county, Virginia, the 30th of January, 1663. He took for his wife Han nah, the daughter of William Keene, of Northumberland, and Elizabeth his wife, and by her left two sons and four daughters, and died the 6th of February, 1719, in the 56th year of his age."

At Wilmington, the family seat of the Newtons, we have also the following inscription:

"Beneath this stone are deposited the remains of Mrs. Sarah Newton, daughter of George Eskridge, and late wife of Captain Willowby Newton, of Westmoreland county, who, after having justly established the character of a dutiful child, a faithful friend, an affectionate mother, and sincere Christian, departed this life on the 2d of December, 1753, in the 46th year of her age."

In the same graveyard is the tomb of Mrs. Elizabeth Oldham, wife of Colonel Samuel Oldham, who died in 1759, in her 72d year.

TOMBSTONES IN COPLE PARISH.

From a tombstone in the Burnt-House fields, at Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland county, where are yet to be seen the foundations of large buildings, are the following:

"Hic conditur corpus Richardi Lee, Armigeri, nati in Virginia, filii Richardi Lee, generosi, et antiqua familia, in Merton-Regis, in comitatu Salopiensi, oriundi.

"In magistratum obeundo boni publici studiosissimi, in literis Græcis et Latinis et aliis humanioris literaturæ disciplinis versatissimi.

"Deo, quem, summa observantia semper coluit, animam tranquillus reddidit xii. mo. die Martii, anno MDCCXIV. ætat. LXVIII."

"Hic, juxta, situm est corpus Lætitiæ ejusdem uxoris fidæ, filiæ Henrici Corbyn, generosi, liberorum matris amantissimæ, pietate erga Deum, charitate erga egenos, benignitate erga omnes insignis. Obiit Octob. die vi. MDCCVI. ætatis XLIX."

The first is thus translated:

"Here lieth the body of Richard Lee, Esq., born in Virginia, son of Richard Lee, Gentleman, descended of an ancient family of Merton-Regis, in Shropshire.

"While he exercised the office of a magistrate he was a zealous promoter of the public good. He was very skilful in the Greek and Latin languages and other parts of polite learning. He quietly resigned his soul to God, whom he always devoutly worshipped, on the 12th day of March, in the year 1714, in the 68th year of his age."

The second is thus translated:

"Near by is interred the body of Lettuce, his faithful wife, daughter of Henry Corbyn, Gentleman. A most affectionate mother, she was also

distinguished by piety toward God, charity to the poor, and kindness to all She died on the 6th day of October, 1706, in the 49th year of her age."

VESTRYMEN OF COPLE PARISH.

Although no vestry-book of this parish has come down to us from which we might give a connected list of the vestrymen, yet we are glad to present to our readers the result of two elections which were held in this parish,-the one in 1755, and the other in 1785. Those chosen in 1755 were John Bushrod, Daniel Tibbs, Richard Lee, Benedict Middleton, Willowby Newton, Robert Middleton, George Lee, John Newton, Samuel Oldham, Robert Carter, Fleet Cox, James Steptoe. Those chosen in 1785-thirty years after-were Vincent Marmaduke, Jeremiah G. Bailey, John A. Washington, Samuel Rust, John Crabb, Richard Lee, George Garner, George Turberville, Patrick Sanford, John Rochester, Samuel Templeman.

CONTEST ABOUT YEOCOMICO CHURCH.

During the ministry of the Rev. Mr. Ward in Cople parish, a difficulty arose as to this church, and the question was carried before the Legislature. The following letter from Judge McComas shows his opinion on the subject. The action of the Legislature was in favour of the claim of the Episcopal Church :

"TO THE REV. WM. N. WARD.

"RICHMOND, January 20, 1844.

"DEAR SIR:-You will remember that I objected sitting as a member of the Committee for Courts of Justice, whilst it was acting upon the petition in relation to Yeocomico Church, because I was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and understanding that it was the subject. of dispute between that Church and the Episcopal Church; but at your instance I did sit, but, being chairman of the committee, its action made it unnecessary for me to vote. I take this mode, however, of saying that I perfectly agreed with the committee, and even desired to go further than the committee in this. I wished to pass a law giving to the Episcopal Church all churches that it is now in possession of, to which it had a right before the Revolutionary War. I think the construction given by the committee to the Act of 1802, or at least my construction of it, is, that the General Assembly claimed for the Commonwealth the right to all the real property held by that Church, but that Act expressly forbids the sale of the churches, &c. It is true, the proviso to that Act does not confer upon the churches the right of property in the houses, &c. But it intended to leave the possession and occupancy as it then existed; and, that possession and occupancy being in the Episcopal Church, it had a right to retain it until the Legislature should otherwise direct. I believe that the Committee was of the opinion that the Episcopal Church had a right to the use and occupancy of the church now in question: it certainly is my

opinion. I hope my Methodist brethren will see the justness of the determination of the Committee, and with cheerfulness acquiesce in its decision.

"Yours very respectfully,

"DAVID MCCOMAS."

The following letter from Mr. W. L. Rogers, of Princeton, New Jersey, will form an interesting supplement to what has been said. about Old Yeocomico :

"TO THE RIGHT REV. BISHOP MEADE.

"HONOURED SIR:-The Rev. Wm. Hanson, rector of Trinity Church in this place, a few days since handed me a number of the Southern Churchman' from Alexandria, dated the 27th of February, 1857. In it is an historical sketch, from your pen, of Cople parish, Westmoreland county, Virginia, and particularly of Yeocomico Church, a spot ever near and dear to my memory. From a long and intimate acquaintance with its locality and history, I beg leave very respectfully to present the following facts. It was built in the year 1706, as an unmistakable record will show, it being engraved in the solid wall over the front-door. It was called by that name after the adjacent river,—the Indian name being preserved. The Rev. Mr. Elliot was the last settled minister up to the year 1800, when he removed to Kentucky. From that time it was wholly unused and neglected as a place of worship until the Methodists occasionally met under the shadow of its ruin about the year 1814, and continued so to do, keeping alive the spark of vital piety, until the Rev. Mr. Nelson in 1834 took charge of it as a settled minister. During his ministration it was jointly used by the Episcopalians and Methodists in Christian har mony and good-will. He being succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Ward in 1842, the question of occupancy and right of possession was unhappily agitated, which led to a decision of the Legislature giving to the wardens and vestry of the Episcopal Church the exclusive right to its use and control. Thus it will be seen, for thirty-four years there had been no settled minister of our communion, or its sublime and beautiful service performed, except two or three times by occasional visits.

"The Mr. Murphy you allude to was a Scotch gentleman from Ayrshire, living at Ayrfield, half a mile distant from Old Yeocomico, whose estate, consisting of some thousands of acres, surrounded the church and burialground on all sides. He was a gentleman of intellectual culture, an honoured magistrate, and a Presbyterian of the Covenant' school; whose residence was the seat of hospitality and the home of the clergy, with a welcome to all who proclaimed the glad tidings, that published salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth.' The Mr. Rogers you kindly allude to is the unworthy writer of these lines and the following narrative. I am a citizen of New Jersey by birth and education, (not of New York, as you incidentally state.) In the spring of 1813, I joined the 36th Regiment of United States Infantry (Colonel Carberry) at Washington. In the fall of that year, I was detached by order of General Bloomfield to Sandy Point, Westmoreland county, Virginia, on the Potomac, with a company of men to watch the movements of the British fleet. In the spring of 1814, our quarters becoming uncomfortable, we sought out an encampment in what is called there the Forest or high ground. Among

other places recommended to us by the late General Alexander Parker we visited the ruins of Yeocomico Church. As soon as I saw it, I exclaimed, 'There is Kirk-Alloway,' (alluding of course to Burns's 'Tam O'Shanter.') Had it stood for the original picture as drawn by the humorous poet, it could not have more forcibly impressed me with awe and deep-abiding interest. Its form, that of a cross,-its solitude, were strikingly impressive, for it stood in a dell where its silence was only disturbed by the passing breeze whispering through the pines and cedars and undergrowth which choked up the entrance. It was overshadowed also by ancient oaks stretching their gigantic arms, as it were, to guard the sacred relic from mouldering time and the desolating elements. Its doors were open, its windows broken, the roof partly decayed and fallen in, and, to complete its apparent hopeless fate, a pine-tree thirty or forty feet high was blown up by the roots and lay across the main structure. Its burial-ground, which is spacious, was enclosed by a costly, high brick wall, with narrow gateways, symbolical perhaps of the 'narrow path,'-filled to its utmost capacity with broken tombstones and desolate graves overgrown with briers and shrubbery, showing that the 'rich and the poor there rested together, and the servant was indeed free from his master,'alike unprotected and uncared-for. A ruin outside the wall, which was intended and once served as a vestry, had rotted down; the chimney, a strong brick one, alone standing,-a naked monument of better days. In an alcove of forest-trees a few yards distant flowed numerous springs of cool, delicious water. Indeed, it required no great stretch of imagination to fancy the midnight-scene so graphically described in Burns's Kirk-Alloway, and the race to cross the running stream (for one really flows across the main road, some hundred yards distant) where 'mare Meggie lost her tail.' With some difficulty I entered the porch, which was built of brick and formed the upper part of the cross, spacious and on a level with the ground, its massive double doorway quite open, presenting within as hopeless a ruin as its exterior, the roof rotted away at its angles, one of the galleries partly down, the girders rotted off and fallen upon the pews, and the wall in two places mouldered away by years of saturation from snow and rain. The remains of a large Bible still lay upon the desk. The font was gone,-which I was told was of marble, and now used for convivial purposes. The chancel, in the eastern arm of the cross, to the right of the pulpit, surmounted by a large Gothic window much broken, was still in tolerable preservation. In it was the Communiontable,-its frame antique, covered with a heavy walnut slab,-sound, but rough and soiled from exposure. Large frames, once covered with canvas exhibiting in distinct characters the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and other texts of Scripture, hung upon the walls, now much defaced, mouldered, and torn. The aisles were paved with brick, and covered with abundant evidence of its being the resort of sheep and cattle running at large; and, to complete the evidence of its abandonment, the ceiling-which was of boards-was tenanted by squirrels, snakes, and scorpions. Indeed, we may truly say, All its hedges were broken down by the wild boar of the wilderness,' and there was no one to care for it. Besides, I was told, it was the terror of the neighbourhood, from being the resort of runaway negroes and wandering vagrants, added to the awe inseparably connected with the lonely, silent depository of the dead. Iu contemplating the scene before me, I felt a mysterious attachment to this relic of piety and early faith of our fathers,-not dreaming (being a

stranger and a wanderer) at some future day I should be honoured and favoured by the commission to restore this temple, now in the dust, to the service of my Creator and Redeemer. We resolved at once to pitch our tents outside the wall: a fatigue-party was detailed to trim up the trees, cut down the undergrowth, and buru up the leaves and rubbish, to remove the tree which lay across the roof, to cleanse the church and repair it as far as practicable, to make it a safe depository for our stores and camp-equipage. This being done, we were presented with a shady grove, dry ground, and a most inviting and lovely prospect, with an abundance of pure, delicious water at our feet, and a central position to make nightly detachments to guard the historic shores of old Potomac,-for there rest the remains of the Washingtons, the Lees, the Parkers, and many other gallant spirits of patriotic memory. As illustrative of the actual condition of the spot I am now describing, permit me to relate an original anecdote, which occurred a short time before my visit.

"Colonel Garner, an officer of the Revolution, lived three or four miles distant: passing the church late in the evening with a friend, they were overtaken by an angry cloud of wind and rain, accompanied by lightning and thunder. The colonel proposed taking shelter in the church, leading their horses in, which they could do without difficulty, as the porch and pavement of the aisles were on a level with the ground. To this his friend positively objected, declaring he would rather bear the pelting of the storm than pass an hour within its gloomy walls. He therefore put spurs to his horse for his home. Not so with the colonel: he was a brave man, not fearing hobgoblins or witches. He dismounted at the opening in the wall, where there had once been a gate. Taking the bridle-rein in his hand, he proceeded to thread his way through the bushes to the porch. He got inside, followed by his horse, and was just entering the church, when the unusual visit frightened a flock of sheep that had taken shelter there, who suddenly rushed to the door to make their escape. The charge took the colonel by surprise, knocked him down, routed his horse, and trampled him in the dust, (for it was not paved as it now is.) After the column had passed over him, he found in the 'mêlée' he had lost his hat, and was scratched and bruised about the face and hands. Nothing daunted, however, he groped his way into the church, and, being well acquainted with its internal arrangement, he took shelter in the pulpit, where he knew was a comfortable seat, and where he would be protected from the wet by the sounding-board, made of durable materials and still firmly attached to the wall. The storm was now raging without, lightning and thundering and raining, with a tempest of wind. After sitting for a time he fell asleep and did not awake until three or four in the morning. By this time the cloud had passed over, the stars were shining, and he was glad to extricate himself by a hasty retreat homeward. He found his discomfited horse taking his rest at the stable-door.

"Our happiness at this encampment, after some months, was unexpectedly broken up by the arrival of a vessel with an order to embark for St. Mary's, Maryland. We finished our military service by assisting in the defence of Fort McHenry, Baltimore. We had the satisfaction, however, of carrying with us the united testimony of the whole neighbourhood that not a chicken, an egg, or a vegetable, had been wrongfully taken by any one of the soldiers, aor an injury or an insult offered to any one. The church and its environs had been sacredly guarded, and we left it in a much better condition than we found it. But it was not so (as I afterward learned) by our successors, a