University of Virginia Library

PRESBYTERIAN.

Presbyterians were settled in the county while it was yet a
part of Goochland. The colony of Scotch Irish who came
over the Blue Ridge in 1734 under the auspices of Michael
Woods, brought with them the faith of their fathers. Among
these were the families of Wallace, Kinkead, Stockton,
McCord and Jameson. Further to the south along the base
of the Ridge were the Morrisons, McCues, Montgomerys,
Reids and Robertsons. These last were the founders of
Rockfish Church, located in the forks of Rockfish River.
About 1746 James McCann, who had patented the land in
1745, conveyed to John Reid, James Robertson and Samuel
Bell one acre and thirty-five poles, for the Rockfish Church,
and for a school for the inhabitants of that vicinity.

Among the families first mentioned two churches were
established. The first was Mountain Plains, which was
built near the confluence of Lickinghole Creek and Mechum's
River, and called after Michael Woods's plantation, and
which still exists as a Baptist Church. The second was the
D. S. Church, which was situated on the southwest face of

the hill, on the summit of which S. W. Caulbeck recently
resided. These communities, and others in Virginia and
North Carolina, received the visits of several Presbyterian
ministers in early times, beginning with that of Rev. James
Anderson in 1738. In 1745 John Woods was sent to the
Presbytery of Donegal in Pennsylvania, to prosecute a call
for the services of Rev. John Hindman in the churches of
Mountain Plains and Rockfish, but his errand seems to have
been unsuccessful. Mr. Hindman was no doubt the same
man who became an Episcopalian, and was the first rector of
Augusta parish, dying there a year or two after entering
upon the office. A call is still extant, dated March 1747, and
signed by fifty-seven persons, which solicited the labors of
Rev. Samuel Black in the church of Mountain Plains, and
among the inhabitants of Ivy Creek. The place of worship
for the people last mentioned was the D. S. Church, which
was probably erected shortly after, as Mr. Black accepted the
call. He was the first Presbyterian preacher who settled in
the county. In 1751 he purchased from Richard Stockton
four hundred acres on both sides of Stockton's Creek, and
there he resided until his death in 1770. Descendants bearing
his name still live on a part of the old place.

About the time of Mr. Black's settlement in Albemarle,
Rev. Samuel Davies commenced his work in Hanover County.
He had at first no little trouble with the State authorities,
whose intervention was invoked by some bigoted ministers
of the establishment under the old repressive laws against
non-conformity. He however boldly and skilfully appealed
to the provisions of the English Act of Toleration, which he
claimed applied to the colonies no less than to the mother
country, and was soon able to pursue his labors without
molestation. He gathered several congregations, reaching
from Hanover through Louisa and Goochland to Charlotte
County. In 1755 the Presbytery of Hanover was formed.
At their first meeting, they received a petition from the people
of Albemarle near Woods's Gap, asking for preaching,
and Mr. Davies himself being appointed spent with them the
second Sunday of March 1756. From that time through a

number of years, they had, besides the services of Mr. Black,
those of Mr. Davies, John Todd, John Brown, John Martin,
Henry Patillo and others. These ministers occasionally
preached to the people on Buck Island at Mr. Lewis's—unquestionably
at Monteagle—to those living between the
Secretary's Ford and the mountains—no doubt in the Charlottesville
courthouse, and at D. S. Church—to those at
North Garden at Mr. Garland's, and to those at the Cove at
George Douglas's.

As years passed on, ministers born and educated in Virginia
were settled in the county. In 1769 Rev. William
Irvin, who had been a pupil at Mr. Todd's school in Louisa,
became pastor of the Cove Church. In 1770 Rev. Samuel
Leake accepted a call to the D. S. Church. The next year
Mr. Irvin extended his labors to Rockfish and Mountain
Plains.

The Presbytery of Hanover convened with considerable
frequency in the churches of the county. It met at Rockfish
in 1772, 1773 and 1775, at the Cove in 1793, 1794, 1799, 1800,
and 1803, and at the D. S. in 1771, 1772, 1775 and 1792.
The last time it met at D. S. was in October 1809, holding
night sessions at the house of John R. Kerr. At that meeting
Rev. Thomas Lumpkin, a young minister, who had taught
school for a short time in the neighborhood, was to have
been ordained, and installed as pastor, but unhappily he had
died the preceding month. The membership of this church
was so much reduced by deaths and removals, that two years
later its organization was dissolved. The ground on which
it stood, and which had been conveyed to the congregation
in 1773 by Joel Terrell, passed into the hands of Jesse
Lewis, who within the memory of some now living removed
the old building. Two meetings of the Presbytery
were held in Walker's Church. The first occurred in 1814,
when they convened at night at the house of Captain Meriwether.
At that time it received under its care John Robertson,
the father of Judge W. J. Robertson, as a candidate for
the ministry. The second meeting took place in 1819, and
night sessions were held at the house of John Rogers. It

met at Mountain Plains in 1778, and for the last time in
October 1828, when they held night sessions at the house of
the elder William Woods, of Beaver Creek.

South Plains Church was established in 1820, as the result
of the labors of Rev. William Armstrong, and Rev. James
C. Wilson. John Kelly, of Charlottesville, was one of its
first elders. A branch of the same church worshipped on the
west side of the South West Mountain at Bethel. It was
not until 1870, that Bethel was set apart as a separate organization.
Rev. Francis Bowman began preaching at South
Plains in 1822, preaching occasionally also at the courthouse.
Under his ministry the first Presbyterian house of
worship in Charlottesville was built in 1827. In that year
the lot on which it stood, on the southeast corner of Market
and Second Streets, was conveyed by James Dinsmore to
John Kelly, James O. Carr, Francis Bowman, Thornton
Rogers, William Woods, Surveyor, Thomas Meriwether and
Dr. John Holt Rice, as trustees of the new congregation. It
was not constituted a distinct organization until 1839, when
it was under the ministry of Dr. William S. White.

The Presbyterian Church of Scottsville was founded in
1827, chiefly through the agency of Rev. Peyton Harrison.
He had settled there as a young lawyer in 1825. Having
been converted by the preaching of Rev. Asahel Nettleton,
he became actively interested in religious work, and rested
not till a church was formed. Shortly after he relinquished
the law, and studied for the ministry. When he became a
preacher, he returned to Scottsville, and was settled as pastor
over the church for a brief period. Dr. William S. White
succeeded him, and continued his labors there until he removed
to Charlottesville.