University of Virginia Library

Second Division of Truro, and Formation of
Fairfax Parish

[Note by the Editor.—The facts in regard
to the division of Truro, and the formation
of Fairfax Parish, are not recorded in the Vestry

Book, and were but imperfectly known to Dr.
Slaughter. He was not acquainted with the final
Act of Assembly dividing the Parishes, nor had
he ever seen the original and complete paper by
Gen. Washington giving the result of the various
elections of Vestrymen held at this time, which
explains, and explains away, the seeming fact that
Washington was chosen, contrary to all precedent,
if not law, to serve simultaneously on the Vestries
of two distinct Parishes. For these reasons Dr.
Slaughter's History is, of necessity, at this point,
radically imperfect; and the Editor feels that he
will but carry out what would be the Author's
wish, if it could be expressed, in departing from
the manuscript for a few pages, and rewriting this
portion of the Parish annals.]

As early as 1761 a petition was presented to the
County Court, and ordered certified to the General
Assembly, praying for a division of Truro
Parish. The population of the County was increasing
rapidly, there was an evident demand for
more Churches and more services, while the health
of the Rev. Mr. Green was failing. A division was
the natural remedy. No action seems to have
been taken further however until the year, 1764.
In the Journal of the House of Burgesses we read
that on November 1st of that year "A petition
from sundry inhabitants of the Parish of Truro, in
the County of Fairfax praying that the said Parish
be divided into two distinct Parishes, was presented

to the House and read." It was referred
to Messrs. George Johnston and John West, the
two Burgesses from Fairfax, to prepare and bring
in a Bill agreeable to the prayer of the petitioners.
November 3rd. Mr. Johnston presented the Bill
for dividing the Parish of Truro, and it was passed
on the 6th and agreed to by the Council on the
26th. The Act provided that the division should
take place from February 1st, 1765, the line being
—"by Doeg creek from the mouth thereof to Mr.
George Washington's mill, and from thence, by
a straight line, to the plantation, of John Munroe,
and the same course continued to the line that divides
the counties of Fairfax and Loudoun." All
between this line and the Potomac, was to be the
new Parish of Fairfax. Each Parish was to elect
its Vestry, at a time and place appointed by the
Sheriff, before the second of, the following April.
(See Hening, VIII. 43.) The elections were held
in Truro on March 25th and in Fairfax on March
28th.

This division was exceedingly favorable to the
new Parish, but naturally it met with small favor
in Truro. Not only was she shorn of much more
than half her strength, but the congregation of
Pohick, her one remaining Church, was divided,
and Mount Vernon, with several other plantations
which naturally belonged to this Church both
from proximity and association, was now in Fairfax
Parish. Accordingly when the House of Burgesses,

after a recess of several months, met again
in May, we find, under date of May 14, 1765, that
"A petition of sundry inhabitants of the Parish of
Truro, praying a more, equal division of the said
Parish, also several petitions in opposition thereto,
were presented to the House and read." These
were referred to the Committe of Propositions and
Grivances, "to examine into the allegations thereof,
and report the same with their opinion to the
House." Of this Committee Mr. Johnston was a
member, as was also George Washington, who at
that time represented the County of Frederick,
where he was also a large freeholder. On the
15th the Committee reported two resolutions.
First, that the petition from Truro, complaining
of the inequality in the late division, and praying
that a new division be made, by a line to begin at
Clifton's or Johnson's ferry on the Potomac and to
run from thence to the ford over Dogue run, and
on by the line that was afterward adopted, was
"reasonable." Second, that so much of the petition
from Fairfax Parish in opposition thereto as
prays that if the Parishes be divided it be by other
lines as therein set forth was "also reasonable."
The first proposition was rejected, and the Committee
ordered to bring in a Bill in accordance
with the second resolution. The new Act was
presented the same day and recommitted, reported
with amendments on the 22d, passed the 23d,
agreed to by the Council, and was signed by the
Governor on June 1st, so becoming a law on that
date.

The preamble of this Act states that "Whereas it
is represented to this present General Assembly
that the lines and boundaries whereby the Parish
of Truro, in the County of Fairfax, was divided
into two distinct Parishes, pursuant to an Act
passed for that purpose in the former part of this
present session, of Assembly, have made a very
unequal division of the said Parish, by leaving
nearly double the number of tithables in the new
Parish of Fairfax than there are in Truro Parish,
(sic) Be it therefore enacted &c. That the said Act
be, and is hereby repealed, and declared null and
void. And be it further enacted, That from and
after the ninth day of June next the said Parish
of Truro shall be divided into two distinct Parishes,
in the following manner, that is to say; From
the mouth of Little Hunting creek, up the same
to the forks thereof; thence up the meanders of
the south branch thereof, to the Gum Spring
thereon; from thence by a straight line to the ford
of Dogue run, where the back road from Colchester
to Alexandria crosses the said run; and from
thence by a straight line to the forks of Difficult."
All above said lines to be Fairfax Parish, and all
below to retain the name of Truro. New Vestries
were to be elected in each Parish before the first
of August following. Henry Lee, John Baylis,
Foushee Tebbs, Allan Macrae, and William Car,

gentlemen, were appointed commissioners to adjust
and divide the cost of the Glebe and improvements
thereon, and of the Church plate, and the
50,000 pounds of tobacco levied for building
Churches and not yet expended, between the two
Parishes according to the number of tithables in
each at the time of the first division. (See Hening
VIII. 157.) A plot and description of the above
line, made by the County Surveyor, June 15, 1765,
is on record in the Clerk's office of Fairfax County.

It is evident that Washington himself, and his
immense estate at Mount Vernon, was the principal
bone of contention between the mother and
daughter Parishes. The lines proposed ran,
the one on the south, the other on the north, of
the estate. The one finally adopted divided it,
leaving far the larger part, however, with the mansion
house, in Truro. That he would take an active
interest in the settlement of the question was
inevitable, and doubtless his direct agency is to be
seen in the compromise petition which found favor
with the House of Burgesses and was the basis
of their legislation. The Act which was passed
may well have been drawn by his own pen. In
contrast with the previous Act it is unusually specific
in its details, and would seem to indicate the
hand of the Surveyor in its clearly described lines,
and of the Church Warden in its accurate enumeration
of the property and assets of the Parish.

But there is another silent witness to Washington's

concern in this division. In the Library of
Congress there is preserved, among his journals
and some other manuscript papers, a single sheet
of foolscap written on both sides in his most formal
hand, and giving the result, first of the elections
of Vestries for the two Parishes held in March,
1765, under the first Act of Assembly, and then of
those held in July of the same year under the provisions
of the second Act. The first page shows
a large preponderance of voters in Fairfax Parish
at the first elections, bearing out the assertion that
the first division was very unequal. The second
page, with the simple calculation at the bottom,
shows the number of voters in the two Parishes
at the second election to have been nearly the
same; 334 in Fairfax and 313 in Truro. Later the
Vestry Book records that the new division gave
to Fairfax Parish 1013 tithables, leaving 962 in
Truro.

This paper shows that at the first election, in
March, 1765, Col. Washington was elected a Vestryman
of the first Fair fax Parish, he being, for
the moment, a resident therein. The life of this
Parish was exactly four months, and of this Vestry-elect
two months and three days, even if its members
ever qualified or met for organization, of
which there is no evidence. In July, Mount Vernon
having, in the meantime, been restored to
Truro, Col. Washington was again elected a Vestryman

of Truro Parish, and was not eligible in
any other.

An accurate copy of this interesting paper, as
written by Washington, will be found on the following
pages, being here published in complete
form, it is believed, for the first time.

COPY OF PAPER IN WASHINGTON'S HANDWRITING, NOW IN
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
(First Page.)

                                                             

VESTRY CHOSEN FOR TRURO PARISH 25th. MARCH 1765		VESTRY CHOSEN FOR FAIRFAX PARISH 28th. MARCH 1765
with the Number of Votes to each		with the Number of Votes to each.
Mr. Edward Payne	234	Colo. John West	340
Colo. George Mason	210	Mr. Charles Alexander	309
Captn. Daniel Mc.Carty	181	Mr. William Payne	304
Mr. Thos. Withers Coffer	174	Captn. John Dalton	281
Mr. William Gardner	169	C. Geo. Washington	274
Colo. George Wm. Fairfax	161	Majr. Chs. Broadwater	260
Mr. Alexr. Henderson	158	Captn. George Johnston	254
Captn. Lewis Ellzey	152	Mr. Townsend Dade	252
Mr. Thomison Ellzey	151	Mr. Richd. Sanford	247
Mr. Thomas Ford	151	Mr. Willm. Adams	244
Mr. John Ford	141	Captn. Posey	222
Majr. Peter Wagener	126	Mr. Daniel French	221
Candidates then rejected		Candidates then rejected
Doctr. Cookburn		Mr. Thomas Wren	220
Mr. Benja. Grayson		Mr. James Wren	205
Mr. Joshua Furguson		Mr. Edward Blackburn	204
Mr. Edward Washington		Mr. John West Junr.	199
Mr. William Baylis		Mr. Edward Dulan	199
Mr. Henry Boggess		Mr. Benja. Sebastian	160
Mr. William Linton		Mr. James Donaldson	131
Mr. Marmaduke Beckwith		Mr. Henry Gunnel	126
Mr. John Thompson		Mr. John Seal	120
Mr. Thomas Lucas		Mr. Charles Thrift	112
Mr. George Simpson		Captn. Sampson Darrell
Mr. Benja. Talbot
Mr. Joseph Bennet
Mr. John Daniel
Mr. John Monroe
Mr. James Halley

(Second page.)

                                           

VESTRY CHOSEN FOR TRURO PARISH 22d. JULY 1765		VESTRY CHOSEN FOR FAIRFAX PARISH 25th. JULY 1765
with the Number of Votes for each.		with the Number of Votes for each.
Colo. Geo. Mason	282	Colo. West	309
Captn. Edwd. Payne	277	Mr. William Payne	289
Colo. Geo. Washington	259	Mr. William Adams	250
Captn. John Posey	259	Captn. John Dalton	247
Captn. Daniel Mc.Carty	246	Mr. Thos. Wren	237
Colo. Geo. Win. Fairfax	235	Mr. Edward Dulan	228
Mr. Alexander Henderson	231	Majr. Chs. Broadwater	225
Mr. William Gardner	218	Mr. Richard Sanford	225
Mr. Thomison Ellzey	209	Mr. Daniel French	216
Mr. Thos. Withers Coffer	189	Mr. Edward Blackburn	210
Mr. Wiliam Lynton	173	Mr. Thos. Shaw	209
Mr. Thomas Ford	170	Mr. Townsend Dade	205
Mr. Henry Boggess	168	Mr. James Wren	205
Mr. Joshua Furguson	162	Mr. Charles Alexander	204
Mr. Edward Washington	154	Mr. Robert Alexander	204
Mr. George Simpson	153	Captn. George Johnston	183
Majr. Peter Wagenerr	146	Mr. Sampson Darrel	151
Mr. Benja. Grayson	139	Mr. Benja. Sebastian	150
Mr. William Baylis	86	Mr. Presley Cox	85
Whole Number of Votes	3756	Whole Number of Votes	4012

             

12/3756/313 Number of Voters	12/4012/334 Number of Voters
—	—
15	41
—	—
36	52
—	—
..	4

Jared Sparks, in his Life, of Washington and
also in the Writings of Washington which he
edited, not understanding the meaning of this
paper nor Washington's obvious purpose in preparing
it, published a small part of it only, namely
the two lists of Vestrymen elected, the one in Fairfax
Parish on March 28th and the other in Truro
Parish on July 22d, in which the name of Washington
appears. He thus gave rise to the groundless
tradition, which has been so generally adopted
and perpetuated by succeeding writers, that Washington
served as a Vestryman in both of these
Parishes, and presumably at the same time, though
Sparks is careful not to assert this. But had he
published the whole paper the error would not
have arisen.

Bishop Meade says he had seen a printed list of
these Vestries which was supposed to have come
from "A leaf of the old Pohick Vestry Book which
had by some means gotten into the Historical Society
of New York." Dr. Slaughter, at this place,
gives this list as "Verified by Mrs. Burton Harrison,
who kindly inspected the missing leaf in the
New York Historical Society rooms and sent me
a copy of it." This list agrees substantially with
that given by Sparks, as do they both, as far as
they go, with the original list written by Washington,
though both omit the titles before the different
names which Washington, with old-fashioned
punctiliousness, was so careful to give. The New

York list, however, whatever its source, is not from
a leaf of the Vestry Book as Bishop Meade understood.

One frequently finds the assertion made by
careless writers that Washington was a Vestryman
of Pohick, or some other, Church. Such a
statement is, of course, inaccurate, and Washington
himself would hardly have understood what
was meant by it. In his day Vestries in Virginia
were confined to Parishes, usually containing two
or three Churches. Pohick is the only Church remaining
which stood in Washington's time in the
Parish of which he was a Vestryman. The present
Falls Church and Christ Church, Alexandria,
were built in Fairfax Parish soon after its separation
from Truro.

The Vestry chosen for Truro at the March elections
held but one meeting. This was on April
26, 1765, at the house of Samuel Littlejohn.

[We now resume the thread of the History as
written by Dr. Slaughter.]

During the current year the Minister of the
Parish, the Rev. Charles Green, departed this life.
There is no formal notice of his decease in the
Vestry Book. It was not the custom of the times
to pass resolutions on such occasions. It is only
referred to in the business items, four months'
salary due being ordered paid to his executor.
Falls Church and Alexandria were no longer in
Truro, so it became possible to have another place

of worship. Accordingly the Vestry rented from
Samuel Littlejohn the tobacco house on his plantation
for one thousand pounds of tobacco a year,
until a Church could be built in the upper part of
the present Parish, he agreeing to keep it clean
and provide water for the congregation. An
agreement was made with John Robertson to fit
up this house with six benches the length of the
house and two at the ends; a reading desk and
Communion table, with a small window on each
side of the desk; to lay plank on the joists the
width of eight feet, with a rail in front, and two
broad step ladders, and to stop the eaves; all to
be done in the plainest manner, within six months,
for 1400 pounds of tobacco. When the house was
given up the plank used was to remain for the use
of the Parish.

The Rev. James Scott, of Dettingen Parish, the
grandfather of the late Judge Scott, of Fauquier,
often officiated in Truro in the interval between
the Rev. Mr. Green and his successor, Mr. Massey.
He received payment altogether for forty
sermons, at 332 pounds of tobacco each. The
Rev. John Andrews, of Cameron Parish, also
preached twice, at the same rate.

The Vestry, (that elected in July,) had a protracted
meeting on the 28th, 2th and 30th of November,
1765, when the accounts between the two
Parishes were settled as far as could be done at

that time. The settlement is spread upon the minutes
in full, but is uninteresting.[24]

It was ordered, That the agreement made with
Samuel Littlejohn by the former Vestry be continued;
That Elijah Williams be appointed Reader
at Littlejohn's, and that he attend there to read
Divine Service every Sunday, and that he be paid
at the rate of 1000 pounds of tobacco a year; That
Mr. George Johnston be appointed to act as Attorney
for the Parish, and that he return a list of
all the judgments obtained by him to the Church
Wardens by the first of November annually; and
That the Vestry meet at Mr. William Gardner's
on first Monday in February next to agree with
workmen to undertake the building of a brick
Church to contain 1600 superficial feet; the Church
Wardens to advertise the same in as public a manner
as may be, and each workman to bring a plan
and estimate of expense. George Mason and Edward
Payne were continued as Church Wardens
for the next year, and the latter was appointed
Collector of the Parish Levy, giving bond and security
as was the custom.[25] John Barry was continued

as Clerk of the Vestry; and the third Friday
in November annually was appointed as a
day for meeting.