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diff --git a/28634.txt b/28634.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e11a0f --- /dev/null +++ b/28634.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2468 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Religious Life of Virginia in the +Seventeenth Century, by George MacLaren Brydon + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Religious Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century + The Faith of Our Fathers + +Author: George MacLaren Brydon + +Release Date: April 29, 2009 [EBook #28634] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RELIGIOUS LIFE OF VIRGINIA *** + + + + +Produced by Mark C. Orton, Diane Monico, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +RELIGIOUS LIFE OF VIRGINIA IN +THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY + +The Faith of Our Fathers + +By +GEORGE MACLAREN BRYDON +Historiographer of Diocese of Virginia + +VIRGINIA 350TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION CORPORATION +WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA +1957 + + + + +COPYRIGHT(C), 1957 BY +VIRGINIA 350TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION +CORPORATION, WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA + + +Jamestown 350th Anniversary +Historical Booklet, Number 10 + + + + +CONTENTS + + +Introduction + +Chapter Page + +One Beginnings 1 + +Two The Colonists at Worship 6 + +Three Making Bricks Without Straw 12 + +Four Building a Christian Community 22 + +Five The Coming of the Negro 26 + +Six Fighting Adverse Conditions 34 + +Seven The Last Decade 42 + +Bibliography 46 + +Appendix A 47 + +Appendix B 48 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The settlement of Englishmen at Jamestown in 1607 was the outgrowth of +a vision of transatlantic expansion which had been growing stronger +steadily during the preceding generation. It was in the following of +that vision that Queen Elizabeth granted to a group of men headed by +Sir Walter Raleigh the authority to establish a colony upon the remote +shores of the Atlantic ocean, and out of the plans of this group came +the ill-fated colony which was started at Roanoke Island, in what is +now the State of North Carolina, in the year 1585. This colony after a +life of a few years disappeared: whether destroyed by Indian attack, or +by a Spanish fleet which resented the settlement of Englishmen in a +land that was claimed for Spain, or by famine or disease, no one knows +to this day. The one permanent result was the giving of the name +Virginia to their American land in honor of their Queen. + +Following the failure of this first effort, a plan was formulated and +established by charter given by King James in the year 1606. Under this +charter companies were to be formed in order to found two English +settlements in America; one to be a colony at some point between the +34th and 41st degrees of latitude, and the other between the 38th and +45th degrees. Both companies had the widespread interest of the English +people, and both made settlements in America in the same year, 1607. +The Virginia Company established its settlement at Jamestown, from +which developed the Colony, and later the Commonwealth of Virginia, as +the first permanent English settlement in America. The Plymouth Company +made its settlement upon the coast of what is now Maine; but this +effort failed and the colonists returned home in the following year. +Permanent settlement of New England began in 1620 with the coming of +the Pilgrims to Plymouth, Massachusetts. From these two first +settlements thus widely separated, but with their common ideal of +English civilization and English concepts of freedom and +self-government, has grown the American nation of today. This nation, +while welcoming all the gifts and values which people of other nations +have brought to the enrichment and broadening of our common life, is +still basically an English or Anglo-Saxon nation. + +Many impelling motives animated the men who organized the Virginia +company and labored for the establishment of a colony in America. They +wanted of course the expansion of British trade and a wider market for +British manufactures; and they naturally hoped for financial profit +from their investment in shares of stock in the companies. They +planned, also, not merely trading posts in a foreign land as in India +and elsewhere, but an extension and expansion of the empire of Great +Britain. + +A most important part of their plan was to make colonies the answer to +a problem which was pressing for solution: the problem of what to do +with the increasing overplus of population in many of the cities of +England. The danger of a population too great for the land of England +to support and feed was a real one. A colony to which England could +send her overplus population as part of a greater England was a real +solution, and a better one than would be the raising of grain and +foodstuff by foreign countries to feed the hungry of Great Britain. +That men were thinking along this line appears from the action of +certain large towns in paying the expense of the voyage of young people +by the score or hundred to Virginia, and from the plan soon after the +first settlement, whereby young women of reputable families were sent +to Virginia to become wives of the colonists. + +And still another motive was the religious one. The Virginia Company +kept constantly in the forefront their plan to Christianize the +Indians. Their plan as they began to put it into effect included the +establishment of parishes and the selection of fit clergymen to go +overseas; to establish a University with a college therein for Indians, +and to take Indian youths into English families to fit and prepare them +for their college. They secured from both King and Archbishop the +authority and permission to bring the expatriated Pilgrim Fathers back +under the English flag, and give them a settlement in Virginia, a plan +which failed after the Pilgrims had started for their promised new +home. + + + + +CHAPTER ONE + +Beginnings + + +The men who came to Jamestown brought the ideals and ways of life of +the mother country; its common law, the enactments of Parliament, the +Church of their people; and as shown in the prayer written in England +which the commanding officer of the colony was required to use daily at +the setting of the watch, they hoped also that the natives of the land +might be brought into the Kingdom of God. They made petition for their +own needs, but they prayed also: + + And seeing, Lord, the highest end of our plantation here is + to set up the standard and display the banner of Jesus + Christ, even here where Satan's throne is, Lord let our + labour be blessed in labouring the conversion of the + heathen; and because thou usest not to work such mighty + works by unholy means, Lord sanctifie our spirits and give + us holy hearts that so we may be thy instruments in this + most glorious work. + +It is of real significance that the London Company made its first +settlement a parish after the manner of the Church of England, and +elected as its first rector the Reverend Richard Hakluyt, one of the +most noted clergymen in England, and a man who had captured the +imagination of all with his books on travel in far lands. He was +expected to remain in England and represent the needs of the colonists +and help, perhaps, to select clergymen to go to new parishes which +would be formed as settlements developed. The religious aspect of the +movement was approved by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and he approved +also the selection of the Reverend Robert Hunt who came to Jamestown as +the vicar of the parish and the pastor of the colonists. + +The London Company made a provision that each new settlement should +become a parish with its own rector. The first settlements were +established by the Company itself and were called "Cities" after the +ideal and pattern of Geneva. That city, the home of John Calvin and of +the Calvinistic theology which so strongly influenced the Church of +England in the Seventeenth Century, was a self-governing unit in the +Swiss Confederation. It consisted of the city and its suburban +territory and was the prototype from which the "City" or "Hundred" in +Virginia and the "Township" or "town" in Massachusetts were formed. + +There were four Cities in Virginia: James City, Charles City, The City +of Henrico, and Elizabeth City. They were boroughs at the time of the +first meeting of the General Assembly of Virginia in 1619, each one +electing its own Burgesses. And as counties now, instead of cities, +each one elects its own Delegates to the Assembly. There were four +"cities," three "hundreds," and four "plantations" represented by +Burgesses in the first Assembly in 1619, and each one was a separate +parish. Official records have long been lost but the names are known of +some six clergymen who were incumbents of parishes in Virginia between +1607 and 1619. + +The London Company had a rule that every clergyman who volunteered or +was invited to go to a parish in Virginia was to be investigated as to +character and fitness, and each one of them was taken by a committee to +a church to read the service and preach a sermon as part of the +investigation. + +It is not generally known, perhaps, but plans for the immediate +development of the life of the colonists included the establishment of +a university which would set aside one hall or college for the +education of Indian youth and another for the education of sons of +English families. The London Company in 1618 made a grant of ten +thousand acres of land on the north side of the James River and +immediately to the east of the present-day City of Richmond. That grant +was to be the seat of the University and was to be developed as a group +of tenant farms with the college buildings in the center. So great was +the interest throughout England in the plan that the King as the +temporal head of the Church presented the matter to the whole people of +England. In 1617 he wrote the Archbishops of Canterbury and York: + + Most Reverend Father in God: Right trustie and well beloved + Counsellor, we greet you well: You have heard ere this of + the attempt of divers worthy men, our subjects, to plant in + Virginia, under the warrant of our letters of patent, people + of this Kingdom, as well as for the enlarging of our + dominions as for the propogation of the Gospel amongst + infidells; wherein there is good progress made, and hope of + further increase: so as the undertakers of that plantation + are now in hand with the erection of some churches and + schools for the education of the children of these + barbarians, which cannot but be to them a very great charge, + and above the expense which for the civil plantation doth + come to them, in which we doubt not but that you and all + others who wish well to the increase of Christian religion + will be willing to give all assistance and furtherance you + may, and therein to make experience of the zeal and devotion + of our well minded subjects; especially those of the clergy. + + Wherefore we do require you, and hereby authorize you to + write your letters to the several bishops of the dioceses in + your province, that they do give order to the ministers and + other zealous men of their dioceses, both by their own + example in contribution and by exhortation to others, to + move our people within their several charges to contribute + to so good a work in as liberal a manner as they may. + +Under instructions from the King offerings were to be taken in every +parish four times a year for two years, the money collected to be sent +to the bishops and by them forwarded to the treasurer of the London +Company. The treasurer reported later that more than fifteen hundred +pounds sterling had been sent to him, and later he reported additional +amounts. In that period three bequests aggregating more than a thousand +pounds sterling were reported for the Christianizing of the Indians. +Other gifts included a "communion cup with cover and a plate of silver +guilt for the bread" with communion silk and linen cloths and other +ornaments, all to be placed within a church for Indians to be built +under another bequest. This communion chalice and paten are owned +today by one of the oldest parishes in Virginia, and are in St. John's +Church, of Elizabeth City Parish, at Hampton. + +On one of the ships sailing from England to the East Indies an appeal +was made by the chaplain in behalf of the university in Virginia and +gifts were made in such large amount that when they were sent to +Virginia they sufficed for the erection of "a publique free schoole" to +be connected with the university. They named it "The East India +School." The General Assembly, when it first met in July 1619, adopted +a resolution urging English families to take promising Indian youths +into their homes to teach them the fundamentals and prepare them for +the opening of the college. + +The work of establishing the university was already proceeding; land +was being cleared; farm houses were being erected; more than one +hundred artisans and workmen had been sent from England and the college +buildings were under construction when on Good Friday, March 22, +1621/22, the great Indian massacre occurred. A full third of all the +English people in Virginia were killed by Indians in one fatal day. The +buildings at the university were burned to the ground, and every +English man, woman and child in every family of the artisans and +workmen was killed. The East India School was burned to the ground. +Indeed the only thing that saved the colony from utter extermination +was that Chanco, an Indian who had become a Christian, had learned of +the plot the night before the massacre and warned the Englishman, +Richard Pace, with whom he lived. Pace crossed the James River and +warned the residents of Jamestown. So it was that Jamestown and some of +the adjoining settlements were warned in time to protect themselves. + +The massacre was of course a terrific catastrophe to the whole colony. +Outlying settlements had to be abandoned and the colony was engaged in +war with the Indians for several years. Then a second catastrophe +occurred. King James became dissatisfied with the independent attitude +of the London Company and personally secured its dissolution in 1624. +He then took control of Virginia as a Royal Colony and he himself +appointed the Governor and Council of the colony. + +This ended all plans for the opening of the university. The King died +in the following year and his son, King Charles I, was not interested +in a university in Virginia. Nor was he or anyone else interested in +sending ministers to the colonial parishes. + +The London Company, with a membership including representatives of the +Church and the universities, and of business interests and the higher +social classes, had the confidence of the people. The King did not. He +had their loyalty as their sovereign, but the spiritual and cultural +welfare of a colony overseas carried little weight amid the political +cross-currents and the self-seeking of a royal court. + + + + +CHAPTER TWO + +The Colonists at Worship + + +There are several first-hand accounts of religious worship in the +earliest days of the Jamestown colony. Captain John Smith wrote of the +men at worship in the open air until a chapel could be erected. He +describes the scene of a celebration of the Holy Communion, with the +Holy Table standing under an old sail lashed from tree to tree, with a +bar of wood fastened between two trees as the pulpit, and men kneeling +on the ground before their first altar. Services were held daily, +according to the rules of the _Book of Common Prayer_ which they +brought with them: morning prayer and evening prayer everyday, and +sermons twice on Sunday and once during the week. The law of the Church +required the Holy Communion to be celebrated at least three times +during the year; on Christmas, Easter, and Whitsunday; and +unquestionably this law was observed at Jamestown. Many clergymen +celebrated that sacrament oftener. There can be little doubt that the +first celebration of the Holy Communion at Jamestown was on Whitsunday, +May 24th (old style) 1607, although the first one of which a record +remains was held on the third Sunday after Trinity, June 21. That was a +special celebration, held for a two-fold purpose, one, that Mr. Hunt +had been able to reconcile serious differences between certain elements +among the colonists who had been in angry strife with each other, and +second, because two of the ships which brought the colonists to +Virginia were to set sail on the following morning upon their return +trip to England. + +William Strachey, writing in a report of the colony in 1610 after Lord +De la Warr had arrived as the new governor presents the following +picture: + + In the midst of the market-place, a store-house, a + "Corps-du-Garde", and a pretty chapel, all which the Lord + Governour ordered to be put in good repair. The chapel was + in length sixty feet, in breadth twenty-four, and the Lord + Governour had repaired it with a chancel of cedar and a + communion table of black walnut; all the pews and pulpit + were of cedar, with fair broad windows, also of cedar, to + shut and open, as the weather shall occasion. The font was + hewen hollow like a canoa, and there were two bells in the + steeple at the west end. The Church was so cast as to be + very light within, and the Lord Governour caused it to be + kept passing sweet and trimmed up with divers flowers. There + was a sexton in charge of the church, and every morning at + the ringing of a bell by him, about ten o'clock, each man + addressed himself to prayers, and so at four of the clock + before supper. There was a sermon every Thursday and two + sermons every Sunday, the two preachers taking their weekly + turns. Every Sunday when the Lord Governour went to church + he was accompanied with all the Councillors, Captains, other + officers, and all the gentlemen, and with a guard of fifty + halberdiers, in his Lordship's livery, fair red cloaks, on + each side and behind him. The Lord Governour sat in the + choir in a green velvet chair, with a velvet cushion before + him on which he knelt, and the Council, Captains and + officers sat on each side of him, each in their place; and + when the Lord Governour returned home he was waited on in + the same manner to his house. + +Reverend Alexander Whitaker, the first rector of the City of Henrico +from its foundation in 1611 until his death by drowning in 1617, and +who is still remembered as the clergyman who baptized the Indian +princess Pocahontas, after her conversion to the Christian faith, +described his services as follows: + + Every Sabbath we preach in the forenoon and catechize in the + afternoon. Every Saturday at night I exercise in Sir Thomas + Dale's house. Our Church affaires be consulted on by the + minister and four of the most religious men. Once every + month we have a communion, and once every year a solemn + fast. + +This method of daily and Sunday services, as the regular rule of the +Church of England, was adopted in Virginia as far as colonial +conditions would permit. But apart from Jamestown itself, and the +schools which came into existence, there would not be many parishes in +which daily services would be feasible. The people lived too far apart +on their farms. They might drive or walk three or five miles to Church +on Sundays, but could not give the time for that on work-days. The same +objection worked against having two services on Sunday. So the custom +became general of having a single service in every church and chapel +every Sunday. The statement made by Rev. Alexander Whitaker, that he +"catechized" every Sabbath afternoon, is illustrative of the usual +method of instructing young people of the parish in the Church +Catechism as preparation for admission to the Holy Communion. Such +"catechetical classes" might be held as frequently on Sunday afternoons +as the needs of the parish children, both white and Negro, might +require: or perhaps sometimes, as frequently as the zeal, or lack of +zeal of the incumbent minister might determine. When in 1724 the Bishop +of London sent a questionary to every Anglican clergyman incumbent of a +parish in America, one of the questions was, "At what times do you +Catechize the Youth of your Parish?" + + * * * * * + + They have builded many pretty villages, faire houses and + chapels which are growne good benefices of 120 pounds a + yeare besides their own mundall [mundane] industry. + +So wrote Captain John Smith a number of years after his return to +England. There may have been an excess of imagination in describing new +and raw settlements as "faire villages," but the salary which was to be +paid to the ministers was a provable fact. Tithes from the culture of +the land by the parishioners amounted to as much as L120, and the +minister had a glebe of 100 acres from the cultivation of which his +tenants and servants through "mundall industry" might greatly increase +his income. + +The London Company had carried to Virginia and fixed for the whole +duration of the colonial period the parish system of the Church of +England. Under that system each community became a parish and the +people of the parish, as the land-owners of the community, supported +the church and paid the salary of the minister by tithes from the +produce of the land. There was, however, one change from the custom in +England. There the tithes of a parish might produce a salary for the +incumbent in any amount from ten pounds to hundreds of pounds per +annum. In Virginia the amount of the salary was fixed by the General +Assembly as a definite quantity of tobacco. There was also a glebe farm +and a residence. Those who came to Virginia brought with them their +Bible and their _Book of Common Prayer_ and the Established Church of +England became the Established Church of the Colony. + +The all-pervading fact to be kept in mind in connection with the +development of religious organization in Virginia is that the Church of +England itself, during the period from 1600 to the Cromwellian era +1645-1660, was in a turmoil on account of two diverse schools of +thought. One school within the Church desired to retain all the ancient +forms of creed and worship from past centuries except those which had +been perverted under the centuries of Roman Catholic domination. The +other school within the Church desired to cast out all liturgical forms +and the surplice, and also all power of the bishops. They wished to +reduce worship to the forms of Calvinistic theology. There were also +many who desired to make the Church broad enough to include both +schools. The Calvinistic party was already forming dissenting +congregations. + +The Brownists, later to become the Pilgrim Fathers of New England, had +already been driven out of England; and under King James, who had +turned against the Calvinists to support the "high church" party, +ecclesiastical courts were being formed to mete out severe punishment +to leaders of dissent. + +King James had declared he would "harry the dissenters" and force them +to conform to the Established Church or be driven from the country. +England's answer to that threat was to establish the colonies of +Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire; and the +constantly growing power of dissent resulted in civil war, in +execution of King Charles I, in the era of the Commonwealth; and in the +abolition of _Prayer Book_ worship for fifteen years from every church +and chapel in England. + +In 1606 when the Virginia Company was organized the Calvinistic party +was in power in England, and there were many Calvinists, or Puritans, +as they were then called, in the universities and elsewhere. The +Virginia Company itself was under the influence of Puritan leaders; so +much so, indeed, that this fact was one of the reasons which impelled +the King to abolish the Virginia Company. He knew the freedom of +self-government which the Company had established in Virginia and he no +longer trusted its loyalty to the Monarchy. + +From the first settlement in 1607 the policy in Virginia was to let no +question arise between high-churchman and Calvinist. The earlier laws +required the minister of a parish to question every newcomer as to his +religious beliefs, but there is no record of any Protestant dissenter +or any Calvinist having been presented for trial before an +ecclesiastical court. It is of course known as an historical fact that +Sir Edwin Sandys labored long to secure from the King and the +Archbishop permission to bring the Pilgrim Fathers from Holland, under +the British flag again and establish them as a "hundred" in Virginia. +It is of record also that such permission was obtained and that the +Pilgrim Fathers set forth for the Chesapeake Bay but were diverted from +their course by storms that carried them to a place which they named +Plymouth. It is of record furthermore that the Reverend Henry Jacob, +who founded the first Independent or Baptist congregation in London, +was later forced out and came to Virginia where he found a home and +peace until his death. + +Reverend Alexander Whitaker, rector of the two adjoining parishes of +Henrico and Charles City from 1611 until 1617, was the son of a famous +Puritan divine. In a letter discussing conditions in Virginia he said: +"I marvaile much--that so few of our English ministers that were so +hot against the surplis and subscription come hither where neither are +spoken of." Whitaker was rector of two parishes because William +Wickham, the minister of one parish, was not of Anglican ordination and +could not lawfully celebrate the Holy Communion. After the death of +Whitaker the Governor of Virginia requested the London Company to ask +the Archbishop of Canterbury to authorize Mr. Wickham to celebrate the +Sacrament, "there being no one else." Such authorization to a clergyman +of Presbyterian ordination could have been given by the Archbishop at +that time as it was permitted then by law. Wickham was not the only +minister of Presbyterian ordination who served as incumbent of a parish +of the Established Church in Virginia. In a report made to London in +1623 it was stated that in Virginia in 1619 "There were three ministers +with orders and two without." The "two without" were unquestionably of +Presbyterian ordination. + +Among the first laws enacted in Virginia was one requiring every +minister who came into the colony to take the oath of "conformity" to +the Church of England. The law did not include laymen; it was the +minister only who was required to take the oath. Later, the laws +enacted by the General Assembly required every clergyman coming into +the colony to subscribe to the Articles of the Christian Faith +according to the Church of England and to be of Anglican ordination. By +reason of sheer inability at times to provide sufficient Anglican +clergymen for the parishes, clergymen of Presbyterian ordination were +permitted to serve in Virginia parishes; and that was true throughout +the whole seventeenth century. The last Presbyterian clergyman to hold +an Anglican parish in Virginia, Rev. Andrew Jackson of Christ Church +Parish, Lancaster County, died in 1710. Throughout the century the law +required every citizen to attend the parish church, but there was never +an ecclesiastical court in which a layman could be tried, convicted or +punished as a dissenter. + + + + +CHAPTER THREE + +Making Bricks Without Straw + + +The colony of Virginia, after the protective and guiding influence of +the Virginia Company was taken away, found itself in an almost +impossible situation so far as religious organization was concerned. +The leaders of colonial life realized all the more clearly as time +passed that King Charles I, who succeeded his father King James I in +1625, was not the least interested in the religious welfare of the +colony. America was entirely outside the bounds of any diocese or +province in England, and consequently there was no bishop of a diocese, +or archbishop of a province with any personal responsibility for the +guidance or help of the parishes which were being organized in the +colony. The Church in Virginia was left to itself to live or to die. It +believed, according to the teachings of the Church, that bishops were +necessary for the ordination of men to the ministry and for the +performance of the spiritual rite of confirmation, whereby alone under +the law of the Church of England baptized Christians could be admitted +to the sacrament of the Holy Communion. A bishop was also necessary for +the organization and leadership of a diocese, which was the governing +body to which every parish and congregation must belong. But no bishop +was ever sent by the Church of England to Virginia or to any other part +of America throughout the entire colonial period. + +The lack of a bishop left the Anglican Church, which was the +Established Church of the whole colony, unable to organize for the +enactment of its own laws or the management of its own affairs. There +being no diocesan organization the clergymen in charge of parishes had +no ecclesiastical authority over them. That fact tended to have the +effect of making each incumbent clergyman a virtually free lance with +no responsibility to an ecclesiastical superior nor community of +fellowship with other clergymen in the colony. This condition continued +until near the end of the century. + +The General Assembly of Virginia followed the example of the Parliament +of England and asserted legislative authority by laws for the temporal +government of the Church. It divided the occupied territory of the +colony into parishes and it established new parishes as settlement +extended steadily to the westward. Because of this fact there was never +any section which was not part of a parish, and the usual rule when a +new county was to be created was to establish a new parish covering the +territory of the proposed county before the county was created. Church +buildings might be far apart in new parishes, but no section of +Virginia in which English people were settling was without the +established forms of religious worship. + +The General Assembly enacted laws directing the election of laymen in +every parish as the governing body of the parish in temporal affairs. +That group was called the "Vestry." It had authority to buy land for +churches, churchyards and glebe farms, to erect church buildings and to +build glebe-houses as residences for ministers. It was also charged +with the care of the poor and the destitute sick, and orphaned children +within the parish, with the duty of providing new homes for these +children in responsible families. The money to pay for the land, the +buildings, the care of the sick and needy, the salary of the minister, +and other parish needs was collected from the parishioners through an +annual "tithe" of so many pounds of tobacco per poll. The vestry upon +occasion also had certain civil duties not within the scope of +religious organization. + +The setting up of a vestry of laymen as temporal head of the Church in +a parish or congregation was first developed in Virginia. It was +extended later to other colonies as the Anglican Church spread through +them all, and it came over into the life of the Protestant Episcopal +Church in the United States. Great as the value of the vestry has been +to the whole Episcopal Church, the vestry in Virginia was of still +greater value, for by its extension to other colonies and states it has +given one of its most distinctive features to the Church of today. + +In England, with the exception of some few parishes formed within the +past century or so, no parish has the right to elect its own rector. +The rector is usually appointed by some institution or individual +vested with that authority which is called "the advowson of a parish." + +Moreover, no diocese in the Established Church of England has the power +to select its own bishop. The King as temporal head of the Church +appoints the bishops of all dioceses, and that power is exercised for +the King by his prime minister. And during the colonial period in +America the Governor of every colony other than Virginia and +Pennsylvania appointed the rector of every Anglican parish and inducted +him into office. + +In Virginia the vestries of the parishes fought Governor after Governor +until they won the right for the vestry itself to choose the minister +to serve in its parish. That right has extended throughout the +Episcopal Church today and has gone further so that today the laity of +the Church have the right to representation in all diocesan conventions +and councils, and in the general convention of the Church. Thus the +laity have their part in every election of a clergyman to become the +bishop of a diocese. + +In the seventeenth century the General Assembly also put into effect in +Virginia the constitutions and canons of the province of Canterbury "as +far as they can be put into effect in this country." The General +Assembly thereby made the "doctrine, discipline and worship" of the +Anglican Church of England that of the Church in Virginia as far as it +could be done without a bishop. + +That was as far as the General Assembly could go. Throughout all the +seventeenth century the Established Church of Virginia consisted of a +group of parishes without connection with each other and without +central spiritual authority. There was therefore no actual power of +discipline, either of clergymen or laymen. + +The situation was made all the more difficult because there was no sure +way to secure ministers. When a parish became vacant some layman in the +parish would have to write to his business agent in England, or to some +friend or relative there and ask that he find a clergyman who would +come to Virginia. Parishes, when they became vacant, remained vacant as +a rule for a year or more; sometimes very much more. The vestries early +adopted the custom of appointing godly laymen as readers whose duty it +was to assist the minister by leading the congregation in the responses +in the Church service, and in raising tunes for the singing of metrical +version of the Psalms. Later, when it was found desirable to erect +chapels of ease in populous parishes, enough readers were appointed in +every parish to permit one of them to hold morning service each Sunday +in each place of worship throughout the parish, while the minister went +his usual round of service in each church or chapel upon regular +schedule. Except in remote chapels the custom was to have service each +Sunday in every church or chapel. + +The reader was authorized to conduct morning and evening prayer and to +read a printed sermon, or a "homily." He could not celebrate the +sacrament of Holy Communion. Rather frequently, and especially during +the era of the Commonwealth and the reign of Charles II, several +adjoining parishes would be vacant at the same time; and at one time +about the end of the Commonwealth period the statement was made that +there were only some ten clergymen in Virginia to serve fifty parishes. +Under such circumstances the reader was called upon to perform many +duties. He might baptize a dying child, conduct a funeral, or perform a +marriage ceremony. + +There was also in those early days no way of screening out unworthy men +who appeared occasionally as clergymen in the colony; men who perhaps +had been forced out of parishes in England because of immorality or +drunkenness; and occasionally men with forged credentials. Such men +were occasionally appointed to parishes by vestries who had no way of +learning their true status; and if the man was thenceforth morally +decent and had no great fault except occasional drunkenness, he would +be allowed to stay on because of the need of a priest to celebrate the +sacraments. + +The vestries protected their parishes from unworthy clergymen by the +uncanonical appointment of a minister as incumbent of a parish for a +year at a time, rather than present him canonically to the Governor of +the colony for induction into the rectorship of the parish. Under the +law of England, and under the law of the Church of England, no rector +could be forced out of a parish after induction except after an +ecclesiastical trial by the bishop or his commissary. + +In 1656 John Hammond published a pamphlet entitled _Leah and Rachel_, +extolling the attractiveness of Virginia and Maryland as places of +residence at that time. He described vividly the difficulties which the +older colony had suffered in the earlier years of Charles I. He wrote: + + They then began to provide and send home for Gospel + ministers, and largely contributed for their maintenance. + But Virginia savouring not handsomely in England, very few + of good conversation would adventure thither, (as thinking + it a place wherein surely the fear of God was not), yet many + came, such as wore black coats, and could babble in a + pulpet, roare in a tavern, exact from their parishioners, + and rather by their dissolutenesse destroy than feed their + flocks. + + Loath was the country to be wholly without teachers, and + therefore rather retain these than to be destitute; yet + still endeavours for better in their places, which were + obtained, and these wolves in sheeps cloathing, by their + Assemblies questioned, silenced, and some forced to depart + the country. + +Another problem which the Church faced in Virginia resulted from the +character of the immigrants who came to the colony. It is a well +established fact that the men who came in three ships to Jamestown in +1607 were from various strata of society in England. They all entered +James River on equality of opportunity and of danger. Some at least had +come from the higher classes of society; younger sons, perhaps, or +relatives of stockholders in the London Company, attracted to Virginia +because of the newness of the adventure and the spice of danger; sons +of professional men and men of business, intrigued by a new business +life and opportunity; men from the laboring classes and the peasantry +of rural sections. But it is extremely doubtful that the Jamestown +settlement, after its tragic first years, continued very long to be +attractive to young men seeking adventure only. Many of the families of +today who boast of their generations of ancestry in Virginia descend +from or married into the families of the men and women who came to the +colony in these earliest years of settlement, and have ancestors buried +among the unknown dead of the Jamestown cemetery and churchyard. + +There were three sources from which the settlers came; and these +sources were more or less in effect throughout the whole of Virginia's +first century. First and foremost in numbers and importance were the +sons of small farmers and tenant farmers, and younger sons of the +laboring classes and small merchants. No matter how large the +population may be, always there are positions of employment with a +normal wage; but when the younger sons of a mechanic or other working +man grow to maturity where there is only one wage-producing employment +available to the family, the younger sons must seek a living from other +sources. Farms cannot be reduced below the number of acres required to +support one family. When that has been done and there are several sons, +one of them must inherit the farm and the others must seek a living +elsewhere. + +The broad acres of Virginia and its equable climate attracted thousands +of such younger sons, and also others who had not been successful and +sought opportunity in a new land. The settlers came from every section +of England, and from the bleak hills of Scotland; from Wales and also +from Ireland. The English were mostly from the Anglican parishes of the +Established Church. The Scottish new-comers were accustomed to +membership in the Established Church of Scotland and they found little +difficulty in living within the Established Church of Virginia. Indeed +there is no recorded effort to establish a Presbyterian congregation in +Virginia until the last quarter of the seventeenth century. So friendly +was the feeling between the Anglicans and the Scottish Presbyterians in +the Norfolk section that Rev. James Porter of Presbyterian ordination +was the incumbent minister of the Anglican Lynnhaven Parish prior to +1676 and until his death in 1683. + +A second source, certainly in the early years, was the rapidly +increasing population of the cities and towns of England. It is of +record that in the days of the London Company one town appropriated +funds sufficient to pay the expenses to Virginia of a large number of +its unemployed, and probably the same thing was done by other towns for +their unemployed. Doubtless a little "pressure" was applied in the case +of young men who had no occupation and no visible means of support. And +shanghaiing, to use a modern term, was not unknown. + +A third source from which settlers came developed from the custom which +grew up in England of sending to Virginia, and later to all the +colonies, persons who had been convicted of law-breaking. At that time +there were some hundred felonies in the English code of jurisprudence +for which the sentence of death by hanging could be imposed. These +felonies included such offenses as stealing a pig or anything of +greater value than a shilling. The ruling classes of England had long +realized that punishments were too severe for offenses which today +would be misdemeanors; and in the fifteenth century an effort had been +made to mitigate the severity of punishment by an amendment of the law +of "benefit of clergy." This law was a law of Parliament which had +come down from earlier ages of the Church. Under that law an +ecclesiastical person, either priest or monk, who was charged with a +felony could not be tried by a civil court but was delivered up to the +bishop of his diocese for trial in an ecclesiastical court. + +By the end of the sixteenth century Parliament had amended the benefit +of clergy law so that every free male who could read and write, upon +conviction of a first offense of felony might plead "benefit of +clergy", and upon showing that he could read a verse of Scripture, have +the penalty remitted. He was then burned in the hand with a hot iron so +that the scar thereby made would be evidence against him if he should +plead benefit of clergy a second time. + +The benefit of clergy law was early written into the Virginia code and +continued in that code until after the Revolution. Harsh as was the law +it showed a real effort to ameliorate still harsher laws, and it saved +the lives in England and America of many thousands of first offenders. +The first verse of the fifty-first Psalm was so frequently presented to +be read by some convicted man or boy that it became known as the "neck +verse" because it saved a life; and many a kindly official taught a +'teen-age boy that verse so that he could "read" it when it was +presented to him. + +One of the earliest records of the General Court of Virginia contains +the following entry under date January 4, 1628/29: + + William Reade, aged thirteen or fourteen years, convicted of + manslaughter, when the verdict was read, and William Reade + asked what he had to say for himself, that he ought not to + die, demanded his clergy, whereupon he was delivered to the + Ordinary. + +There were many such instances. In Virginia the Governor was the +Ordinary and as such had authority to accept the boy's plea, have him +read the "neck verse," and thereby permit him to go free "after the +burning." + +The severity of the laws influenced the courts in many parts of England +to permit or sentence an offender to escape death by going to one of +the American colonies, and it became the custom to sentence convicted +criminals to serve for a period of years in an American colony as an +indentured servant. A great number of such "convicts" were sent to +Virginia because of the constant demand there for indentured servants +to cultivate the fields and for other duties. + +Many of the convicts became useful citizens of the colony after their +terms of servitude ended; but many did not reform and in time became +such a menace that for a period after 1670 the General Assembly forbade +that any more convicts be brought into the colony. + +It can be seen therefore that from the beginning the population of +Virginia grew by immigration from various sources and that not all who +came to the colony were of the best type. The New England colonies had +the advantage that their immigrants came in large part from dissenters +from the Established Church of England. They came for "conscience +sake," however, and with their concept of theocratic government the New +England colonists could make it difficult indeed for immigrants they +did not welcome. After Roger Williams had been exiled to Rhode Island +and a few Quakers had been hanged on Boston Common, it was made clear +to Baptists and Quakers, to Anglicans and to witches that Virginia was +a more favorable climate for them than Massachusetts. + +In contrast to New England, Virginia was founded and developed as a +cross-section of the whole life of the British Isles, with its evil as +well as its good; with ideals of freedom of thought which made no +attempt to control a man's conscience; and with an ever growing concept +of self-government and human freedom as already developed during nearly +a thousand years and set out by the common law and the statute law of +the race. Virginia was not founded upon any theocratic concept of +government under the influence of a priestly class. + +The life and community consciousness that developed in Virginia into +the distinctive customs and ways of a well organized and firmly +established commonwealth were necessarily different from those of the +colonies in New England because of the differing conditions under which +men lived. In the township system of New England a village normally +became the township center and the people lived near enough to each +other to enable them to meet frequently; to work and play together; to +transact business; and to gossip of neighborhood affairs. In Virginia +it was otherwise. In Virginia families lived on separate farms and each +farm was of necessity a community within itself. Life was geared to the +basic fact that tobacco was the money crop, and also was the real +source of the financial strength and stability of the colony. Each +family required a farm of sufficient acreage to raise tobacco as well +as food-stuff and cattle; and throughout the whole colonial period the +genius of Virginian life opposed the development of towns of greater +population than was required for a shipping point and a warehouse, for +the storing and grading of tobacco, and for a few agents of English and +Scottish merchants. + + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + +Building a Christian Community + + +John Hammond, in his pamphlet _Leah and Rachel_ sketched briefly +conditions which existed in Virginia between the "starving time" of +1609-10 and the year 1656. His attempt was to correct an opinion widely +held in England of the lawlessness of colonial life. He interpreted the +great massacre of 1622 as the end of one phase and the beginning of +another. He showed that in each phase there was an inevitable period of +laxity of life and disregard of moral and legal conventions which was +overcome finally by the better element of citizenry. His writing +presents a dark picture of conditions, possibly too dark in some +phases; but his picture of the power of the growing colony to establish +and maintain general concepts of decency of life and conduct is +impressive. + +Of the period following the great massacre he wrote: + + Receiving a supply of men, ammunition and victuals out of + England, they again gathered heart, pursued their enemies, + and so often worsted them, that the Indians were glad to sue + for peace, and they, (desirous of a cessation) consented to + it. + + They again began to bud forth, to spread further, to gather + wealth, which they rather profusely spent (as gotten with + ease) than providently husbanded, or aimed at any public + good; or to make a country for posterity; but from hand to + mouth, and for a present being; neglecting discoveries, + planting orchards, providing for the winter preservation of + their stocks, or thinking of anything stable or firm; and + whilst tobacco, the only commodity they had to subsist on, + bore a price, they wholly and eagerly followed that, + neglecting their very planting of corn, and much relyed on + England for the chiefest part of their provisions; so that + being not alwayes amply supplied, they were often in such + want, that their case and condition being relayted in + England, it hindred and kept off many from going thither, + who rather cast their eyes on the barren and freezing soyle + of New-England, than to joyn with such an indigent and + sottish people as were reported to be in Virginia. + + Yet was not Virginia all this while without divers honest + and vertuous inhabitants, who, observing the general neglect + and licensiousnesses there, caused Assemblies to be call'd + and laws to be made tending to the glory of God, the severe + suppression of vices, and the compelling them not to neglect + (upon strickt punishments) planting and tending such + quantities of corn, as would not onely serve themselves, + their cattle and hogs plentifully, but to be enabled to + supply New-England (then in want) with such proportions, as + were extream reliefs to them in their necessities. + + From this industry of theirs and great plenty of corn, (the + main staffe of life), proceeded that great plenty of cattle + and hogs, (now innumerable) and out of which not only + New-England hath been stocked and relieved, but all others + parts of the Indies inhabited by Englishmen. + + The inhabitants now finding the benefit of their industries, + began to look with delight on their increasing stocks; (as + nothing more pleasurable than profit), to take pride in + their plentifully furnished tables, to grow not onely civil, + but great observers of the Sabbath, to stand upon their + reputations, and to be ashamed of that notorious manner of + life they had formerly lived and wallowed in.... + + Then began the Gospel to flourish, civil, honourable, and + men of great estates flocked in; famous buildings went + forward, orchards innumerable were planted and preserved; + tradesmen set on work and encouraged, staple commodities, as + silk, flax, pot-ashes, etc., of which I shall speak further + hereafter, attempted on, and with good success brought to + perfection; so that this country which had a mean beginning, + many back friends, two ruinous and bloody massacres, hath by + God's grace out-grown all, and is become a place of pleasure + and plenty. + +It may possibly be worthwhile to compare the life of Virginia during +its first two generations with the far west of the United States from +the gold-rush days of 1849 to the end of the nineteenth century. There +again, as in the Virginia of 1607, bona fide settlers of moral ideals +and stability of life prevailed in the long run and developed +self-governing states which maintained the moral code. + +But Virginia had an advantage which the far west of the gold-rush days +lacked. Virginia had an Established Church which in spite of its own +problems and difficulties created a parish in every section, and +provided clergymen as far as they could be obtained. It is granted that +some at least of the clergymen were unworthy. The vestries themselves +ejected men of that kind and services could be maintained by readers. +And so the Word of God was read and prayer was offered regularly; and +every man who could read had the Ten Commandments staring him in the +face from the tablets on the wall behind the Holy Table. The individual +might scorn and sneer but in the end the Law of God became the law of +the community. + +Men came to church in those early days. For one reason, the law of the +colony required it and there was the threat of punishment if absence +from church was reported to the grand jury. But there was another +reason also, even though men and women were compelled to walk five or +six miles to attend. That other reason was the loneliness of farm life +in the early days of colonial Virginia. The churchyard on a Sunday +morning was then the meeting-place of the whole community, and the only +place where all could meet on the same level. The only other meetings +were when elections were held at the Court House, every three or four +years. And men might attend the meetings of the county court; but women +could not vote, and they did not go to elections; nor were they apt to +attend meetings of the county court except in rare instances when they +were engaged in litigation. And the amount of hard liquor consumed on +election days and county court days was also a deterrent. + +Before the day of parish aid societies and women's guilds, the church +service of a Sunday morning was moreover the only meeting to which +everybody might come as of right; and while at church the women +discussed affairs and neighbors within the church building the men +outside walked about or sat on stumps or logs and held their +discussions before and after the service hour. + +The church with its churchyard was the public forum at which matters of +public policy and public interest were discussed. It was here also +that business was transacted; and it was here that community spirit of +fellowship, of sympathy and of understanding was developed. The +colonial government recognized all this by directing that every public +communication which had to be brought to the attention of the people as +a whole be read to the congregation of every church or chapel in the +colony. And the Church recognized the same thing by providing that such +announcements should be made immediately after the reading of the +second lesson or New Testament lesson in the morning service. The +approaching worshipper never knew what interesting announcement might +be made at that time; so there was always an element of expectancy and +suspense; perhaps an announcement of the banns of matrimony; perhaps +the reading of a new law, or of some proclamation by the Governor and +Council; perhaps the baptism of a baby, or even a marriage. + +So it was that men and women of all classes came under the influence of +Christian teaching whether they would or no; and the constant teaching +and stressing of moral and Christian ideals of life had their effect in +changing and improving the character of the community life. + +[Illustration: Old Church Tower, Jamestown, Virginia + +Photo by Flournoy, Virginia State Chamber of Commerce] + +[Illustration: Jamestown Church Communion Service + +Chalice and paten given by Governor Francis Moryson, in 1661. Both +bearing the inscription: Mix not holy things with profane. _Ex dono +Francisco Morrison, Armigeri Anno Domi, 1661._ + +Large paten at the right given by Sir Edmund Andros, Governor, 1694. +Inscribed: _In usum Ecclesiae Jacobi-Polis. Ex dono Dni Edmundi Andros, +Equitis, Virginiae Gubernatoris, Anno Dom. MDCXCIV._ + +Alms basin, London, 1739. Second on the right. Inscription: For the use +of James City Parish Church. Given by the old church at Jamestown in +1758 to Bruton Parish Church. + +Courtesy Miss Emily Hall] + +[Illustration: COMMUNION SERVICE IN USE AT SMITH'S HUNDRED, 1618. + +This three piece communion service now at St. John's Church, Elizabeth +City Parish, Hampton, Virginia, has the longest history of use in the +United States of any church silver. The set, a gift to the church +founded in 1618 at Smith's Hundred in Charles City County, was made +possible by a legacy in the will (date 1617) of Mrs. Mary Robinson of +London. Smith's Hundred renamed Southampton Hundred, 1620, was +practically wiped out in the Indian Massacre of 1622. This communion +set delivered in 1627 to the Court at Jamestown for safe keeping, +supposedly, then was given to the second Elizabeth City Church built on +Southampton (now Hampton) River. The inscription in one line on the +base of the Chalice is: _The Communion Cupp for Snt Marys Church in +Smiths Hundred in Virginia_. Hall marks on all three pieces bear London +date-letters for 1618-19. + +Courtesy Mrs. L. T. Jester and Mrs. P. W. Hiden] + +[Illustration: The Glebe House, Charles City County, Virginia + +Courtesy Valentine Museum, Richmond] + +[Illustration: Glebe House, Gloucester County, Virginia + +Photo by Flournoy, Virginia State Chamber of Commerce] + +[Illustration: Christ Church, Middlesex County, Virginia + +Photo by Flournoy, Virginia State Chamber of Commerce] + +[Illustration: Merchant's Hope Church, Prince George County, Virginia + +Photo by Flournoy, Virginia State Chamber of Commerce] + +[Illustration: Saint Lukes Church, Isle of Wight County, Virginia + +Photo by Flournoy, Virginia State Chamber of Commerce] + +[Illustration: Saint Peters Church, New Kent County, Virginia + +Photo by Flournoy, Virginia State Chamber of Commerce] + +[Illustration: Robert Hunt Memorial Plaque + +Altar-piece. A bronze bas-relief representing the administration of the +first Anglican communion in America, June 21, 1607. George T. Brewster, +sc. Gorham Co., founders. + +Courtesy Cook Collection, Valentine Museum] + +[Illustration: Robert Hunt Memorial Shrine + +Erected by the National Society of Colonial Dames of America in the +State of Virginia. Presented to the Diocese of Southern Virginia of the +Protestant Episcopal Church, June 15, 1922. It was placed in the +perpetual care of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia +Antiquities. + +Courtesy Cook Collection, Valentine Museum and National Park Service] + + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + +The Coming of the Negro + + +A new element came early into the life of Virginia, with permanent and +continuous hurt to the welfare of the colony and later to the +Commonwealth; an element to which the colony was compelled to adapt +itself because it did not have the power to eradicate it after men +perceived its danger. It was the element of human slavery. + +The first Negro captives were brought into the port of Jamestown in the +year 1619. They were brought by a foreign ship then described as a +"Dutch" ship, but presumably a Portuguese slaver seeking the +enlargement of his market. The Portuguese had developed a market for +Negro slaves in the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean where the +enslaved Indians proved unable to perform the hard work demanded of +them. Unhappily the slavers succeeded in widening their market to +include Virginia and the other English colonies of the American +continent and in the West Indies. + +The first Negroes were brought to Jamestown in 1619 and sold to English +masters as indentured servants. As such they were required to serve for +a definite number of years and after that they would become freemen +entitled to all the benefit of Virginia law. The goal set before them, +as before immigrants from France and the Netherlands, was eventual +freedom and naturalization as full citizens. + +The tragedy of the Negro was that he had been procured by the +Portuguese as a captive taken in war between the native Negro tribes, +and he came into the life of Virginia utterly ignorant of every British +ideal of human freedom and government under constitutional law. He knew +nothing of the English language. The indentured Englishman or Scotsman +who was sold into service came with inherited knowledge of Anglo-Saxon +ideals of civil government and Christian faith; and the one great goal +set before him was that he could become a legal citizen of Virginia +after he completed his years of servitude. The Negro knew nothing of +all this. + +There would have been little difficulty if the few Negroes in the first +ship had been all who came. The government could have provided for +their care and for their instruction in English ideals and the +Christian faith. But they were not all who came. The first indentured +Negroes proved useful as hewers of wood and drawers of water, and they +were capable of far more work in the fields than many of the +Englishmen: and so the agrarian needs of the community where all men +were farmers made the governmental authorities willing to admit more +Negroes. + +The authorities must have realized at once that if Negroes were brought +into the colony in great number they could not be permitted to become +freemen after any period of indenture. That would have brought into the +life of Virginia a steadily growing population of men and women who +knew nothing of English institutions, or of the English language, or of +the Christian religion. The welfare of the colony required that if they +were to be admitted at all, they could be admitted only as servants +under a permanent status of servitude. So slavery was introduced into +the British empire; and in America the enslavement of the Negro was +permitted in New England as well as in Virginia, the Carolinas and in +Georgia. + +That was the first act in the great tragedy of Negro slavery in +America. The second was that the enslavement and sale of Negroes proved +so profitable that the people of England entered into it by chartering +the Royal African Company, with authority to purchase captive Negroes +throughout a large portion of Africa which was assigned to the Company +for that purpose. At one time at least the King of England owned stock +in the Company; and he gave his instruction to the royal Governors of +American colonies that they should not permit the passage through a +colonial legislature of any act which would interfere with the right to +import Negroes and sell them into slavery within the colony. + +The third act in the tragedy was that after Virginia and perhaps other +colonies had made many unavailing efforts to check or forbid by +legislation the bringing of more Negroes from Africa, the War of +American Independence was fought and won. In the Constitutional +Convention of the new sovereign states called to create a Federal Union +of them all, the representatives of Virginia and other states fought +bitterly for an immediate prohibition against further importation of +Negro slaves, only to be defeated by the cotton-growing interests of +some states and the shipping interests of others who demanded that the +trade be continued for a period of years. And so the Constitution of +the United States when first put into effect in the Federal Union +permitted for twenty years the importation of captive Negroes from +Africa and their sale into slavery. + +The increase in the number of Negro slaves in those states where their +labor proved profitable brought with it the constant fear of a Negro +insurrection; a fear that continued until the ending of slavery in this +country. The presence of the Negroes and of English convicts sold into +servitude made it impossible upon any large plantation for the women +and children of the master's household ever to be left without the +protection of a slave-master who had the power of gun and lash to +protect them from harm. + +The preaching of the Christian faith to the heathen Indians, which was +so strongly present in the purposes of the London Company at the first +settlement of Virginia, must have been considered when the custom of +admitting Negro slaves began but there is no recorded evidence bearing +upon that subject. If there had been a bishop in the colony he could +have made the conversion of the Negro to Christianity an important part +of a diocesan program; but without a bishop nothing could be done in +an organized way. The matter was perforce left to the consciences of +the incumbent ministers of the several parishes. + +It must be remembered that every first generation of the slaves had +come to America as captives taken in war of one tribe against another. +Their languages and dialects included perhaps every language in central +and southern Africa; and their unfamiliar languages made it almost +impossible for the average citizen or his parson to do much in the way +of preaching the Christian faith; except perhaps in the observance of +the universal law of kindness. + +The birth of slave children, however, removed the barrier of language, +for the children were taught English as their native tongue. The +children therefore could be taught. All teaching of children, whether +children of the master and mistress or those born as their slaves, was +considered the duty of the whole family. And the teaching of the +catechism and the duties of a Christian life to the slave children was +as important a part of the family responsibility in a Christian home as +the teaching of the children of the family itself. No clergyman of the +Church would be willing to baptize a slave child unless there were +responsible sponsors present who would assume the obligation to give +steady Christian teaching. So it became a rule of the clergy, or most +of them, that the master and mistress in the case of each such baptism +must assume the obligation to give the child Christian training. The +baptized children could then in early youth be permitted to attend the +instruction classes which were held by the incumbent minister for them. +The slave child and the master's child would share the privilege of +admission to the Sacrament of the Holy Communion when each one had +shown sufficient knowledge and understanding of right and wrong, and +had been sufficiently instructed in "the things which a Christian +should know and believe." No one knows how many or what percentage of +slave children in Virginia or elsewhere were baptized, or how many +became communicants because no record was kept. But there were enough +baptisms to create a new problem. + +There was no Negro slavery in England, and it was generally understood +that when a Negro slave set foot upon the soil of England he became a +free man. Somehow that concept of freedom became linked in common +thinking with the concept of baptism into the Christian faith; and +there arose in practically every slave-holding section of the English +colonies a question whether the very act of baptizing a slave child did +not set him free from slavery. Because of that question many +slave-owners declined to permit the baptism of their slaves until the +question was settled, and consequently in every slave-owning colony it +became necessary to secure a legislative enactment establishing the +legal status of a baptized slave. The question arose in Virginia, and +in 1667 the following act was adopted by the General Assembly: + + Whereas some doubts have risen whether children that are + slaves by birth, and by the charity and piety of their owners + made partakers of the blessed sacrament of baptisme, should + by virtue of their baptisme be made free; _It is enacted and + declared by this Grand Assembly and the authority thereof_, + that the conferring of baptisme doth not alter the condition + of the person as to his bondage or freedom; that diverse + masters, freed from this doubt, may more carefully endeavour + the propagation of Christianity by permitting children, + though slaves, or those of greater growth if capable to be + admitted to that sacrament. + +The question was settled likewise throughout all the slave-holding +colonies of England, and human slavery was written into the laws of the +various colonies of the British empire, there to remain until the +ideals of the nineteenth century eliminated it from the constitution +and the laws of every English-speaking nation. + +The following incidents, although they occurred in the first half of +the eighteenth century, outside the period covered by this booklet, are +yet of such interest in the continuing story of Negro slavery as to be +worth recording here. + +In 1724 the Bishop of London, Edmund Gibson, sent a questionary to the +incumbent minister of every Anglican parish in the American colonies. +Among the questions he asked were two; one inquiring how many +"infidels," either Indians or Negroes, there were in each parish; and +two, what efforts were being made to convert them to the Christian +faith. The answers revealed a serious situation, and the need of more +definite and better organized efforts to convert the Negroes. + +The first effort made by the Bishop of London was as strong a pastoral +letter as he could write upon the need of more earnest effort to bring +the Negro slaves into the Christian faith. He also prepared a pamphlet +to be used for the instruction of Negroes. His pastoral letter and his +pamphlet were sent to every incumbent minister, and copies were given +to the heads of families. + +Another effort was the organization in England in 1723 by the Rev. +Thomas Bray of a company called "Dr. Bray's Associates." Dr. Thomas +Bray was the bishop's commissary to the province of Maryland. The +purpose of Dr. Bray's Associates was to establish in the colonies +schools for the education and Christian instruction of Negro children, +and it did a useful work. It did a notable work in the City of New +York, and it conducted schools in other places; one of them at +Williamsburg, in Virginia. + +There was another and most unusual development in Virginia. Under the +urge of the Bishop of London's pastoral letter there came a great +increase in the number of baptisms of adult Negroes; so sudden an +increase as to cause concern to Commissary Blair and to Governor Gooch. +In some way a report had spread among the Negroes that ex-Governor +Alexander Spotswood, upon his return from a voyage to England, had +brought with him an order from the King directing that all baptized +Negro slaves be set free. The story, improbable as it was to English +ears, was believed implicitly by the Negroes and it brought many of +them to their parish clergy seeking for baptism. Time passed and there +was no movement to set the baptized Negroes free. They became +indignant, for they believed the colonial authorities had ignored the +King's order. A plot for a Negro uprising was formed; but the plot was +discovered and the ringleaders were punished. + +Another incident occurred two years later. A woman slave who had been +baptized was convicted of manslaughter in the Gloucester County Court +which sentenced her to death. She thereupon plead the benefit of +clergy. Her plea brought a new problem to the courts of Virginia for +until that time no woman and no slave in the colony had ever been +permitted to plead benefit of clergy. The County Court considered the +plea and the vote was a tie between granting the plea and enforcement +of the sentence. The County Court referred the matter to the General +Court of the colony; and there again the vote resulted in a tie. The +General Court therefore referred the case to the Attorney General of +England. Meanwhile, the General Court ordered that the woman's plea be +granted, and, in order not to set a precedent in an unsettled question, +directed that she be sold out of the colony. At a subsequent meeting of +the General Assembly the matter was settled so far as Virginia was +concerned by enactment of a law that all persons convicted of a first +offense of felony, whether male or female, bond or free, might plead +benefit of clergy. + +Slavery existed in the American colonies from Massachusetts and +Connecticut to Virginia and the Carolinas at the end of the seventeenth +century. It was alien to English ideals of human freedom. Yet out of it +all one tremendously important fact has come to pass. The Negro came to +America from almost every Negro tribe and dialect in central and +southern Africa; he came without any connection except his connection +with other slaves when more than one were sold to the same master. He +came into a highly developed civilization with great organized power of +leadership and government; and through the generations of slavery the +Negro in America wrought for himself a national and racial +consciousness within the sphere of American life. The American Negro +today is the most highly educated and the most advanced Negro in the +world. As such he has the opportunity to make his own contribution to +the culture and the civilization of the world. This their centuries of +slavery and repression have brought them. + + + + +CHAPTER SIX + +Fighting Adverse Conditions + + +The political conditions in England throughout the middle of the +seventeenth century bore heavily upon Virginia in religious as well as +in civil matters. The period of civil war which began in 1642 lasted +until the King was captured by the parliamentary forces, and Archbishop +Laud, the hated persecutor of dissenters, was beheaded. After an +imprisonment of four years the king was beheaded and Oliver Cromwell +reigned as Protector of the Commonwealth. The civil war had lined up +the dissenting bodies in England, and the Presbyterian Church in +Scotland, against the King and the Church of England. + +On the American scene the Puritan colonies in New England were in +hearty sympathy with the dissenters in England. In Virginia the +government and the great body of the people were in equal sympathy with +King Charles and the Established Church. It is true there were in +Virginia the goodly number of several hundred Puritan settlers. In the +Church also there was some Puritan sympathy among a small group of the +clergy. One of these, indeed, the Rev. Thomas Harrison, who became +minister of Elizabeth River Parish (Norfolk) in 1640, was presented for +trial in the county court in April 1645 "For not reading the Book of +Common Prayer, and not administering the sacrament of baptism according +to the canons and order prescribed, and for not catechizing on Sunday +in the afternoon, according to the Act of Assembly." He was banished to +Massachusetts in 1648, where he remained for two years and married. +Afterward he returned to England and was given official position in the +Commonwealth under Cromwell. + +In the heated atmosphere of the times the Puritan group in Virginia +took occasion to apply to the Puritan church government in +Massachusetts to send three ordained Puritan "missionaries" to their +fellow religionists in Virginia, but upon the arrival of the +missionaries their ship was met by government officials; the three +missionaries sent back to Massachusetts; and the master of the ship was +fined for bringing them to the colony. No one in official position in +Virginia could escape the conviction that the sending of Puritan +ministers to Virginia at such a time, whether upon request of the +Nansemond River group or upon suggestion from Boston, was for any +purpose other than to foment and organize Puritan opposition to the +King. For that reason Puritanism in Virginia came under suspicion, and +the Governor, Sir William Berkeley, with the full support of the +government and public opinion, treated all Puritans as enemies. He made +their situation so intolerable that the entire group accepted an +invitation from the proprietor of the Province of Maryland and migrated +to that colony. There, given land on the Severn River, they gained +control of the provincial government within a few years. The forcing of +the group out of Virginia was a political act of defense and was not +religious persecution. + +The English Parliament in 1645 enacted a law abolishing the Church of +England as an active organization. The law enacted by Parliament drove +every bishop from his diocese, and forbade the use of the _Book of +Common Prayer_ in any church or chapel in England. The rectors of over +two thousand parishes were forced out and their places were filled by +Presbyterian and Independent or Baptist ministers. + +The General Assembly of Virginia, upon learning the action of +Parliament, adopted an act in 1647 requiring the use of the _Prayer +Book_ in every church and chapel in Virginia each Sunday in the regular +forms prescribed in the _Prayer Book_. The Act made further provision +that in every parish in which the incumbent minister disobeyed the law +and continued disuse of the _Book of Common Prayer_, his parishioners +were thereby absolved from paying him any further salary. + +In England marriage was held to be a religious service to be performed +by no one other than a priest of the Church; and Parliament, after +abolishing the Prayer Book and the canons of the Anglican Church, was +compelled to enact another law making provision for the performance of +the marriage ceremony as a civil contract. The new law directed that +justices of the local courts perform marriages and record them, if +desired, in the court records. The people of Virginia paid no attention +to this law except, as far as is known, in one case in Northumberland +County. In the year 1656 a man and woman in Lancaster County, instead +of going to the minister, if there were one, or to the reader of the +parish, went to a county official of Northumberland and were married +according to the Act of Parliament. Their marriage was recorded in the +court order book and there nine months later the new incumbent, Samuel +Cole of Lancaster, found it. He thereupon declared openly that the law +of Virginia was in effect in his parish and not the Acts of Parliament. +The affair ended when the parson required the wedded couple to consider +themselves unwed until he could announce the banns of matrimony for +them on three separate Sundays and then perform a Christian marriage. +He then took occasion to go to the Northumberland county court and +record his certificate of marriage of the couple in the court order +book. The two certificates still appear in the order book of the county +court of Northumberland County in the following words: + + Certificate of Marriage, 11 Sept. 1656. John Merryday [i.e., + Meredith] and Mrs. Ann Nash, als. Mallet, were married by + Coll. Jno. Trussell, according to Act of Parliament, 24 + August, 1653. Witnesses Geo. Colclough, Leonard Spencer and + Jno. Carter. Rec. 20 Sept. 1656. + + To all such whom it may concern. These are to certifie that + John Meredith & Ann Nash, being three times Published + according to Law, were married at Currotomon on the 14th of + this instant July, 1657 per mee, Samuel Cole, minister, + _ibidem_ 20th July 1657 this certificate was recorded. + +The colony of Virginia in affairs of both church and state exercised +more independence of action under the Commonwealth than it ever +exercised before or afterward until the Declaration of Independence in +1776. The General Assembly, after it made a treaty of peace with +Cromwell's commissioners, elected the several governors of the colony +until the Restoration of Charles Second in 1660 took that authority +from them. The Burgesses had agreed to discontinue the use of prayers +for the King and the royal family in public services, and the General +Assembly enacted a law directing each parish to decide for itself +whether it would continue or discontinue the use of the _Book of Common +Prayer_. All questions of parish administration were left to the +several vestries. If a parish did not wish to use the old form of +worship it might use such form as it desired. + +A number of ministers of Presbyterian ordination, and some openly +acknowledged Puritans thereupon came into the colony and these became +incumbent ministers of parishes. The last known one was the Rev. Andrew +Jackson, incumbent of Christ Church Parish in Lancaster County from +some years after 1680 until his death in 1711. He was a godly and +devout minister, beloved by his parishioners. Tradition says that he +"stood up to read the Psalms, but remained seated when they said the +Creed." + +For twenty-five or thirty years prior to 1675, to the distress of the +Church and the people as a whole, there was a desperate lack of +ordained ministers, and inability, to get clergymen from England. Some +few, driven out of parishes in England by the Parliamentary victors, +did come to Virginia, but never in sufficient number to supply the +need. Then, after the restoration of Charles, II, in 1660 and the +return of the Anglican Church to active life, there were so many +parishes in England from which non-conforming ministers were removed +because of refusal to use the _Book of Common Prayer_, that for nearly +a decade there were almost no clergymen to send overseas. Conditions +did begin to improve, however, before the end of the decade. + +The improvement increased more rapidly after a new bishop of London +came into that diocese in 1675 and manifested active interest in the +affairs of the parishes in America. + +During the decade 1660-70, shortly after King Charles had been received +and crowned King of England, the General Assembly of Virginia made +earnest effort to call the attention of the Crown and the people of +England to the needs of the Church in the colony. A committee of +clergymen was sent from Jamestown to London to present the matter to +the King. The committee published a pamphlet telling of the great need +and urging a definite programme to help improve religious conditions. +Three things ought to be done: first, a bishop should be sent at once +to visit the parishes and ordain as deacons devout laymen who had been +serving as readers so that there would be at least a deacon in every +parish; second, fellowships ought to be established at the universities +of Oxford and Cambridge for the support and training of men for the +ministry who would agree to serve the Church for a term of years in the +parishes of Virginia; third, and most important, a bishop ought to be +consecrated to organize a diocese in Virginia and bring the parishes +there into the full life of the Anglican Church. + +No one knows what influence the pamphlet had in arousing interest. +Certainly no bishop was sent to ordain readers as deacons; and no +fellowships were established at the universities to train men to serve +in the ministry in Virginia. But a movement did start to organize a +diocese and consecrate a bishop. This occurred after 1670. The movement +won approval and a charter was prepared for the signature of King +Charles as the temporal head of the Church. The charter provided that +the diocese was to be called the Diocese of Virginia, and Jamestown was +to become the see-city where the bishop was to have his "Cathedral." A +clergyman was selected by the King to become the new bishop. He was the +Reverend Alexander Moray who had fled Scotland with Prince Charles and +had gone as chaplain with the ill-fated campaign ending in defeat at +the Battle of Worcester in 1652 in which Prince Charles sought to win +his throne from the Parliamentary conquerors. Mr. Moray then fled to +Virginia and became rector of Ware Parish in Gloucester County. + +But something happened in 1672 after the King had announced publicly +that he had selected Mr. Moray to be bishop. Nobody knows what it was, +but the charter was never signed, and Mr. Moray was not made a bishop. +There is some evidence that he died just at that time and possibly that +caused the plan to fall through. + +It would seem probable that the failure of the plan in 1672 aroused the +interest of Henry Compton who became Bishop of London in 1675, for in +that same year he secured from the Crown authority to select and +license men to serve as ministers of the parishes in America. And +shortly thereafter a fund called "The King's Bounty" was established, +from which each clergyman licensed to serve in America was given twenty +pounds sterling to pay the cost of his voyage. This plan continued +until the American Revolution. It did great good, for it gave to every +Anglican clergyman in the colonies a bishop whom he felt he knew, and +to whom he could write if necessary. The Bishop of London never at any +time had any authority whatsoever over the laity of the Church in +America, nor over the work of the vestries as temporal heads of the +parishes. But his influence with the clergy was of enormous value to +their morale. + +Ten years later Bishop Compton went farther and secured authority to +appoint clergymen as his personal representatives in the colonies; to +confer with the clergy; and, if necessary, to remove from their +parishes clergymen who had proven to be unworthy men. The commissaries +lost their power some sixty years later when a new Bishop of London +appointed in 1748 refused to give his commissaries the authority which +earlier commissaries had exercised. + +The first commissaries, James Blair for Virginia and Thomas Bray for +Maryland, made great contribution to the life of the Church of England +in the colonies and in England also. Commissary Bray was the moving +spirit in organizing three missionary societies in England: the Society +for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge; the Society for the +Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts; and, in his old age, the +society of Dr. Bray's Associates for ministry to Negro slaves in all +the colonies. He also instituted a plan for sending libraries of +theological books to parishes in the colonies, an enormous help to +clergymen in far-off places. + +James Blair served as Commissary in Virginia from his appointment in +1689 until his death in 1743. His greatest work was the establishment +and development of the Royal College of William and Mary in 1693. He +raised money for its establishment first by asking pledges from all +persons in Virginia who were able to give, and then in England where he +quickly gained the active interest of Queen Mary and King William. He +secured his charter for the College in 1693 and by 1695 the erection of +college buildings was well under way. He served as president of the +college until his death in 1743. He steered it through its early +difficulties; he fought for it against Governor and Council when +necessary; and he brought it to its full status as a College with six +professors and more than a hundred students in 1729. He lived long +enough to welcome Reverend George Whitefield, the first great leader of +the evangelical movement, when he came to Williamsburg in 1740, and had +the happiness to learn that his College had won the admiring approval +of his visitor. Whitefield wrote in his diary an account of what he +saw, and ended, "I rejoiced in seeing such a place in America." + +Commissary Blair fought steadily and successfully for the rights and +privileges of the clergy, and secured real increase in clerical +salaries. He fought also for the right of the vestries to elect the +rectors of their own parishes, even as he strove when need was, to +secure the removal of the occasional unworthy clergyman. + +The organization of the College of William and Mary in 1693 was indeed +the culmination of the plan of the London Company to establish a +University in Virginia. The first effort went up in smoke in 1622. +There was another effort in the days of Sir William Berkeley after the +Restoration, but the time was not then ripe. But the opportunity came +again. Already there were several endowed schools in Virginia: The Syms +School in Hampton, the Eaton School, also in that parish, the Peasley +School in Gloucester County, and others. Many parish clergymen also +became noted for the excellency of their schools. So the College which +began in 1693 came to head a group of schools which had already spread +through the colony. + +From its beginning it held to the ideal of having a School of Divinity +to train men for the ministry of the Church of England, as well as a +school of philosophy or liberal arts as we now describe it, to train +men for secular life and leadership in the colonial life. When the +College reached its maturity it had a School of Divinity with two +professors, and a School of Philosophy with two, in addition to masters +in other departments. It had also a foundation which could support +eight men studying for the ministry. From that time until the +Revolution a steady stream of candidates went from the College to the +Bishop of London for ordination. But that is part of the story of the +next century. The beginning came in 1693. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + +The Last Decade + + +The decade 1690-1700 was an era of steady growth in the religious and +cultural life of Virginia. New counties were created as population +spread further and further up the great rivers; and parishes increased +in numbers as the population grew. The first official list of "The +parishes and the clergymen in them" which has survived the wreckage of +time was the list of 1680, and the next is the list of 1702. These +lists show that in 1680 there were forty-eight parishes and thirty-six +clergymen incumbents. In the list of 1702 there were fifty parishes and +forty clergymen. + +The one most notable event in the religious life of both England and +Virginia was enactment by Parliament in 1689 of the Edict of +Toleration. That act in the first year of the reign of King William and +Queen Mary was the first incident in the movement of the English people +through their legislature toward freedom of religion. The Act did not +repeal the severe laws against dissent adopted in the reign of King +Charles, II, but it did remove the penalties. It took the first step +along a new roadway into human freedom; and the English-speaking world +on both sides of the Atlantic hailed it as such. + +As it was a law of England, the act did not come into effect in +Virginia until it was included within the code of laws of the colony. +That was not done until 1699, although the Council of State had +approved the act in principle early in that decade. By that time +enforcement of law requiring attendance at church every Sunday had been +relaxed for it was impossible of enforcement under the conditions of +Virginian life. The law was not repealed until late in the eighteenth +century and under it every person wherever possible was required to +accept attendance at church as the duty of every citizen. In revisal of +the Virginia law in 1699 it was provided that every person must attend +worship in the parish church at least once every two months. The +General Assembly at the same time enacted a new proviso whereby +dissenters from the Established Church of Virginia, who could qualify +if in England as belonging to denominations or groups permitted under +the Toleration Act, were free in Virginia from any penalty for +non-attendance at the parish Church if they attended their own places +of dissenting worship at least once in the two months period. + +In 1699 there were three denominations of dissent in Virginia; the +Presbyterians, the Baptists and the Quakers. The many thousands of +immigrants from Scotland who had belonged to the Established +(Presbyterian) Church of Scotland found little to object to in the +worship of the Established Church of Virginia, and entered into it +without difficulty or objection. + +But the Presbyterians from England, as dissenters from the Established +Church of that country, and the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who began +their immigration to Virginia after the Restoration, brought with them +the determination to organize in America as a Presbyterian +denomination. They were especially strong in the counties of Princess +Anne and Norfolk; and the first Presbyterian congregation in Virginia +was organized in 1692 in that area. It is also of interest to note that +the Reverend Francis Makemie, who organized the first presbytery in +Philadelphia about 1705 and later the first Synod of the Presbyterian +Church in America, lived for many years in Accomac County, Virginia. + +There was a Baptist minister in the village of Yorktown during the +decade 1690-1700 but little is known of his work, nor is it known +whether there were then one or more organized Baptist congregations. + +The Quakers were the most widely scattered and in numbers probably the +strongest of the three groups. They were especially numerous in Henrico +County and the eastern section of Hanover County and on the Nansemond +river. The Church Attendance Act of 1699 and the Toleration Act of the +English Parliament applied to them as to other dissenters, but they +were still under suspicion as to their loyalty and also because they +continued their early custom of open and violent attacks on the +religion and worship of the orthodox Churches. They gave bitter offense +by their public announcements in time of war between England and France +or between England and Spain that they would give aid and furnish such +supplies as might be needed to any enemy fleet which should come with +hostile intent into the Virginian waters. + +While the laws which punished interruption of religious services were +still necessary and were enforced, the adoption of the proviso in the +Virginian Act of 1699 was a real step forward on the way to the +ultimate goal of entire freedom of worship. It made the worship of the +dissenters as truly legal as that of the Established Church, and it +removed from the dissenters the requirement that they attend the +worship of the Anglican Church. + +Thomas Story, the noted English Quaker, who wrote and published a +journal of his life and work as a Quaker preacher, gives an interesting +account of his two prolonged visits to Virginia in 1698/99 and in 1705. +In his daily journal for 1705 he comments at every stopping-place, with +manifest pleasure, upon the welcome given him and his friends and the +freedom of public preaching accorded him wherever he went. He was +welcomed and entertained over and again at Anglican homes and he +records occasionally the fact that a county sheriff or constable or +justice of the county court was present at his preaching. He does not +record any instance in which anyone in civil authority in the colony +protested against his preaching or attempted to stop him; and the high +point of his visit came when the Governor of Virginia, learning of his +approach, invited him and his friends to the Governor's mansion, +entertained them and gave them fruit to carry with them on their +journey toward Philadelphia. + +So Virginia came to the end of its first century, having fought +through the various adverse conditions which its people found along the +way. The colony had come into an era of opportunity and growth with a +well established government, a seaborne trade which brought prosperity, +and a concept of religion which made room for all forms of the +Christian faith that would remain at peace with each other, and as +citizens be loyal to their government. As the people approached their +first centennial anniversary celebration in 1707 they looked forward +with a confidence born of past experience to the new century upon which +they were to enter. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +In addition to the titles in the following brief list the reader will +find many references to official papers, and other important and useful +works, in the author's _Virginia's Mother Church_, volumes one and two. +A great many of the statements herein made are based upon these two +volumes. + + Anderson, James S. M. _A History of the Colonial Church_. + London: 1843. 3 vols. + + Andrews, Matthew Page. _The Soul of a Nation, The Founding + of Virginia and the Projection of New England_. New York: + Doubleday, 1943. + + Brydon, George MacLaren. _Virginia's Mother Church and the + Political Conditions Under Which It Grew_. Richmond, + Virginia: Virginia Historical Society, 1947. Vol. I, + 1607-1727; Vol. II, 1725-1814. + + Fiske, John. _Old Virginia and Her Neighbors_. Boston and + New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1899. 2 vols. + + Goodwin, Edward L. _The Colonial Church in Virginia_. + Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Morehouse Publishing Company, 1927. + + With appendix giving list of Anglican clergymen who served + in Virginia in the Colonial period. + + Hening, W. W. _Statutes of Virginia_, 1619-1792. 13 vols. + + Mason, George C. _Colonial Churches of Tidewater, Virginia_. + Richmond, Virginia: Whittet and Shepperson, 1945. + + Meade, William. _Old Churches, Ministers, and Families in + Virginia_. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1857. 2 vols. + + This is the old standard work upon this subject, and is + still of great value, but must be used with the + understanding that records and other original sources made + available since his day disprove many of his statements + about local conditions. This is especially true regarding + his statements concerning the unworthiness of the colonial + clergy. His expressed conviction that most of them were + unworthy morally has been entirely disproved by the evidence + of records now available. + + Perry, W. S. _History of the American Episcopal Church_. + Boston and New York: Osgood, 1899. 2 vols. + + --_Historical Collections Relating to America's Colonial + Church. Virginia_: Privately printed, 1870. + + Swem, E. G. _Virginia Historical Index_. Roanoke, Virginia: + Stone Printing Co., 1934-36. 2 vols. + + + + +APPENDIX A + + +The following extracts from the Journal of the Life of Thomas Story, +during his visit to Virginia in 1698 are indicative of the attitude of +the people of Virginia toward religious toleration: + + 8th Day of the 12th Month, we landed in Mockjack Bay---- + + Next Fourth Day being the 1st day of the 1st month (i.e. + January, 1698/99) we went again by water to a monthly meeting + at Chuckatuck, where came our friend Elizabeth Webb from + Gloucestershire in England, who had been through all the + English colonies on the Continent of America and was now + about to depart for England. The meeting was large and the + Sheriff of the County, a Colonel, and some of others of note + in that county were there, and very sober and attentive. + + On the 22nd we had a pretty large meeting at Southern Branch, + at the house of Robert Burgess. He was not a Friend by + profession, but a Justice of the Peace, and of good account + in these parts. There had never been a meeting there before; + yet the people were generally solid and several of them + tendered; and after the meeting the Justice and his wife were + very respectful, and treated us to beer and wine, and would + gladly have had us to have eaten with them and lodged in + their house that night, but being otherwise engaged in the + course of the service. + + The next day [several days later] we had a meeting at + Romancock, which was large and open. Many persons of note + from those parts were there, as Major Palmer, Captain + Clayborn, Doctor Walker, and others, all very attentive. + + + + +APPENDIX B + + +A List of Parishes in Virginia, and the Clergy in them under date of +July 8, 1702. + +Parishes and Incumbent Ministers + +Charles City County. + Bristol Parish, (part) + George Robertson [Robinson] + Westover Parish + Charles Anderson + Martin's Brandon Parish + Weyanoke Parish + James Bushell + +Elizabeth City County + Elizabeth City Parish + James Wallace + +Essex County + South Farnham Parish + Lewis Latane + Sittenbourn Parish (part) + Bartholomew Yates + St. Mary's Parish + William Andrews + +Gloucester County + Petsoe (Petsworth) Parish + Emmanuel Jones + Abingdon Parish + Guy Smith + Ware Parish + James Clack + +Henrico County + Bristol Parish (part) + George Robinson + Varina als Henrico Parish + James Ware + King William Parish + Benjamin De Joux + +James City County + Wallingford Parish + Wilmington Parish + John Gordon + James City Parish + James Blair + Martin's Hundred Parish + Stephen Fouace + Bruton Parish (part) + Cope D'Oyley + +Isle of Wight County + Warrosqueake Parish + Thomas Sharpe + Newport Parish + Andrew Monroe + +King and Queen County + St. Stephen's Parish + Ralph Bowker + Stratton-Major Parish + Edward Portlock + +King William County + St. John's Parish + John Monroe + +Lancaster County + Christ Church Parish + Andrew Jackson + St. Mary's White Chapel Parish + John Carnegie + +Middlesex County + Christ Church Parish + Robert Yates + +Nansemond County + Upper Parish + Lower Parish + Chuchatuck Parish + +Norfolk County + Elizabeth River Parish + William Rudd + +New Kent County + Blisland Parish + St. Peter's Parish + James Bowker + +Northumberland County + Fairfield Parish + John Farnifold + Wiccocomico Parish + John Urquhart + +Northampton County + Hungars Parish + Peter Collier + +Princess Anne County + Lynnhaven Parish + Solomon Wheatley + +Richmond County + Sittenbourn Parish (part) + Bartholomew Yates + North Farnham Parish + Peter Kippax + +Surry County + Southwark Parish + Alexander Walker + Lawne's Creek Parish + Thomas Burnet + +Stafford County + St. Paul's Parish + Overwharton Parish + John Frazier + +Warwick County + Mulberry Island Parish + Denbigh Parish + +Westmoreland County + Cople Parish + Washington Parish + James Breechin + +York County + Bruton Parish (part) + Yorke Parish + Cope D'Oyley + Hampton Parish + Stephen Fouace + Charles Parish + James Slater + + James Blair, Commissary to the Bishop of London + + Peregrine Cony, Chaplain to the Governor. + +It will be noted that the above list reports fifty-one parishes, or +after deducting three which appear as partly in two counties, a total +of forty-eight parishes. These covered the whole territory in which +English settlers lived. The incumbent clergymen total thirty-five but +some five or six of the parishes for which no incumbent was named were +very small in extent or population, and looked to the minister of an +adjoining parish for services and sacraments. Probably this list +includes five or six parishes which were vacant. Because of the great +length of time required to secure clergymen from England this fact is +evidence of the growing strength and organization of the Church under +the influence of the Commissary. + +Most of the clergymen who came to Virginia were graduates of the +English and Scottish universities, and brought an element and influence +of education and culture to the growing life of the Colony. Dr. Philip +Alexander Bruce, in his notable _Institutional History of Virginia in +the Seventeenth Century_, makes the following statement: + +If we consider as a body the ministers who performed the various duties +of their calling in Virginia during the Seventeenth Century, there is +no reason to think they fell below the standard of conscientiousness +governing the conduct of the English clergyman in the same age. The +early history of the New World was adorned by no nobler group of +divines than the group which gives so much distinction from the point +of view of character and achievement to the years in which the +foundation of the colony at Jamestown was being permanently laid. + +From the middle of the century to the end as from the beginning to the +middle, a large proportion of the clergymen were not only graduates of +English universities, but also men of more or less distinguished social +connections in England. Outside the great towns in England, or the +wealthiest and most populous of the English rural parishes, there was +in the course of the century, perhaps no single English living filled +by a succession of clergymen superior to this body of men, (i.e., +incumbents at Jamestown) in combined learning, talents, piety, and +devotion to duty. And yet there is no reason to think that the ability, +zeal and fidelity of these ministers who occupied the pulpit at +Jamestown were overshadowing as compared with the same qualities in the +clergymen who, one after another, occupied any of the more important +benefices in York, Surry, Elizabeth City, or Gloucester Counties, or +the counties situated in the Northern Neck, or Eastern Shore.... All +the surviving records of the seventeenth century go to show that, +whatever during that long period may have been the infirmities or +unworthy acts of individual clergymen, the great body of those +officiating in Virginia were men who performed all the duties of their +sacred calling in a manner entitling them to the respect, reverence and +gratitude of their parishioners. + +Very little is known of the activities of the clergy outside of their +professional duties beyond the fact that a great many of them conducted +schools at their homes; and these "parsons schools" became a widespread +influence for good upon the youth of their day. In the generations +before the founding of the College these schools became the great +agency throughout the colony for the education of the sons of the +gentry, and of the occasional youth of a lesser privileged family who +was taken free by the parson, or supported by a school endowment given +by some charitable person. In the later days there were many such +parish funds. We read of George Washington, in the following generation +attending the school conducted by Parson Marye in Fredericksburg, and +of his future wife, Martha Dandridge attending another. + +It is a notable fact that throughout the whole seventeenth century the +ideal shown by the General Assembly was to provide for the clergy an +adequate salary for the comfortable home of an educated man. In 1695 +when the question of increase in clerical salaries was raised, the +House of Burgesses made a report to Governor Andros upon the purchasing +value of salaries paid in tobacco, and stated, "They have duly weighed +the present provision made for the ministers of this country in their +respective parishes together with their other considerable perquisites +by marriages, burials, etc., and glebes,----that most if not all the +ministers of this country are in as good a condition in point of +livelihood as a gentleman that is well seated and hath twelve or +fourteen servants." They had previously stated that the tobacco salary +of the parson would in normal years in the past yield eighty pounds +sterling when sold. + +In contrast with this salary of the clergymen in Virginia attention may +be called to the statement made in England in 1714, that there were in +England at that time "5,082 livings under eighty pounds in annual +value, of which more than 3,000 were under forty pounds, and 471 under +ten pounds. This report was made to show the importance of the fund +established by Queen Anne, called Queen Anne's Bounty, for increasing +the endowment of these weak parishes." + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's Notes + + +Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U. S. +copyright on this publication was renewed. + +The Table of Contents was added for convenience. + +Page 3: Guilt is an obsolete form of gilt + (a plate of silver guilt). + +Page 16: Changed ecclestiastical to ecclesiastical + (after an ecclestiastical trial by the bishop). + +Page 23: Changed cattel to cattle + (great plenty of cattel and hogs). + +Page 50: Changed priviliged to privileged + (youth of a lesser priviliged family). + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Religious Life of Virginia in the +Seventeenth Century, by George MacLaren Brydon + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RELIGIOUS LIFE OF VIRGINIA *** + +***** This file should be named 28634.txt or 28634.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/6/3/28634/ + +Produced by Mark C. 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