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by the Toleration Act, reports full of hope from America reached the people of Ulster, and lured them once more to try the Atlantic. More than half a century had passed since the Eagle Wing had sailed and been driven back. Once more emigrants venture out, and the smiles of Providence are on their voyage. A part of the work for which they had been detained in Ireland was fully accomplished; and now they were sent to act an important part in the wilds of America. Ship load after ship load sailed for America from Ulster. And not a few from Derry sought the provinces in the new world. For half a century the emigration filled the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia. One lady, whose ashes repose in the oldest burying ground in the Valley of the Shenandoah, that of the Opeckon church, and whose descendants in Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee, are reckoned by scores and by hundreds, used to speak with tears of that memorable siege, and lament in bitterness "two fair brothers," whose death filled up in part the measure of sufferings at Derry. Devotedly pious herself, she is honoured by the fact, that a large proportion of her descendants have professed the religion of their mother, Mary Gamble Glass, the wife of Samuel Glass, and sister of the Gambles that settled in Augusta. And in Augusta those brothers reared families worthy of their ancestry; their names are not unknown in Virginia and the South. names of the "Apprentices" are familiar names in the Valley of the Shenandoah.

The

The principles in exercise at Derry, were the principles to fit men for subduing a wilderness, and building a State, where there should be no king, no state religion.

Note. For a more extended history of the Siege of Derry-consult Graham's History of the Siege-and Reed's History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

CHAPTER VI.

PRESBYTERIAN COLONIES IN VIRGINIA.

FOR some years after the death of Makemie there was no congregation or colony of Presbyterians in Virginia. There were families of Scotch and Scotch Irish scattered through the province engaged in trade. Their influence in the colony was small. There were some families that had connected themselves with the Presbyterian church in the time. of Makemie, but not in neighbourhoods sufficient to sustain

a pastor. The colony of persecuted French Huguenots that had been invited to Virginia, and seated on the James River a little above Richmond, and protected in their worship, had voluntarily scattered and become intermingled with the English population in the neighbouring counties. The fairest opportunity was given to the Established Church to show her power and usefulness. Could she have possessed a sufficient number of pious men devoted to the work of the ministry, such as Blair attempted to provide by the College of William and Mary, she would now be the prominent and popular church, below the head of tide water in Virginia.

The majority of the numerous Presbyterian families, in Virginia, are descendants of emigrants from Presbyterian countries in Europe. Poverty and intolerance drove them from their mother country, and the necessity of providing a frontier line of brave people west of the Blue Mountains, compelled Virginia to relax her rigor and open her borders. There was never a large colony of Scotch in Virginia, though multitudes of Scotch families have been scattered through the land. The Presbyterians in Ulster province, Ireland, found their situation less agreeable than they had reason to expect, under William and Mary, and Anne, and George 1st, and George 2d. The Episcopal Church was favoured in England, the Presbyterian in Scotland; in Ireland the Presbyterians of Ulster were taxed to support the Established Church of England, which was not more numerous or loyal. From the time of the Eagle Wing to the siege of Derry, the emigration to America had been small. In the early part of the Eighteenth Century the emigration began, and like the mighty rivers in the new world, went on in a widening and deepening current, to pour into the vast forests of America, multitudes of hardy enterprising people. All the colonies from New York southward were enriched by ship loads of these people that came with little money, but with strong hands and stout hearts, and divine principles, to improve their own condition, and bless the province that gave them a home. A few congregations were formed in the New England States; one in New Hampshire at Londonderry in 1719;-another at Pelham, Massachusetts, and a small one in Boston about 1727. Pennsylvania offered the greatest attractions; and the banks of the Delaware gave the first rest to these pilgrims of "the green isle." The beautiful unoccupied regions in Pennsylvania, east of the mountains, were soon filled with thriving congregations. Holmes tells us, that in 1729-"there arrived in Pennsylvania from Europe, 6208 persons, for the purpose of settling in that colony." Of these more than five thousand were from Ireland. Mr. Samuel Blair writing about the congregation of New Londonderry, in Fagg's Manor, states-"The congregation has not

been erected above fourteen or fifteen years from this time, (1740); the place is a new settlement, generally settled with people from Ireland, as all our congregations in Pennsylvania, except two or three, chiefly are made up of people from that kingdom." This congregation therefore must have been settled previously to the year 1726.

After the choice locations in Pennsylvania and Maryland were filled up, the emigrants crossed the Potomac, and stretched rapidly to the Catawba, along the frontiers in Virginia and North Carolina. Great efforts were made by the civil authorities, in Virginia, to induce these adventurous people to take their residence in the vast wilderness of the "Ancient Dominion." The protection of the frontiers was an object of legislation at an early period. In 1664, in order to prevent those murders, which the weakness of remote settlements invited from the savages, it was ordered-"that noe person shall hereafter seate above the plantations already seated, but with forceable hands well armed, at his first setting down." In the year 1679, the Legislature determined to build four houses for garrisons, on-"the heads of the ffower greate rivers,―att the head of Potomack river, Nicapico near Occoquon,-att the head of Rappahannock,-att the head of the Mattapony at or above the Indian townes,-att the head of James River, on the South side, above Capt. William Bird's;-and that every forty tithables within this colony be assessed and obleged to fitt out and sett forth one able and sufficient man and horse with furniture well and completely armed with a case of good pistols, carbine or short gunn, and a sword." This law was found inadequate, and was soon repealed, and the defence of the country committed to a company of Rangers. The same year encouragement was given to individuals to plant villages;-" Major Lawrence Smith will settle or seate, at or near the place on the Rappahannock River, where the ffort was built the yeare 1676, and have in readiness upon all occasions, at beate of drum, ffifty able men well armed, in defence of the inhabitants of Rappahannoc." The conditions was that he should "seate" two hundred men, besides the fifty soldiers, within the space of one mile along the bank of the river, and one fourth of a mile back from the river's edge, over whom he should exercise military authority. For these things he was to have about fourteen thousand acres of land lying along the river five and a half miles in length and four miles in breadth. An agreement was made by William Bird for a military colony, at the falls on James River, in consideration of a tract of land lying each side of the falls, about five miles in length and four in breadth. In 1701, large bodies of land, from ten to thirty thousand acres with exemption from taxes for twenty years, to compa

nies settling on the frontiers,-on conditions, that there should be, in two years, on the land, one able bodied well armed man ready for defence, for every five hundred acres; and that these should live in a village of two hundred acres area, in the form of a square or parallelogram, laid off in lots near the centre of the tract; and that a fort should be built in the centre of the town. In 1705 it was enacted that every person, male or female, coming into the colony, for the purpose of making settlement, be entitled to fifty acres of land: families to have fifty acres for each member; no persons possessing less than five tithable servants or slaves, were permitted to take more than five hundred acres; and no persons whatever were to take up more than four thousand acres in one patent. These laws did not produce the effect designed. Villages did not spring up along the frontier as had been expected.

The settlements in the Valley of Virginia were not made in consequence of these laws, whose provisions were offensive. They were effected principally by the labours of three individuals to whom Governor Gooch made grants of extensive tracts of land, on condition that within a given time a certain number of permanent settlers should be located on the grants; Burden in Rockbridge County, Beverly in Augusta, and the Vanmeters on Opeckon in Frederick. Great efforts were made by these gentlemen to persuade emigrants from Europe and also from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, to take their residence in the Valley of the Shenandoah. Advertisements, describing in glowing terms the beauty and fertility of the valley, and offering a home to the poor emigrant on easy terms, were sent abroad in every direction, and attracted the attention of the hard working tenants in England, Ireland and Germany, to whom the offer of a farm in fee simple was the offer of wealth.

Joist Hite having obtained the grant of the Vanmeters, came in the year 1732, with sixteen families from Pennsylvania, and fixed his residence on the Opeckon, a few miles south of the present town of Winchester, on the Great Valley route, at a place now in possession of the Barton family. His three sons in law, Bowman Chrisman and Froman went a few miles further south. Peter Stephens took his residence where Stephensburg, Newtown, now is. The other families were scattered on Cedar Creek and Crooked Run. This was the first regular settlement west of the Blue Ridge in Virginia. From this time the emigration to the Valley of the Shenandoah, and to the region at the eastern base of the Blue Ridge, was rapid.

Michael Woods, from Ireland came in the year 1734 and settled at Henderson's quarter near Wood's Gap, in Albemarle. Three sons and three sons in law came with him and settled near. One of the sons in law, William Wallace, took his resi

dence on Mechums river, in Albemarle, and his descendants occupy in part the possessions of their ancestor. These were the founders of Mountain Plain Congregation.

In the same year Richard Morgan led a company to the neighbourhood of Shephendown on the Cohongoroton or Potomac, in Jefferson County. Among the families that came with him we find the names of Harper, Stroop, Forrester, Friend, Swearingen, Forman, Lucas, Lemon, Mercer, Stockton, Buckles, Taylor, and Wright.

About the year 1735 William Hoge removed from Pennsylvania and settled on the Opeckon, about three miles south of Winchester. Opeckon meeting house stands upon his track of land. The families of Glass, Vance, Allen, Colvin, White, and others soon joined him and formed the Opeckon Congregation, the oldest Congregation West of the Blue Ridge.

About this time a settlement was made on Cub Creek in Charlotte County, and one on Buffalo Creek in Prince Edward, by the influence of Mr. Caldwell; the former was then in Lunenberg and the latter in Amelia. This was followed in quick succession by settlements at Concord and Hat Creek in Campbell County; and Rockfish, in Nelson County, then a part of Albemarle.

About the year 1738 the Congregations of Tinkling Spring, Stone Church and Mossy Creek, in Augusta County; all forming the Congregation of the Triple Forks of Shenandoah took their beginning.

Soon after, the Congregation of Timber Ridge, Forks of James in Rockbridge, and the Congregation of Back Creek in Berkeley County, were commenced.

On the South Branch of Potomac, in Hardy County, settlements commenced about the year 1735; and soon after on the Cacopon, in Hardy and Hampshire Counties.

Cedar Creek, in Frederick County was first occupied by the sons in law of Joist Hite in 1732. But about the time that Opeckon was settled numerous families came to the creek, and formed a Congregation. Cedar Creek and Opeckon have always been united in their pastoral relations.

In about ten or twelve years from the settlement of Opeckon, which was 1735, Presbyterian Congregations of Irish origin, more or less direct, had been settled, at Falling Waters, in Berkeley; Elk Branch and Bull Skin in Jefferson; Peeked Mountain in Rockingham; North Mountain and the Pastures in Augusta; New Providence in Rockbridge; and Roanoke in Botetourt; all in the Valley of Virginia. The Congregations East of the Ridge were greatly enlarged; though the fertile Valley allured the greater number of Emigrants.

"The people of Potomoke in Virginia" mentioned in the

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