University of Virginia Library

I have endeavoured to obtain all the information to
be had respecting the old parish of Bloomfield,—embracing a section of
country now known as Madison and Rappahannock. What I have
gathered is from the recollections of the venerable Mrs. Sarah Lewis, now

in her eighty-second year. Mrs. Lewis is descended from the Pendletons
and Gaineses, of Culpepper, the Vauters, of Essex, and the Ruckers.
From her I learn that there were two churches,—the brick church, called
F. T., which stood near what is now known as the Slate Mills. It took
its name from being near the starting-point of a survey of land taken up
by Mr. Frank Thornton, who carved the initials of his name—F.T.—on an
oak-tree near a spring, where his lines commenced. The other church
was called South Church,—I presume from its relative situation, being
almost due south, and about sixteen miles distant, and four miles below
the present site of Madison Court-House. It was a frame building and
stood on the land of Richard Vauters. Both buildings were old at the
commencement of the Revolutionary War, and soon after, from causes
common to the old churches and parishes in Virginia, went into slow decay.
The first minister she recollects as officiating statedly in these churches
was a Mr. Iodell, (or Iredell,) who was the incumbent in 1790 or 1792.
He remained in the parish only a few years, when he was forced to leave
it in consequence of heavy charges of immorality. He was succeeded by
the Rev. Mr. O'Niel, an Irishman, who had charge of the parish for some
years, in connection with the Old Pine Stake and Orange Churches. He
was unmarried, and kept school near the Pine Stake Church, which stood
near to Raccoon Ford, in Orange county. Mr. John Conway, of Madison,
was a pupil of his, and relates some things which I may here mention, if
you are not already weary of the evil report of old ministers. He played
whist, and on one occasion lost a small piece of money, which the winner
put in his purse, and whenever he had occasion to make change (he was a
sheriff) would exhibit it, and refuse to part with it, because he had won it
from the parson. He also took his julep regularly, and, to the undoing of
one of his pupils, invited him to join him in the social glass. Still, he was
considered as a sober man. Mr. O'Niel left these churches about the year
1800. After that the Rev. Mr. Woodville occasionally performed services
there. After the parish became vacant, and the churches had gone to
decay, the Lutheran minister, a Mr. Carpenter, officiated at the baptisms,
marriages, and funerals of the Episcopal families. It was at the old
Lutheran Church, near the court-house, that some of our first political
men in Virginia, when candidates for Congress, held meetings and made
speeches on Sundays, after the religious services. The same was also done
in other places, under the sanction of Protestant ministers.

"The Episcopal families around the churches above mentioned were the
Ruckers, Barbours, Beales, Keastleys, Lewises, Blafords, Vauters, Strothers,
Thorntons, Burtons, Conways, Gipsons, Pannells, Gaineses.

"Since the resuscitation of the Church in Virginia, although a long
time after the commencement of the same, efforts have been made to revive
the Church in the old Bloomfield parish. A new brick church has
been put up at Madison Court-House, and for a time there was a most
encouraging prospect of a considerable congregation at that place; but
emigration, the bane of so many other rising congregations in Virginia,
has sadly reduced our numbers and disappointed our hopes.

"Since the first efforts in behalf of the churches in Madison, the following
clergymen, ministers of the adjoining counties of Orange, Culpepper,
and Rappahannock, have given a portion of their time and labours to
Madison:—The Rev. Mr. Lamon, the Rev. Mr. Doughen, the Rev. Mr.
Cole, the Rev. Mr. Brown, the Rev. Mr. Earnest, the Rev. Mr. Leavell.

"Of late years the county of Rappahannock has been formed, partly, I
believe from Madison, and a parish organized in the same. Through the
zealous efforts of a few individuals, a neat brick church has been put up
at Woodville, in that county. Previous to this the Rev. Mr. Brown spent
some years in the parish, labouring there and in Madison. A few years
since the Rev. W. H. Pendleton, of Leeds parish, Fauquier, rendered them
regular though unfrequent services. For the last three years the Rev.
Mr. Leavell has been dividing his time and labours equally between the
two counties of Madison and Rappahannock.