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all that I have been able to learn is from the Act of Assembly in 1755, by which the parish of St. Patrick is established in the county of Prince Edward. It seems that the county of Prince Edward had been separated from Amelia the previous year, and from that part. of it in which the parish of Nottoway lay, but no new parish was then cut off from it and established in Prince Edward. But now, in 1775, the parish of St. Patrick is taken from Nottoway and made to correspond with the bounds of Prince Edward. At a later period (1788) Nottoway county is established, corresponding, I presume, with the bounds of old Nottoway parish in Amelia. The Act speaks of two new churches being recently built in the lower part. of Nottoway parish, and requires the parish to refund a portion of the money which had been raised from the whole parish for their erection, to be refunded to the new parish in Prince Edward. Where these churches are situated, and what were their names, and what others had been there before, I am unable to say.*

ST. PATRICK'S PARISH, PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY.

We have seen that the county was established in 1754 and the parish in 1755. In the year 1758 the Rev. James Garden is its minister. We find him there also in 1773,-fifteen years after. In the years 1774 and 1776 the parish has no minister. In the years 1777 and 1778 the Rev. Archibald McRoberts was the minister. We have already spoken of his relinquishment of our ministry in the year 1779. With his ministry Episcopal services no doubt

* I have an old leaf from a vestry-book, without the name of the parish on it, in which I find the Rev. John Brunskill minister in 1753, Major Thomas Tabb and Major Peter Jones churchwardens, William Craioby, Wood Jones, William Archer, Kichard Jones, and Samuel Cobb, vestrymen. This must certainly be a part of the old vestry-book of Raleigh parish, and Mr. Brunskill must have been its minister in 1753. In the following year (1754) he was certainly in another parish, and Mr. Druson in this. He must have returned to this before the year 1773, or else one of the same name, for there were three John Brunskills in Virginia at this time.

"In the year 1829 or 1830," writes a friend, while riding with a friend from Prince Edward Court-House to Nottoway Court-House, I noticed, near to a farmhouse on the road, a barn of singular appearance. 'Yonder barn,' I remarked, looks much like some of the old Colonial churches I have seen.' 'It was a church of the Old Establishment,' was his reply. The present owner of the farm, (which I think had been the glebe,) finding it vacant and on land which was once a part of the tract he purchased, and as it was near his house, had it put on rollers and removed to its present position for the use you see. There was no one to forbid the sacrilege, or, if so, it was without avail; but the act, I believe, is condemned by the general sentiment of this community as that of a coarse-minded, unscrupulous votary of mammon." "

ceased in Prince Edward, as we see no representative, either clerical or lay, in any Convention.

There were in Mr. McRoberts's time three churches in Prince Edward, one of which, or the congregation thereof, separated with him. Their names were-1st. The Chapel or Watkins's Church, about eighteen miles from Prince Edward Court-House, on the Lynchburg Road, which was the one whose congregation followed Mr. McRoberts in his movement toward an Independent Church. It is now occupied by different denominations. 2d. French's Church, which was about a mile from the court-house and is now gone down. 3d. Sandy River Church, on Sandy River, about eight miles from the court-house on the Petersburg Road. This last church is now, I am told, occupied by the Baptist denomination. I have in my possession a pamphlet of some twenty-two pages, containing an account of a controversy concerning it between the Methodists and Baptists in the years 1832-34. When deserted by the Episcopalians it had been repaired by general subscription, and at several different times occupied as a free church. In the year 1832 the Baptists obtained a title to it and claimed sole right to it, though not refusing to allow the Methodists the use of it at such times as the owners might choose. The Methodists were unwilling to accept these terms, and much unhappy disputation ensued. At one time two ministers of each denomination met on the same day and were in the pulpit together, and the vote of the congregation as to who should preach was taken. The matter was referred to two men eminent in the law,-Judge Thomas Bouldin and Mr. Charles Smith. They determined that the deed recently given to the Baptists was not good, that the one given to the churchwardens at the first creation of the church was the legal title, and that it belonged now to the Commonwealth of Virginia, unless there was an older and better title than that of those who made one to the churchwardens, and to this they were inclined, and therefore advised that the line be run in order to decide the point. A line was run, and it passed through the church; and so a part of it only was legally the property of the churchwardens and afterward of the Commonwealth. The result was that the Baptists retained possession, though the Methodists maintained that a wall might be raised through the church according to the line run; but it was not done. If either Mr. Chapman Johnson's opinion-that the churches were the property of Episcopalians-was true, or that of Judge Bouldin and Mr. Smith, then, in the first case, the Episcopalians in the county ought to have been applied to to decide the question, cr

else the public authorities, either of which would, I think, have settled it more amicably and more to the honour of religion. Other unhappy disputes have occurred concerning our old churches in other places. I knew of one where, after much strife between two denominations, the church was set up by them to the highest bidder. Who gave the title, or what was it worth? About another, two parties preached in different pulpits,-one in the old Episcopal pulpit and the other in a new one in a different part of the church. So far from their being always respected as equally common property, I have myself been refused admission into one, while on an Episcopal visitation, by those who claimed it by the right of use. In relation to the suggestion that the Episcopalians in Prince Edward were the most proper persons to decide the question as to the occupancy of Old Sandy River Church, if it be said that there were scarcely any left unto whom application might have been made, I reply that, from all the information I have been able to get, there have always been some few of high respectability there. One at least there was, whose firm attachment to the Church, yet catholic spirit to all others, and great weight of character, were felt and acknowledged by all. I allude to Mr. William Berkeley, son of the old lady of Hanover who bade the overseers of the poor who sent a deputation to her for the Communion-plate to come themselves and take it. He inherited all his mother's devotion to the Church, and when at our Conventions, and on other occasions, opportunity was presented for displaying it, never failed to do so. He was not, however, a bigot to a particular Church, but loved the whole Catholic Church. In evidence of which, being in the providence of God placed beyond the reach of an Episcopal place of worship, and near the Presbyterian College in Prince Edward, he not only attended the religious services held there, but was an active member of the board of trustees thereof. For a long period of time he presided over that board, fulfilling the duties of his station faithfully, and yet always having it distinctly understood that he was a true son of the Episcopal Church. So amiable, pious, and dignified a Christian gentleman as he was is not easily found.

In the list of vestrymen in Brunswick, Lunenburg, Halifax, and elsewhere, we meet with certain persons some of whose descendants are enrolled on other registers than those of the Episcopal Church, such as Read, Venable, Watkins, Carrington, Cabell, Morton, &c., and we know not where in the progress of our work we can more properly introduce some notice of them than in connection with

Prince Edward county and the College of Hampden-Sydney. We have seen how the Presbyterians from Ireland and Scotland, settling first in Pennsylvania, began to emigrate to the Valley of Virginia about the year 1738,-how, under Mr. Samuel Davies, they were established in Hanover and some parts around between 1740 and 1750. From thence, in a short time, they found their way into what is now Charlotte and Prince Edward, and made strong and permanent settlements there. This was in a great measure effected by the establishment of Hampden-Sydney College, a brief history of which, taken from the Sketches of the Presbyterian Church of Virginia, by the Rev. Mr. Foote, will best enable us to understand the subject. In the year 1774 the ministers and members of the Presbytery of Hanover determine to establish a public school in that part of the State,-Prince Edward,-understanding that they can procure the services of Mr. Samuel Stanhope Smith, then a candidate for the ministry in the New Castle Presbytery, and teacher of languages in Princeton College, afterward the distinguished President of the same. Sufficient funds being raised and a place selected, in November, 1774, Mr. Smith, with his brother, J. B. Smith, a candidate for the ministry, and a third person, are regularly chosen to commence the work. The first, being now ordained, was called also to the congregation in that place. Under this most eminent scholar and eloquent preacher and his yet more zealous and laborious brother, Mr. J. B. Smith, the institution flourished, notwithstanding all the obstacles of the In the year 1779 the elder brother resigned and accepted a call to a professorship in Princeton College. The Presidency of Hampden-Sydney devolved upon his most excellent and devoted brother, J. B. Smith, who continued to promote its welfare and the religious interests of the country around until the year 1788, when he accepted a call to a church in Philadelphia. During the Presidency of the younger Mr. Smith a charter was obtained for the College.

war.

On the list of trustees we find names to which our eyes have become familiar on the pages of the old vestry-books, as those of Carrington, Nash, Watkins, Morton, Read, Booker, Scott, Meade, Allen, Parker, Foster, Johnson. Now, though some of them were doubtless still attached to the Episcopal Church, since it was declared at the outset that the institution should be conducted “ "on the most catholic plan," and it was the best policy to enlist general favour by appointing some of the Episcopal Church, yet a considerable number of them had doubtless given in their adhesion to

the Presbyterian Church. Whereupon, ever since that time, we have found most of the above-mentioned names in each denomination.

Let these remarks introduce the following genealogy of the Reads and Carringtons, who may be regarded as common to the Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches of Virginia, though more of the former belonged to the Presbyterian and more of the latter to the Episcopal. I take them chiefly from the Rev. Mr. Foote's Sketches of the Presbyterian Church.

Colonel Clement Read (so often mentioned as the active vestryman in Brunswick and Lunenburg) was born in the year 1707. He was a trustee of William and Mary College in 1729. Being President of the Council at the departure of Governor Gooch for England, in 1749, he became Governor of the Colony, but died a few days after. He had been educated at William and Mary under Commissary Blair. He married the daughter of William Hill, an officer in the British navy and second son of the Marquis of Lans downe. Mr. Read, having, with Colonel Richard Randolph, of Curls, purchased large tracts of land in what was then Lunenburg, moved to that county and was clerk of the same for many years. He frequently served in the House of Burgesses with the great leaders of the Revolution. He died in the year 1763 and was buried at Bushy Forest. His wife was laid by his side in 1780. She was (says Mr. Foote) a pious woman and an exemplary member of the Episcopal Church. Their eldest son, Colonel Isaac Read. married a daughter of Henry Embra, (another vestryman of the Lunenburg Church,) who represented the county with his father, Clement Read. He himself represented the county with Paul Carrington, who married one of his sisters. They were both associated with Washington, Jefferson, and Henry in their patriotic movements. Paul Carrington was a zealous friend of the Episcopal Church. What were the partialities of Mr. Isaac Read, whether he followed in the footsteps of his father or not, we are unable to say. He was made colonel in a Virginia regiment, and soon after died, being laid with military honours in a vault in Philadelphia. He left a son by the name of Clement, who became a distinguished minister of the Presbyterian Church, after having for a time officiated among the Methodists. He married a descendant of Pocahontas, a Miss Edmonds, of Brunswick,-by whom he had thirteen children.

I take from the same source (Foote's Sketches) the following no tice of the Carrington family, whose members abound in this part of Virginia. Mr. Paul Carrington and his wife (who was of the

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