University of Virginia Library

First Division of Truro Parish

By an act of the Assembly of October, 1748, it
was enacted that from and after the eleventh day
of June then next Truro Parish should be divided,
"by Difficult Run and its meanders from the mouth
to the head thereof, thence by a line to the head
of Popes head run, and down the said run to the
mouth thereof." All on the lower side of said runs
and line to retain the name of Truro, and all on the
upper side to be "one other distinct Parish and
called by the name of Cameron."[17]

Truro was now limited to the foregoing metes
and bounds; and Cameron Parish had jurisdiction
above the said line, with its own Minister and Vestry.
The division transferred 707 tithables to
Cameron, leaving 1240 in Truro. Several of the

old Vestrymen also lived in Cameron. The new
Vestry of Truro consisted of,—
           

Hugh West,	Abraham Barnes,
George Mason,	Thomas Wren,
James Hamilton,	Robert Boggess
Charles Broadwater,	John Turley,
Daniel Mc.Carty,	William Peake,
William Payne,	Jeremiah Bronaugh.

This is the first appearance of the great Author
of the Bill of Rights in the Vestry Book. Mr.
Bronaugh died within a few months, and was succeeded
as Church Warden by Mr. Mason and as
Vestryman by John West.[18]

February 19, 1749–50, the Vestry agree with
Charles Broadwater Gent. to make an addition to
the Upper Church, according to plans produced,
for 12,000 pounds of tobacco. It was also ordered
that the sills and sleepers of Pohick Church be
repaired, the north side of the Church newly
shingled with poplar or chestnut shingles, that
windows be made in the "Justices Pew" and in the
"Womens Pew," that the Church be raised and
new blocked, and that a Vestry House be built,
sixteen feet square, framed and clapboarded, to
have "an inside wooden chimney and to be lofted
with clapboards." Capt. Daniel McCarty undertakes
this work for 5,500 pounds of tobacco, he

having also the material in the old Vestry House
to make what use of he can in building the new.
Afterward this work was ordered to be deferred,
and two years later the contract, with the addition
of a window by the pulpit and making good the
pews and floor, was given to Mr. Daniel French
for sixty-three pounds current money.

On the 20th of May, 1751, it was ordered, "That
the Clerk of the Vestry present unto the next
Court of Claims and Propositions a petition in the
name of the Minister, Churchwardens and Vestry
of this Parish to Honour'l. House of Burgesses
setting forth the insufficiency and inconveniency
of the Glebe land of said Parish in order that an
Act of Assembly be obtained for the Vestry to
sell the same and buy land more convenient for
the same uses, and also to pay the upper Parish of
this County their proportion of what the said land
may sell for."[19] In 1752 an Act of Assembly
granted the petition.

The time for processioning the lands having
come again, and the division of the Parish having
changed its geography, etc. It was ordered that
James Donaldson and John Jenkins procession
between Difficult and Pimmetts run, Guy Broadwater
and James Robertson between Pimmetts

run and Four Mile run, Edward Masterson and
William Gleading between Four Mile run and
Hunting Creek, Sampson Darrell and John Posey
between Hunting Creek and Dogue run, Edward
Violet and William Ashford between Dogue run
and Accotink, Abraham Barnes and Robert Boggess
between Accotink and Pohick, William Reardon
and John Hereford between Pohick and Occoquan
to Sandy run, Thomas Ford and Richard
Simpson from Sandy run to Popes Head and the
branches of Difficult.

1752. The Glebe was sold at auction and
bought by Mr. William Ramsay for fifty pounds
current money; and 176 acres of land adjoining
the old Glebe was bought of Rev. Charles Green
for 13,500 pounds of tobacco. Proposals wrere invited
for buildings on the Glebe according to law,
the dwelling house to be of brick, to contain in
the clear about 1200 feet, of one story and a cellar
and convenient rooms and closets; to be advertised
in the Gazette and at the several Churches and
the Courthouse. In October Mr. Thomas Waite
contracted for the dwelling house and other houses
on the Glebe for 425 pounds current money, and
Rev. Charles Green undertook to do the rest of
the building necessary, apparently without compensation.

The Clerk of the Upper Church was directed to
"read prayers every intervening Sunday," and was
allowed 1200 pounds of tobacco for his salary.