blessing of God on honest industry and the having of moral and religious ancestors as infinitely better. He did not, in a proud spirit, boast of his own achievements, saying,

"Nam genus et proavos, et quæ non fecimus ipsi,

Vix ea nostra voco,"

but humbly ascribed all merit and success to God.

Of a renowned and wealthy ancestry we have no reason to be proud: for a pious one we ought to be thankful to God; for he has promised his mercy to thousands descended from such. To be descended from a Lord Nelson or a George IV., a Cromwell or a Bonaparte, with all their honours and offices, while their characters were stained with crimes of deepest dye, is not to be coveted; but to be descended from such virtuous and religious patriots as were some of those who achieved the independence of America, is a lawful gratification, though we have no reason to be proud of or to value ourselves on account of that. If at any time we are tempted to think highly of ourselves at the thought of worthy ancestors, it would be well to remember that, by going a little further back, we may find ourselves in company with some of the most ignoble and base of the human family. We should, indeed, ever bear in mind that all of us must trace our origin to two most notorious transgressors who were driven into evil from one of the richest and most beautiful lands on earth. Such exiles are we, their descendants, to this day, before that God with whom not only a thousand days, but a thousand generations, are but as one.

Having said thus much of a family two of whose members—Mr. William Pendleton and his son-contributed so much as lay readers to the sustaining the Church at Hedgesville, I should be inexcusable not to make some record of the character and services of one of the most honest and upright specimens of humanity, in the person of Colonel Edward Colston, in the same neighbourhood, who also was a most efficient lay reader, as well as promoter of every good work in the parish and in the diocese. Whether we view him as a member of the parish, of the diocese, or General Convention, or the State Legislature, or Congress, as husband, father, master, neighbour, or friend, he was the same open, manly, consistent person. You always knew where to find him on every question. As was said by one of General Hamilton, "he carried his heart in his hand, and every one might see it." Though through life often pressed in his pecuniary affairs,-but this no fault of his own, he made a conscience of setting apart a due portion to the cause of religion and charity. On one occasion, when he had lost

a most valuable mill by fire, before I could condole with him on the event, he enclosed to me a share of bank-stock worth seventy-five dollars, requesting me to apply it to some good object, and saying that perhaps he had withholden something which was due to other objects besides his family, and God had taken away from him a portion of what was put in his hands as a steward, considering him unworthy of the trust. I may also appeal to all his neighbours, if in his intercourse with them he did not display the same simplicity and friendliness which so remarkably characterized his uncle, Judge Marshall, and his venerable mother, who was a softened image of that uncle both in person and character. I might also speak of other worthy persons in that interesting parish among the Robinsons, Hedges, and Coxes, who contributed after a time to build the present larger church at Hedgesville, and one not far off on Back Creek; but I must hasten to the more particular mention of one in whom they are all deeply interested, as having been even more than an ordinary minister to their fathers and mothers.

ARTICLE LXXIV.

Norbourne Parish, Berkeley County.—No. 2.

In a previous article I spoke of Morgan's Chapel, in old Frederick county and parish, and of Morgan Morgan as lay reader there and elsewhere. The site of that chapel is near the dividing line between Frederick and Berkeley, and the family of Morgans has always been round about it. The foundation of the old chapel may still be seen in the graveyard, though two churches have since. been built within a few paces of it. The following family sketch is taken from a pamphlet published many years since by the Rev. Benjamin Allen, and is so much better than any thing from my pen, that I shall make no apology for borrowing it :

"MORGAN MORGAN.

"It is but justice to departed piety to hold up to the view of survivors its beauty and its value. Affection to the living also prompts us to depict the character of the Christian dead, in order that their holy examples may light others the way to happiness and peace. Actuated by these motives, we present our readers with an obituary of Morgan Morgan, a man by many of them respected and beloved already. Colonel Morgan Morgan, the father of him we propose to notice, was a native of Wales, whence he emigrated in early life to the then Province of Pennsylvania. There he married, and there his first son was born, in the year of our Lord 1715. Thence, about the year 1726, he removed to Virginia, to the place where his descendants now reside, in the county of Berkeley. He there erected the first cabin built on the Virginia side of the Potomac, between the Blue Ridge and the North Mountains. Of course the country was a wilderness, the dwelling-place of bears, wolves, and Indians. But in this wilderness did he find the God of the Christians present, for here, in the spirit of the patriarchs, did he wait upon Him, and here did he experience His providential care.

"În or about the year 1740, he-associated, as we are informed, with Dr. John Briscoe and Mr. Hite-erected the first Episcopal Church in the valley, at what is now called Mill Creek, or Bunker's Hill. In that building he had the satisfaction of seeing his son, Morgan Morgan, (who was born to him March 20, 1737,) perform the service of the Church as lay reader at the early age of sixteen. With the religious education of this son he appears to have taken peculiar care. He took him with him in his usual visits to the sick and dying. At seventeen, he induced him to act as clerk to the Rev. Mr. Meldrum, then rector of the parish at Winchester. He lived a pattern of piety and good citizenship until the advanced age of seventy-eight, when, under the roof of his son Morgan, he

breathed his spirit into the hands of his Creator. The close of his life was spent in close communion with his God, in fitting himself for the change at hand, and in impressing the precious Gospel on the minds of his descendants. When on the bed of death, so anxious was he for the pious walk of his children, that he thus expressed himself:- I hoped I should have lived to see Morgan's children old enough to say their catechism and read the word of God; but I must depart.' One of his expressions, uttered with the greatest humility, was, 'Lord Jesus, open the gates of heaven and let me in.' He fell asleep in that Jesus, leaving on the countenance of death the smile of the triumphant soul. He died the 1st of November, 1766.

"The mantle of the father was caught by the son. Morgan Morgan, the subject of our present notice, lived also a pattern of piety. He served his fellow-citizens in various public capacities. He officiated as clerk for the successive rectors of the parish, and as lay reader when there was no rector. He was the friend of the needy, and the comforter of the afflicted. Was any one sick with so contagious a disorder that their neighbours fled from them with alarm, Morgan Morgan was ready to attend their house of suffering, and to watch over their bed. In public ministrations, he officiated chiefly in his immediate neighbourhood, until within a few years of the close of his life, when, in consequence of the destitute state of the country generally, he was often called far from home to perform the religious duties proper for a layman. At length, from the frequency of those calls, he gave himself entirely to the work of a labourer in the vineyard. While the Church to which he belonged exists in this land, his labours will be remembered with gratitude. In a dark day, when desolation and death seemed brooding over her interests, he commenced a career of active exertion, which revived the attachment of her friends and kept her from descending to the dust. Though encumbered with the weight of years, and but a layman, he, by constant exhortation and incessant labours of love, through the blessing of God, impressed the minds of many of the young with the truths of the Gospel, and revived the spirit of piety generally in the land. Through Jefferson and Berkeley, and part of Frederick, Hampshire, and Maryland, his labours extended. He visited alike the mansions of the rich and the cottages of the poor,-everywhere acting in the spirit of a crucified Master. To the prosperous he was the messenger of warning, to the afflicted, of consolation. Many are there now living, who can testify to his faithfulness; many are there, we trust, in heaven, who have hailed him as their spiritual father. His course through this country may be traced by the fruits of his labour,-fruits that still arise to call him blessed. He died, as he had lived, in the faith of his Redeemer. He was buried at the Mill Creek Church, which was named, after him, Morgan's Chapel."

Mr. Morgan died in the year 1797. An excellent sermon was preached on the occasion by Dr. Balmaine, of Winchester. He does ample justice to his personal piety, his active zeal, and his evangelical views, as displayed in the sermons which he read. To the latter I can testify. I have a large number of the sermons which he used as lay reader, and have read not a few of them. They are faithful, and deeply experimental. He has evidently

compiled some of them from various authors, and adapted them to the occasions on which they were preached. By the notes on the outside leaf, they appear to have been preached at funerals, in private houses, on thanksgiving-days, on the first opening of Morgan's Chapel, and other special subjects. Had all the sermons preached in Virginia, from its first settlement, been like these, and all the ministers and readers been like Morgan Morgan, the history of the Church of Virginia would have been different from that which truth now requires it to be. So well calculated was he for the ministry, and so esteemed by the people whom he served, that they united in a letter of recommendation to some Bishop, (supposed to be Bishop Madison, not long before Mr. Morgan's death,) begging that he might be ordained as their pastor, notwithstanding his deficiency in human learning. The paper lies before me, and is very strong in his praise. His age, infirmities, and the distance to be travelled, prevented his application. The effect of his example and ministrations has been felt to this day, where his services were more frequent, and are to be seen especially among his own descendants, who have been among the chief supporters of the church at Mill Creek, or Bunker's Hill. At my last visit there, a few months since, the congregation was called to mourn the sudden death of one of his grandsons, William G. Morgan, who had followed the pious example of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. I mention, as one of the effects of Morgan Morgan's example and exhortations upon his descendants and neighbours, that when Mr. Allen first visited the neighbourhood he found no difficulty, though twenty years after the death of this good man, in raising a large catechetical class, among whom were full-grown young men and women, repeating the Church catechism and hearing it explained. This my eyes have seen, in a public tavern at Bunker's Hill, the old church being unfit for use.

Having thus brought the history of the ministers and churches of Norbourne parish to the time when, by God's blessing, a new order of things commenced, I now proceed to make mention of the chief instrument by which the revival was effected. On Christmas eve, in the year 1814, a little after dark, there entered into my house a gentleman who introduced himself to me as Mr. Allen, from New York, with letters of introduction from Bishop Moore and Dr. Wilmer, certifying that he was a candidate for Orders, and wished employment in the valley as a lay-reader. Although the roads were in their worst condition, much rain having fallen, he had in two short days walked from Alexandria to my house, about sixty