USA > Virginia > The planting of the Presbyterian Church in Northern Virginia : prior to the organization of Winchester Presbytery, December 4, 1794 > Part 13
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He was a strong man both in the pulpit and in the courts of the church,
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and everywhere a bold and able advocate and defender of the Presbyterian polity and faith. He was a ready and convincing speaker. In debate his vigorous mind acted with great promptness. His voice was strong, his enunciation clear, and under excitement his action was vehement. A fellow Presbyter writes of him, that " in argument he excelled all men in his Pres- bytery, and in strength of style and expression he had no superior. His sermons-never dull-were often overpowering. The ablest men in the community that listened to him, and most of them did, felt that, in point of intellect and information, he was their peer" (Foote, II, 315).
His appearance and manner in the pulpit, and the matter of his dis- course made him an impressive preacher even to children. A venerable lady, the widow of the late Giles Cook, sr., still living in Front Royal at a very advanced age, often attended his ministry in her childhood, and dis- tinctly remembers some of the texts from which he preached, and even some of the striking expressions in his sermons and the hymns he gave out. He was a man of devout spirit and deep piety, having a most humble esti- mate of himself and a constant sense of his dependence upon God. Singu- larly free from ambition, he devoted himself chiefly to missionary work, and after a life of great usefulness he calmly died February 1, 1848, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, and in the fifty-seventh of his ministry. He was buried in Warrenton, Va.
Mr. Williamson was married three times: first, December 21, 1792, to the widow Furman, the accomplished daughter of Colonel Stevens, of New- town, Frederick County, Va., who died December 4, 1793, leaving an infant daughter who survived the mother less than two years. His second mar- riage, December 8, 1795, was with Miss Rebecca Allen, daughter of Col. William Allen, one of the most wealthy and influential of the South River congregation. She was the mother of three children, only one of whom reached maturity, viz: Dr. Philip Doddridge Williamson, a physician of Front Royal, and a man of remarkably exemplary and lovely character. His third wife was Miss Sara North Newton Moss, of Upperville, Fauquier County, Va., by whom he had nine children, seven sons and two daugh- ters. She survived him fourteen years, dying in 1862. One daughter by this marriage, Miss Catherine Williamson, of Warrenton, Va., still survives him.
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XXV. NORTHUMBERLAND AND LANCASTER.
The fact is probably known to but few now living, that there were once flourishing Presbyterian churches in the extreme eastern point of the Northern Neck of Virginia. These churches were in the counties of North- umberland and Lancaster, both of which counties are washed on the east by the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. It is possible, also, that there were churches of our faith, as it is certain there was frequent Presbyterian preaching in the two counties just above these, viz: Richmond and West- moreland. Of the planting of these churches, and of their earliest history, we have no certain information. It has been suggested that they had their origin in the faithfulness and zeal of John Organ, a pious schoolmaster from Scotland, who had made his home somewhere in the Northern Neck, and who, according to a reliable tradition, introduced the worship of the Pres- byterian church in the region in which he taught, and even secured for a time the services of so distinguished a minister as Rev. James Anderson, formerly pastor in the city of New York. But as neither the precise time of Mr. Organ's labors in Virginia nor the place of his residence is known, his relation to the churches of which we are now treating cannot be posi- tively affirmed. It is probable he did not take up his residence there earlier than 1730.
Our first definite knowledge of any Presbyterian interest in the lower Northern Neck goes no further back than January, 1757; and for almost all the knowledge we have, we are indebted partly to the Records of Han- over Presbytery, and partly to a fragment, that has been preserved, of a Journal kept by Col. James Gordon, of Lancaster County. Colonel Gor- don emigrated, with his brother John, from Newey, Ireland, sometime before 1740. They settled on opposite sides of the Rappahannock River; James in Lancaster County and John in Middlesex. Both were intelligent and enterprising shipping merchants, and each attained to large wealth and influence. Their descendants are numerous, and some of them highly dis- tinguished, both in Virginia and elsewhere. These men were devoted Presbyterians, and the character and lives of the established clergy in the region where they settled, constrained them, in the interest of vital religion, to secure for their families and others the form of worship in which they had been reared. The services of Presbyterian ministers were obtained, and in spite of many difficulties, and in the face of obloquy and persecution, the Presbyterian Church was finally set up and maintained for more than a hundred years.
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That churches were organized in both these counties is very certain, and probably in Richmond and Westmoreland also, but as our information touching the history and work of the respective churches is not definite enough to enable us to say what properly belongs to one, and what to an- other, we must be satisfied to treat them as one field-always remembering that the church at Lancaster C. H. was the largest and most important in the group.
When these churches first come to our notice, it is evident that they had already been established for some time and one or more of them had attained to considerable strength. The first mention of either of them is for April 27, 1757. Hanover Presbytery receives "an importunate appli- cation from persons in and around Richmond County," and appointed Rev. Samuel Davies to preach there in June. In July of the same year a similar application came from Northumberland and Lancaster and Mr. Samuel Davies was sent to spend several weeks in the Northern Neck. The next year (1758) Rev. Henry Patillo was directed to spend several Sabbaths there in April and also in June and July. Mr. Davies was ap- pointed to preach there again in the Fall of 1758, and also to hold a sacra- mental meeting the next March. And so from meeting to meeting of Presbytery, applications are made from these four counties, and supplies are sent, until the Fall of 1762, when the Rev. James Waddel was settled as pastor and remained until 1778.
The entries in Col. Gordon's Journal begin January, 1759, and end December 31, 1763, and are most interesting and instructive as exhibiting the zeal of the people and the growth of the church. We find that they were favored repeatedly with the ministerial services of such men as Samuel Davies, John Todd, the Messrs. Martin, Hunt, Kilpatrick, Henry, and that distinguished patriot, Rev. James Caldwell, who was afterwards barbarous- ly murdered in New Jersey; in fact, every minister of Hanover Presbytery preached with more or less frequency to these people.
Equally interesting are the names of the families composing these churches, some of them among the most honored and influential. in the colony, such as Selden, Carter, Watson, Robertson, Mitchell, Belvard, Shackelford, Wright, Morris, Criswell, Graftemead, Glasscock, Flood, Chichester, Thornton, Gordon, and others. Many of these gentlemen could be relied on to conduct worship when a minister could not be secured. Such entries as these are frequent in Col. Gordon's Journal, "Sunday, May 3, 1761. This day Col. Selden read a sermon in the meeting house and John Mitchell prayed." Again, "Mr. Criswell read a sermon and prayed at the meeting house," and so repeatedly.
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Not a few indications are found that piety in the household was care- fully cultivated. We meet with this entry, e. g. "Sunday, January 31, 1762. At home with my family. Molly said all the Shorter Catechism. James, fifty-six of the Larger, and Mollie Herring one hundred and six."
As giving some clue to the numerical strength of these churches we are told that at the celebration of the Lord's Supper, in one of them (supposedly the one!at Lancaster Court House), there were present March 25, 1759, besides the visitors, 54 communicants; at another time 53, not counting the visitors ; again "20 new communicants and 50 old ones ;" again, "about 70 black and white, though the day was rainy." Again "the communion was administered to 90 white and 23 black communicants," and still later (September 11, 1763), "to about 115 white and 35 black."
The meetings in Northumberland were first held in a store-room owned by Col. Gordon, but in 1761 a commodious meeting house was erected, to the building of which the Lancaster church freely contributed.
It is almost a regular entry, that when proper notice was given and the weather was not unfavorable, the congregations which gathered at these services were very large. When the meeting was held at a private house the attendance often was greater than the house could hold.
In June, 1762, we are told, "a lottery was drawn for the advantage of the congregation, and in a satisfactory manner," for which the good colonel adds, "Blessed be God."
February 27, 1763, the following gentlemen were elected Ruling Elders in the Lancaster church, viz: Mr. Chichester, Thomas Carter, Dale Carter, John Mitchell, Col. Selden and Col. Gordon.
The planting of our church in Eastern Virginia was effected under conditions vastly different from those which prevailed west of the Blue Ridge. In the Valley ours was, to a large extent, the pioneer church. There were no hostile interests from which serious opposition was to be en- countered. But in the tide-water region the case was altogether different. There the English church was established by law, and "dissent" in what- ever form was frowned upon and opposed. In some places it was inter- dicted altogether. The restrictions under which at last it was allowed to have an existence were severe and humiliating, and it required strong con- victions and no little courage, to endure the persecution and ridicule to which all dissenters were subjected. The Presbyterians in the Northern Neck felt the full force of this opposition. Their attempt to introduce dis- senting worship, where the Established church claimed exclusive jurisdic- tion, was openly resisted. And from the first they were subjected to a
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bitter persecution, both of violence and contempt. The Gordons and a few others of kindred spirit met this with a resolution born of faith in God. But there were many whose courage failed in the hour of trial. While the effort, to establish a church at Northumberland, was still an experiment, Col. Gordon returned from a meeting there and made this entry in his Journal, "went to meeting today, a pretty large company of common peo- ple and negroes, but very few gentlemen. The gentlemen who were inclined to come are afraid of being laughed at. Mr. Minzie [the rector ] endeavors to make it such a scandalous thing." When his own church was closed Col. Gordon and his family were accustomed to attend the English church, but once he makes this entry, "Sunday. At home with my wife and family where I have much more comfort than going to church, hearing the minis- ters ridicule the dissenters." Though a man of even temper and courteous speech, he once under their coarse and abusive treatment of himself and friends, is provoked to write, "they behaved like blackguards." Every- thing possible was done to prevent the success of the Presbyterian church. The business interests of its members were interfered with. Threatening and scurrilous letters were written by the clergy to the preachers who ven- tured within their parishes. Sermons were largely taken up with the abuse of those dissenting from the Established Church. Evangelical religion was ridiculed as bigotry and fanaticism. Farces were written and played in caricature of Presbyterianism. Under such difficulties and discourage- ments it is a wonder that our church survived; yet its growth was steady and even rapid.
Though served for many years by supplies from Hanover Presbytery or by missionaries, these churches made frequent and earnest efforts to se- cure a pastor for themselves whom they were well able to support. These efforts, however, failed until in 1762, Licentiate James Waddel was induced to settle among them, and under his wise and able' ministry they entered upon a new era of prosperity, though the persecutions to which they had been subjected in no wise ceased.
Mr. Waddel, "The Blind Preacher," whom Mr. Wirt in the British Spy has immortalized, was born at Newry, in the north of Ireland, in July, 1739. In his infancy he was brought to America by his parents, who set- tled on White Clay Creek, Pa. His mother was a devotedly pious Pres- byterian. An injury to his left hand, received in his boyhood, which dis- qualified him for manual labor, decided his father to give him a liberal education. This he obtained largely at the Academy at Nottingham, Md., taught by Dr. Samuel Finley, afterward President of Nassau Hall. Such 1
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was his proficiency, especially in the classics, that at an early age he was made an assistant in the school. Here he was admitted to the commun- ion of the church. Resolved to devote himself to teaching, he set out to find a settlement in the South. In Hanover County, Va., he met Rev. Samuel Davies, by whom he was persuaded to change his plans and. devote himself to the ministry. He entered at once upon his theolog- ical studies under direction of Rev. John Todd, of Louisa County, and was licensed by Hanover Presbytery at Tinkling Spring, April 2, 1761. In October of the next year he was settled over the churches in the counties of Lancaster and Northumberland, and was ordained in Prince Edward June 16, 1763.
When this settlement was made, Mr. Waddel looked upon it as only a temporary arrangement. Both his convictions and his inclinations were in favor of a field of labor in Pennsylvania. But such were the spiritual destitutions of the region, and such the hospitality, intelligence and piety of the people among whom he labored that his reluctance to making his permanent home in the Northern Neck was soon overcome. His people found in him everything they could desire in a minister and treated him with every mark of affectionate regard. About the year 1768 he was united in marriage to Mary, daughter of his elder, Col. James Gordon, who shortly afterward established him in a new and commodious house on the Curratoman River. It soon became evident, however, that his health would not endure that malarial climate. He suffered each year from an attack of intermittent fever, and often preached when he was hardly able to stand. This, together with the ravages of war, to which the location of his home made him peculiarly exposed, led him, in the early years of the war, to ask his Presbytery to release him from his pastoral charge.
As soon as his unsettled condition became known, calls for his serv- ices reached him from many fields. And the fact is of special interest to us, that the congregations of Opecquon and Cedar Creek, in whose bounds Colonel Gordon owned valuable lands, sent up an earnest call for him as early as April 14, 1774, which he declined. A call two years later from Tinkling Spring was finally accepted, and in 1778 he removed his fam- ily to that place. Seven years afterwards, in 1785, he returned to East- ern Virginia and made his home near Gordonsville, where the remainder of his life was spent, part of which was passed in total blindness. Rev. William Williamson, who was his intimate friend, tells us in his diary, that on a visit to him early in 1795 he found his sight seriously impaired, and in the summer of that year it was entirely gone. His loss of sight, how-
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ever, did not keep him from the pulpit, and he continued to preach until his last protracted illness, which ended in his death of Christian triumph, September 17, 1805.
In 1792 the degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on Mr. Wad- del by Dickinson College at Carlisle, Pa.
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It was in the early ministry of Dr. Waddel, viz : in the late summer of 1763, that George Whitefield made his celebrated visit to the Northern Neck, staying there for more than a week and preaching to crowded houses. But while his preaching made a profound impression and many were added to the churches, we are somewhat surprised to learn that the more intelligent people of these congregations were not carried away with his eloquence as they were everywhere else. They admired his fervent zeal, but did not hesitate to declare their preference for that style of preaching to which they had become accustomed under the ministry of Samuel Davies and James Waddel. Indeed, we learn, in connection with this visit that this great preacher was not without some great faults. Among the most conspicuous was his inordinate self-appreciation. In his letters, writ- ten to Mr. Waddel after his visit, he does not conceal his high estimate of himself as a chosen instrument for the spread of the Gospel. In his account of the wonderful results of his preaching he annexes to almost every sen- tence several notes of admiration. ( ! ! ! ) These, however, are only flies in the ointment of the apothecary. He was sound in his theology and eminently scriptural in his preaching. Whatever defects may have been found in his Calvinism in his early ministry, it, at last, was such as to satisfy even Toplady, who pronounced him "a sound divine."
Of Mr. Waddel's eloquence as a preacher nothing more need be writ- ten after Mr. Wirt's famous sketch of his sermon in the meeting-house in the woods, with which every reader is presumed to be familiar. Among his contemporaries whose judgment is entitled to weight, he was looked upon as without a superior in the pulpit. Patrick Henry was accustomed to say that Davies and Waddel were the greatest orators he ever heard. Gov. James Barbour, of Virginia, declared that Mr. Waddel surpassed all orators he ever knew. His brother Phillip Barbour, and many others, held the same opinion. It has sometimes been asked if the accomplished author of the British Spy did not avail himself of the license of fiction in his sketch'of the sermon he heard ? But Mr. Wirt himself is on record as saying, that "so far from adding colors to the picture of Dr. Waddel's eloquence, he had fallen below the truth," and declared that "though his oratory was of a different species, it was fully equal to that of Patrick
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Henry." It was the opinion, however, of Dr. A. Alexander (who married his daughter) that "the preaching of Dr. Waddel, which was so greatly admired by the intelligent and refined, did not equally attract and move the illiterate and ignorant. Often such would prefer hearing the unedu- cated declaimer."
It is with sadness we record that these churches, once so flourishing, are now extinct. After the removal of Mr. Waddel to the Valley of the Shenandoah and the death of Col. Gordon they visibly declined and finally were pretty much absorbed by the Baptists, the prevailing denomination in that part of the Northern Neck. The decline of these churches was due largely to the fact that the estates of our people, lying near the two navi- gable rivers and the bay, were peculiarly exposed to the ravages of British vessels during the War of the Revolution. The property of the wealthy Presbyterian planters and merchants was carried away and their families were reduced from affluence to poverty. After the organization of Win- chester Presbytery supplies were sent regularly to Lancaster and North- umberland for fifty years or until our churches there had entirely ceased to exist.
The congregations, whose early history we have here been trying to trace, embrace all within our Presbyterial bounds, to which, according to official records, missionaries or supplies were sent, and over some of which pastors were settled prior to December 4, 1794. Doubtless there were other places at which supplies sometimes preached, or at which pastors may have had stated appointments, as e. g. Strasburg, Woodstock, Powell's Fort, etc., where as we learn from the diary of Mr. Williamson, he and Mr. Legrand, and perhaps others, occasionally preached. But this was not by Presbyterial appointment and up to the time of the organiza- tion of Winchester Presbytery, these places had not developed sufficient ecclesiastical importance to entitle them to special notice in this history nor are they mentioned in the Presbyterial Records.
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And now that we have reached the period of our Presbyterial organi- zation, let us take a hasty survey of the field committed to the oversight of this new judicatory. In this survey we will find that-
Presbyterianism made greater advances in the Valley than in Eastern Virginia. In the whole of the Northern Neck there were now about thirty different congregations under the care and supervision of Presbytery. Less than one-third of these were on the east side of the Blue Ridge, and while four or five of these were regarded as organized churches, only one of them was in charge of a pastor, and that one (Alexander) had already been transferred to another Presbytery; while on the west side there were six settled ministers, who, whether regularly installed or not, practically sus- tained the relation of pastor to the churches they were serving.
And here it would be interesting to know in what manner and to what extent these early churches were organized. That they all were fully equipped as our "Book of Church Order" requires is very far from prob- able. It is much more likely that the greater part of them did not have such an organization as we would be willing now to recognize. Two or three congregations in Eastern Virginia and perhaps eight or nine in the Valley, may have been in a condition to meet the requirements of the present day, but, in many places the proper material for church officers was not at their command, and the people had to content themselves with such an organization as would enable them to secure public worship, with such Gospel ordinances as could be obtained. Our fathers meant to be Presbyterians pure and simple. Their preference for their own church was decided, but in the unsettled condition in which they found themselves, . they laid more stress on its doctrines and worship than on its polity. For doctrine they were especially zealous. If sometimes seemingly indifferent in reference to forms they were always very solicitous in reference to faith. They were valiant for the truth. The preaching of their ministers was carefully watched, and a stranger was sometimes subjected to a rigid ex- amination as to his orthodoxy, before he was admitted to their pulpit. Every man that preached to them must be a Calvinist of a pronounced type. His indulgence in wine-or in something stronger-might be over- looked; but for the slightest departure from the doctrines of the West- minster Confession there was no tolerance. As might be expected of such men, they were careful to have their children trained up in the strict faith of their fathers. And repeatedly, as we have seen, when a supply was asked for a vacant church, it was stipulated that one should be sent who
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would take time to give instruction, to both parents and children, in the catechisms of the church. In this zeal for an acquaintance with the Pres- byterian standards, the old Presbytery of Donegal, at least, was in full sympathy. When supplies were sent, they were specially charged, in many instances, to be diligent in catechising the people to whom they preached. But this method of doctrinal instruction was not left to preach- ers alone. Parents themselves were deeply solicitous that their children should be "brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Family religion was carefully cultivated; and as an important aid to this, the Sabbath recitation of the Catechism, both Larger and Shorter, was not neglected.
In our hurried review of the planting of our church in this region, we are made more and more sensible of our indebtedness to those sturdy immi- grants, who penetrated these solitudes, and laid here the foundations of that civilization, and wealth, and freedom which we now claim as our priceless heritage. We recognize, with gratitude, the foresight, and cour- age, and patience, and industry, they displayed, in the risks they ran, in the labors they expended, and in the sacrifices they endured, that they might reclaim the wilderness from the savage, and fit it for the abode of civilized man. But we would do them serious injustice, if we did not hold prominently in view that stalwart faith which kept them always mindful of their dependence upon God, and of their responsibility to Him. It was their simple, unfeigned piety, as humble followers of the Lord Jesus, that led them to erect a church wherever they settled; and to build for God, . wherever they built for themselves. His cause was as dear to them as their lives, and the ordinances of His House as necessary to them as their daily bread.
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