USA > Virginia > City of Virginia Beach > City of Virginia Beach > The colonial vestry book of Lynnhaven Parish, Princess Anne County, Virginia, 1723-1786 > Part 2
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The stone tablet set in the west end wall of the existing Old Donation Church is therefore incorrect in giving the date of its construction as 1694. The same error appears on the state historical marker at the cross-road leading to the church, which states that Donation Church was "first built before 1694", unless this was meant to refer to the second Lynnhaven Church, on an adjacent site.
It does not appear, however, that the name "Donation Church" was ever ap- plied to the second church, or even that it was applied to the third church during the colonial period, for the first published use of the name, in connection with the present building, seems to have been as late as 1822, when the vestry ordered "the Church called the Donation Church" to be put in repair. The name undoubtedly origin-
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Donation Church in 1736, as originally arranged: Nº
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Donation Church in 1776, at end of colonial era:
Assignment of Great Pews By the Vestry: 1. The Magistrates; 2.Their Wives; 3. The family of the Thorowgoods, as their Privilege for the gift of the Glebe; 4. The Elder women of good repute and Magistrates' daughters; 5. Vestrymen and their wives; 6. Such women as the Wardens shall think fitt to place therein; 7. The family and Name of the Walkes, as a Benefit for gifts and Services; 8. The family of the Moseleys. The Hanging Pews granted unto: 9.Kempe; 10. Lyon ; 11.Robinson; 12.Hoggard. ·SGM-49.
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HISTORY OF COLONIAL LYNNHAVEN PARISH
ated from the gift to the parish of adjoining lands, still known as Donation Farm, by the parish's last colonial rector, the Rev. Robert Dickson, at his death in 1776, for the endowment of a free school for orphan boys.22
One of the most interesting features of the Donation Church's original in- terior arrangement must have been the hanging pews or private galleries built for the family use of wealthy parishioners, at their own expense. These were especially auth- orized by the vestry and left lasting traces of their presence in the form of small ventilating windows of odd size and shape, high up in the side walls of the church. These little windows are a distinctive feature of Donation Church, not to be found in any other surviving colonial church building in Virginia.
The varying heights of these ventilation openings, which also served to light the private galleries, indicate that the rear hanging pew on each side of the church extended across the tops of the two last regular side windows, adjoining the main gallery, while the front hanging pew, on the north and south sides alike, was placed lower down, between the two middle windows. Access to both sets of hanging pews must have been by steps leading up from the main gallery and down from the rear pew to the front one. A similar hanging pew had been erected by Captain Hillary Mose- ley over the chancel doorway of the old second church in 1724, for his family's use. The name "hanging pew" was derived from the fact that these little side galleries were literally suspended from the beams above by iron tie-rods, probably of square section and decoratively twisted.
A drastic change in Old Donation's original arrangement was made in 1767, when a private great pew was built by Colonel Edward Hack Moseley, Jr., on the south side of the communion table. Since all the Lynnhaven churches and chapels followed the ancient practice of having the south doorway open directly into the chancel, it was necessary that the pulpit, originally placed on the south side between this door- way and the first great pew, should be moved to a position directly opposite on the north side, to permit the chancel doorway to be shifted clear of the new Moseley pew. Another change of about the same period was the bricking-up of the middle window in the east end wall, to make room for an altar-piece.
In colonial times, when counties were often of vast extent and the parish frequently included the whole county, as it did in Princess Anne, it was recognized as a hardship on the outlying settlers to require them to attend the parish church, for roads were bad and travel was difficult. For their benefit, smaller local chur- ches were built, known as "chapels of ease", at which services were held by the par- ish minister, whenever possible, and prayers and a sermon were read on Sunday by the
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VESTRY BOOK OF LYNNHAVEN PARISH
clerk of the chapel, at other times. Lynnhaven Parish was no exception to this rule, and early records of both county and parish refer to chapels in various sections of the county remote from the parish church.
Perhaps the earliest chapel of Lynnhaven Parish may have been the same building which served originally as the parish church of the long-vanished parish of Southern Shore, already mentioned as probably named for its location on the southern shore of the Eastern Branch of Elizabeth River.
The existence of an early church in this vicinity is strongly suggested by a grant of 1649 to Richard Whitehurst for 300 acres of land, on the south side of the Eastern Branch of Elizabeth River and bounded easterly on "the Church Creek".23 An earlier grant of 1637 for this same land locates it five or six miles up the Eastern Branch, <4 and even though the Church Creek is not mentioned in the 1637 grant, this proves that it must have been the second stream east of Indian River. It is mentioned in the land grants that this creek's western bank was marshy, as it is to this day, therefore the church probably stood on the point east of the stream.
In this connection it may be stated that out of scores of references in colonial records to a Church Creek, Church Swamp, Church Point, etc., not one has yet failed to prove a reliable indicator of the former presence of a colonial church building, many of them long-vanished and otherwise unknown.
It is apparent from the bounds set for Lynnhaven Parish by the Act of 1642, that the site of this Southern Shore Parish Church fell within Lynnhaven's limits, which extended beyond the Church Creek to Indian River on the south side of the Eas- tern Branch. The continued existence of a church at this point is substantiated by the appointment in 1647 of a churchwarden for the Eastern Branch, in addition to the two regularly elected for the parish of Lynnhaven, <> since the appointment of a church- warden presupposes the existence of a church building. It is believed that this pio- neer Southern Shore Church became the first chapel of ease for Lynnhaven Parish, under the name of the Eastern Branch Chapel.
The above hypothesis of the location of Southern Shore Parish and Church is supported by a Lower Norfolk County court record of 1640, showing that an Episcopal minister, the Reverend Robert Powis, had been receiving tithes from residents of the southern shore of the Eastern Branch, although the Reverend John Wilson had been min- ister of Elizabeth River at the time and therefore entitled to all tithes from that parish.26
The county records also reveal that Parson Powis had become the minister of Lynnhaven Parish by 1645,27 and after four years of volunteer ministry to the inhab- itants of Elizabeth River Parish, then vacant, he was inducted as minister for the
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entire Lower Norfolk County in 1648.28 A county tax list of 1645, giving the total number of tithables in Elizabeth River and Lynnhaven Parishes as exactly equal to the number in the entire county, proves that Southern Shore Parish had ceased to exist by that date. .. 29
It appears that Powis was one of the free-lance ministers typical of the earliest period of colonial settlement, who had been trying to build up a following and a parish for himself, but gave up the effort when he was rewarded by the rector- ship of the entire county.
The next earliest chapel of Lynnhaven Parish appears to have been the suc- cessor of this ancient Southern Shore Church, since it was erected on the north side of the Eastern Branch, nearly opposite to the old Church Creek, in 1661. It is first mentioned in a court order of that year for Lower Norfolk County, entering judgment by jury in "The Difference between Mr. Adam Thorowgood plaintiff and Henry Snaile defendant concerninge buylding a church".30 Snaile was charged with being so slow about erecting this chapel that some of its timbers had become too rotten for use, and he was ordered to "goe forward with the worke hee hath begun" and complete the building.
This early chapel is further mentioned in the will of William Handcocke of the Eastern Branch of Elizabeth River, dated 4th April, 1687, leaving to his three sons, Simon, William and Samuel, lands adjoining the chapel on the east side of Hos- kins' Creek, a tributary of the Eastern Branch.31 A deed dated October, 1700, to the land next to this church, describes it as the chapel for the Eastern Branch precinct of Lynnhaven Parish, and shows that it was still standing in that year. 32
This second Eastern Branch Chapel stood close to the site where, in 1697, there was established New Town, one of those transitory villages, typical of colonial times in Virginia, which flourished for a while and then passed away like a dream, leaving no trace behind except a few old bricks turned up by the plow. New Town's span of life was barely a century, but during this time it rose to the dignity of a port of entry, with a custom-house and British garrison; here was located the fourth county court-house, from 1758 to 1778; and here the people of Norfolk took refuge when Dunmore shelled their town and burned it in 1776. The complete absence of fur- ther reference to the last Eastern Branch Chapel, in county records and vestry book, indicates that it probably disappeared soon after New Town village was established.
The only colonial vestry book of Lynnhaven Parish, that has survived, opens in 1723 with salary levies for the clerks of the brick church and two chapels. The brick church mentioned is obviously the second Lynnhaven Church of 1692, near the ferry, and the chapels are identified in later entries as the upper and lower chapels
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of the parish. It is apparent that these chapels were so called from their respective locations in the upper and lower precincts of the Eastern Shore of Lynnhaven. Vestry orders of 1724 and 1725 for the repair of these two buildings name them as Machipongo Chapel and the Eastern Shore Chapel, and there is ample evidence that the first-named structure, later known simply as Pungo Chapel, was the upper chapel of the parish and that the Eastern Shore Chapel was the lower one.
The earliest-known record of the first Eastern Shore Chapel is found in a Lower Norfolk County court order of 17th September, 1689, for the construction of a frame court-house "on Edward Cooper's Land nigh the Chapell of Ease in the Eastern Shore of Linhaven".33 Repeated allusions to "the chapell" as a boundary feature for lands near Linkhorn Bay, "on the Eastern Shore of Linhaven", in deeds made between 1693 and 1723, 34 prove that this first Eastern Shore Chapel stood near the southern end of Great Neck, at the head of Wolfsnare Creek. These boundary references mention "the great branch that comes up to the chappell" and "the main road leading from Wolfes Snare to the chappell and the eastern shore water mill".
The compass bearings given for these boundaries identify "the great branch" as the north fork of Wolfsnare Creek and the roads as the existing highways adjacent to it. This proves that this first chapel and court-house stood about two miles north of the existing third Eastern Shore Chapel, on the west side of the same highway and in line with Wolfsnare Creek.
In addition to its close connection with the adjacent first Princess Anne County Court-house, this early chapel had another interesting historical association with what may have been the first Presbyterian church in Virginia. This pioneer Pres- byterian meeting-house also stood on Edward Cooper's plantation at Great Neck and was registered in 1693 as a place of worship for dissenters from the Established Church. Services in this building, which apparently stood near the first Eastern Shore Chapel and court-house, were held by the Reverend Josias Mackie, a Presbyterian minister who had been dismissed as rector of Elizabeth River Parish in 1692, because of his non- conformist practices . 35 Mackie also had a meeting-house on the Eastern Branch in 1693.
An order for the projected repair of this first Eastern Shore Chapel was cancelled by the vestry in 1724, and they resolved instead, on the 4th August in that year, "that a good, Commodious Chapel be built on the Eastern Shore, fifty foot in Length, twenty five foot in breadth, framed work". A subsequent order of 3rd November, 1726, placing the contract for this new frame chapel, shows that its construction was not actually undertaken until that date. This second Eastern Shore Chapel stood on part of the Cornick family's Salisbury Plains plantation, about two miles south of the site of the first chapel of that name.
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The present Eastern Shore Chapel, second church on this site.
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Communion silver service of the Eastern Shore Chapel, with date letter for 1759. According to local tradition, this silver was buried under a henhouse in the Civil War, to protect it from Federal raiders.
The Anthony Fentress house, built before 1772 and for many years the home of W. G. Eaton, looking toward site of the second and third Pungo Chapels, which stood on the east side of the Pungo Ridge road, opposite this house.
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The building of the third Eastern Shore Chapel, which still exists, on the site of the second one, was ordered by the vestry on Ist October, 1753, when it was "Resolved ... That at or near adjoining the place where the present Eastern Shore Chapel now stands is a fit and Convenient place to Erect a New Chapel & that the same be there Erected". The new chapel was specified to be of brick, "Fifty five foot long, Twenty five wide in the Clear ... the walls ... eighteen feet in height". Further details are given in the vestry book.
In keeping with its character as a simple chapel of ease, the present Eas- tern Shore Chapel is built of common brick in the usual Flemish bond, but without glazed headers, and it is a foot longer than specified. Above the west doorway there is inset a square brick tile, inscribed with the initials of the builder, Joseph Mit- chel, and the date 1754, while the vestry book records its acceptance on the 12th March, 1754.
In connection with these dates, it must be remembered that the old-style dating of records, to suit a legal year ending on the 24th of March, had been abol- ished in 1752. It nevertheless seems certain that it was still followed in this case, since the vestry-book entry for 12th March, 1754, quoted above, follows the minutes of the vestry meeting of 11th October, 1754, instead of preceding them. Furthermore, it is extremely unlikely that any colonial brick church, even if only a simple chapel of ease, would have been completed in six months. The third Eastern Shore Chapel was therefore actually completed in the year 1755.
The chapel originally had a gallery twelve feet wide in its west end, but this was extended along the entire north side of the building, soon after its com- pletion, and adjoining it on the south side was a hanging pew erected by Captain William Keeling in 1765. The colonial pulpit must also have been on the south side, or it would have prevented the extension of the north gallery.
Machipongo Chapel, the first Upper Chapel of the parish, was still in ser- vice at the opening of the vestry book in 1723, and was evidently a simple frame build- ing, without a brick foundation, since a parish levy of 1733 includes payment "for putting blocks under the upper Chapel". This chapel's long Indian name was soon shor- tened to Pungo, with that of the surrounding region, for which it had been named.
This pioneer chapel is believed to have been the one mentioned in the lit- tle-known journal of Philip Ludwell and Nathaniel Harrison, the Virginia commission- ers for running the dividing line between Virginia and North Carolina in 1710.26 Ac- cording to their journal, the commissioners rode over Pocaty Swamp bridge to the west side of North River (now North Landing River), which they crossed where it was a half mile wide, probably at the present Mundens. After spending the night at Burgess's, they
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The Third Eastern Shore Chapel, as built originally in 1755.
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The Third Eastern Shore Chapel, as aftered in 1761-1765.
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VESTRY BOOK OF LYNNHAVEN PARISH
"rode six miles to the Chappell, which was a very wretched one" and "passed by", five miles further, to Captain Francis Moss's [Morse's] plantation, near the present Morse's Point. Their estimated distances are clearly exaggerated and their direction of travel unstated but, since they were on their way to meet the North Carolina commissioners at Knott's Island, this chapel must have been located somewhere on the peninsula between the present North Landing River and Back Bay, possibly in the vicinity of the present Creeds Post Office.
Since this peninsula forms the lower end of Pungo Ridge, it seems certain that this was the first Pungo Chapel of Lynnhaven Parish. Its erection in this remote section of the county at such an early date may be traced to an historic endowment which also caused the erection of early parish chapels in Nansemond and Isle of Wight Counties.37
This endowment was in the form of 200 acres of land given in 1692 by a pious philanthropist, Captain Hugh Campbell, for the support of a reader in each of three places remote from church facilities, and the donor also contributed a Bible for each reader's use in holding services. These three places were Somerton in Nansemond Coun- ty, Blackwater River in Isle of Wight County, and the North River in what had been Lower Norfolk County and is now Princess Anne.
This first Upper Chapel at Pungo was replaced by a new brick chapel, on a different and more suitable site, its erection having been started in 1739 by James James and finished in 1743 by another contractor, after James' death. The second Pungo Chapel was fifty by twenty-five feet in size, within the walls, which were fif- teen feet high. It was built on the plantation of William Dyer, who was paid for sinking a well at the chapel and later served as its sexton, his widow and then his son succeeding him after his death.
As there were three successive Lynnhaven Parish Churches and three Eastern Shore Chapels, so we find it recorded that there were also three chapels at Pungo. Although the site of the first Pungo Chapel is not exactly known, the third chapel is recorded as having been built on a one-acre site directly adjoining its predecessor. These last two chapels stood about two and a half miles south of the present Pungo vil- lage, on the east side of the Pungo Ridge road and directly opposite the former home of W. G. Eaton, part of which is believed to have been built by Anthony Fentress before 1770.33 The chapel was built on an acre of Fentress's land, which was purchased by the vestry, and in accordance with the usual custom, he was appointed sexton of the chapel.
The new building was ordered in 1772 and was completed in 1774 by the con- tractor, Hardress Waller. Its inside dimensions were seventy-five feet by thirty feet by twenty feet high, and it was by far the largest of all the colonial churches
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of Lynnhaven Parish, being ten feet longer and five feet higher than the Donation Church. This was the Pungo Chapel which survived the colonial period and was still standing shortly before the Civil War, but was later demolished at an unknown date. Of all the eleven colonial churches and chapels of Lynnhaven Parish, only two survive: the Old Donation Church and the Eastern Shore Chapel. According to the vestry book, the parish had no regular minister from the outbreak of the Revolution · until 1785, when the Protestant Episcopal Church of Virginia took the place of the disestablished Church of England. During this interval, the church and chapels were much neglected and they were not put back into repair until 1822-24. After this, the general decline of religion in Virginia left the parish again without a rector of its own, for most of the time.
A reorganization took place in 1842, under the Reverend John G. Hull, and a year later, the former Emmanuel Church was built at Kempsville as the fourth parish church of Lynnhaven. Following the new church's completion, Old Donation was abandoned for general worship and no further services were held there for almost three quarters of a century. After forty years of disuse, its decaying woodwork was completely burned out in 1882 by a woods fire and it became a roofless ruin, with large trees growing up inside its broken walls.
Old Donation was repaired and replaced in service in 1916 as an Episcopal church, and has been in use ever since, although its old position as the parish church was not regained. Its rebuilding was in no sense an exact restoration, since no re- gard was paid to its original colonial arrangement and appearance, either within or without. The first Emmanuel Church of 1843 was completely destroyed by fire on 12th October, 1943, after almost exactly a century of service, and was rebuilt in 1947.
The present Eastern Shore Chapel seems to have been kept in regular service until the Civil War, during which it suffered the usual desecration by use as an army stable, its interior being badly wrecked. It was replaced in service in 1866, repaired in 1872, and about 1886 its damaged interior trim, with the exception of pews and gal- lery, was largely replaced. The existing pewsappear to date from 1840, when a paro- chial report to the council by its rector states that the "whole interior, excepting the gallery," was then "replaced with new materials neatly wrought". The chapel is still in active use as the parish church of East Lynnhaven Parish.
For a more complete and detailed account of Lynnhaven Parish and its colonial churches, the reader is referred to the Editor's book "Colonial Churches of Tidewater Virginia", Volume I, pages 128 to 150, inclusive.
A list of the colonial rectors and vestrymen of Lynnhaven Parish, so far as known, is given as an appendix to this volume.
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FOOTNOTES FOR "HISTORY OF COLONIAL LYNNHAVEN PARISH"
1Kingsbury, Records of Virginia Company of London, III, 100.
2Hening, Statutes at Large, I, 224. 3Robinson, Virginia Counties, 198. 4Hening, Statutes at Large, III, 95. 5Lower Norfolk County Minutes, 1637-46, A, 10. Ibid., 1637-46, A, 42.
7Hening, Statutes at Large, I, 250. 8Lower Norfolk County Minutes, 1637-46, A, 287. 9Hening, Statutes at Large, III, 128.
10Lower Norfolk County Minutes, 1637-46, A, 1.
11 Ibid., 1637-46, A, 2.
12 Ibid., 1637-46, A, 3.
13White, Gleanings in Princess Anne History, 6. 14Forrest, Historical Sketches of Norfolk, 457. 15See Augustin Herrman's map of Virginia, 1673. 16Princess Anne County Deeds, 1691-1708. 1, 195.
17Princess Anne County Deeds, 1691-1708, I, 68.
18Princess Anne County Orders, 1691-1709, 1, 87. 19Lower Norfolk County Deeds, 1686-95, XV, 146. 20Princess Anne County Orders, 1691-1709, I, 119. 21Princess Anne County Deeds, 1724-35, IV, 311. 22Meade, Old Churches and Families of Virginia, I, 249.
23Nugent, Pioneers and Cavaliers, I, 188.
24g Ibid., I, 57. 25 Lower Norfolk County Wills, Deeds, 1646-51, B, 36a. 26Lower Norfolk County Minutes, 1637-46, A, 39.
27Ibid., 1637-46, A, 312.
28Lower Norfolk County Wills, Deeds, B, 85.
29Lower Norfolk County Minutes, 1637-46, A, 287. 30Lower Norfolk County Deeds, Wills, 1666-75, V, fol. 8. 31Lower Norfolk County Deeds, Wills, 1666-75, V, fol. 23.
32Princess Anne County Deeds, 1691-1708, I, 292. 33 Lower Norfolk County Deeds, 1686-95, XV, 146.
34Princess Anne County Deeds, 1691-1708, I, 349.
35William and Mary Quarterly (1), II, 179.
36Virginia Historical Magazine, V, 10.
37Lower Norfolk Antiquary, I, 65.
38Kellam, Old Houses in Princess Anne, 155.
1
THE VESTRY BOOK OF LYNNHAVEN PARISH Princess Anne County, Virginia: 1723-1786
[1] Linhaven? Parrish
At a Vestery held the 20th of November 1723
Mr: James Tenant minister Major Maximilian Boush C: warden
( Coll: Edward Moseley Capt: John Moseley
Present { Capt: Henry Chapman Charles Sayer Vestrymen
Mr: William Ellegood Capt: Francis Land
The . . Parish . . is . . Debter li. Tobo.
To the reverend mr: James Tenant Convenient 16000
To Mr: James Nimmo clk of the Church & one Chappel 1500
Parish }
Leavy
To Mrs: Margret Moseley for keepin an orphan girl 12 months 1200
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