USA > Virginia > Sketches of Virginia : historical and biographical > Part 69
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One sacrament day at Weymouth, which occurred in my child- hood, will be remembered as long as one of those blackened stones stands upon another - as long, indeed, as lasts that sanctuary not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For some time previous there had been an extraordinary degree of religious interest in the village and surrounding country. Many had been inquiring the way of salvation, and not a few had found the pearl of great price. Prayer-meetings and special services had been held night after night. Religion was the great theme of conversation in the streets and in domestic circles. Hardly was there a house where one or more of its inmates had not been wrought upon by the Spirit's power. Spi- ritual songs, lively and stirring, or plaintive and heart-touching, were sung with zest and soul, and a pamphlet, containing a selection of them, was published for this special use. A dire and fatal epi- demic which had prevailed, carrying off numbers to their graves, and filling almost every home in the village with sorrow, had brought death and eternity near, and prepared the way for the impressions of the gracious work. Not a few of the subjects of the revival were awaiting the Weymouth sacrament, publicly to profess their new-born love. The session-house and the adjoining grove, on the morning of that memorable day, presented a scene over which angels might have rejoiced. Here is a fond-hearted mother, giving words of counsel to a daughter convulsed with grief because of the burden of sin; here is a venerable father, with a favorite son beside him under that great old oak, to whom he is making solemn appeals, not to let this favored season and this affecting day pass without making his peace with God; and here on the rude bench against the wall, sits our venerable pastor, with weeping eyes, listening to the delightful narrative of what God had just been doing for one of his flock, for whom he had so often prayed. Not a careless face was seen in all the throng which to-day has been drawn together in un- usual numbers, by the tidings of the revival.
Our minister preached the morning sermon. He was always evan- gelical, solemn, and impressive, and at times there was a sublime and majestic roll in his utterances, which marked him the great man all acknowledged him to be. But to-day there is a power, a vivid spreading out of eternal things - a directness and earnestness alto-
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gether peculiar. At times his voice would falter, as he almost choked with the swelling emotion. A divine afflatus had breathed upon his heart, and from its profound depths he spoke as a dying man to dying men. To this day that discourse is remembered by many who heard it, as one of the most remarkable efforts of a man whose ordinary sermons would have honored any pulpit. The scenes in which he had recently mingled, and the stories of broken hearts, troubled consciences, and heavenly hopes, which had been poured into his ear, had unsealed the great fountains of his soul.
The sermon well prepared the way for the communion ; and when the invitation was given to the young converts to assemble around the table spread before the pulpit in the cross aisle, there was a spectacle which moved every heart, and drew tears of joy from many an eye. Fathers, mothers, ministers, Christian friends at last saw the answer to their prayers. Those who had been dedicated to God in infancy, and re-dedicated a thousand times since in the closet, at the family altar, and at this very sacramental table, had now, after tedious years of waiting, which had almost sickened the heart with hope deferred, come forward to avouch Jesus as their new Lord and Master. The village beauty, the ere-while careless and wild young man, the sturdy bronze-faced mountain farmer, and the old veteran with the weight of years upon him, together left their seve- ral pews, and made their way through the crowded aisles for the first time to sit at this affecting festival. The scene was too much for some of them. Hearts would overflow, tears would fall, and, in the midst of the minister's address, as he spoke to them in touching terms, well suited to their present case, reminding them of what they had been by nature, of what grace had done for them in snatch- ing them as brands from the burning, and of the debt of gratitude and love they owed to Him who had shed his blood to save them, one young man sobbed aloud, overcome by his emotions. This touched a sympathetic cord in all hearts, and the old meeting-house became a Bochim - a place of tears -sweet tears of penitence, and a peace passing all understanding. The unconverted, who sat wondering spectators, felt the power of the eloquent appeal; they were cut to the heart, and resolved that they too must seek the Lord ; and many a pious saint, feeling that his cup of joy was full, was ready to say with old Simeon, "Now, Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."
One of the ministers, either on this or a similar occasion, at the same period, held up the sacramental cup, and asked, in language that went to every unconverted heart, "Can you, will you longer reject and trample on this precious blood, poured from the wounds of a dying Saviour ?" "I call God and this great assembly to wit- ness," said he, "that it is offered you afresh this day. Again dare to spurn it from your lips, and the record will be written against you on high, which, in the terrible day of God's coming judgment, will flame out to your astonishment and dismay in letters of fire." Not a few, who felt the power of that appeal, were soon after drink-
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ing of that cup, in memory of Him who had washed them from their sins, and given them a hope, through grace, of drinking it with him hereafter in his heavenly kingdom.
The many hours of the services, protracted by the numerous suc- cessive tables of communicants, and the afternoon sermon, passed swiftly on, no one heeding the lapse of time, until at last, when the great festival was ended, and the crowds turned into the various roads and by-ways to their several homes, the long shadows of ap- proaching evening were already spreading their sable mantle over mountain, field, and forest.
In all the history of old Weymouth meeting-house, that Sabbath and that sacrament day stand alone. Time and eternity must con- spire to do honour to a scene so hallowed by the presence and power of God's gracious Spirit. Years have passed since that memorable day. Some of those who shared its blessings have long since be- come ministers of the gospel, and valued officers and members in the household of faith. Some soon tired of the service upon which they had prematurely professed to enter, and turned back to the world, their last state being worse than the first; and others have died in the glorious hopes of the gospel, and are now in the company of the just made perfect, around the throne on high, blessing God and the Lamb for that old sacrament day at Weymouth.
CHAPTER XLV.
REV. CLEMENT READ.
WITHOUT the least intimation that the influence of Rev. Clement Read, as a minister of the gospel, was derived from any source but the grace of God, and the divine blessing on individual efforts, a short statement of family connexions will be given, on the authority of his son, embracing facts full of instruction for the philosophic observer of the progression of the human race, and evidences of the fulfilment of the promises of the gospel.
Colonel Clement Read, the grandfather of the preacher, was born in Virginia, in the year 1707, and was early bereft of his father. John Robinson, of Spottsylvania, became his guardian. This gen- tleman was appointed Trustee of William and Mary College, in 1729. He was President of the Council, and, on the departure of Governor Gooch for England, in 1749, became governor, and in a few days died. The education of young Read was superintended by Mr. Robinson, and completed at William and Mary College, Commissary Blair being president. In the year 1730, Mr. Read was married to Mary, the only daughter of William Hill, an officer in the British Navy, the second son of the Marquis of Lansdowne.
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This gentleman had been united in marriage to the only daughter of Governor Jennings, and took up his residence in that part of the Isle of Wight, one of the eight counties into which the province was divided, which was made a constituent part of the county of Bruns- wick in 1720. Soon after his marriage, Mr. Read went with Colonel Richard Randolph and Colonel Nicholas Edmonds on an exploring expedition, to locate land in that part of the county now known as Charlotte. Colonel Edmonds returned without purchasing ; Mr. Read and Colonel Randolph purchased largely ; Randolph on the Staunton, and Mr. Read about ten thousand acres, on the waters of Ash Camp, Dunivant, and Little Roanoke. Mr. Read removed to his purchase, and made his residence at Bushy Forest, about four miles south of the present village of Maryville. When the county of Lunenburg was set off, in 1746, its area extended from the line of the present Brunswick to the Blue Ridge, and from James' River to North Carolina. The early settlements of Presbyterians south of James' River, were in Lunenburg ; and, by a subsequent division in Amelia ; Colonel Clement Read became clerk of the county, and served seventeen years, keeping the office at his own house. He frequently served in the General Assembly of the State, and with men who become leaders in the Revolution. He was present when John Robinson, of King and Queen, moved the vote of thanks which so disconcerted Colonel Washington. He died January 2d, 1763, and was buried at Bushy Forest. His wife was laid by his side, November 11th, 1780, in her sixty-ninth year. She was a pious woman, and exemplary member of the Episcopal Church; their children, Isaac, Thomas, Clement, Margaret and Edmund.
Colonel Isaac Read, the father of the minister, resided at Bushy Forest. He married a daughter of Henry Embra, a representative of the county with Colonel Clement Read. He had three children, Clement, Priscilla, and Isaac. With his brother-in-law, Paul Car- rington, he represented the county, and was associated with Wash- ington, Jefferson, and Henry, in their patriotic movements. He received from Congress, in 1776, a commission as colonel of a Vir- ginia regiment. He immediately joined the army. In less than a year, he fell a victim to disease; and was with military honors laid in a vault, in Philadelphia, in the thirty-seventh year of his age. The family preserve a correspondence between him and General Washington.
Clement Read, the minister, was but six years old at the time of his father's death. His mother, in a few years, married Colonel Thomas Scott, who superintended the education of the children. Hampden Sidney College was chartered by the State in 1783: an academy had been in operation, under the direction of Presbytery, about eight years. Upon entering college, young Read could look over the trustees, and name Thomas Scott, his step-father ; Paul Car- rington, who had entered his grandfather's office when a youth, and had married his Aunt Margaret; Thomas Read, the County Clerk, his uncle ; William Cabel, who had married his cousin, a daughter
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of Paul Carrington ; Nathaniel Venable, had also married a cousin, a daughter of Paul Carrington. Two of his uncles, Thomas and Clement, had married each a sister of Judge Nash, a trustee; and President Smith had also married a sister of the Judge; and it may be mentioned, the mother of Nash Legrand, whose name is in the church, was also sister of Judge Nash. This Mr. Legrand, for his second wife, was married to Mrs. Paulina Read, widow of Colonel Edmund Read, a name mentioned with much kindness by Dr. Alex- ander, in his auto-biography. Mrs. Paulina Legrand, the widow of Colonel Edmund Read and Rev. Nash Legrand, was a firm friend of the College and the Union Theological Seminary, and the patroness of many young men, in preparation for the ministry. One of these, an associate of Clement Read in college, was Rev. William Hill, D. D.
The genealogy for the eighteenth century, of the Morton, Watkins, Venable, Allen, Womark, Smith, Spencer, Michaux, Wilson and Scott families, and many others that occupied Lunenburg, in its original boundaries, would offer to the philosophic observer of the human race subjects for profound reflection. Coming from different divisions of the European stock, mingling in society on the frontiers, amalgamating by marriage, moulded by the religious teachings of Robinson and Davies, and their associates and successors, they formed a state of society and morals, in which the excellences of the original constituent parts have all been preserved. The courtly manners of Williamsburg, the cheerfulness and ease of the Huguenots, the honest frankness and stern independence of the English country gentleman, the activity and shrewdness of the merchant, the sim- plicity of republican life - all have been combined. Removed from cities, and not densely crowded in neighborhoods, relieved from the drudgeries of common life, and stimulated to activity, to preserve a cheerful independence, the increasing population have improved the opportunities for moral, intellectual, and spiritual advancement, and pious examples, of excellence in manners, morals and religion, and domestic intercourse, worthy of remembrance and imitation. In the deficiency of these records, the main line of the Carrington family is all that can be presented.
A certain Paul Carrington and his wife, of the Heningham family, emigrated from Ireland to Barbadoes, and settled in Bridgetown. He died early in the eighteenth century, leaving a widow and a numerous family of young children. The youngest child, George, about the year 1727, came to Virginia with the family of Joseph Mayo, a Barbadoes merchant. Mr. Mayo purchased and occu- pied the ancient seat of Powhatan, near the falls of the James. Young Carrington lived some years with Mr. Mayo as his store- keeper. About 1732, he, in his twenty-first year, married Anne, the eldest daughter of William Mayo, brother of Joseph, who had settled in Goochland, she being in her twentieth year. They went to reside on Willis' Creek, now in the bounds of Cumberland County. They had eleven children : 1st. Paul, born March 5th, 1733, and
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died June 22d, 1818; 2d. William, November 17th, 1735, died an. infant; 3d. George, March 15th, 1737, died October 9th, 1784; 4th. William, December 22d, 1739, died August 20th, 1757; 5th. Joseph, February 6th, 1741, died April 4th, 1802; 6th. Nathaniel, February 8th, 1743, died November, 1803 ; 7th. Heningham, Decem- ber 4th, 1746, (married a Bernard,) died January 24th, 1810; 8th. Edward, February 11th, 1748, died October 28th, 1810; 9th. Hannah, March 28th, 1757, (married a Cabel,) mother of Judge William H. Cabel, died August 27th, 1817; 10th. Mayo, April 1st, 1753, died December 28th, 1805; 11th. Mary, January 9th, 1759, (married a Watkins,) died -. George Carrington and his wife, Anne, both died in February, 1785. From them sprung the numer- ous families of the Carringtons, in Virginia; and, in the female line, the descendants have been numerous. Their eldest child, Paul, was married to Margaret Read, daughter of Colonel Clement Read, of Lunenburg, now Charlotte, October 1st, 1755. Their children were - Mary, George, Anne, Clement, and Paul. Mrs. Carrington died May 1st, 1766, and left a memory of great virtues. Her youngest child, Paul, became Judge of the General Court of Vir- ginia, and died January 18th, 1816. Mr. Carrington was married the second time, in his fifty-eighth year, March 6th, 1792, to Miss Priscilla Sims. Their children were - Henry, (two died in infancy,) Letitia, Martha, and Robert. The services of Mr. Carrington in the Board of the College, and during the Revolutionary war, were becoming an honorable and high-minded man.
Clement Read, the minister, completed his course of study at Hampden Sidney College. As a resident graduate, he was present during the great awakening commencing in 1786, and united with Allen, and Hill, and Blythe, in the prayer-meeting pregnant with blessings. He had been carefully nurtured in good morals, polite intercourse, and the principles of Christian religion. His grand- mother was remarkable for her efforts to maintain religion in her family. She had been nurtured in the Episcopal church by Com- missary Blair ; and was a devout mother seeking the salvation of her household according to the direction of the church of her fathers. The Prayer-book and Bible were read in her family in morning and evening worship : and when necessary she officiated herself. Young Read grew up under religious influence in the Presbyterian form. From the time Davies preached at the house of Littlejoe Morton, and was blessed in numbering him and his wife as converts to Christ, and members of that part of the church of which he was minister, the Presbyterian form and creed prevailed extensively in Charlotte. The colonies of Presbyterians settled in Cub Creek and Buffalo, and the blessings on the labors of Mr. Henry and his successors, had made large congregations of Presbyterian worshippers in Lunen- burg, from the present Brunswick to the Blue Ridge. Many of Mr. Read's relations became members of the Presbyterian Church, and he grew up under its instructions. He professed his faith about
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REV. CLEMENT READ.
the same time that Hill and Allen made their profession. He at once devoted himself to the ministry of the gospel.
At a meeting of the Hanover Presbytery at Cumberland Meet- ing-House, Oct. 10th, 1788, Clement Read and Nash Legrand were received as candidates for the ministry. At a meeting at Buffalo, January 1789, the preparatory trials of Read and Legrand proceeded, and Cary Allen was taken as candidate. In the succeeding April, Legrand was licensed. In Bedford, Oct. 1789, Presbytery sus- pended any further preparatory steps for the licensure of Mr. Read. He had become interested with the Methodists, who were numerous in some neighborhoods, and their ministers very active and accept- able. They were yet considered as part of the Episcopal church, from which no separation had actually taken place, although the particular forms by which that church is characterized, were coming into notice. In finally separating from the Episcopal church a large body in Old Lunenburg formed a denomination called Republican Methodists, of which Mr. Read was for years a minister. He asso- ciated with these, and began preaching before he had finished his preparatory course under Presbytery. In this state of the case Presbytery, without passing any censure, suspended further attention to his case. In July, 1790, at Buffalo, Mr. Read had an interview with Presbytery particularly to exculpate himself from the charge of slandering President Smith, in saying that the President used his official influence to lead young men to the Presbyterian Church and ministry. Of this Mr. Smith complained : and of this charge Mr. Read desired to clear himself; and did satisfy Presbytery, that he was not guilty of impeaching the character of Mr. Smith. As Mr. Read was at that time connected with the Methodists, his name was removed from the list of candidates under the care of Presbytery. Mr. Read was ordained by the Republican Methodists, and was an aimable, devout, and earnest preacher, respected and beloved by all that loved the gospel.
In March, 1789, Mr. Read was married to Clarissa, daughter of Col. Thomas Edmunds, of Brunswick. She was. his companion through life, and bore him thirteen children, six of whom were sons. These claim some mixture of Indian blood in their veins, derived through their mother from Pocahontas, of world-wide fame. The descent is thus. Pocahontas left an only child, Thomas Rolfe; he left an only daughter, who became the wife of Robert Bolling ; she left one son, John Bolling; he had a number of daughters; one of them married Richard Randolph, the ancestor of the orator, John Randolph, of Roanoke, another Mr. Thomas Eldridge. Colonel Edmunds married a daughter of Mrs. Eldridge, and Mr. Read a daughter of Mrs. Edmunds. So that Mrs. Read's great-grand- father, John Bolling, was great-grandchild of the Princess Poca- hontas. Hundreds of families may now claim descent from John Bolling, and some mixture of blood of Pocahontas. Mrs. Read was born in December, 1772, and died in June, 1845.
In the first year of the nineteenth century an effort was made to 37
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REV. CLEMENT READ.
promote unity of feeling and action among Christians in the bounds of ancient Lunenburg, and the account given of it by the Rev. Drury Lacy is probably all the record that remains. Under date of January 22d, 1802, Mount Ararat, Prince Edward County, Vir- ginia, he says : - " On Christmas day about ten Baptist preachers, an equal number of Methodists, and six Presbyterian ministers, met at Bedford Court-House, in this State. The object of this meeting was to discourse freely together on the subject of our differences, and to see if we could not adopt some terms for living more friendly than . ยท we have done, and even to commune together. I have not a minute of the proceedings, but will relate the substance of what we did, as well as I can, from memory. It was mutually agreed that the min- isters of the different denominations should exercise all good offices towards each other, and preach in each other's pulpits as occasion might serve, where it would not interfere with a previous appoint- ment ; and that it should be esteemed unfriendly for the minister of one denomination to refuse the use of his pulpit to the minister of another, unless when the congregation was opposed. It was further agreed that the members of the respective societies might commune with the churches of the other denominations, where they found a freedom to do so; and that such should not be called to an account by the respective societies to which they belonged, as if guilty of any breach of regularity. That the members of different denominations should watch over each other in brotherly love; and in cases where offences should be committed, by a member of one communion, known to a member of another, which required the discipline of the church, that the society to which the offender belonged should be informed, and the party aggrieved be admitted to state the parti- culars of the offence. That the minister of one denomination should receive the members of another to communion, upon their producing a certificate of their good standing in their own society, or upon receiving satisfaction of the same in any other method. That if a member of one denomination wished to become a member of another, the latter should not receive him, unless he produced a certificate that he was free from censure in the society to which he formerly belonged. It was further agreed, that each Presbytery among us would admit two Baptists and two Methodists to sit with us as cor- respondents ; that each association of the Baptists would admit two Presbyterian and two Methodist ministers ; and that each Conference of the Methodists would admit two Presbyterian and two Baptist ministers as correspondents, upon such producing certificates of their appointment, properly attested. It was finally resolved to submit our proceedings to the consideration of the Presbyteries, Associations and Conferences to which we belonged."
Under date of May 17th, 1802, he writes - " You have already been informed of a meeting which took place last Christmas at Bed- ford Court-House. Since that time, greater harmony and brotherly love have been apparent among the different denominations. They frequently preach together, and seem much stirred up to promote
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the common cause of religion, and the interests of the Redeemer's kingdom. But as the proposed plan of union has not yet been dis- cussed by the respective church judicatories, to which it was referred, it is impossible to say what will be the result of that business. However, whether that be adopted or rejected, I am happy to inform you that the attention to religion which was excited at that meeting has continued to increase. It has spread upwards of twenty miles ; and there have been pleasing prospects in more distant places, when- ever the ministers have found an opportunity to preach from home."
Upon mature reflection it became evident to all, that external union could, at that time, be more closely cemented only by amal- gamation. The Baptists were not prepared to throw off their pecu- liarities ; and it became a question with the Republican Methodist's whether they would retain their separate organization or unite with one of the other denominations ; and if a union was to be attempted, to which denomination should the proposition be made. At a meet- ing of the Presbytery at Hampden Sidney, April, 1804, Rev. Messrs. John Robinson and Clement Read appeared as a committee of the Republican Methodists to confer with the Presbytery "on the subject of an union, which it appeared their constituents anx- iously desired to form with the Presbyterian Church." A committee of conference was appointed, consisting of Messrs. Lacy, Alexander, and Lyle, with power "to adopt such measures respecting the union contemplated, as to them may appear eligible, and to make their report to Presbytery at their next meeting." In September, at Cub Creek, immediately after the ordination of J. H. Rice, the committee made report of having had a conference with a committee of the Republican Methodist Church, "but that committee, wishing for an opportunity to confer with their church upon some important points relative to the subject, before a decision was made, the business was postponed until they should have an opportunity of conversing with, and consulting their people. But since that time no communication had been received from the Republican Methodist Church on the sub- ject." No further communications passed. In 1809 a called meet- ing of Presbytery was held on the 28th and 29th days of September, at Briery, to consider the application of Rev. Clement Read to be received as a member of Presbytery. After a full and free confer- ence, and consideration of the testimonials of his ordination, and of his character and standing with his brethren, and Mr. Read "having adopted the constitution of our church," the Presbytery received him as a member, and gave him the right hand of fellow- ship. In 1822, the Rev. Messrs. Henderson Lee, John Davidson, Samuel Armstead, and Matthew W. Jackson, ministers of the Re- publican Methodist Church, met the Presbytery at Charlotte Court- House, and, "having adopted the Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian Church, and answered the questions put to candidates, were received and took their seats as members of Presbytery." By this act the Republican Methodist Church, as a body, in that part of Virginia, became extinct.
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