The following have also been sent me:—
"This monument is erected to the memory of Ralph Wormley, Esq.,
of Rosegill, who died on the 19th day of January, 1806, in the 62d year
of his age. The rules of honour guided the actions of this great man. He
was the perfect gentleman and finished scholar, with many virtues founded
on Christianity."[104]
"Beneath this marble lies interred the remains of Mrs. Eleanor Wormley,
widow of Ralph Wormley, Esq., of Rosegill, and sister of Col. John
Tayloe, of Mount Airey, who died the 23d day of February, 1815, in the
60th year of her age. Few women were more eminently distinguished for
correctness of deportment and for the practice of all the Christian virtues:
as a wife she was conjugal, as a widow exemplary, as a mother fond and
affectionate, as a neighbour charitable and kind, as a friend steady and
sincere."
There were also buried within the church Sir Henry Chichely,
Knight, Deputy-Governor of Virginia in 1682. The Rev. John
Shephard in the same, and the Honourable Lady Madam Catharine
Wormley, wife of the Honourable Ralph Wormley, (the first Ralph
Wormley,) in the year 1685. The following is a communication
from the present minister of our partly-resuscitated Church in
Middlesex, (the Rev. Mr. Carraway.)
"The upper and lower churches or chapels are still standing. One of
them is about to be repaired by the Baptists, who will claim the chief
though not exclusive use of it. The lower chapel retains some appearance
of antiquity, in spite of the efforts to destroy every vestige of Episcopal
taste and usage. The high pulpit and sounding-board have been removed,
and the reading-desk placed within the chancel, before which is the
roughly-carved chest that formerly held the plate and other articles for
the decent celebration of the Holy Communion. There were three sets of
plate in the parish. A descendant of one of the earliest families, now the
wife of one of our Virginia clergy, on removing from this county, took
with her, in order to keep from desecration, the service belonging to the
lower chapel. She lent it to a rector of one of the churches in Richmond,
with the understanding that upon the revival of the parish it must be
restored. Application was accordingly made in the year 1840, and the
vestry received the value of the plate in money, which was given at their
suggestion, they having a full service in their possession. The plate owned
by Christ Church was presented by the Hon. Ralph Wormley. It numbered
five pieces. But for the inscription bearing the name of the donor,
it would have shared the fate of much that was irreligiously and sacrilegiously
disposed of. The administrator of Mr. Wormley deposited it in
the bank at Fredericksburg, where it remained for more than thirty years.
It has been in use up to a few months since, when, we regret to say, it
met with almost entire destruction by fire. Enough has been gathered up
to make a service more than sufficient for the present little company of
communicants. It will perpetuate the name of the donor and indicate his
pious intention. The third set, belonging to the upper chapel, was sold
by the overseers of the poor. We omitted to mention in the proper place
that there are some slight traces of the foundation of a building, now
overgrown with pine-trees, which tradition says was the chapel of the
Buckingham farm, the residence of Mr. Henry Corbin."
A few words will suffice for the history of efforts for the revival
of the Church in Middlesex. The Rev. Mr. Rooker was employed
as missionary, in this and the adjoining county of Mathews, for a
few years after 1840. His preaching and labours excited a considerable
zeal in the few remaining members of the Church in those
counties. He was succeeded by its present minister, the Rev. Mr.
Carraway, who has devoted himself now for about ten years most
faithfully and laboriously to those two counties. Though the fields
be large and comparatively unproductive, requiring great toil and a
large amount of itinerancy, and the salary small, still, no invitations
to more promising and less laborious positions have tempted him to
leave them. Himself and companion are now, and have been for
some years, the welcome inmates of the family of Captain Bailey,
who, with his excellent wife, (a pious member of the Church,) is
living at old Rosegill, the ancient seat of the Wormleys, on the
high banks of the Rappahannock, a few miles from Christ Church.
Captain Bailey, (the relative of our old friend Colonel Chewning,
of Lancaster, one of whose descendants was vestryman and another
lay reader in Middlesex, whose dwelling is on the opposite shore,)
when an orphan boy, in a spirit of independence, left Lancaster to
seek his fortune in the wide world. He launched forth for Baltimore
in a merchant-vessel, traversed many seas, visited many lands
and experienced many dangers and hardships, was shipwrecked
often, (Mrs. B. being with him in one shipwreck,) but still preserved
by a kind Providence. Occasionally, in the midst of his various
efforts to realize a fortune, in which he was at length most successful,
he would return to his native place, and, as Colonel Chewning
has often told me, cast a wishful eye on old Rosegill, towering on the
high banks of the Rappahannock, and declaring his determination,
if Providence spared his life and prospered his efforts, that he
would spend the evening of his days as the owner of that mansion.
Providence has spared his life and prospered his efforts in laying
up a fortune gathered from various seas and countries, and he and
his wife are now the hospitable owners of Rosegill. More than
half of the huge pile has been removed by him, and the remainder
exalted, beautified, and improved. Hospitality, though modified
and improved from former times, still distinguishes the place.
Captain B. and his excellent wife are glad to have the society of
Mr. and Mrs. Carraway as permanent guests, free of all charge.
Besides patronizing old Christ Church on the one side of him, he
has recently purchased the old court-house in Urbanna on the other,
and converted it into a neat and comfortable house of worship.
Mr. Carraway's services are very acceptable, and the Episcopal
Church is gradually rising in the estimation of the inhabitants of
Middlesex.
