University of Virginia Library

Washington as a Church-Goer

In a popular work entitled "The True George
Washington," by the late Paul Leicester Ford, the
brilliant author devotes a few pages only to a subject
which demands a far more accurate and sympathetic
treatment than is given to it, namely,
Washington's religious training and habits. Referring
to Washington's services as a Vestryman,
it is acknowledged that he was "Quite active in
Church affairs;" but in touching these the author
not only repeats all the traditional errors which,
for lack of authentic data, have been made by
previous writers on this subject, but he falls into
a number of new and strange ones, and becomes
involved in a most curious labyrinth of inaccuracies.
All these the foregoing pages will correct.

In discussing Washington's habits in regard to
church attendance he first quotes the well known
testimony of the Rev. Lee Massey, his pastor and
close personal friend, as follows:—"I never knew
so constant an attendant at Church as Washington.
And his behavior in the house of God was
ever so deeply reverential that it produced the
happiest effect on my congregation, and greatly
assisted me in my pulpit labors. No company ever

withheld him from Church. I have been at Mount
Vernon on Sabbath morning when his breakfast
table was filled with guests; but to him they furnished
no pretext for neglecting his God and losing
the satisfaction of setting a good example. For
instead of staying at home, out of false complaisance
to them, he used constantly to invite them to
accompany him."

The author thereupon expresses the opinion
that this was "Written more with an eye to its influence
on others than to its strict accuracy;" and
continues,—"During the time Washington attended
at Pohick Church he was by no means a
strict Church goer. His daily 'Where and How
my Time is Spent' enables us to know exactly how
often he attended Church, and in the year 1760
(?) he went just sixteen times and in 1768 he went
fourteeen, these years being fairly typical of the
period 1760–1773."

As to the veracity of the Rev. Mr. Massey,
whose testimony is so summarily set aside as disingenuous,
we have the witness of his friends and
neighbors, the Vestrymen of his Parish, who, as we
have seen, certified over their own signatures to
"His moral character and unexceptionable life and
conversation." He seems indeed to have been a
man of almost super-conscientiousness. He retired
from the practice of law because, as his
grandson, Col. J. T. Stoddert, a gentleman of the
highest standing, who remembered him well,

states, "His conscience would not suffer him 'to
make the worse appear the better reason,' and to
uphold wrong against right. He tried to follow
the lead of Chancellor Wythe, to examine cases
placed in his care and to accept the good and reject
the bad. It proved a failure, and he withdrew
from practise. He recommended me to read law,"
he continues, "but earnestly opposed my pursuing
it as a vocation. He was a good judge of character.
He loved virtue and hated vice intensely.
His integrity and honour were of the highest order,
and he detested all meanness and double dealing
with his whole heart."

Such was the character borne by Mr. Massey,
who certainly had the best opportunity possible to
know the facts in the case. And his statement
agrees with that of others who, to go no further
afield, were members of Washington's household.
Mrs. Custis, who spent two years at Mount Vernon,
testifies to "His extraordinary punctuality in
attending Church and his reverent behavior there."
And his ward, George Washington Parke Custis,
of Arlington, wrote of him: "Washington was a
strict and decorous observer of the Sabbath. He
always attended divine service in the morning, and
read a sermon or some portion of the Bible to
Mrs. Washington in the afternoon." Mr. Custis
is speaking of the period when Washington was
President and had opportunity to attend Church
regularly.

Figures standing alone are often seriously misleading,
and those by which the testimony of Mr.
Massey is sought to be impeached need some explanation.
In the first place it is not quite certain
that we can gather from Washington's diary "Exactly
how often he attended Church." The customary
and habitual is just what is usually omitted
from a journal in which the record of a day is compressed
within the compass of a few lines. A careful
reading of this diary, kept for some years on
the blank pages of interleaved almanacs and afterwards
in small note-books, will show that while at
home at Mount Vernon it was chiefly a record of
the company he entertained, of his visits to his
friends, of his surveys, his adventures in the hunting
field, etc. On Sundays he would sometimes
mention going to Church quite incidentally, and
it is seen that for a month or two he attended about
as regularly as services were held. Then for two
or more months perhaps there will be no mention
of Church at all, and no explanation of why he did
not attend if he did not. But when, for instance,
he "Dined at Belvior" with such and such guests
he might very well have gone to Church on the
way, or the neighbors he had to dinner he would
quite likely have brought from Church with him.
The more usual record for Sundays, however, is
"At home all day," or "At home all day alone."
This would seem conclusive until we find that it is
also a common formula for week days on which

there was nothing of special note to record. It
may simply mean that he dined at home without
company; and especially so if he failed to make the
entry on Sunday night but deferred it until he
would be at his desk on Monday. Very occasionally
he gives a reason why he was "prevented from
Church."

But even if we grant that the above estimate of
Washington's attendance at Church is substantially
correct, other considerations must be borne
in mind or our conclusions will be wholly at fault.
It must be remembered that from 1760 to 1765
there was but one minister in the whole of Fairfax
County, and he an old man in failing
health. Mr. Green ministered alternately at three
Churches, situated at a distance of about nine, ten,
and eighteen miles respectively from Mount Vernon.
This would allow him to preach seventeen
or eighteen times in a year at Pohick. After the
division of the Parish Mr. Massey had but two
Churches and could preach twenty-six times a
year at each, when the weather, the numerous
water courses, and the state of the primitive roadways
through marsh and forest permitted a congregation
to gather from distances of from five to
fifteen miles. Residents of Fairfax can appreciate
what eighteen miles, going and coming, in the
Mount Vernon "chariot" or even on horseback,
must have meant; and can still understand the
statement of Mrs. Nellie Custis Lewis that Washington

attended Church "When the weather and
roads permitted." Moreover Washington was absent
from home for several months of each year,
frequently in the wilds of western Virginia or on
the Ohio. While visiting relatives in the lower
counties he mentions frequently the Churches he
attended, probably as interesting memoranda, and
the same was the case when he was in Philadelphia.
At the Berkeley Springs he twice "attended
Church forenoon and afternoon." At Fredericksburg
he "Went to prayers (lay reading) and dined
afterwards at Col. Lewis." On hearing that the
smallpox had broken out among his servants in
Frederick, he starts at once to visit them and
"Took Church on my way to Colemans." These
and many such references indicate his habit. The
argument from silence is never a very safe one,
and his frequently omitting to mention going to
Church in the regular routine of life at Mount Vernon
does not, we think, prove that he was "By no
means a strict Church goer," especially in view of
the conditions existing.

It is interesting to note that twice within two
weeks Washington makes record of having stood
as Sponsor at the baptism of infants. According to
the best evidence we have he was a regular Communicant
during the period under discussion. In
1770 and in 1772 he mentions being at Church on
Christmas day, which was always a Communion
occasion.