 | Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia |  |
ARTICLE XXXVI.
Parishes in Essex.—No. 2. St. Anne's Parish.
This parish was established in 1692, the same year with the
neighbouring parish of South Farnham, of which we have just given
some account. We are unable to ascertain[109]
who were its ministers
previous to 1725. We learn from his own journal that the Rev.
Robert Rose became its minister in February, 1725. Nor do we
learn any thing of his ministry until the year 1746, as his journal
does not commence until that year, which he says was the twenty-first
of his incumbency in the parish of St. Anne. This journal has
been an object of great interest and desire to the antiquaries of
Virginia. Mr. Charles Campbell, of Petersburg, in his valuable
History of Virginia, laments its supposed loss in the Western wilds,
whither it had been carried by some of his descendants. I am so
fortunate as to have it in temporary possession, through the kindness
of Mr. Henry Carter, of Caroline county, Virginia, who has
recently gotten it from the West,—Mr. Carter being one of the posterity
of Mr. Rose. It will, in one important respect, disappoint
the last five or six years of his life,—from January 21, 1746, to
June 13, 1751, soon after which he died. It is, however, in some
respects an interesting narrative, exhibiting the character of its
author to the life, and casting light on men and things of that early
period. Mr. Rose came from Scotland early in the last century.
It is confidently believed that he came under the auspices of Governor
Spottswood. There was certainly a great intimacy between
them to the day of General Spottswood's death. Mr. Rose was, I
presume, from a large account-book bound up with his journal, or
to which his journal is appended, going back to the year 1727, his
executor. He certainly had much to do with the settlement of the
estate, and with his widow and children after the death of General
Spottswood in 1737. Mr. Rose partook very much of the character
of General Spottswood, being a man of great labour, decision, benevolence,
and of extraordinary business-talents. If the previous years
of his life partook in any good degree of the character of the last
five or six, he must have done an amount of labour such as few men
ever accomplish,—too much indeed of a secular kind to consist with
that spirituality which ought ever to characterize a minister of the
Gospel. He was the executor of various persons besides General
Spottswood. It is due to him to say that a benevolent feeling
seems to have prompted to this, for the widow and the orphan were
the objects of his care. At an early period after his settlement in
Essex, we find him taking charge of the estate and family of the
Rev. Mr. Bagge. It is also due to him to say that he never seems
to have neglected the duty of preaching. Wherever he was on the
Sabbath, whether in his own parish or on his journeys, he records
his preaching. Very often also he speaks of preaching during the
week at private houses, and baptizing children. About the time
his journal commences, he was preparing to move into Nelson
county, where he had purchased lands at a cheap rate, and where
he settled his four sons, Hugh, Patrick, Henry, and Charles. His
journal mentions all his visits to and fro between Nelson and Essex;
in making which he passes through Stafford, Spottsylvania, Louisa,
Orange, Albemarle, Culpepper, and calls on all the first families in
these counties, sometimes preaching, sometimes marrying, at other
times baptizing. Wherever he went, accounts are brought out to
him for examination and settlement, as though there was none other
capable of it. His judgment as to farms is often consulted. He
would not only visit them, but sometimes help to survey them. He
was equally good at settling family disputes, and was often engaged
Western Virginia with some friends, going as far as the Cow Pasture,
sleeping out at nights in cold weather, and drinking, as he
records, wretched whiskey for want of something better,—though
he was still a sober man. He was the first to descend James River,
with one or two others, in an open canoe, as far as Richmond, and
thus establish its navigability. At that and at other times, when
travelling by land, we find him passing through all the counties
lying between Nelson and York, stopping at all the chief places on
James River,—at Colonel Jefferson's, in Goochland, (father of the
President,) at Tuckahoe, Curls, Westover, &c. We find him repeatedly
at Williamsburg,—having business with the court and
Legislature,—dining or supping with the Governor and Council,
with Commissary Blair, President Burwell, Speaker Beverley, with
the Nelsons and others at York,—then passing through Gloucester
to Middlesex,—visiting at Brandon and Rosegill,—thence to his
parish in Essex. About twice a year for five years he seems to
have made excursions of this kind, more or less extensive. He
was doubtless a very popular man in Virginia, and enjoyed the
affection and confidence of the first men and families in the State.
The manner and place in which he terminated his life is one proof
of this. When the city of Richmond was about to be laid out, he
was invited, by those to whom the duty was intrusted, to meet with
them and aid by his counsel. It was while thus engaged that he
sickened and died. He lies buried in the graveyard of the old
church on Richmond Hill, with the following inscription:—
"Here lyeth the body of Robert Rose, Rector of Albemarle parish.
His extraordinary genius and capacity in all the polite and useful arts of
life, though equalled by few, were yet exceeded by the great goodness of
his heart. Humanity, benevolence, and charity ran through the whole
course of his life, and were exerted with uncommon penetration. In his
friendship he was warm and steady; in his manners gentle and easy; in
his conversation entertaining and instructive. With the most tender piety
he discharged all the domestic duties of husband, father, son, and brother.[110]
In short, he was a friend of the whole human race, and upon that principle
a strenuous asserter and defender of liberty. He died the 30th day of
June, 1751, in the 47th year of his age."
He must have entered on his charge in Essex when he was but
twenty-one years of age, for in his journal of February 1, 1746,
he says that that was the twenty-first year of his incumbency in
St. Anne's parish. If ordained Deacon during the year preceding
his entrance into the parish, he must have been in his forty-third
year at the time of this entry on the journal; and he lived five years
and five months after this. It is difficult to reconcile these dates,
and there may be a mistake either in the entry or the inscription.
I doubt not but that the inscription is far more just to his character
than most of the records of that period. I have not been
able to meet with any of the sermons of Mr. Rose, and therefore
cannot speak of his theology or style of preaching; and there is
nothing in his entries which give us any light into his religious character
and sentiments, or the state of religion at that time. He only
records his sermons, their texts, and the times and places of their
delivery, and some baptisms and communions. Once only does he
mention meeting with a Baptist,—an ignorant ploughman,—who
tried to get him into a controversy about election and reprobation,
and to whom the only advice he gave was, as he says, that of John
the Baptist, that every man attend to his own business. The Baptists
were then making considerable progress in Virginia, and I have
no idea that Mr. Rose or any of the clergy of the Episcopal Church
of that day were calculated to oppose them successfully. The style
of the sermons and the delivery of the same were altogether too
tame for that purpose. They were written, in almost every instance
that I have seen, in a very small hand, and with very close lines,
as if paper was too scarce and dear to admit of any thing else.
They must have read very closely in order to get through with such
manuscripts. The location and form of their pulpits were also such
as to show that they kept their eyes very near to the manuscript,
and did not care to look at the congregation. The pulpits in the
old churches were always either on the side of the church, if oblong,
or on one of the angles, if cruciform. The aisles were wide, and a
cross aisle and door nearly opposite the pulpit, so that only a small
portion of the congregation could be seen by the minister. It was
also so deep, that unless he were a very tall man his head only
could be seen. In the earlier part of my ministry I have often
been much at a loss how to elevate myself in many of these old
churches which I visited, and have sometimes hurried to church before
the congregation assembled, in order to gather up stones, bricks,
and pieces of plank to raise a little platform under me, and which
was not always very steady. I have preached repeatedly in two of
were remarkably deep. In one of them, a large round block
sawed from the body of a tree, more than a foot high, had been
provided by some one of his successors, and stood in the centre of
the pulpit; and even on this I found it uncomfortable to stand and
preach. All of these old pulpits have been lowered and their location
changed.
But I have something more to say of Mr. Rose from his journal.
He was a kind of universal genius. Now he is in the house reading
Cicero's Orations, now on the farm engaged in all kinds of employment,
now at his neighbours', instructing and helping them in various
operations. Now he writes in his journal a recipe for the best mode
of curing tobacco.[111]
His visits to friends in neighbouring parishes
are recorded. We find him in the Northern Neck, at the Fitzhughs'
and Stewarts'; then going over to Maryland, visiting at Dr. Gustavus
Brown's, five of whose daughters married clergymen, as we
shall see hereafter; at Dr. John Key's, who married another; associating
with some of the Romish clergy, who treated him very
kindly. His association with numbers of the clergy of Virginia
is mentioned. He speaks of Mr. Stewart, of King George,—then
Stafford,—as an eloquent preacher, as being an exception to the
scriptural rule, for he was a prophet who had honour in his own
country. He mentions in an account-book Mr. Alexander Scott,
of Stafford, as being minister in 1727, and Mr. Moncure, his successor,
at a later period. He visits Mr. Mayre, of Fredericksburg,
parish,—mentions Mr. Thompson, of Culpepper, who married
the widow of General Spottswood, and between whom and the
family, who opposed the marriage, he effected a reconciliation. He
speaks particularly of the Rev. Mr. Smelt, who, through his influence,
succeeded him in Essex. In his journal, after hearing him
preach, he thus writes:—"Rev. Mr. Smelt preached on John,
4th chap. 8-36 verses, (Tillotson's,) delivered modestly and distinctly."[112] Borrowing sermons was very common in those days.
Other ministers also are mentioned, as Mr. Maury, of Albemarle,
Mr. Douglass, of Goochland, Mr. Barrett, of Louisa, Mr. Yates, of
Middlesex, Mr. Camm, of Williamsburg, Mr. Stith, of Curls Neck,
and Mr. Cruden. With the leading families of his parish he appears
to have lived on the most intimate terms. He is continually
breakfasting, dining, or staying all night, at Colonel Brooke's, at
Mr. Beverley's of Blanfield, at Mr. Tarent's, Mr. Fitzhugh's, at Mr.
Garnett's, Mr. Rowzie's, Fairfax's, Parker's, Mercer's, and Lomax's.
He appears to have been a man of energy and business in Church
matters also. When elected minister in Nelson, then part of Albemarle,
and in what was called St. Anne's parish, at one meeting of
the vestry in 1749 he had an order passed for four new churches,—
the Forge, Balinger's, Rooker's, and at New Glasgow, the two former
on the Green Mountain, and the latter in what is now Amherst,
though he did not live to see them all finished. The habits of Mr.
Rose were doubtless temperate. He speaks of turning away an
overseer for getting drunk on a certain occasion; and yet, in evidence
of the habits of the times, he speaks of bringing home with him
one day from Leighton's, on the Rappahannock, "rum and wine
and other necessaries," and at another time of carrying a quarter-cask
of wine into Nelson, the first that ever crossed Tye River,
although the Cabels, Higgenbottoms, and Frys then lived there.[113]
In further proof of the manner and habits of the age, I mention
the entry of a visit to one of the leading families of his parish, when
he found that the head of it had gone to Newcastle (which was in
read of him also as being at a horse-race at Tye River, (probably
at New Market, where were races afterward,) but then he adds:—
"Memorandum: suffer it no more," as though he had power to prevent
it and would do so. I bring this notice to a close by stating
that Mr. Rose was twice married. Who his first wife was, or
whence she came, I know not. At the death of a daughter in 1748,
there is the following entry:—"Buried my daughter's body by the
side of her mother and brother Robert, at Mr. Brooke's plantation."
His second wife was Miss Ann Fitzhugh, of Stafford, not far from
Fredericksburg. With all the families of Fitzhughs in Stafford,
King George, and Essex, he seems to have lived on the most affectionate
terms. His last wife survived him, but how many years I
am unable to say. His four sons, Hugh, Patrick, Henry, and
Charles, settled on the farms in Nelson and Amherst left them by
their father. His son Colonel Hugh Rose was a man of great decision
of character, and for many years acted as lay reader in two
of the churches of Amherst,—viz.: Rooker's, and that at New
Glasgow. After the war of the Revolution, and when the church
was without a minister, a young preacher of another denomination,
coming from a distance, and understanding that there was no minister
in the parish, gave notice that on the following Sunday he
would officiate in the church at New Glasgow. On the Sabbath
morning he took possession of the pulpit. Soon after, Colonel
Hugh came in, prepared to execute his office. Seeing the pulpit
occupied, and learning by whom, he ascended and politely informed
him that it was his church, and that he could not give place to
another. Whereupon the occupant came down, and the lay reader
performed his part. Being an accomplished gentleman, however,
as well as staunch Churchman, he insisted on his going home with
him, where he treated him with so much kindness and hospitality
as to make a deep impression on the young preacher, who took
pleasure ever after in speaking of the whole affair.
As to the successors of Mr. Rose in Essex, we are unable to
speak fully, for want of documents. Mr. Smelt succeeded him in
1749, and was there in 1758, according to a list which I have from an
English paper. I have no other lists of ministers until the year
1774 and 1776. In two Virginia almanacs of those dates, the Rev.
John Matthews is set down as the minister of St. Anne's parish.
From 1776 to 1814 there is no account of it. No delegation, either
clerical or lay, appear in any of the Conventions from 1784 to 1805.
After the renewal of our Convention, in 1812, two years elapsed
and myself passed through the Northern Neck and Essex, on our
way to Richmond, when the Hon. James Hunter and Thomas
Mathews were appointed delegates. In the year 1817 the Hon.
James Garnett was sent, and, in the year 1820, Mr. Robert Beverley.
In the year 1822 the Rev. John Reynolds took his seat as
minister of both of the parishes of Essex. In the year 1826 the
Rev. John P. McGuire appears as minister of the same. He continued
faithfully serving them for twenty-four years, and performing
a large amount of missionary labour in the adjoining counties.
During his ministry the old and venerable brick church called
Vauter's (built most probably about the year 1731) was repaired,
and two others built in St. Anne's parish,—one a very handsome
frame building in Tappahannock, the other about ten miles off.
The Rev. Mr. Temple, fourth in descent from Mr. Latane, is the
minister of the latter, and the Rev. E. C. McGuire, son of the Rev.
Dr. McGuire, of Fredericksburg, and nephew of the former minister,
the Rev. J. P. McGuire, is the rector of the former,—viz.: Vauter's
Church, St. Anne's parish. Some of the descendants of the
old families mentioned in Mr. Rose's journal still help to sustain
the Church in this region. Many of them are scattered far and
wide through the land.
The following communication concerning Old Vauter's Church,
from Mr. Richard Baylor, of Essex, is worthy of a place in an
article on St. Anne's parish:—
"Upon a branch of Blackburn's Creek, called Church Swamp, stands
Vauter's Church, built, as indicated by a date inscribed upon its walls, in
1731. This church, as you know, is in a good state of preservation,—
though it has been twice thoroughly shingled and otherwise repaired and
modernized within my recollection. The walls over the doors and windows
have cracked somewhat, but with proper attention Old Vauter's will
yet serve many generations. The first thing that I recollect, as connected
with the old sanctuary, is, that my father used to keep the old
English Bible at Marl Bank, and when the casual services of a passing
Episcopal minister were to be held there, a servant took the old Bible on
his head, and accompanied the family, a near walking-way, across this
same Blackburn's Creek, and after service brought it back. I still have
the old Bible at Kinlock, [the name of Mr. B.'s place,] valued for its antiquity,
and on its blank leaves are numerous references in my father's
handwriting. I remember when the church-doors always stood wide open,
if, indeed, they could be closed, and have taken refuge myself from a
storm in the body of the church, leading my horse in with me. Before
the old Bible was kept by my father or others, it laid upon the desk; and
I have heard that a man told upon himself that he once took the Bible,
intending, no doubt, to appropriate it to his own or worse uses, carried it
conscience-smitten that he returned and restored it to its own place. I
was told by the late Robert B. Starke, of Norfolk, that many years ago
he attended, as surgeon, one of a party who fought a duel in Vauter's
Churchyard, before the door facing toward Loretto. The parties were
the late General Bankhead and a Mr. Buckner, who, after an exchange
of one or two shots without physical effect, retired satisfied. We are
now indebted to the firm friendship of a lady that Vauter's Church did
not share the same fate of other such sanctuaries,—as, for instance, the
church at Leedstown, just across the river. So soon as Mrs. Muscoe
Garnett heard that persons had commenced carrying away the paving-stones
of the aisles, and perhaps some of the bricks, she claimed the
church as her own, and threatened prosecution to the next offender. The
ground on which she placed her claim was that the church stood on her
land, or that of her family. Around the church are numerous graves, all
now levelled down; and no one knows, or seems to care to know, who
tenants them. The only tombstones to be seen are those over Mr. Anderson
and Mr. Miller, who both lived and died at Brooke's Bank. Messrs.
Anderson and Miller were merchants, and Brooke's Bank an old trading-place
on the Rappahannock."
A friend has furnished me with the following information and statistics,
which are well worthy of insertion as a supplement to the two
articles on the parishes in Essex county. It will be remembered that,
from 1652 to the year 1695, what is now Essex was a part of Rappahannock
county, and what are now South Farnham and St. Anne
parishes were part of Littenburne parish. The only list of vestrymen
in Rappahannock parish is that of the first vestry after its
establishment, under a minister by the name of Francis Doughty.
In place of the names of vestrymen, the old records of the court
furnish us with a list of the magistrates and clerks; and a friend
has transcribed the following, who acted from 1680 to 1800:—
Names of Justices of Rappahannock County from 1680 to 1695, when
Essex County was established.
Henry Aubrey, Major Henry Smith, Captain George Taylor, Mr. Thos.
Harrison, Colonel Jno. Stone, Colonel Leroy Griffin, Major Robinson, Colonel
Wm. Loyd, Captain Samuel Bloomfield, Wm. Fauntleroy, Samuel Peachy,
William Soughter, Cadwallader Jones, Henry Williamson. Clerks of the
Court, Robert Davis, Edward Crosk.
Essex County, 1695. Names of Justices from 1695 to 1700.
Captain John Caslett, Captain William Moseley, Robert Brocky, John
Taliafero, Thomas Edmunson, Francis Taliafero, Captain John Battaile,
Bernard Gaines, James Baughan, Francis Gaulman, Richard Covington.
Clerk of Court, William Colson.
From 1700 to 1720: William Tomlin, Samuel Thrasher, Dobyns,
Robert Coleman, Thomas Meriwether, Colonel John Lomax, Colonel
Thomas Waring, Francis Thornton, Joshua Fry. Clerk of Court, Francis
Meriwether.
From 1720 to 1740: William, son of Colonel William Dangerfield,
Captain Salvator Muscoe, Robert Brooky, Captain Nicholas Smith,
Alexander Parker, Thomas Sthreshley, Major Thomas Waring, James
Garnett, Richard Tyler, Jr., Mungo Roy, Benjamin Winslow, Thomas
Jones, Francis Smith, William Roane. Clerk of Court, William Beverley.
From 1740 to 1760: Colonel William Dangerfield, John Corbin, Samuel
Hipkins, Rice Jones, Henry Young, John Clements, William Covington,
Francis Waring, Archibald Ritchie, Paul Micou, John Upshaw, William
Montague, Charles Mortimer.
From 1760 to 1780: Meriwether Smith, Samuel Peachy, John Lee,
Leroy Dangerfield, Thomas Roane, Robert Beverley, John Beale, Robert
Payne Waring, William Latane, John Brockenbrough, Humphrey B.
Brooke.
From 1780 to 1800: Sthreshley Rennolds, Paul Micou, Jr., John
Dangerfield, Maco Clements, Robert Beverley, Jr., James Upshaw, Tunstall
Banks, Reuben Garnett, James Sale, Thomas Roane, Jr., Joseph
Bahannon, Andrew Monro, Thomas Pitts, John Mathews, James M.
Garnett. Clerks of Court, from 1740 to 1800, were Wm. Beverley, John
Lee, Hancock Lee, John P. Lee.
"This Joshua Fry mentioned above (continues my friend) married
Mrs. Mary Hill, who was a daughter of Paul Micou the first. I have
heard from my father that this Joshua Fry was connected with William
and Mary College. He has numerous descendants in Virginia.
One of this family accompanied General Washington in the Indian
wars. John Lomax was the ancestor of Judge John T. Lomax; Paul
Micou and Mungo Roy, the ancestors of the Roys and Micous in this
State. The Dangerfields mentioned above were lineal descendants of
John Dangerfield, the first settler in the county of Rappahannock,
who resided at Greenfield, and to whom it was granted in 1660.
The last proprietor was Colonel John Dangerfield. Most of the
other justices have descendants in this section at this time. Archibald
Richie, the ancestor of this family in Virginia, was a Scotchman,
and a merchant in Tappahannock."
THE DANGERFIELD FAMILY.
The history of the Dangerfield family in this country, so far as
I have been able to ascertain, is contained in the following statement.
"The first of the name who emigrated to America were two
brothers, John and William, who came to this country early and
settled on the James River: one or both of them intermarried with
the Blands and Robinsons, and held a high social position in that
the family name within the memory of one living at this time. It
is not known whether they held any office or not. In 1660, John
Dangerfield, a descendant of John, located a patent in the county
of Rappahannock, and at Greenfield, which remained in the family
till 1821. He married in Rappahannock, and left a son, William.
He became a justice and colonel, and married a member of the
Batherst family of England,—a Miss Meriwether, of Batherst, Essex
county. He left a son William, who married a Miss Fauntleroy,
of Nailor's Hold. He was also a justice, and left three sons,—John,
William, and Leroy. William inherited the greater portion of his
estate, including the family residence, and was one of the seven
colonels appointed at the commencement of the Revolution. He
married a Miss Willis, of Fredericksburg, and died during the
Revolution, at his seat,—Coventry, Spottsylvania,—and left a large
family. John, the eldest, inherited the estate in Essex, and succeeded
to the offices, civil and military, held by his ancestors. He
married, first, Miss Southall, of Williamsburg, and secondly, Miss
Armstead, of Hess. Leroy, the brother of the last William, filled
the office of justice for several years, and married a Miss Parker,
daughter of the first Judge Parker, of Westmoreland county, and
descendant of Alexander Parker, a justice of Rappahannock. He
removed to Frederick county, Virginia.
To the above contributions from Mr. Micou, the worthy Clerk of
Essex, and another friend, I have something more to add. The father
of the first Lomax who came to this country was one of the silenced
and ejected ministers in the time of Charles I. of England,—a pious,
conscientious, and superior man. His son John, who came to this
country, intermarried with the Wormlys of Middlesex. Lunsford
Lomax, son of John, married Judith Micou, daughter of the first
Paul Micou, who settled in Virginia, and who was a French surgeon
and Huguenot. Major Thomas Lomax, father of the present Judge
Lomax, was his son. The family seat is that beautiful estate
situated on Portobago Bay, a few miles below Port Royal, on the
Rappahannock. The eldest sister of Judith Micou, who married
Lunsford Lomax, married Moore Fauntleroy. One of her daughters
married the Rev. Mr. Giberne, of Richmond county. Another
of this connection, who was the grandmother of Mr. Micou, the
present Clerk of Essex, married the Rev. Mr. Mathews, one of
the ministers of St. Anne's parish, Essex.
I have been furnished by a worthy friend with some notices of
of which I take pleasure in adding to what has been written
concerning St. Anne's parish, Essex. The families of Mathews
and Smith and Bushrod intermarried at an early period. The Rev.
John Mathews also married a Miss Smith. His son Thomas was a
member of one of our earlier Conventions; his daughter Mary
married Dr. Alexander Somervail, of Scotland; his daughter
Fanny married James Roy Micou, father of the present Clerk of
Essex; his daughter Virginia married Dr. William Baynham, of
Essex. There were also two other daughters.
The two physicians who married daughters of the Rev. Mr.
Mathews were most eminent men in their profession, and of very
high moral character.
Dr. Somervail, though brought up in the Kirk of Scotland, was
for some time an avowed infidel. It is said that some remarks
dropped by Mrs. Hunter, mother of the present Senator in Congress,
during a religious discussion she had with the celebrated Dr.
Ogilvie and one of his Virginia followers, in the presence of Dr.
S., made an impression on his mind, and led him to a serious examination
of Christianity, which resulted in his conversion. He
was most eminent in his profession, contributing largely to Dr.
Chapman's Medical Journal, and being the author of an important
discovery, by which one of the most painful diseases of the human
frame is relieved. He was the physician of the poor as well as
the rich. On leaving Scotland his father said to him, "If you
ever oppress the poor my curse is upon you." Neither the curse
of his earthly or heavenly Father came down upon him for neglecting
the poor. On the very day of his death, in his seventy-sixth
year, he paid friendly visits to some of his poor patients. Dr.
Somervail, after his conversion, connected himself with the Baptist
Church, but was beloved and esteemed by all. The Hon. James
M. Garnett sent an extended obituary of him to the National
Intelligencer at the time of his death.
Not less eminent was the other son-in-law of the Rev. Mr.
Mathews,—Dr. William Baynham. He was the son of an old
vestryman of the Episcopal Church in Caroline county, who was
also an eminent physician. The son, after studying seven years
under his father, completed his preparations for the practice of
medicine under the celebrated Dr. William Hunter, of London.
Young Baynham distinguished himself while in England, and had
he remained there would certainly have attained to the highest
very important in the medical department. The eulogies bestowed
upon him, both at home and abroad, for moral character and great
medical attainments, of which I have specimens before me, prove
that he was a man of great celebrity. The Hon. Robert Garnett,
of Essex, furnished the press with a high encomium on his
character.
On examination of the Lambeth Records, I find that the Rev. John Bagge was
the predecessor of the Rev. Robert Rose; that he came into the Colony in 1709, in
Deacons' Orders, but was allowed to take charge of St. Anne's parish. He soon
after settled in another, but says he was driven out by an influential layman. In
1717 he returned to England for Priests' Orders, then had a difficulty with a Rev.
Mr. Ransford about St. Anne's parish, in which Governor Spottswood took his part
but could not support him. We find him, however, the minister of St. Anne's in
1724, but, dying soon after, he is succeeded by the Rev. Robert Rose. He speaks
of Governor Spottswood as a valiant defender of the rights of the clergy and the Governor
against the usurpations of the vestries, but acknowledges the failure of his
efforts. He admits that there were not more than four inducted ministers in the
Colony. There were two churches in the parish of St. Anne. His salary was from
sixty to eighty pounds, according to the quality and price of tobacco,—his perquisites
about twelve hundred-weight of tobacco. On the counties bordering on
North Carolina, he says that the tobacco is so mean, and of so little value, that but
little is made, and the ministers are obliged to receive their salaries in tar, pitch,
pork, and other commodities, and that it is difficult to get ministers to settle there.
This agrees with Colonel Byrd's account of the border-parishes a few years after
this. Mr. Bagge mentions seven or eight parishes, in different parts of the State,
then vacant. He says that they have no parish library or public school.
Mr. Rose had four brothers, who, from his journal, must have settled somewhere
in Virginia not very far from him. His brother Charles was the minister of
Cople parish, in Westmoreland county. In his journal he speaks of visiting him
there. Visits are also exchanged with his other brothers, though their residences
are not so exactly defined. He speaks affectionately of his brothers, wife, and
children.
The following information is from a reliable source:—
"During the early part of my life,—say some fifty years ago or more,—I heard my
grandfather, or my great-uncle, I do not recollect exactly which of them, relate an
anecdote of Parson Robert Rose. There had been a year of great drought, producing,
if not a famine the succeeding year, great scarcity and tribulation among
the settlers of the upper part of Amherst and Nelson counties.
"Parson Rose, hearing of the distress of the people, gave information, by advertising,
that he had a quantity of corn which he could spare, and all those wishing
to get a share should come to his house on a certain day. Many of the good
people attended promptly to his summons, and when he thought they had all arrived
he requested all those who wanted corn that they should form a line. They did so.
When the line was formed, he asked the applicants whether they had the money to
pay for the corn: many of them, rejoicing, cried out, `We have the money;' whilst the
greater portion, with looks and eyes cast down, said, `We have no money.' The parson,
with good-humour, commanded all those that had money to step one pace in front.
After they had done so he said to them, `You all have money?' The cry was, `Yes,
yes;' when he again, in great good-nature, said to them, `As you have money, you
are able to get corn anywhere; but as to these poor fellows who have no money, they
are to get my corn.' And it was so done."
The Rev. Mr. Smelt was the grandfather of Miss Caroline Smelt, whose memoirs
were written in the year 1818 by the Rev. Moses Waddell, of South Carolina.
Mr. Smelt was an Englishman, and a graduate of Oxford. His son Dennis Smelt,
after receiving his literary education at William and Mary College, went to England
and obtained a medical one. On returning to America he settled in Augusta, Georgia,
where he married a Miss Cooper. The religious exercises and character of their
daughter Caroline were such as to justify the publication of her memoirs.
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