LUNENBURG PARISH, RICHMOND COUNTY.
The first information we have of this parish is from communications
made to the Bishop of London by the Rev. Mr. Kay, its
minister, between the years 1740 and 1750, as well as my memory
serves me, not having the documents before me at this time. A
most painful and protracted controversy took place between him
and a portion of his vestry,—especially Colonel Landon Carter.
Though the doors of the church were closed against Mr. Kay, such
was the advocacy of him by a portion of the vestry and many of
the people that he preached in the churchyard for some time. The
dispute appears to have been about the right of Mr. Kay to the
parish in preference to another who was desired by some of the
vestry and people. The cause was carried before the Governor
and Council, and from thence to the higher court in England.
The sympathy of the Commissary and the clergy appears to have
been with Mr. Kay. How it was finally settled in the English
courts does not appear, but we find Mr. Kay in Cumberland parish,
Lunenburg county, in the year 1754.
[26]
In that year the Rev. Mr.
Simpson becomes minister of Lunenburg parish, Richmond county.
How long he continues, and whether any one intervenes between
him and the Rev. William Giberne, who becomes the minister in
1762, is not known. The name and memory of Mr. Giberne have
come down to our times with considerable celebrity. The first
notice I have of him is in a letter to the Bishop of London, in which
he inveighs with severity on some things in the Church of Virginia.
On the Bishop of London's writing to Commissary Robinson concerning
them, the Commissary denies the charge in its fulness, and
says that it comes with ill grace from Mr. Giberne, who himself sets
an ill example, being addicted to card-playing and other things
unbecoming the clerical character.
All the accounts I have received of him correspond with this.
He was a man of talents, of great wit and humour, and his home a
pleasant place to the like-minded,—especially attractive to the
young. He lived at the place now owned by the Brockenbrough
family, near Richmond Court-House. He married a daughter of
Moore Fauntleroy and Margaret Micou. Her father was Paul
Micou, a Huguenot who fled from Nantes in 1711.[27]
In the following
communication from a friend in Richmond county there is more
particular mention of Mr. Giberne, in connection with some interesting
particulars about the two churches in Lunenburg parish.
"The church here, which I remember, was situated near the public
road, near our court-house, and was surrounded by large and beautiful
trees, affording a fine shade in summer to those visiting the church. The
ground was enclosed by a brick wall, which was finally overthrown by the
growing roots of a magnificent oak. Like most of the old churches in Virginia,
it was built of brick, finished in the best manner, and cruciform in
shape; the pulpit was very elevated, and placed on the south side at an
angle near the centre of the building. The aisles were floored with large
stones, square and smoothly dressed, and the pews with planks. They
were high at the sides and panelled, and better suited for devotion than our
churches at the present day. The church was claimed by an individual,
when in ruins, and the materials from time to time removed and used for
various domestic purposes.
"It was built, according to the recollection of an individual now living,
in 1737, and he remembers to have seen the date marked in the mortar,
`Built in 1737.' This building remained until about 1813, when its walls
were thrown down by the outward pressure of the roof, which had fallen
from decay. The Rev. Isaac Wm. Giberne was the pastor of this church.
He was an Englishman, and I think the nephew of the Bishop of Durham.
I ascertained the fact from an inscription in an old Prayer-Book, which
was in the possession of Mr. Giberne, and which after his death came into
my hands. It had belonged to her Majesty Queen Anne, and was used
by her in her private chapel: on her demise it was retained by her chaplain.
The inscription further stated it was intended to be presented to the
`Bodleian Library,' in which the Prayer-Books of two of the crowned heads
of England had been preserved.
"Mr. Giberne commenced his services in this church in January, 1762,
as we learn from the parish register, and continued to officiate in this and
the `Upper Church,' as it was called, until incapacitated by age. He was
a man of great goodness of heart and Christian benevolence, highly educated,
well read, and extensively acquainted with the ancient and English classic
writers.
"After an interval of some eight or ten years or more, Mr. Giberne was
followed in his pastoral duties by the Rev. W. George Young, an Englishman,
who, I believe, occupied the glebe in 1800 or 1802. I am unable to
learn how long he continued, but he removed, and the glebe, like many
others, was sold under an Act of Assembly.
"The silver vessels consisted of a massive silver tankard, goblet, and
plate. These remained in the keeping of our family until sold by a decree
of the Court. They were purchased by the late Colonel John Tayloe, of
Mount Airy, and by him presented to St. John's Church, Washington.
"The principal families attached to the old church here were the Carters,
Tayloes, Lees, (Colonel F. L. Lee, of Manakin,) Beckwiths, Neales,
Garlands, Belfields, Brockenbroughs, Rusts, Balls, Tomlins, &c.
"The `Upper Church,' as it was commonly called, situated in the upper
part of this county, has been long a ruin, the spot marked only by the
mounds of crumbling bricks. Mr. Giberne was the last minister who
regularly officiated in it. The families chiefly belonging to its congregation
were the Fauntleroys, Lees, Belfields, Beales, Mitchells, Jenningses,
&c. It would be impossible to ascertain at this time, I presume, when
this church was built.
"There was but one other church in `old times' in the county of Richmond:
it was Farnham Church, which continued in tolerable repair until
after 1800. I think in 1802 there was regular service in this church by
a Mr. Brockenbrough, a minister of the Church, a remarkably small man,
as I recollect him, so diminutive that he required a block in the pulpit to
stand on. He did not live at the glebe, but at Cedar Grove, the property
of a Miss McCall, and kept a grammar-school there. After this time the
church became dilapidated, and no service was performed in it; in truth,
it was completely desecrated, and served as a shelter for cattle, hogs, and
horses for many years. Its walls, however, were permitted to stand, and
its magnificent oaks allowed to grace the place and to give their friendly
shade to the weary traveller who halted at the neighbouring tavern to refresh
himself and horse. When we look back on this period of infidelity
and heathenism in this county, when the old churches were pulled down
or permitted to fall to decay, when no religious instruction was to be found,
no declaration of the Gospel but by an itinerant preacher, little calculated
to awaken the slumbering people, we are led to wonder how the land
escaped some signal mark of divine vengeance,—that some calamity had
not overshadowed it to call its thoughtless and wicked inhabitants back to
the Christian fold.
"I have never heard what became of the sacred vessels belonging to
this church. The glebe was in the occupancy of Dr. Thomas Tarpley, a
well-educated and highly-polished man; how it came into his possession I
never knew,—probably by purchase at public sale."
After the Rev. Mr. Young, mentioned in the foregoing communication,
I know of no minister until the Rev. Washington Nelson,
in 1834 or 1835, who took charge of this parish in connection with
those of North Farnham and Cople. At his death the Rev. Mr.
Ward succeeded to all three of the parishes, and at his resignation,
a young man, whose name I forget, was minister of Lunenburg for
part of a year. He was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Coffin for two
years.
The most remarkable of the old seats in this parish, known to
the writer, are those of Sabine Hall, belonging to the Carters, and
of Mount Airy, belonging to the Tayloes. Having in a preceding
article given some account of the Carter family, which has so
abounded in the Northern Neck, I subjoin a brief genealogy of the
Tayloes, who have appeared on our vestry-books in the Northern
Neck from their first settlement to the present time.
