University of Virginia Library

ARTICLE L.

Fredericksville and Trinity Parishes, in Louisa and Albemarle
Counties.

After the separation of Louisa county from Hanover, in the
year 1742, and of Fredericksville parish, Louisa, from St. Martin's,
Hanover, the parish of Fredericksville was enlarged by taking in
a part of Albemarle lying north and west of the Rivanna. After
some years Fredericksville parish was divided into Fredericksville
and Trinity, the former being in Albemarle and the latter in Louisa.
We first treat of it in its enlarged and undivided state. It was then
without a place of worship, except an old mountain-chapel (age not
known) where Walker's Church afterward stood. The first meeting
of the vestry was in 1742. The vestry-book has some documents
worthy of introduction as historical antiquities. They were the
tests required of vestrymen at that period of England's history:—

From the foregoing it is evident that the apprehension of Popery
and the success of the Pretender was quite strong, and that the
English Church and Government endeavoured, not only at home,
but in the Colonies, through her officers, to guard most effectually
against both.

Those who signed the above tests were the first vestrymen after
the organization of the parish in 1742. The following were added
at different times until the division of the parish in 1762:—Thomas
Walker, John Meriwether, Nicholas Meriwether, David Mills,
Robert Harris, Robert Anderson, Tyree or Tyrce Harris, William
Johnson, John Harvie, Thomas Johnson.

After the division, a new vestry was elected from Fredericksville
parish. Some of the old ones continued, and others were added, as
Morias Jones, Isaac Davis, Thomas Caw, William Barksdale, John
Foster, Hezekiah Rice, Robert Clark, Nicholas Lewis, and at different

times afterward John Walker, Henry Fry, Thomas Jefferson,[8]
William Tims, John Rodes, John Harvie, Mordecai Ford, Isaac
Davis, James Quarles, William Dalton, Dr. George Gilmer, David
Hooks, James Marks, Thomas Walker, Jr., Robert Michie, James
Minor, Peter Clarkson, William Michie, Reuben Tinsley, Francis
Walker, George Nicholas, Joseph Tunstall, William D. Meriwether.
The last election of vestrymen was in 1787; and the last act recorded
in the vestry-books was the election of Mr. John Walker as
lay delegate to the Convention of that year.

Having thus drawn from our record all that relates to the vestrymen,
we will return and gather up whatever else is worthy of notice.

There being no churches in the parish, the services were held at
Louisa Court-House and at various private houses at different points
in the county. These were performed by lay readers on Sundays,
and for some years by the Rev. Mr. Barrett, from Hanover, twenty-four
times in the year during the days of labour, three hundred and
twenty pounds of tobacco being paid for each sermon. In the year
1745 it was determined to build three frame churches, one in some
central place in Louisa county, called the Lower Church, and sometimes
Trinity Church; another in Albemarle, called Middle Church,
and which was doubtless the same with Walker's Church; and the
third between the mountains on the Buckmountain Road, which is
doubtless the same with that now called Buckmountain Church.
Each of these was built at different times during the few following
years. In the year 1763 another church was resolved on nearer
to Orange,—whether built or not I cannot say. In the year 1747
the Rev. Mr. Arnold was chosen for one year, and continued until
his death, in 1754, when his funeral was preached by Mr. Barrett.

A Rev. Mr. Beckett then performed some services in the parish, as
also the Rev. James Maury, who became the minister in the same
year, and who married a Miss Walker. Soon after he settled in
the parish a good glebe of four hundred acres was purchased for
him, near Captain Linsey's, and a parsonage built, which, with the
outhouses and other improvements, seem during his life to have
been well attended to by the vestry. In the year 1763 the parish
was divided into Trinity, in Louisa, and Fredericksville, in Albemarle.
Of Trinity we now lose sight altogether, I fear, as I know
of no source from which to obtain information. By an Act of the
Legislature the vestry of Fredericksville was ordered to pay two
hundred pounds—half the price of their glebe—to the new vestry
of Trinity for the purchase of a glebe.

The Rev. James Maury continued until his death, in 1770, to
officiate in this parish. Of him and his Huguenot ancestors I have
written in my article on Manakintown,—of him particularly in my
notices of the Option Law, or Two-Penny Act, and in my remarks
on toleration. He was a very deserving man. He was succeeded
by his son, Matthew Maury, who was ordained the preceding year.
Mr. Matthew Maury continued to be the minister of the parish
until his death, in 1808, though his name does not appear on the
vestry-book as receiving a salary after the year 1777. From that
time forward he received little or nothing for his services as a
minister. He retained the glebe for the benefit of his mother and
family, who lived on it, while he taught school on an adjoining farm,
and educated a large number of the citizens of Virginia. He lived
very near to, and on the most intimate terms with, the old blind
preacher, Mr. Waddell, who officiated at the death of his wife, there
being no Episcopal minister at that time in any of the surrounding
counties, and but few in the State.[9]

Before we make our brief mention of the ministers of this parish,
since the revival of the Church during the present century, a few
words are due to the two old churches at Walker's and Buckmountain,
which we have said were determined upon in the year 1745,
and built within a year or two afterward. Old Walker's Church,
built upon the site of a still older and ruder house, stood on the
side of the road from Orange Court-House to Charlottesville, at the
end of a noble avenue of oaks—now no more—leading down to Mr.
Walker's old seat, Belvoir,—itself no more, having been consumed
by fire, but for a long time the seat of hospitality, especially
to ministers and persons coming to church from a distance. The
church being of wood—a framed one—of course must decay much
sooner than one of more solid material.

In the year 1827, when Judge Hugh Nelson, Mr. William C.
Rives, and Dr. Page, occupied their old seats, (having married into
the families of the Walkers,) and the descendants of other old
families were still around, the duty of repairing it was felt. But
the vestry not being able, as of old, to order a levy of tobacco for
building and repairing churches, it was not so easy to accomplish
the work. One of the females of the parish on that occasion made
the following very interesting appeal. It is believed to be from the
pen of one who has since taken so active a part in procuring the
new one which has recently been erected.[10]

The result of this poetic appeal, in co-operation with other means,
was the raising a sufficient sum for the repairs of the church. But,
time still going on with its ravages, it was felt that a new and more
durable one should be had. A gentleman, some years since, then
in prosperous circumstances, promised several thousand dollars
toward the erection of a new one, though by adversity he was disabled
from the full performance of his promise. This stimulated
the desire for a more expensive building than would otherwise have
been attempted. It was commenced under the auspices of one
family,[11] although the people around, during its progress, contributed
about five thousand dollars to it. False calculations were made
as to the expense of the style and manner of its execution, which
caused great delay in the work, and led to various efforts and solicitations
in Virginia and elsewhere in order to raise the needful
amount. Could all the disappointments and miscalculations and
costs have been foreseen, it would have been improper to have
attempted such a building, as a much cheaper one would have
answered all the needs of the neighbourhood. But it was at length
completed, and is in its exterior appearance a most beautiful building,
without any thing gaudy about it, while the materials and
manner of its execution give the promise of its long continuance.

As to Old Buckmountain Church, at the time that measures were

commenced for the resuscitation of our Zion in Virginia, it had
been so long in the use of some other denomination that it was
claimed, not merely by right of possession, but on the ground of
having been repaired. It will amuse the reader to learn the kind
and the amount of repairs on which this claim was grounded. When
I first saw it, more than thirty years ago, it was—though said to
be repaired—a mere shell, with many an opening in the clapboard
walls, through which the wind might freely pass. The inward repairs
consisted in removing the old pews into the gallery, where
they were piled up, and in their room putting benches made of the
outside slabs from the sawmill, with legs as rude thrust through
them, and of course no backs. The old pulpit was left standing,
but by its side was a platform made by laying a few planks across
the backs of two pews, which the preacher preferred to the old-fashioned
pulpit. A few years after the revival of our Church
began, the Episcopalians around, not thinking that either these
repairs or the occasional occupancy of the building had deprived
them of their right, put in their claim, which, though stoutly resisted
by some, being as stoutly insisted on by others, was finally
admitted, and the old church, being much better repaired than
before, has ever since been in our possession and use.

As to the ministers who have officiated in Fredericksville parish
since the revival of the Church, we have but little to say. The
Rev. Mr. Bausman took charge of it in 1818, and remained less
than one year. The Rev. Mr. Hatch succeeded him in 1820 and
continued until 1830. He was succeeded by the Rev. Zachariah
Mead, who continued three or four years, and, as did Mr. Hatch,
served the whole county. From 1833 to the fall of 1838, the Rev.
W. G. Jones, from Orange, officiated at Walker's Church. In the
year 1839 the present minister, the Rev. Mr. Boyden, took charge
of the parish, and for some years ministered also to the congregation
on the Green Mountain. The church on Buckmountain has
for many years been served in conjunction with other congregations,
which will be mentioned when we speak in our next article of St.
Anne's parish.