A History of St. Mark's Parish, in Which Governor Spotswood Did Not Have a Prominent Place, Would Be Like a Portrait with the Most Prominent Feature Left Out
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A HISTORY OF ST. MARK'S PARISH CULPEPER COUNTY, VIRGINIA, WITH NOTES OF OLD CHURCHES AND OLD FAMILIES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE Manners and Customs of the Olden Time. BY REV. PHILIP SLAUGHTER, D.D. Rector of Emmanuel Church, Culpeper Co.s Va. AUTHOR OF THE HISTORIES OF ST. GSORGB'S AND BRISTOL PARISHES, VA. 1877. IKNES & COMPANY, Printers, BALTIMORE, MO. THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. The author believes that he was the first person who conceived the idea of writing a history of the old parishes in Yirginia upon the basis of the old vestry-books and registers. Thirty years ago he published the History of Bristol Parish (Petersburg), of which he was then rector. In 1849 he published the History of St. George's Parish, in Spotsylvania. His labors were then suspended by ill-health, and he went abroad, never expecting to resume them. This personal evil resulted in the general good. Bishop Meade, the most competent of all men for this special task, was induced to take up the subject, and the result was the valuable work, " The Old Ohurches and Families of Yirginia," in which the author's histories of St. George and Bristol Parishes, and some other materials which he had gathered, were incorporated. The author, in his old age, returns to his first love, and submits to the public a history of his native parish of St. Mark's. The reader will please bear in mind that this is not a general history of the civil and social institutions within the bounds of this parish, and yet he will find in it many incidental illustrations of these subjects. He must also be reminded that it does not iv PREFACE, purport to be a history of Christianity in its varied forms and polities within the lines of St. Mark's. That would open a large field, which the author has not time or strength now to traverse. He means, therefore, no disrespect to other Christian polities and peoples (among whom are numbered many valued friends and relatives) in omitting all reference to them. In this respect he has followed the example of the parish records, which are the bases of this history, and in which there is not one word about Christians of other names, from the first organization of St. Mark's Parish, in 1731, to the present moment. The vestry abstained in like manner from political allusion; for while keeping up its organization and records during the whole of the American Kevolu- tion, the only allusion to an event which so absorbed men's minds is the following entry:—" Capt. Eichard Yancey is appointed a vestryman in place of Major John Green, in Continental service." Church history in Virginia may be distributed into several eras, the observation of which will make it more intelligible. The first is the Era of the Church of England in the Colony and Dominion of Virginia. This covers the whole period from the first plantation of Jamestown to the American Kevo- lution. During this period the Church was in bondage to the State, which never allowed it to organize. For political reasons it was not permitted to have a bishop; and there were no ordinations or PREFACE. v confirmations during the whole colonial term. Can didates for orders had to make the then costly, pro tracted and perilous voyage across the sea. Some of them could not pay the expense, and others were lost at sea, while some died of the small-pox in London, which was very fatal before the use of vaccination. The Church was not only denied an executive head, but it had no legislature. It had no authority to pass a law, enact a canon, or inflict a penalty, not even for the discipline of its own ministers and members; and it never performed one of these functions. The second era may be called the Transition Age, during which the ties that bound it to the State were one by one severed; and this lasted from 1776 to the first organization of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Virginia, in 1785, when it became free, although its organization was not perfected until the election of its first bishop (Madison). The next era may be called the Era of Decline, when the Episcopal Church was staggering under the odium of having been an established church, which lasted until William Meade, William Wilmer, William Hawley, Oliver Norris, and such like, came upon the stage, and elected Eichard Channing Moore, of New York, to be their leader. Then began the Era of Eevival; after a torpid winter, an awaken ing spring followed by a fruitful summer. To this season we may apply the words of Shakspeare, but in a higher sense :— VI PREFACE. "Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this son of York; And all the clouds that lowered upon our house, In the deep bosom of the ocean buried "— While we recognize and rejoice in the good that has been done by other Christian ministers outside of our fold, we too may be permitted to rejoice that our Yirginian Episcopal Eoll is " without a blemish "; and that their hands have been upheld by a goodly and growing company of preachers, who have re kindled the fires upon many an old altar where the sparrow had found her an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, even thine altars, O Lord God of Hosts ! my King and my God. SUGGESTIONS TO OUE EEADERS. In such an almost countless number of names and dates as occur in this book, it must needs be that errors of the pen or of the press will creep in. If those who detect them will kindly communicate them to the author, he will gladly correct them in a new edition; the proposed first edition having been ordered in anticipation of publication. If the reader will bear in mind the following facts it will facilitate his understanding of this history. In 1720 Spots- sylvania County was taken from Essex, King and Queen and King William, whose jurisdiction hitherto extended to the great mountains. St. George's PREFA CE. vii Parish, coterminous with Spotsylvania, was formed by the same Act. In 1731 St. Mark's was taken from St. George. In 1734 Orange was formed from Spot sylvania. In 1740 St. Thomas was taken from St. Mark's. In 1748 Culpeper was formed from Orange. In 1752 Bromfield Parish was taken from St. Mark's. In 1792 Madison County was taken from Culpeper. In 1831 Eappahannock County was formed from Culpeper, and in 1838 the County of Greene was taken from the County of Orange. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. Besides the acknowledgments made in the body of this work, the author is under obligations to Isaac Winston, Jr., for volunteering to transcribe his entire manuscript into a fair hand—a task almost as difficult as the. interpretation of hieroglyphical char acters by Oriental scholars. 1 am indebted for a like favor to Eev. Dr. Eandolph, of Emmanuel Church, Baltimore, for volunteering to read the proof-sheets as they passed through the press; and to the Eev. Dr. Dairymple, the Hon. Hugh Blair Grigsby, Mr. E. A. Brock, of the Virginia Historical Society, Dr. Andrew Grinnan, of Madison, Mr. George Mason Williams, of Culpeper, Col. Edward McDonald, of Louisville, to the gentlemen of the press, and to many correspondents too numerous to be named, for aid and sympathy in his work. INDEX. ST. MARK'S PARISH. PAGE SIR ALEXANDER SPOTSWOOD, Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia: His Ancestry, Birth, Marriage, Administration, Death, Burial, Descendants, and Eelation to St. Mark's Parish, ... 1 ORGANIZATION OF ST. MARK'S PARISH, 6 FIRST MINISTER OF ST. MARK'S, 16 EEV. JOHN THOMPSON, 18 CULPEPER COUNTY, 23 THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA, ... 45 EEV. JOHN WOODVILLE, 49 EEV. JOHN COLE, 62 THE SUCCESSORS OF THE EEV. MR. COLE, 69 PRESENT STATUS OF THE CHURCHES IN ST. MARK'S, . 71 ST. THOMAS PARISH, Orange County, 73 BROMFIELD PARISH, 79 HISTOEICAL EXCURSIONS. THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN HORSESHOE, S3 GERMANNA, . 97 DIARY OF CAPTAIN PHILIP SLAUGHTER, beginning in 1775 and continued to 1849, 106 LEWIS LITTLEPAGE, 109 THE TOBACCO PLANT, . 114 GENEALOGIES. THE BARBOUR FAMILY, • . 118 THE CARTER FAMILY, 121 THE CAVE FAMILY, 122 THE CLAYTONS, 125 THE COLEMANS, 128 THE CONWAY FAMILY, 129 x INDEX, THE FIELDS, . 130 THE FRY FAMILY, . 132 THE GARNETT FAMILY, 134 THE GLASSELL FAMILY, . .136 THE GREEN FAMILY, 138 THE LIGHTFOOTS, 142 THE MADISON FAMILY, 144 THE PENDLETON FAMILY, 148 THE SLAUGHTER FAMILY, 157 THE SPOTSWOOD FAMILY, . 165 THE EEV. JAMES STEVENSON, . .168 THE STROTHER FAMILY, 169 THE TAYLOR FAMILY, 172 FAMILY OF THE EEV. JOHN THOMPSON, . .174 THE WILLIAMS FAMILY OF CULPEPER, 177 THE WINSTON-HENRY GENEALOGY, 183 EEV. JOHN WOODVILLE, . 192 LIEUT.-GENERAL AMBROSE POWELL HILL, 193 THE BROADUS FAMILY, .194 MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. THE BROWN FAMILY, 195 MEDICAL MEN IN CULPEPER BEFORE THE BEVOLUTION, . 195 THE LAWYERS, 196 TOWNS IN CULPEPER, 196 Stevensburg; Clerksburg, not Clarksburg; Jefferson; Spring field; Jamestown. BRICK MAKING IN VIRGINIA, 198 VESTRYMEN OF ST. MARK'S, 198 St. Mark's Parish. SIR ALEXANDER SPOTSWOOD, LlEUTENANT-GOVEKNOR OP VlEGINIA, His ANCESTRY, BIRTH, MARRIAGE, ADMINISTRATION, DEATH, BURIAL, DESCENDANTS, AND RELATION TO ST. MARK'S PARISH. A history of St. Mark's Parish, in which Governor Spotswood did not have a prominent place, would be like a portrait with the most prominent feature left out. Not only was he a sagacious statesman, a gal lant cavalier, a brave and dashing soldier; but he was also a devout Church of England man, ready to enter the lists as her champion against all comers, not excepting the vestries, who were the advocates of the people's rights, and the miniature Parliaments in which the leading statesmen of the American Revo lution were trained.