Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia

Of this we can say but little. The county was one of the eight
original shires in 1634. It is a small county on the lower part of
James River, lying alongside of Elizabeth City and York counties.
Of course it became a parish and county at the same time, and
they have always been known by the same names. The first
information we have of its ministers is in 1754, when the Rev.
Roscoe Cole had charge of the parish. In the year 1758 the Rev.
Thomas Davis was minister. In the years 1773, 1774, and 1776,
the Rev. William Hubard was there. In the year 1785 the Rev.
William Bland, of whom we have already written, was in the Convention
which organized the diocese, with Mr. Richard Cary as
his lay delegate. The Carys were a very ancient and most respectable
family in that part of Virginia. It is our purpose to
visit their ancient seat and the Clerk's Office of the county, in the
hope of finding something worth adding to this meagre account;
and, in the mean while, would be thankful to any member of the
family for some account of it.[70]

[70]

We enlarge our notices of Warwick a little by the following account of the
Digges, some of whom lived in it. The family of Digges is most ancient and
honourable. Virginians and Episcopalians need not wish to go further back than
to the Hon. Dudley Digges, one of the most active members of that most noble and
Christian association, the London Company,—far more of a missionary institution
than any of that day. The minutes of the London Company show him to have
ever been at his post in the meetings of the committee, with such men as the Earl
of Southampton, the Ferrars, and others. Mr. Burk, after speaking the praises
of this Company for purity of morals, for noble motives, and even a tolerant spirit
of religion, which was high commendation from an infidel as he was, then extols
its literary character,—representing Southampton as the friend of Shakspeare, and
George Sandys, the Company's Treasurer in Virginia, as translating Ovid in the
wilds of Virginia,—concluding thus:—"Sir Edwin Sandys, Sir Dudley Digges, Sir
John Saville, with several other members of the London Company, were considered
the most elegant scholars and the most eloquent speakers in the nation." The name
of Digges was soon transferred to Virginia. We read of Digges's Hundred among
the early settlements on James River. We read in 1654 of Edward Digges made
one of the Council, and so approving himself in that office as to be called to preside
over the Colony; and then, at the expiration of his term, to be requested to continue
in it as long as he continued in the country, with other marks of distinction.
Thence onward we meet with the name in the lists of vestrymen and Burgesses,
until the period came in our country's history which tried the souls even of the
bravest, when, in 1773, we find the name of Dudley Digges on the first committee
for correspondence with the other Colonies about our grievances; and in 1776 the
names of Dudley Digges and William Digges as members from York with General
Nelson in the great Convention. And ever since that time it has been our happiness
to find that name often enrolled on the lists of vestrymen and communicants of our
Church. One of the descendants of the Digges, who died in 1700, was named
Cole Digges, a man of large property, owning Chilham Castle near York, Bellfield
on York River, between York and Williamsburg, and Denbigh in Warwick. His
sons were Edward, William, and Dudley. Among his grandchildren were William,
who married his cousin Elizabeth, of Denbigh; Dudley, who married his cousin
Louisa: Thomas and Edward moved to Fauquier and had families. One granddaughter
married a Mr. Powell, of Petersburg. Two married Fitzhughs, of Fauquier.
The first wife of the first Dudley was a Miss Armistead; the second, Miss
Wormley, of Rosegill. He had two sons, Cole and Dudley, and several daughters,
one of whom married a Burwell, another a Stratton, of the Eastern Shore, a third
a Digges, and two of them married Nicolsons. The wife of the Rev. Mr. Woodbridge
is daughter of one of the last. One daughter of the first Cole Digges married
Nathaniel Harrison, of Brandon; another, Nathaniel Harrison, of Wakefield.

University of Virginia Library

PARISH OF WARWICK.