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I have been curate of this parish upward of forty
years. My own conscience bears me witness, and I trust my parishioners
(though many of them have fallen asleep) will also witness, that until age
and infirmities disabled me I always, so far as my infirmities would allow,
faithfully discharged my duties as a minister of the Gospel. It has given
me many hours of anxious concern that the services of the Church should
be so long discontinued on my account. The spirit indeed is willing, but

the flesh is weak. I therefore entreat the favour of you to provide me a
successor as soon as you can, that divine service may be discontinued no
longer; and at the end of the year the glebe shall be given up to him by
your affectionate servant,

"On Thursday and Friday, services were performed in St. Paul's
Church, King George county. I preached in the morning of each day,
and Mr. Nelson and Mr. Friend in the afternoon. Here I baptized three
children and confirmed two persons and administered the Communion.
About twenty-six years ago, (in the year 1812 or 1813,) the Rev. Mr.
Norris and myself visited this place together. St. Paul's was then in ruins.
The roof was ready to fall; and not a window, door, pew, or timber remained
below. Nevertheless, notice was given that we would preach there. A
rude, temporary pulpit or stand was raised at one angle of the cross, and

from that we performed service and addressed the people. On the night
before the meeting a heavy rain had fallen, and the water was in small
pools here and there where the floor once was, so that it was difficult to
find a dry spot on which the attendants might stand. Such was its condition
twenty-six years ago, and thus did it continue for some years after,
until the Legislature granted leave to citizens of the county to convert it
into an academy. This being done, it was used conjointly as a seminary
of learning and place of worship. At length, the seminary being neglected,
and the house useless for purposes of education, as well as inconvenient for
public worship, the neighbours petitioned the Legislature to restore it to
its rightful owners and original purposes; which being done, it was converted
back again into a temple of God,—one part of it being divided
into three small rooms for the residence of a minister, and the other part—
three-fourths of the whole house—being handsomely fitted up for public
worship. It is now one of the most convenient and delightful churches in
Virginia."[30]

"At a meeting of the vestry on the 19th of January, 1797, the resignation
was accepted by the following order:—`That the Rev. William
Stuart having resigned as rector of St. Paul's parish, and having petitioned
the vestry to appoint him a successor, we, the vestry of said parish, do
receive the Rev. John Parsons to officiate as Deacon agreeably to the
canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church.'

"Mr. Parsons survived until some time in 1808, as I learned. I suppose
it was subsequent to his death that the church went into ruins. Then
the glebes were sold, and the very life of the Church here seems to have
gone out. During the interval between the death of Mr. Parsons and
1817, you and others would occasionally come and minister to our fathers
and mothers, and afford them the opportunity of placing their dear children
in covenant with their God; and I believe the late Dr. Keith, of the
Seminary,—at that time a private tutor in the parish,—was in the habit
of lay-reading within the ruins. But these ruins were not only used for
occasional religious services; they were a resort (for shelter they furnished
none) for the beasts of the field as well as for the soldiers of the camp, and
furnished material for plunder to all the ruthless of the land. In mentioning
the kindness of those who would come among us, I cannot omit
to refer to that of the Rev. John McGuire, who had so often taken part in

those `associations' which, though of course less frequent, at one time
seemed to be looked for with almost the same regularity as the stated
services of the Church, and with no less interest. On the 18th of May,
1816, a vestry was again organized, and Richard Stuart and Townshend
S. Dade, son and grandson of the late rector, Mr. Stuart, were appointed
delegates to the Convention to be held in Richmond, thus reorganizing
the parish after an interval of so many years. The vestry elected consisted
of Richard Stuart, Townshend S. Dade, Abraham B. Hooe, Langhorne
Dade, John J. Stuart, William F. Grymes, Cadwallader I. Dade,
and Charles Massey, Sen.; but not until the 11th of December, 1817,
were the services of a minister obtained. Then the Rev. Joseph R. Andrews,
also a private tutor in the neighbourhood, was elected as rector.
This gentle and godly man officiated in the Academy and, I believe, at
King George Court-House, as well as at Port Royal, for several years, when,
feeling himself called to the work of missions, (honoured of Heaven,) he
left his native land to find an early martyr's grave on the unfriendly shore
of Africa, and I have the pleasant recollection of having helped him to
pack his little all in my father's house.

"In 1822, the Rev. Josias Clapham was called to the charge of this
parish, and his last official signature on the vestry-book bears date May 3,
1824. How long subsequently he may have continued in charge does not
appear, and, being from home for several years about that time, I do not know
myself. He, however, preached in Washington parish, Westmoreland
county, and in a small meeting-house near Round Hill Church in this
county, for some years afterward, when he removed to Halifax county,
from which time his history is unknown to me further than to be able to
say I am sure he has received the reward of the righteous, for he was a
good man and a faithful and strict follower of his Lord and Master. Even
the days just spoken of were days of destitution with us; but, as in the
days of the ruins, so in those of our destitution, one and another minister
of our Church would once and again come to preach the word to us; and
none were more kind and true in so doing than the Rev. Charles Mann,
now of this diocese, but then rector of William and Mary parish, just
across the Potomac River, in Charles county, Maryland, the grateful recollection
of which kindness can only cease with the lives of those of us
who remember it.

"It was also customary in those days for the Methodists to have stated
appointments to preach at the Academy, as did occasionally the Baptists
and Presbyterians, up to the time of the Repeal Act restoring to us our
church. On the 11th of January, 1828, the Rev. Edward W. Peet, now
at Des Moines, Iowa, was chosen minister of the parish. He, I think, had
been at first, in 1827, sent to us by the Diocesan Missionary Society, and,
having been elected as above, he continued our minister until 1830, when
he resigned, to take charge of St. John's Church, Richmond, and was
succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Goldsmith, who was elected on the 20th of
August of that year. It was mainly owing to the exertions of Mr. Peet
that the restoration of the church to its former and rightful proprietors may
be attributed, as was certainly the new roofing of Lamb's Creek, mentioned
above. During his ministry there is reason to believe much interest in the
cause of religion was awakened among us, and from that time on, the
borders of the Church have been enlarged. The Rev. Mr. Goldsmith continued
in charge of our parish and of Lamb's Creek united, most of the
time until his resignation of the former in April, 1837; and it was during

his ministry that the consecration of the church took place. On the 22d
of July following, the Rev. Charles Goodrich, Deacon, was chosen as rector
of this and Lamb's Creek Churches, and entered on his duties on the 1st
of October, 1837. Of his services among us I need only say his praise is
on all our lips, and the love of him fills all our hearts. He left us at the
end of a year for New Orleans, where he has been faithfully labouring in
his Master's cause. From October, 1838, to the fall of 1840, we were
without the regular services of the Church. Repeated unavailing attempts
were made to secure them, and in the mean time our kind and good neighbour,
the Rev. William Friend, as he always has done in our need, would
come among us and minister to us, as his convenience would allow or circumstances
might require. On the 26th of June, 1840, the Rev. John
Martin, now of Maryland, was elected, and continued as minister of this
parish and Washington parish, in Westmoreland, until July, 1844, when
he resigned, and was succeeded by the Rev. Lewis Walke, Deacon. Difficulty
in maintaining a minister in conjunction with other parishes having
become manifest, it was determined to endeavour to do so ourselves, and
Mr. Walke's services were obtained for our parish exclusively, and he
continued to officiate for us most faithfully until the summer of 1848, when
the parish was again vacant until the fall of 1851, when the Rev. B. B.
Leacock took charge of it, and we were favoured with his valuable services
for one year, when he resigned, owing to ill health, as well as with a view
to a mission to Africa, and was succeeded by the Rev. Joseph A. Russell,
our present rector. Of the glebes I can only say they were sold after the
death of the last incumbent, Mr. Parsons, and as much of the proceeds of
the sales as was needful were appropriated as before referred to,—the remainder
being now a fund in the hands of a board of school-commissioners
for the county, to aid in a system of education established under a late Act
of the Legislature. The earliest notice of the plate of this parish is an
entry on the vestry-book as follows:—`On the 4th day of June, 1802, the
following articles of church-plate belonging to this parish,—viz.: one large
silver can, a silver chalice and bread-plate,—were deposited in the care of
Mr. John Parsons, the then incumbent

" `Signed,

Townsend Dade, Warden.' "

Richard Bernard, John Hooe, Richard Foote, Captain John Alexander,
Captain Baldwin Dade, Colonel Henry Fitzhugh, Jerard Fowke,
John Stith, Cadwallader Dade, John Stewart, John Alexander, Jr.,
Francis Thornton, John Washington, Thomas Pratt, Thomas Bunbury,
(Thomas Stribling, reader,) Henry Fitzhugh, Jr., Wm. Fitzhugh, Wm.
Fitzhugh, Jr., Samuel Washington, Laurence Washington, Townsend
Dade, in the place of Samuel Washington, who removed in 1770; John
Berryman, in 1771, in place of William Fitzhugh, removed out of the
county; Robert Washington, Andrew Grant, Robert Stith, W. G. Stuart,
William Hooe, Daniel Fitzhugh, Wm. Thornton, Wm. Stith, Henry Fitzhugh,
Robert Yates, Wm. Stork, Wm. Quarles, Thomas Short, Benjamin
Grymes, Thomas Washington, Rice W. Hooe, John B. Fitzhugh, John
Waugh, Langhorne Dade, William Stone, Henry A. Ashton, Charles
Stuart, J. K. Washington, Abraham B. Hooe, J. J. Stuart, William F.
Grymes, Charles Massey, J. Queensbury, Robert Chesley, Needam Washington,
Alexander Keech, Francis C. Fitzhugh, B. O. Tayloe, Thomas
Smith, Dr. Robert Parsons, G. B. Alexander, Henry Mustin, Gustavus
B. Alexander, Hezekiah Potts, T. L. Lomax, Jacob W. Stuart, Henry
T. Washington, Drury B. Fitzhugh, Benjamin R. Grymes, John T. Washington,
W. E. Stuart, M. Tenent.