ARTICLE XLI.
Parishes in Chesterfield, Dale, and Manchester.
Chesterfield was originally part of Henrico shire and parish,
as established in 1632. In —, that part of the parish lying
some miles north of the Appomattox was taken into Bristol parish,
but at the establishment of Dale parish was incorporated into it.
Dale parish, therefore, included the whole of Chesterfield until
Manchester parish was separated from it. In this region were
some of the earliest settlements. Bermuda Hundred was established
in 1611, by Sir Thomas Dale. A large portion of the
College Lands were laid along James River, on its northern bank,
toward Manchester. Here the Indian massacre in 1622 was great.
On Colonel Berkeley's plantation alone—at Falling Creek—himself
and twenty others were destroyed. At an early period settlements
were made on James River and the Appomattox, from City
Point to what are now Manchester and Petersburg.
The first ministers were in one corner of the county, at Bermuda
Hundred, Whittaker, Wickham, and Stockham, of whom we have
already spoken. In the sketch of Bristol parish we have given
the names of those who have ministered in this part of the State
from 1693 to the time of the establishment of Dale parish.
The first of whom we read after this is the Rev. George Frazer,
in 1754, who was also minister in 1758. How long he continued
afterward cannot be ascertained. In the years 1773-74-76, the
Rev. Archibald McRoberts is on the list of clergy as minister of
this parish. Having been ordained in 1763, he may have been
there some years before. He was the bosom-friend of Mr. Jarratt
for a number of years, but left the Church about the year 1779,
during the war, and after the Church had become very unpopular.
His defence of this act will, I think, be considered by nearly all as
a very weak one. He was not the minister of Dale parish at the
time, but of one in Prince Edward. His letter in reply to two
written to him by Mr. Jarratt, inquiring into the truth of his reported
change, and as to his reasons for it, is dated Providence,
July 13, 1780. This was the name of the glebe near Prince
Edward Court-house. In it he says,—
"Upon the strictest inquiry it appears to me that the Church of Christ
is truly and properly independent; and I am a Dissenter under that denomination.
Ecclesiastical matters among the Presbyterians I find every
day verging toward my sentiments, and will, I believe, terminate there.
There is very little that divides us even now. They constantly attend my
poor ministry. Several of Mr. Sanky's people have joined my congregation,
and I have lately had a most delightful communion-season at Cumberland,
where I assisted Mr. Smith, at the urgent request of himself and
the elders. Soon after my dissent, as my concern for the people had suffered
no change, I drew up a set of articles including the essential parts
of natural and revealed religion, together with the Constitution and Discipline
of the Christian Church, and proposed them to their consideration;
since which they have formed a congregation at the chapel, and a few
have acceded at French's and Sandy River.[122]
I preach at the churches
by permission, and intend to continue, God willing, until the first of
January, at which time, if congregations should not be formed at the
lower churches, my time will be confined to the chapel, and such other
place or places as Providence may point out and the good spirit of God
unite his people at."
It appears that, failing to attach his old Episcopal congregations
to the Independent Church, which he was endeavouring to establish,
he afterward connected himself with the Presbyterian, which was
then gaining ground in that region, as we find him spoken of as a
minister of that communion. Of his subsequent history we know
little. That he was a pious and conscientious man we are well convinced.[123]
After Mr. McRoberts, in 1776, we have no records to inform us
who was the minister of Dale parish until the Convention of 1785,
the first after the Establishment was put down, when the Rev. William
Leigh, who was ordained by the Bishop of London in 1772,
was the clerical delegate. His name does not appear after this, and
I am informed that he died in the year 1786 or '87, aged thirty-nine
years. In the year 1776, I find he was the minister of Manchester
parish in the same county. He was the only son of Ferdinand
Leigh, of West Point, in King and Queen county, Virginia.
His father early dedicated him to the ministry. He was educated
at William and Mary College. He married the daughter of Benjamin
Watkins, Clerk of Chesterfield county. He lived at Dale
glebe, near Petersburg, and preached at Wood's Church and Ware
Bottom, or Osburne's, alternately, and sometimes at Saponey Church,
of Chesterfield. Mr. Leigh was the father of Judge William Leigh,
of Halifax county, and Benjamin Watkins Leigh, of Richmond,
both of them so well known in Virginia,—the one as lawyer and
judge, the other as lawyer and statesman; also of two sisters,
Mrs. Finnie and Mrs. Harris, zealous members of our Church.[124]
Of the Rev. Mr. Leigh, the testimony of children and of many
others speaks nothing but what is good. He was succeeded by the
Rev. Needler Robinson, whose name first appears on our journal
as its minister in 1790. He continued to be its minister—nominally
at least—until his death, in 1823. The Episcopal Church
in Chesterfield nearly disappeared during the period of his ministry.
Indeed, his time and labours were chiefly devoted to a school from
the first. Although he lived so many years after our Conventions
in Richmond were renewed, and was so near the place, he never
attended them.
I have been furnished with a few leaves from the vestry-book of
Dale parish, from the years 1790 to 1799, from which I am able
to give a list of the vestrymen during that period. They are as
follows:—Jerman Baker, John Botts, George Robertson, Richard
Bosker, Blackman Morly, Thomas Bolling, King Graves, Arch.
Walthall, Arch. Bass, Jesse Coghill, Daniel McCallum, Charles
Graves, George Woodson, Henry Winfree, Roger Atkinson, Thomas
Friend, Charles Duncan, Daniel Dyson, John Hill, Henry
Archer.
On the same loose leaves we have a number of subscription-lists,
on which are names well known to us at this day. The object, we
presume, was for repairing the churches about the year 1790.
Among them, besides the above-named vestrymen, were the following,—a
few among many:—Osborne, Rowlett, Burton, Roisseau,
Taylor, Gibbs, Royall, Shore, Worsham, Branch, Tanner, Randolph,
Burwell, Goode, Ward, Clarke, Hardaway, Walke, Barber,
Donald, Bragg, Epps, Belcher, Hodges, Marshall, &c.
Nothing is heard of this parish for a long and dark period.
In the year 1835, the Rev. Farley Berkeley takes charge of
Raleigh parish, Amelia, and extends his labours to Old Saponey
Church, in the neighbourhood of a few zealous friends of it,—the
Thweats, Johnsons, and others. He has been succeeded for some
years by the Rev. Mr. Tizzard, who devotes his whole time and
labours to the county of Chesterfield.
The Old Saponey is deserted: a new church has been erected
some miles off, in a more convenient location. Wood's Church is
still standing. The following communication in relation to it comes
from such a source that I feel sure I shall not do injustice to any
one in publishing it:—
"About 1831 or 1832, the old deserted church was repaired by the
united efforts of two bodies of Christians, and occupied by them until it
was abandoned by both in 1848. Another repairing being found necessary,
it was undertaken by a gentleman attached to the Episcopal Church.
By him it was restored to the Episcopalians, and at his invitation the first
sermon preached by a minister of that body. Before the next Sunday,
however, the house had been entered, the main door fastened up, a lock put
upon a side-door, and the building taken possession of by one of those
bodies which had deserted it. Anxious to recover their lawful right to
this venerable building, the Episcopalians of the neighbourhood made application
to the judge to appoint two of their number to hold it as Episcopal
property. The application was rejected, on the ground that it was
public property, and belonged no more to Episcopalians than to any other
body of Christians. During the last repair the workmen discovered on one
of the upright beams the figures 1707, showing that it was built thirty
years before the Old Blandford Church."
In regard to the right of property I have before said, that that
most eminent jurist, Mr. Chapman Johnson, after the most thorough
examination of the question, gave it as his opinion that the
right of the Church to the old houses of worship was not impaired
by any Act of the Virginia Assembly. It would appear very unlikely
that such a body would pass an act so well calculated to
engage all bodies of Christians in such disgraceful broils as must
ensue from declaring them common property, to be used as art or
violence might determine. It would have been far better to offer
them to the highest bidder,—as was done in regard to the glebes
and parsonages, which were, as the churches, built by levies on
all the tithables. As when Episcopalians have abandoned their
churches and others take possession, so, when these in turn have
abandoned them, and we, under altered circumstances, repair and
re-enter them, it would seem just and reasonable that we be allowed
so to do.
MANCHESTER PARISH, CHESTERFIELD COUNTY.
This parish was taken from Dale parish in 1772. The dividingline
commenced at the mouth of Falling Creek, on James River,
and ended at the mouth of Winterbock Creek, on the Appomattox.
In the following year the line was altered; the upper part, including
Manchester, was Manchester parish. At Falling Creek there
are, I believe, still the remains of an old and venerable church,—
whether built before or after the division I am unable to say, but
most probably before. I presume there must also have been one in
or near Manchester. The troublous times of the Revolution being
at hand when it became a parish, it is probable that nothing was
done toward building churches in it after the division.
As to ministers, we read of the Rev. William Leigh, who took
charge of it in 1773 and kept it until 1777; how much longer we
cannot say, as we have no lists of the clergy after that until 1785,
and in 1786 he was minister of Dale parish. In 1785, the Rev.
Paul Clay is minister for one year. In the year 1790, the Rev.
William Cameron, brother of Dr. John Cameron, was minister, and
continued so for four years. In the year 1799, the Rev. John
Dunn is the minister. After this there is no delegation from this
parish, except when the names of Mr. David Patterson and James
Patterson appear as laymen in 1805. I remember the former well,
as a constant attendant at our Conventions in Richmond after their
revival in 1812. He took a deep interest in all the movements of
the Church until his death. If not a reader at Falling Creek
Church before, he was appointed such by Bishop Moore, and continued
to the last to officiate to the few who remained in our communion
around the old temple.
I conclude the little I have to say of the parish of Manchester
and Falling Creek Church with the following notice of it by a
young brother in the ministry, who visited them both a few years
since:—
FALLING CREEK CHURCH.
"I visited Falling Creek Church in 1849, and note the following particulars
concerning it:—
"This church is in Chesterfield county, about thirteen miles southwest
of Richmond. It is situated in what is now a very secluded spot. I instinctively
raised my hat as I crossed the old decaying threshold and stood
under the roof of this ancient edifice. It is a wooden building, the timbers
of the very best quality, and even at the time [1849] in a state of
almost perfect preservation. After the old style, we find the clerk's desk
at the foot of the reading-desk, and, rising above both, the pulpit,—the
latter of octagonal form, with a sounding-board. These were at the side
of the church. At the end of the aisle, and opposite the main entrance,
were the chancel and communion-table. A side-door faces the pulpit. The
window-shutters were, with one or two exceptions, all missing. The sashes
had been taken from the windows and scattered about the church and
yard, and none of them appeared to have ever had a single pane of
glass, so carefully had the work of appropriation been carried on. The
pews are square, with seats on all four sides, and capable of accommodating
about fifteen or twenty persons each. About two hundred persons
could have been comfortably seated on the floor of the church, while many
additional sittings might have been found in a gallery which ran across
the end of the house opposite the chancel.
"A gray-haired old negro—not very talkative, but a coloured gentleman
of the old school, for his manners were almost courtly—informed me that
he could `just remember when the church was built, being then a mere boy.'
He said that it was always crowded `when the clergyman with the black
gown preached.' He remembered, too, `when the British soldiers camped
in the churchyard,'—at whose appearance his master and mistress, and all
their family, hurriedly fled. The name of his master I have forgotten. He
pointed out one of the largest trees in the churchyard, and told me he had
seen that tree planted as a scion at the head of an infant's grave. He
had forgotten whose child it was. The Baptists had used the church
for some time, until of late years, when they abandoned it, owing to its
retired position. It was taken possession of by those who did not feel it
was holy ground, for its walls were desecrated with scribbling unsuited to
the sacredness of the place; and about a month before my visit the dead
body of a poor creature, noted in the neighbourhood for his drunken
habits, was discovered lying at the foot of the clerk's desk, much defaced
by the rats. Better that the owls and the bats should have undisturbed
possession, than that God's image should thus be defiled in the house of
prayer."
There was a warm friend of the Church living near this place,
of whom it becomes us to make some mention. Mr. Archibald
Cary, of Amphill, in Chesterfield, appears in the Episcopal Conventions
in the years 1785 and 1786, as delegate from Dale parish.
In the last of these years he died. I refer my readers to Mr.
Grigsby's work on the Convention of 1776, for a sketch of the political
character and patriotic services of Mr. Cary. He was among
the very foremost of the patriots of Virginia. "It was from his
lips, as Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, that the words
of the resolution of Independence, of the Declaration of Rights,
and a plan of government, first fell upon the public ear." The
following is a brief sketch of one branch of the Carys, from Mr.
Grigsby's book:—
"Miles Cary, the son of John Cary, of Bristol, England, came to Virginia
in 1640, and settled in the county of Warwick, which, in 1659, he represented
in the House of Burgesses. In 1667 he died, leaving four sons.
His son Henry, father of Archibald, was appointed to superintend the
building of the capitol at Williamsburg, (when the seat of government
was removed from Jamestown;) also at a later period to superintend the
rebuilding of the college, which had been burnt. He married a daughter of
Richard Randolph, of Curles, and left five daughters, who married Thos.
Mann Randolph, of Tuckahoe, Thos. Isham Randolph, of Dungeness,
Archibald Bolling, Carter Page, of Cumberland, and Joseph Kincade."
This branch has been denominated the Iron Carys, from the fact
that Archibald Cary was called "Old Iron," either, says Mr.
Grigsby, because of his "capacity of physical endurance" or
"his indomitable courage," or because he had an iron furnace
and mills at Falling Creek, on the site of one established by
Colonel Berkeley, who, with a number of his men, was murdered
by the Indians in 1622. Mr. Cary's mills were burned by Colonel
Tarleton in the American war.
