1765, with the number of votes for each.
John West
340
George Johnston 254
Charles Alexander
309
Townshend Dade
·
252
William Payne .
304 Richard Sandford
. . 247
John Dalton .
281 William Adams .
.
244
George Washington
274
John Posey
. 222
Charles Broadwater
.
260
Daniel French
221
Vestry chosen for Truro parish, 22d July, 1765, with the number of votes for each.
George Mason
282
Alexander Henderson . 231 .
Edward Payne
277 William Gardner
. 218
George Washington
259
Tomison Ellzey
. 209
John Posey
259 Thomas W. Coffer
. 189
Daniel McCarty
246
William Lynton .
· 172
George William Fairfax
. 235
Thomas Ford
.
. 170
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FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
. ARTICLE LXX.
St. Paul's Church, Alexandria and Cameron and Shelburne Parishes, Loudon County.
WE have already said that St. Paul's Church grew out of a differ- ence between the Rev. Mr. Gibson and the congregation of Christ Church, in 1809. There were worthy persons in the vestry and congregation who thought that Mr. Gibson's apology for the manner in which he resigned his charge ought to have been accepted, and that he should have been allowed to withdraw his resignation and continue his ministry. The majority of the vestry thought other- wise, and that it would be better to let the connection be dissolved. Some of the vestry and of the congregation thought that the harsh- ness of manner and language sometimes apparent in his discourses proceeded from an honest zeal, which made him speak very differ- ently from the tame way and courteous strain of the old clergy, and therefore determined to form a new congregation. They accord- ingly purchased a small vacant church belonging to the Presbyterian denomination, and commenced services in it. On the 23d of Janu- ary, 1810, a vestry was organized, consisting of Daniel McLean, Lawrence Hooff, James B. Nicholls, Mark Butts, Nathaniel C. Hunter, John Young, Joseph Thomas, Adam Lynn, Joseph Thorn- ton, John Hooff, Thomas West Peyton, to whom at different times, until the year 1832, have been added Charles Page, Thomas Moore, Augustin Newton, Ferdinand Mastellar, John Gird, Lawrence Lewis, Humphrey Peake, W. C. Gardiner, James Entwisle, Isaac Cannell, Christopher Neale, George Johnson, Norman Fitzhugh, Silas Reed, Lewis A. Cazenove, Benjamin I. Fendall, Bernard Hooe, Charles Koones, William Fowle, Lewis Hooff, Anthony Mc- Lean, Geo. U. Smoot, William H. Fowle, James Green, Dr. Isaac Winston, Francis L. Smith, Stephen Shinn, David Funsten, Orlando Fairfax, Silas Reed, George Brent, Bernard Hooe, &c.
MINISTERS OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH.
The Rev. Mr. Gibson resigned in the month of September, 1811. In the following February the Rev. Wm. Wilmer entered upon the charge and continued in it until the 19th of October, 1826, when
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he accepted the Presidency of William and Mary College. During his ministry the old church was enlarged and the present church built, and the congregation increased manifold. Of Dr. Wilmer I have already spoken in one of the articles on Williamsburg. I will only add that the congregation could not have been supplied with one better calculated to build it up, whether we consider his zeal, prudence, or ability for the work, in private or public. During his residence in Virginia he was always sent to the General Convention, and when there chosen to preside over its deliberations. With his pen he defended Protestantism against Romanism, and moderate views of the Church and Sacraments against certain extravagant ones which were at that early period finding their way among us. At the resignation of Mr. Wilmer, the Rev. William Jackson was chosen, but did not enter upon his duties until February, 1827. Most acceptably and usefully did he labour in this congregation, until his resignation in June, 1832, when he accepted a call to St. Stephen's Church, New York. He left St. Paul's and the diocese of Virginia with the deep regrets of all who knew his amiable character, heard his excellent sermons, and had opportunity to appreciate his great worth. The Rev. James T. Johnson was then elected, and entered upon his duties in the fall of 1833, and con- tinues the minister until the present time, 1857.
I find one or two things on the records of this parish which are worthy of insertion. Bishop Madison was applied to to consecrate the first St. Paul's Church, but declined on account of collegiate duties, and requested Bishop Claggett to perform the office, which was done promptly and much to the gratification of all. An instance of liberality deserves also to be inserted. The first St. Paul's Church was bought on credit for the sum of three thousand five hundred dollars. In the year 1813, Mr. Daniel McLean, one of the vestry, paid the amount and made a deed to the vestry for it. The second church so exceeded the first in size and expense as to cost twenty-six thousand dollars.
CAMERON AND SHELBURNE PARISHES.
Cameron parish was cut off from Truro parish in 1749, and until 1769 included Shelburne parish. A few words will suffice for all the information I have to communicate concerning it. In the year 1758 the Rev. John Andrews was its minister; whether before or after this, or how long, is not known. Whether he was the minister who was subsequently the professor at Williamsburg, and after the war discontinued the ministry and moved to Philadelphia, is not
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FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
known. He was ordained in 1749, and the Rev. Archibald Avens, who probably succeeded him in Cameron parish, in 1767. In the years 1773, 1774, and 1776, the Rev. Spence Grayson was the minister ; whether before or after, or how long, not known. We hear nothing of this parish after the Revolution. There was a church in it near the Gumspring, the traces of which are yet to be seen. There was, I think, another not far from the junction of the roads from Georgetown and Alexandria to Leesburg.
In addition to this brief notice of Cameron and Shelburne parishes, we are able to furnish the following facts concerning the latter, taken from an old vestry-book, or rather fragment of one, com- mencing in 1771 and ending in 1806. On the 10th of April, in the year 1771, the churchwardens-John Lewis and Thomas Shore- are directed to employ some minister to perform divine service once in every three months during pleasure, and that the preference be given to the Rev. Mr. Scott, and that the minister employed do preach at Leesburg and the other chapel (called the Mountain Chapel) in the parish, as also at some convenient place near the gap of the Short Hill, to be fixed on by the churchwardens. On the 27th of July of that year, at the meeting of the vestry, it ap- pears that the Rev. Archibald Avens, who was no doubt the minister in the parish of Cameron in the year 1769, two years before, when Shelburne was cut off from it, and who was living in the part which was assigned to Cameron, had moved into Shelburne and claimed to be its minister. This the vestry resisted, and advertised for a minister in the Virginia Gazette. In the month of August of the same year we find the following entry :-
" Mr. William Leigh, a student of William and Mary College, having been warmly recommended to this vestry by the president, masters, and professors of said college, as a young man of sound learning, unfeigned piety, and unexceptionable morals, we do hereby undertake and agree to receive him as minister of this parish, provided it should continue vacant till he returns from Great Britain in Holy Orders, unless he should by some misconduct forfeit the good opinion we entertain of him."
At a meeting in November of the same year, five thousand three hundred and twelve pounds of tobacco were levied for the Rev. James Scott, who had been officiating for them. He was doubtless the minister of Prince William parish, of whom we have formerly written, and who had been engaged to visit this parish during the last six months.
In the next month we find the Rev. David Griffith elected and unanimously recommended to the Governor for induction, which VOL. II .- 18
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was a striking proof of their confidence in him. Five thousand- weight of tobacco were added to his salary in place of a glebe,- there being none at that time. Mr. Griffith continued their minister until May, 1776. During that year he engaged in the Revolu- tionary struggle as chaplain. There is no record of any meeting of the vestry after May the 22d, 1776, until April 27, 1779, In 1780 the vestry advertise for a minister. From 1776 to 1792 the vestry was unable to obtain a minister. Indeed, it was impossible to collect any thing for that purpose. The glebe which had been purchased for Mr. Griffith was rented out during that time for a very small sum. In the year 1794 the Rev. Alexander Jones is minister for one year on a salary of fifty pounds. In 1796 the Rev. Alexander McFarlan becomes the minister, on the written condition that he may be removed at any time according to the canons of the Church of Virginia. He engaged to preach two Sundays at Leesburg, one at the Pot-House, and one at Middle- burg. In the year 1801, Mr. McFarlan, in a letter to the vestry, resigns the parish and gives up the glebe, on the express condition that they choose the Rev. John Dunn as his successor. The vestry accept his resignation, adding that they have no regard to his con- ditions, which he had no right to make. They, however, elect Mr. Dunn, who was their worthy minister until his death in 1827. He was ordained Priest by Bishop Madison. Mr. Dunn was suddenly seized with paralysis while performing service in Middleburg, and died in Leesburg shortly after.
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