A history and record of the Protestant Episcopal church in the diocese of West Virginia, Part 40

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Mr. Abraham Shepherd, and its enlargement to the generous donation of eight hundred dollars by his pious widow; and the erection of the fourth to the gift of three thousand dol- lars by one of his sons, while other members of the family, and the parishioners generally, have not been wanting in their contributions. To an excellent parsonage for the min- ister they also contributed; but the holy woman, the aged mother. excelled them and all others,-contributing not less than one thousand dollars to it. From the year 1813 to the time of her death, in 1852, when she had reached her ninety- second year, I knew her well. It was good to hear her speak from the abundance of her heart on the subject which inter- ested her most. Out of the Bible first, and then out of the writings of Hervey, Newton and others of the evangelical school of the Church of England, she drew her views of doc- trinal and practical piety. It so happened that several of those ministers under whose teachings she sat were of that class, having for a time been followers of Lady Huntingdon, Wesley and Whitefield, but who drew back from their path when they were about to turn aside from the old way of the Church of England. She was most faithful in the use of all the means appointed of God in His Church for "the perfect- ing of His saints,"-in prayer, private and public, in the par- ticipation of the Lord's Supper, in the strict observance of the Lord's Day, in fasting and alms, in simplicity and cheap- ness of apparel, in self-denial that she might have to give to the poor and good objects. She was conscientious even to scrupulousness. Her sons delighted in fine cattle, and, at great expense and with great care, became possessed of some of the finest in the land, and sold the young ones at high prices. She has often told me that she could not be recon- ciled to their asking and receiving such enormous prices for poor little lambs and calves; aud she took care to be in no way partakers with them. Much more might I say, but pre- fer directing my reader to the excellent and just picture of

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her character given in a funeral-sermon by the Rev. Mr. Andrews, her minister.

Having thus referred to the first establishment of the Church at Shepherdstown, I proceed to notice its next set- tlement in the parish of Norbourne, at Charlestown, in what is now Jefferson county. It took its name from Mr. Charles Washington,-one of the brothers of General Washington,- who settled on some of the fine land taken up or purchased by the latter during the period when he was public surveyor. His house still stands in the suburbs of the village. Others of the family soon moved to this neighbourhood, and for the last forty years have formed a considerable portion of the flourishing congregation now surrounding the county-seat of Jefferson. The venerable walls of an Episcopal church, built of stone, in the form of a T, are still to be seen a short dis- tance from Charlestown. Various conjectures have been of- fered as to the age of this house. I have recently made par- ticular inquiry on the spot, of some of the oldest inhabitants, and have no doubt that it was erected soon after the division of the parish from Frederick, in 1769, and not many years before the war. As Washington had large possessions in this neighbourhood, and was often there, none can doubt but that he was a contributor to its erection and had often worshipped within its walls. Under the ministry of the Rev. Mr. Allen, · a new brick church was erected on the site of the present one. That becoming too small to hold the congregation, another, much larger and more expensive, was put up under the min- istry of the Rev. Mr. Jones. Scarcely was it consecrated and begun to be used, before it was consumed by fire, owing to some negligance or defect about the furnace. To the praise of the congregation be it recorded, a third was immediately erected on the same spot, which now stands, and I hope will long stand, a monument of what may be done by zeal and enterprise.

As to the ministers who officiated in Norbourne parish at an early date, we have but little information. From a list

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of ministers licensed for the Plantations by the Bishops of London in 1745 and onward. I find that the Rev. Daniel Stur- ges was licensed for Norbourne parish, in 1771,-two years after its separation from Frederick,-and tradition speaks well of him. In 1786. he was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Veasy, of whom a venerable old lady in Charlestown-Mrs. Brown- speaks as a man who faithfully performed his duty in preaching and catechizing, as she was the subject of both. He was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Wilson, of whom I can learn nothing. In the year 1795, the Rev. Bernard Page was minister. Of him I have often heard old Mrs. Shepherd speak as one of the evangelical school .- deeply pious, zealous, and far beyond the ministerial standard of that day. He had been previously an assistant minister to the Rev. Bryan Fair- fax, in Christ Church, Alexandria. From Shepherdstown he went to the lower part of Virginia, but soon died from the effects of the climate. Mr. Page was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Heath, who was minister in 1800, and died in the parish. Mr. Heath was a follower of Mr. Wesley, and came over to this country under his auspices, to preside over a female in- stitution in Maryland, as appears by a letter to him from Mr. Wesley, which I have seen. He, i presume, like many others, refused to separate from the Episcopal Church when the se- cession took place. The Rev. Emanuel Wilmer succeeded him, and was in the parish about the years 1806 and 1807. The Rev. Mr. Price had been occasionally preaching in this parish, especially at Martinsburg and Shepherdstown, when I first visited them about the year 1812 or 1813.

Having treated of the churches about Shepherdstown and Charlestown, and the ministrations in Norbourne parish gen- erally, I shall now give an account of the churches in Mar- tinsburg and the vicinity, with some notice of certain laymen whose names are worthy of a place in these sketches. The first church built at Martinsburg, and which stood in the suburbs of the town, was erected chiefly at the cost and under the superintendence of Mr. Philip Pendleton .- father

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of the present Mr. P. Pendleton, of that place. He was a zealous Churchman, and, so far as we know and believe, a good Christian. He had a brother,-Mr. William Pendleton, -who lived some miles off, and who, for a number of years during the almost entire destitution of ministers, acted as a lay reader in Martinsburg and at the church in Hedgesville,- the latter having been built chiefly by himself and Mr. Ra- leigh Colston. Of the latter we have already spoken as ves- tryman near the old chapel in Frederick. The families of Hedges, Coxes and Robinsons also took part in it. As it is a part of our plan to introduce brief notices of some of the old families of the Church, and as there is mention of the name of Pendleton, a name belonging to so many true friends of the Episcopal Church of Virginia and elsewhere, we shall de- vote a short space to a notice of the family. That notice shall be chiefly taken from a brief autobiography of Judge Pendleton, President of the Court of Appeals, and from a genealogy by the same,-both executed not long before his death. From these we learn that about the year 1674 there came from England to Virginia two brothers .- Nathaniel, a minister, and Philip, a teacher. The former died without is- sne. The latter left three sons and four daughters. The two younger sons married and had children, but of them there is no certain account. The four daughters married Messrs. Clay- ton, Vass, Taylor and Thomas, -- leaving numerous descen- dants. The eldest son married, at the age of eighteen, Mary Taylor, who was only thirteen Their sons were James, Philip, Nathaniel and Edmund,-the latter being the Presi- dent of the Court of Appeals. Their daughters were Isabella and Mary, who married William and James Gaines, from one of whom the late General Gaines was descended. The sons all married and left children, except Edmund, the Judge, who first married Miss Roy, having one child, who died, and next Miss Pollard, who had none, and who lived to the age of ninety. The descendants of the above mentioned grand- children of the first Pendleton have intermarried with the

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Taylors, Pollards, Roys, Gaineses, Lewises, Pages, Nelsons, Harts, Richards, Taliaferos, Turners, Shepherds, Carters, Kemps, Palmers, Dandridges, Cooks and others unknown to me, and who now exist in thousands throughout Virginia and elsewhere. I shall only particularize the line of those above- mentioned in the parish of Berkeley. Nathaniel Pendleton- grandson of the first of the name and brother of Judge Pen- dleton-lived in Culpepper and had four sons,-Henry, Na- thaniel, William and Philip. Henry was put in business in Falmouth, or Fredericksburg, but, not liking it, and his father not consenting to its relinquishment, ran away and became a great man in South Carolina,-having the Pendle- ton district of that State called by his name. Nathaniel stud- ied law,-went first to Georgia, then to New York, where he became the intimate friend of General Hamilton, and was the father of the late member of Congress from Cincinnati. Wil- liam was the faithful lay reader in Berkeley, whose son fol- lowed his example, and whose grandson is the Rev. William H. Pendleton, of Virginia. Philip-the last of the four sons- was the father of the present Philip Pendleton, of Martins- burg, and the late Edmund Pendleton, of Maryland, and of Mrs. Cook and Dandridge. The Rev. William N. Pendleton, of Virginia, belongs to a different branch of the same family, -his mother being the daughter of Colonel Hugh Nelson. of Yorktown. It would be inexcusable in me not to record something more particular of one member of this large and respectable family,-viz .: Mr. Edmund Pendleton, President of the Court of Appeals. He was born in Caroline county, and brought up in the clerk's office of that county. At an early age he was clerk of the vestry, and the little which he received for that office was spent in books, which he diligent- ly read. At twenty years of age he was licensed to practice law. In a few years we find him in the General Court. He was in the House of Burgesses in the beginning of the war,- taking a leading part in all its incipient steps. He was also in the first Congress. After this, and until his death, he was

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Judge and President of the Court of Appeals. Thus he says, (in that brief autobiography from which I have taken the above). "Without any classical education, without patrimony, without what is called the influence of family connection, and without solicitation, I have attained the highest offices of my country." His following words deserve to be written in let- ters of gold :- "I have often contemplated it as a rare and extraordinary instance, and pathetically exclaimed, Not unto me, not unto me, O Lord, but unio Thy name, be the praise! " I cannot refrain from adding the following words, written by himself, in the year 1801, at the bottom of a genealogical tree of the family drawn by his own hand :- "I have never had curiosity (or, more properly, pride) enough to search the Her- ald's Office or otherwise inquire into the antiquity of my family in England, though I have always supposed the two brothers who came here were what they call there of a good family, fallen to decay,-since they were well educated, and came the one as a minister, the other as a schoolmaster: how- ever, I have had pleasure in hearing uniformly that my grand- father and his immediate descendants were very respectable for their piety and moral virtue,-a character preserved in the family to a degree scarcely to be expected in one so nul- merous. My mother was among the best of women, and her family highly respectable." The elevation to which Judge Pendleton attained by diligence and moral worth,-the latter resulting from true piety,-without the advantages of birth, education, and fortune, affords great encouragement to the young men of our land to imitate his noble example. He did not despise such advantages, but he considered the blessing of God on honest industry and the having of moral and religi- ous ancestors as infinitely better. He did not, in a proud spirit, boast of his own achievements, saying,-

"Nam genus et proavos, et Quae non feeimus ipsi, Vix ea nostra voco."-

but humbly ascribed all merit and success to God.

Of a renowned and wealthy ancestry we have no reason to

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be proud: for a pious one we ought to be thankful to God; for He has promised His mercy to thousands descended from such. To be descended from a Lord Nelson or a George IV., a Cromwell or a Bonaparte, with all their honours and offices, while their characters were stained with crimes of deepest dye, is not to be coveted; but to be descended from such vir- tuous and religious patriots as were some of those who achieved the independence of America, is a lawful gratifica- tion, though we have no reason to be proud of or to value our- selves on account of that. If at any time we are tempted to think highly of ourselves at the thought of worthy ancestors, it would be well to remember that, by going a little further back, we may find ourselves in company with some of the most ignoble and base of the human family. We should, in- deed, ever bear in mind that all of us must trace our origin to two most notorious transgressors who were driven into exile from one of the richest and most beautiful lands on earth. Such exiles are we, their descendants, to this day, before that God with whom not only a thousand days, but a thousand generations, are but as one.

Having said thus much of a family two of whose members -Mr. William Pendleton and his son-contributed so much as lay readers to the sustaining the Church at Hedgesville, I should be inexcusable not to make some record of the charac- ter and services of one of the most honest and upright speci- mens of humanity, in the person of Colonel Edward Colston, in the same neighbourhood, who also was a most efficient lay reader, as well as promoter of every good work in the parish and in the diocese. Whether we view him as a member of the parish, of the diocese, or General Convention, or the State Legislature, or Congress, as husband, father, master, neigh- hour, or friend, he was the same open, manly, consistent per- son. You always knew where to find him on every question. As was said by one of General Hamilton, "he carried his heart in his hand, and every one might see it." Though through life often pressed in his pecuniary affairs,-but this no fault

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of his own,-he made a conscience of setting apart a due por- tion to the cause of religion and charity. On one occasion, when he had lost a most valuable mill by fire, before I could condole with him on the event, he enclosed to me a share of bank-stock worth seventy-five dollars, requesting me to apply it to some good object, and saying that perhaps he had with- holden something which was due to other objects besides his family, and God had taken away from him a portion of what was put in his hands as a steward, considering him unworthy of the trust. I may also appeal to all his neighbours, if in his intercourse with them he did not display the same sim- plicity and friendliness which so remarkably characterized his uncle, Judge Marshall, and his venerable mother, who was a softened image of that uncle both in person and character. I might also speak of other worthy persons in that interest- ing parish among the Robinsons, Hedges and Coxes, who con- tributed after a time to build the present larger church at Hedgesville, and one not far off on Back Creek; but I must hasten to the more particular mention of one in whom they are all deeply interested, as having been even more than an ordinary minister to their fathers and mothers.

Article LXXIV. from Bishop Meade's book. Norbourne Parish, Berkeley County-No. 2.

In a previous article I spoke of Morgan's Chapel, in old Frederick county and parish, and of Morgan Morgan as lay reader there and elsewhere. The site of that chapel is near the dividing-line between Frederick and Berkeley, and the family of Morgans has always been round about it. The foun- dation of the old chapel may still be seen in the graveyard, though two churches have since been built within a few paces of it. The following family sketch is taken from a pamphlet published many years since by the Rev. Benjamin Allen, and is so much better than anything from my pen, that I shall make no apology for borrowing it :-

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Morgan Morgan.

"It is but justice to departed piety to hold up to the view of survivors its beauty and its value. Affection to the living also prompts us to depict the character of the Christian dead, in order that their holy examples may light others the way to happiness and peace. Actuated by these motives, we pre- sent our readers with an obituary of Morgan Morgan, a man by many of them respected and beloved already. Colonel Morgan Morgan, the father of him we propose to notice, was a native of Wales, whence he emigrated in early life to the then Province of Pennsylvania. There he married, and there his first son was born, in the year of our Lord 1715. Thence, about the year 1726, he removed to Virginia, to the place where his descendants now reside in the county of Berkeley. He there erected the first cabin built on the Virginia side of the Potomac, between the Blue Ridge and the North Moun- tains. Of course the country was a wilderness, the dwelling- place of bears, wolves and Indians. But in this wilderness did he find the God of the Christians present, for here, in the spirit of the patriarchs, did he wait upon Him, and here did he experience His providential care.

"In or about the year 1740, he-associated, as we are in- formed, with Dr. John Briscoe and Mr. - Hite-erected the first Episcopal Church in the valley, at what is now called Mill Creek, or Bunker's Hill. In that building he had the satisfaction of seeing his son, Morgan Morgan, (who was born to him March 20, 1737), perform the service of the Church as lay reader at the early age of sixteen. With the religious education of this son he appears to have taken peculiar care. He took him with him in his usual visits to the sick and dy- ing. At seventeen, he induced him to act as clerk to the Rev. Mr. Meldrum, then rector of the parish at Winchester. He lived a pattern of piety and good citizenship until the ad- vanced age of seventy-eight, when, under the roof of his son Morgan, he breathed his spirit into the hands of his Creator. The close of his life was spent in close communion with his

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God, in fitting himself for the change at hand, and in im- pressing the precious Gospel on the minds of his descen- dants. When on the bed of death, so anxious was he for the pious walk of his children, that he thus expressed himself :-- 'I hoped I should have lived to see Morgan's children old enough to say their catechism and read the Word of God; but I must depart.' One of his expressions, uttered with the greatest humility, was, 'Lord Jesus, open the gates of heaven and let me in.' He fell asleep in that Jesus, leaving on the countenance of death the smile of the triumphant soul. He died the 1st of November, 1766.

"The mantle of the father was caught by the son. Morgan Morgan, the subject of our present notice, lived also a pat- tern of piety. He served his fellow-citizens in various public capacities. He officiated as clerk for the successive rectors of the parish, and as lay reader when there was no rector. He was the friend of the needy, and the comforter of the afflicted. Was any one sick with so contagious a disorder that their neighbours fled from them with alarm, Morgan Morgan was ready to attend their house of suffering, and to watch over their bed. In public ministrations, he officiated chiefly in his immediate neighbourhood, until within a few years of the close of his life, when, in consequence of the destitute state of the country generally, he was often called far from home to perform the religious duties proper for a layman. At length, from the frequency of those calls, he gave himself entirely to the work of a labourer in the vineyard. While the Church to which he belonged exists in this land his labours. will be remembered with gratitude. In a dark day, when desolation and death seemed brooding over her interests, he commenced a career of active exertion, which revived the at- tachment of her friends and kept her from descending to the dust. Though encumbered with the weight of years, and but a layman, he, by constant exhortation and incessant labours of love, through the blessing of God, impressed the minds of many of the young with the truths of the Gospel, and revived

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the spirit of piety generally in the land. Through Jefferson and Berkeley, and part of Frederick, Hampshire and Mary- land his labours extended. He visited alike the mansions of the rich and the cottages of the poor,-everywhere acting in the spirit of a crucified Master. To the prosperous he was the messenger of warning,-to the afflicted, of consolation. Many are there now living, who can testify to his faithful- ness; many are there, we trust, in heaven, who have hailed him as their spiritual father. His course through this coun- try may be traced by the fruits of his labour,-fruits that still arise to call him blessed. He died, as he had lived, in the faith of his Redeemer. He was buried at the Mill Creek Church, which was named, after him, Morgan's Chapel."

Mr. Morgan died in the year 1797. An excellent sermon was preached on the occasion by Dr. Balmaine, of Winches- ter. He does ample justice to his personal piety, his active zeal, and his evangelical views, as displayed in the sermons which he read. To the latter I can testify. I have a large number of the sermons which he used as lay reader, and have read not a few of them. They are faithful, and deeply ex- perimental. He has evidently compiled some of them from various authors, and adapted them to the occasions on which they were preached. By the notes on the outside leaf, they appear to have been preached at funerals, in private houses, on thanksgiving-days, on the first opening of Morgan's Chapel and other special subjects. Had all the sermons preached in Virginia, from its first settlement, been like these, and all the ministers and readers been like Morgan Morgan, the his- tory of the Church of Virginia would have been different from that which truth now requires it to be. So well calcu- lated was he for the ministry, and so esteemed by the people whom he served, that they united in a letter of recommenda- tion to some Bishop, (supposed to be Bishop Madison, not long before Mr. Morgan's death), begging that he might be ordained as their pastor, notwithstanding his deficiency in human learning. The paper lies before me, and is very strong

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in his praise. His age, infirmities, and the distance to be travelled, prevented his application. The effect of his exam- ple and ministrations has been felt to this day, where his services were more frequent, and are to be seen especially among his own descendants, who have been among the chief supporters of the church at Mill Creek, or Bunker's Hill. At my last visit there, a few months since, the congregation was called to mourn the sudden death of one of his grandsons, William G. Morgan, who had followed the pious example of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather. I mention. as one of the effects of Morgan Morgan's example and ex- hortations upon his descendants and neighbours, that when Mr. Allen first visited the neighbourhood he found no diffi- culty, though twenty years after the death of this good man, in raising a large catechetical class, among whom were fuil- grown young men and women, repeating the Church cate- chism and hearing it explained. This my eyes have seen, in a public tavern at Bunker's Hill, the old church being unfit for use.

Having thus brought the history of the ministers and churches of Norbourne parish to the time when, by God's blessing, a new order of things commenced, I now proceed to make mention of the chief instrument by which the revival was effected. On Christmas eve, in the year 1814, a little after dark, there entered into my house a gentleman who introduced himself to me as Mr. Allen, from New York, with letters of introduction from Bishop Moore and Dr. Wilmer. certifying that he was a candiate for Orders, and wished em- ployment in the valley as a lay-reader. Although the roads were in their worst condition, much rain having fallen, he had in two short days walked from Alexandria to my house. about sixty miles. Carrying hin with me to the Old Chapel the next day, we met with Mr. Beverley Whiting and his sis- ter, Miss Betsy, from Jefferson county, who had, as they and others near them afterward did, come about fifteen miles to church through bad roads. Into their hands I consigned Mr.

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A history and record of the Protestant Episcopal church in the diocese of West Virginia, Part 40

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