 | The history of Truro Parish in Virginia, |  |
Alexandria
1753, June 4th. "On the petition of Capt. John
West ordered that the Rev. Mr. Charles Green do
preach every third Sunday at the Town of Alexandria."
This is the first time Alexandria is mentioned
in this record, and this is probably the date
of the first Chlrch services there. Hitherto it has
not been supposed that there had been Church service
at Alexandria before 1762. It is not generally
known that the site of Alexandria was included in
a grant of land, (6,000 acres,) extending from
Hunting Creek to the Little Falls, from Sir William
Berkeley to Robert Howson. In October,
1669, Howson, for six hogsheads of tobacco, conveyed
these lands to John Alexander, who, with
his brothers Robert and Gerard, had emigrated
from Scotland. (See Dinwiddie Papers, Vol. I, p.
89.) There had been for some years warehouses
at Pohick, Hunting Creek, and at Thomas Lee's
land at the Falls, when, in 1748, a town named
Alexandria was established by Act of Assembly
at Hunting Creek Warehouse, sometimes called
Belle-Haven.
In 1754 there is mention of the payment of 100
pounds of tobacco to Capt. John West for "part
of building the desk at Alexandria." And in 1756
the Churchwardens are ordered "to have seats
made for the Church at Alexandria."[20]
Strange to say these are the only mentions made in this Vestry
Book of any levy or appropriation for building, furnishing or
repairing a Church in Alexandria; though hereafter the Clerk and
the Sexton at Alexandria are regularly paid as at the other
Churches. It is probable therefore that Capt. West and others
themselves provided a hall or Chapel for services, even paying in
part for building the desk.
| The history of Truro Parish in Virginia, | |