upon, and afterward served in a tannery for the purpose of dressing hides.

In 1760, we find the Rev. William Giberne officiating in this parish. Whether he was removed by death or otherwise we cannot ascertain; but his residence here was a brief one;* for at the close of the year 1761, the Rev. James Marye, Jr., having just entered into Orders, commenced his ministry in Orange. His first recorded official act to which we are able to refer was his preaching the funeral sermon of the paternal grandmother of President Madison. We find in the family record of her son (James Madison, Sen.) the following entry:-"Frances, wife of Ambrose Madison, departed this life October 25, 1761, and was interred the Sunday following, (at Montpelier in Orange.) Her funeral sermon was preached on Wednesday the 30th of December following, by the Rev. Mr. James Marye, Jr., on Revelations xiv. 13." Mr. Marye was a worthy exception to a class of clergy that obtained in Virginia in olden time. So far as we can learn, he was a man of evangelical views and sincere piety. We have seen a manuscript sermon of his on the religious training of children, which would do honour to the head and heart of any clergyman, and whose evangelical tone and spirit might well commend it to every pious parent and every enlightened Christian. He remained in charge of this parish about six years. Upon the death of his father, (the Rev. James Marye, Sen.,) who was the minister of St. George's parish, Spottsylvania, for thirty-one years, he was chosen to supply his place,—an unmistakable evidence of the high regard in which both father and son. were held by the parishioners of St. George's. The Rev. Mr. Marye is the first minister in St. Thomas parish whose residence we can with any degree of certainty fix at the glebe. This farm, after passing through various hands since it ceased to be the property of the Church, is now by a singular coincidence in possession of one of his lineal descendants, Robert B. Marye, Esq.

The Rev. Thomas Martin succeeded Mr. Marye in 1767-68. He was a young man of merit. He came with his mother and sister to reside at the glebe; but his residence was of short duration. Death removed him from the scene of his labours and his usefulness not long after he entered upon the duties of the parish. He was followed by the Rev. John Barnett. His name occurs officially in 1771. But his connection with the parish was also of brief dura

He removed to Richmond county, Virginia.

tion, for in 1774 the Rev. John Wingate was the minister, and is the last of the ante-Revolutionary clergy whose name occurs. Whether he continued in charge of the parish during the war we have no means to verify; but circumstances justify the conclusion that, like some others of the old Colonial clergy, he surrendered his charge at the commencement of hostilities between the Colonies and the mother-country.

A period of sad depression dates from this time. For the long interval between 1774 and 1797, (twenty-three years,) the parish seems to be without a minister. The occasional services that were rendered by the Rev. Matthew Maury, of Albemarle, during the latter part of this interval, are, so far as we can see, the only ones performed by any clergyman. Mr. William Moore, a man of note in the parish at this time, a good old Churchman and an excellent reader, was generally called upon on funeral occasions to read the burial service. In the first Convention of the Church in Virginia, held in 1785, we find St. Thomas parish, though without a minister, not without a representative. Mr. Thomas Barbour (father of the late Governor and of the late Judge Barbour) appeared as the delegate. In the following year the parish is again represented by Mr. Barbour, in connection with Mr. William Moore. In 1790, Thomas Barbour and J. Daniel are the delegates. In 1793, the parish is again represented by Thomas Barbour. In 1797, we find the Rev. Charles O'Niel the clerical and William Moore the lay delegate. The Rev. Mr. O'Niel took charge of the parish in the latter year, and remained until 1800. He resided first near the Pine Stake Church, and preached at that church during his residence in Orange. He afterward removed to the upper part of the county, where, as well as at his former residence, he taught school in connection with his parochial duties. The late Judge Barbour was one of his pupils. Mr. O'Niel was an Irishman, and a nan of ardent temperament and of ardent temper. We have often heard him spoken of by elderly persons, but more as a teacher than as a preacher. He was of that class of teachers that adopted not only the theory, but the practice also, of the old régime, as the best for the government of boys. Flogging was a main ingredient in the practice of his system. He had a summary method of reducing and gentling a refractory youth. Mounting him upon th с back of an athletic negro man, whom he seems to have kept for the purpose, the culprit was pinioned hand and foot as in a vice, and, with the unsparing application of the rod to his defenceless back, was taught the lesson, if not the doctrine, of passive obe

dience. However his school may have flourished under his management, it seems his parish did not, for we look in vain for any fruits of his parochial labours. Another long interval now occurs in the history of the parish, without any one to take the regular oversight of its spiritual interests. The Rev. Matthew Maury again kindly extended his care to this neglected field, and performed occasional services in it at least as late as 1806. In 1809-11, we find the Rev. Hugh Coran Boggs, of Berkeley parish, Spottsylvania, devoting a portion of his time to Orange. He preached at the Pine Stake Church and also at the court-house. We have often heard it said, that when he preached at the latter place he was never known to use the Liturgy. This may have been owing to the difficulty he met with in procuring the responses. He may have rightly judged the lex necessitatis to be a "higher law" and of more stringent force than any canon or rubric to the contrary. From 1811 to 1815 the parish was again without a minister. In the latter In the latter year, the Rev. William Hawley, coming to reside at Culpepper Court-House, took charge of St. Thomas parish in connection with St. Stephen's Church, Culpepper. At the time he commenced his labours in Orange, the Episcopal Church had wellnigh died out in the county. But three or four communicants remained in all this region of country, and some of these were far advanced in age. So entirely had our time-honoured service gone into desuetude, that when Mr. Hawley first commenced its use it was listened to as a striking novelty. Under his ministry there began to appear the dawn of a brighter day for the Church. Several communicants were added; some of whom, in the providence of God, still remain with us. In the autumn of 1816, Bishop Moore made his first visitation of the parish, preached and administered the Lord's Supper, and also the rite of Confirmation, in the court-house. This was now our usual— nay, our only-place of worship. Referring to this visitation, the Bishop, in his report to the following Convention, says, "My labours commenced in the county of Orange, at which place I preached to a large and attentive auditory, celebrated the Lord's Supper, and administered the rite of Confirmation to a goodly number." The visit of the good Bishop, as well from its novelty as its effectiveness, was calculated to make, and did make, a great impression at the time. It was an event of unusual solemnity, and is still remembered with lively interest by some who were present. This was the first Episcopal visitation that had ever been made, and this the first time the rite of Confirmation had ever been administered, in the parish. Bishop Madison, it appears, was in the

The

habit of visiting his relatives at Montpelier, socially, from time to time, but we learn from undoubted authority that he never visited the parish in his Episcopal capacity. Among the "goodly number" confirmed by Bishop Moore on this occasion was the aged mother of President Madison. She became a communicant at the age of twenty, and now at the age of fourscore and four she came forward to ratify her early baptismal vows. Until that day an opportunity had never presented itself for the reception of this solemn and sacred rite. The ministry of Mr. Hawley was evidently blessed during his connection with the parish; but the growing interest in religion and the Church which now became manifest was checked at this auspicious period by his removal in 1817 to another field of labour. In 1820, the Rev. Herbert Marshall came to Culpepper and devoted some of his time to Orange. This worthy young minister married the sister of the present Bishop of Kentucky. parish was very soon deprived of the benefit of his labours. Death ended his usefulness not long after he came to this part of the diocese. For about two years from 1823, the Rev. Frederick Hatch, of Albemarle, had the oversight of the congregation in Orange, officiating once a month at the court-house. In the winter of 1826-27, the Rev. George A. Smith came to reside in Culpepper, and took charge of St. Thomas parish in connection with St. Mark's. He continued in charge until 1830, and devoted two Sundays in the month to the congregation at Orange CourtHouse. While it appears the attendance on divine service was good and the congregations attentive during the time he officiated here, yet at this period the interests of the parish were at a low ebb. In his report to Convention in 1828, Mr. Smith says, "There is no vestry in this parish, and the churches which existed there some years since have been destroyed." A decided improvement, however, in the spiritual interests of the congregation took place under his ministry, and several communicants were added to the Church. In the early part of August, 1832, the Rev. William G. H. Jones, coming on a visit, was induced to take up his residence in Orange, and to undertake the pastoral care of the parish together with Walker's Church, in Albemarle. Here he met with the AssistantBishop of the diocese, who had an appointment at Orange CourtHouse at that time. This was a most auspicious period in the history of the parish. There was found at the time of his coming a deep awakening in the hearts of many on the subject of religion; and this interest was kept alive for some time thereafter. The visit of Bishop Meade at the time was also most opportune, and was at

tended with the happiest effects. In his report to the following Convention he stated, "From Albemarle I proceeded to Orange Court-House, where I spent two days in ministering the word and ordinances to large and deeply-impressed assemblies; on the second day I administered the rite of Confirmation to seventeen persons, and the Holy Communion to more than twice that number. A spirit of earnest inquiry has been awakened among the people of that place, which will, I trust, lead to glorious results to themselves and their posterity." Of the communicants added on that occasion, Mr. Jones, in his first report from St. Thomas parish, says, “Five were added by Bishop Meade, and twelve by myself." An effort was now made to reorganize the parish. A vestry was elected-a body which had not existed in the parish for many years-and steps were shortly after taken for the building of a church. In 1833, a spacious and eligible lot in the village was selected, and a neat church-edifice of brick was commenced and completed the fol lowing year, at the cost of three thousand five hundred dollars. The Rev. Mr. Jones continued in Orange until the summer of 1840.

In January, 1841, the present minister took charge of the parish. Since that time there have been alternate seasons of prosperity and adversity in the congregation. Yet, in the face of some discouragements, both the communion and the congregation have steadily increased. Mr. Jones, in his last report to Convention from St. Thomas's Church, gave thirty-four as the number of communicants: the number now reaches ninety. In 1853, to accommodate the increasing congregation, the church-edifice was enlarged, and at the same time both the exterior and interior were much improved. When we look back at the depressed state to which the parish was reduced, and compare it with what it now is, we cannot but exclaim, "What hath God wrought!" and to add, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name, give glory." If we except the interval between 1797 and 1800, during which the Rev. Mr. O'Niel resided in Orange, the parish was without a resident minister from 1774 to 1832. Nowhere, during the long and dreary night through which the Church in Virginia was made to pass, was the darkness more distinctly visible than in Orange. With but three or four communicants left, and they far advanced in age,— with her substantial church-edifices, erected in Colonial times, utterly destroyed,-with the graves of her once honoured servants, who ministered at her altars, dismantled and insulted,-with her time-hallowed Liturgy, so dear to every true-hearted Churchman,