 | Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia. |  |
ARTICLE XLVI.
Antrim Parish, Halifax County.
When Halifax county was divided from Lunenburg, in 1752, it
comprehended all that is now Pittsylvania, Henry, Franklin, and
Patrick. Antrim parish was coextensive with the county. At
the time of its establishment it is probable, from certain entries in
the vestry-book, that there were no churches or chapels in its wide
extent, for the readers who had been appointed before the separation—four
in number—were reappointed, and several gentlemen
were allowed to have services in their own houses, doubtless for the
benefit of their neighbours as well as their own families. Besides
this, when the first minister was settled among them he was required
to officiate at six different places, at no one of which was there a
church or chapel, though at some of them buildings were about to
be erected. Four were ordered at some of the earliest meetings
of the vestry, and others afterward. One of the places of reading
is recognised as being on Pigg River, in Franklin county that now
is. The buildings were small, either log or frame, and not very
durable, generally. The first movement toward getting a minister
was in the year 1752, when a title to the parish was given to a Mr.
William Chisholm, a candidate for Orders, who wished to be prepared
with that indispensable qualification when he should present
himself to the Bishop of London; but, as usual, there was this
condition:—"Provided, on his return, the vestry approved of him
for their minister, or should not have accepted any other in his
his name on any of the lists of clergy ordained by the Bishop of
London for any part of America.
What follows in regard to the parish of Antrim I take from a
letter of the Rev. Mr. Dresser, in the year 1830, addressed to the
Rev. Drs. Hawks and Rutledge, who were then engaged in writing
a history of the different dioceses of the Church in this country.
THE REV. MR. DRESSER'S LETTER
"The earliest mention of a clergyman in the minutes of the vestry is
in 1753, when it was `ordered that two thousand pounds of tobacco be
paid to the Rev. Mr. Proctor, for services by him done and performed for
this parish.' And at the same meeting, `on motion of James Foulis,
[OMITTED] [OMITTED] for reasons appearing to this vestry, he is received and taken
[OMITTED] minister of this parish.' The name of Mr. Foulis continues to appear
on the minutes of the vestry until 1759, when tradition relates that he
went away, nobody knew whither, and that he was not for a long time, if
ever afterward, heard from. In 1762 the Rev. Thomas Thompson officiated
a few months, and then resigned his charge, in consequence of his
age and the extent of the parish. The next spring the Rev. Alexander
Gordon, from Scotland, became rector of the parish, and continued to
officiate until the commencement of our Revolution, when, being disaffected
toward the new order of things, he retired, and spent his remaining days
near Petersburg. Some of his descendants are still remaining in the
parish, among whom are some of the brightest ornaments and chief supporters
of the Church. Of his own morals, however, and those of his
predecessor, (Foulis,) tradition does not speak in unmeasured terms.
"From the time of his departure until 1787, I find no parish records,
and know but little of the Church during that interval. The Rev. James
Craig, of Cumberland parish, Lunenburg, however, officiated a part of the
time in this county during three or four of the last years,—a gentleman
highly esteemed both as a man and a preacher.
"In May, 1787, a Convention of the deputies from the several parishes
of the State was held at Richmond, and an ordinance passed, regulating
the appointment of vestries, &c. The same year a new vestry was elected
in this county, and, in 1790, Rev. Alexander Hay, likewise from Scotland,
was inducted into the parish. He is represented as having been a man
of superior talents and attainments, and, from some specimens of his sermons
which I have met with, he seems to have been strictly orthodox and
evangelical; but, if report speak truly, he was not endowed by nature
with a very mild temper, and he soon found himself in a situation not the
most favourable for the cultivation of the passive virtues of our religion.
He was hardly inducted into the parish before petitions began to be presented
to the Legislature for the sale of the glebe, but without success.
As serving to throw some light on the condition of the parish and Church
at that time, I shall send you herewith two manuscripts from the pen of
Mr. Hay,—one an address to the vestry or parish generally, and the other
a remonstrance to the Legislature. The ill temper manifested by him in
these and other transactions, or some other cause, made several of the
most influential gentlemen in the county his personal enemies, and they
neglected no means to harass and thwart him. Some of them he prosecuted
causes, as you may well suppose, the Church continued to decline. To
give you some idea of the rapidity of this decline, I will make a few extracts
from the parish register during the first twenty years of Mr. Hay's
ministry:—
" `1792. Baptisms, 89 whites, 35 blacks Marriages, 11 Funerals, 1.'
" `1802. Baptisms, 31 whites, 6 blacks Marriages, 3. Funerals, 6.'
" `1810 Baptisms, 6 whites, 7 blacks Marriages, none Funerals,
none.'
"During the same time the whole amount of subscriptions in the parish
for his support, the glebe then being occupied by him, was three hundred
and forty-five pounds six shillings and elevenpence,—a little more than
seventeen pounds per annum. `For the last seven years of this time,' he
says, `during which my attendance was not constant, and my services partly
discontinued, from an almost total want of encouragement of any kind,
there was nothing subscribed.'
"I neglected to say, in the proper place, that measures were early taken
for the erection of churches in different parts of the parish. Of these,
one was rebuilt by subscription in 1793-94, but, no title to the land having
been secured, it was afterward converted into a dwelling-house. Another,
having fallen into disuse and being out of repair, was taken down and the
materials used in the erection of a Baptist meeting-house. A third, having
been sometimes used for the double purpose of a tobacco-barn and stable,
was demolished and some of the timbers used in building a store on the
same site. The last, having been repaired in 1795-96, was burned to the
ground a few years since, having been set on fire by some one, it is said,
who wished to obtain the nails. It is proper to remark that it had been
some time unused, and was probably in a dilapidated state.
"In 1816 or 1817, after the Church had begun to revive in other parts
of the State, and the late Bishop Ravenscroft was beginning to make her
claims known in the adjoining county of Mecklenburg, a small edifice was
erected about three miles from this place, in which Mr. Hay preached a
few times before his death, which occurred in 1819. Here also Mr. Ravenscroft
occasionally preached before his elevation to the Episcopacy, and
admitted three or four persons to the communion. The situation of this
church not proving favourable for an Episcopal congregation, it has recently
been sold to the Methodists and the proceeds appropriated toward
the erection of another in this village.
"In 1814, Evan Ragland, Esq., dying, left a large estate, consisting of
land, negroes, &c., to the Church, with various provisions, but designed
primarily and chiefly for the support of a minister or ministers in this
parish. This will was contested by the heirs-at-law of said Ragland, and
its execution opposed on several grounds. Accordingly a suit was commenced
by Mr. Hay on the part of the Church, he being particularly interested,
and the case was decided in his favour in the Court of Chancery.
From thence it was carried up to the Court of Appeals, where the decision
was likely to be reversed. After the death of Mr. Hay, however, agents
or commissioners were appointed by the Convention on the part of the
Church, who were authorized to make a compromise with the heirs of Mr.
Ragland. This they effected, and the case was of course dismissed from
court. By the terms of the compromise, the land, which in the mean time
had considerably depreciated in value, was sold, and bonds to one-fourth
of the amount were executed to the agents for the purposes specified in
to determine at its next meeting what shall be done with the
money, amounting to one thousand seven hundred or one thousand eight
hundred dollars.
"In 1820 or 1821, the Rev. Mr. Wingfield—now of Portsmouth parish,
near Norfolk, but then residing with Mr. Ravenscroft—officiated several
months, perhaps a year, in the county, with the view of permanently establishing
himself; but he did not meet with sufficient encouragement to
persevere. Four or five years since, Mr. Steel, the successor of Bishop
Ravenscroft in Mecklenburg, was called to the county to perform some
official duty. This led to an arrangement for him to preach once a month
at Mount Laurel Church, which had been built a few years previous,
chiefly by Episcopalians, but with the condition that it should be free to
others when not used by them. Subsequently he made an arrangement
to preach one Sunday in a month also in the court-house, which he continued
to do until the close of 1828. In the spring of the same year I
received ordination, and was directed by the Bishop to make this the field
of my labours. These I commenced the first Sunday in June, and was
well received by a few, though I found great ignorance of the Church
prevailing, and, among many, the most bitter prejudices against her.
These prejudices, I am happy to say, appear to be dying away, and the
Prayer-Book is becoming more and more popular. During the last year
I have admitted to the Communion eight persons, and baptized three adults
and six children. A commodious brick church is now nearly ready for
consecration in this village, and a smaller place of worship has been erected
for me during the past year in another part of the county. My Sunday
labours are divided between these congregations, but I am often invited
to preach in Baptist and Methodist meeting-houses; and, did my stated
duties permit, I might preach much oftener than I do, where twenty years
ago a minister of our Church would have had little but the bare walls for
an auditory. This I mention merely to show the decline of prejudice.
"Thus I have given the annals of my parish as far as I have been able
to collect them; and, lest I should prove tediously prolix, I will touch
upon but one point more. It is stated, in an article which I saw some
time ago, from the `Protestant Episcopalian,' and, I presume, from one
of you, that Patrick Henry was once an infidel, &c. His widow and
some of his descendants are residing in this county, and I am authorized
by one of them to say that the anecdote related is not true. He ever had,
I am informed, a very great abhorrence of infidelity, and actually wrote
an answer to `Paine's Age of Reason,' but destroyed it before his death.
His widow has informed me that he received the Communion as often as
an opportunity was offered, and on such occasions always fasted until after
he had communicated, and spent the day in the greatest retirement. This
he did both while Governor and afterward. Had he lived a few years
longer, he would have probably done much to check the immoral influence
of one of his compatriots, whose works are now diffusing the poison of
infidelity throughout our land."
Mr. Dresser became the minister of this parish in 1828, and
continued in it until 1838, when he was succeeded by its present
rector, the Rev. John Grammar. Under his ministry the congregation
has become one of the largest in the diocese. A church at
was hoped from it. A large and costly church has been built at
the court-house, in place of the one mentioned by Mr. Dresser, in
which one of our largest country-congregations assemble every
Sabbath.
List of the old Vestrymen of Antrim Parish, from 1752 to —
James Terry, Richard Echols, Thos. Dillard, Thos. Calloway, Richard
Brown, William Irby, Merry Webb, Peter Wilson, William Wynne, John
Guillingtine, John Owen, Nathaniel Terry, Geo. Currie, Samuel Harris,
Andrew Wade, Jas. Dillard, Robert Wooding, Archibald Gordon, John
Bates, Edward Booker, Hugh Junis, Geo. Watkins, Alexander Gordon,
Thomas Tunstall, John Donaldson, Evan Ragland, Benjamin Dickson,
William Thompson, George Boyd, Moses Terry, William Sims, Walter
Coles, Edward Wade, Isaac Coles, John Coleman, William Terry, Michael
Roberts, John Ragland, Armistead Washington, Joseph Hobson, George
Carrington, Thomas Davenport, John Faulkner, Edmund King, Joseph
Sandford, Thomas Thweat, John Ervine, Daniel Wilson, Thomas Clark,
Evan Ragland, Jr., Joseph Haynes, Thomas Lipscomb, John B. Scott,
Francis Petty, Daniel Parker, George Camp, William Thomas, Jno. Wattington,
Achilles Colquett, Hansom Clark, John A. Fowlkes, Chas. Meriwether,
Adam Toot, Edward Boyd, Thomas Clark, Beverly Syndor, Jos.
Hewell, Samuel Williams, Littlebury Royster, Benjamin Rogers, Chilton
Palmer, John Haynes, Sceevor Torian, Robt. Crute, Granville Craddock,
Edward Carlton, William Fitzgerald, Isham Chasteen, Icare Torian, Isaac
Medley, John R. Cocke, William Scott.
To them we may add other names, though not vestrymen, yet
from the time of efforts for reviving the Church, taking an interest
in it and contributing to it,—such as the Bruces, Ligons, Greens,
Wimbishses, Leighs, Banks, Logans, Borums, Edmundsons, Fontaines,
Carringtons, Baileys, &c.
In another part of the county of Halifax the Rev. Mr. Clark
has been for many years doing a good work, chiefly among the
poor and servants, to whom he has devoted time and labour without
compensation, being enabled by Providence so to do. Under his
auspices, and not without considerable pecuniary aid on his part,
three new churches have been erected in that part of the county.
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