| | 1 | Author: | Meade
William
1789-1862 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia  | | | | Published: | 2006 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | "The earliest mention of a clergyman in the minutes of the vestry is
in 1753, when it was `ordered that two thousand pounds of tobacco be
paid to the Rev. Mr. Proctor, for services by him done and performed for
this parish.' And at the same meeting, `on motion of James Foulis,
for reasons appearing to this vestry, he is received and taken
minister of this parish.' The name of Mr. Foulis continues to appear
on the minutes of the vestry until 1759, when tradition relates that he
went away, nobody knew whither, and that he was not for a long time, if
ever afterward, heard from. In 1762 the Rev. Thomas Thompson officiated
a few months, and then resigned his charge, in consequence of his
age and the extent of the parish. The next spring the Rev. Alexander
Gordon, from Scotland, became rector of the parish, and continued to
officiate until the commencement of our Revolution, when, being disaffected
toward the new order of things, he retired, and spent his remaining days
near Petersburg. Some of his descendants are still remaining in the
parish, among whom are some of the brightest ornaments and chief supporters
of the Church. Of his own morals, however, and those of his
predecessor, (Foulis,) tradition does not speak in unmeasured terms. I have lately read your articles on
Lunenburg, Charlotte, Halifax, Prince Edward, &c with special interest,
as my early years were spent in the latter county, where my maternal relatives
reside, and who were connected with many families in the other
counties mentioned, by blood, or affinity, or religious sympathy. Your
papers embody much that I have often heard, with considerable additions.
Knowing that, while traversing this region, "Incedis per ignes, suppositos
cineri doloso," I must needs be curious to see how you would bear
yourself, and I cannot refrain from intimating my admiration of the spirit
in which you have handled a somewhat difficult theme. I will even add
something more in this connection,—reflections occasioned by your notices,
and which I must beg you to excuse, if at all trenching on propriety. "The case of thirty-two Protestant German families settled in Virginia
humbly showeth:—That twelve Protestant German families, consisting of
about fifty persons, arrived April 17th, in Virginia, and were therein
settled near the Rappahannock River. That in 1717 seventeen Protestant
German families, consisting of about fourscore persons, came and set
down near their countrymen. And many more, both German and Swiss
families, are likely to come there and settle likewise. That for the enjoyment
of the ministries of religion, there will be a necessity of building a
small church in the place of their settlement, and of maintaining a minister,
who shall catechize, read, and perform divine offices among them in
the German tongue, which is the only language they do yet understand.
That there went indeed with the first twelve German families one minister,
named Henry Hœger, a very sober, honest man, of about seventy-five
years of age; but he being likely to be past service in a short time, they
have empowered Mr. Jacob Christophe Zollicoffer, of St. Gall, in Switzerland,
to go into Europe and there to obtain, if possible, some contributions
from pious and charitable Christians toward the building of their church,
and bringing over with him a young German minister to assist the said Mr.
Hœger in the ministry of religion, and to succeed him when he shall
die; to get him ordained in England by the Right Rev. Lord-Bishop
of London, and to bring over with him the Liturgy of the Church of
England translated into High Dutch, which they are desirous to use
in the public worship. But this new settlement consisting of but mean
persons, being utterly unable of themselves both to build a church and
to make up a salary sufficient to maintain such assisting minister, they
humbly implore the countenance and encouragement of the Lord-Bishop
of London and others, the Lords, the Bishops, as also the Venerable
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, that they
would take their case under their pious consideration and grant their usual
allowance for the support of a minister, and, if it may be, to contribute
something toward the building of their church. By diligently perusing your letter, I perceive there is a
material argument, which I ought to have answered, upon which your
strongest objection against completing my happiness would seem to depend,
viz.: That you would incur ye censures of ye world for marrying a person of my
station and character. By which I understand that you think it a diminution
of your honour and ye dignity of your family to marry a person in ye station
of a clergyman. Now, if I can make it appear that ye ministerial office is
an employment in its nature ye most honourable, and in its effects ye most
beneficial to mankind, I hope your objections will immediately vanish, yt
you will keep me no longer in suspense and misery, but consummate my
happiness. For want of opportunity and leisure, I have delayed till now
answering your letter relative to your preaching in the Pine Stake Church.
When the vestry met I forgot to mention your request to them, as I promised
you, till it broke up. I then informed the members present what
you required of them; who, as the case was new and to them unprecedented,
thought it had better remain as it then stood, lest the members
of the church should be alarmed that their rights and privileges were in
danger of being unjustifiably disposed of Since I wrote you some days since, a
few items of interest in relation to this parish have come to my hands. A
single leaf, and that somewhat mutilated, of the old vestry-book of St.
Thomas parish, was found among the papers of one of my communicants
who died last week, and has since been handed to me. From this I am
able to ascertain who composed the vestry as far back as 1769. The
record states:—`At a vestry held for St. Thomas parish, at the glebe, on
Friday, the 1st day of September, 1769, present, Rev. Thomas Martin,
Eras. Taylor, James Madison, Alexander Waugh, Francis Moore, William
Bell, Rowland Thomas, Thomas Bell, Richard Barbour, William Moore'
The object of their meeting was to take into consideration the repairs
necessary to be made to the house and other buildings connected with the
glebe. I have endeavoured to obtain all the information to
be had respecting the old parish of Bloomfield,—embracing a section of
country now known as Madison and Rappahannock. What I have
gathered is from the recollections of the venerable Mrs. Sarah Lewis, now
in her eighty-second year. Mrs. Lewis is descended from the Pendletons
and Gaineses, of Culpepper, the Vauters, of Essex, and the Ruckers.
From her I learn that there were two churches,—the brick church, called
F. T., which stood near what is now known as the Slate Mills. It took
its name from being near the starting-point of a survey of land taken up
by Mr. Frank Thornton, who carved the initials of his name—F.T.—on an
oak-tree near a spring, where his lines commenced. The other church
was called South Church,—I presume from its relative situation, being
almost due south, and about sixteen miles distant, and four miles below
the present site of Madison Court-House. It was a frame building and
stood on the land of Richard Vauters. Both buildings were old at the
commencement of the Revolutionary War, and soon after, from causes
common to the old churches and parishes in Virginia, went into slow decay.
The first minister she recollects as officiating statedly in these churches
was a Mr. Iodell, (or Iredell,) who was the incumbent in 1790 or 1792.
He remained in the parish only a few years, when he was forced to leave
it in consequence of heavy charges of immorality. He was succeeded by
the Rev. Mr. O'Niel, an Irishman, who had charge of the parish for some
years, in connection with the Old Pine Stake and Orange Churches. He
was unmarried, and kept school near the Pine Stake Church, which stood
near to Raccoon Ford, in Orange county. Mr. John Conway, of Madison,
was a pupil of his, and relates some things which I may here mention, if
you are not already weary of the evil report of old ministers. He played
whist, and on one occasion lost a small piece of money, which the winner
put in his purse, and whenever he had occasion to make change (he was a
sheriff) would exhibit it, and refuse to part with it, because he had won it
from the parson. He also took his julep regularly, and, to the undoing of
one of his pupils, invited him to join him in the social glass. Still, he was
considered as a sober man. Mr. O'Niel left these churches about the year
1800. After that the Rev. Mr. Woodville occasionally performed services
there. After the parish became vacant, and the churches had gone to
decay, the Lutheran minister, a Mr. Carpenter, officiated at the baptisms,
marriages, and funerals of the Episcopal families. It was at the old
Lutheran Church, near the court-house, that some of our first political
men in Virginia, when candidates for Congress, held meetings and made
speeches on Sundays, after the religious services. The same was also done
in other places, under the sanction of Protestant ministers. Your letters, the one by Mrs. Carter, and the
other enclosing your amiable daughter's to that good lady, are both come
safe to hand, and you may rest assured that nothing could give my family
a greater pleasure than to hear and know from yourself—that is to say,
to have it under your own signature—that you still enjoy a tolerable share
of health; and your friend, Mrs. Ann Butler, [Mr. Carter's second wife,]
begs leave to join with me in congratulating both you and Mrs. Currie
upon being blessed, not only with dutiful, healthy, and robust children,
but clever and sensible. We rejoice to hear it, and pray God they may
prosper and become useful members of society. "I understand that you are advised and have some thoughts of putting
your son George to sea. I think he had better be put apprentice to a
tinker, for a common sailor before the mast has by no means the common
liberty of the subject; for they will press him from a ship where he has
fifty shillings a month and make him take twenty-three, and cut and
slash and use him like a negro, or rather like a dog. And, as to any
considerable preferment in the navy, it is not to be expected, as there
are always so many gaping for it here who have interest, and he has none.
And if he should get to be master of a Virginia ship, (which it is very
difficult to do,) a planter that has three or four hundred acres of land and
three or four slaves, if he be industrious, may live more comfortably, and
leave his family in better bread, than such a master of a ship can. . . .
He must not be too hasty to be rich, but go on gently and with patience,
Vol. II.—9
as things will naturally go. This method, without aiming at being a fine
gentleman before his time, will carry a man more comfortably and surely
through the world than going to sea, unless it be a great chance indeed.
I pray God keep you and yours It is a sensible pleasure to me to hear that you have
behaved yourself with such a martial spirit, in all your engagements
with the French, nigh Ohio. Go on as you have begun, and God prosper
you. We have heard of General Braddock's defeat. Everybody blames
his rash conduct. Everybody commends the courage of the Virginians
and Carolina men, which is very agreeable to me. I desire you, as you
may have opportunity, to give me a short account how you proceed. I
am your mother's brother. I hope you will not deny my request. I
heartily wish you good success, and am You will remember that I objected sitting as a member
of the Committee for Courts of Justice, whilst it was acting upon the
petition in relation to Yeocomico Church, because I was a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, and understanding that it was the subject
of dispute between that Church and the Episcopal Church; but at your
instance I did sit, but, being chairman of the committee, its action made
it unnecessary for me to vote. I take this mode, however, of saying that
I perfectly agreed with the committee, and even desired to go further
than the committee in this. I wished to pass a law giving to the Episcopal
Church all churches that it is now in possession of, to which it had a
right before the Revolutionary War. I think the construction given by
the committee to the Act of 1802, or at least my construction of it, is, that
the General Assembly claimed for the Commonwealth the right to all the
real property held by that Church, but that Act expressly forbids the sale
of the churches, &c. It is true, the proviso to that Act does not confer
upon the churches the right of property in the houses, &c. But it intended
to leave the possession and occupancy as it then existed; and, that
possession and occupancy being in the Episcopal Church, it had a right to
retain it until the Legislature should otherwise direct. I believe that the
Committee was of the opinion that the Episcopal Church had a right to
the use and occupancy of the church now in question: it certainly is my
opinion. I hope my Methodist brethren will see the justness of the determination
of the Committee, and with cheerfulness acquiesce in its
decision. The Rev. Wm. Hanson, rector of Trinity Church
in this place, a few days since handed me a number of the `Southern
Churchman' from Alexandria, dated the 27th of February, 1857. In it
is an historical sketch, from your pen, of Cople parish, Westmoreland
county, Virginia, and particularly of Yeocomico Church,—a spot ever
near and dear to my memory. From a long and intimate acquaintance
with its locality and history, I beg leave very respectfully to present the
following facts. It was built in the year 1706, as an unmistakable record
will show,—it being engraved in the solid wall over the front-door. It
was called by that name after the adjacent river,—the Indian name being
preserved. The Rev. Mr. Elliot was the last settled minister up to the
year 1800, when he removed to Kentucky. From that time it was wholly
unused and neglected as a place of worship until the Methodists occasionally
met under the shadow of its ruin about the year 1814, and continued
so to do, keeping alive the spark of vital piety, until the Rev. Mr. Nelson
in 1834 took charge of it as a settled minister. During his ministration
it was jointly used by the Episcopalians and Methodists in Christian harmony
and good-will. He being succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Ward in 1842,
the question of occupancy and right of possession was unhappily agitated,
which led to a decision of the Legislature giving to the wardens and vestry
of the Episcopal Church the exclusive right to its use and control. Thus
it will be seen, for thirty-four years there had been no settled minister of
our communion, or its sublime and beautiful service performed, except
two or three times by occasional visits. It would afford me great pleasure, could I give you an
assurance of being speedily supplied with a worthy minister. I sincerely
regret the deserted situation of too many of our parishes, and lament the
evils that must ensue. Finding that few persons, natives of this State,
were desirous of qualifying themselves for the ministerial office, I have
written to some of the Northern States, and have reason to expect several
young clergymen who have been liberally educated, of unexceptionable
moral character, and who, I flatter myself, will also be generally desirous
of establishing an academy for the instruction of youth, wherever they
may reside. Should they arrive, or should any other opportunity present
itself of recommending a worthy minister, I beg you to be assured, if
your advertisement proves unsuccessful, that I shall pay due attention to
the application of the worthy trustees of North Farnham. It is, no doubt, well known to you that the failure
last May in holding a Convention at the time and place agreed upon was
matter of deep regret to every sincere friend of our Church. To prevent,
if possible, a similar calamity at the next stated time for holding Conventions,
the deputies who met last May requested me to send circular
letters to the different parishes, exhorting them to pay a stricter regard
to one of the fundamental canons of the Church. I fulfil the duty with
alacrity, because the necessity of regular Conventions is urged by considerations
as obvious as they are weighty. I need not here enter into a detail
of those considerations; but I will ask, at what time was the fostering care
of the guardians—nay, of every member—of the Church more necessary
than at this period? Who doth not know that indifference to her interests
must inevitably inflict a mortal wound, over which the wise and the good
may in vain weep, when they behold that wound baffling every effort to
arrest its fatal progress? Who doth not know that irreligion and impiety
sleep not whilst we slumber? Who doth not know that there are
other enemies who laugh at our negligent supineness and deem it their
victory? I have been curate of this parish upward of forty
years. My own conscience bears me witness, and I trust my parishioners
(though many of them have fallen asleep) will also witness, that until age
and infirmities disabled me I always, so far as my infirmities would allow,
faithfully discharged my duties as a minister of the Gospel. It has given
me many hours of anxious concern that the services of the Church should
be so long discontinued on my account. The spirit indeed is willing, but
the flesh is weak. I therefore entreat the favour of you to provide me a
successor as soon as you can, that divine service may be discontinued no
longer; and at the end of the year the glebe shall be given up to him by
your affectionate servant, I heartily condole with you in your present sickness
and indisposition, which your age now every day contracts. God's grace
will make you bear it patiently, to your comfort, his glory, and your everlasting
salvation. I cannot enough thank you for the present of your
choice Bible. The money that you say you had present occasion for I
have ordered Mr. Cooper to enlarge, and you will see by his letter that it
is doubled. Before I was ten years old, as I am sure you will remember,
I looked upon this life here as but going to an inn, and no permanent
being. By God's grace I continue the same good thoughts and notions,
therefore am always prepared for my dissolution, which I can't be persuaded
to prolong by a wish. Now, dear mother, if you should be necessitated
for eight or ten pound extraordinary, please to apply to Mr. Cooper,
and he upon sight of this letter will furnish it to you." I have your letter by Peter yesterday, and the day
before I had one from Mr. Scott, who sent up Gustin Brown on purpose
with it. I entirely agree with Mr. Scott in preferring a funeral sermon at
Aquia Church, without any invitation to the house. Mr. Moncure's character
and general acquaintance will draw together much company, besides
a great part of his parishioners, and I am sure you are not in a condition
to bear such a scene; and it would be very inconvenient for a number of
people to come so far from church in the afternoon after the sermon. As
Mr. Moncure did not desire to be buried in any particular place, and as it
is usual to bury clergymen in their own churches, I think the corpse being
deposited in the church where he had so long preached is both decent and
proper, and it is probable, could he have chosen himself, he would have
preferred it. Mr. Scott writes to me that it is intended Mr. Green shall
preach the funeral sermon on the 20th of this month, if fair; if not, the
next fair day; and I shall write to Mr. Green to morrow to that purpose,
and inform him that you expect Mrs. Green and him at your house on the
day before; and, if God grants me strength sufficient either to ride on
horseback or in a chair, I will certainly attend to pay the last duty to the
memory of my friend; but I am really so weak at present that I can't walk
without crutches and very little with them, and have never been out of
the house but once or twice, and then, though I stayed but two or three
minutes at a time, it gave me such a cold as greatly to increase my disorder.
Mr. Green has lately been very sick, and was not able to attend
his church yesterday, (which I did not know when I wrote to Mr. Scott:)
if he should not recover soon, so as to be able to come down, I will inform
you or Mr. Scott in time, that some other clergyman may be applied to. In reply to your inquiries concerning the Old Potomac
Church and its neighbourhood, I give you the following statement, founded
in part upon tradition and partly upon my own recollection. My maternal
grandfather, John Moncure, a native of Scotland, was the regular minister
both of Aquia and Potomac Churches. He was succeeded in the ministry
in these churches by a clergyman named Brooke, who removed to the
State of Maryland. The Rev. Mr. Buchan succeeded him: he was tutor
in my father's family, and educated John Thompson Mason, General
Mason, of Georgetown, Judge Nicholas Fitzhugh, and many others.
Going back to a period somewhat remote in enumerating those who lived
in the vicinity of Potomac Church, I will mention my great-grandfather,
Rowleigh Travers, one of the most extensive landed proprietors in that
section of the country, and who married Hannah Ball, half-sister of Mary
Ball, the mother of General George Washington. From Rowleigh Travers
and Hannah Ball descended two daughters, Elizabeth and Sarah Travers:
the former married a man named Cooke, and the latter my grandfather,
Peter Daniel. To Peter and Sarah Daniel was born an only son,—Travers
Daniel, my father,—who married Frances Moncure, my mother, the daughter
of the Rev. John Moncure and Frances Brown, daughter of Dr. Gustavus
Brown, of Maryland. The nearest and the coterminous neighbour
of my father was John Mercer, of Marlborough, a native of Ireland, a
distinguished lawyer; the compiler of `Mercer's Abridgment of the Virginia
Laws;' the father of Colonel George Mercer, an officer in the British
service, and who died in England about the commencement of the Revolution;
the father also of Judge James Mercer, father of Charles F. Mercer,
of John Francis Mercer, who in my boyhood resided at Marlborough, in
Stafford, and was afterward Governor of Maryland; of Robert Mercer, who
lived and died in Fredericksburg; of Ann Mercer, who married Samuel
Selden, of Selvington, Stafford; of Maria Mercer, who married Richard
Brooke, of King William, father of General George M. Brooke; and of
another daughter, whose name is not recollected,—the wife of Muscoe
Garnett and mother of the late James M. Garnett. As your parish is at present unfurnished with a minister,
I recommend to your approbation and choice the Rev. Mr. Scott,
who, in my opinion, is a man of discretion, understanding, and integrity,
and in every way qualified to discharge the sacred office to your satisfaction.
I am your affectionate friend and humble servant, I hope and believe that your parish will be worthily
supplied by the Rev. Mr. James Scott. His merit having been long known
to you, I need not dwell upon it. That you may be greatly benefited by
his good life and doctrine, and mutually happy with each other, and all
the souls committed to his charge may be saved, is the daily prayer of, I received yours this morning. My father, Alexander
Henderson, came to this country from Scotland in the year 1756,
and settled first as a merchant in Colchester. During the Revolutionary
War he retired to a farm in Fairfax county to avoid the possibility of falling
into the hands of the English, as he had taken a decided part on the
side of freedom against the mother-country. About 1787 or 1788 he removed
to Dumfries. He died in the latter part of 1815, leaving six sons
and four daughters, all grown. John, Alexander, and James emigrated to
Western Virginia, and settled as farmers in Wood county. Richard and
Thomas were known to you, the former living in Leesburg and the latter
for the last twenty years being in the medical department of the army.
James and myself are the only surviving sons. Two of my sisters—Mrs.
Anne Henderson and Mrs. Margaret Wallace—are still alive. My sisters
Jane and Mary died many years ago. The latter married Mr. Inman Horner,
of Warrenton. All the members of the family have been, with scarce
an exception, steady Episcopalians." You may recollect the conversation we had when I had
the pleasure of seeing you at Richmond; that we mutually lamented the
declining state of the Church of England in this country, and the pitiable
situation of her clergy,—especially those whose circumstances are not
sufficiently independent to place them beyond the reach of want. I am
satisfied our Church has yet a very great number of powerful friends who
are disposed to give it encouragement and support, and who wish to see
some plan in agitation for effecting a business so important, and at this
time so very necessary. It is (and very justly) matter of astonishment to
many, that those whose more immediate duty it is to look to the concerns
of their religious society should show so much indifference and indolence
as the Church and clergy do, while the leaders of almost every other denomination
are labouring with the greatest assiduity to increase their influence,
and, by open attacks and subtle machinations, endeavouring to
lessen that of every other society,—particularly the Church to which you
and I have the honour to belong, in whose destruction they all (Quakers
and Methodists excepted) seem to agree perfectly, however they may differ
in other points. Against these it behooves us to be cautious. But, unless
the clergy act conjointly and agreeably to some well-regulated plan, the
ruin of our Church is inevitable without the malevolence of her enemies.
Considering her present situation and circumstances,—without ordination,
without government, without support, unprotected by the laws, and yet
labouring under injurious restrictions from laws which yet exist,—these
things considered, her destruction is sure as fate, unless some mode is
adopted for her preservation. Her friends, by suffering her to continue in
her present state of embarrassment, as effectually work her destruction as
her avowed enemies could do by their most successful contrivances. I received your letter, favoured by Mr. Fairfax, which
reminded me of a conversation which passed between us respecting the
low state of the Church whereof we are members, and in which you make
inquiry whether any thing has been attempted by any of its clergy to raise
it from its distressed situation, and inform me that reflections have been
thrown out against them for their remissness and want of zeal in an affair
of so much consequence. In order to remedy these evils, you propose
a plan for convening the clergy in the month of April next, to the end
that some form of ecclesiastical government might be established, particularly
a mode of ordination; and that an application might be made to
the Assembly for redress of grievances and a legal support. I hasten to give you an imperfect
account of the history of the Church in this neighbourhood; and, as there
are no records to refer to, I shall have to rely on an imperfect memory.
Morris Hudson, Elizabeth his wife, and their six children, nearly all married,
removed to this neighbourhood from Botetourt county, Virginia, in
1797, and were probably the first Episcopalians that settled in this neighbourhood.
They were both communicants of the Church. They came to
Virginia originally from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and were members
of Bangor Church,—an old church erected before the Revolution.
They removed to Botetourt county, in this State, during Bishop Madison's
time. The old patriarch, then in his eightieth year, (being uncertain
whether he had been confirmed in childhood,) received the rite of Confirmation
at your hands, on your first visit to this county, together with
several of his children. Some of their descendants still continue true to
the faith of their fathers, whilst others have wandered into other folds.
The next Episcopalians who settled here were my father's family, with
whose history you are well acquainted. They removed here in 1817.
My father died in 1837, in the seventieth year of his age. My mother
died the 8th of March, 1852, in the seventy-fifth year of her age. I have received your circular asking communications
on the important subject submitted to your consideration, and offer
the following suggestions as coming within the terms of your commission:— You will find in the enclosed the reason I have for
writing it, and will, I doubt not, agree in opinion with me that it cannot
but be useful to put the clergy under you in mind of their duty, even if
there should be no failing, much more if there be any. I therefore desire
you to communicate this letter to them, and to use all proper means
to redress any deviations from our rules, considering that both you and I
are to be answerable if we neglect our duty in that part. It is always a joy to me to hear of the good
success of your ministerial labours, and no less a grief to hear of any defaults
and irregularities among you; to which disadvantageous reports I am not
forward to give credit, finding that wrong representations are frequently
made. Some occasions have been given to apprehend, there may have
been faults and miscarriages in the life and conversation of some among
you, which I trust are corrected; and that the grace of God, and a sense
of duty you owe to Him, his Church, and to yourselves, will so rule in your
hearts, as that I shall no more hear any thing to the disadvantage of any
of you upon that head. Nevertheless, I cannot but give you notice, that
I have information of some irregularities, which, if practised, will need
very much to be redressed; and I cannot but hope, if such things there
be, you will not be unwilling to do your part, as I think it a duty to do
mine by this advisement. You are now come hither at your Commissary's
desire, that he might have the easier opportunity to communicate
to you a letter from your Right Reverend Diocesan. And seeing his Lordship
has been pleased to make mention of me in that letter, taking notice
that I have instructions to act in reference to institutions and inductions,
and that he must leave to my inquiry whether any ministers be settled
among you who have not license from him or his predecessor, and as his
Lordship seems to rely on my care as well as yours, that none may be
suffered to officiate in the public worship of God, or perform any ministerial
offices of religion, but such only as are Episcopally ordained, I ought not
to be silent on this occasion, and thereupon must remark to you, that the
very person whom his Lordship expects should use all fitting earnestness
in pressing the observations of these things is he whom I take to be the
least observer thereof himself. For none more eminently than Mr. Commissary
Blair sets at naught those instructions which your Diocesan leaves
you to be guided by, with respect to institutions and inductions; he denying
by his practice as well as discourses that the King's Government
has the right to collate ministers to ecclesiastical benefices within this
Colony; for, when the church which he now supplies became void by the
death of the former incumbent, his solicitation for the same was solely to
the vestry, without his ever making the least application to me for my collation,
notwithstanding it was my own parish church; and I cannot but
complain of his deserting the cause of the Church in general, and striving
to put it on such a foot as must deprive the clergy of that reasonable
security which, I think, they ought to have with regard to their livings. Though the hurry of public business, wherein I was
engaged, did not allow me time immediately to answer your letter of the
1st of August, yet I told Mr. Short on his going hence, on the 5th of that
month, that you might expect my answer in a few days; and if he has done
me justice he has informed you that I advised your forbearing, in the mean
time, to run too rashly into the measures I perceived you were inclining to;
assuring him my intentions are to make you easy, if possible, in relation to
your minister. But, whether that advice was imparted to you or not, it is
plain, by your proceedings of the 8th of the same month, that you resolved
not to accept of it, seeing you immediately discarded Mr. Bagge and sent
down Mr. Rainsford with a pretended presentation of induction. As soon
as that came into my hands, I observed it expressly contrary to a late
opinion of the Council, whereby it is declared that the right of supplying
vacant benefices is claimed by the King, and by his Majesty's commission
given to the Governor; and for that reason I let Mr. Rainsford know that
before I could admit of such a presentation it was necessary for me to
have likewise the advice of the Council thereon. But, not content to wait
their resolution, I understand you have taken upon you the power of induction,
as well as that of presentation, by giving Mr. Rainsford possession
of the pulpit, and excluding the person I appointed to officiate. I have,
according to my promise, taken the advice of my Council upon your pretended
presentation, and here send it enclosed, by which you will find that
the Board is clearly of opinion that I should not receive such presentation:
so that if you are the patrons (as you suppose) you may as soon as you
please bring a "quare impedit" to try your title; and then it will appear
whether the King's clerk or yours has the most rightful possession of this
church. In the mean time I think it necessary to forewarn you to be
cautious how you dispose of the profits of your parish, lest you pay it in
your own wrong. May it please your Honour, should we, the clergy of his Majesty's Province
of Virginia assembled in Convention, (who have, with the utmost
indignation and resentment, heard your Honour affronted and abused by a
few prejudiced men,) be silent upon this occasion, we should appear
ungrateful in both capacities as ministers and subjects. Therefore, with
Vol. II.—26
grateful hearts we now express our deep sense of your just and wise
government,—a government that has raised this Colony to a flourishing
condition by exercising over it no other authority but that wherein its
happiness and liberty consist, and which nothing but the groundless suspicions
and unreasonable jealousies of the eager and violent can render
liable to exception. Your Honour is happy to us rather than to yourself,
in that you are perpetually toiling for the public, constantly doing good
to many, whilst you do injury to none. Mr. Selater and Mr. Smith being absent when the House was called
over, Mr. Bagge moved that no member should be allowed to be absent
from the Convention without leave, which was seconded and ordered. The members of the Convention having desired Mr. Commissary to sign
the said letter and representation, he refused the same. Ordered it be
entered accordingly. Mr. Hugh Jones moved that the members of the
Convention sign the said letter and representation. As in my letter for calling you together at
this time I acquainted you that it was in pursuance of the directions of
our Right Reverend Diocesan, my Lord-Bishop of London, I shall first
read to you his Lordship's letter about it to myself, and his letter to the
clergy of this country, which he has desired me to communicate to you;
and then I shall (as I find my Lord expects of me) endeavour to resume the
particulars and press the observation of them with all fitting earnestness. Mr. Emanuel Jones delivered in the address to the Governor, which,
being read and examined paragraph by paragraph, passed without amendment. May it please your Honour, it is with no small concern we humbly
represent to your Honour that we could not join with the rest of our
brethren in one uniform address, being unwilling to determine between
persons and things which, as we apprehend, were not properly under our
cognizance nor within our province. Nevertheless, we think it our duty
to return our most hearty thanks for the continuance of your Honour's
protection to the Church and clergy of this country. We have no doubt
of your Honour's ready concurrence in any present methods that can be
offered for our support and encouragement. And seeing your Honour is
well apprized of all our circumstances, without any further information
from us, we desire to leave it with yourself to consider of the best ways
and means to remedy what wants redress in the precariousness of our circumstances,
whether by execution of the laws in being, or the contrivance
of new ones, to answer better the circumstances of the Church and clergy
and people of this country as in your wisdom you shall think fit. There is nothing to be remarked upon this day's proceedings but that
some objections were made to a few things in the clergy's answer to my
Lord of London's letter, upon the amendment of which all the clergy
declared their readiness to sign it. These objections were,—1st. The slur
it casts upon Mr. Commissary's ordination. 2d The unfair representation,
or insinuation, at least, as if some of the Council, and particularly Mr.
Commissary, obstructed the Governor's acting in favour of the clergy in
the point of institutions and inductions. It is true they do not take it
upon themselves to say this, but lay it upon the Governor, and say that he
imputes the opposition "he meets with in this affair to some of the Council,
and particularly to Mr. Commissary, whom he also accuses of some other
irregularities, as your Lordship, by his Honour's letter to us and another
to the vestry of the parish of St. Anne's, may perceive, both which, together
with Mr. Commissary's answer, we doubt not your Lordship will receive,
and in which we most humbly and earnestly pray your Lordship to interpose
your Lordship's advice and assistance." Though this was the least
they could do without directly incurring the Governor's displeasure, there
were several who said they knew the Council and the Commissary had
been such constant friends to the clergy that they would have no hand in
putting this slight upon them, as if they opposed their institutions and
inductions. 3d. That it lays the blame upon our laws that we are obliged
to baptize, church women, marry, and bury, at private houses, &c., whereas
it is not by our laws these things are occasioned, but partly by our precariousness,
(the Governor never making use of the lapse,) and partly by
the exceeding largeness of the parishes and other inconvenient circumstances
of the country. "The memorial of the Presbytery of Hanover humbly represents, That
your memorialists are governed by the same sentiments which inspire the
United States of America, and are determined that nothing in our power
and influence shall be wanting to give success to their common cause. We
would also represent that the dissenters from the Church of England in
this country have ever been desirous to conduct themselves as peaceable
members of the civil government, for which reason they have hitherto submitted
to several ecclesiastic burdens and restrictions that are inconsistent
with equal liberty. But now, when the many and grievous oppressions
of our mother-country have laid this continent under the necessity of
casting off the yoke of tyranny and of forming independent governments
upon equitable and liberal foundations, we flatter ourselves that we shall
be freed from all the encumbrances which a spirit of domination, prejudice,
or bigotry hath interwoven with most other political systems. This we are
the more strongly encouraged to expect by the Declaration of Rights, so
universally applauded for that dignity, firmness, and precision with which
it delineates and asserts the privileges of society and the prerogatives of
human nature, and which we embrace as the magna charta of our Commonwealth,
that can never be violated without endangering the grand superstructure
it was destined to sustain. Therefore we rely upon this Declaration,
as well as the justice of our honourable Legislature, to secure us the
free exercise of religion according to the dictates of our consciences; and we
should fall short in our duty to ourselves and the many and numerous congregations
under our care were we upon this occasion to neglect laying
before you a statement of the religious grievances under which we have
hitherto laboured, that they no longer may be continued in our present
form of government. The name of Ellis appears at an early day in connection with the
Colony of Virginia. David Ellis came out in the second supply of emigrants
from England, and was one of the men sent by Captain Smith to
build a house for King Powhatan at his favourite seat, Werowocomico, on
York River. John Ellis was one of the grantees in the second charter
of the Virginia Company. I fear that I shall be able to communicate
very little in regard to the church on Pedlar. Your uncle Richard was
one of the old-school, true Virginia gentlemen,—hospitable, unaffected,
polite, courteous,—and as regardful of the rights and feelings of a servant
as he was of the most favoured and distinguished that visited his house
I had not been in his house five minutes before I felt it to be what he
and his delightful family ever afterward made it to me,—a home. I,
however, experienced at their hands only what every clergyman of our
Church who has been connected with the parish experienced. To my verie deere and loving cosen M. G. Minister of the B. F. in
London. In replying to your letter from Tappahannock, I am sorry
to have to say to you that I am in possession of no papers that can be
useful to you in your notices relative to the Church, &c. in Virginia. I
have always understood that my ancestors were attached to the Protestant
Episcopal Church from their first settlement in this new world. They
were all well-educated men, and all business-men, generally filling public
offices down to the Revolution. It is highly probable my grandfather—
who died in April, 1800, and who, I was told, was a regular attendant at
and supporter of the church of which Parson Matthews was the pastor—
did leave papers that might have been useful to you. But in the division
of his estate his library and papers not on business were divided out
among his many sons, and, no doubt, like the other property left them,
scattered to the four winds. My uncle, Carter Beverley, qualified first as
his executor, and so took all papers on business—and, it is probable,
many others—to his home in Staunton, and, he told me, lost every thing
of the kind by the burning up of his house. I send you the inscription on the stone of the old Commissary
in as perfect condition as I could procure it. I also send a translation,
filling the blanks and chasms with my own knowledge of the
events of the Commissary's life. If you look critically at the Latin and
at my paraphrase, you will perceive that I have rarely missed the mark.
One thing it is proper to say. In the line "Evangeli—Preconis" there
may be a mistake of the transcriber. If the word "Preconis" be correct,
then it is figurative, and means to compare the Commissary with John
the Baptist. But I think the word "Preconis" is wrong, and was written
"Diaconi," "Deacon," as the number of years shows that it was in his
combined character of Evangelist, Deacon, and Priest, to which allusion
is made; that is, to his whole ministerial services, which were precisely
fifty-eight years. You will doubtless be not a little surprised at receiving
a letter from an individual whose name may possibly never have
reached you; but an accidental circumstance has given me the extreme
pleasure of introducing myself to your notice. In a conversation with the
Rev. Dr. Berrian a few days since, he informed me that he had lately paid
a visit to Mount Vernon, and that Mrs. Washington had expressed a wish
to have a doubt removed from her mind, which had long oppressed her,
as to the certainty of the General's having attended the Communion while
residing in the city of New York subsequent to the Revolution. As nearly
all the remnants of those days are now sleeping with their fathers, it is
not very probable that at this late day an individual can be found who
could satisfy this pious wish of your virtuous heart, except the writer. It
was my great good fortune to have attended St. Paul's Church in this city
with the General during the whole period of his residence in New York
as President of the United States. The pew of Chief-Justice Morris was
situated next to that of the President, close to whom I constantly sat in
Judge Morris's pew, and I am as confident as a memory now labouring under
the pressure of fourscore years and seven can make me, that the President
had more than once—I believe I may say often—attended at the sacramental
table, at which I had the privilege and happiness to kneel with
him. And I am aided in my associations by my elder daughter, who distinctly
recollects her grandmamma—Mrs. Morris—often mention that fact
with great pleasure. Indeed, I am further confirmed in my assurance by
the perfect recollection of the President's uniform deportment during
divine service in church. The steady seriousness of his manner, the solemn,
audible, but subdued tone of voice in which he read and repeated the
responses, the Christian humility which overspread and adorned the native
dignity of the saviour of his country, at once exhibited him a pattern to
all who had the honour of access to him. It was my good fortune, my
dear madam, to have had frequent intercourse with him. It is my pride
and boast to have seen him in various situations,—in the flush of victory,
in the field and in the tent,—in the church and at the altar, always himself,
ever the same. When (some weeks ago) I had the pleasure
of seeing you in Alexandria, and in our conversation the subject of the
religious opinions and character of General Washington was spoken of, I
repeated to you the substance of what I had heard from the late General
Robert Porterfield, of Augusta, and which at your request I promised to
reduce to writing at some leisure moment and send to you. I proceed
now to redeem the promise. Some short time before the death of General
Porterfield, I made him a visit and spent a night at his house. He related
many interesting facts that had occurred within his own observation in
the war of the Revolution, particularly in the Jersey campaign and the
encampment of the army at Valley Forge. He said that his official duty
(being brigade-inspector) frequently brought him in contact with General
Washington. Upon one occasion, some emergency (which he mentioned)
induced him to dispense with the usual formality, and he went directly to
General Washington's apartment, where he found him on his knees, engaged
in his morning's devotions. He said that he mentioned the circumstance
to General Hamilton, who replied that such was his constant
habit. I remarked that I had lately heard Mr. — say, on the authority
of Mr. —, that General Washington was subject to violent fits of passion,
and that he then swore terribly. General Porterfield said the charge was
false; that he had known General Washington personally for many years,
had frequently been in his presence under very exciting circumstances,
and had never heard him swear an oath, or in any way to profane the
name of God. "Tell Mr. — from me," said he, "that he had much
better be reading his Bible than repeating such slanders on the character
of General Washington. General Washington," said he, "was a pious
man, and a member of your Church, [the Episcopal.] I saw him myself on
his knees receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in — Church, in
Philadelphia." He specified the time and place. My impression is that
Christ Church was the place, and Bishop White, as he afterward was, the
minister. This is, to the best of my recollection, an accurate statement
of what I heard from General Porterfield on the subject. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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