MEHERRIN PARISH IN THE COUNTY OF GREENSVILLE.
This parish was separated from St. Andrew's parish, Brunswick,
in 1753. No vestry-book being extant or in our possession if
extant, we can only ascertain, from such lists of the ministers as
we have, who belonged to this parish. In the year 1754 we find
the name of John Navison, and also in 1758, as the pastor of this
parish. In the years 1773-74-76, the Rev. Arthur Emmerson
was the minister. In the year 1791 the Rev. Stephen Johnson
was the minister for that year, and that only. From that time
it is supposed a deathlike silence pervaded the churches, so far as
Episcopal services were concerned, until of late years. The Rev.
Edward E. McGuire was sent as missionary to Greensville, Sussex,
and Southampton, in 1842. The Rev. Mr. Withers succeeded him
in Sussex and Southampton, and was succeeded in Greensville by
the Rev. Mr. Sprigg in 1846. The Rev. W. D. Hanson also spent
one year in Greensville. In the time of Mr. Sprigg, in the year
1848, a neat and comfortable house of worship was formed out of
a large barn or stable, and, under the ministry of the Rev. Mr.
Robert and of his predecessors, a tolerable congregation has been
raised up in this waste place of our Zion. I am further informed,
by a letter which had escaped my notice when writing the foregoing,
that before the division of Meherrin from St. Andrew's there
were two churches in it, to which two more were added, one near the
Carolina line, and one on the Meherrin River, three or four miles
west of Hicksford. A third was Grassy Pond Church, the traces
of whose foundation may yet be seen; the fourth was near Poplar
Mount. All of them being cheap churches, of wood, as nine-tenths
of the Colonial churches were, soon perished. There is a
tradition, that, besides the above, a Mr. Fanning was the minister
of this parish, and was too favourable to the British; but I cannot
find his name on any of my lists, before, during, and after the war,
and do not believe that there was one of his name in Virginia.
That the British under Arnold did not receive favour in the whole
of the parish is proved by the fact that there is a place near one
of the churches to this day called
Dry Bread, because they would
let them have nothing else to eat there. There are two churches
now in the county, of recent erection,—Christ Church, Hicksford,
and Grace Church, twelve miles off.
