University of Virginia Library

ST. PATRICK'S PARISH, PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY.

We have seen that the county was established in 1754 and the
parish in 1755. In the year 1758 the Rev. James Garden is its
minister. We find him there also in 1773,—fifteen years after. In
the years 1774 and 1776 the parish has no minister. In the years
1777 and 1778 the Rev. Archibald McRoberts was the minister.
We have already spoken of his relinquishment of our ministry in
the year 1779. With his ministry Episcopal services no doubt

ceased in Prince Edward, as we see no representative, either clerical
or lay, in any Convention.

There were in Mr. McRoberts's time three churches in Prince
Edward, one of which, or the congregation thereof, separated with
him. Their names were—1st. The Chapel or Watkins's Church,
about eighteen miles from Prince Edward Court-House, on the
Lynchburg Road, which was the one whose congregation followed
Mr. McRoberts in his movement toward an Independent Church.
It is now occupied by different denominations. 2d. French's
Church, which was about a mile from the court-house and is now
gone down. 3d. Sandy River Church, on Sandy River, about
eight miles from the court-house on the Petersburg Road. This
last church is now, I am told, occupied by the Baptist denomination.
I have in my possession a pamphlet of some twenty-two pages,
containing an account of a controversy concerning it between the
Methodists and Baptists in the years 1832-34. When deserted
by the Episcopalians it had been repaired by general subscription,
and at several different times occupied as a free church. In the year
1832 the Baptists obtained a title to it and claimed sole right to it,
though not refusing to allow the Methodists the use of it at such
times as the owners might choose. The Methodists were unwilling
to accept these terms, and much unhappy disputation ensued. At one
time two ministers of each denomination met on the same day and
were in the pulpit together, and the vote of the congregation as to
who should preach was taken. The matter was referred to two
men eminent in the law,—Judge Thomas Bouldin and Mr. Charles
Smith. They determined that the deed recently given to the
Baptists was not good, that the one given to the churchwardens at the
first creation of the church was the legal title, and that it belonged
now to the Commonwealth of Virginia, unless there was an older
and better title than that of those who made one to the churchwardens,
and to this they were inclined, and therefore advised that
the line be run in order to decide the point. A line was run, and
it passed through the church; and so a part of it only was legally
the property of the churchwardens and afterward of the Commonwealth.
The result was that the Baptists retained possession,
though the Methodists maintained that a wall might be raised
through the church according to the line run; but it was not done.
If either Mr. Chapman Johnson's opinion—that the churches were
the property of Episcopalians—was true, or that of Judge Bouldin
and Mr. Smith, then, in the first case, the Episcopalians in the
county ought to have been applied to to decide the question, or

else the public authorities, either of which would, I think, have
settled it more amicably and more to the honour of religion. Other
unhappy disputes have occurred concerning our old churches in
other places. I knew of one where, after much strife between two
denominations, the church was set up by them to the highest bidder.
Who gave the title, or what was it worth? About another, two
parties preached in different pulpits,—one in the old Episcopal
pulpit and the other in a new one in a different part of the church.
So far from their being always respected as equally common
property, I have myself been refused admission into one, while on
an Episcopal visitation, by those who claimed it by the right of
use. In relation to the suggestion that the Episcopalians in Prince
Edward were the most proper persons to decide the question as to
the occupancy of Old Sandy River Church, if it be said that there
were scarcely any left unto whom application might have been made,
I reply that, from all the information I have been able to get, there
have always been some few of high respectability there. One at
least there was, whose firm attachment to the Church, yet catholic
spirit to all others, and great weight of character, were felt and
acknowledged by all. I allude to Mr. William Berkeley, son of
the old lady of Hanover who bade the overseers of the poor who
sent a deputation to her for the Communion-plate to come themselves
and take it. He inherited all his mother's devotion to the
Church, and when at our Conventions, and on other occasions,
opportunity was presented for displaying it, never failed to do so.
He was not, however, a bigot to a particular Church, but loved the
whole Catholic Church. In evidence of which, being in the providence
of God placed beyond the reach of an Episcopal place of
worship, and near the Presbyterian College in Prince Edward, he
not only attended the religious services held there, but was an
active member of the board of trustees thereof. For a long period
of time he presided over that board, fulfilling the duties of his
station faithfully, and yet always having it distinctly understood
that he was a true son of the Episcopal Church. So amiable,
pious, and dignified a Christian gentleman as he was is not easily
found.

In the list of vestrymen in Brunswick, Lunenburg, Halifax, and
elsewhere, we meet with certain persons some of whose descendants
are enrolled on other registers than those of the Episcopal Church,
such as Read, Venable, Watkins, Carrington, Cabell, Morton, &c.,
and we know not where in the progress of our work we can more
properly introduce some notice of them than in connection with

Prince Edward county and the College of Hampden-Sydney. We
have seen how the Presbyterians from Ireland and Scotland, settling
first in Pennsylvania, began to emigrate to the Valley of Virginia
about the year 1738,—how, under Mr. Samuel Davies, they were
established in Hanover and some parts around between 1740 and
1750. From thence, in a short time, they found their way into
what is now Charlotte and Prince Edward, and made strong and
permanent settlements there. This was in a great measure effected
by the establishment of Hampden-Sydney College, a brief history
of which, taken from the Sketches of the Presbyterian Church of
Virginia, by the Rev. Mr. Foote, will best enable us to understand
the subject. In the year 1774 the ministers and members of the
Presbytery of Hanover determine to establish a public school in
that part of the State,—Prince Edward,—understanding that they
can procure the services of Mr. Samuel Stanhope Smith, then a
candidate for the ministry in the New Castle Presbytery, and
teacher of languages in Princeton College, afterward the distinguished
President of the same. Sufficient funds being raised
and a place selected, in November, 1774, Mr. Smith, with his
brother, J. B. Smith, a candidate for the ministry, and a third
person, are regularly chosen to commence the work. The first,
being now ordained, was called also to the congregation in that
place. Under this most eminent scholar and eloquent preacher
and his yet more zealous and laborious brother, Mr. J. B. Smith,
the institution flourished, notwithstanding all the obstacles of the
war. In the year 1779 the elder brother resigned and accepted a
call to a professorship in Princeton College. The Presidency of
Hampden-Sydney devolved upon his most excellent and devoted
brother, J. B. Smith, who continued to promote its welfare and the
religious interests of the country around until the year 1788, when
he accepted a call to a church in Philadelphia. During the Presidency
of the younger Mr. Smith a charter was obtained for the
College.

On the list of trustees we find names to which our eyes have
become familiar on the pages of the old vestry-books, as those of
Carrington, Nash, Watkins, Morton, Read, Booker, Scott, Meade,
Allen, Parker, Foster, Johnson. Now, though some of them were
doubtless still attached to the Episcopal Church, since it was declared
at the outset that the institution should be conducted "on
the most catholic plan," and it was the best policy to enlist general
favour by appointing some of the Episcopal Church, yet a considerable
number of them had doubtless given in their adhesion to

the Presbyterian Church. Whereupon, ever since that time, we have
found most of the above-mentioned names in each denomination.

Let these remarks introduce the following genealogy of the
Reads and Carringtons, who may be regarded as common to the
Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches of Virginia, though more of
the former belonged to the Presbyterian and more of the latter to
the Episcopal. I take them chiefly from the Rev. Mr. Foote's
Sketches of the Presbyterian Church.

Colonel Clement Read (so often mentioned as the active vestryman
in Brunswick and Lunenburg) was born in the year 1707. He
was a trustee of William and Mary College in 1729. Being President
of the Council at the departure of Governor Gooch for England,
in 1749, he became Governor of the Colony, but died a few
days after. He had been educated at William and Mary under
Commissary Blair. He married the daughter of William Hill, an
officer in the British navy and second son of the Marquis of Lansdowne.
Mr. Read, having, with Colonel Richard Randolph, of
Curls, purchased large tracts of land in what was then Lunenburg,
moved to that county and was clerk of the same for many years.
He frequently served in the House of Burgesses with the great
leaders of the Revolution. He died in the year 1763 and was
buried at Bushy Forest. His wife was laid by his side in 1780.
She was (says Mr. Foote) a pious woman and an exemplary member
of the Episcopal Church. Their eldest son, Colonel Isaac Read,
married a daughter of Henry Embra, (another vestryman of the
Lunenburg Church,) who represented the county with his father,
Clement Read. He himself represented the county with Paul
Carrington, who married one of his sisters. They were both associated
with Washington, Jefferson, and Henry in their patriotic
movements. Paul Carrington was a zealous friend of the Episcopal
Church. What were the partialities of Mr. Isaac Read, whether
he followed in the footsteps of his father or not, we are unable to
say. He was made colonel in a Virginia regiment, and soon after
died, being laid with military honours in a vault in Philadelphia.
He left a son by the name of Clement, who became a distinguished
minister of the Presbyterian Church, after having for a time officiated
among the Methodists. He married a descendant of Pocahontas,—a
Miss Edmonds, of Brunswick,—by whom he had thirteen
children.

I take from the same source (Foote's Sketches) the following notice
of the Carrington family, whose members abound in this part
of Virginia. Mr. Paul Carrington and his wife (who was of the

Henningham family) emigrated from Ireland to Barbadoes, where
he died early in the eighteenth century, leaving a widow and a
numerous family of children. The youngest child, George, came to
Virginia about the year 1727 with the family of Joseph Mayo, a
Barbadoes merchant. Mr. Mayo purchased and occupied the ancient
seat of Powhatan, near the Falls of Jamestown. Young Carrington
lived for some years with Mr. Mayo as his storekeeper.
About 1732, when in his twenty-first year, he married Anne, the
eldest daughter of William Mayo, brother of Joseph, who had
settled in Goochland. They went to reside on Willis's Creek, now
in Cumberland county. They had eleven children,—viz.: Paul,
William, (who died in infancy,) George, William again, Joseph,
Nathaniel, Henningham, Edward, Hannah, (who married a Cabell
and was mother of Judge Cabell,) Mayo, Mary, (who married a
Watkins.) The parents, George Carrington and his wife, both died
in 1785. From them sprung the numerous families of Carringtons
in Virginia; and in the female line the descendants have been
numerous. Their eldest child, Paul Carrington, married, as we
have already said, the daughter of Colonel Clement Read, of Lunenburg,—now
Charlotte,—who left a memory of great virtues.
Their children were Paul, Clement, George, Mary, and Anne. Her
youngest child, Paul, became Judge of the General Court of Virginia,
and died in 1816. The elder Paul Carrington was married
a second time, to Miss Priscilla Sims. Two of their children died
in infancy. The rest were Henry, Robert, Letitia, and Martha. A
very interesting account is given of this, the elder Carrington, in
Mr. Grigsby's book,—the Convention of 1776. He was a member
of that body, and filled various departments of duty during the
Revolutionary struggle, while furnishing three sons to the army,
two of whom were eminently distinguished. He was an able lawyer
in his day, and after the close of the war was promoted to the
General Court, and then to the Court of Appeals, where he was
associated with his old friend, Edmund Pendleton, from whom he
seldom if ever differed on all the great questions which came before
them during the scenes of the Revolution. Agreeing with Pendleton
on the subject of religion and in attachment to the Episcopal
Church, when the question of the constitutionality of the law for
selling the glebes came before the Court of Appeals, we find them
united in giving their voice against the law. Mr. Grigsby informs
us that "in middle life, and until the war of the Revolution was
past, he was of a grave turn. Before the troubles began he had
lost the bride of his youth. During the war, and when the Southern
States were almost the reconquered Colonies of Britain, he was
never seen to smile. Day succeeded day in his domestic life, and
not only was no smile seen to play upon his face, but hardly a
word fell from his lips. He was almost overwhelmed with the
calamities which assailed his country. But his latter years were
cheered by its prosperity and glory. He died in the eighty-sixth
year of his age."

That some of the descendants of such men as Paul Carrington
and Clement Read, born and living in Prince Edward and the
counties around, should have forsaken a Church many of whose
ministers had forsaken them in times of trial, or else proved most
unworthy, is not to be wondered at, when we remember the ministers
of the Presbyterian Church who were sent into Virginia, and were
reared in it just before, during, and after the Revolution. Samuel
Davies led the way. The two Smiths were men of superior abilities.
Old David Rice was himself a host. Dr. Graham, Dr. Alexander,
and Dr. Hodge, following soon after, and having the powerful influence
of a college in their hands, could not but make a deep impression
on the public mind in all that region. It is not to be
wondered at that Episcopalians should wish well to the institution,
and that we should find among the trustees the names of Paul Carrington,
William Cabell, Sr., James Madison, General Everard
Meade, and others, who with their families were attached to the
Episcopal Church, and so many of whose descendants have continued
so to be. It was, in opposition to some fears expressed at
the time, most solemnly pledged that it should not be a sectarian
proselyting institution, though the forms of the Presbyterian Church
would be observed in it; and the fact that Episcopalians have
often been in some measure concerned, as trustees or professors, in
its management, proves that the pledge has been redeemed as far
as perhaps is practicable in such institutions. The long and prosperous
Presidency over it by the late Mr. Cushing, whose memory
is held in respect by all who knew him, and who, although a member
of the Episcopal Church, enjoyed the confidence of the trustees of
the College, and the fact that the Rev. Mr. Dame, of Danville, and
Colonel Smith, of Lexington, with their well-known Episcopal
attachments, were professors in the institution, are proofs that it
was conducted in as catholic a spirit as circumstances would admit
of. Whether in the lapse of time any change has taken place in its
constitution or administration, I am unable to say.

The articles in which the Presbyterian Church has been spoken

of having been read by a gentleman well versed in its history, he
has kindly sent me the following letter:—