 | A history of Caroline county, Virginia |  |
THE PARISH
The parish was a politico-ecclesiastical division of the colony,
which was coexistent with the county, as a rule, but not always
coterminous. Some counties contained several parishes, and
some parishes embraced more than one county. The law required
that Churches be so situated that all inhabitants might
attend them without any great inconvenience, and as a result
Churches were to be found on an average of from ten to fifteen
miles apart, according to density of population.
As the population moved upward from the "lower counties"
new Churches were erected to accommodate the people, and new
parishes were formed on the heads of the old, by the General
Assembly, and thus the number of parishes grew in proportion
to the number of new counties. Indeed it frequently happened
that the parish preceded the county, and Churches were built in
new sections before the county court-house or the jail.
| A history of Caroline county, Virginia | |