 | Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia |  |
IV.
"Here lyeth the body of Alice Page, wife of Mann Page, who departed
this life the 11th day of January, 1746, in childbed of her second son, in
the 23d year of her age, leaving two sons and one daughter. She was
the third daughter of the Honble John Grymes, Esquire, of Middlesex
county, one of His Majesty's Council in this Colony. Her personal beauty
and the uncommon sweetness of her temper, her affable deportment and
exemplary behaviour, made her respected by all who knew her. The
spotless innocency of her life and her singular piety, her constancy and
resignation at the hour of death, sufficiently testified her firm and certain
hope of a joyful resurrexion. To her sacred memory this monument is
piously erected."
His second wife was Miss Ann Corbin Tayloe. Two of their
sons, who died young, are buried at Rosewell, having tombs and
inscriptions. Governor Page, of Virginia, was a son by his first
wife, Alice Grymes. There is no tombstone over the second Mann
Page. Governor Page died in Richmond, and was buried in the
old churchyard around St. John's.
My next visit was to the old seat of the Burwells, about two
miles from Rosewell, on Carter's Creek, and in full view of York
River. It was formerly called Fairfield, and is so marked on
Bishop Madison's map of Virginia. It has for some time past been
called Carter's Creek only. The house, as appears by figures on
one of the walls, was built either in 1684 or 1694. A portion of
it has been taken down: the rest is still strong and likely to endure
for no little time to come. The graveyard is in a pasture-lot not
far from the house. Being unenclosed, it is free to all the various
animals which belong to a Virginia farm. Hogs, sheep, cows, and
horses, have free access to it; and, as there is a grove of a few old
trees overshadowing it, the place is a favourite resort in summer.
The tombs are very massive. The slabs on which the inscriptions
are engraved are of the same heavy ironstone or black marble with
those at Rosewell, Timberneck, and Bellfield, of which we have
spoken. The framework underneath them has generally given way,
and they lie in various positions about the ground. A large honeylocust,
around which several of them were placed, having attained
its maturity, was either blown down by the wind or struck by lightning,
and fell across them, breaking one of the largest into pieces.
The young shoots of the tree, springing up, have now themselves
become trees of considerable size, and afford shade for inanimate
tombs and living beasts. None of the family have for a long time
owned this ancient seat.
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