University of Virginia Library

ARTICLE LXXI.

Parishes in Frederick County.

In our last communication we had reached the Blue Ridge,—the
great dividing-line between Eastern and Western Virginia. We
now ascend that beautiful range of mountains, and look down on
the wide and extensive valley which lies between it and those numerous
ones which hide the great Alleghany from our view. I believe
it is generally admitted that this valley is not only the most fertile
and desirable portion of the State, but also the most picturesque
and beautiful. But it is not our province to descant on such themes.
We may, however, be permitted to declare our assent to the hypothesis
of Mr. Jefferson and others, that it was once a great lake or
sea, which emptied itself through the channel formed by the force
of the waters at Harper's Ferry, leaving immense prairies behind
to be covered in due time with heavy forests, some of which our
eyes now behold, while most of them have been felled by the hands
of our forefathers.[47]

Such a country could not but attract the attention of hardy and
adventurous farmers. The first who entered it were from Pennsylvania.
Crossing the Potomac at what is now called Shepherdstown,
but at first and for a considerable time Mecklenburg,—doubtless
after some town or place in Germany,—they there made a settlement.
From thence emigration proceeded on toward Winchester,
Stephensburg, or Newtown, Woodstock, &c. Joist Hite, the ancestor
of all the Hites, was the first to make a settlement north of
Winchester, with sixteen families. This was in the year 1732. His

descendants of that name became active members of, or friends of,
the Episcopal Church. Soon after this, Presbyterians of Scotch
and Irish descent began to settle in the valley. In the year 1738,
a number from Pennsylvania, wishing to add themselves to those
already settled, sent, through the synod of Pennsylvania, a deputation
to Governor Gooch, of Virginia, "asking all liberty of conscience
and of worshipping God agreeably to the principles of their
education." They professed the utmost loyalty to the King, and
promised "the most dutiful submission to the government which is
placed over them." The Governor assured them of his favour, and
that no interruption should be given to their ministers, if they should
"conform themselves to the rules prescribed by the Act of Toleration
in England." It was the same principle which had been acted
on before this time in Virginia, and continued to be to the end of
the Colonial Establishment. Under that law, any number of
persons, of whatsoever name, might ask for and should receive a
license for some place of meeting where they might worship after
their own way. Even during the preceding century, the first of
our settlements in Virginia, the Germans on the Rappahannock
and the French Huguenots on James River had not only been tolerated,
but allowed special favours, such as grants of lands and
freedom from taxes, until of their own accord they applied to be
admitted into union with the Established Church under Episcopal
ministers,—finding it difficult to procure any of their own. Other
denominations also were allowed licenses for places of worship,—
whether private or public houses,—provided they sought and used
them in compliance with the true intent of the law. In the case of
President Davies, about the middle of the last century,—which we
have considered when speaking of the parish in Hanover,—seven
places of worship were licensed for him before the Governor declared
that he was exceeding the bounds prescribed by the spirit
and intent of the law.

With these general observations we proceed to the history of the
parish of Frederick. The materials are furnished by the Acts of
Assembly dating back to the year 1738, to the records of the court
beginning in 1744, and to the old vestry-book going back to the
year 1764, and some papers of an earlier date.

In the year 1738, the Assembly, in consideration of the increasing
number of settlers in the valley, determined to cut off two
new counties and parishes—West Augusta and Frederick—from
Orange county and parish, which latter then took in all Western
Virginia. The county and parish of Frederick embraced all that

is now Shenandoah, with a part of Page, Warren, Clarke, Frederick,
Jefferson, Berkeley, and Hampshire. Augusta had all the rest to
the utmost limits of Virginia, wherever they were,—the contest with
France as to the boundaries not being then settled. The execution
of the Act, however, was postponed until it should be made to
appear that there were inhabitants enough for the appointment of
justices of the peace, &c. In the year 1744, the vestry and court
of Frederick county were organized and in action. Of the vestry,
nothing more is heard after its organization, except the appointment
of processioners in 1747, until the year 1752, when an Act
of Assembly was passed dissolving it and ordering a new election,
on the ground that it had raised more than fifteen hundred pounds
for building a number of churches which were unfinished and in a
ruinous condition. As the churches of that day and in this region
were log-houses, costing only from thirty to forty or fifty pounds,
there must have been much misspending of money. Who those
vestrymen were does not appear. Those chosen in their place were
the following:—Thomas Lord Fairfax, Isaac Perkins, Gabriel Jones,
John Hite, Thomas Swearingen, Charles Buck, Robert Lemmon,
John Lindsey, John Ashby, James Cromley, Lewis Neil. Thomas
Bryan Martin, the nephew and one of the heirs of Lord Fairfax,
does not ever appear as vestryman, but seems to have been an
active magistrate, and to have taken a considerable part in completing
McCoy's Chapel, on the road from Winchester to Front
Royal, in the neighbourhood of the McCoys and Cunningham Chapel,
which stood near the spot where what has been long called the Old
Chapel—near the Burwell burial-ground—still stands. Mr. Edward
McGuire also appears as a magistrate, but not as vestryman,—he
being of the Romish Church. He was the ancestor of many worthy
ministers and members of the Protestant Episcopal Church of
Virginia.

Having mentioned Lord Fairfax as the first on the list of that
most respectable body of vestrymen given above, and who also gave
the land on which the church in Winchester stood, and under which
he was buried, it is but right that we should add a few words as to
himself and his numerous and most estimable relatives now scattered
through this and other States.

The first of the Fairfaxes who came to this country, and who
settled in Westmoreland, and then on an estate near Mount Vernon,
called Belvoir, was Mr. William Fairfax, a scholar, a soldier and
civilian. The latter character he exhibited as President of the
Council of Virginia,—the station next to that of Governor. By two

marriages he had five children,—George William, Thomas, William,
Bryan, and Hannah. George William married a Miss Cary, of
Virginia, but left the county before the Revolutionary War.
Thomas and William died, the one in the English navy and the
other in the army. Bryan took Orders in the Episcopal Church, and
was for some years minister of Christ's Church, Alexandria. Hannah
married Warner Washington, of Fairfield, a near relative of George
Washington, and was a worthy member of our Church, leaving two
sons and three daughters behind. Two of her daughters—Mrs.
Milton (who was previously Mrs. Nelson) and Mrs. Whiting—were
long and well known to me as among the best of women. Of their
mother I have often heard Mr. Balmaine speak in the highest
terms.[48] The elder William Fairfax was the manager of the estates
of his kinsman, Lord Thomas Fairfax, the owner of all the lands in
the Northern Neck of Virginia, which he inherited from his mother,
the daughter of Lord Culpepper, and which were bounded by the
Rappahannock and Potomac, extending to the head-waters of each,
the one beginning in the Blue Ridge, the other in the Alleghany
Mountains. Lord Fairfax was a man of the most perfect English
education, Oxford being his Alma Mater. He was a member of
that club of which Addison was the head, and to whose pens we are
indebted for that immortal work, the Spectator. He was early and
deeply disappointed in love, which gave a turn to his character and
habits, and prepared him for seclusion in the wilds of America.
In 1749, he visited his estates in Virginia, and was so much pleased
with the country that he determined to settle here. During that
visit he became acquainted with, and attached to, young George
Washington, then only sixteen years of age. The affection was
returned on the part of Washington, and he readily accepted the
proposition of Lord Fairfax to become surveyor of all his lands.
Lord Fairfax returned for a short time to England, while Washington
immediately repaired to his work in the valley, making his
head-quarters at Greenway Court. Washington continued for two
or three years in the service of Lord Fairfax, and as public surveyor
for Western Virginia. At the death of Lord Fairfax, in
1781, being ninety-two years of age, the title fell to his only surviving
brother, Robert, in England, and at his death, which occurred
soon after, to the Rev. Bryan Fairfax, the nearest kinsman. It
deserves to be mentioned of Lord Fairfax, that, titled as he was, and
rich, he never failed to perform his duty as a citizen and neighbour,
but, besides acting as Keeper of the Rolls for Frederick, was uniform
in his attendance at Winchester, twelve miles off, as one of the
magistrates of the county. The poor around him cultivated some
of his lands, and received all the benefits of the same.[49]

To McCoy's and Cunningham's Chapel are to be added two on
the north and south branches of Shenandoah, whose location cannot
now be ascertained, one in Winchester, one at Bunker's Hill, called
Morgan's Chapel, of which we shall speak more fully hereafter,
perhaps one called Wood's Chapel, between Winchester and Charlestown,
and one at Shepherdstown, then called Mecklenburg Chapel.
All these were probably begun, and some of them sufficiently completed
for use, between the years 1740 and 1750. In 1768, Mr.
Van Swearingen received one hundred and forty-eight pounds for
completing a new church at Mecklenburg, now Shepherdstown. In
the year 1768, Isaac Hite was directed to contract for a church at
Leith's—place not known—for forty-nine pounds. In the year 1774,
a church was ordered to be built near Cedar Creek for one hundred
pounds; whether executed or not, I cannot tell. In the year 1772,
it was resolved to build a church, costing two hundred and fifty-two
pounds, at Carney's Spring, near Berryville, on land given by Mr.
Charles Smith, which was afterward increased to four hundred and
forty-nine pounds, and a contract made with Mr. John Neville, father
of General Neville, and some of the materials collected on the spot.
In the following year it was determined to build it at Cunningham's

Chapel, two acres of ground being given by Colonel Hugh Nelson, of
York, the then owner of the Burwell tract, and the materials moved
there. Again it was resolved to build at Carney's Spring, and the
materials removed a second time. The result of the controversy was
that no such church was ever built, though the money was in hand.
The war soon came on, and at the end of it the funds were delivered
into the hands of the overseers of the poor. In the year 1762, a
new stone church was contracted for in Winchester,—the same which
was afterward sold in order to build the present church.

Having thus brought down the history of the church-buildings to
the time of the Revolution, we will now give a list of the lay readers
and vestrymen from the year 1764, when the vestry-book commences,
merely premising that the county and parish of Frederick
were in 1769 divided into the counties of Dunmore, afterward
changed to Shenandoah, Frederick, and Berkeley, and into the
parishes of Beckford, Frederick, and Norbone.

Names of the vestrymen from the year 1764 until the year 1780,
when no more meetings of the vestry take place until 1785:—Isaac
Hite, John Hite, John Greenleaf, Thomas Rutherford, James Keith,
John Neville, Charles Smith, James Wood, Jacob Hite, Thomas
Wadlington, Burr Harrison, Thomas Swearingen, Van Swearingen,
Angus McDonald, Philip Bush, Frederick Conrad, George Rice,
Alexander White, James Barnett, Marquis Calmes, John McDonald,
Edward Snickers, Warner Washington, Joseph Holmes, Benjamin
Sedwick, Edmund Taylor, John Smith, Samuel Dowdal. Of these,
Philip Bush and some others, in consequence of some unknown difficulties,
resigned in the year 1774, though all of them resumed their
seats except Mr. Bush. Lord Fairfax in the year 1775 made a deed
to Mr. Bush, Frederick Conrad, and others, for the lot on which the
Lutheran church stood, though Mr. Conrad continued as vestryman
until the year 1780, when the vestries were all dissolved by
Act of Assembly. James Wood, who was both clerk and vestryman,
resigned in 1777 and entered the army. He rose to the rank
of General, and was afterward Governor of the State, and represented
the parish two years in Convention while Governor. James
Barnett resigned in 1773 and joined the Baptists.

The lay readers during all this period, at the different chapels,
were John Ruddell, James Barnett, John Barns, Henry Nelson,
James Graham, Henry Frencham, Morgan Morgan, John James,
William Dobson. William Howard, John Lloyd.

THE MINISTERS OF FREDERICK PARISH.

The Rev. Mr. Gordon was the first; when his ministry commenced
and ended, not known. The Rev. Mr. Meldrum comes next, and
continues until 1765. Between him and the vestry a long law-suit
was carried on, which terminated in his favour. The vestry applied
to the Legislature for relief, and obtained it. Mr. Sebastian was recommended
by the vestry to the Bishop of London for Orders in 1766,
and became their minister, but after two years removed to Northumberland
county. The Rev. Mr. Thruston became the minister in
1768, binding himself to preach at seven places scattered over the
large parish of Frederick, Shepherdstown being one of them. Mr.
Thruston was a native of Gloucester, where the name still abounds,
and was captain of the militia in that county. The vestry of Petsworth
parish, in Gloucester, recommended him for Orders, and he
was their minister for some years before coming to Frederick. He
laid down the ministry and entered the army in 1777. After the
war he lived at Mount Zion, in Frederick. In his latter days he
removed to the neighbourhood of New Orleans, and, it is said, was
preparing to take some part in defending that place against the
British when they were defeated by General Jackson. He was
the father of the late Judge Thruston, of the District of Columbia,
and the ancestor of many respectable families in Virginia and elsewhere.
From the time of Colonel Thruston's resignation in 1777
to the year 1785, there was no minister, so far as we can ascertain.
In the year 1785, a vestry was elected, consisting of Colonel R. K.
Meade, George F. Norton, churchwardens, John Thruston, Edward
Smith, Raleigh Colston, Girard Briscoe, John Milton, Robert Wood,
Major Thomas Massey. By this vestry the Rev. Alexander Balmaine
was chosen minister. He had been chaplain in the army
of the Revolution, in which a number of the above-mentioned vestrymen
had served. Mr. Balmaine was born in Scotland, in the
neighbourhood of Edinburgh, in the year 1740, was educated at St.
Andrews with a view to the Presbyterian ministry, but relinquished
the design. Himself and his brother, who was a lawyer, were
warm friends of the Colonists in the Stamp Act difficulties, and
became so obnoxious on that account to the loyalists about Edinburgh,
that they thought it best to try their fortunes elsewhere,
and moved to London, where they became acquainted with Mr.
Arthur Lee, who recommended Mr. Balmaine to the family of
Richard Henry Lee, as private tutor. While there, he prepared

for the ministry of the Episcopal Church, and upon receiving Orders
became rector of Augusta parish, then extending to the Ohio River,
and including, it is believed, Pittsburg itself, for the paid several
visits to the Episcopalians in that place. When our difficulties
commenced with England, true to his principles adopted in Scotland,
he took an early and active part, was chairman of the Committee
of Safety in Augusta, and drafted the resolution adopted
by that committee. Soon after this, he entered the Virginia line
as chaplain, and continued so until the very close of the war.
Mr. Balmaine was the rector of the parish of Frederick until his
death. I was his assistant during a number of the last years of
his life.