The Planting of the Presbyterian Church in Northern Virginia

THE PLANTING OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH « IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA PRIOR TO THE ORGANIZATION OF Winchester Presbytery, DECEMBER 4, 1794. BY JAMES R. GRAHAM, D. D., PASTOR EMERITUS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN WINCHESTER, VA. WINCHESTER, VA.: THE GEO. F. NORTON PUBLISHING CO. 1904. E Nt PUBLIC I - R 1911 L TO THE MEMBERS OF WINCHESTER PRESBYTERY — in harmonious fellowship with whom my entire ministry has been spent, and whose unvary- ing kindness has cheered the labors and sweet- tened the trials of a pastorate extending over a period of more than half a century—this volume is affectionately inscribed. PREFACE. It is with many misgivings that th ; s little volume is committed to the press. Its author claims no special importance for it. It does not pretend to be a complete and connected history of our Church, either in the period of which it treats, or in the territory to which it relates. He is fully aware of its fragmentary and imperfect character, and of the very limited interest that will be taken in its pages. His excuse for offering it to the public, already surfeited with books, is the fact that its publication has been insist- ently urged by judicious friends, who have some knowledge of its character. It is, moreover, his own conviction that such facts of our Presby- terial history as he has here tried to rescue from oblivion, should be put in a form most likely to secure their preservation. Though others have ex- plored the field in which he has labored, and have made most valuable contributions to the early history of our Church, he is persuaded that some particulars are here given that will be new to most of his readers, and that will have a special interest for the people of The Northern Neck. Notwithstanding the care taken by the proofreader, a few typograph- ical errors have somehow escaped his watchful eye. Such as have been " discovered are noticed in the En~ata" at the close of the volume. sS^&&w INTRODUCTION. t&r* t&^* *&* T is proposed, in this unpretending volume, to gather up, so far as we have been able to obtain them, the facts relating to the Planting of Presbyterianism in the territory originally covered by the Presbytery of Winchester, down to the time of the organization of that Presbytery. This proposal excludes the attempt to write a history of the Presbytery itself. It lim- its our inquiries strictly to the period which precedes our Pres- byterial existence. If this limitation should prove a disap- pointment to any reader of this book, our defence is that the materials for our history, as an organized body, are carefully preserved in our Presbyte- rial Records and are readily accessible; while the facts relating to our ante- Presbyterial existence are to be sought from sources more difficult of access, many of which have already passed, and others are rapidly passing, beyond our reach. In the prosecution of this purpose, our work will be but the enlarge- ment, in a more correct form, of statements presented in the Historical Ad- dress delivered at Shepherdstown, W. Va., September, 1894, at the cele- bration of onr Presbyterial Centennial. The work here undertaken is not an easy one. To write the early history of our churches at all is difficult; to write it with absolute complete- ness and to the entire satisfaction of the reader, is impossible. That history is involved in the greatest obscurity. The most diligent and pains- taking research is not able now to dispel the darkness that broods over it. It must be remembered that Presbyterianism here is older than our Presby- tery, and that in our efforts to trace its earliest introduction, the records of Winchester Presbytery afford us no help. Our inquiries go far back of the organization of our Presbytery, and the material for this history must be gathered from sources not easily accessible, and not very satisfactory in the information furnished when access is obtained. But while the fact is to be deplored, that our knowledge of the early history of our church is so scant and imperfect, it is gratifying to know that neither the General Assembly nor the Presbytery can be held respon- sible for the absence of this knowledge. Two years after the Assembly was organized (viz: in 1791), it enjoined upon the Presbyteries, then 17 in 2 INTRODUCTION. number, to gather up and forward to the Assembly all the material that could contribute to a full and accurate history of our church from the time of its first introduction into this country. Successive Assemblies, through a number of years, repeated this injunction, with which the Presbyteries very generally complied; and in 1804 Dr. Ashbel Green and Mr. Ebenezer Hazzard were appointed a committee to embody the facts that had been collected into a history of the Church. For several years this committee reported progress in their work; but the difficulties, which from the first were formidable, were found at length to be so great that, in 1813, the committee reported the work to be impracticable, and at their own request were discharged. But the Assembly, unwilling to abandon the undertaking, appointed Rev. Samuel Miller D.D. to receive the material in hand, and complete the history. In 1819 he, too, asked to be relieved and Dr. Green was appointed to assist him. But in 1825 these gentlemen reported their inability to do the work and asked to be relieved from their appointment. While their request was granted, so important did the Assembly deem the work to be, that another and larger committee was appointed to continue and complete it. This committee reported from time to time; but at the Disruption of the church in 1838, the history was still unfinished, and from that period, so far as we have discovered, the matter disappears from the minutes of the General Assembly. The Presbytery of Winchester displayed equal zeal for the preservation of its h'story. One of the first things it did, after its organization in 1794, was to order its ministers to prepare a historical account of the origin and growth of its respective churches, and when these several accounts were presented to Presbytery, the Rev. Moses Hoge was appointed to com- pile from them a detailed history of Presbyterianism within our bounds, and in 1804 the manuscript volume he had prepared was forwarded to the General Assembly. And yet when the present writer, many years ago, enquired of the proper authorities concerning Dr. Hoge's history, he was told that no defi- nite information in reference to it could be given; that while there was a mass of manuscripts nominally in possession of the General Assembly, in the absence of any provision for their care, they had been deposited in the basement of some building in Philadelphia. Some of these manuscripts, it was supposed, had already perished, and if Dr. Hoge's History of Win- chester Presbytery still existed, it would be impossible to find it, except at the expense of more time and labor than anyone could afford to give. " Since that time The Presbyterian Historical Society" has been INTRODUCTION. 3 formed and is engaged in a most commendable effort to rescue and pre- serve all papers bearing upon the history of the church. But the recent death of the librarian, while collating and arranging these papers, and who alone was thoroughly acquainted with the contents of his shelves, has pre- vented us from learning whether the history in question is still in existence or not. But our own Presbytery gave further evidence of its interest in the matter. In April, 1830, it appointed Rev. Drs. Hill and Wilson a committee to collect materials and prepare a history of the rise and progress of our church within its bounds. Two years later Rev. Dr. D. H. Riddle was added to this committee. As chairman, the burden of labor fell on Dr. Hill, and he engaged in the work with great enthusiasm. Considerable progress had been made when the controversy, which disturbed the church at that period, arose. The effect of this was to change materially the character of his work. He decided to re-write it from the beginning, and to " " " publish it in "Parts at intervals. Part I was published in 1839, and is the only portion of his work that ever appeared; and, unfortunately for us, this part, partaking of the spirit of the time, is more controversial than historical, and sheds very little light upon the matters with which we are concerned here. The large amount of material he had collected, and which was intended for publication in the subsequent "Parts" of his history, was never published, and is not available now. This is much to be lamented, as he possessed special advantages for the work he had undertaken. His long residence of nearly fifty years in this region, his opportunities for obtaining the needed information, his personal acquaintance with many of the facts to be recorded, and his acknowledged fitness for the work, all conspire to deepen our regret that he did not finish the history he was appointed to write. In preparing the history here presented, every accessible source of information known to us has been laid under contribution. Our chief depend- encies, however, has been the Records of the Presbyteran Church, Dr. " Foote's Sketches of Virginia," and the more recent invaluable labors of the Historical Committee of our Presbytery. THE Planting of Presbyterianism IN THE Lower Shenandoah Valley AND PARTS ADJACENT.

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