University of Virginia Library

ARTICLE LVIII.

Parishes in Lancaster County.

The first mention which is made of Lancaster county in Henning's
"Statutes at Large" (volume i., page 374) is in 1652, when
it is represented in the House of Burgesses by Captain Henry
Fleet and Mr. William Underwood. At that time, and for four
years after, it included all that is now Lancaster, Middlesex, Essex,
and Richmond counties. In 1656, the old county of Rappahannock
was cut off from Lancaster, and contained what, in 1692, was divided
into the two counties of Richmond and Essex,—Rappahannock
being abolished. The county of Middlesex was not cut off from
Lancaster until about 1664 or 1665, and, indeed, it is not mentioned
in Henning until the year 1675, when a levy of twenty-five
men from each of the counties of Lancaster and Middlesex is
ordered for a garrison in Stafford county, to protect the frontiers
against the Indians. We are enabled to approach very near to
certainty, as to the time of the division, by reference to an old
vestry-book of the church in Middlesex, beginning in 1664. In
1668 the vestry pass an order that a petition should be distributed
among the people, praying the Assembly to ratify a former Act
dividing Lancaster into two counties; from which it would seem
that something was wanting to complete the division, though it must
have been acted on, in some way, a year or two before. In the
county of Lancaster, when including Middlesex, there were four
parishes,—two on each side of the river. Those on the south side
of the river were called Lancaster parish and Piankatank until, at
an early period, they were merged in one and called Christ Church.
Those on the north side were St. Mary's and Christ Church until,
at a much later period, they were united in what is now Christ
Church.

The vestry-book of Christ Church, Lancaster, before the union
of the two parishes, commenced, I think, about the year 1654. I
saw it for the first time about twenty years ago, and again three
years after, I believe, and took extracts from it, some of which
were published. Soon after this it disappeared, and, though carefully
sought for since, can nowhere be found. For want of it we

lose the names of the first vestrymen, (except those of the firs
John Carter and his sons John and Robert,) and some acts of the
vestry, not remembered or written down by myself. I have recently
been furnished with the vestry-book of St. Mary's parish,
beginning in the year 1739, and continuing after its union with
Christ Church, in 1752, until the war of the Revolution. But we
still have to lament the loss of the proceedings of both parishes
until 1739, and of Christ Church until 1752, except so far as I
have retained in memory, and by print, the doings of the latter.
Something more we have as to the names and acts of the vestry of
Christ Church, by reason of the fact that, though the parishes were
separate, they always employed the same minister, and met sometimes
in what was called a general vestry,—that is, a meeting of
both,—when their names are recorded.

We will first state such information as we have retained from the
last records of Christ Church parish. About, as we believe, the
year 1654, the name of John Carter, the father of that family,
appears at the head of the vestry-lists, in a large, bold hand; then
followed the name of the minister, which I do not recollect. The
same may be said of his eldest son John, and his youngest son
Robert, alias King Carter. Their names always preceded the minister's,
and were written in a large, bold hand. This was one sign
that they took the lead in the vestry,—even going before the minister.
In all the other vestry-books I have seen, even in that of
Middlesex, where, about the same time, baronets were in the vestries,
as Chicheley and Skipwith; the minister's name was always
first. The action of the vestry, doubtless under the influence of
the Carters, seems to have been good in relation to the exercise of
discipline on offenders. One instance is recorded where a fine of
fifteen hundred-weight of tobacco is imposed on a man for swearing;
but, upon his pleading poverty, it was afterward reduced to five
hundred. Mr. Robert Carter had large possessions and numerous
servants and tenants, as we have already said. Tradition has it
that the congregation, which doubtless consisted chiefly of his dependants,
did not enter the church, on Sunday, until the arrival of
his coach, when all followed him and his family into it. Whether
this be so or not, it is certain, from the agreement on the vestrybook
when he built the church, that good provision was made for
his tenants and servants, one-fourth of the building being secured
for their use, besides a very large pew near the pulpit and chancel,
which he prepared for his immediate family.

The following extract from my report to the Convention in the

year 1838, after a visit to the parishes in the Northern Neck, will
show what were the impressions made upon me by that venerable
building,—impressions renewed and deepened by my subsequent
visit:—

To the foregoing notices of Christ Church from my report to the
Convention of 1838, I add the following from memory. Of the
two days spent in this hallowed spot, the one following the day of
humiliation was a dark and gloomy one,—the sky being overcast

with heavy clouds, from which showers were descending upon the
earth. To be in that old building, with only two-thirds of the glass
in the windows, on such a day, had a peculiar interest in it to a soul
at all inclined to the love of ancient things. The weather being
mild, there was nothing to interrupt the indulgence of such a feeling.
There was also something to encourage it, in the fact that an
aged lady, (the descendant of Mr. Carter,) whose two nieces—the
eldest daughters of Mr. Tomlin, who lived near at hand—had on
the preceding day ratified their baptismal vows, desired on this
occasion to do the same. I can never forget my feelings as I stood
in the old chancel administering the rite, while only a few individuals,
and they chiefly the descendants of the builder of the
house, were here and there to be seen in the large double pews
adjoining the pulpit and chancel. There was a circumstance
which occurred at that time not unworthy to be mentioned, as
showing that we of this day of progressive improvement are not
in all things in advance of our fathers, but in some rather the contrary.
I spent the night intervening between the two above-mentioned
days at Mr. Tomlin's house, which was a new one scarcely
finished, and, while lying in bed early in the morning and looking
toward the ceiling, suddenly saw a large portion of the plastering
giving way just above me, leaving only time to draw the covering
over my head before it fell upon my body, and not without a slight
bruise. I could not help then and often since instituting a comparison
between the fidelity and durability of ancient and modern
architecture. Here was the ceiling of a private house, not a year
old, tumbling over me, and there was the heavy plastering of an
old church, built one hundred and twenty or thirty years before,
perfectly sound and impervious to rain, except in one or two small
spots where it was a little discoloured underneath the gutter, where
the shingles had decayed. Where is the house, built in these
degenerate days of slight modern architecture, which may compare
with Old Christ Church, either within or without? When a
few years since it was repaired, as I in my report expressed the
belief that it would be, the only repairs required were a new roof,
(and but for the failure in the gutters that would have been unnecessary,)
the renewal of the cornices, supplying the broken
glass, and painting the pews, pulpit, &c. All the rest was in a most
perfect state of soundness. The shingles, except in the decayed
gutters, were so good that they were sold to the neighbours around,
and will probably now last longer than many new ones just gotten
from the woods,—having become hardened by age on the steep and
taunt roofs from which the rains of more than a century rushed
downward, not stopping for a moment to settle in the joints. That
is one reason why all of the old roofs were more durable than the
modern,—the fashionable taste for low or flat ones leading to their
speedier decay. Another is the fact that in former days worms, so
destructive now to timber, appear not to have abounded as at
present, or else some method for drying and hardening all the materials
used was adopted, which is now neglected. In taking off
the roof of Old Christ Church for the purpose of renewing it, one
secret of the durability of the plastering was discovered. Besides
having mortar of the most tenacious kind and of the purest white,
and laths much thicker and stronger than those now in use, and
old English wrought nails,—our modern factories not then being
known,—the mortar was not only pressed with a strong hand
through the openings of the laths, but clinched on the other side
by a trowel in the hand of one above, so as to be fast keyed and
kept from falling.

In all respects the house appears to have been built in the most
durable manner, but without any of the mere trinkets of architecture.
The form and proportion of the house are also most excellent,
and make a deep impression on the eye and mind of the
beholder. Though the walls are three feet thick, yet such is their
height and such the short distance between the windows and doors.
and such the effect of the figure of the cross, that there is no appearance
of heaviness about them. The roof or roofs are also very
steep and high, and take the place of tower or steeple. A steeple
or tower would indeed injure the whole aspect of the building.

For the repairing of this house we are indebted mainly to the
liberality of two brothers,—Mr. Kelleys,—descendants of old Episcopalians
of the Northern Neck. Not only did they furnish far
the larger part of the fifteen hundred dollars required for it, but
superintended most carefully the expenditure of the same. Their
bodies lie side by side within a strong iron enclosure near the
church. The eldest of the brothers has died within the last two
years, leaving, among other bequests, two thousand dollars to our
Theological Seminary and High School.

I am sure the reader will be pleased in having the following
epitaphs added to the foregoing notices of Old Christ Church.

I.

This incription is to the north of the chancel, in the east end of
the church:—

II.

This inscription is in the centre of the church, at the intersection
of the aisles:—

III.

This tombstone is at the east end of the church:—

EAST OF THE CHURCH.
IV.

EAST OF THE CHURCH, AND MUTILATED.
V.

EAST OF THE CHURCH.
VI.

Mr. Carter moved to Shirly, on James River, in 1776, and married
Ann Butler Moore,—his second wife.

The following translation of Mr. Robert Carter's epitaph may be
a help to some of our readers:—

MINISTERS OF THE PARISHES OF CHRIST CHURCH AND ST. MARY'S.

We have already stated that the same ministers served both
parishes. Who the first minister or ministers were, we are unable
to state; but upon the vestry-book, whose loss we lament, there
was one whose name and history were too striking to be forgotten.
His name was Andrew Jackson, and, for what cause we know not,
some one wrote his name, and he made his mark, beneath the name
of one of the John Carters. He was not Episcopally ordained, and
this led to a correspondence between the vestry and one of the
Governors of Virginia,—most probably Governor Nicholson,—at a
time when an order came from England that the law requiring all
holding livings in the Church to be Episcopally ordained should
be enforced in Virginia. The vestry remonstrated earnestly with
the Governor against its execution in the case of their minister,
Mr. Jackson. They plead that he had been serving the parish
faithfully for twenty-five years, that he was much esteemed and
beloved, had brought up a large family of children, and laid up
something for them from his industrious culture of the glebe, (then
and now a good farm near the church,) and the people were very
unwilling to part with him. They urged one argument very emphatically,—viz.:
that, by reason of the inferiority of the quality
of tobacco raised in the Northern Neck of Virginia, by comparison
with that in many other parts, it being worth less by twopence per
pound, the parish was not on an equal footing with a large number
elsewhere in procuring suitable ministers, and that, therefore, they
ought to be allowed to retain the one whom they had. What was
the issue of the controversy either did not appear or is not recollected.
My impression is that it took place early in the last century,
and that he was succeeded by the Rev. John Bell, who was certainly
the minister in 1713, and continued so until the year 1743,
when, at his death, the Rev. David Currie succeeded, and continued
until his death in 1792,—nearly fifty years. If such be the case,
then were the people of Lancaster served for more than one hundred
years by three ministers, who were esteemed and loved by them.
In my previous account of the Carter family I have spoken more
particularly of Mr. Currie, whose descendants are numerous and
respectable and have adhered to the Church of their worthy ancestor.
At the death of Mr. Currie, in 1791, the Rev. David Ball
appears for one year on the list of our clerical delegates to the

Convention, and for one only. Whether he was of the large family
of Balls belonging to Lancaster, or whence he came, or whither he
went, I know not. He was followed by a Rev. Mr. Leland and a
Rev. Mr. Page, each for a short time. Of each of these I shall
speak in another place. In 1794, no clerical delegate appears;
but there were two laymen,—Mr. Raleigh Downman and Mr.
William Eustace. From the year 1796 to the year 1805, the Rev.
Daniel McNaughton is on our list as minister of this parish.
James Ball, Martin Shearman, and William Montague appear as
lay delegates. In 1812, Raleigh Downman and J. M. Smith are
lay delegates. In 1813, the Rev. Samuel Low is minister. Between
him and his friends, and Mr. McNaughton, there was for
some time a contest for the parish and the use of the churches.
On one occasion Mr. Low had all the congregation in the churchyard,
and preached from the seat behind a carriage, while Mr.
McNaughton had the pulpit and the empty pews within. They
were both of them such unworthy characters, though in different
ways, that we shall not waste time and words upon them. In the
year 1824, the Rev. Ira Parker, an ignorant and incompetent
minister, took charge of the parish, but soon left it for some other.
After floating about for a few years, he adopted the system of
Swedenborg, and was dismissed from the ministry. In the year
1832, the Rev. Ephraim Adams took charge of the parish and
continued its minister for four years. He was a worthy man, but,
by reason of some peculiarities, unfitted for much usefulness. In
1838, the Rev. Francis McGuire was its minister; and, in 1839,
the Rev. Mr. Bryant, of whom we have spoken elsewhere, succeeded.
In 1844 and 1845, the Rev. Mr. Richmond was its minister. In
1850 and 1851, the Rev. Mr. Nash. In 1853, its present minister,
the Rev. Edmund Withers, took charge of it. Within the last few
years a small church has been built at Kilmarnock, about four
miles from Old Christ Church. It being more convenient to the
majority of the people in that region than the old one, services are
held there alternately. Although but few attend generally at the
old and venerable one, by reason of its inconvenient location, yet
at my recent visit to it, although there were other services near at
hand, one hundred and seventy-five persons might be counted there
on a Sabbath morning. It is somewhat remarkable that Kilmarnock
is the very spot on which the vestry determined to build a
new church nearly one hundred and fifty years ago, deeming it
the most central and convenient place, when Mr. Carter offered to
build one at his own expense, if allowed to locate it nearer to his
residence at Corotoman. Tradition says that the bricks of which
the church is built were brought from England. It is far more
probable that it is true in this case than in most of the other
houses, public or private, of which the same report has come down
to us; for Mr. Carter, having so many vessels from England assigned
to him, may, at little cost, have had English bricks put in
as ballast, and then conveyed in flatboats up the creek, within a
short distance of the place where the church stands. Piles of
stones thus coming from England may yet be seen near the riverbank
at Corotoman, there cast to prevent the waves from depredating
on the bank near his house.

In 1786, Cyrus Griffin is appointed to attend the Episcopal
Convention in Richmond, and James Ball to attend the examination
of the Rev. Edward Jones at the court-house. For what purpose
and of what character that examination was, is not certainly known,
but it is believed to have been a kind of trial under a canon of
Virginia. Thus ends the vestry-book.

WHITE CHAPEL CHURCH.

The first church was torn down. From the vestry-book it appears
that the present was built in 1740. It was contracted for with Mr.
James Jones. In that year Major James Ball and Mr. Joseph
Ball are allowed to build a gallery in the church for their families,
provided it be completed at the same time with the church, and finished
in the same style with the west gallery. Leave is also granted to two

of the Balls and two Mr. Burgesses to build an end-gallery on the
same terms. The house was originally in the form of a cross. The
two wings have been taken down, and it is now an oblong square.

In the early part of the last century the parishes must have been
in a flourishing condition, so far as numbers and attendants go.
In the year 1724, Mr. Bell, who had then been their minister for
twelve years, informs the Bishop of London that there were three
hundred families in it; that the churches were thronged; that almost
all the white persons in the parish attended; that there were a great
many negroes who neither understood his language, nor he theirs; that
the old church was opened to them, and the word preached, and the
sacraments administered with circumspection. He says at that time
the two parishes were united in one, and called Trinity: but of this
we read nothing, either in the Acts of Assembly or in the vestry-book.

Around Old White Chapel Church, under the venerable pines
which enclose it on two sides, and near an old county road, lie a
number of those strong, heavy tombstones which betoken a deep
regard of the living for the dead. Almost all of them are inscribed
with the name of Ball,—a name which so abounds in the vestrybook,
the county, and the State. Through the attention of a friend
I have a document of more ancient date than any tombstone inscription
there. It is a description of the coat of arms of the family
of Ball, brought to this country about the year 1650, by the first
of the name who came to Virginia. The coat of arms has much
that is bold about it, as a lion rampant, with a globe in his paw,
and there is helmet and shield and vizor, and coat of mail, and
other things betokening strength and courage; but none of these
suit my work. There is, however, one thing which does. On the
scroll which belongs to it are these words:—"Cœlumque tueri."
They were taken, of course, from these lines of Ovid:—

May it be a memento to all his posterity to look upward, and
"seek the things which are above." On the back of the original
copy of this armorial document are the following words, in a bold
hand, such as was common in those days:—"The coat of arms
of Colonel William Ball, who came from England with his family
about the year 1650, and settled at the mouth of Corotoman River,
in Lancaster county, Virginia, and died in 1669, leaving two sons,
William and Joseph, and one daughter, Hannah, who married
Daniel Fox. William left eight sons, (and one daughter,) five of

whom have now (Anno Domini 1779) male issue. Joseph's male
issue is extinct. General George Washington is his grandson, by
his youngest daughter, Mary. Colonel Burgess Ball is the only
child of Jeduthun, who was the third and youngest son of James,
the third son of said William." On the tombstones around the
church there is no inscription of the first William Ball or any of
his children, but only of his grandchildren and other descendants.
The first is over the grave of David Ball, seventh son of Captain
William Ball, who was born in 1686. The others are the tombstones
of Mildred Ball, Jeduthun Ball, Mary Ann Ball, daughter
of the Rev. John Bertrand, of Jesse Ball, of Mary Ball, daughter
of Edwin Conway, of James Ball, her husband, of William Ball,
"who died in a steadfast faith in Christ and full hope of a joyful
resurrection," of James Ball and Fanny, his wife, daughter of Raleigh,
and Frances Downman, of Lettuce, third wife of James Ball,
and daughter of Richard Lee, of Ditchley, of Colonel James Ball,
of James Ball, second son of James and Mary.

P.S.—Since the above was written I have received a communication
from a friend who has looked into the earliest records of
Lancaster county, when Middlesex and Lancaster were one. They
go back to 1650. A few years after this, in the absence of a vestry,
the court appointed the Rev. Samuel Cole the minister of the whole
county on both sides of the river. This is the same minister who
appears on the vestry-book of Middlesex in the year 1664. The
court also appointed churchwardens and sidesmen, as in the English
Church, on both sides of the river. They were John Taylor,
William Clapham, John Merryman, Edmund Lurin, George Kibble,
and William Leech. Other names also appear on the records, as
Thomas Powell, Cuthbert Powell, Edward Digges, W. Berkeley,
Robert Chewning, Henry Corbyn, David Fox, John Washington,
of Westmoreland. In the year 1661, a general vestry is formed,
and Mr. John Carter, Henry Corbyn, David Fox, and William
Leech, are appointed to take up subscriptions for the support of
the minister. They were chosen from each side of the river. An
instance is recorded at this early period of a man being fined five
thousand pounds of tobacco by the court for profane swearing.

In the year 1685, we find John Chilton fined, and required to
appear four times on his bended knees, and ask pardon each time,
for a misdemeanour committed in their presence.

In the year 1699, we find that none are allowed to be teachers
of youth except such as are commissioned by the Bishop of London,
and, in the same year, that inquiries were ordered as to any religious

meetings except those of the Established Church. These
things were under the mild reign of the amiable Governor Nicholson.
In the year 1727, we find presentments for being absent from
church one month and two months, for swearing, for selling crawfish
and posting accounts on Sunday.

In addition to the above, it may be stated that the county records,
as well as vestry-books, show that the family of Balls was very
active in promoting good things. At an early period of our history,
it is stated that a measure was set on foot for educating a number of
Virginia youths for the ministry, in order to a larger and better
supply. It would appear from the county records that this measure
originated, in 1729, with Mr. Joseph Ball, of Lancaster. The
following is the entry:—

This Joseph Ball married a Miss Ravenscroft, of England, and
settled in London as practitioner of law. He had only one
daughter, Fanny, who married Raleigh Downman in 1750. Her
children were Joseph Ball Downman, of Moratico, Fanny, who
married Colonel James Ball, of Bewdley, and Mr. Raleigh W.
Downman, of Belle-Isle. This Joseph Ball was the uncle of
General Washington. I have before me two letters from him, the
one addressed to his sister Mary, and the other to his nephew
George Washington, from which I take the following passages.
The first is to his sister, when her son was thinking of going to
sea. It is dated Stratford-by-Bow, 19th of May, 1747:—

To his nephew he writes thus after Braddock's defeat:—

A few words concerning a minister and church of another denomination
will close my notices of Lancaster.

The county of Lancaster was the scene of the early labours of
the Rev. Mr. Waddell, the blind Presbyterian preacher who is so
feelingly described by Mr. Wirt, in the British Spy. At a time
when disaffection toward the Established Church was spreading
through Virginia, and great numbers were leaving it, Mr. Waddell,
by his talents, zeal, and piety, gathered two congregations in this
county. One of the churches was near the court-house. The
graveyard, in its ruins, is the only relic of the establishment of
that denomination in Lancaster county. About fifty years since,
the church shared the same fate with those of the Establishment
which have now passed away. The two acres of land on which it
stood, and beneath which are the remains of numerous adherents
to that denomination, has ever been regarded as sacred. A grove
of oaks, sycamores, pines, and other trees shaded the hillocks and
some tombstones which were spread over the surface of the earth,
which was carpeted with a covering of green grass. It was, I am
told, a favourite resort to the people of the village and country
around,—to the young as a play-ground, to the old as a scene of
contemplation. I recently visited the spot, but found it no longer
a scene for the young or old, the gay or the grave. Nearly every

tree was gone, having been, within a year or two, cut down and
converted into cord-wood and sold to the steamboats. Nothing is
now to be seen but stumps and piles of dead branches, which hide
not only the hillock-graves, but the few tombstones which were
once to be seen. Young cedars are everywhere putting forth their
shoots, and in a few years it will be with this spot as with many
like it in Virginia,—it must be so hidden from the view that it will
be difficult for any ecclesiastical antiquary to discover the spot
where Mr. Waddell once proclaimed the Gospel of Christ. Rumour
says that, in the absence of any member of the Church near at
hand, application was made to some Presbyterian ministers at a distance,
and leave granted to do something to this interesting spot
which has resulted in such utter desolation.