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ARTICLE XXVIII.

Gloucester County, Abington, and Ware.—No. 2.

I take these together, since they have so long been identified
in the public mind, so long under one minister, and so little to be
said of them, though so much might be said, had we any ancient
records. The following letter from the Rev. Mr. Mann, the present
rector, forbids the hope of ever recovering what is lost in regard
to these parishes:—

"My dear Bishop:—Nothing has astonished me more in this county
than the utter ignorance of the people as to the early history of the
Church. All our records of former times are lost,—the church registers,
with the county records, by the burning of the court-house many years
since. The late Dr. Taliafero told me that the first church in Ware parish
stood on Mr. William P. Smith's land, where there is an old graveyard,
and near to which was the glebe. The parish church of Ware is built on
land granted to the parish by the Throckmorton family,—the female ancestors
of the Taliaferos: when erected, no one knows. On the outside
of the church is the tombstone of the Rev. James Black, a native
of England, and many years minister of Ware parish. He died in 1723.
On the inside, near the chancel, are the tombstones of the Rev. John
Richards and his wife, and their beloved servant Amy. Mr. Richards was
once rector of Nettlehead, and vicar of Leston, England, and died rector
of Ware in 1735. Adjoining these is a stone erected by the Rev. John
Fox over his wife, who died in 1742, and two of his children, who died
in 1742 and 1743. The Rev. James Maury Fontaine was once minister
of this parish and kept a school near it.[93] The Rev. Mr. Smith, father of
Mr. W. P. Smith and Colonel Thomas Smith, and of the first Mrs. Colonel
Tompkins and the first Mrs. Tom Tabb, held the church, I believe, until
his death, preaching in all the churches of this county and Mathews.
Then came a long vacancy, and with it the desolation and destruction of
the building, which continued until the Rev. Mr. Carnes took charge of
it, when it was repaired by the exertions of Colonel Thomas Smith, Mr.
Tom Tabb, Dr. Taliafero, and others, and remained as they left it until
last year, (1854,) when a new roof was put upon it, and the inside altered
and improved. A few hundred dollars will render it a handsome as it is
now a convenient place of worship. Dr. Taliafero, Jr., has lately placed
the old subscription in my hands which was made for Mr. Carnes, and I


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find very much the same names of families now attending the church.
The Corbins and some others have removed from the county. The first
subscription to Mr. Carnes was four hundred and ten dollars.

"Of Abington as little is known as of Ware. The first church stood
near the present building, and its foundations are easily traced. It seems
originally to have been a very small building to which a section was subsequently
added. Then the present noble building was erected. On the
arch of the door, 1765 has been cut, but whether at the time of building
no one can say. This church was repaired by the exertions of Colonel
Lewis, of Eagle Point, the present residence of J. R. Bryan."

To the foregoing information as to the earlier ministers of
Abington I am able to add something from documents in possession.
In the year 1724 the Rev. Thomas Hughes writes to the
Bishop of London "that he has been living in this parish for four
or five years, after having lived in the upper parish of Nansemond
for three years; that he was not inducted,—only four ministers in
the Colony being inducted; that he has three hundred families
under his charge, about two hundred attendants at church, sixty
or seventy communicants, no surplice used in the parish, as is the
statement in many other reports, a free-school endowed with five
hundred acres of land and servants; no parochial library here or
in any other parish in the colony." There being no minister in
Ware parish, he gives a portion of his time to it.

In the years 1754 and 1758 the Rev. William Gates was minister
of Abington, and the Rev. John Fox of Ware parish. In the years
1773-4 and 1776 the Rev. Thomas Price was minister of Abington,
and the Rev. James M. Fontaine of Ware. In the year 1785
neither Abington nor Ware was represented in the Convention by
the clergy, Mr. John Page (Governor) being the lay delegate from
Abington, Mr. Thomas Smith from Kingston, and Matthew Anderson
from Petsworth. Mr. Page attended the next two Conventions,
and Mr. Anderson one. Mr. Thomas Lewis also attended
from Abington in 1787. After this we find no more delegates,
either clerical or lay, from Abington until long after the revival
of the Church commenced. The Rev. Mr. Carnes was the first
minister after that work commenced. He continued for some
years in zealous prosecution of it, and was succeeded by the Rev.
John Cole, now in Culpepper, who was followed by the Rev. Mr.
Mann, the present rector of the parishes of Abington and Ware.

In the absence of all records from which to draw the names of
vestrymen, and thus ascertain who have been the leading families,
from the earliest to the present times, in the parishes of Abington
and Ware, we furnish the following imperfect list of families


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known to us, or mentioned to us by one who is better acquainted
with the history of the old settlers.

Of the Burwells, who at an early period settled at Carter's
Creek, we have already said something when speaking of the
family at King's Mill and the Grove, in York and James City.
To this we add the Manns, who settled at Timberneck Bay, on
York River, not far from Shelly and Rosewell, the Montagues, the
Kempes, the Carys, the Tabbs, the Taliaferos, the Dabneys,
Thrustons, Catletts, Throckmortons, Roots, Lewises, Nicholsons,
Nelsons, Vanbibbers, Pages, of Shelly and Rosewell, Byrds, Corbins,
Joneses, Ennises, Curtises, Robinses, Harewoods, Dicksons,
Roys, and Smarts.

Of old Mrs. Vanbibber and Dr. Taliafero—two of the props
of the Church in the day of her adversity—I need not speak to
the present generation in Gloucester, as there are still some living
who knew their religious worth and continue to dwell upon the
same before the younger ones. Of Mrs. Vanbibber some interesting
notices appeared many years since in one of our religious
papers. Of Dr. Taliafero I may say from personal knowledge
that it is not often we meet with a more pious and benevolent man
or more eminent physician. There is one name on the foregoing
list to which I must allude as having, at an early period in the
history of Virginia, been characterized by a devotion to the welfare
of the Church and religion,—that of Kempe. The name often
occurs on the vestry-book of Middlesex county in such a way as
to show this. The high esteem in which one of the family was
held, is seen from the fact that he was the Governor of the Colony
in 1644, and the following extract from the first volume of Henning's
Statutes will show not only the religious character of those
in authority at that day, but the probability that Governor Kempe
sympathized in the movement, for the Governors had great power
either to promote or prevent such a measure. In 1644 it was

"Enacted by the Governor, Council, and Burgesses of this Grand Assembly,
for God's glory and the public benefit of the Colony, to the end
that God might avert his heavy judgments that are upon us, that the last
Wednesday in every month be set apart for fast and humiliation, and that
it be wholly dedicated to prayers and preaching, &c.

"Richard Kempe, Esq., Governor."

I do not remember ever to have seen such an indefinite and prolonged
period appropriated by a public body to public humiliation.
It speaks well for the religion of our public functionaries of that
day. What would be thought of such a measure at this?


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Of Governor Page and his family I have already spoken somewhat
in treating of the Church in Williamsburg, where the first
of his name were buried; but, as the celebrated Rosewell and its
graveyard full of tombs with that name are in Abington parish, I
shall add something. And first I must take occasion to speak of
the great folly of erecting such immense and costly houses as that
of Rosewell, even in monarchical and aristocratic days. Richly-carved
mahogany wainscotings and capitals and stairways abound,
and every brick was English. The house was built, or rather
begun to be built, by Mr. Mann Page, grandson of old Sir John
Page, who wrote the good book to his son Matthew, father of
Mann. I am sure the grandfather would not have approved the
act of his grandson. It may be said that, as his mother was the
rich heiress of Timberneck Bay, he had a right to do it, and could
afford it, as he was the first-born son and chief heir. We do not
admit that any one has a right thus to misspend the talent given
to him by God to be used for his glory, and God often punishes
such misconduct by sending poverty on the persons thus acting,
and on their posterity. A most remarkable exemplification of this
appears in the case of Mr. Page, who began to build Rosewell,
and which was finished by his widow and son.

Whoever will look into the fifth volume and at the 277th page
of Henning's Statutes will see an Act of Assembly covering more
than seven octavo pages, and describing all the property in lands
and servants belonging to Mr. Page, and the former of which his
embarrassed son, Mann Page, Jr., petitioned to be allowed to sell,
in order to pay off his father's debts in Virginia and England, and
which all his real estate, though he had many servants on various
estates, was incompetent to discharge. His landed estates were in
Prince William, Frederick, Spottsylvania, Essex, James City,
Hanover, Gloucester, and King William. He had eight thousand
acres in Frederick called Pageland, more than ten thousand in
Prince William called Pageland also, four thousand five hundred
in Spottsylvania, one thousand called Pampatike in King William,
two thousand in Hanover, near two thousand in James City, &c.,
besides other lands not mentioned. Leave is asked and granted
that his son Mann might sell them, in order to pay off the debts
which had been for many years accumulating by interest, and
which the real estate was unable to discharge, and in order to pay
the portions of his brothers and sisters. For a long time had he
been labouring from the proceeds of the estates to do this, but in
vain. Now, it cannot be doubted that the tradition is correct that


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much if not all of the original debt was contracted for the erection
of this immense pile of building, every brick of which, and doubtless
much other material, together with the workmen, were imported
from England and not paid for, except by his agents and friends
there, until the sale of these lands in Virginia enabled his son, long
after, to do it. The whole of the roof of this ancient building was
covered with heavy lead over the shingles. The result of this immense
expenditure was not only the entailing a heavy debt upon
his estate, and the causing a sale of lands which might have furnished
his posterity for some generations with farms, but the keeping
up such an establishment has been a burden on all who have
possessed it to the present day, as must be the case with all such
establishments. For a long time old Rosewell has been standing
on Carter's Creek, in sight of York River, like an old deserted English
castle, in solitary grandeur, scarce a tree or shrub around it
to vary and beautify the scene. No one of the name of him who built
it has owned it or could afford to own it for generations. "Some
stranger fills the Stuarts' throne." "Sic transit gloria mundi!"

Would that this were the only folly of the kind in ancient or
modern Virginia! The Acts of Assembly give us other instances
in old Virginia. Mr. Lewis Burwell, of King's Mill, near Williamsburg,
built a large house worthy of his first-born son to live
in; and that first-born son, after his father's death, was obliged to
petition the Legislature for leave to break the entail and sell a
large tract of land in King William to pay for it. The folly is still
going on in many parts of our land; the greater folly now, because
the law of primogeniture being happily abolished, and different and
better views prevailing as to the division of estates among children,
the proud homestead must be sold or be an expense and burden to the
child who inherits it. Even in England—the land of entails and
primogeniture—the philanthropic Howard, a man of birth and
inherited wealth, instead of listening to the plea that our houses
must be proportioned to our wealth, to the extent even of palaces,
and that it was a charity to the poor to employ numbers of them
in the erection of stupendous and costly mansions, built one of
more moderate size and expense for himself, and employed greater
numbers of workmen in rearing neat and comfortable cottages for
the poor on his large and numerous estates. How much of that
now needlessly expended in building and furnishing large houses
might be more rationally and charitably devoted to the improvement
of the dwellings of the labourers, whether on the plantations
of the South or the neighbourhoods of the North!



No Page Number
illustration

ROSEWELL HOUSE.



No Page Number

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How much wiser was it in the first William Randolph, of Turkey
Island, to live in a house of moderate dimensions himself, though
with every comfort, and to build during his lifetime good houses
for his numerous children in various parts of the State! How
much more becoming Christians, instead of building extravagant
mansions for themselves, to see that the houses of worship are
comely and comfortable, and that all God's ministers are well provided
with houses becoming their station and the means of living
in them!

To return from this digression, let me say that Governor Page,
though living in this proud mansion of his forefathers, was not himself
a proud man. He was not only a true republican in politics, but
an humble man in his religion, and doubtless often wished himself,
on more accounts than one, well rid of his large abode. The poor,
I doubt not, were often kindly treated at Rosewell, and the servants
justly dealt with. There was once a picture—among many
others of higher degree—on the walls of Rosewell parlour, which
shows that he was not too proud to allow the head of a poor
African to be there. It was the head of Selim, an Algerine negro,
well known at Rosewell, York, and Williamsburg, which Mr. Page
had taken while he was a member of Congress in Philadelphia, and
hung up among his portraits. There was something so touching and
very remarkable in the captivity, conversion, and latter end of
Selim, that the Rev. John H. Rice, a Presbyterian minister of high
standing, wrote an account of him, which was published in a Presbyterian
magazine, I think. It is so interesting and so edifying in
a religious point of view that I shall insert it in these sketches;
and I am the more induced so to do because I am able to add some
particulars not contained in Mr. Rice's notice.

Before I introduce this, however, (reserving it for another
article,) I will add that Mr. Page was not only the patriot, soldier
and politician, the well-read theologian and zealous Churchman,—
so that, as I have said before, some wished him to take Orders with
a view to being the first Bishop of Virginia,—but he was a most
affectionate domestic character. His tenderness as a father and
attention to his children is seen in the fact that, when attending a
Congress held in New York, he was continually writing very short
letters to his little ones, even before they could read them. I have
a bundle of them, from which I extract the following:—

"My dear Bobby:

My letters to your brother Mann and your sisters
will inform you how and when I arrived here. I will tell you then what


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I have not told them, and what you, a young traveller, ought to know.
This town is not half so large as Philadelphia, nor in any manner to be
compared to it for beauty and elegance. Philadelphia, I am well assured,
has more inhabitants than Boston and New York together. The streets
here are badly paved, very dirty, and narrow as well as crooked, and filled
up with a strange variety of wooden, stone, and brick buildings, and full
of hogs and mud. The College, St. Paul's Church, and the Hospital are
elegant buildings. The Federal Hall also, in which Congress is to sit, is
elegant. What is very remarkable here is, that there is but one well of
water which furnishes the inhabitants with drink, so that water is bought
here by every one that drinks it, except the owner of this well. Four
carts are continually going about selling it at three gallons for a copper;
that is, a penny for every three gallons of water. The other wells and
pumps serve for washing, and nothing else.[94] I have not time to say more
about this place and the other towns through which I passed, but will by
some other opportunity write you whatever may be worth your knowing.
You must show this to Frank. Give my love to him, and tell him I will
write to him and Judy next. Kiss her for me, and be a good boy, my
dear. Give my love to your brothers and sisters and to your cousin Mat
and Nat. Tell Beck [a maid-servant] that Sharp [the servant that went
with him] is well, and sends his love to her, [his wife, I suppose.] That
God Almighty may bless you all, my dear, is the fervent prayer of your
affectionate father,

John Page."
 
[94]

In another letter he says that he was mistaken—that there were several good
wells.

These letters were written on very coarse, stiff, dingy paper,
such as no country-merchant would use in wrapping any but his
heaviest and roughest goods in at this day. Some of them were
sent by the two Randolphs,—John and Theodoric,—who were going
to school in New York at that time.[95]


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GLOUCESTER, THE RESIDENCE OF POWHATAN AND POCAHONTAS.

We are now in the region where by general consent the chief
residence of King Powhatan has been placed, after discussion and
accurate investigation. Mr. Howe, in his laborious though sometimes
inaccurate History of Virginia, quotes from Captain John
Smith as saying that "twenty-five miles lower (than what is now West
Point, the junction of the Pamunkey and Mattapony) on the north
side of this river (York River) is Werowocomico, where their great
king inhabited when I was delivered to him a prisoner," and where
Smith in another place says "for the most part he was resident."
Mr. Howe says, "Upon a short visit made to that part of Gloucester
county a year or two ago, I was satisfied that Shelly, the


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seat of Mrs. Mann Page, is the famous Werowocomico. Shelly
adjoins Rosewell, formerly the seat of John Page, (sometime Governor
of Virginia), and was originally part of the Rosewell plantation;
and I learned from Mrs. Page, of Shelly, that Governor
Page always held Shelly to be the ancient Werowocomico, and accordingly
he at first gave it that name, but afterward, on account
of the inconvenient length of the word, dropped it and adopted
the title of Shelly, on account of the extraordinary accumulation
of shells found there. The enormous beds of oyster-shells deposited
there, especially in front of the Shelly House, indicate it
to have been a place of great resort among the natives. The
situation is highly picturesque and beautiful; and, looking as it
does on the lovely and majestic York, it would seem of all others
to have been the befitting residence of the lordly Powhatan."

Our worthy fellow-citizen, Mr. Charles Campbell, of Petersburg,
after having adopted the above opinion, has renounced it in favour
of another place only two or three miles, I believe, lower down
York River. On paying a visit a few years since to Shelly and
the neighbourhood, for the purpose of examining the question, he
became satisfied that Timberneck Bay, in Gloucester, the ancient
seat of the Manns, only a mile from Shelly, is the famous spot.
Smith, he says, in his work "Newes from Virginia," says "the bay
where Powhatan dwelleth hath three creeks in it." "I have
visited," says Mr. Campbell, "that part of Gloucester county,
and am satisfied that Timberneck Bay is the one referred to by
Mr. Smith. On the east bank of this bay stands an old chimney
known as `Powhatan's chimney,' and its site corresponds with Werowocomico
as laid down in Smith's map." Mr. Campbell supposes
this to be the chimney of the house built by the Colonists to
propitiate the favour of Powhatan, and says he is supported by
tradition. May not the two opinions be reconciled in the following
manner? Shelly may have been the original place of his residence
or of his frequent residence; but when it was offered to build
him a house after the English fashion, he may have preferred a
situation a few miles off, for reasons best known to his royal
majesty. And now, although I have already introduced some
documents touching Powhatan and Pocahontas into my article on
Jamestown and Henrico, yet, as there is another most worthy of
preservation and use, I will do my part toward its perpetuity by
inserting it in this place. It is the famous letter of Captain Smith
to Queen Anne, soliciting her attention to Pocahontas when in
England,—a letter not easily surpassed by any one in any age.


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"To the Most High and Virtuous Princess, Queen Anne,
of Great Britain:
[96]

"Most admired Madam:

The love I bear my God, my King, and
my Church, hath so often emboldened me in the worst of extreme dangers,
that now honesty doth constrain me to presume thus far beyond myself,
to present to your Majesty this short discourse. If ingratitude be a
deadly poison to all honest virtues, I must be guilty of that crime if I
should omit any means to be thankful. So it was, that about ten years ago,
being in Virginia, and being taken prisoner by the power of Powhatan,
their chief king, I received from this great savage exceeding great courtesy,—especially
from his son, Nantiquaus, the manliest, comeliest, boldest
spirit I ever saw in a savage, and his sister Pocahontas, the king's most
dear and beloved daughter, being but a child of twelve or thirteen years
of age, whose compassionate, pitiful heart of my desperate estate gave me
much cause to respect her. I being the first Christian this proud king
and his grim attendants ever saw, and thus enthralled in their power, I
cannot say I felt the least occasion of want that was in the power of those,
my mortal foes, to prevent, notwithstanding all their threats. After some
six weeks' fattening among these savage courtiers, at the minute of my
execution she hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save mine;
and not only that, but so prevailed with her father that I was safely conducted
to Jamestown, where I found about eight-and-thirty miserable,
poor, and sick creatures to keep possession of all those large territories in
Virginia. Such was the weakness of this poor Commonwealth, as had not
the savages fed us, we directly had starved. And this relief, most gracious
Queen, was commonly brought us by the Lady Pocahontas.

"Notwithstanding all those passages, when inconstant fortune turned
our peace to war, this tender virgin would still not spare to dare to visit
us; and by her our fears have been often appeased and our wants still
supplied. Were it the policy of her father thus to employ her, or the
ordinance of God thus to make her his instrument, or her extraordinary
affection to our nation, I know not. But of this I am sure; when her
father, with the utmost of his policy and power, sought to surprise me,
having but eighteen with me, the dark night could not affright her from
coming through the irksome woods, and, with watered eyes, gave me intelligence
with her best advice to escape his fury, which had he seen, he
had surely slain her.

"Jamestown, with her wild train, she as freely visited as her father's
habitation; and during the time of two or three years, she, next under
God, was still the instrument to preserve this Colony from death, famine,
and utter confusion, which in those times had once been dissolved, Virginia
might have lain as it was at our first arrival till this day. Since
then this business, having been turned and varied by many accidents from
what I left it, is most certain; after a long and troublesome war, since my
departure, betwixt her father and our Colony, all which time she was not
heard of. About two years after, she herself was taken prisoner, being so
detained near two years longer; the Colony by that means was relieved,
peace concluded, and at last, rejecting her barbarous condition, she was
married to an English gentleman, the first Virginian who ever spake English,


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or had a child in marriage by an Englishman,—a matter surely, if
my meaning be truly considered and well understood, well worthy a
prince's information. Thus, most gracious lady, I have related to your
Majesty what, at your best leisure, our approved histories will recount to
you at large, as done in your Majesty's life. And, however this might be
presented you from a more worthy pen, it cannot from a more honest
heart.

"As yet, I never begged any thing of the State; and it is my want of
ability and her exceeding deserts, your birth, means, and authority, her
birth, virtue, want, and simplicity, doth make me thus bold humbly to beseech
your Majesty to take this knowledge of her, though it be from one so
unworthy to be the reporter as myself, her husband's estate not being able
to make her fit to attend your Majesty. The most and least I can do is to
tell you this, and the rather of her being of so great a spirit, however her
stature. If she should not be well received, seeing this kingdom may rightly
have a kingdom by her means, her present love to us and Christianity might
turn to such scorn and fury as to divert all this good to the worst of evil;
when, finding that so great a Queen should do her more honour than she
imagines, for having been kind to her subjects and servants, would so
ravish her with content as to endear her dearest blood to effect that your
Majesty and all the King's most honest subjects most earnestly desire.
And so I humbly kiss your gracious hands, &c.

"Signed, John Smith."
 
[96]

King James's wife was named Anne.

Since the above was in print, we have received the following
extract from one of our public papers:—

"Pocahontas.—An interesting link in the chain of American Documentary
History has just been given by the rector of Gravesend, in Kent,
to the Rev. R. Anderson, for his `Colonial Church History.' It is the
fac-simile copy of the entry of the death of Pocahontas, in the register
of that parish, where she died three years after her marriage, when on
the point of embarking to return to her native land with her husband,
who was appointed Secretary and Recorder-General for Virginia. It runs
thus:—`1616, March 21. Rebecca Rolfe, wyffe of Thomas Rolfe, gent.,
a Virginia lady borne, was buried in ye Chauncell.' The present church
at Gravesend is an erection later than the date of this entry; so that, in
all probability, it is the only tangible relic of the last resting-place of
one called by our forefathers `the first-fruit of the Gospel in America,' of
whom Sir Thomas Dale (Marshal of Virginia) wrote, `were it but the
gaining of this one soule, I think my time, toile, and present stay well
spent.' Poor Pocahontas! who shall say what emotions passed through
her mind, when, strong in affectionate confidence, she accompanied her
husband from the pleasant savannas of Virginia, which she was never to
see again, to the Court of England, and still (in the words of Purchas)
`did not onely accustom herselfe to civilitie, but carried herselfe as the
daughter of a king.' Every trait preserved of her in the records of the
time testifies to her `increasing in goodness as the knowledge of God increased
in her.' Her true story is one that can never become hackneyed
even with familiarity, and should be religiously kept free from burlesque
association."


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GRAVEYARDS IN GLOUCESTER COUNTY.

There are three graveyards of some note near to each other:—
that at Rosewell, where the Pages are buried; at Timberneck Bay,
where the Manns are buried; and at Carter's Creek, where the
Burwells alone are buried. Many inscriptions upon the old tombstones
have been furnished me.

The first of the Pages was John Page, usually called Sir John,
of Williamsburg, who wrote the good book to his son Matthew.
His son Matthew married Mary Mann, of Timberneck Bay, a rich
heiress, and bequeathed an immense estate to his son Mann, who
built Rosewell. His son Mann, Jr. married, first, Judith Wormley,
who had only one child who lived; and she married Thomas Mann
Randolph, of Tuckahoe. Mr. Page's second wife was Judith Carter,
daughter of Robert Carter, of Corotoman, commonly called King
Carter. By this marriage he had Mann Page, of Rosewell, John
Page, of North End, Gloucester, and Robert Page, of Broadneck,
Hanover. The first of these three married Alice Grymes, of Middlesex,
by whom he had two children,—John Page, of Rosewell,
alias Governor Page, and Judith, who married Lewis Burwell, of
Carter's Creek. At the death of his first wife, Alice Grymes,
Mann Page married Miss Ann Corbin Tayloe, sister of the first
Colonel Tayloe, of Mount Airy, by whom he had Mann Page, of
Mansfield, near Fredericksburg, who married his cousin, sister of
the late Colonel Tayloe, of Mount Airy; Robert Page, of Hanover
Town, who married a daughter of Charles Carter, of Fredericksburg;
Gwinn Page, who married first in Prince William and
then in Kentucky; Matthew Page, of Hanover Town, who died
unmarried; Betsey Page, who married Mr. Benjamin Harrison, of
Brandon; Lucy Page, who married first Colonel George Baylor,
and then Colonel Nathaniel Burwell.

The second son of Mann Page and Judith Carter—John Page,
of North End—married Jane Byrd, of Westover, whose son Mann
married Miss Selden, and was the father of William Byrd Page, of
Frederick, who married Miss Lee, and was the father of the Rev.
Charles Page, and many others.

John Page, second son of John, of North End, married Miss
Betty Burwell, and had several children. Their daughter Jane
married Mr. Edmund Pendleton. William, third son of John, of
North End, married Miss Jones, and had three children,—Jane,
Byrd, and Carter. Carter Page, of Cumberland, fourth son of


340

Page 340
John, of North End, married, first, Polly, daughter of Archibald
Cary, then Lucy, daughter of General Nelson, of York. Robert
Page, of Janeville, Frederick county, married his cousin Sarah,
of Broadneck. The sixth son was Matthew, who died unmarried.
The seventh, Tom, who married Mildred, daughter of Edmund
Pendleton, of White Plains. The eighth, Judith, who married
Colonel Hugh Nelson, of York. The ninth, Molly, who married
Mr. John Byrd, and had no children. The tenth, Jane, who married
Nathaniel Nelson, and was the mother of Mrs. Nathaniel Burwell,
of Saratoga. The eleventh, Lucy, who married Mr. Frank
Nelson, of Hanover. The above eleven were all the children of
Mr. John Page, of North End, second son of Mann and Judith
Page, of Rosewell. Their third son was Robert, of Broadneck,
Hanover county, who married Miss Sarah Walker. Their children
were, first, Robert, who married a Miss Braxton, and was the
father of Carter B. Page, John White Page, Walker Page, and
three sisters. Second, John, of Page Brook, who married Miss
Byrd, of Westover, and left many children. Third, Matthew
Page, of Annfield, who married Miss Ann R. Meade, and left two
daughters. Fourth, Catharine, who married Benjamin Waller, of
Williamsburg. Fifth, Judith, who married Mr. John Waller.
Sixth, Sarah, who married Mr. Robert Page, of Janeville.



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illustration

OLD SELIM.

 
[93]

There is no mention of this minister in the history of the Maury and Fontaine
families by Dr. Hawks and Miss Ann Maury; but we doubt not he was one
of them,—probably the son of Mr. James Fontaine, one of the five brothers, and
who settled in King William.

[95]

Mr. Page, of Rosewell, was twice married. First to Miss Frances Burwell, of
the Isle of Wight, and next to Miss Louther, of New York, whom he met with
while in Congress, which sat in that place. I have before me the funeral sermon
preached on the occasion of the death of the former by the Rev. James Maury
Fontaine, minister of Petsoe parish, and for some time of Ware parish, Gloucester.
I quote a few passages from it, not only to show the character of Mrs. Page, but
also the theology of Mr. Fontaine:—

"The voice of all proclaim aloud her praise. It was Mrs. Page's peculiar felicity
to have no enemies. This is only to be accounted for by her having no competitions
with the world but that laudable one, who should outdo in kindness and good offices.
A contest of this kind always leaves the victor as amiable as triumphant. To be
more particular: she was a faithful member of our Church. Her piety was exemplary.
Her charity was universal. Her patience and fortitude in travelling the
painful and gloomy road to dissolution were uncommonly great. She was a fair
pattern of conjugal perfection. A better wife never died. She was a complete
example to mothers. Sensible of the great blessing of early instruction, she
laboured gradually and pleasingly to infuse into the tender minds of her offspring
suitable portions of knowledge and virtue, and, knowing the force of good example,
she did what she would have her children practise, and was what she wished them
to be. She was an amiable pattern for mistresses; a fast, valuable friend, and
emphatically a good neighbour; in fine, a pattern to her sex and an ornament to
human nature."

Although we could wish to have seen more of the Gospel throughout the sermon,
yet at the close there is a recognition of it which shows that he understood and, we
hope, practised it. In exhorting the bereaved members of the family to a proper
resignation, he says, "Others have been as deeply afflicted as you. Jesus, the
Captain of our salvation, was made perfect through sufferings. He knows how to
pity you. And his sorrows have sufficient efficacy in them to convert yours into
real blessings. Let patience have her perfect work. Still confide in the power,
goodness, and faithfulness of God. Still rely on the mediation, advocacy, and grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And still expect those aids and support from the blessed
Spirit which you may yet need."

The effects of paternal as well as maternal examples have been seen in the numerous
descendants of Mr. Page who have embraced the religion and loved the
Church of their fathers, instead of adjuring the former and deserting the latter, as
too many of that day did. Of one of them I may be permitted to speak a special
word. She inherited her mother's name as well as her virtues. I mean the late
Mrs. Frances Berkeley, of Hanover. Her first husband was Mr. Thomas Nelson,
of York, son of General Nelson, by whom she had a daughter who was dearer to
me than life itself. They owned and for a time lived at Old Temple Farm, the ancient
seat of General Spottswood, the head-quarters of Washington during the siege
of York, and the place where Cornwallis signed his capitulation. After the death
of Mr. Nelson his widow married Dr. Carter Berkeley, of Hanover. Each of them
contributed a number of children by their first marriage to the joint family at
Edgewood, and others were born to them afterward. Instead of discord and
strife, a threefold cord of love was formed, seldom to be seen. Mrs. Berkeley was
added to the number of those excellent ones belonging to the much-abused family
of step-mothers, who knew no difference between her own and adopted children,
while all regarded her equally as their own mother and each other as children of
the same parents. She was in mind and person and character one of "nature's
nobles," sanctified by divine grace to be among the finest specimens of renewed
humanity. Less than this I could not say of one who was to me as a mother.