University of Virginia Library

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ARTICLE XV.

Williamsburg, Bruton Parish.—No. 5.

Since the preceding articles on this parish were written, and
published in another form, we have obtained some further information
which may not be uninteresting to our readers. We have
searched among the old tombstones in the graveyard surrounding
the church, and deciphered some of the scarce-legible inscriptions
on the time-worn or broken slabs, which are either still resting on
their original foundations, or else prostrated upon the earth or
leaning against the church-wall or on other tombs. Some, no
doubt, were deposited beneath the church itself, as was the custom
more in ancient than in present times. Some of our great men, as
the Randolphs, Bishop Madison, and others, are in a vault beneath
the College chapel, while others are in adjoining farms, where once
stately mansions stood, and of which the tombstones are now the
only witnesses that they once existed. Williamsburg was once the
miniature copy of the Court of St. James, somewhat aping the
manners of that royal place, while the old church and its graveyard
and the College chapel were—si licet cum magnis componere
parva—the Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's of London, where
the great ones were interred.

We begin our transcript of inscriptions with that of the first
minister of the parish,—the Rev. Roland Jones, son of a minister
of the same name,—probably in England,—and of which name,
and doubtless family, several others ministered in Virginia:—

The blanks in the foregoing and others cannot be supplied, being
illegible.

Our next describes one of the best of our early Governors:—

"Under this marble rest ye ashes of his excellency Edward Nott, late

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Governor of this Colony, who, in his private character, was a good Christian,
and in his public, a good Governor. He was a lover of mankind,
and bountiful to his friends. By the prudence and justice of his administration,
he was deservedly esteemed a public blessing while he lived;
and when he died, it was a public calamity. He departed this life the
23d day of August, 1706, aged 49 years. In grateful remembrance of
whose many virtues, the General Assembly of this Colony have erected
this monument."

The next is taken from a slab lying in the graveyard against the
wall of the church, in order to preserve it. Philip Ludwell lived
within a mile or two of Williamsburg, and his uncle Thomas may
have been buried there and removed by the nephew. Commissary
Blair married the daughter of Philip Ludwell and lived on a farm
adjoining, which was given to him by his father-in-law.

There can be no doubt but that the name Bruton was given to
the parish in honour of Thomas Ludwell, who came from a place
of that name in England. Originally the parish was called Middletowne,
when, in 1658, the inhabitants of Middle Plantation
(Williamsburg) and of Harop parish (between it and Warwick)
were united into one.

From the fragments of a large slab which, for some time, has
been lying at one of the gates of the churchyard, we take the following
imperfect inscription relating to the father of the Pages of
Virginia:—

From this and another inscription in Gloucester, it appears that
Governor Page was wrong when, in his autobiography, he calls
him Sir John Page. He is called Colonel John Page on this and
the tombstone in Gloucester, where he is mentioned as the father
of Matthew Page, who married Miss Mary Mann, of Timberneck.
Colonel Page died in 1690—½.

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The following is the inscription over his wife:—

As York county took in a part of Williamsburg, Mr. Page may
have lived in or near it.

Mr. Page's eldest son was named Francis, who died at the early
age of thirty-five, but not without being much distinguished as a
lawyer. To him, according to Henning, were committed several
trusts; among them, the revision of the laws of the Colony. He
was also a vestryman of the parish of Bruton, and contracted for
the building of the present church; that is, for the part of it built
before the time of General Spottswood. He died only a year or
two after his father. The following is his epitaph:—

The following is a fragment of the poetic eulogy on the broken
tombstone:—

Near to this is the tomb of his wife, with the following inscription:—

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Then comes the following eulogy:—

The difficulty of deciphering an old and long-exposed inscription
may cause injustice to the poetry, though we cannot expect
much in that line at that day.

It seems that Mrs. Page was the daughter of Edward Digges, a
man so well known and so justly esteemed. He is said to be of
the parish of Hampton. The reader must be guarded against the
mistake of supposing him to have been of Hampton parish, in Elizabeth
City county. There was, at an early period, a small parish
between Williamsburg and York, called Kiskiacke, or Chiskiake,
after a tribe of Indians which lived on York River. The church,
which still stands a few miles from Williamsburg, on the road to
York, vulgarly called Cheesecake, belonged to that parish. After
a time, about the year 1742, its name was changed to Hampton
parish, and was so called when the Digges lived in it. After some
time, the parish of Hampton was united to that of York, and
the name York-Hampton was given to the united parish. The
family-seat of the Digges was Bellfield, about eight miles from
Williamsburg, and is the same now owned by Colonel Robert
McCandlish. On a recent visit to it, I saw the large tombs of Mr.
Edward Digges and others of the family, whose epitaphs I shall
present to the reader in another article, in connection with some
account of the Church in Warwick and of the family of Digges.

There is also, in the Williamsburg churchyard, a tomb of a Mrs.
Page, wife of John Page and daughter of Francis Page. This
John Page was doubtless Colonel John Page, the lawyer, to whom
the vestry intrusted the defence of their rights when Nicholson
and others sought to invade them.

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Following, as near as may be, the order of time, we give the inscription
on two of the Archer family:—

One of the earliest settlements was Archer's Hope; and the parish
was called Archer's Hope Parish, coming up within a few miles
of Williamsburg, to what is called the College Landing. It was
in time merged in Bruton parish. Some of the Archer family
continued to live in or about York until the Revolution. The
name is often to be seen in Henning's Statutes, connected with the
History of Virginia.

THE FAMILY OF THORP.

The name of Thorp must be dear to every Christian philanthropist.
Perhaps, of all the devoted friends to the first Colonists
and the Indians, he who was martyred, in the Great Massacre,
stands first among the laymen. The name did not die with him.
Whether they were his descendants or the descendants of his relatives,
we know not; but we meet with many of the name in Virginia.
They abounded in Bruton parish, as the following epitaphs
show:—

THE BARRADALLS.

This name is also an ancient and most respectable one. It is
another name for one learned in the law,—a name which for a long
time was a terror to the young applicant for a license to practise
law, and before which even a Pendleton trembled at his examination.
Two of these were buried in this churchyard. One or both of
them had been vestrymen of the parish. Edward Barradall married
Sarah, youngest daughter of the first William Fitzhugh, who
settled in Virginia, and who was also an eminent lawyer in the
Northern Neck, and belonged to the Council.

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EPITAPH.

On the same stone is the name of Blumfield Barradall, brother
of Edward, and that of their sisters Elizabeth and Frances, who
had placed the tomb over their brothers.

We have also the monuments of the ancient and excellent family
of Brays:—

On the same is the following:—

There is also a large marble monument, on one side of which is
the following:—

On the other side as follows:—

The last I shall record is the following:—

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I might add to these some monuments which lie all exposed in
the neighbourhood of Williamsburg. Nathaniel Bacon, uncle or
near kinsman of him who is called the rebel, and who was high in
office during the period of the rebellion, as he was before and
after, married Elizabeth, the daughter and heiress of Richard
Kingswell, of James City county. His residence was on King's
Creek, near York River, and not far from Williamsburg. There
are tombstones now near the bank of the river. The following
inscriptions have been furnished me:—"Here lyeth the body of
Elizabeth, wife of the Honourable Nathaniel Bacon, who departed
this life the second day of November, one thousand six hundred
and ninety-one, in the sixty-seventh year of her age." Also, on
a mutilated tombstone, may be deciphered these words:—"The
Rev. Thomas Hampton, rector of this parish in 1647." It is
probable that he ministered in one of those churches which were
closed when the first church at Williamsburg was built. Another residence
of Nathaniel Bacon must have been near Williamsburg; for
his tombstone now lies in a field on Dr. Tinsley's farm, while the
tombstones of the Palmer family are in the garden of that place.
The tombstone of Daniel Parke, whose name stands first on the
old vestry-book of Bruton parish as vestryman and churchwarden,
lies on the farm called Beal's, near Williamsburg.

In connection with the above, I mention that, in the Virginia
Gazette for March, 1746, it is stated that the plate given by
Colonel Nathaniel Bacon to York-Hampton parish was stolen.
There are also, I am told, some graves and tombstones around a
church about ten miles from Williamsburg, called Chickahominy
Church, and lying near that river. It may be that it was in one
of those numerous parishes which abounded in early times in and
around James City. One there was, called Wilmington parish,
which was taken partly from James City, and may have been
united to Bruton parish. If so, all that I can find of it is that it
was dissolved in 1723 and added to other parishes. At that time
it lay most probably on both sides of the Chickahominy, was thirty
miles long and eight wide, had one hundred communicants and one
hundred and eighty families. The Rev. Mr. Brunskill was the
minister, and reports that his parsonage had one room below and
a garret above, and, together with his glebe, rented for forty shillings
per annum.

At a recent visit to Williamsburg, my steps were directed to the
College and the old court-house, in order to see if I could find
something additional from the records thereof. In the old books

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There is mention also of a letter of the Bishop of London
against swearing, and frequent notices of thanksgiving-days. The
Rev. James Horrocks, afterward President of the College, was
prevented by the court for not reading the act for suppressing
vice, as the law directs. Fifty acres of land at Jamestown, and
a house lately occupied by the Burgesses, were given to the justices
of James City for a free school. Susannah Riddle petitions that
her servant, John Hope, (alias Cæsar Barber, by which name he
was afterward, and for a long time, well known,) might be allowed
to be set free, as he had served her faithfully for thirty years.
Mrs. Riddle was the friend of Mrs. Carrington, of Richmond, and
aunt of Miss Caines, and great-aunt or relative of Lewis Warrington,
who bequeathed to him one thousand pounds, as mentioned in
a previous article. The Rev. Robert Andrews was the guardian
of young Warrington.

From the records of the College I obtained, besides those previously
gotten and used, one document worthy of insertion. In
the will of Hilarity Giles, of Newport parish, Isle of Wight, giving
a tract of land on Blackwater to the College of William and
Mary, he thus begins:—