University of Virginia Library

BACON'S REBELLION.

Jamestown having been the most prominent theatre of Bacon's
rebellion, and the greatest sufferer thereby,—the place being destroyed
by fire,—it becomes us to take some brief notice of it.
Writers on the subject trace the beginnings of this movement to
an enterprise against the Indians by Colonel Mason and Captain
Brent, of Stafford county, in 1675, who, on some cruel murder
committed by the former, collected troops and followed them
over into Maryland, putting great numbers to death, bringing
a young son of one of their kings or chiefs back a prisoner.[28]
These wars with the Indians continuing to harass those who lived
on the frontiers and in the interior, while the Governor and those
living at or around Jamestown were quite secure, the former began
to complain that they were not protected, and that they must follow
the example of Mason and Brent, and take care of themselves.
Among the dissatisfied was Bacon, a man of family, talents, courage,
and ambition. After applying in vain to Sir William Berkeley
for a commission to raise men for the purpose of assailing the
Indians, he, urged by his own genius and the wishes of others,
collected a considerable troop and spread terror around him,
destroying a number of the hostile natives. The Governor proclaimed
him a rebel, but the people sent him back to the House of
Burgesses, and the Governor thought it expedient even to admit
him into the Council, where he had been before. But it did not end
here. Bacon again raised a troop and sallied forth against the

Indians. Again the Governor pronounced him a rebel, and raised
an army to subdue him and his followers. But Bacon, with an
inferior force, besieged Jamestown, drove out the Governor and his
men, and, lest he should regain this stronghold, burnt city, church,
and all to the ground. The Governor had twice to seek refuge on
the Eastern Shore. Whether Bacon's rebellion was a lawful one
or not, I leave civilians to decide. Sir William Berkeley certainly
gained no credit to himself, either for his military talents, or his
truth, or humanity, for, in spite of all his assurances to the contrary,
and the express orders of the King, he did, after the sudden
decease of Bacon, put to death a number of his followers. For
this, and other high-handed acts, his memory is not dear to the
lovers of freedom.

Although a new and better church, whose tower still remains,
was built at Jamestown, yet the city never recovered from this
blow. The middle Plantation, or Williamsburg, was already beginning
to rival it, and by the beginning of the next century the
seat of government was removed to Williamsburg, where the College,
State-House, and Governor's palace quite eclipsed any thing
which had ever been seen at Jamestown. The Governor's house,
at Green Spring, which Sir William Berkeley built, a few miles off,
answered for a time in place of the State-House at Jamestown;
the Council and Burgh holding their meetings there.

Proceeding now with the succession of ministers in Jamestown,
we have been unable to ascertain any other until the Rev. James
Blair, the Commissary, who came to this country in 1685, and settled
in Henrico, whence, after remaining until 1694, he removed
to Jamestown, and remained until 1710, preaching there, and at a
church eight miles off, in the adjacent parish, and then moved to
Williamsburg. Who succeeded him, and who ministered there
until the year 1722, I know not. In that year the Rev. William
Le Neve took charge of it. He reports to the Bishop of London,
in the year 1724, that the parish is twenty miles long, twelve wide,
has seventy-eight families in it, and usually twenty or thirty communicants.
He also preached every third Sunday at Mulberry
Island parish church, lower down the river, where he had double
the number of communicants, and a larger congregation. The
congregation at Jamestown must have been small. There never
was but one church in it; and that was not a large one. The seventy-eight
families must have been the whole flock of James City parish
at this time. The salary of James City parish was only £60.

The minister received £30 for preaching at Mulberry Island, and
£20 for lecturing in Williamsburg on Sunday afternoons. In the
year 1758, we find the Rev. Mr. Berkeley the minister. In the
year 1772, the Rev. John Hyde Saunders was ordained for this
parish by the Bishop of London. In the year 1785, the Rev.
James Madison, afterward Bishop of Virginia, became its minister,
and continued so until his death in 1812, long before which the
congregation had dwindled into almost nothing,—the church on the
Island having sunk into ruins, and the little remnant of Episcopalians
meeting at a brick church a few miles from the island, on the
road from it to Williamsburg. That has also entirely disappeared.
A young friend of mine, who was in Williamsburg about the year
1810, informed me that, being desirous of hearing the oratory of
Bishop Madison, he had once or twice gone out on a Sabbath
morning to this church, but that the required number for a sermon
was not there, though it was a very small one, and so he was disappointed.
It might be expected that I should in this place say
something about Bishop Madison, in addition to what may be found
in my first article of Reminiscences of Virginia; but, though I
have endeavoured to procure some of his papers for this purpose,
I have thus far been disappointed. I can only say that in the
year 1775 he was ordained deacon and priest by the Bishop of
London. In the year 1774 he became Professor in the College of
William and Mary, in the year 1777, President of the College,
and in the year 1790 was consecrated Bishop of Virginia. His
addresses to the Convention breathe a spirit of zealous piety, and
his recommendations are sensible and practical. Although agreeing
in political principles with those who were foremost in the
State for the sale of Church property and the withholding from
her and other Societies any corporate privileges, he steadily and
perseveringly, though ineffectually, resisted their efforts. I again
repeat my conviction that the reports as to his abandonment of
the Christian faith in his latter years are groundless; although it
is to be feared that the failure of the Church in his hands, and
which at that time might have failed in any hands, his secular and
philosophical pursuits, had much abated the spirit with which he
entered upon the ministry.

The old church at Jamestown is no longer to be seen, except
the base of its ruined tower. A few tombstones, with the names
of the Amblers and Jaquelines, the chief owners of the island for
a long time, and the Lees, of Green Spring, (the residence and property,
at one time, of Sir William Berkeley,) a few miles from

Jamestown, still mark the spot where so many were interred
during the earlier years of the Colony. Some of the sacred vessels
are yet to be seen, either in private hands or public temples
of religion. The first I would mention are a large silver chalice
and paten, with the inscription on each,—

Also a silver alms-basin, with the inscription, "For the use of
James City Parish Church." When the church at Jamestown
had fallen into ruin and the parish ceased to exist, probably at
the death of Bishop Madison, these vessels were taken under the
charge of the vestry in Williamsburg. During the presidency of
Dr. Wilmer over the College, and his pastorship of the church in
Williamsburg, in the year 1827, they were placed in the hands of
the Rev. John Grammer, to be used in the church or churches
under his care, on condition of their being restored to the parish
of James City, should it ever be revived. In the year 1854, Mr.
Grammer thought it best to surrender it into the hands of the
Episcopal Convention, with the request that it be deposited for
safe-keeping in the Library of the Theological Seminary of Virginia,
where it now is. The second is a silver plate, being part
of a communion-service presented to the church at Jamestown,
by Edmund Andros, in the year 1694, he being then Governor.
The history of this is singular. In one of our Southern towns,
about twelve years since, a gentleman, wishing something from a
jeweller's shop, was directed by the owners of it to look into a
drawer for the thing wanted, in which drawer was kept old silver
purchased for the purpose of being worked up again. This piece
of plate was noticed, being much bent and battered. It was purchased,
and, being restored to its original shape, was discovered to
be what we have stated; this appearing from the Latin inscription
upon it. This also has been presented to the Church of Virginia.
The third and last of the pieces of church furniture—which is
now in use in one of our congregations—is a silver vase, a font for
baptism, which was presented to the Jamestown Church, in 1733,
by Martha Jaqueline, widow of Edward Jaqueline, and their son
Edward. In the year 1785, when the act of Assembly ordered
the sale of Church property, it reserved that which was possessed
by right of private donation. Under this clause, it was given
into the hands of the late Mr. John Ambler, his grandson. The
following lines in relation to it are from the pen of Mr. Edward
Jaqueline's grand-daughter, the late Mrs. Edward Carrington, of

Richmond. They have been furnished by one of her descendants,
and I take pleasure in placing them on record:—

I have also been permitted to make use of the papers of this
excellent lady in presenting some sketches of the members of her
family who were in connection with the old church at Jamestown.
Nor can I do this without first making a brief reference
to herself. Mrs. Carrington was a sincere and pious member of
our Church in Richmond, from the beginning of its resuscitation
in 1812,—how much longer I know not. Being infirm, from the
time of our first Conventions, she was unable to attend public
worship, but was not ashamed to convert her house into a place
of prayer and exhortation, inviting her neighbours and friends to
assemble there. Some pleasant and edifying meetings have I
been privileged to attend and participate in, under her roof,
during the last years of her pilgrimage on earth. The paper from
which I extract the following was drawn up in the year 1785, on a
visit to one of the Amblers, at a residence called the "Cottage,"
in Hanover county, Virginia, and where were the portraits of the
older members of the family:—

From the papers of Mrs. Carrington I take the following concerning
the religious character of her mother:—

Mrs. Carrington also speaks, in like manner, of her father, Mr.
Jaqueline Ambler:—

"His saintlike image is too deeply impressed to need any picture of
mine to recall him to our remembrance. I find a complete portrait of
him drawn by the inimitable Cowper:—

Speaking of the piety of both of her parents, she says,—

Her aged aunt Jaqueline had assured her that piety distinguished
her father from early youth. She herself had experienced the
fruits of it in his assiduous care of herself and sisters. Her mother
being in very bad health, her father, though much engaged in
the duties of his office, (collector of the King's customs at York,)
devoted all his spare hours to the education of herself and her
sister, (afterward Mrs. Marshall,) then only five or six years of age.
The copies for writing were always written by himself, in a fair
hand, containing some moral or religious sentiment, but defective
in grammar, that they might correct them; and so of other branches.
The advantages they possessed were superior to any enjoyed in
those days, when there were no boarding-schools and all that was
taught "was reading and writing, at twenty shillings a year and
a load of wood." Mrs. Carrington informs us that "the government
exercised by her father was by some thought to be too severe,
for the rod, at that time, was an instrument never to be dispensed
with, and our dear father used it most conscientiously. I have
since discovered that his superior knowledge of human nature led
him to pursue the right course, (as to discipline,) and in my own
subsequent experience, in the education of children, I have found
that the present prevailing opinion, that youth may be reared and
matured by indulgence, is erroneous. I will venture to say that,
with a very few exceptions, it will be always proper to observe a
well-regulated discipline. We often hear the observation that a
rigid parent never has an obedient child. Our experience certainly
contradicts it. Where the parent is found to unite the virtuous

Christian with the conscientious disciplinarian, he will never cease
to be loved and respected. Such a father was ours, and the love
and respect we bore him has seldom been equalled." His example,
also, added weight to his precept and government. "Never did
man live in the more constant practice of religious duties. Early
and late we knew him to be in the performance of them. It was
his daily habit to spend his first and latest hours in prayer and
meditation. Every Sunday that his church was open, he was the
first to enter it, and often would he be almost a solitary male at
the table of the Lord." This, she adds, was during the war, when
the men were engaged in it, and when infidelity was spreading
through the land. The last end of this good man was, as might
be expected, one of peace. On his death-bed, when speaking of
one of his neighbours, who had gone to some distant place in
search of a home, he said, with his eyes uplifted to heaven, "I am
going to a nearer, happier home" To a female friend, who was at
his bedside when he died, he exclaimed,—

From such ancestors, as might well be expected according to the
covenant of grace, many pious children have descended, who have
faithfully adhered to the Church of their fathers.

P.S.—Since preparing the above, I have received a fuller account
of the descendants of the first of the Jaquelines. He came
to this country from Kent, in England, in the year 1697, and, marrying
Miss Carey, of Warwick, settled at Jamestown. His daughter
Mary married one of those Smiths in Middlesex of whom we
shall make mention in our article on that parish, and two of which
family were ministers of the Church in Gloucester and Matthews.
Colonel Edward and General John Smith, of Frederick, and many
others, were the children of Mary Jaqueline and John Smith. We
have seen, in the account taken from the papers of Mrs. Carrington,
the sketch of one branch of the Amblers, that descended from Jaqueline
Ambler, who married Miss Burwell. We have only to refer
to that descended from Edward Ambler, who inherited Jamestown,
or a large portion of it. Mr. Edward Ambler married Miss Mary
Carey, daughter of Wilson Carey, the lady of whom Washington
Irving, in his life of Washington, speaks, as the one to whom General
Washington was somewhat attached. One of his sons was Mr.
John Ambler, first of Jamestown, then of Hanover, and afterward of

Richmond. His first wife was a Miss Armistead, by whom he had Edward, who settled in Rappahannock, and Mary, who married
Mr. Smith. His second wife was the sister of Judge Marshall, by
whom he had one child, Major Thomas Ambler, of Fauquier. His
third wife was the widow of Mr. Hatley Norton, of England, and
daughter of Philip Bush, of Winchester, by whom he had many
sons and daughters, who are married and settled in various parts
of the State,—warm friends or members of the Church. Two of
the descendants of this branch of the family are worthy ministers
of the Church,—the Revs. Charles and Thomas Ambler.