 | Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia. |  |
THE FAMILY OF CABELLS.
Among the numerous families of Amherst and Nelson who were
the active supporters of the Episcopal Church, the Roses and Cabells
were most conspicuous. Of the Roses, the descendants of
the Rev. Robert Rose, who died in 1751, leaving large estates to
his four sons, we have already written in our sketches of the father
in a previous article. Of the Cabells we will now make some
mention, abridging our notice from the various accounts we have
of them.
Dr. William Cabell, a surgeon of the British navy, emigrated
to Virginia about the year 1720 or 1725, according to different accounts.
It is said he owned twenty-five thousand acres of land on
either side of Upper James River, in the counties of Nelson, Amherst,
and Buckingham. He was one of the earliest vestrymen and
wardens in the Church, as established in that part of Virginia, and
was the intimate friend of the Rev. Robert Rose. Between the
years 1740 and 1750 he appears as chiefly concerned in the contracts
for the building of churches, &c. He had four sons,—William,
Joseph, John, and Nicholas. William, the eldest, was the owner of
the estate called Union Hill, in Nelson county, on James River.
Mr. Grigsby has given a very glowing account of this mansion and
the hospitality of its owner, and his great business-talents as a
farmer, and in other respects comparing his house to Mount Vernon,
except that it was larger, and himself to Washington, as to the
management of his estate, and methodical accounts kept by him.
He speaks of his association with Washington in all the great political
bodies in Virginia previous to 1776, as well as in that year, and
of his political career afterward, terminating in the adjournment of
the Federal Convention. It remains for me to add, that before and
after the death of his father, Dr. Cabell, he was also the active
vestryman and churchwarden in the parish, the intimate friend of
the Rev. Mr. Rose, who was often at his house. I have before me
subscription-papers and contracts in which he is leader in all Church
down and it became necessary to raise a salary for the minister by
private contributions. His son also, Mr. William Cabell, who was
a representative in Congress from this district before his father's
death, and in connection with his father, took part in the vestry-proceedings.
Of his other sons I have no account. Of his daughters,
one married Mr. Rives, the father of W. C. Rives and of a
number of other sons and daughters; another married Judge Cabell;
another the Rev. Mr. Legrand. The present Mayo Cabell,
of Nelson, and Mrs. Bruce, of Richmond, are also descendants of
Colonel Wm. Cabell. The second son of Dr. Cabell, father of the
family, was Joseph, of whom all the information I have is, that he
was also at various times in the House of Burgesses, and took
part in the Revolution, and was the ancestor of General Cabell, of
Danville, and of the Breckenridges of Virginia and Kentucky. Of
the third son, John, I learn that he was in the Convention of 1775
and 1776, and was the father of the late Dr. George Cabell, of
Lynchburg. Of the fourth son, Nicholas Cabell, of Liberty Hall,
I find that he was both in the field and the Legislature, and was
the father of the late Judge W. H. Cabell and Joseph C. Cabell.
I have also papers showing that he was a vestryman of the church
in this parish, and took a lively interest in its affairs. He was the
collector of the subscriptions made to the ministers after the Revolution:
to him Mr. Darneile applied in his difficulties, for relief,
and both himself and his brother, Colonel Wm. Cabell, acted as
friends to Mr. Darneile by advancing moneys for him. On a slip
of paper before me I find that he also collected what was given to
the Rev. Mr. Clay, while minister in Albemarle, for services
rendered at Key's Church, in Nelson, but which Mr. Clay requested
him to give to the poor of the parish.[13]
I have also a manuscript sermon preached by the Rev. Charles
O'Neale, then probably a minister of some neighbouring parish,
the death of two of Mr. Nicholas Cabell's daughters, Hannah and
Henningham, who died on the 7th and 8th of September of that
year, aged the one eight and the other six years. In this sermon
also we see the deficiency of the pulpit in that day. Once only is
there allusion to Christ, when he says that "to those who lead a
virtuous life, and die in the faith of Christ, the whole aspect of
death is changed," while in the sermon, which is on resignation and
preparation for death, he speaks of certain duties "to be performed
in order to make us acceptable to God," and at the close of it says
that "the best preparation for death is a virtuous temper and a good
life. When once you are furnished with these qualifications, you
may view it approaching toward you with a calm and constant mind,
free from any timorous and unmanly solicitude." Nothing is said in
the sermon about a new birth of the Spirit as a necessary qualification
for heaven, of faith in Christ and repentance toward God as
being the constant exercises of the true Christian, and from which
any good works can flow. There are many very good things said
about the vanity of earthly things and the duty of considering our
latter end, but they are such things as are common to the Christian
preacher and the pagan philosopher.
I might also speak of the Sheltons, Taliaferos, Thompsons,
Ellises, Davises, Tinsleys, Garlands, and others, as having been
fast friends of the Church in Amherst and Nelson, but refer to the
list of vestrymen for the purpose of showing who were her persevering
advocates.
There is one name on which I must dwell for a moment. Mr.
William Waller, lately deceased, was perhaps inferior to none of
the laity of Virginia in personal piety and hearty zeal for the
life. He was well known in our Conventions, which he delighted
to attend, and acted as an efficient vestryman and lay reader for a
long time. He has left a large family of children, who I trust will
follow his good example.
One word is added concerning the family of Massies, in Nelson,
not very far from Rockfish Church. It came at an early period
from England, and settled in New Kent, where several in succession
were vestrymen. Major Massie, of Nelson, after having served in
the Revolution, moved from New Kent about the close of the war,
and was a vestryman of the Church in Frederick county, with
Colonel Burwell, Meade, and others. From thence he moved to
Nelson, and lived in great seclusion the remainder of his days. He
had three sons, of whom Dr. Thomas Massie, of Nelson, was the eldest.
The following additions to my account of the Cabells have been sent me by one
of the family, and will, I am sure, prove interesting, not only to all of that widespread
connection, but to many others.
"Dr. William Cabell came to Virginia either in 1723 or 1724. Colonel William
Cabell, Sen. it was who once held twenty-five thousand acres of land in this region.
His father may at one period have owned half so much. His object seemed to be
rather to acquire that of the best and most durable quality for the use of his posterity,
than to embrace a surface which could not be brought into use for a generation
to come. He accordingly secured all the alluvial land in the Valley of James
River, for more than twenty miles continuously, above this place, where he resided.
Was not he also the Wm. Cabell whom Mr. Rose visited? I have some doubts whether
Colonel Wm. Cabell (who was born in March, 1730) was settled at Union Hill
(or Colleton, as it was then called) before Mr. Rose's death. Two of the contracts
for building churches in Albemarle, which I sent you, were those spoken of by
Mr. Rose near the close of his diary, and probably left with Dr. Cabell for safekeeping.
"1.
Of the sons of Dr. Cabell, the first and third—William and John—married respectively
Margaret and Paulina, daughters of Colonel Samuel Jordan, who lived on
James River, in Buckingham, and near the Seven Islands. The former was accounted
an able man and true patriot in his day, and was much respected in all the
relations of life. He had four sons, of whom three were somewhat distinguished
in the family. Samuel Jordan, the eldest,—who married Sarah, daughter of Colonel
John Syme, of Hanover,—was the member of Congress from this district from 1795
to 1803. He had risen to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Southern War, and
afterward served in the Legislature of the State, and in the Convention of 1789.
William, generally known as Colonel Wm. Cabell, Jr., also served in the latter scenes
of the war in this State, and was occasionally in the Legislature afterward. He
married Anne, daughter of Judge Paul Carrington, and was the father of Colonel
Edward A. Cabell, sometime of Amherst, now of Washington, D.C., of Mayo Cabell,
and of Mrs. Bruce, and others. Landon,—the third son,—a man of distinguished
talents and acquirements, but never in public life, married a daughter of Colonel
Hugh Rose, and was the father of Dr. R. Henry Cabell, now of Richmond. Colonel
Cabell's daughter Paulina had married Major Edmund Read, of Charlotte, (son of
Colonel Clement Read,) before she was married to Rev. Mr. Legrand.
"2. Colonel Joseph Cabell—who married a Miss Hopkins, of Amherst, (now Nelson,)—had
but one son and several daughters. The son, who bore his own name,
married Pocahontas, daughter of Colonel Robert Bolling, of Chellowe, Buchanan,
and their descendants (of whom you have mentioned General Cabell) are numerous.
Colonel Joseph Cabell was the ancestor of the Breckenridges of Kentucky, and not
of Virginia. Thus, his daughter Mary married John Breckenridge, (elder son of
General James Breckenridge). This gentleman, after a successful career at the
bar here, (he lived in Albemarle,) removed with George Nicholas to Kentucky,
of which territory they immediately became the leading citizens. When it was
erected into a State Mr. Breckenridge was sent to the Senate of the United States,
and at his death was Mr. Jefferson's Attorney-General. The eldest son of Mr.
Breckenridge (Joseph Cabell Breckenridge) was a rising statesman of Kentucky
at the time of his death. He married a daughter[14]
of President Smith, of Princeton,
and their son is now Vice-President of the United States. The three
younger sons of Mr. Breckenridge—John, Robert, and William—became distinguished
Presbyterian clergymen. His daughter (Letitia) married first a son of
Mr. Senator Grayson, and second, General P. B. Porter, of New York, Mr. Adams's
Secretary of War. To return: Colonel Joseph Cabell had other daughters, of whom
Anne married Robert Carter, son of Carter Harrison, of Clifton, in Cumberland,
and Elizabeth married Colonel William J. Lewis, of Campbell, sometime member
of Congress from that district. The major part of Colonel J. Cabell's descendants
are now to be found in the West,—particularly in Kentucky and Missouri.
"3. Colonel John Cabell had several sons,—of whom Dr. George Cabell, of Lynchburg,
was the eldest. His brother John, of the same place, was also a learned and
successful physician.
"A third son—Frederick—succeeded to the family mansion on James River, opposite
New Market, and his eldest son, of the same name, was several times a delegate
from this county under the second Constitution, and the first Senator from this
district under the present régime. A fourth son of Colonel John removed to Kentucky.
One of his daughters married first her cousin Hector, and afterward Judge Daniel.
"4. Colonel Nicholas Cabell embarked in the Revolutionary service so early
as 1775, and several years afterward the Legislature appointed him to the command
of one of the State Regiments, but it so happened, and much to his mortification,
that he was never called into action. He served in the Senate for more
than sixteen years from 1785. Of his four sons we have mentioned the first and
third. The second was the father of Professor Cabell, of the University; the fourth
of Francis Cabell, of Warminster."
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