distant day. I expect to be carried, and from it I hope to see arise the bodies of some of the truest saints of the Lord, unto whom, in the adjoining temple, I was privileged to preach the blessed Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

A brief notice of the family of Burwells, so many of whom lie buried there, and of one other individual mentioned in the vestrybook as the friend and defender of the Church, and whose body was interred among his relatives, is all that I shall further say in connection with this spot. The early genealogy of this family I take from Henning's Statutes at Large, Campbell's History of Virginia, and the tombstones at Carter's Creek, in the county of Gloucester. The first of the name in this country was Major Lewis Burwell, of Carter's Creek, in Gloucester county, Virginia, who died in 1658. His wife was a Miss Higginson, whose father signalized himself in the wars with the Indians. He had two sons,Nathaniel and Lewis. Nathaniel married a daughter of Robert Carter, commonly called King Carter, by whom he had three sons and one daughter. The daughter was named Elizabeth, and married President Nelson. His sons were Lewis, Carter, and Robert Carter. Lewis was either father or grandfather of that Lewis Burwell who was President of the Council in 1750. Carter married Lucy, the daughter of John Grymes, and settled at the Grove, near Williamsburg. He was the father of Colonel Nathaniel Burwell, who moved to Frederick and built Carter Hall. The third son, Robert Carter, settled in Isle of Wight, and was the father of Nathaniel Burwell, of that county, and of Fanny, the first wife of Governor Page. His son Nathaniel was the father of Robert Carter Burwell, who moved to Frederick, of Mrs. Philip Nelson, and of their three sisters, Jane, Fanny, and Ariana, who died unmarried, and lie with their brother in the Burwell graveyard. The second son of the first of the Burwells was, as we have stated, Major Lewis Burwell. His first wife was Abigail Smith, heiress of Nathaniel Bacon, who was for many years President of the Council, and near relatives of Bacon the rebel. Hence the name of Bacon, in the Burwell family. By this marriage, he had four sons and six daughters. His second wife was the widow of the Hon. William Cole, and came from Nansemond county, by whom he had two sons and three daughters. He died in the year 1710, leaving only three sons out of the six, and six daughters out of the nine. He lived at King's Mill, or somewhere near, either in York county or James City. His son Lewis built a large house at King's Mill

and improved the place at great expense, also purchased other lands around, and a tract in the Isle of Wight; on account of which, in 1736, he obtained leave of the Assembly to dock the entail of a tract of land in King William and dispose of it. Of his numerous descendants, and of those of the other branches, we can only say that we find them settled in King William, Lancaster, Nansemond, Isle of Wight, and then moving to Frederick, Berkeley, Botetourt, Richmond City, and other places. The father of those settled in Botetourt we read of as an active member of the vestry in King William. Wherever they have gone, they have retained their attachment to the Church of their fathers, and some have entered its ministry.

I shall be excused for adding to the above a piece of family history connected with that of a high public functionary of Old Colonial Virginia, which may serve to cast some light on the state of society and of the Church at the close of the first century of our settlement. The second Lewis Burwell, as we have seen, had nine daughters, one of whom completely upset what little reason there was in Governor Nicholson of famous memory. He became inost passionately attached to her, and demanded her of her parents in royal style. Neither she, her parents, or the other members of the family, were disposed to comply. He became furious, and for years persisted in his design and claim. All around him felt the effects of his rage. The father, brothers, Commissary Blair, and the Rev. Mr. Fowace, minister of some parish near Williamsburg, were the special objects of his threatened vengeance. To the young lady he threatened the life of her father and brothers if he did not yield to his suit. This caused a friend of his in England to write a letter of remonstrance, in which he says, "It is not here as in some barbarous countries, where the tender lady is drugged into the Sultan's arms, just reeking with the blood of her nearest relatives, and yet she must strangely dissemble her aversion." ' Commissary Blair he declared that "he would cut the throats of three men if the lady should marry any other but himself,-viz.: the bridegroom, the officiating minister, and the justice who issued the license." The Rev. Mr. Fowace, in a letter to the Lord-Commissioners in England, complains, among other things, of being assaulted by Governor Nicholson one evening on his return from a visit to the family, (the Major being sick,) and ordered never again to go to this house without leave from himself. It seemed that the Governor was jealous of him. Besides abusive language and other indignities, he pulled

off the minister's hat, as being disrespectful to him even on horseback. Such was the conduct of the Governor to him in this and other respects that the Council and some of the clergy united in a petition to the Crown for his removal, which was granted. All this and much more is on record in the archives of Lambeth Palace, copies of which are before me. What was the subsequent history of the young lady who, like another Helen, was the innocent cause of so much strife, is not told. Even her Christian name is not given. I need not say that if a Governor of Virginia under our free system should assume such royal airs, the case would be much more speedily and easily disposed of by the lady, the parents, and the minister.

I promised to conclude this article with some mention of a gentleman whose name was on the vestry-book and whose body was interred in the old graveyard. That person was Mr. Edmund Randolph, a distinguished lawyer of Virginia, who was often employed by the vestries as their counsellor. Such was the case with the vestry of Frederick parish. Mr. Edmund Randolph was the son of Mr. John Randolph, once Attorney-General of the State, but who, at the breaking out of the war, preferred the royal to the republican cause, and went to England with his family. His office was given to his patriotic son Edmund Randolph, who figured so largely, as the defender of his country, in the councils of the State and of the nation, and the zealous supporter of the Church against all which he believed to be assaults upon her rights. Young Edmund Randolph was adopted by his uncle Peyton (who had no children,) and espoused the same side, both as to the Church and State, with the uncle, and was for a time the Secretary of State under General Washington. He was educated at Williamsburg, soon after Mr. Jefferson, Governor Page, and other distinguished men of Virginia. It was a period of growing infidelity at that college, and Mr. Randolph was for a time somewhat tinctured with it, as he himself told me toward the close of his life. I can never forget the manner in which he described the effect of a little flattery from one of the leaders of the new school, for some doubts expressed by him as to the truth of Christianity or of some of its doctrines. That leader patted him on the head, calling him a promising youth for the utterance of so independent a thought. The pressure of that hand, he said, was felt for a long time afterward. But he happily escaped the infidelity which soon deluged the State, and joined Mr. Peyton Randolph, Robert C. Nicholas, Judge Pendie

ton, Governor Page, and others, in defending the Church and religion. He was not only engaged by different vestries in special cases, as in the parish of Frederick, but was counsel for the whole Church in that great question of the constitutionality of the law which took away the Church property, and which was lost to the Church by the sudden death of Judge Pendleton. Mr. Randolph informed me that he had read that opinion and decision which was drawn by Judge Pendleton, the President of the court, and, as I think, that it was among his papers. Since his death I have repeatedly inquired for it, but was informed that neither among his papers nor those of Judge Pendleton was it to be found. It has always been said that the document was in the pocket of Judge Pendleton when he was suddenly struck dead on the morning of the day on which it was to have been used. The latter days of Mr. Randolph's life were spent chiefly at his son-in-law's, Mr. Bennett Taylor's, of Frederick county. I saw him during this period, and conversed with him on religious subjects, in which he seemed to take a deep interest. McKnight's Commentary on the Epistles came out about this time, and Mr. Randolph, who had probably never been much conversant with such books, became passionately fond of it, and sometimes talked of preparing and publishing some selections from it, or an abridgment of it, that others might enjoy the pleasure he had experienced in some of its elucidations of Scripture, which seemed to him, to use his own language, like a new revelation on some dark points. Mr. Randolph died at Carter Hall, the seat of Colonel Nathaniel Burwell, of Frederick county, and lies buried in the old graveyard by the side of Mrs. Taylor and her husband. I close by referring in anticipation to a topic which at some later stage of this work I purpose to notice more fully. I have said above that the time of Mr. Randolph's residence at William and Mary was one of growing infidelity. I was not aware until lately that infidelity was of so recent an origin in Virginia. In the year 1723 the Bishop of London addressed a circular to all the clergy of Virginia, with a view of ascertaining the state of religion in all the parishes. Among the questions was the following:-Are there any infidels in your parish? Irvariably the reply was, none but the Indians and negroes. An infidel among those who had been brought up in the Christian faith was an unhappy being not then known in Virginia. The great deep of the French Revolution had not then begun to be broken up. Even France was not then infidel. I could scarce

believe those uniform responses of the clergy of Virginia, registered as they are in the archives of our Mother-Church, and copies of which are before me, until I came to another record of a somewhat later date, which tells of the introduction of the first infidel book which came over to Virginia. It was entitled, "A Plain Instruction." The fact is communicated to the authorities in England, by a letter or letters from the authorities here, as a most dreadful one.