University of Virginia Library

EPITAPH.

On the same stone is the name of Blumfield Barradall, brother
of Edward, and that of their sisters Elizabeth and Frances, who
had placed the tomb over their brothers.

We have also the monuments of the ancient and excellent family
of Brays:—

On the same is the following:—

There is also a large marble monument, on one side of which is
the following:—

On the other side as follows:—

The last I shall record is the following:—

I might add to these some monuments which lie all exposed in
the neighbourhood of Williamsburg. Nathaniel Bacon, uncle or
near kinsman of him who is called the rebel, and who was high in
office during the period of the rebellion, as he was before and
after, married Elizabeth, the daughter and heiress of Richard
Kingswell, of James City county. His residence was on King's
Creek, near York River, and not far from Williamsburg. There
are tombstones now near the bank of the river. The following
inscriptions have been furnished me:—"Here lyeth the body of
Elizabeth, wife of the Honourable Nathaniel Bacon, who departed
this life the second day of November, one thousand six hundred
and ninety-one, in the sixty-seventh year of her age." Also, on
a mutilated tombstone, may be deciphered these words:—"The
Rev. Thomas Hampton, rector of this parish in 1647." It is
probable that he ministered in one of those churches which were
closed when the first church at Williamsburg was built. Another residence
of Nathaniel Bacon must have been near Williamsburg; for
his tombstone now lies in a field on Dr. Tinsley's farm, while the
tombstones of the Palmer family are in the garden of that place.
The tombstone of Daniel Parke, whose name stands first on the
old vestry-book of Bruton parish as vestryman and churchwarden,
lies on the farm called Beal's, near Williamsburg.

In connection with the above, I mention that, in the Virginia
Gazette for March, 1746, it is stated that the plate given by
Colonel Nathaniel Bacon to York-Hampton parish was stolen.
There are also, I am told, some graves and tombstones around a
church about ten miles from Williamsburg, called Chickahominy
Church, and lying near that river. It may be that it was in one
of those numerous parishes which abounded in early times in and
around James City. One there was, called Wilmington parish,
which was taken partly from James City, and may have been
united to Bruton parish. If so, all that I can find of it is that it
was dissolved in 1723 and added to other parishes. At that time
it lay most probably on both sides of the Chickahominy, was thirty
miles long and eight wide, had one hundred communicants and one
hundred and eighty families. The Rev. Mr. Brunskill was the
minister, and reports that his parsonage had one room below and
a garret above, and, together with his glebe, rented for forty shillings
per annum.

At a recent visit to Williamsburg, my steps were directed to the
College and the old court-house, in order to see if I could find
something additional from the records thereof. In the old books

of the clerk's office, I was shown a deed of one acre of land from
some one for a new church in Wilmington parish,—probably the
very church just spoken of.

There is mention also of a letter of the Bishop of London
against swearing, and frequent notices of thanksgiving-days. The
Rev. James Horrocks, afterward President of the College, was
prevented by the court for not reading the act for suppressing
vice, as the law directs. Fifty acres of land at Jamestown, and
a house lately occupied by the Burgesses, were given to the justices
of James City for a free school. Susannah Riddle petitions that
her servant, John Hope, (alias Cæsar Barber, by which name he
was afterward, and for a long time, well known,) might be allowed
to be set free, as he had served her faithfully for thirty years.
Mrs. Riddle was the friend of Mrs. Carrington, of Richmond, and
aunt of Miss Caines, and great-aunt or relative of Lewis Warrington,
who bequeathed to him one thousand pounds, as mentioned in
a previous article. The Rev. Robert Andrews was the guardian
of young Warrington.

From the records of the College I obtained, besides those previously
gotten and used, one document worthy of insertion. In
the will of Hilarity Giles, of Newport parish, Isle of Wight, giving
a tract of land on Blackwater to the College of William and
Mary, he thus begins:—