USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. II > Part 8
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of necessity adopted after the Establishment was put down, the congregation increased so as to require an addition to the church. This addition made it a cruciform church. It was, however, getting to be like an old garment with new cloth put upon its rent. During Mr. Thornton's ministry, General Washington, coming to Frede- ricksburg to visit his mother, attended, as usual, the Episcopal Church, which drew such a crowd that something gave way in the gallery, which produced great consternation in the attendants, who rushed out of it through the doors and windows. It, however, still lasted for a number of years. I was in it in the year 1811, but a more dark and cheerless place I have seldom seen. The rite of confirmation was first administered in this parish by Bishop Madi- son, in the year 1791, during the ministry of Mr. Thornton. Soon after this Mr. Thornton left the parish, and died at Dumfries. The following obituary, taken from a paper of that day, shows not only that he was a minister of that parish, but also the high esteem in which he was held :-
"Died, in Dumfries, on the 25th ultimo, in the 76th year of his age, the Rev. Thomas Thornton, late rector of this parish. He possessed steady faith, rational benevolence, and unaffected piety. With the dignity of the minister he associated the familiarity of the man, and was truly an ornament to human nature. In his sermons he was accurate and persua- sive, more attentive to sense than to sound, to elevation of sentiment than to loftiness of style, expatiating on the evidences of Christianity when infidelity prevailed, and strongly urging the practice of Christian morality where vice predominated. His amiable qualities secured him universal respect, and his death is now the theme of universal lamentation."
A successor to Mr. Thornton was chosen in 1792, in a way most unusual in an Episcopal congregation, and contrary to her laws, except in the case of Christ Church, Norfolk, which is provided for by a special act. A notice was given in the old "Virginia Herald" inviting the subscribers to the Episcopal church to meet in the town-hall to elect a clergyman. On that occasion ninety-six votes were given for the Rev. Mr. Woodville, and thirty-four for the Rev. Thomas Davis. Mr. Woodville resigned the parish in 1793,-the year after his election,-and removed to St. Mark's, Cul- pepper, where he lived until his death, respected by all who knew him.
On the 6th of January, 1794, the people assembled in the market- house, and again, by a popular vote, unanimously elected the Rev. James Stephenson their minister. Mr. Stephenson resigned in 1805, on account of ill health. Mr. Stephenson married a Miss
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Littlepage, a lady of fine intellectual endowments. He was the father of the Hon. Andrew Stephenson and Mr. Carter Stephenson, also of Mrs. Woodville.
In 1806, the Rev. Abner Waugh took charge of the parish, but was obliged to relinquish it by reason of ill health. Retiring to Hazlewood, where he soon died, he addressed the following letter to his friends in Fredericksburg :-
" Impressed with a high sense of their friendly regard and general at- tention to him during his residence and want of health among them, the Rev. Abner Waugh begs them to receive his acknowledgments. Loss of health, and consequently loss of power of being any longer useful, com- pelled him to relinquish his prospects in Fredericksburg. In bidding the citizens farewell, he wishes them, individually and generally, as much comfort, ease, and happiness in this life as may be consistent with a more exalted degree of happiness in the next."
In the year 1808, the Rev. Samuel Low succeeded Mr. Waugh. Mr. Low was a man of gigantic stature, stentorian lungs, and for- bidding countenance. His powers of oratory were great. He had been, before his coming to Fredericksburg, preaching to crowds in Norfolk, Richmond, and elsewhere, on duelling and gambling, and other special topics. Some of these sermons were published. He was at that time living with a woman who was not his lawful wife, having deserted her who was his true wife and the mother of his children. It was some time before the news of this reached Fre- dericksburg, and when it did, he solemnly denied it in the pulpit. The fact being established beyond all doubt, he acknowledged it in a letter to the vestry, which is on record, and going to the North, obtained a divorce from his wife and married the other. The effect of all this must have been most disastrous to the Church.
In the year 1811, the Rev. Mr. Strebeck was chosen to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Mr. Low, but the Church was little benefited by the change. Such was the unhappy con- dition of the parish, that the people, in 1813, were glad to avail themselves of the services of their present minister, as lay reader, one year, I believe, before he was old enough to be admitted to Deacons' Orders.
As it has been a rule observed by me in these notices to avoid all praises or censures of the living, and in the fewest possible words refer to the acts and successes even of my oldest friends, therefore to Mr. Slaughter's account of the revival of the Church in this parish during the thirty-three years of Mr. McGuire's ministry, ending with his history of the parish, to which must now be added fourteen
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more, I refer my readers for a full view of the subject. Suffice it to say that, from that time, a succession of revivals, or rather a continued one, under faithful evangelical preaching, has added great numbers to the Church; that two new churches, each in- creasing in size and expense, have been called for ; that several young ministers have issued from the parish,-among them the Rev. Launcelot Minor, whose remains are on the African shore, along- side of those of Mrs. Susan Savage, the devoted missionary, whose spiritual birthplace was St. George's Church, as Fredericksburg was that of her other nativity. Mr. McGuire and he who makes this allusion entered the ministry at a short interval apart, and cannot be long separated in leaving it behind, for another and we trust higher ministry, in the presence of our Redeemer.
Having done with the ministers and churches of St. George's parish, nothing remains but to present a list of the vestrymen of the same.
Vestrymen from 1725 to 1847.
Augustus Smith, William Grayson, John Waller, Thomas Chew, Geo. Wheatle, William Hansford, H. Sharpe, John Taliafero, Francis Thorn- ton, Goodrich Lightfoot, Larkin Chew, Z. Lewis, Hon. John Robinson, Henry Beverley, Ambrose Grayson, Henry Beverley, Edward Hickman, John Chew, F. Taliafero, John Waller, Jr., Wm. Robinson, Rice Curtis, William Battaley, John Taliafero, Jr., Richard Tutt, John Thornton, Rice Curtis, Jr., William Waller, Edward Herndon, Robert Jackson, John Spottswood, Fielding Lewis, Joseph Brock, Roger Dixon, Richard Brook, Charles Lewis, Charles Carter, John Lewis, Charles Washington, William Dangerfield, Charles Dick, Joseph Jones, Edward Herndon, Thomas Fox, Lewis Willis, Thomas Colston, Thomas Minor, Michael Robinson, William Wood, James Tutt, Mann Page, George Thornton, Thomas Strachan, John Chew, John Steward, Thomas Crutcher, D. Branham, John Julian, J. W. Willis, James Lewis, G. Stubblefield, Benjamin Ballard, Thomas Sharpe, John Legg, Charles Mortimer, Chas. Urquart, Benjamin Day, Francis Thornton, Jr., George Weedon, Edward Carter, R. B. Chew, George French, W. S. Stone, John Herndon, Thos. Strachan, Edward Herndon, Beverley Stubblefield, John Welch, Edward Herndon, Jr., John Wright, William Stanard, William Lovell, Charles Gates, David Blair, Samuel Greenhow, Fontaine Maury, Elisha Hall, James Brown, William Taylor, John Chew, Hugh Mercer, Godlove Heis- kell, Thomas Goodwin, William Smith, Robert Patton, David Henderson, David C. Ker, Jacob Kuhm, John Minor, Charles L. Carter, William I. Stone, Benjamin Botts, John Scott, John Lewis, Dabney Herndon, John Taliafero, Z. Lucas, Robert Wellford, James Smock, John Smith, Jr., William Bernard, G. W. B. Spooner, James Carmichael, Horace Marshall, Robert I. Chew, Francis Taliafero, Robert Lewis, Churchill Jones, Geo. Hamilton, John Mundell, Alexander F. Rose, R. Johnson, John Crump, Charles Austin, William A. Knox, John Gray, R. T. Thom, John Hart, William F. Gray, William Storke, F. J. Wyatt, John Metcalfe, John T. Lomax, H. O. Middleton, Larkin Johnson, George Rotchrock, Jr., Yea-
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mans Smith, Thomas H. Hanson, Archibald Hart, W. M. Blackford, G. W. Bassett, Murray Forbes, E. H. Carmichael, Thomas F. Knox, R. B. Maury, John Coakley, James Cookc, R. C. L. Moncure, William Pollock, J. B. Ficklin.
BERKELEY PARISH, SPOTTSYLVANIA COUNTY.
This parish was taken from St. George's in March, 1769-70. The first minister was the Rev. James Stephenson, who was after- ward the minister of St. George's. As he was ordained in London in 1768, and appears on the lists of 1773-74-76 as minister of Berkeley parish, it is more than probable that he was ordained expressly for this parish, and became its minister in 1769. He was, I believe, a citizen of Virginia, and an inhabitant of Frede- ricksburg, before his ordination. From the time that the Rev. Mr. Stephenson left it for Culpepper, previous to his removal to Wil- liamsburg in 1794, we are unable to state who, if any, was the minister of Berkeley parish, until the year 1789, when the Rev. Hugh Coran Boggs appears on the journal of Convention. He was either ordained by some other English Bishop than the Bishop of London, or else by Bishop White, or some other American Bishop, since Bishop Madison was not consecrated until 1790. Mr. Boggs continued to be the minister of Berkeley parish until his death. Rev. Mr. Ward succeeded him in 1837. The Rev. Dabney Wharton, the present minister, succeeded to Mr. Ward in 1843. Two new churches have been built in this parish within the last year: one of them is near the court-house, and the other near the Louisa line.
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ARTICLE LIV.
St. Mark's Parish, Culpepper County.
THIS parish was originally in Spottsylvania, when that was the frontier county, and was a part of St. George's parish. The vestry-book, from whence I derive my information concerning it, thus begins in 1730 :- "In pursuance to an Act of the General Assembly holden at Williamsburg the 21st day of May, 1730, entitled An Act for dividing the parish of St. George, in the county of Spottsylvania, and that all the other parts of the said parish be known by the name of St. Mark: according to the said Act, the freeholders and housekeepers of the said parish of St. Mark did meet at the church at Germanna, in the said parish, on the 1st day of January, and there did elect and choose twelve of the most able and discreet persons of their parish to be vestrymen,-viz. : Goodrich Lightfoot, Henry Field, Francis Huntley, William Peyton, James Barber, (now Barbour,) Robert Slaughter, John Finlason, Francis Slaughter, Thomas Staunton, Benjamin Cave, Robert Green, Samuel Ball." Robert Slaughter and Francis Slaughter were the first churchwardens, William Peyton clerk, and William Peyton, William Philips, and John MacMath were continued lay readers at the several churches and chapels they formerly read at. .
At the meeting of the vestry in March, 1731, the church at Germanna is ordered to be repaired and the roof tarred ; the Fork Chapel and the Mountain Chapel ordered to be swept and kept clean. Three houses of worship are recognised as being in use before the division, that at Germanna being the church, the others the chapels. The church seems to have required repairs. This was doubtless the house built by Governor Spottswood for the German settlers, who, like the Huguenots on James River, had been patronized by. Government and allowed certain immunities .* By this time, however, they had removed higher up the river, into what is now Madison county. Colonel Byrd, in his visit to General Spottswood in 1732, speaking of Germanna, says, "This famous
* Germanna was so called after this settlement by the Germans, as Spottsyl- vania was so called after Governor Spottswood.
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town consists of Colonel Spottswood's enchanted castle on one side of the street and a baker's dozen of ruinous tenements on the other, where so many German families had dwelt some years ago, but are now removed some ten miles higher up the Fork of Rappa- hannock, to land of their own. There had also been a chapel about a bow-shot from the Colonel's house, at the end of an avenue of cherry-trees, but some pious people had lately burnt it down, with intent to have one built nearer to their own homes." Mr. Byrd's writings being full of such remarks, we may conclude that he does not always expect us to receive them as historical verities. No doubt the locality of the church was inconvenient, and many did not lament its destruction, as another would be built nearer to the body of the congregation.
Before we proceed further in the history of this parish, it may be well to state what information we have in relation to this German settlement which Governor Spottswood had cherished on his estate at Germanna, which estate, it is said, was only a part of a tract of forty-five thousand acres on which he worked a number of iron- ore furnaces. From the letter-book of the Venerable Society in England for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, we obtain the following document, headed-
CASE OF THE GERMAN FAMILIES IN THE YEAR 1720.
" The case of thirty-two Protestant German families settled in Virginia humbly showeth :- That twelve Protestant German families, consisting of about fifty persons, arrived April 17th, in Virginia, and were therein settled near the Rappahannock River. That in 1717 seventeen Protestant German families, consisting of about fourscore persons, came and set down near their countrymen. And many more, both German and Swiss families, are likely to come there and settle likewise. That for the enjoy- ment of the ministries of religion, there will be a necessity of building a small church in the place of their settlement, and of maintaining a minis- ter, who shall catechize, read, and perform divine offices among them in the German tongue, which is the only language they do yet understand. That there went indeed with the first twelve German families one minis- ter, named Henry Hoger, a very sober, honest man, of about seventy-five years of age; but he being likely to be past service in a short time, they have empowered Mr. Jacob Christophe Zollicoffer, of St. Gall, in Switzer- land, to go into Europe and there to obtain, if possible, some contributions from pious and charitable Christians toward the building of their church, and bringing over with him a young German minister to assist the said Mr. Hoger in the ministry of religion, and to succeed him when he shall die; to get him ordained in England by the Right Rev. Lord-Bishop of London, and to bring over with him the Liturgy of the Church of England translated into High Dutch, which they are desirous to use in the public worship. But this new settlement consisting of but mean
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persons, being utterly unable of themselves both to build a church and to make up a salary sufficient to maintain such assisting minister, they humbly implore the countenance and encouragement of the Lord-Bishop of London and others, the Lords, the Bishops, as also the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, that they would take their case under their pious consideration and grant their usual allowance for the support of a minister, and, if it may be, to contribute something toward the building of their church.
"And they shall ever pray that God may reward their beneficence both here and hereafter."
Whether they did succeed in their effort, and how long after this they continued at Germanna, and what was their history after their removal, we are not able to state. One thing we have ascertained from one of the oldest men now living in Culpepper,-that within his recollection, their descendants, when without a Lutheran minis- ter, would come a long distance to receive the sacrament from an Episcopal minister at Buckrun Church, not many miles from Culpep- per Court-House. It is very certain that at one time they had a large church, a flourishing congregation, a fine organ, and good music.
In passing on to our notice of the churches and ministers of St. Mark's, we cannot but express some surprise at not finding the name of General Spottswood among those of the vestry, although it is mentioned in the vestry-book, as he always appeared while Governor to be much interested in Church affairs. It may be that, as he lived on the outskirts of the parish, and the new church was now removed so far from him, he declined an active part in its concerns. In a few years after this he died. His widow and children continued to live at Germanna, and were within the pas- toral charge of its ministers. We shall see hereafter that Mrs. Spottswood became the wife of one of them.
Previous to the year 1728, we ascertain that a Rev. Mr. Staige had officiated at Germanna, and after him a Rev. Rodham Kennor. Between the years 1731 and 1733 we find a Rev. Mr. De Butts and a Rev. Mr. Pruit often preaching in St. Mark's, but neither of them was elected. In May, 1733, the Rev. Mr. Beckett was regu- larly elected and continued minister until the year 1739.
In the year 1732, the vestry built a church at the Two Springs, on the Germanna Road, at the cost of thirty-six thousand-weight of tobacco. In the year 1633, the choice of a pew in the new church is offered to Colonel Spottswood. In the same year twenty- seven thousand pounds of tobacco are voted for building a new church in the Southwest Mountains; also, another, "twenty feet square, near Batley's Quarter, where David Cave be lay reader."
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In the year 1735, a chapel is ordered between Shaw's Mountain and the Devil's Run. Ordered the same year "that the ministers preach as the law directs at every church and chapel."
In the year 1739 we find the following order :- "That the church- wardens agree with the Rev. Mr. McDaniel, if he please to serve the parish, and if not, some other minister, except Mr. Beckett." From something on the vestry-book a year or two before, there would seem to have been a serious cause of complaint against Mr. Beckett. In the year following-1740-the Rev. John Thompson comes, recommended by Governor Gooch, and is accepted. In this year also the parish of St. Mark, which was still in the county of Orange, was divided, and St. Thomas formed out of it. Mr. James Barber and William Cave being in the new parish of St. Thomas, Mr. William Triplett and William Russell were chosen in their room. Mr. John Catlett had been previously added to the vestry in place of one deceased. The estimate in which Mr. Thompson was held appears at once by the increased attention paid to the glebe-houses. In the year 1741, Mrs. Spottswood presents a velvet pulpit cloth and cushion to the church, and Goodrich Lightfoot is chosen vestry- man in place of Thomas Stanton, deceased. In 1742, a church was resolved on in Tenant's old field. In the year 1743, an addi- tion of twenty-four feet square is ordered to the Fork Church. In 1746, Benjamin Roberts and Philip Clayton appear on the vestry. In the year 1747, Robert Slaughter, Jr. is appointed vestryman in place of W. Finlason, deceased, and William Green in place of Robert Green, deceased. In the year 1750, a chapel is ordered at the Little Fork, where an old chapel stood. In the year 1751, Abra- ham Field is on the vestry, also Thomas Slaughter in place of Robert Slaughter, Jr., who removed out of the parish, and James Pendleton in place of Samuel Ball, deceased. In 1744, large addi- tions are made to the glebe-houses. In 1752, Bloomfield parish cut off from St. Mark's, and services at the court-house instead of at Tenant's Church. In 1752, Thomas Stubblefield and John Hackley on the vestry. In 1752, the site of the new chapel, which was ordered on the Little Fork, is changed to one in Freeman's old field, and to be called a church. In the same year,-1752,-a church ordered on Buckrun upon Colonel Spottswood's land, to cost fifty- four thousand pounds of tobacco. Some leaves being torn out, the next meeting of the vestry is in 1757,-Mr. Thompson still the minister. Nathaniel Pendleton and James Pendleton are each clerk of one of its churches. In 1758, Thomas Slaughter and Anthony Garnet clected vestrymen. In 1760, an addition ordered to the
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Little Fork Church, thirty-two by twenty-two feet. William Williams vestryman in 1761. In the year 1763, William Ball ves- tryman in place of James Pendleton, deceased. Henry Field, Jr., in place of Henry Field, Sen., resigned. In the year 1764, the Rev. Mr. Thompson obtained leave to build a gallery in the church (that nearest Germanna) for the use of his family and friends. In the year 1766, Samuel Clayton vestryman in place of Philip Clayton, resigned. In 1768, Buckrun Church enlarged. In the year 1770, . the old glebe sold to Samuel Henning, and Mr. Henning allowed to build a pew in the gallery of Buckrun Church. Cadwallader Slaughter chosen vestryman, and John Green in place of William Green, deceased. In the same year new glebe of three hundred acres bought of Francis Slaughter for one hundred and ninety-nine pounds and ten thousand-weight of tobacco.ยช In 1771, Philip Pendleton ap- pointed clerk of the vestry in place of William Peyton, deceased. He was also lay reader, as two others of the name had been, and others have been since elsewhere. In the same year French Strother and John Gray vestrymen, in place of Goodrich Lightfoot, resigned, and Henry Field, removed. Another addition to the Little Fork Church of the same dimensions with the last. In 1772, a glebe-house ordered, forty-eight feet long by thirty-two,-eight rooms,-for thirty-five thousand nine hundred weight of tobacco. In the midst of these preparations for the comfortable entertainment of the Rev. Mr. Thompson, his labours were ended by death, after a ministry of thirty- two years of uninterrupted harmony with his parishioners, and of la- borious duty in a most extensive parish. Judging from the number of churches and chapels, and their frequent enlargement, and the benches we read of as placed at the doors, he must have been a most acceptable minister. His is one case added to a number which might be adduced, from the vestry-books, in proof that where the minister is faithful to his duty the people do not wish to exchange him. Some few exceptions doubtless there were. Of so exemplary a man as Mr. Thompson the reader will desire to know as much as can be furnished. Mr. Thompson was from Scotland, and took the degree of Master of Arts in the University of Edinburgh. On the 28th of October, 1739, he received Deacons' Orders in Duke Street Chapel, in the parish of Westminster, from the hands of Nicholas, the Bishop of St. David's. On the 4th of November of the same year, he received Priests' Orders from the same Bishop in the Chapel of St. James, within the palace royal of St. James of Westminster. On the following year we find him settled as minister in St. Mark's parish, where he continued until his death,-
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knowing, as a minister, one only love. On the 9th of November, 1742, he married the widow of Governor Spottswood, who was one of his parishioners and living at Germanna. By this marriage he had two children, Ann Thompson, who was born at Germanna, in 1744, and married Mr. Francis Thornton, of Fall Hill, near Fredericksburg, at the early age of fifteen years, eight months. The other is Mr. William Thompson, of whom I have as yet received no certain information. In the year 1760, Mr. Thompson mar- ried a second wife, Miss Elizabeth Roots, by whom he had three children,-Mildred Thompson, John Thompson, and Philip Roots Thompson. The last married the daughter of old Mr. R. Slaugh- ter, one of the vestrymen of that name in St. Mark's parish, and moved many years since to Kanawha, where his descendants for the last forty years have formed a little congregation of zealous Episcopalians.
But although Mr. Thompson was so good and amiable a man, and, as tradition informs us, one of the most imposing of men in his person, he did not easily succeed in securing his first wife, in con- sequence of the family pride of the children, which objected to the union of the widow of Governor Spottswood with a minister of the Gospel. Such was the opposition that, after an engagement, she begged to be released. This caused the following letter, which all must agree is a masterpiece of its kind. Its effect has already been told in the fact of their marriage in a few months. An entire reconciliation of all parties, however, was not effected until many years after, by the intervention of the Rev. Robert Rose, the friend and executor of Governor Spottswood, as I have said elsewhere.
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