 | Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia |  |
ARTICLE XLIV.
Parishes in Dinwiddie and Brunswick Counties.—Bath Parish.
This parish was established in 1742, being cut off from Bristol
parish. Its dividing-line, however, was changed in 1744, so as to
enlarge Bristol parish. Dinwiddie county was taken from Prince
George in 1752. A part of Bristol parish—that in which Petersburg
lies—is still in Dinwiddie. The first minister of whom we
have any account was a Mr. Pow, once a chaplain of his Majesty's
ship Triton, who was succeeded in 1755 by the Rev. James Pasteur,
who was also the minister in 1756; whether after this, and how
long, is unknown. In 1763 the Rev. Devereux Jarratt, who had
been ordained in London on Christmas-day the preceding year,
became minister of the parish. In his autobiography he says,—
"Several ministers have been my predecessors in the parish. From
them," he says, "I suppose they had heard little else but morality and
smooth harangues, in no wise calculated to disturb their carnal repose, or
to awaken any one to a sense of guilt and danger. . . . My doctrine was
strange and wonderful to them, and their language one to another was to
this effect:—`We have had many ministers, and have heard many before
this man, but we never heard any thing till now of conversion, the new
birth, &c. We never heard any of our ministers say any thing against
civil mirth, such as dancing, &c.; nay, they rather encouraged the people
in them,—for we have seen Parson such an one, and Parson such another,
at these mirthful places, as merry as any of the company. This new man
of ours brings strange things to our ears.' . . . At this time," he says
"I stood alone, not knowing of one clergyman in Virginia like-minded
with myself."
It is to be feared that about this time, and some years before, a
number of the clergy of Virginia were not only wanting in seriousness,
but were immoral and ignorant. A pious member of the
Church, from somewhere in this region, I believe, writes to the
Bishop of London of the gross ignorance of four clergymen, mentioning
them by name, and the immorality of one of them, comparing
them with the learning and piety of two Presbyterian
ministers who had just come into the State, and prophesying the
result of these things unless arrested. He, however, adds that
there were some of a different character. With one of these Mr.
Jarratt himself soon became acquainted.
As Mr. Jarratt was the minister of this parish from this time
(1763) to the time of his death in the year 1801,—thirty-eight years,
—and was a man of no ordinary character, it is proper that we give
some sketch of him. The only difficulty in doing this will be the
selecting, from the materials furnished by himself and the Rev. Mr.
Coleman, to whom he addressed his autobiographical letters, the
most important, so as not to exceed the bounds prescribed by the
character of this work. Devereux Jarratt—so called, as to his Christian
name, from Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, in whose army
his grandfather served—was born in New Kent county, Virginia,
January 6, 1732-3. His father, like the reputed father of our
Emmanuel, was a carpenter. "We were accustomed," he says,
"to look upon what were called gentlefolks as being of a superior
order. My parents neither sought nor expected any titles or great
things either for themselves or their children. Their highest ambition
was to teach their children to read and write and to understand
the fundamental rules of arithmetic. They also taught us short
prayers, and made us very perfect in repeating the Church catechism."
When he was seven years of age his father died, and he
was left to the care of his elder brother Robert, who inherited all
the landed estate, as there was no will. The share of the other
children was twenty-five pounds current Virginia money. At an
early age Devereux discovered a turn for books, and was sent to a
plain school. But, when not at school, his time was spent in
keeping race-horses, taking care of game-cocks, and working on
the farm. He seldom went to church, where he says old Mr. Mossom
preached "wholly from a written sermon, keeping his eyes
continually fixed on the paper, and so near that what he said
seemed rather addressed to the cushion than to the congregation."
At the age of nineteen, after spending some time in learning the
trade of a carpenter, and disliking it, he determined to become a
teacher of what he did know. Hearing of a place in Albemarle—
now Fluvanna—at a Mr. Moon's, he set out,—his all, excepting only
one shirt, being on his back, and that which was in his hand was
lost soon after. In Albemarle there was no minister of any persuasion,—the
Sabbath being spent in sporting. His salary was nine
pound and seven shillings. Being sickly on that part of James River
where he lived,—near Bremo Creek,—he changed his place of
labour, and got still less the second year. The third year he lived
with a Mr. Kennon, whose wife was a pious woman and greatly
promoted his spiritual welfare. His reading and intercourse with
Mrs. Kennon strongly inclined him to the Presbyterian Church,
and many doubts and misgivings, and some severe contests
with the evil one, he determined on the ministry. Having meanwhile
examined some excellent Episcopal writers, and considered
well the question of Churches, he resolved to take Orders in the
Established Church. Having improved himself much in literature,
especially in the languages, during his engagements as a teacher,
and having obtained commendatory papers, and a title to some
parish, in October, 1762, he sailed for England to obtain Orders.
There he was detained until the spring,—not being able to obtain
Orders at once,—and being attacked by the smallpox. During
this time he placed all his money in the hands of the friend with
whom he stayed, who spent it. Other and better friends being
raised up by Providence, he was supplied with the means of returning
to Virginia. In that year he entered upon the duties of
the ministry in Bath parish. There were three churches in it,—
Saponey, Hatcher's Run, and Butterwood,—to whose congregations
he devoted himself. Of his preaching he speaks thus:—
"Instead of moral harangues, and advising my hearers, in a cool, dispassionate
manner, to walk in the primrose paths of a decided, sublime,
and elevated virtue, and not to tread the foul track of disgraceful vice,
[the language of the pulpit in that day,] I endeavoured to enforce, in the
most alarming colours, the guilt of sin, the entire depravity of human
nature, the awful danger mankind are in by nature and practice, the tremendous
curse to which they are obnoxious, and their utter inability to
evade the sentence of the law and the strokes of divine justice by their
own power, merit, or good works. A religious concern took place, and
that great question, `What must I do to be saved?' was more and more
common, especially among the middle ranks. Not that I supposed none
of the poorer sort were convinced of sin and truly concerned for their
souls, but they did not make me acquainted with it, because, at that time,
people in the lower walks of life had not been accustomed to converse with
clergymen, whom they supposed to stand in the rank of gentlemen and
above the company and conversation of plebeians. . . . As soon as I
discovered a religious concern in my parish, I no longer confined my labours
to the pulpit on Sundays, but went out by night and by day, and at
any time in the week, to private houses, and convened as many as I could
for the purpose of prayer, singing, preaching, and conversation. The
religious concern among the people of Bath soon enlarged the bounds of
my preaching. The sound of it quickly reached to the neighbouring
parishes, and thence to the counties and parishes at a greater distance.
This moved many scores from other parishes to come and see for themselves.
Butterwood Church soon became too small to hold one-half the
congregation. One large wing, and then another, were added to it, but
yet room was wanting. I was now earnestly solicited by one and another
from a distance to come over and help them. Thus commenced the enlargement
to a circle of five or six hundred miles, east, west, north, south."
During his years of travelling, when he visited twenty-nine
counties in North Carolina and Virginia, he regularly attended the
three churches in his own parish on Sundays, devoting the days
of the week to itinerant labours, except on occasions when his
visits were very distant. The journal of his labours shows that for
some years he averaged five sermons a week. He was, of course,
very obnoxious to many of the clergy. One of them charged him
with violating an old English canon by preaching in private houses.
To this he replied that no clergyman refused to preach a funeral
sermon in a private house for forty shillings, and he preached for
nothing. Moreover, that many of the brethren transgressed the
75th canon, which forbids cards, dice, tables, &c. to the clergy,
and yet were not punished. Some complained of his encouraging
pious laymen to pray in his presence, which he answered by reminding
them how often they permitted ungodly laymen to swear
in their presence, without even a rebuke. Mr. Jarratt adduces in
proof of the low state of religion the small number of communicants,—none
but a few of the more aged—perhaps seven or eight
at a church—attending. The rest thought nothing about it, or else
considered it a dangerous thing to meddle with. The first time he
administered it there was only that number. About ten years after
he entered the ministry, there were, at his three churches, including
a number who came from other parishes, about nine hundred or
one thousand, although he endeavoured faithfully to guard the table
against unworthy receivers. For many years this happy state of
things continued; but, after a time, a melancholy change appeared.
During the war, the clergy, deprived of their salaries, had in great
numbers deserted their parishes. Dissenters were multiplying
through the State. An irresistible tide was sweeping away the
Episcopal Church. What could the single arm of Mr. Jarratt do
to avert its ruin? The Baptists made the first inroads on his flock.
The Methodists came on soon after, and Mr. Jarratt availed himself
of their aid to oppose the former. They professed to be, and
doubtless at the first in sincerity, the true friends of the Episcopal
Church, who only desired its reformation; but, when increased in
numbers, they established a separate and rival communion. Mr.
Jarratt encouraged their private meetings, and, not deeming it
right or canonical to throw open his churches to their lay preachers,
tendered his own barn to their use, and was present at some of
were after a time deserted for the more popular modes of the Methodists.
But the same result occurred throughout the State, only
that those who adopted a different mode, and made violent opposition
to them, were the sooner deserted. The fact is, that a
thousand circumstances contributed to render the downfall of the
Church at that time inevitable. Had there been such men as Jarratt
from the first, it would not have been. Had there been a
hundred such men as Jarratt in the Church of Virginia at that
time, numbers would have remained in it, who would have made
the Episcopal Church at this day the largest, instead of the smallest,
of the Churches of Virginia. Mr. Jarratt, though thus deserted
and discouraged, continued steadfast, predicting, even to the last,
the resuscitation of the Episcopal Church, believing that it had the
Divine favour, and the redeeming principle in it. In his letter to
his old friend Mr. McRoberts, who was like-minded with himself
for many years, and with whom he had taken sweet counsel, but
who at length abandoned our ministry and sought to establish a
Church in Virginia on the Independent plan, he writes like a true
descendant of the English Reformers as to the doctrines and policy
of the Church, assuming, as to the latter, the ground taken in our
Articles and Ordination Services, affirming its apostolic origin,
though not denouncing others as destitute of authority. Mr. Jarratt,
though looked upon with an evil eye, as he says, by the old clergy,
and having little intercourse with them, still attended some of their
Conventions. At one, in 1774, held in Williamsburg, he says that
he was treated so unkindly, and heard the true doctrines of Christianity
so ridiculed, that he determined to attend no more of them.
In the year 1785, however, he attended one in Richmond, which
was called for the purpose of organizing a Diocesan Church and
adopting canons; but he was again so coldly treated, that, after
remaining a few hours, he returned home. In the year 1790, the
Convention which elected Bishop Madison was called, and he, being
present, was better received. On the following year he was appointed
to preach the opening sermon at the Convention of 1792.
That noble sermon stands first in his volume of sermons. On his
return home he stopped in Petersburg, where Bishop Madison had
appointed an ordination. Mr. Jarratt, being requested to take
part in the examination, refused two of them as unfit for the office.
"But what did that avail?" he says: "another clergyman was called
in, and I had the mortification to hear both of them ordained the
same day. I say hear, for it was a sight I did not wish to see."
in a pew on one side of the pulpit, in a corner, where he sat with
a handkerchief over his head. The excuse which Bishop Madison
offers for ordaining one or more of them, whom he admitted to be
unworthy, was the same which Governors and Commissaries formerly
did for not disgracing such,—viz.: that "ministers were so scarce,
we must not be too strict." The Convention of 1792 was the last
Mr. Jarratt attended. In the year 1795, he says, "I have now
lived in the world just sixty-two years." Infirmities of body were
now coming over him. The use of one eye had long been lost to him.
A tumour on his face, which ultimately proved to be a cancer, began
to make its appearance. Notwithstanding this, he says, "old and
afflicted as I am, I travelled more than one hundred miles last
week, was at three funerals, and married two couples. Within less
than three months, I think, I wrote about nine hundred pages in
quarto. Part of them I copied for the press; part I extracted and
abridged; part I composed in prose and poetry. But now it is
probable I have wellnigh finished my work." Still, he went on
with his public duties. "I wish," he says, "to go to church every
Sunday at least, and join in her most excellent system of public
worship,—a system to which I am particularly attached, because it
is noble, beautiful, and complete in all its parts, and, in my judgment,
well calculated to answer the end designed. And will such a
system ever be permitted to fall to the ground? I fondly hope it will
not; though, alas! the prospect here in Virginia is gloomy enough.
Churches are little attended,—in most places (I judge from report)
not more than a dozen, one Sunday with another; and sometimes
half that number. By a letter from a Presbyterian minister, I learn
that religion is at a low ebb among them. The Baptists, I suppose,
are equally declining. I seldom hear any thing about them. The
Methodists are splitting and falling to pieces." As to himself, he
says, "I have yet tolerable congregations, but the people have sat
under the sound of it so long, that they appear gospel-hardened."
He speaks of the condition of a minister in Virginia as most discouraging.
He was labouring without any compensation; and yet, he
says, "it is pretended that I have an itching palm." This he
disproves by declaring that from 1776 to 1785 he received not one
farthing, and that after the Church was organized in Virginia, and
a subscription was set on foot in his parish, he only received about
thirty or forty shillings the first year, and nothing since.
To this brief sketch, taken from his own letters to Mr. Coleman,
I only add the following remarks by the editor:—
"Mr. Jarratt meddled very little with politics. He had enough to do
to attend to the duties of his profession. He considered himself an ambassador
of Christ. His business was to call sinners to repentance, and to
teach mankind the way of salvation without regard to parties or opinions.
Had he been asked what countryman he was, in the spirit of universal
philanthropy he might have answered, like Socrates, `I am a citizen of
the world;' but when the rights of his country were invaded, or her
interests endangered, the amor patriæ which dwelt in his bosom would
not permit him to be an unconcerned looker-on. Many circumstances
took place during the Revolution, and all well known in Virginia, which
unite to evince his attachment to the interests of America. When the
Governor of Virginia (Lord Dunmore) left the seat of Government, and
issued a proclamation for all the loyalists to join him, it was necessary to
guard the seaport-towns from depredations. Many of his parishioners
and even his pupils turned out as volunteers in defence of their country,
and with his approbation. I remember the circumstances well, being out
myself in 1776; and a fellow-student of mine (Mr. Daniel Eppes) read
the Declaration of Independence to the army. During the contest between
England and America, his dress was generally homespun. By precept
and example he encouraged economy, frugality, and industry. I have
often heard him recommend these virtues to his fellow-citizens, and even
to go patch upon patch rather than suffer their just rights to be infringed."
Mr. Jarratt died on the 29th of January, 1801, in the sixty-ninth
year of his age and the thirty-eighth of his ministry. His excellent
widow survived him a number of years. She was the daughter
of a Mr. Clayborne, of Dinwiddie or Brunswick. They had no
children. Mrs. Jarratt was one of the first and most liberal contributors
to our Theological Seminary.
Though fifty-five years have elapsed since the death of Mr.
Jarratt, the history of his successors is brief. With one exception
all are now living, and therefore my pen is hindered. The Rev.
Wright Tucker, like-minded with Mr. Jarratt, succeeded him.
In the year 1805, he is in the Convention at Richmond. There
had been no Conventions, or else no journals of them, since 1795.
Another interval of seven years elapsed without Conventions. Mr.
Tucker was not at the Convention of 1812, but appeared in 1813.
How long he lived and ministered after this is not known to the
writer. His name is not on the journals afterward. Nor is it
known that there were any regular ministrations there, until the
year 1827, when the Rev. John Grammar—a son of the two props
to the church in Petersburg, already mentioned, one of whom was
an old parishioner of Mr. Jarratt—took charge of the parish, in
connection with that of St. Andrew's in Brunswick. From the
time of his settlement to the present, there have been six ministers
besides himself,—the Rev. Thos. Castleman, the Rev. Mr. Massie,
the Rev. Mr. Banister, the Rev. Mr. Webb, and the Rev. Thomas
Old Saponey still stands, and is the only one of the three in which
Mr. Jarratt officiated that has any existence so far as we know
and believe. No bishop or other minister can enter that plain but
venerable building without associations of the most sacred character.
Although only a very few now live who remember to have seen old
Father Jarratt, even in their early years, yet his name and memory
have been handed down from generation to generation with the
highest respect, and not only the Old Saponey, but the Episcopal
Church itself in that region, used to be known and called by some
of the inhabitants "Old Father Jarratt's Church."
As to the families which once dwelt around that spot and worshipped
in that house, where are they? One at least remains to
remind us of former days. Hard by the old church still lives the
aged widow of Mr. Thomas Withers, the friend of Mr. Jarratt, the
prop of Old Saponey in many ways. To the old mansion, as by
instinct, the clergy always repair, when the service is over, and
love to ask and hear of former days and of Father Jarratt. The
descendants and relatives of old Mr. Withers and his still surviving
widow are numerous, and many of them active members of the
Church, and one of them in the ministry: but where are they?
Old Saponey knows them no more.
BRUNSWICK COUNTY AND ST. ANDREW'S PARISH.
The county of Brunswick and parish of St. Andrew's were established
in 1720, being cut off from the counties of Isle of Wight and
Surrey and the parishes of the same, by Act of Assembly. Being a
frontier-county, arms and ammunition were assigned to the settlers,
taxes remitted for ten years, and five hundred pounds given to Nathaniel
Harrison, Jonathan Allen, Henry Harrison, and William
Edwards, to be by them laid out in building a church, court-house,
prison, pillory and stocks, where they shall think fit. Twelve years
after this, in the year 1732, other portions of the Isle of Wight and
Surrey were added to Brunswick. Having had access to the vestry-book
of this parish, which commences in the year 1732, when the
county and parish were then completed, we are able to give a
more accurate account of the church and its ministers than of some
others. It is evident that there had been previous vestries, and
that the church ordered by the Assembly had been built, (where
is not known,) and there may have been a minister or ministers
before the commencement of this vestry-book. But in 1733 the
vestry met and chose the Rev. Mr. Beatty, at the recommendation
and some place on Meherrin, where a chapel was to be built. At
a meeting in 1734, two chapels, instead of one, were ordered, and
the places selected, but objection, it is supposed, being made, and
complaints sent to the Governor and Council, that body gave directions
where they were to be placed. The one was to be on Meherrin,
and called Meherrin Church, and the other on or near
Roanoke, to be called Roanoke Church, the old church to be called
the Mother-Church. In the year 1739, another church is determined
on, and in 1742, mention is made of the new church. In
1744, it is resolved to build a church on the south side of Roanoke.
In 1746, it is resolved to build a church on the south side of
Meherrin. In the year 1750, mention is made of Duke's Chapel,
and Rattlesnake Chapel. These, we presume, were additional to
the two on either side of Meherrin, and the two on either side of
Roanoke, and the Mother-Church,—being seven in all. As to their
location I can form no conjecture. The problem must be solved
by the citizens of Brunswick and Greensville, the latter county,
with one or more of the churches, having been cut off from the
former at a later period. In the year 1750, the Rev. Mr. Beatty
disappears from the record, having served the parish seventeen
years. In the same year the Rev. George Purdie is elected
minister for six months. At the end of the year the Rev. William
Pow,—the same no doubt who was soon after the minister in Bath
parish,—being recommended by the Hon. Lewis Burwell, President,
and the Commissary, is chosen. In six months after, the Rev.
Mr. Purdie is again the minister, though with the remonstrance
of four of the vestry. In November, 1752, the name of another
chapel—Reedy Creek—appears, and in the year 1754 another by
the name of Kittle Stick. At the same date the Rev. Mr. Purdie is
allowed to preach once in three months at Red Oak School-House,—
probably the place where Red Oak Church afterward stood.
At a vestry-meeting in 1755 the following entry is found:—
"The vestry, being of opinion that the Rev. George Purdie has for some
time past neglected his duty, and behaved himself in a manner which is
a scandal to a person of his function, do order and direct Drury Stith,
Edward Goodrich, and Littleton Tazwell, or any two of them, to wait on
the Commissary and acquaint him as soon as possible with the behaviour
and conduct of said Purdie for some time past, and request him to make
use of his authority in silencing him, (if any such he hath,) and if not,
that he will join with us in a remonstrance to the Bishop of London, or
such other person or persons as he shall advise, to have the said Purdie
removed from the parish."
Under the same date we find mention of the Old Court-House
Church, and an order that the Surveyor of the county make a
plan of it, as it will be necessary to build three other chapels.
In the year 1757, we find the case of Mr. Purdie before the
vestry, the Commissary having ordered a trial. The witnesses
appear, when Mr. Purdie acknowledges guilt and resigns his
charge, but the vestry agree to try him for one year more. At
the end of that time, one month's trial was allowed him. They
are not relieved from him until April, 1760. His case is mentioned
in other documents which I have. The Rev. Patrick Lunan and
the Rev. Gronon Owen next present themselves as candidates, and
are both admitted on trial for one year, the salary to be equally
divided between them. The Rev. Mr. Lunan was doubtless the
one who gave such trouble to the parish in Suffolk soon after this.
The Rev. Mr. Owen had been recommended by the Governor, but
the recommendation did not come until the application of Mr.
Lunan had been made. Therefore they were both put on trial,
but at the end of the year neither was chosen. Governor Fauquier
then presented Mr. Owen, who was accepted. There was probably
some understanding between the vestry and Governor to this effect,
or else the Governor, being an authoritative man, insisted upon his
right of presentation and induction,—a thing seldom done by any
of his predecessors. Mr. Owen continued to be the minister until
1769, and died there. We should have had no knowledge whatever
of Mr. Owen but for a recent communication from a literary
society in London, from which it appears that he was a man of
talents and worth. The communication referred to makes inquiry
concerning him and his posterity, and their history in this country.
It seems that he was a Welshman, a man of great genius and a fine
scholar, who wrote one of the best poems in the Welsh language,
concerning Wales; and a Welsh society in England is desirous to
erect some monument to his memory in that country. All the
information which could be returned was, that some worthy grandchildren—two
females—were living in Brunswick in reduced circumstances.
No tombstone, no inscription, exists. Perhaps the
place of his interment is unknown. In the year 1769, the Rev.
Mr. Lundie produces a certificate from the Bishop of London of
his ordination, and is received as the minister.
The entries in the vestry-book now become irregular and brief.
The war of the Revolution was at hand. The best men were on
the field or in the councils of the country. Henry Tazwell, an
active member of the vestry, was taking an active part in the
were for the most part scarcely worth having, and the glebe-houses
tumbling over their heads. The Rev. Mr. Lundie was among the few
who continued at his post during the war. His name is seen on
the Journal of the Convention in 1785, which met in Richmond to
organize the diocese and unite in the general confederation of the
Church in America. He was then the minister of the churches in
Greensville as well as Brunswick. After this he became a minister
of the Methodist communion. The names of Drury Stith,
John Jones, Thomas Claiborne, appear among the lay delegates.
They were probably among the last who despaired of the Church
in this region. It is believed that the Rev. Mr. Grammar in 1827
was, longo intervallo, the regular successor to Mr. Lundie. The
Rev. Messrs. Jarratt, Tucker, and Cameron, from the adjoining
counties of Dinwiddie and Lunenburg, doubtless performed many
ministerial offices there during their ministries.
In giving a list of the clergy in Bath parish, from Mr. Grammar's
time to the present, we have given the list of the ministers of St.
Andrew's parish, as they were under the same ministry, with the
exception of the three last,—the Revs. Messrs. Berger, Johnson, and
Mower, whose services have been confined to Brunswick, while Bath
parish had its own. Under the auspices of these ministers of our
resuscitated Church in Brunswick, three new churches have been
built, one at Lawrenceville, another about twelve miles off, called
Wilkin's Chapel, from the name of him who built it at his own expense,
and the third about eighteen miles from Lawrenceville.
The following is the list of vestrymen from the year 1732 to
1786:—Henry Embra, John Wall, Richard Burch, Wm. Machen,
Wm. Wynne, Charles King, Wm. Smith, Thomas Wilson, Robert
Dyer, Nicholas Lanier, Wm. Hagwood, Batt Peterson, Nathaniel
Edwards, James Mitchell, Clement Read, George Walter, John
Ligleport, Littleton Tazwell, Nicholas Edmonds, John Clack,
Thomas Switty, Henry Edmonds, Robert Briggs, Edward Goodrich,
Heagle Williams, John Petway, Samson Lanier, William
Thornton, W. Edwards, Henry Cocke, Alexander Watson, Thomas
Stith, Frederick Machen, Francis Willis, Henry Tazwell, Joseph
Poeples, Richard Elliott, William Batte, Thomas Edmonds, Wm.
Machen, Buckner Stith, Benjamin Blick, Birrus Jones, Andrew
Meade, John Stith, John B. Goldsberry. Among the above-mentioned
vestrymen we read the names of Clement Read, Littleton
and Henry Tazwell. Of the first we shall speak when we find
his name on the vestry-book of Cumberland parish, Lunenburg, when
refer to Mr. Grigsby's book on the Convention of 1776. The
first was descended from William Tazwell, who came from Somersetshire
in 1715, and married a daughter of Colonel Southey
Littleton. His son Littleton resided in Brunswick and was an
active vestryman and churchwarden. His grandson Henry was
born there, and became a lawyer of eminence. He married a Miss
Waller. He was the father of the present Littleton Waller Tazwell.
After distinguishing himself as a statesman and patriot in
the House of Burgesses, and in other causes during and after the
war, he was raised to the bench of the Court of Appeals, and then
appointed Senator of the United States in the place of Mr. John
Taylor, of Caroline, and in opposition to Mr. Madison.
MEHERRIN PARISH IN THE COUNTY OF GREENSVILLE.
This parish was separated from St. Andrew's parish, Brunswick,
in 1753. No vestry-book being extant or in our possession if
extant, we can only ascertain, from such lists of the ministers as
we have, who belonged to this parish. In the year 1754 we find
the name of John Navison, and also in 1758, as the pastor of this
parish. In the years 1773-74-76, the Rev. Arthur Emmerson
was the minister. In the year 1791 the Rev. Stephen Johnson
was the minister for that year, and that only. From that time
it is supposed a deathlike silence pervaded the churches, so far as
Episcopal services were concerned, until of late years. The Rev.
Edward E. McGuire was sent as missionary to Greensville, Sussex,
and Southampton, in 1842. The Rev. Mr. Withers succeeded him
in Sussex and Southampton, and was succeeded in Greensville by
the Rev. Mr. Sprigg in 1846. The Rev. W. D. Hanson also spent
one year in Greensville. In the time of Mr. Sprigg, in the year
1848, a neat and comfortable house of worship was formed out of
a large barn or stable, and, under the ministry of the Rev. Mr.
Robert and of his predecessors, a tolerable congregation has been
raised up in this waste place of our Zion. I am further informed,
by a letter which had escaped my notice when writing the foregoing,
that before the division of Meherrin from St. Andrew's there
were two churches in it, to which two more were added, one near the
Carolina line, and one on the Meherrin River, three or four miles
west of Hicksford. A third was Grassy Pond Church, the traces
of whose foundation may yet be seen; the fourth was near Poplar
Mount. All of them being cheap churches, of wood, as nine-tenths
of the Colonial churches were, soon perished. There is a
of this parish, and was too favourable to the British; but I cannot
find his name on any of my lists, before, during, and after the war,
and do not believe that there was one of his name in Virginia.
That the British under Arnold did not receive favour in the whole
of the parish is proved by the fact that there is a place near one
of the churches to this day called Dry Bread, because they would
let them have nothing else to eat there. There are two churches
now in the county, of recent erection,—Christ Church, Hicksford,
and Grace Church, twelve miles off.
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