proper, he allows us to put his name down to any notification to our brethren.

"As we have been so long undetermined, nothing, I think, can be done this winter. Should business, or your inclinations, lead you to this city in April, pray send me previous notice of it, that I may inform some of the gentlemen in this neighbourhood. Your presence may rouse us from ou lethargy; and for my own part, if you should think a memorial to the House expedient, I will give it my hearty concurrence, or any other plan you may adopt.

"I am, dear sir, with real esteem
"Your most obedient servant,
"JOHN BUCHANON.

"RICHMOND, February 2, 1784."

Nothing could better exhibit the true condition of things in Virginia than this correspondence. Dr. Buchanon acknowledges that the clergy had brought this ruin upon themselves by their own misconduct. Guilt-stricken, they were afraid and ashamed to come forward boldly and call upon the Legislature to do something for the cause of religion and morals, which were both declining. It never seemed to enter into the thoughts of some, as a possibility, to do any thing on the voluntary principle, independent of the State, so accustomed were they to the old English system. Whether any such meeting as that proposed by Dr. Griffith ever took place, I have not the means of ascertaining. In the winter of 1785, the Legislature incorporated the Episcopal Church, tendering the same privilege to others, and in the preamble states that it was done at the petition of the Episcopal clergy. How many united in it, and whether it was done at a general meeting called for the purpose, I know not. In May of that year, 1785, the first Convention of clerical and lay deputies met in Richmond, under the Act of incorporation. Mr. Griffith, being there, was appointed a delegate to the General Convention in Philadelphia that fall. The second Virginia Convention was held in May, 1786, when the Rev. Dr. Griffith was chosen Bishop, by a vote of thirty-two members. Dr. Bracken received ten, and Mr. Samuel Shield seven. An assessinent was made upon the parishes for funds to bear the expenses of his visit to England for consecration; but such was the depressed condition of the Church, that a sufficiency was not raised, either in that year or the two succeeding ones. In May, 1789, Mr. Griffith resigned his claim upon the office, and in the summer of that year died at the house of Bishop White, while attending the General Convention. At the following Convention, the Rev. James Madison was chosen Bishop by a vote of forty-five, -the Rev. Samuel Shield having nine. To the shame of the Church of Virginia, in that day be it

said, sufficient funds were not raised for Bishop Madison's consecration. A part was drawn from his private resources, and that worthy man, Graham Franks, of London, of whom we have before spoken as the warm friend of the Church of Virginia, and whose wife lies buried in old York graveyard, contributed five guineas toward it.

List of the Vestrymen.

John West, Wm. Payne, Jr., Wm. Adams, John Dalton, Thomas Wren, Edward Duling, Daniel French, Thomas Shaw, Townshend Dade, Richard Sanford, Charles Broadwater, Edward Blackburn, James Wren, Henry Gunnel, John West, Jr., Richard Conway, Henry Darne, John Hunter, Charles Alexander, Presley Cox, Wm. Chapman, Townshend Hooe, Wm. Herbert, Thomas Triplett, George Gilpin, Wm. Browne, Bryan Fairfax, Robert Powell, Wm. Syles, David Stewart, John Courts, Wm. Hunter, Roger West, John Jackson, Benjamin Harris, Lewis Hipkins, George Gilpin, Nicholas Fitzhugh, Robert T. Hooe, Baldwin Dade, Philip R. Fendall, James P. Nicholls, Ludwell Lee, Wm. Fitzhugh, George Taylor, John Roberts, George Deneale, Daniel McClean, H. Smoot, John Tinker, Edmund I. Lee, Charles Simms, Charles Alexander, Jr., John Tucker, James Kieth, Wm. S. Moore, Cuthbert Powell, John Muncaster, Jonah Thompson, Thomas Swann, Tristam Dalton, Augustin J. Smith, William Hodgson, Anthony Crease, Richard M. Scott, Francis Adams, Wm. H. Fitzhugh, James Kieth, Jr., James H. Hooe, Craven Thompson, Thomas Semmes, Horatio Clagget, Noblet Herbert, Newton Keene, John Roberts, Bernard Hooe, Wm. Herbert, Peyton Thompson, John Lloyd, J. J. Frobell, Wm. Fowle, J. A. Washington, James Atkinson, J. H. Crease, W. C Page, Edward Latham, R. H. Claggett, W. F. Alexander, Daniel Minor, George Johnson, Guy Atkinson, Cassius F. Lee, Solomon Masters, Wm. Morgan, Richard C. Mason, George Fletcher, James Irwin, J. Grubb, General John Mason.

The following names, not in the old vestry-book, have been furnished me:

Louis A. Cazenove, William W. Hoxton, William L. Powell, Edgar Snowden, Edward C. Fletcher, William G. Cazenove, Henry C. Neale, John J. Lloyd, Reuben Johnston, Charles H. Lee, William C. Yeaton, Richard C. Smith, Thomas C. Atkinson, Lawrence B. Taylor, Henry W. Vandegrift, John Crockford, Douglass R. Semmes.

Concerning two of the above-mentioned vestrymen I may be permitted to say a few words. Mr. George Taylor and Edmund I. Lee were churchwardens when I took charge of Christ Church in 1811, and so continued until the removal of one by a change of residence, and the other by death, after a long term of service. They were both of them members of the Standing Committee during the same period. I think I knew them well, and knew them to be sincere Christians, and useful, punctual business-men. Mr. Taylor,

I think, nearly reached his century of years, his step still elastic and form erect and countenance fine and temper unruffled,-walking between Washington and Alexandria without weariness almost to the last, and lifting up a distinct voice in the utterance of those prayers in which he delighted,-dying, as he had lived, in the faith of the Gospel. Mr. Lee generally attended on State Conventions, and sometimes the General Convention. He was a man of great decision and perseverance in what he deemed right,--obstinate, some of us thought, even to a fault, when we differed from him. There was no compromise at all in him, with any thing which he thought wrong. He was as fearless as Julius Cæsar. On a certain Sabbath, while I was performing service in Christ Church, a certain person in the gallery disturbed myself and the congregation by undue vociferation in the responses, and also at the opening of the sermon. I paused, and requested him to desist, and was proceeding, but Mr. Lee, who was near him, arose and asked me to suspend the sermon. Walking toward the offender, he told him that he must leave the house. As he approached to enforce it, the person raised a loaded whip and struck at him. Mr. Lee, nothing moved, took him by the arms and led him out of the house, and deposited him in the town jail. When mayor of the town, he was a terror to evil-doers. Ascertaining that there was much gambling going on among the gentlemen of the place, and some of the principal ones, he took effective measures for their discovery, brought between thirty and forty before the court, and had them fined. The prosecuting attorney was his particular friend, and was slightly implicated in the evil practice; but he did not spare him. Nor did he wish to be spared, but, coming forward and paying his fine, then did his duty with all the rest. Mr. Lee was of course not a popular man, nor did he seek or care to be, but did his duty entirely regardless of all others. He kept our Conventions in good order, by always insisting upon the observance of rules of which the clergy are not always mindful. He was the great advocate of our Bishops' fund, and defended it from all invasions. I not only knew Mr. Lee from my youth up, but I saw him in his last moments, and heard him with the truest humility speak of himself as a poor sinner, whose only hope was in Christ. And can I speak of him without remembering that meek and holy woman to whom he was so long a most affectionate husband? She was the daughter of that Christian patriot, Richard Henry Lee. For more than thirty years she was gradually dying of consumption, and yet in such a way as to admit of the exhibition of all her Christian graces in

the various relations of life. By universal consent, she was one of the purest specimens of humanity sanctified by the grace of God.

P.S.-It was in this parish that the question of the right of the Church to the glebes, which had been determined against the Church in the Virginia courts, was reconsidered. Being brought before the Supreme Court, the former decision was reversed, so far as the glebe in Fairfax parish was concerned. The opinion of the court, which was drawn up by Judge Story, of Massachusetts, may be seen in the Appendix.

From Sparks's Life of Washington.

"After the French War, while in retirement at Mount Vernon, Washington took a lively interest in Church affairs, regularly attending public worship, and being at different times a vestryman in two parishes.

"The following list of votes for vestrymen in Fairfax parish and Truro parish is copied from a paper in Washington's handwriting, and shows that he was chosen a vestryman in each of those parishes. How long he continued in that station, I have no means of determining. The place of worship in Fairfax parish was at Alexandria; in Truro parish, at Pohick; the former ten, the latter seven, miles from Mount Vernon.”

Vestry chosen for Fairfax parish, 28th March, 1765, with the
number of votes for each.

Vestry chosen for Truro parish, 22d July, 1765, with the number

of votes for each.

ARTICLE LXX.

St. Paul's Church, Alexandria and Cameron and Shelburne Parishes, Loudon County.

WE have already said that St. Paul's Church grew out of a difference between the Rev. Mr. Gibson and the congregation of Christ Church, in 1809. There were worthy persons in the vestry and congregation who thought that Mr. Gibson's apology for the manner in which he resigned his charge ought to have been accepted, and that he should have been allowed to withdraw his resignation and continue his ministry. The majority of the vestry thought otherwise, and that it would be better to let the connection be dissolved. Some of the vestry and of the congregation thought that the harshness of manner and language sometimes apparent in his discourses proceeded from an honest zeal, which made him speak very differently from the tame way and courteous strain of the old clergy, and therefore determined to form a new congregation. They accordingly purchased a small vacant church belonging to the Presbyterian denomination, and commenced services in it. On the 23d of January, 1810, a vestry was organized, consisting of Daniel McLean, Lawrence Hooff, James B. Nicholls, Mark Butts, Nathaniel C. Hunter, John Young, Joseph Thomas, Adam Lynn, Joseph Thornton, John Hooff, Thomas West Peyton, to whom at different times, until the year 1832, have been added Charles Page, Thomas Moore, Augustin Newton, Ferdinand Mastellar, John Gird, Lawrence. Lewis, Humphrey Peake, W. C. Gardiner, James Entwisle, Isaac Cannell, Christopher Neale, George Johnson, Norman Fitzhugh, Silas Reed, Lewis A. Cazenove, Benjamin I. Fendall, Bernard Hooe, Charles Koones, William Fowle, Lewis Hooff, Anthony MeLean, Geo. U. Smoot, William H. Fowle, James Green, Dr. Isaac Winston, Francis L. Smith, Stephen Shinn, David Funsten, Orlando Fairfax, Silas Reed, George Brent, Bernard Hooe, &c.

MINISTERS OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH.

The Rev. Mr. Gibson resigned in the month of September, 1811. In the following February the Rev. Wm. Wilmer entered upon the charge and continued in it until the 19th of October, 1826, when