USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. II > Part 30
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53
I was called to witness his happy, triumphant death, and after some time to make an improvement of both his life and death in a funeral discourse, which was published. Had I a copy of it, I would make use of some parts of it in order to convey to my read- ers the impressions then resting on my own mind and on that of the community concerning this excellent man. The text was, "Be- hold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile." And seldom has it ever been so true of any of the frail children of men. He was in all things a most sincere and upright man, "speaking the truth from his heart." He was a man of a most humble and con- tented mind. He lived on his glebe, and, though not much of a farmer, and a very easy master to the few servants belonging to himself or Mrs. Dunn, lived on its proceeds, receiving little or nothing else, until perhaps the last few years of his life. I can never forget his words or looks when, walking about his premises, he told me that he had nothing to wish for more; that he had corn enough in his granary to last until Christmas, and some hay, and
275
FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
was out of debt; "and what do I want more ?" he emphatically asked. Mr. Dunn was a man of sound views of religion and an honest preacher of them. From the time of the first efforts for the revival of religion in Virginia until his death, he was a member of the Standing Committee of the diocese and punctual in his attendance, though living at some distance from the place where its meetings were held.
He was succeeded by the Rev. Thomas Jackson, who continued for three years to fill the place with ability and great acceptable- ness. The Rev. Mr. Cutler then spent a year in the parish, and, at the end of that time, removed to his present charge in Brooklyn, New York.
The Rev. George Adie took charge of it in 1832, and continued in it until his death, in 1856,-being its faithful, laborious, and beloved minister for nearly twenty-four years,-and has been suc- ceeded by the Rev. Mr. Caldwell. Mr. Adie, for many years con- nected with his charge at Leesburg regular though infrequent services at Upperville, Middleburg, and Aldie. He also acted as chaplain to the female school at Belmont, a few miles from Leesburg, kept by Miss Margaret Mercer. For a faithful and deeply-interesting account of this remarkable woman we must refer our readers to the little volume by Dr. Caspar Morris, of Philadelphia, than which there are few biographies more just, more edifying, or more pleasing. Miss Mereer still lives in the memories and affections of her nume- rous pupils, who are scattered over the land. For some years the Sunday afternoon services of Mr. Adie were held in the large hall at Belmont ; but, as there were many poor in the neighbourhood, Miss Mercer, at her own expense, put up a neat little chapel a short distance from the house, for their benefit. I have spent some interesting seasons in this house of God, preaching and administer- ing Confirmation. Miss Mercer was then and there to be seen in her highest glory and happiness, in the midst of her pupils and the poor. At her death, a tomb was erected in the churchyard by a general contribution from her pupils, with the following inscrip- tion :-
"Sacred to the memory of Margaret Mercer, born July 1, 1791; died September 17, 1846. Her remains repose beneath the chancel of this church, built by her own self-denying labours. This monument is erected by her pupils, as a testimony of their admiration of her elevated Christian character, and of their gratitude for her invaluable instructions."
The history of the churches in Shelburne parish, as seen on the vestry-book, is amusing. For some years before the war, the
276
OLD CHURCHES, MINISTERS, AND
record states that various places were determined upon and then abandoned, various plans agreed upon and then changed. Twice was it ordered that a church be built at a place belonging to George William Fairfax, once on the land of Colonel Tayloe, then at the fork of the road leading to Noland's Ferry ; sometimes it was to be of wood, then of stone, sometimes of one size, then of another. I am unable to designate either of the places. The war came upon them while thus divided in sentiment, and settled the question in favour of none. It was not until the second war with England that an Episcopal church was begun in Leesburg, on its present site. Services were held by Mr. Dunn in the old Presbyterian church in Leesburg, and the free church in Middleburg.
A few words concerning the old glebe in this parish will not be without interest to the present generation. About the year 1772, a tract of land containing four hundred and sixty-five acres, on the North Fork of Goose Creek, was purchased, and, soon after, a house put upon it. When Mr. Dunn became minister, in 1801, an effort was made by the overseers of the poor to sell it, but it was effectually resisted at law. At the death of Mr. Dunn, in 1827, the overseers of the poor again proceeded to sell it. The vestry was divided in opinion as to the course to be pursued. Four of them-Dr. W. C. Selden, Dr. Henry Claggett, Mr. Fayette Ball, and George M. Chichester-were in favour of resisting it; the other eight thought it best to let it share the fate of all the others. It was accordingly sold. The purchaser lived in Maryland; and, of course, the matter might be brought before the Supreme Court as a last resort, should the courts of Virginia decide against the Church's claim. The minority of four, encouraged by the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of the Fairfax glebe, determined to engage in a lawsuit for it. It was first brought in Winchester, and decided against the Church. It was then carried to the Court of Appeals, in Richmond, and, during its lingering progress there, three out of four of the vestrymen who engaged in it died, and the fourth was persuaded to withdraw it.
List of the Vestrymen of Shelburne Parish from the year 1771 to 1806.
William Smith, Thomas Lewis, James Hamilton, Francis Peyton, Josias Clapham, Levin Powell, John Lewis, Thomas Ousley, Thos. Shore, Thomp- son Mason, Stephen Donaldson, Craven Peyton, Colonel Wm. Bronaugh, Colonel John Alexander, Joshua Gore, Thos. Respass, Jos. Combs, Colonel Symon Triplett, Thomas Kenner, J. Daniel, Benjamin Grayson, Joseph Lane, Stephen Thompson Mason, Matthew Rust, Wilson C. Selden, Chas. Bennett, A. B. T. Mason, William Bronaugh, Jr., W. H. Powell, William
277
FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
Jones, Thomas Fouch, William Fouke, Dr. Thomas Simm, Burr Powell, Peter B. Whiting, Jas. Leith, William Chilton, Charles Fenton Mercer.
The vestry-book from the year 1806 to this present time having been mislaid or lost, a friend has sent me from recollection the following list of vestrymen in addition to the above :-
W. C. Selden, Henry Claggett, Richard H. Henderson, W. T. T. Mason, Fayette Ball, G. M. Chichester, Jno. I. Harding, William Ellzey, Lewis Berkeley, B. Maulsby, C. Douglass, W. H. Gray, Dr. J. Gray, W. A. Powell, George Lee, J. P. Smart, H. Saunders, A. Belt, C. Powell, C. Hempstone, John Wildman, S. K. Jackson, B. W. Harrison, H. T. Harrison, I. Orr, Thomas H. Claggett.
THE POWELL FAMILY.
I have not been able to ascertain any thing very certain con- cerning the family of Powells which appears on the records of the Church in Loudon county. The name of Powell is a very ancient one on the civil records of Virginia. Cuthbert Powell was contem- porary in Lancaster county with the first John Carter. Indeed, the name is found on one or more of the earliest lists of adventurers to Virginia. Colonel Powell, of Loudon,-father of Messrs. Leven, Burr, Cuthbert, Alfred Powell, and their sisters,-married a near relative of the Rev. Mr. Harrison, of Dumfries, of whose ancestors some account, taken from the record of Westminster parish, England, was given in our sketch of Dettingen parish. Colonel Powell was once a member of Congress from his district. With his widow I was acquainted in the earlier years of my ministry. She was one whose fidelity to the Church no adversity could shake. When all others were deserting it, she continued steadfast. A minister of another denomination was once conversing with her on the subject of his own and her Church, and said that there was but little difference between them,-that they were like twin-sisters. Whether she suspected him of some design at proselyting or not, I cannot say, but she very decidedly replied, "It might be so, but that she greatly preferred one of the sisters to the other." She was old- fashioned in all her ways,-in her dress, her home, her furniture, and domestic occupations. She lived in a plain house, a little back of the main and indeed only street in Middleburg. On one of my journeys to Alexandria, while stopping on a summer's afternoon at that place, I walked over to her abode, and found her busily en- gaged at her wheel, spinning tow or flax, on what was called the small wheel in those days, in contradistinction to that on which wool and cotton were spun, and which was called the large wheel.
278
OLD CHURCHES, MINISTERS, AND
The march of improvement has left both sorts far behind, and with them much honest, domestic industry and substantial clothing.
One word concerning my old friend, Mr. Lewis Berkeley, of Aldie. We were school-boys together. He was descended from the old family of Berkeleys in Middlesex, which lived at Barnelms, on the Pyankatank, and which was the last to leave the county, after having been a main prop to the Church for more than one hundred and fifty years. Mr. Lewis Berkeley married a daughter of Mr. William Noland, an old member of the Legislature from Loudon, in days long since passed away. Mr. Noland signalized himself by his zealous advocacy of the law against duelling. So just and sensible was his speech on the subject, that it was soon introduced into the school-books or collection of pieces for school-boys, and still holds its place. Mr. Berkeley, his excellent wife, and Mr. and Mrs. Noland, were for a long term of years the pious, consistent, active, and liberal supporters of the Episcopal Church in Loudon, whether the services were at Aldie, Middleburg, or even twelve miles off, at Leesburg, at which latter place they often attended.
270
FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
1
ARTICLE LXXI.
Parishes in Frederick County.
IN our last communication we had reached the Blue Ridge,-the great dividing-line between Eastern and Western Virginia. We now ascend that beautiful range of mountains, and look down on the wide and extensive valley which lies between it and those nume- rous ones which hide the great Alleghany from our view. I believe it is generally admitted that this valley is not only the most fertile and desirable portion of the State, but also the most picturesque and beautiful. But it is not our province to descant on such themes. We may, however, be permitted to declare our assent to the hypo- thesis of Mr. Jefferson and others, that it was once a great lake or sea, which emptied itself through the channel formed by the force of the waters at Harper's Ferry, leaving immense prairies behind to be covered in due time with heavy forests, some of which our eyes now behold, while most of them have been felled by the hands of our forefathers .*
Such a country could not but attract the attention of hardy and adventurous farmers. The first who entered it were from Pennsyl- vania. Crossing the Potomac at what is now called Shepherdstown, but at first and for a considerable time Mecklenburg,-doubtless after some town or place in Germany,-they there made a settle- ment. From thence emigration proceeded on toward Winchester, Stephensburg, or Newtown, Woodstock, &c. Joist Hite, the an- cestor of all the Hites, was the first to make a settlement north of Winchester, with sixteen families. This was in the year 1732. His
* It is a true tradition, I believe, that one of the Carters, who at an early period took up or purchased a large tract of land in old Frederick, including all that which now belongs to the Burwell family, and extending beyond and along the Opequon and its barren hills and stunted trees, offered to one of his sons the choice of an equal portion of that upon the Opequon and of that fertile prairie lying be- tween it and the Shenandoah River, and that the former was preferred because of the timber, which was visible, though of so indifferent a character. That the lower and richer lands of this part of the valley were once prairie in the days of our forefathers is generally admitted. Old Mr. Isaac Hite, of Bellgrove, now deceased, informed me that his father often spoke of the land about the White Post as being, in his day, covered with a thicket of saplings.
280
OLD CHURCHES, MINISTERS, AND
descendants of that name became active members of, or friends of, the Episcopal Church. Soon after this, Presbyterians of Scotch and Irish descent began to settle in the valley. In the year 1738, a number from Pennsylvania, wishing to add themselves to those already settled, sent, through the synod of Pennsylvania, a deputa- tion to Governor Gooch, of Virginia, "asking all liberty of con- science and of worshipping God agreeably to the principles of their education." They professed the utmost loyalty to the King, and promised " the most dutiful submission to the government which is placed over them." The Governor assured them of his favour, and that no interruption should be given to their ministers, if they should " conform themselves to the rules prescribed by the Act of Tolera- tion in England." It was the same principle which had been acted on before this time in Virginia, and continued to be to the end of the Colonial Establishment. Under that law, any number of persons, of whatsoever name, might ask for and should receive a license for some place of meeting where they might worship after their own way. Even during the preceding century, the first of our settlements in Virginia, the Germans on the Rappahannock and the French Huguenots on James River had not only been tole- rated, but allowed special favours, such as grants of lands and freedom from taxes, until of their own accord they applied to be admitted into union with the Established Church under Episcopal ministers,-finding it difficult to procure any of their own. Other denominations also were allowed licenses for places of worship,- whether private or public houses,-provided they sought and used them in compliance with the true intent of the law. In the case of President Davies, about the middle of the last century,-which we have considered when speaking of the parish in Hanover,-seven places of worship were licensed for him before the Governor de- clared that he was exceeding the bounds prescribed by the spirit and intent of the law.
With these general observations we proceed to the history of the parish of Frederick. The materials are furnished by the Acts of Assembly dating back to the year 1738, to the records of the court beginning in 1744, and to the old vestry-book going back to the year 1764, and some papers of an earlier date.
In the year 1738, the Assembly, in consideration of the increas- ing number of settlers in the valley, determined to cut off two new counties and parishes-West Augusta and Frederick-from Orange county and parish, which latter then took in all Western Virginia. The county and parish of Frederick embraced all that
281
FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
is now Shenandoah, with a part of Page, Warren, Clarke, Frederick, Jefferson, Berkeley, and Hampshire. Augusta had all the rest to the utmost limits of Virginia, wherever they were,-the contest with France as to the boundaries not being then settled. The execu- tion of the Act, however, was postponed until it should be made to appear that there were inhabitants enough for the appointment of justices of the peace, &c. In the year 1744, the vestry and court of Frederick county were organized and in action. Of the vestry, nothing more is heard after its organization, except the appoint- ment of processioners in 1747, until the year 1752, when an Act of Assembly was passed dissolving it and ordering a new election, on the ground that it had raised more than fifteen hundred pounds for building a number of churches which were unfinished and in a ruinous condition. As the churches of that day and in this region were log-houses, costing only from thirty to forty or fifty pounds, there must have been much misspending of money. Who those vestrymen were does not appear. Those chosen in their place were the following :- Thomas Lord Fairfax, Isaac Perkins, Gabriel Jones, John Hite, Thomas Swearingen, Charles Buck, Robert Lemmon, John Lindsey, John Ashby, James Cromley, Lewis Neil. Thomas Bryan Martin, the nephew and one of the heirs of Lord Fairfax, does not ever appear as vestryman, but seems to have been an active magistrate, and to have taken a considerable part in com- pleting McCoy's Chapel, on the road from Winchester to Front Royal, in the neighbourhood of the McCoys and Cunningham Chapel, which stood near the spot where what has been long called the Old Chapel-near the Burwell burial-ground-still stands. Mr. Edward McGuire also appears as a magistrate, but not as vestryman,-he being of the Romish Church. He was the ancestor of many worthy ministers and members of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Virginia.
Having mentioned Lord Fairfax as the first on the list of that most respectable body of vestrymen given above, and who also gave the land on which the church in Winchester stood, and under which he was buried, it is but right that we should add a few words as to himself and his numerous and most estimable relatives now scattered through this and other States.
The first of the Fairfaxes who came to this country, and who settled in Westmoreland, and then on an estate near Mount Vernon, called Belvoir, was Mr. William Fairfax, a scholar, a soldier and civilian. The latter character he exhibited as President of the Council of Virginia,-the station next to that of Governor. By two
282
OLD CHURCHES, MINISTERS, AND
marriages he had five children,-George William, Thomas, William, Bryan, and Hannah. George William married a Miss Cary, of Virginia, but left the county before the Revolutionary War. Thomas and William died, the one in the English navy and the other in the army. Bryan took Orders in the Episcopal Church, and was for some years minister of Christ's Church, Alexandria. Hannah married Warner Washington, of Fairfield, a near relative of George Washington, and was a worthy member of our Church, leaving two sons and three daughters behind. Two of her daughters-Mrs. Milton (who was previously Mrs. Nelson) and Mrs. Whiting-were long and well known to me as among the best of women. Of their mother I have often heard Mr. Balmaine speak in the highest terms .* The elder William Fairfax was the manager of the estates of his kinsman, Lord Thomas Fairfax, the owner of all the lands in the Northern Neck of Virginia, which he inherited from his mother, the daughter of Lord Culpepper, and which were bounded by the Rappahannock and Potomac, extending to the head-waters of each, the one beginning in the Blue Ridge, the other in the Alleghany Mountains. Lord Fairfax was a man of the most perfect English education, Oxford being his Alma Mater. He was a member of that club of which Addison was the head, and to whose pens we are indebted for that immortal work, the Spectator. He was early and deeply disappointed in love, which gave a turn to his character and habits, and prepared him for seclusion in the wilds of America. In 1749, he visited his estates in Virginia, and was so much pleased with the country that he determined to settle here. During that visit he became acquainted with, and attached to, young George Washington, then only sixteen years of age. The affection was returned on the part of Washington, and he readily accepted the proposition of Lord Fairfax to become surveyor of all his lands. Lord Fairfax returned for a short time to England, while Washing-
* In proof of the zeal of Mrs. Hannah Washington, of Fairfield, in the cause of religion and the Church, I might adduce a brief correspondence between herself and Mr. George Lewis, who lived at the place afterward owned by Mr. Milton, on the subject of securing the services of Mr. Balmaine in the year 1787, when steps were taken to build what has always been called The Chapel. Mrs. Washington, whose example has been followed by many good ladies in Virginia since, took an active part in some Church matters, and wrote to Mr. Lewis, proposing that, inasmuch as at least a year must elapse before the chapel could be finished, the neighbours on both sides of Battletown should unite in renting a house of a Mr. McMahon, at Traphill, for divine service, and promises to send her carpenters to fit it up for the purpose. To this Mr. Lewis readily assents, and the plan was adopted. The house was pointed out to me between forty and fifty years ago.
283
FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
ton immediately repaired to his work in the valley, making his head-quarters at Greenway Court. Washington continued for two or three years in the service of Lord Fairfax, and as public sur- veyor for Western Virginia. At the death of Lord Fairfax, in 1781, being ninety-two years of age, the title fell to his only sur- viving brother, Robert, in England, and at his death, which occurred soon after, to the Rev. Bryan Fairfax, the nearest kinsman. It deserves to be mentioned of Lord Fairfax, that, titled as he was, and rich, he never failed to perform his duty as a citizen and neighbour, but, besides acting as Keeper of the Rolls for Frederick, was uniform in his attendance at Winchester, twelve miles off, as one of the magistrates of the county. The poor around him cultivated some of his lands, and received all the benefits of the same .*
To McCoy's and Cunningham's Chapel are to be added two on the north and south branches of Shenandoah, whose location cannot now be ascertained, one in Winchester, one at Bunker's Hill, called Morgan's Chapel, of which we shall speak more fully hereafter, perhaps one called Wood's Chapel, between Winchester and Charles- town, and one at Shepherdstown, then called Mecklenburg Chapel. All these were probably begun, and some of them sufficiently com- pleted for use, between the years 1740 and 1750. In 1768, Mr. Van Swearingen received one hundred and forty-eight pounds for completing a new church at Mecklenburg, now Shepherdstown. In the year 1768, Isaac Hite was directed to contract for a church at Leith's-place not known-for forty-nine pounds. In the year 1774, a church was ordered to be built near Cedar Creek for one hundred pounds; whether executed or not, I cannot tell. In the year 1772, it was resolved to build a church, costing two hundred and fifty-two pounds, at Carney's Spring, near Berryville, on land given by Mr. Charles Smith, which was afterward increased to four hundred and forty-nine pounds, and a contract made with Mr. John Neville, father of General Neville, and some of the materials collected on the spot. In the following year it was determined to build it at Cunningham's
* In proof of the needlessness of great landed or other possessions, let me men- tion the end of all Lord Fairfax's earthly property. His nephew, Colonel Martin, was his heir. In the year 1794, his estate in lands was nine thousand seven hun- dred acres. My father's farm lay beside it. I have a letter from my father in that year to Mr. Charles Carter, of Shirly, on James River, who, it seems, thought of moving to Frederick, urging him to purchase it, as Colonel Martin had determined to sell. The price asked was forty shillings per acre, Virginia currency. The whole Northern Neck of Virginia, computed at many millions of acres, is thus re- duced to less than ten thousand.
284
OLD CHURCHES, MINISTERS, AND
Chapel, two acres of ground being given by Colonel Hugh Nelson, of York, the then owner of the Burwell tract, and the materials moved there. Again it was resolved to build at Carney's Spring, and the materials removed a second time. The result of the controversy was that no such church was ever built, though the money was in hand. The war soon came on, and at the end of it the funds were delivered into the hands of the overseers of the poor. In the year 1762, a new stone church was contracted for in Winchester,-the same which was afterward sold in order to build the present church.
Having thus brought down the history of the church-buildings to the time of the Revolution, we will now give a list of the lay readers and vestrymen from the year 1764, when the vestry-book com- mences, merely premising that the county and parish of Frederick were in 1769 divided into the counties of Dunmore, afterward changed to Shenandoah, Frederick, and Berkeley, and into the parishes of Beckford, Frederick, and Norbone.
Names of the vestrymen from the year 1764 until the year 1780, when no more meetings of the vestry take place until 1785 :- Isaac Hite, John Hite, John Greenleaf, Thomas Rutherford, James Keith, John Neville, Charles Smith, James Wood, Jacob Hite, Thomas Wadlington, Burr Harrison, Thomas Swearingen, Van Swearingen, Angus McDonald, Philip Bush, Frederick Conrad, George Rice, Alexander White, James Barnett, Marquis Calmes, John McDonald, Edward Snickers, Warner Washington, Joseph Holmes, Benjamin Sedwick, Edmund Taylor, John Smith, Samuel Dowdal. Of these, Philip Bush and some others, in consequence of some unknown diffi- culties, resigned in the year 1774, though all of them resumed their seats except Mr. Bush. Lord Fairfax in the year 1775 made a deed to Mr. Bush, Frederick Conrad, and others, for the lot on which the Lutheran church stood, though Mr. Conrad continued as vestry- man until the year 1780, when the vestries were all dissolved by Act of Assembly. James Wood, who was both clerk and vestry- man, resigned in 1777 and entered the army. He rose to the rank of General, and was afterward Governor of the State, and repre- sented the parish two years in Convention while Governor. James Barnett resigned in 1773 and joined the Baptists.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.