XXXVII.
SIR HENRY CHICHELEY.
XXXVII. Deputy-Governor.
XXXVII. December 30, 1678, to May 10, 1680.
In the year 1666 the vestry of Lancaster Parish, Virginia,
agreed to build a church about midway the parish, to be called
Christ Church, the glass and iron to be gotten from England.
Here Sir Henry Chicheley served as vestryman, and here his
mortal part was buried. Says Bishop Meade, in 1872:
"And what has become of the old Mother Church—the Great Church,
as she is styled in her journal—standing in view of the wide Rappahannock,
midway between Rosegill and Brandon? More perhaps than fifty
years ago it was deserted. Its roof decayed and fell in. Everything
within it returned to its native dust. But nature abhors a vacuum. A
sycamore tree sprang up within its walls. All know the rapidity of that
tree's growth. It filled the void. Its boughs soon rose above and overspread
the walls. In the year 1840, when it pleased God to put it into the
hearts of some, in whom the spirit of old Virginia Episcopalians still
remained, to seek the revival of the Church's dry bones in Middlesex,
that huge, overspreading tree must first be removed piece-meal from the
house, and the rich mould of fifty years' accumulation, to the depth of
two feet, must be dug up before the chancel floor and the stone aisles could
be reached. The walls—faithful workmanship of other days—were uninjured,
and may still remain while generations of frail modern structures
pass away. The house is now one of our best country churches. The
graves of our ancestors are all around it. In scattered fragments some of
the tombstones lie; others, too substantial to be broken, too heavy to be
borne away, now plainly tell whose remains are protected by them."
In 1656 Sir Henry Chicheley was a Burgess from Lancaster
County, and in 1674 he was a member of the Council.
In March, 1676, he was made commander of the forces to be
sent against the Indians, but Sir William Berkeley disbanded
them before they entered upon duty. Upon the death of
Governor Jeffries, Sir Henry Chicheley became Deputy-Governor,
under a commission dated February 28, 1674, and
served until the arrival of Lord Culpeper, March 10, 1680;
but he continued to act as Deputy-Governor after the arrival
of Lord Culpeper, and during his absence from the government,
(which was frequently the case) until 1683.
Sir Henry Chicheley took very energetic measures for the
protection of the colonists against the encroachments of the
Indians, causing that "fower houses for stores or garrisons
be erected and built at the heads of the ffower greate rivers,"
namely, the Potomac, Rappahannock, Mattapony, and James.
By these and other measures for the public weal, Sir Henry
greatly ingratiated himself in public favor. He died about
1692, and was buried, as before stated, in the "Mother
Church," Middlesex County, Virginia.
