Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia

"They (the Indians) acknowledge that there is a great good God, but
know him not, having the eyes of their understanding as yet blinded;
wherefore they serve the Divell for feare, after a most base manner, sacrificing
sometimes (as I have hearde) their own children to him. I have
sent one image of their god to the Council in England, which is painted
on one side of a toadestoole, much like unto a deformed monster. Their
priests (whom they call Quickosoughs) are no other but such as our English
witches are. They live naked in body, as if their shame of their
sinne deserved no covering. Their names are as naked as their body:
they esteem it a vertue to lye, deceive, and steale, as their master the Divell
teacheth them.

"Their men are not so simple as some have supposed them, for they are
of body lusty, strong, and very nimble; they are a very understanding
generation,—quicke of apprehension, sudden in their despatches, subtile in
their dealings, exquisite in their intentions, and industrious in their labour.
I suppose the world hath no better marksmen than they be: they will kill
birds flying, fishes swimming, and beasts running. They shoote also with
marvailous strength: they shot one of our men, being unarmed, quite
through the body and nailed both his arms to his body with one arrow;
one of their children also, about the age of twelve or thirteen years, killed
a bird with his arrow, in my sight. The service of their god is answerable
to their life, being performed with great feare and attention, and many
strange dumb shewes used in the same, stretching forth their limbs and
straining their body, much like to the counterfeit women in England, who
fancie themselves bewitched or possessed of some evil spirit. They stand
in great awe of the Quickosoughs or priests, which are a generation of
vipers, even Satan's own brood. The manner of their life is much like
to the Popish hermits of our age; for they live alone in the woods, in
houses sequestered from the common course of men; neither may any

135

man be suffered to come into their house, or speake to them, but when the
priest doth call him.

"He taketh no care for his victuals; for all such kind of things, both
bread and water, &c., are brought into a place neare his cottage and there
left, which he fetcheth for his proper needs. If they would have raine,
or have lost any thing, they have recourse to him, who conjureth for them
and many times prevaileth. If they be sick, he is their physician; if
they be wounded, he sucketh them. At his command they make warre
and peace; neither doe they any thing of moment without him. Finally,
there is a civil government among them which they strictly observe, and
show thereby that the law of nature dwelleth in them; for they have a
rude kinde of commonwealth and rough government, wherein they both
honour and obey their king, parents, and governors, both greater and
lesser. They observe the limits of their own possessions. Murther is
scarcely heard of; adultery and other offences severely punished."

We follow this sketch of the Indian character by stating that
the efforts of Mr. Whittaker and others, and all the acts of the
Company and Colony, seemed to have produced some effect on the
natives, and to promise friendly relations with them. This prospect
was brightened by the marriage of Rolph and Pocahontas.
Even after her death, in 1617, a letter is written to the Company,
saying, "Powhatan goes about visiting his country, taking his
pleasure, in good friendship with us; sorry for the death of his
daughter, but glad her son is living. So does Opechancanough.
They both wish to see the boy, but do not wish him to come to
Virginia until he is a man."[36] But, even at this time, it is to be
feared that the perfidious Indians were meditating war.

We now proceed with the history of the College and parish.

We have already stated, in one of our articles on Jamestown,

136

that about the year 1619 it was determined to establish a College
at Henrico, and that liberal contributions were made in England
for that purpose. A pious and philanthropic man, a good scholar,
a warm and confiding friend of the Indians, Mr. George Thorpe,
was actually engaged in superintending all the preparatory operations.
How far they had advanced when the great massacre in
1622 occurred, and in which Mr. Thorpe and so many others were
killed and the city either destroyed or greatly injured, we have no
means of ascertaining. We have reason to believe that some unsuccessful
attempts were afterward made; but neither the city nor
the College ever recovered from this disastrous blow.

Large tracts of land, called the College lands and the Company's
lands, to the amount of fifteen thousand acres, had been
set apart on both sides of the river for the purpose of promoting
the College and settlement. Between one and two hundred labourers
were imported to cultivate them. One hundred young
women, of good character, were ordered over to be wives to the
workmen here and elsewhere. Eighty of them actually came.
The massacre fell heavily on them upon both sides of the river.
Despairing of success, at length the lands were otherwise disposed
of.

We are informed, by one of the descendants, that Mr. William
Randolph bought at one time the whole of Sir Thomas Dale's settlement,
amounting to five thousand acres of land, and as much
more of other persons, reaching down to Four-Mile Creek, on
James River. The two settlements of Varina and Curls, so long
the property and abodes of the Randolphs, were on this estate.
The estate of Bacon, the rebel, once formed a part of this tract,
and there are still some remains of the fort which he erected when
contending with the Indians. The estate called Varina, which
continued longest in possession of the Randolphs, was so called
from a place of that name in Spain, because the tobacco raised at
both places so resembled each other in flavour.

As to the ministers and churches, we have seen that Mr. Whittaker,
who died in 1619, ministered to the people at Henricopolis
and at Bermuda Hundred. He was succeeded by the Rev. Mr.
Wickam, and he by the Rev. Mr. Stockam. After these we have
no authentic account of any minister until the time of the Rev.
James Blair, who settled here in 1685, and was the rector until
the year 1694, when he went to Jamestown and became Commissary
and President of the College of William and Mary. The
next account we have of the parish is in the year 1724, in an

137

answer to the circular of the Bishop of London; but unfortunately
the name of the minister is cut off from the manuscript which is
before us, and we can only give the report itself. The minister
(whose name is lost) had been in the parish fourteen years; that
is, since 1710. There were two churches and one chapel. The
parish was eighteen miles by twenty-five. There were eleven hundred
tithables and four hundred families in it. The masters do
nothing for their servants, but let some of them now and then go
to church. One or two hundred persons are sometimes at church.
The families are so distant that it is difficult to have the children
brought to catechism, and when they grow to any bigness they do
not like to be publicly catechized. The teachers and parents do
whatever is done in that way. There was no public school for
youth. There were only about twenty communicants at a time,
when the sacrament was administered.

The same evil is complained of here as is often elsewhere. The
large estates on the river separate the families, so that it is difficult
to get to church. It is so to this day along our rivers. Where
the two churches and the chapel were at that time, we are at a loss
to tell. Perhaps one may still have been at Henricopolis, the first
settlement by Sir Thomas Dale. After a time, one was built by
the first of the Richard Randolphs, which was called sometimes
Four-Mile Creek Church, sometimes Curls Church, as it lay between
these places. Whether there was a chapel at that time at the
Falls—that is, Richmond—is not certainly known, but is probable.
At a later period, the minister officiated alternately at the Four-Mile
Creek Church, or Curls Church, on the north side of James
River, and at a church on the south side, near Rock Hall, called
Jefferson's Church.

This was the case in the time of Mr. Stith, who wrote his History
about the year 1740, at Varina, when he was minister of
Henrico parish. He removed to Williamsburg to preside over the
College in the year 1752.[37] The building of the church at Four-Mile

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Creek, or Curls, is clearly ascertained, as to the time and the
erection of it, by an extract from a letter of the eldest Richard
Randolph, of Curls, to his son Richard, in 1748, in which he says,
"Pray assist Wilkinson all you can in getting the church finished,
and get the shells that will be wanted carted before the roads get
bad. The joiner can inform you what shells I have at the Falls.
If more are wanted you must get them." Some thirty or forty
years ago, when this church was without Episcopal services, a man
claimed it, and declared his intention to take it, when a great-grandson
of old Mr. Randolph, of the same name, repaired to the
place, and informed him that as soon as he touched it he would
have him arrested. The desired effect was produced. It has,
however, now disappeared; and none, I believe, bearing the name
of Randolph, owns a rood of that immense tract of land on which
their fathers once lived.[38]

139

To proceed with the history of the ministers of Henrico parish:
we find, on the lists of the clergy in Virginia, that the Rev. Miles

140

Selden was minister in 1758 and also in 1776, from which we
infer that he was the minister from 1758 to 1776; how long before
1758 or after 1776, does not appear. Nor have I been able to
ascertain any thing particular concerning him.[39]

[36]

Even as late as 1641 the boy Thomas Rolph asks and obtains leave of the
Assembly to visit his uncle, Opechancanough. There is a document in the records
of the Virginia Company of the 7th of October, 1622, which is worthy of insertion
here. It appears that Mr. John Rolph, after returning to Virginia in 1617, married
again and had other children, and that he died in or before 1622, leaving a
widow and children. Mr. Henry Rolph, brother of John Rolph, addresses a petition
to the House of Burgesses, "desiring the estate his brother John Rolph, deceased,
left in Virginia, might be enquired out and converted to the best use for
the maintenance of his relict wife and children, and for his indemnity, (having
brought up the child his said brother had by the daughter of Powhatan, which is
yet living and in his custody.) It was therefore ordered that the Governor and
Council in Virginia should cause inquiry to be made what lands and goods the said
Rolph died seized of, and in case it should be found that the said Rolph made no
will, then to take such order for the petitioner's indemnity, and for the maintenance
of the said children and his relict wife, as they shall find his estate will beare, (his
debts unto the Company and others being satisfied,) and return unto the Company
an account of their proceedings."

[37]

William Stith was the only son of Captain John Stith, of the county of Charles
City, and of Mary, a daughter of "William Randolph, gentleman," of Turkey
Island, in the adjoining county, Henrico, in the Colony of Virginia: their son William
was born in the year 1689. On the death of her husband, Mrs. Stith. at the
instance of her brother, Sir John Randolph, removed to Williamsburg and placed
her son in the grammar-school attached to the College of William and Mary, where
he pursued his academic studies and graduated. His theological studies were completed
in England, where he was ordained a minister in the Episcopal Church. On
his return to Virginia, in the year 1731, he was elected master of the grammar-school
in the College and chaplain to the House of Burgesses. In June, 1738, he
was called as rector to Henrico parish, in the county of Henrico. He married his
cousin Judith, a daughter of Thomas Randolph, of Tuckahoe, the second son of
William Randolph, of Turkey Island, and resided in the parsonage on the glebe
near Varina, the seat of justice for the county of Henrico. There he wrote his
History of Virginia, which was printed and bound in the city of Williamsburg, at
the only printing-press then in the Colony. In August, 1752, he was elected President
of William and Mary College, to which he removed and over which he
presided until his death, in 1755.

[38]

The connection of so many of the Randolphs, not only with the Episcopal
Church, but ministry, both in England and America, merits some special notice of
the family. It shall be very brief by comparison with the numbers and respectability
of it. I leave it to some one of the name to trace back its history through
the Church and State in England, and through the numerous branches which have
spread themselves over Virginia and other parts of our land. I only abridge some
of the genealogies placed in my hands, by giving a list of some of the earliest of
the family, from whom all others have proceeded. The first of the name who
settled in Virginia, Mr. William Randolph, became possessed of the large estate on
James River called Turkey Island, bordering on Charles City, to which he added
numerous other estates, on which he settled his sons, building excellent houses for
all of them. He married Miss Mary Isham, daughter of Henry and Catherine
Isham, of Bermuda Hundred, on the opposite side of the river.

They had seven sons and two daughters. 1st. William, of Turkey Island, who
married Miss Beverly, of Gloucester. 2d. Thomas, of Tuckahoe, who married
Miss Flemming. 3d. Isham, of Dungeness, who married a Miss Rojers, of England.
4th. Richard, of Curls, who married a Miss Bolling, descendant of Pocahontas.
5th. Henry, who died without issue. 6th. Sir John Randolph, of Williamsburg,
who married Miss Beverly, sister of his brother William's wife. 7th.
Edward, who married an heiress in England,—a Miss Groves. He was a captain
of a ship. Some of his children settled in England and some in Virginia. Two of
his daughters married the Revs. William and Robert Yates, of Gloucester county.
A third married William Stith, and was the mother of the Rev. Mr. Stith, the historian
of Virginia, minister of Henrico, and afterward President of William and
Mary College. His sister married Commissary Dawson, and he himself married
Miss Judith Randolph, of Tuckahoe. Another of the family married the Rev. Mr.
Keith, who settled in Fauquier, and was the ancestor of Judge Marshall. Another
married Mr. Anthony Walke, of Norfolk county, and was the mother of the Rev.
Anthony Walke, of that county. To their connection with the sanctuary in Virginia
may be added one in our Mother-Church of which the family may well be
proud. Bishop Randolph, of the latter part of the last century, was first Archdeacon
of Jersey, then Bishop of Oxford, and then of London, in all which stations
he was most highly esteemed. His collection of tracts for the benefit of young students
for the ministry show him to have been a Bishop of sound doctrines and of a
truly catholic spirit. As to piety and active zeal, he is thought to have been considerably
in advance of the generality of the Bishops of his day. It may not be
amiss to state that Thomas Randolph, the poet, of England, was uncle to William
Randolph, of Turkey Island, and that the nephew is said to have possessed something
of his poetic genius. We must here stop, and only say that the family of Randolphs
is henceforth to be found mixed up with the Beverlys, Harrisons, Jennings,
Lees, Grymes, Wormleys, Nelsons, Burwells, Lightfoots, Bollings, Spotwoods,
Pages, Singletons, Flemings, Berkeleys, Stiths, Carys, Jeffersons, Carrs, Pleasants,
Meades, Hackleys, Woods, Mumfords, Armsteads, and others, known and unknown
and too numerous to mention.

I add the following brief account from Campbell's History of Virginia:—"Several
of the sons of the first William Randolph, of Turkey Island, father of the family in
Virginia, were men of distinction. William was a member of the Council and Treasurer
of the Colony. Isham was member of the House of Burgesses, in 1740, from
Goochland, and Adjutant-General of the Colony. Richard was a member of the House
of Burgesses in 1740, from Henrico, and succeeded his brother as Treasurer Sir
John was Speaker of the House of Burgesses, and Attorney-General. Peter, son
of the second William Randolph, was Clerk of the House of Burgesses, and Attorney-General.
Peyton, son of Sir John, was Speaker of the House of Burgesses
and President of the first Congress held at Philadelphia. Thomas Mann Randolph,
great-grandson of William, of Turkey Island, was a member of the Virginia Convention
in 1775, from Goochland. Beverly Randolph was member of the Assembly
from Cumberland, during the Revolution, and Governor of Virginia. Robert Randolph,
son of Peter, Richard Randolph, grandson of Peter, and David Meade Randolph,
grandson of the second Richard, of Curls, were cavalry-officers in the Revolution.
David Meade Randolph was Marshal of Virginia. John Randolph, of
Roanoke, member of Congress and minister to Russia, was grandson of the first
Richard. Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., was member of Congress, of the Legislature
of Virginia, and Governor of Virginia." To this we add, that Edmund Randolph
was Secretary of State of the United States and Governor of Virginia, beside
holding other offices.

Mr. Campbell remarks that the members of the numerous families of the
Randolphs, in several instances, adopted the names of their seats, for purposes of
distinction, as, Thomas of Tuckahoe, Isham of Dungeness, Richard of Curls, John
of Roanoke. The following were the seats of the Randolphs on James River,
Tuckahoe, Dungeness, Chattsworth, Wilton, Varina, Curls, Bremo, Turkey Island.
In a work on the old families, &c. of the Church in Virginia, the above is not too
much for one, whose branches have, with few exceptions, been so steadfast to her
and some of whom have contributed so liberally to her support, as old Mr. Richard
Randolph, of Curls, Mr. Thomas Mann Randolph, of Tuckahoe, and Colonel
Robert Randolph, of Fauquier.

[39]

I have obtained the following notice of the Rev. Wm. Selden, a relative of Mr.
Miles Selden:—"The Rev. Wm. Selden was son of John Selden and Grace Rosewell,
and grandson of the first of the name who came to Virginia, about 1690, and
settled in the Northern Neck. Wm. Selden was born in 1741, was educated at William
and Mary College, studied law and practised it some years. Disliking the
profession, he studied for the ministry, and went to London, where he was ordained
in 1771. Returning to Virginia, he became the minister of Elizabeth parish. He
continued in charge of this parish until a short time before his death. He married
Mary Ann Hancock, of Princess Ann county, by whom he had many children, two
only of whom grew up and had issue,—viz.: Dr. W. B. Selden, of Norfolk, only
two of whose sons survive, viz., Dr. Wm. Selden, of Norfolk, and Robert Selden,
of Gloucester, two others, Dr. Henry Selden and Miss Susan Selden, having fallen
victims to the late epidemic in Norfolk. Mrs. Bagnal, the other child of the Rev.
W. Selden who left issue, has now living two children,—Mrs. Mary Grace, of Gloucester,
and W. D. Bagnal, of Norfolk. The Rev. Miles Selden, of Henrico, was
the son of Joseph, the youngest son of the first settler, and, consequently, the first-cousin
of the Rev. Wm. Selden." From their continuance during their ministry in
the parishes which called them, and other considerations, we have reason to believe
that they were both exemplary men.

University of Virginia Library

"TRACTATE BY MASTER ALEXANDER WHITTAKER, WRITTEN AT HENRICO, 1613.

"TRACTATE BY MASTER ALEXANDER WHITTAKER, WRITTEN AT
HENRICO, 1613.