Virginia Genealogy Trails
VIRGINIA'S COLONIAL CHURCHES

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Jamestown Church, James City VA
      The Island (which in its great period was a peninsula) is rich in religious shrines, for, in addition to the tower and ruins of two churches --one of which in the seventeenth century almost became the first of our American cathedrals because of a king's gratitude for the Old Dominion's loyalty--there are: the Robert Hunt Shrine; the Memorial Cross dedicated to those buried (possibly 1609-10) on the "Third Ridge"; countless other graves; various religious objects discovered near the church and now exhibited in the Visitor Center; and the wattle-and-daub church in the reconstructed James Fort at the Festival park on the mainland.
     The sole seventeenth-century structure still standing above ground on the island is the tower of the 1639-44 church.  This tower is believed to have been built in 1647 or later.  It is a separate structure, as most such towers of Virginia's colonial period are.  The underground portions of the walls of the church's original doorway are said to have extended under the tower when the latter was built.  The rear wall of the tower was apparently joined to the church only at the sides and top of the connecting doorway.  The west wall of the church is only 11: from the east wall of the tower.  This rear wall of the tower is the only one of the four tower walls on which the mortar joints are not tooled with an incised line, probably because of the narrow space. 
     The reconstructed church of 1907 seems to rest on the 1639-44 foundations, but is in fact carried by a system of steel beams and concrete piers.  The reconstruction was carried out under the architect, Ralph Adams Cram.  It derives the details of the ramps of its buttresses, its windows, and its crow-step gables from the former Newport Parish Church in Isle of Wight County; its exterior brickwork comes from that of it's own tower.  The pointed arches of its exposed wooden trusses derive from the lancets of the windows.  There are now neither aisles nor pews.  Instead, the entire name is paved with bricks.
     On the walls of the 1907 church are numerous plaques in commemoration of various seventeenth-century figures, including Captain John Smith, the Princess Pocahontas, Chanco, (the young Indian who saved the colonists in the 1622 massacre), John Rolfe, Lord de la Warr, Captain Edwin Maria Wingfield, William Claiborne (treasurer of the colony), John Pott (a physician), and the first poet in America, George Sandys.  Although Sandys is better known for his Psalm-paraphrases, his translation of Ovid's "metamorphoses" is considered the first such work accomplished on our soil, ad the Latin inscription placed on the north wall by the Classical Society of Virginia indicates.  The introduction of common law is also memorialized on one of the plaques.
     The restored furnishings of the chancel include a communion table with a blue velvet covering (extending to the floor), a credence table, a priedieu, three chairs, a lectern, and a pair of silver candlesticks.  All of these pieces are of seventeenth-century design, although no specific models were used.  On the east wall are two tablets containing the Decalogue; on the west wall above the entrance are the royal arms.
       Besides the footings, the most interesting features of the church are two markers that were uncovered in 1901 lying in the bricks of the transverse aisle of the Epistle side.  The one found nearer to the south door and lying north and south is known as the Knight's Tomb and is believed to mark the grave of an early governor, Sir George Yeardley (@1627).  It is the only memorial of its kind and time in America.  It was formerly inlaid with brass tablets that have long been stolen.  Represented on this tomb are a shield, a scroll, a knight in armor, and a plate on which there was undoubtedly an inscription.  Lying east and west against the north side of the knight's tomb was  found another tomb with this inscription: "Here lyeth interred the body of John Clough, minister, who departed this life the 11th day of Janurary, 16__." The missing year is thought to be 1687.
Burials
      Also discovered in the first decade of this century were two tiers of burials, presumably a tier beneath each of the two chancels and each tier presumably containing ten graves.  Several other graves were found under the chancel or partly under it, and a large but indefinite number of other unidentified graves were discovered in the nave on both sides of the center aisle.  At present, 21 square white stones are to be seen in the nave, although some of these numbered stones represent two or more burials each rather than but a single one.
     Two seventeenth-century cemeteries are now known at Jamestown.  The first is that at and around the church, the limits of which are believed to be the "greate road" on the east and north, the low ground to the west, and toward the seventeenth-century shore line on the south.  These graves are, of course, principally unidentified and unmarked.  The fragmentary marker to Lady Berkeley in the southwest part of the present enclosure as well as several stones within the brick walls are the exceptions.  Two graves east of the present cemetery wall were discovered only in 1955; and graves are said to have been disturbed when the Confederate Fort on eh west was built in 1861.
     The second cemetery that, like the churchyard, contains graves from the early part (probably from the first quarter) of the seventeenth century was discovered only by accident in 1955.  It lies on the "Third Ridge" under the Lu dwell-Statehouse foundations west of the modern Yardley House and apparently once extended from the site of that dwelling westward to the seventeenth-century shore line of the James River.  As many as three hundred persons are believed to lie there, most of them without coffins.  A large, wooden cross has been recently been raised in their memory.
     There are still other known burials on the Island, for many people adhered to the early practice of burying their dead near their own houses.  Some burials have also been uncovered in ditches, including several Indian remains.  The Travis graveyard of at least sixty-two burials lies one and one-half miles from the church on the returning Island Loop Road and derives its name from an early family on the peninsula.  The only four markers in this plot range from 1700 to 1761.
     The eighteenth-century graves and markers of the Rev'd Commissary James Blair (@1743) and others as well as the several stones and numerous graves from the preceding century lie immediately southeast of the present church within the existing brick wall. Dr. Blair was the Bishop of London's Commissary for fifty-four years; he was also at one time or another president of the College of William and Mary, rector of the James City and Bruton Parish Churches, president of the Council, and governor of the Colony.  His grave and those of his wife's family have formed the basis of a delightful discourse inimitably delivered for countless visitors for many years by the Negro sexton, Sam Robinson.  The gnarled sycamore that has become the Mother-in-law tree of his narration is, however, not destined to live many more years if one may judge from its present mutilated condition, although split tombs it certainly has.
     The present graveyard wall was erected around 1800--some reports say 1793, others 1803 or later--by a Mr John Ambler of Jamestown (who also had at the benefit of a bequest for this purpose from a Mr Ludwell Lee of "Green Spring") to protect the graves of their families.  The west wall (1 1/2' thick) was, indeed, built across the old church itself, entering the church's south wall 16.8' from the east and its north wall 13.1' from the east.  This angle was apparently assumed to include the priest's and knight's tombs.  The graveyard wall was built of bricks derived from the 1639-44 church itself.  About two thousand of the church's bricks were also used to renew the old Newpart Parish Church in 1890-94.  How many of the church's bricks were taken as souvenirs by tourists and vandals in the nineteenth century-- and even in the twentieth century, is not known.
     The 1639-44 church was burned in Bacon's Rebellion of 1676, but was rebuilt and the brick aisles that were in situ in the early 1900's are believed to have been laid in this rebuilding (about 1680).  The capital was moved to Williamsburg in 1700, but the church seems to have continued in use until around 1758.  Contrary to rumor, the island was never abandoned despite its lack of salubrious qualities, for even as late as 1781 there were no fewer than twenty houses still in use.  By 1807 the church was a ruin, however.  It remained for its foundations and the surviving portions of its tower to be saved from loss after the turn of the century.  The APVA owns and administers it jointly with the National Park Service.
James City Parish and County
     James city Parish (which, except for the first decade if that long, never included all of James City County within its bounds) lost Lawne's Creek Parish in 1640 and Southwark Parish in 1647, both on the south side of the James River; and Harrop Parish (below Jamestown) was cut off in 1646.  Harrop Parish later formed part of Middletown parish and ultimately (1674) of Bruton Parish.  In 1720 the eastern part of Wallingford (originally Chickahominy) Parish was annexed to James City Parish, and in 1725 the lower part of Wilmington parish was also added.  About 1750 a new parish church was erected on he mainland, two miles north of the last church on the Island, and this church stood until the 1850's.  Although the parish no longer has an active congregation, it cannot, because of the Tower Church and the Robert Hunt Shrine, be considered exactly dormant.
      The Jamestown communion silver-chalice and paten-cover (c.1660); alms bason (1739-40); and footed paten (1691-92)-- is now at Bruton parish Church in Williamsburg, although a baptismal bowl (1733-34) from the Jamestown parish church is at Monumental Church in Richmond.  What is believed to be the seventeenth-century font of the James City Church is also at Bruton parish Church. Included in the collection at the National Park Service Visitor Center are coffin handles, tacks, book hinges, lead cames, fragments of glass, iron frames, and pieces of charred timber that were all uncovered in or near the site of the present church in 1900-02.  Also on display are a New Testament (1609, Geneva Bible) and a Bible (King James Version) combined with the Prayer-Book that derives from 1622, although neither of these particular copies is known to have been used at Jamestown.
The Robert Hunt Shrine
     In the old Confederate earthwork of 1861 stands the Robert Hunt Shrine, which was built in 1922 as a memorial to the first clergyman at Jamestown.  The titular rector for James City in 1607 was the Rev'd Richard Hakluyt, a prebendary of Westminster Abbey and a noted geographer, but Parson Hunt was his vicar and it was he who sailed with the Founders and conducted the first worship at Cape Henry and Jamestown Island.  It is sometimes forgotten--even by Episcopalians--that it was from the first little church in James Fort of 1607 that Anglicanism in America developed.  The Robert Hunt Shrine and the Tower Church are still within the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Bishop of Southern Virginia.  The shrine is really an outdoor chancel of brick and stone, for in addition to the stone altar, there are protecting side walls and a canopy of brick construction, a reredos with a bas-relief (commemorating Parson Hunt's celebration of the rail for communicants.  The shrine was moved a short distance in 1960 in order that celebrants and congregations might worship without the early morning sun shining in their faces, although the present location lacks the appeal of the original site of an eminence almost at the river's edge.
Merchant's Hope Church, Prince George County, VA
     Merchant's Hope Church lies on the north side of route 641 in Prince George County, .5 miles west of that road's intersection with route 10, which in turn is 6.5 miles east of Hopewell.  The church derives its name from a plantation of the same title.  A seventeenth-century ship called "Merchant's Hope" is also thought to have been named for the plantation.  The "Merchant" in the title is believed to have been originally Martin, as in Martin's Brandon plantation and parish.  The confusion seems to have arisen from the fact that words like Merchant and Merbecke were in earlier times pronounced as Marchant and Marbeck, just as clerk is still pronounced in many lands as clark.
     The traditional date of the building's erection, 1657, is cut into one of the beams of the roof trusses.  The church was built to serve as the parish church of Jordan's Parish, but became a chapel of ease of Westover Parish in 1688 and the upper chapel of Martin's Brandon Parish in 1720.  Jordan's Parish was created by 1655 out of the western portion of Westover Parish that lay south of the James River.  All of the parishes of Prince George County (except Bristol Parish) were united with Martin's Brandon Parish in 1720.  Martin's Brandon Parish was a plantation parish in 1618 and its final establishment as a separate parish occurred in 1655.
     The building, which measures about 60' x 25' on the inside, is of brick laid in Flemish bond with glazed headers above the beveled water table and in English bond below the water table.  Both gables are marked by a line of glazed headers along the barge board.  The walls (22 1/2" thick) are remarkably well preserved.  In fact, the walls of no colonial church in Virginia, regardless of its age, are in better shape than Merchant's Hope's walls. 
     The original tiles (18" square) of Portland stone still remain in the aisles (6' wide), although the shape of the aisles has at some time, for some reason, been changed from a liturgical T to an L.  Also believed to be original are the stairway to the west gallery and the hand rail across the front of the gallery. 
     The church was abandoned after the Disestablishment and is said to have been used as a picket station in the War between the States.  The building was restored for use in divine Service in 1870.
     The Church owns a Bible (a folio edition of 1639) that was left to Martin's Brandon Parish in a will executed in 1658.  The Bible is now kept in the Bank of South side Virginia at Prince George Courthouse.  Bishop Andrewes's sermons, which were also left to the Church in the same will, have long been lost.  The communion silver (chalice and paten-cover) that was bought according to this legacy is in the possession of the present Brandon Church at Burrowsille, as is a baptismal bowl that was given to the parish in 1731.  All three pieces are inscribed to the parish.  The chalice derives from London in 1659-60, whereas the paten-cover is unmarked.  The baptismal bowl was made by Thomas Farrer of London in 1731-32. Such bowls were preferred to fonts during Cromwell's rule. 
     There are no churchyard walls around Merchant's Hope Church and there was no cemetery nearby in colonial times.
Newport Parish Church (St. Luke's), Isle of Wight County, VA
     Four miles southeast of Smithfield on route 10, is the Newport Parish Church (St. Luke's).  The building is situated just northwest of the junction of route 10 and the highway that leads to Newport News over the James River Bridge
     In colonial times this church was known as the Newport Parish Church, but from 1828 it became known as St. Luke's Church.  The use of the "Newport Parish Church" name is complicated today by the fact that the building ceased to be the parish church of the nineteenth century.  Vestry records in the last century referred to it also as "The Isle of Wight Church" and "The Brick Church".  This last has been used despite the fact that it is hardly distinctive in Virginia where there are approximately forty other colonial churches constructed of brick. 
     Warrosquyoake County was one of the original shires of 1634.  The name was derived from the Indian tribes that lived in the area, but was replaced with Isle of Wight in 1637, after the earliest settlement in the area.  
     The only recorded mention of the church's interior occurs in 1746 with the assignment of a corner pew of the chancel for wives of justices and vestrymen and their former pew for the young women of the parish. 
York-Hampton Parish Church (Grace), Yorktown VA
     The parish church of York-Hampton Parish stands on the bluff of the York River in historic Yorktown on the east side of a dead-end lane named for itself, Church Street.  Colonial antecedents of the present parish are manifold.  A Chiskiak parish in York County had it's own clergyman as early as 1635 and included the plantation (Middle Plantation) that was to become Williamsburg.  In 1643 Chiskiack Parish's name became Hampton.  York Parish was a plantation parish with its own parson by at least 1638.  York and Hampton Parishes were joined together in 1706, and six years later, Martin's Hundred Parish in James City County became a part of York-Hampton Parish.
      The site of the first York church of around 1642, is believed to be the same as that of the second church (around 1667), which is located at the old York settlement, now within the Coast Guard Reserve Training Center about two miles below Yorktown.  This spot may also be seen the second oldest (1655) legible tombstone in Virginia.
      The present building is believed to be the third parish church of York Parish and the only parish church in the long history of York-Hampton Parish.  The existing structure is also believed to have been built as early as 1697. 
     The church lost its windows and pews in the Revolution when it became a magazine for Lord Cornwallis.  It was burned in 1814 along with much of Yorktown in a fire caused by accident rather than by the British.  The church was not rebuilt and restored to service until 1848.  The name of Grace Church was first used at this time.  During the War between the States, a signal tower was erected for the Federal forces on the church's roof. 
     The bell that is still in use is inscribed "County of York, Virginia, 1725".  Still in use in the church is the second oldest set of communion silver in Virginia.  It is a chalice and a flagon of 1649-50 and both are inscribed to Hampton Parish in York County.  A silver paten (1698-99) that was apparently  given to Martin's Hundred Parish before it joined York-Hampton Parish in 1712 is now at St. John's Church in Hampton.
     There are a few tombs from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (including the handsome Nelson tombs) in the south portion of the churchyard.  The tombs from 1674 and 1696 were originally placed in a graveyard elsewhere in the village.  They were found when repairs were being made on the roads and were moved to the churchyard in 1931.
     The first confirmation service ever held in Virginia is believed to have been conducted in 1791 at old York Church.  The parish register (1648-1789) of another colonial York County parish, Charles (originally New Poquoson) Parish, has been published and the original manuscript is on loan at the State Library in Richmond from the vestry of Grace Church, Yorktown.
St Peter's Parish Church, New Kent County, VA
     St Peter's Parish Church in New Kent County is completely surrounded by forests.  It can be reached from route 33 (between West Point and Richmond) by going about a mile north of Talleysville on route 609 and about .5 farther on route 642. The approach through the woods is beautiful.
     St. Peter's Parish was created out of Blisland Parish in 1679.  In 1704 St. paul's Parish, which became Hanover County in 1720, was cut off and before that in 1691, that part of St. Peter's lying north of the Pamunkey River was annexed to St. John's Parish.  In 172 St Peter's Parish received part of Wilmington parish. 
     The first Lower Church of the parish has been called the "Broken-Back'd" Church because of its structural weakness and was, perhaps, erected as early as 1685.  Its location is not known.  Speculation places it in different locations: near the present route 33 east of the junction of that highway with route 608 (leading to Providence Forge), and southeast of Black Creek, east of the Tunstall Station and near "Mt. Prospect".  This church seems to have been used for an indefinite period after the erection of its successor (1701-03) and the creation of St. Paul's Parish.  Two churches were in existence in St Peter's Parish in 1685, but the second Upper Church (1690) as well as a frame chapel (1702-04), also in the upper area, were cut off from St. Paul's Parish.   A wooden belfry was built in 1722.
     It has been said that St Peter's Church and Yeocomico Church eminently represent the transition in Virginia's ecclesiastial buildings from late Gothic to Classical. 
     The church was abandoned after the Disestablishment and used by the Presbyterians from around 1810-20 to 1843, and from 1843 to 1856 by the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians on alternate Sundays.  During the War between the States the building was desecrated through use as a stable by Federal troops.  Major repairs have been made on the church in 1810-20 and 1872 and the recent restorations have included at various times the talents and labors of two architects, J. Ambler Johnston and Harden deVoe Pratt, and two ecclesiastical historians, the Rev'd Dr. Brydon and George Carrington Mason (1885-1955), the last of whom lies buried not far from the present gates.
     St. Peter's vestry book (1684-1758) and register (1685-1786) have been published twice, in the latest instance (1937) in a single volume.  The orignals are on loan at the State Library in Richmond.  
     It is possible that the marriage of our first president and first "first-lady" was solemnized in St. Peter's Church or at a nearby house called "The White House", but the church is becoming widely known as "The First Church of the First First-Lady".
Yeocomico Church, Westmoreland County, Virginia
     Yeocomico Church lies at the top of a wooded slope about a half mile west of Tucker Hill post office and can be reached easily from the hamlet of Lyells.  This is at the junction of routes 3 and 203 that is itself three miles north of Warsaw.
      The current building is the only surviving colonial church in Westmoreland County or Cople Parish.  This county and Nominy Parish were both created in 1653.  The upper part of Nominy Parish became Appomattox Parish around 1661 and the upper part of Appomattox County was divided into three parishes, although the middle parish seems never to have been organized.  The lower parish apparently went unnamed at first, but was soon called Nominy and before 1668 became known as Cople Parish, after an English parish of that name.
     The existing second Yeocomico Church was built in 1706 as the second Lower Church of Cople Parish and is constructed of bricks made in a nearby kiln. 
Ware Parish Church, Gloucester County, VA
     The second Ware Parish Church stands in a grove of trees on the south side of routes 3 and 14, about one and one-half miles oeast of Gloucester Courthouse.  The parish is named for the Ware Rive.  The date of the present building's construction has never been definitely established.  A historical marker near the county seat gives 1693 and this is an assumed date, as is 1710-15, which more recent guesses are given.  The church was built during the rectorship of Rev'd James Clack (1679-1723).
      The first Ware Church was built on the opposite side of the river near the road leading into Ware Neck, and was probably standing by 1660.
      Gloucester County was formed from York County around 1651 and has been reduced in area only at the formation of Mathews County in 1791.  The four parishes of the county (Abington, Kingston, Petsworth, and Ware) were formed around 1656, apparently out of territory belonging to York Parish, which had been one of the early plantation parishes.  None of these four parishes of Gloucester County were ever in colonial times reduced in area.  Kingston Parish became coterminous with Mathews County at the latter's creation. Petsworth Parish ceased to exist in 1797, but it is still listed in records as a dormant parish.
     American infantrymen camped at the church in the Revolution.  After the Disestablishment, the parish was inactive and the building somewhat abandoned until the church was repaired for worship again in 1827.  The Methodists also used the building from time to time during this period. Ware Church was "modernized" in 1854, and this involved the extension of a wooden floor over the entire church, the removal of the glagstones and the box-pews, the addition of a new pulpit in a new location, and the re-arrangement of the seating plan.  Federal troops also camped in the yard in the War between the States, and this required another set of repairs, which were not undertaken until 1878.  In 1902 a new slate roof and a plastered ceiling were installed; and in the 1930's considerable redecoration took place.  A single devotional tablet is now located on the reredos and is said to have come from an old Baltimore church in 1878, but this tablet is not likely to be of colonial origin.  The parish also owns other tablets of this set. 
      A row of tombstones lies under the present cross aisle.  Represented among them are the graves of at least colonial rectors (@1735 and @1758) and the wife (@1725) of one of these.  The tomb of Parson Clack lies four feet east of the chancel wall.
      The oldest part of the churchyard is enclosed by a brick wall that is of colonial origin.   In the northwest portion there are now a number of tombstones that have recently (1924, 1927, 1939) been removed from various plantations in the county by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.  Among them are markers from 1703-69.
     The vestry books of Petsworth (originally Petsoe) parish for 1677-1793 and Kingston Parish for 1679-1796 have both been published.  The original of the former book is kept at the clerk's office in Gloucester Courthouse and the original of the latter is on deposit at the State Library in Richmond, as is the Register (1749-1827) of Kingston parish.
Bruton Parish Church, Williamsburg VA
     Briton Parish Church occupies the northwestern corner of the Duke of Gloucester Street and the Palice Green in Williamsburg.  In colonial times, up until 1880, Bruton Parish Church was located on the York County side of the line (which ran down the middle of the Duke of Gloucester Street at that point).  From 1880 to 1884 all of Williamsburg was included in James City County.  In the latter year, the town became an independent city.  Williamsburg was known as Middle Plantation (midway between the James and York Rivers until 1700, when it succeeded Jamestown as our capital and was renamed in honor of WIlliam III (of William and Mary).
     Around 1660 a church was built for Middletown Parish and in 1674 this building became the first Bruton parish Church.  It is possible that it was built upon the site of the present church, for traces of an earlier foundation were found in 1905.  The second Bruton Parish Church of 1683 was a Gothic brick structure with buttresses, the foundations of which were excavated in 1939, in the center of the present churchyard to the northwest of the existing building.  This 1683 church was probably modelled upon the Jamestown Church and is remarkably similar in design and time to the Isle of Wight Church.
     The original portion of the present (third) Bruton Parish Church was completed in 1715 under the rectorship of the Rev'd Dr. James Blair, who was for many years not only the Bishop of London's commissary for Virginia, but also the president of the College of William and Mary.   
Tombs and Graves
     On the southside of the Tower interior are now four marble tombstones.  One (from 1692) has been moved there from the churchyard; the others (from the first half of the eighteenth century) were moved to the Tower in 1906 from a plantation on the York River.  There are six persons represented by these stones in the Tower, in addition to Nathaniel Bacon sr (the councillor rather than the leader of the rebellion) (@1692), whose stone was moved to the north side from another York River plantation in 1938-40. 
     In the nave are four graves, two of which are of unknown persons and are unmaked, one of which derives from 1742, and the fourth of which is marked only by "P.G.AE. 61".  In the north aisle is Governor Francis Fauquier (@1768); and just north of this grave lies that of the patriot, Edmund Pendleton (@1803), whose remains and stone (as well as the remains of his two wives and a child) were moved to this spot from the Caroline County around 1906.  The only original colonial slab in the aisles of the nave or trancepts is that of Henry Hackler (@1742).  Under or near the choir aisle are Dr. William Cocke (@1720) and Governor Edmund Jenings (@1727) as well as six others (only one (@1694) of whom is known and marked).  The Rev'd Dr. Goodwin was also buried in the chancel aisle in front of the pulpit in 1939.
     Further in the Chancel are four stones and eight burials ranging from 1719 to 1744, all of which except one ("R.P. 1730 AE 32") are known.  These stones were undoubtedly put there while their graves were yet in the churchyard (before the church was extended and included them in 1752), for they lie east of the boundary stone of the 1715 church.  The widow of one of the parish's early rectors was moved to the chancel from New Kent County in 1905.  Also east of the boundary stone lie twelve graves of unknown persons as well as the stone  of the Rev'd Mr. Rowland Jones (@1688) on the northand the grave and stone of the Rev'd Mr Wilmer (@1827) on the south.  Mr. Jone's stone with its Latin inscription was moved into the chancel in 1905 from the yard.  Those graves found by Dr. Goodwin under the chancel were re-interred under the floor of the then new crypt.   The only colonial stones in the chancel that are still their original locations are those of Orlando Jones (@1719), the Blair children, and Mrs Monzo (with two other Blair children). Old mural tablets include those for Daniel Parke (@1679) and Dr. Cocke.
     Within the church there are no fewer than 35 burials that still lie in or close to their original locations (although nine or more of these were originally made in the churchyard east of the 1715 chancel). These are in addition to the five that have been moved to Bruton Church in this century from elsewhere in Virginia.
     In the large church yard are at least eight seventeenth-century graves and at least thirty-one eighteenth-century graves that are both identified and marked, as well as countless others from the colonial period that lie unknown or unmarked or both (and four colonial graves that have been removed from other places and reburied in this yard).
     Among the tombs of the greatest sculptural interest are those of Governor Edward Nott (@1706), David Bray (@1731) and his wife (@1734), and Edward Barradall (@1743). The first two of these monuments are in the center of the yard (at the site of the 1683 church) and the last is to be found in the southeast corner. The tomb of Colonel Page (@1692), who gave the present site to the parish, is now to be seen in the tower and a recent tomb marks his grave in the yard, northwest of the tower and near the center of the yard. Despite the large number of identified colonial graves in the yard probably four times as many known burials date from 1776 to recent times, including those of Confederate soldiers (along with a Confederate monument).  The yard has built up noticeably along the north wall of the nave.  Concrete bases were built under all the tombstones in the  yard and the markers themselves thoroughly repaired in the 1938-39 renewal. A few people have been buried in the Bruton   yard in recent decades, even as late as 1956 (ashes have been interred as late as 1962), and a few other people apparently still have burial rights there.  A sundial has been erected between the south wall and the tower: the shaft by Thomas T Waterman in 1932 and the present gnomon by Colonial Williamsburg in 1962.
     The George Wythe House served as the parish house from 1926 to 1938, when a new parish house was put into use.                                      
Christ Church, Middlesex County, VA
     The second parish church of Christ Church Parish in Middlesex County stands at teh village named for it (Christchurch), about 2 1/2 miles east of Saluda and the same distance southeast of Urbanna.  The church and Christchurch School lie on the north side of route 33, not far south of the Rappahannock River.
      The first parish church of 1666-67 also stood on this site.  Chirst Church Parish was formed in 1666 by the union of Lancaster (upper) and Peanckatanck (lower) Parishes.  The united parish became coterminous with the county when the latter was established in 1669.  The two earlier parishes had themselves been parts of still older parishes before their seperate establishment.
     The date of the existing building's erection is 1714.  This date is to be seen on three bricks now placed in the tympanum of hte modern vestibule on the west. On one ofhes bricks, "IH" (probably standing for John Hipkins who did carpentry, plumbing and glazing) is associated with the numerals; on the other there is added "EC".  A fourth brick has "W. Johnson" on it.  Mr. Hipkin's plumbing may have involved such lead fixtures as gutters and drainspouts and even "Lead putty" for the windows.  Alexander Graves, who did the masonry, seems not to be memorialized in his own handwork. 
Lower Chapel, Middlesex County VA
    This church occupies the same site as the first Lower Chapel (c 1665-66) of the parish.  The first chapel also possibly served as teh Peanckatanck Parish Church until that parish united with the upper parish of Middlesex County (aka  Lancaster Parish) in 1666.  The Methodists have recently adopted the name of the Piankatank Parish for their circuit of churches served by the minister of the present Lower Church.  The spelling of this Indian name occurs in over a dozen forms in the colonial vestry book.
     The date of the church's completion is 1717.  A dating brick on the left side of the west doorway is marked 17A15" and is taken to indicate the completion of the walls to that height by 1715.  The "A" possibly represents a Mr. Armistead, the builder.  Another brick, on the opposite side of this doorway, is marked "I:W" (possibly for James Walker, an overseer for the vestry), although the first part of this inscription is not clear.  Mortar remains in the part of these carvings, which are similar in style to thoseat the Mother Church at Christchurch.  Other initials at the chapel include "B" on the east and "IG" and "TG" on the north.  
Vawter's Church, Essex County, VA
      Vawter's Church stands in Essex County on the north side of route 17, .5 mile west of the hamlet of Loretto and about 12.5 miles southeast of the junction of routes 17 and 301 near Port Royal. Vawter's Church is the second Upper Church is the second Upper Church of St. Anne's Parish, which was created in 1704 out of Sittingbourne Parish.  This latter parish and Farnham Parish were formed in 1661 and, like Old Rappahannock County each of them included territory on both sides of the Rappahannock River.  Out the western portion of Sittingbourne Parish was created, about 1677, St. Mary's Parish.  The name remaning on the north side, but in 1732 it ceased to exist when its upper part was combined with Hanover Parish in King George County and its lower section became part of the new Lunenburg parish in Richmond County.  Rappahannock County also ceased to exist when it was divided into Essex and Richmond in 1692.
     The first Upper Church of St. Anne's Parish was probably in existence sometime between 1704 and 1711 and was undoubtedly of frame construction.  There were two Lower Churches in teh parish in colonial times.  A frame church that was standing on Occupacia Creek as early as 1664 or 1665 became the first of these Lower Churches of St Anne's in 1704, and was replaced sometimes between 1721 and 1739 by the second Lower Church.  This latter church was known as Sale's Church and because the land represented a donation from Cornelius Sale.
     The original portion of the church near loretto is believed to have been built around 1719 and the south wing was added in 1731, as a brick above and to the right of the south doorway shows. The name, Vawter, is derived from that of a family whose land adjoined the site of the church when it was built, but just when this name was first used with the church, seems to be uncertain.
     In 1713 the name of St. Mary's was retained by the southside parish when the parish was divided at the river and the northside parish became known as Hanover Parish.  St Mary's Parish lay entirely within Caroline County when this county was formed in 1728 from the uppermost portions of Essex, King William, and King and Queen counties.  The second parish church (1748) of St Marys Parish was known as the Mount Church (named after a nearby creek) which from 1810 to 1835 housed the Rappahannock Academy.  The site of the Mount Church and the academy lies five miles west of Port Royal on route 17. 
Upper Church, Stratton Major, King and Queen County, VA
  The third Upper Church of Stratton Major Parish in King and Queen County stands on teh southwest side of route 14, about 5 miles northwest of Centerville, and 8.6 miles south of King and Queen Courthouse.  It likely was built between 1724 and 1729, just south of its immediate predecessor.   Remains of this earlier church were uncovered by a bulldozer.  The site of teh first Upper Church is either identical with or very close to that of the present Mattaponi Church in the northern part of the county.
     Stratton Major Parish was formed from Blisland parish in 1655 adn King and Queen County was created out of New Kent County in 1691.  The origin of the parish's name is obscure, although one authority has attributed it to a Major family in the county in early times who may possibly have come from one of the many Stratton parishes in England.  It is also possible that Major (meaning "Greater") may have been part of an English parish's title.
     The vestry book (1729-83) of Stratton Major Parish has been published and the original manuscript is on deposit at the State Library in Richmond.
Elizabeth City Parish Church (St Johns), Hampton VA
      The fourth Elizabeth City Parish Church occupies the northwest corner of West Queen and Court Streets in the city of Hampton.  The first church, which was known as Kecoughtan Church, was possibly built as early as 1613-16.  Such an early date is thoroughly in keeping with the rate of construction of churches at Jamestown and on the Eastern Shore in the earliest times.  The second and third churches were erected in 1624 and 1667.  The present walls date from 1728.  The actual settlement of Kecoughtan took place in 1610, although Cape Henry wehre the colonists first landed and planted a cross lay within the original bounds of Elizabeth City County.  Kecoughtan, which is named for the Indians of the area, was one of the four original cities or boroughs of 1618.  The names of Kecoughtan gave way to Elizabeth City the next year.  The parish and the county were named for the Princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of James I and the grandmother of George I.  Both the parish and the town of Hampton have been in continuous existence since the early plantation of 1610.  The name of St John's for the present church is first known only from 1827. The fourth church has suffered much from wars and the ravages of time. 
     Elizabeth City Parish owns English communion silver.  The set, marked of London 1618-19, contains a chalice and two patens and was originally given to St Mary's Church at Smiths Hundred in Charles City County, apparently in 1619.  After the Indian Maccacre of 1622, the silver went to Sir George Yeardley, then to his widow, and then to the court at Jamestown.  Elizabeth City Parish Church was located on teh Southampton River. Smith's Hundred became Southampton Hundred.  The set was later bestowed upon the Elizabeth City Parish. Traces of gilding are still seen on teh silver.  The parish ows a third paten (marked London 1698-99) that seems to have been originally given to Martin's Hundred Parish in James City County.  The Elizabeth City Parish vestry book (1751-1883) is owned and kept by the parish.
Upper Church, St Paul's (Slash), Hanover County, VA
     The present Slash Church is located on route 656 between Peaks and Ashland in hanover County, a little north of the junction of that route with route 657.  In colonial times it was the opper Church of St. Paul's parish.
     In colonial times, Dolley Madison and Patrick Henry are said to have attended Divine Service at teh chruch.  Patrick Henry's uncle was rector for four decades. henry Clay was anotehr who frequented .
     Sometime after teh Revolution and teh Disestablishment, the Episcopalians abandoned the building in favor of St. paul's at Hanover Courthouse.  It then became a union Church shared by Methodists and Disciples of Christ, and has been owned by the latter since 1842.  It is said to have been used once as a school, and also to have been a hospital in the War between the States.  it gave its name to a battle in that war.  The third Lower Church (1774-77) of St. Paul's Parish gave its name to the village still known as Old Church.  The vestry book (1705-85) of St Paul's Parish has been published and the original manuscript is on loan at the State Library in Richmond.
The Chapel of the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg VA
       Williamburg posesses two colonial ecclesiastical structures: Bruton Parish Church (1711-15) and the Chapel of the Wren (or Main) Building of the College of William and Mary.  An Anglican divinity school was a part of teh College of William and Mary until it was abolished in 1779, when teh college was re-organized under Governor Thomas Jefferson. Eight presidents of the College have been rectors of Bruton Parish Church and two presidents have been bishops of the Episcopal Church.
   The Wren Building has known four forms: 1695 , 1709, 1859, and 1867-69.  The causes of these "having been designedly effected by drunken" Federal soldiers.  The walls remained standing in each instance and were re-used in each new form, including the restoration to teh second form that was accomplished by Colonial Williamsburg in 1928-31.  The seventeenth-century plan called for a quadrangle enclosing a courtyard but the first and second forms were built only in the shape of a L; the main range running north to south and the north hall running east to west.
Mangohick Church, King William County, VA
     Mangohick Church is at the end of route 638.   A short distance south of the villiage of Mangohick on route 30 in King WIliam County, Mangohick is about 10 miles west of Central Garage and 6 miles east of Dawn.  The name, Mangohick, is Indian and is also applied to a nearby creek.  The brick church was probably built around 1730 as a chapel of ease for St. Margaret's Parish, but became the Upper Church of St Davids Parish in 1744. St. Margaret's Parish was created out of the upper portion of St. Johns Parish in 1720 and St David's Parish was formed in 1744 out of lower St. Margaret's parish and the (remaining) upper part of St. Johns Parish. 
     The church was abanded after the Disestablishment and was then used as a "free" church.  Sometime after the War between teh States, the building was deeded to a colored Baptist congregation which still owns it.
Lower Church, St. Stephen's (Mattaponi), King and Queen County, VA
     The second Lower Church of St Stephen's Parish in King and Queen County has long been known as Mattaponi Church.  It may have been known locally at Mattaponi Church even in colonial times.  This has been its name since the Baptists took the building over early in the last century.  It can be seen on teh west side of route 14, 5.7 miles north of the Courthouse and one-half mile south of Cumnor Post Office.     
Westover Parish Church, Charles City County, VA
     The second Upper Church of Westover Parish (which is now the Westover Parish Church), in Charles City County, is less than a mile south of route 5, and a little more than four miles east of the junction of routes 5 and 156 (the Hopewell Ferry Road).  The church is high above Herring Creek, inside a bunch of trees, and the churchyard is accessed by a lane through open fields.
      The church parish is one of the oldest in the country and gained its existence and name from one of the early plantations on the James River.  Westover parish was recognized as early as 1625 by governmental authorities.  The parish was established sometime before 1652.  In the year 1720, the western part of Wallingford Parish and the northern part of Weyanoke Parish were added to Westover Parish, and a couple years later the Western part of Wilmington parish was annexed.  The parish's name originated from the West family to whom the West Hundred was originally granted. The present building is dated 1731.The church was for thirty years after 1805, abandoned and used as a barn.There is a blue banner that was used at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in 1953, displayed in the interior.
     The parish owns a paten and chalice made in London in 1694-95.  On the cover of the chalidce is inscribed the name of the donor, Sarah Braine.  A baptismal bowl in this same set was bought from Westover Parish and presented in 1889 to the Henrico Parish Church (St. John's), where it is now used as an alms bason.  This bowl is cited in a rector's report of 1724 as "a large Bason instead of a font".  Another baptismal bowl from this period is owned by Martin's Brandon Parish in Prince George County.  Such bowls came into favor during Cromwell's time in preference to fonts, which were apparently too Angelican for Presbyterians and Independents.  Westover Parish also owns a set of silver from London of 1731-32 that originally belonged to the first Lower Westover (Wallingford) Church and presumably came into the custody of the second Upper Westover Church as late as around 1920, when Divine Worship ceassed to be held at the fourth Lower Westover (second Mapsico) Church (down below the courthouse).  It is possible that George Jones was the maker of this chalice and paten.  The chalice is inscribed: "The gift of Col. Francis Lightfoot--Anno 1727."
   In the yard, of the colonial graves, a fragment of but a single stone of 1748 remains.  The earliest known tombstone in Virginia exists at the probable site of the first Upper Westover Church.  This site is just west of Westover house is by the banks of the James River.
     The date of the earliest known tombstone (Captain William Perry) is not illegible but was 1637, when the first church was completed.  There are eight other colonial tombs here ranging from 1656 to 1737. 
     The families of neighboring plantations as "Belle Air", "Shirley", :Berkeley", "Westover", "Mt Sterling", "Sherwood Forest", and "Evelynton" have all be associated with the parish from earliest times.  Among those who have worshipped in the parish regularly are Presidents William Henry Harrison, Benjamin Harrison, and John Tyler, as well as Colonial William Byrd.
     The colonial parish brick house stands on route 615 2 miles north of the junction of routes 5 and 615 (about a mile east of Charles City Courthouse). The house was sold by the state in 1807 and remains in secular hands.
First Thanksgiving
   Within the bounds of Westover Parish is the shrine that marks the first recoded American Service of Thanksgiving.  The shrine  at Harrison's landing by the James River (about a fourth of a mile below Berkeley Plantation), commemorates the Service that was first held there on December 04, 1619 (or November 25 on the new calendar) by colonists who had set sale from Bristol on the Ship "Margaret", the preceding September.  It was ordained "that the day of our ships arrivall at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perputualy keept holy as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God".
     Both 1620 and 1621, the service was held again on the appointed day, but the Great Massacre of the settlers by the Indians in the spring of 1622 brought about the temporary abandonment of the village at Berkeley.  Such an annual celebration continued in other parts of the Colony.  .
     The plantation lies 1 mile from the junction of Charles City County's main route (route 5) with route 640.  Route 640 leads into 633 and then into the private road of Berkeley Plantation.  
Christ Church, Lancaster County, VA
     Christ Church lies on route 646 about half a mile west of the junction  of routes 646 and 3, which is also known as Pitman's Corner in Lancaster County. Robert Carter's will, (a well-known public figure, landowner of the time,) dated 1728 and probated 1732, indicated the church was largely completed by 1728.  In his testament, the church's patron left the parish only 200 pounds and the provision that the bricks were to come from his estate.
         The parish owns several pieces of communion silver: a chalice and paten-cover made by an unidentified London goldsmith who is known to have been working in 1681-82, a flagon from London of 1720-21, a bason from London of 1695-96. 
St John's Church, King William County, VA
     The colonial church is in bad condition.  It is now known as Old St John's in King William County.  It is located about eight miles southeast of King William Courthouse and sixteen miles southeast of Central Garage, and eight miles northeast of West point.  It was created in 1680 out of Stratton Major Parish, and St Stephen's Parish, and in 1691 that part of St Peters Parish that lay north of the Pamunkey River was added to St John's Parish.     
Old Donation Church (Lynnhaven Parish Church) Princess Anne County, VA
     The third parish church of Lynnhaven Parish in Princess Anne County, was built in 1736.  The site of the first church on Church Point on the western shore of the Western Branch of the Lynnhaven River, is still known but has gradually eroded away.  The current church's unique name seems to have come from the gift to the parish of adjoining lands.   The parish owns a seset of English communion silver that includes a paten, a chalice and a flagon.  Another set of colonial silver still in use comes from Lynnhaven Parish.  This set (chalice, paten-cover, and flagon) was made by William Grundy and is in teh possession of the Eastern Shore Chapel.  The Eastern Shore Chapen became the parish church of East Lynnhaven Parish in 1895.
     The vestry book (1723-1892) of Lynnhaven Parish is on loan at the State Library in Richmond.  The Colonial portion (1723-86) has been published and is available from the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond.
     The oldest stone in the graveyard at Old Donation Church is also the biggest.  It was moved along with others, from surrounding plantations, around 1930.  It's the only colonial marker in the yard and there are many other unmarked or unidentified colonial graves in the cemetery.
     Also in Princess Anne County is the Cape Henry Cross.  The memorial marks the approximate site of the first landing made in Virginia by the founders of Jamestown, on April the 29th.  It is recorded that they "set up a Crosse at Chesupioc Bay" and named the cape for Henry, the eldest son of James I. The Cape Henry Cross lies 3 miles north of downtown Virginia Beach.
Blandford Church (Bristol Parish Church), Petersburg VA
     Blandford Church of Bristol parish is named for the colonial town of Blandford, which long ago became a part of the city of Petersburg.  It has also been known as the brick church on Wells Hill, and for a time as St paul's Church.  It is on the east side of Crater Road  (routes 301 and 460) at the top of the hill.  Bristol Parish was named for teh seaport on the west coast of England and seems to have been formed out of the plantation parish at Bermuda Hundred.  The Brick Church on Wells's Hill is the third parish church of Bristol Parish.  The first of these parish churches was built about 1645 near the colonial settlement of Charles City (on the Appomattox River about 3 miles west of Hopewell).  The second parish church was Jefferson's Church of 1723, which wasn't far from teh junction of routes 1 (and 301) and 10 in Chesterfield County.  When it was lost to the new Dale Parish in 1734, the existing building at Blandford had already been ordered.  The church was modelled upon Merchant's Hope Church.
     The building's long disuse as a church is shown by the fact that the Episcopalians in the Blandford area, and have since the latter part of the last century, been worshipping in another building (the Church of the Good Shepherd), only a short distance north, down Wells's Hill. 
     The original manuscripts of the vestry book (1720-89) and parish register (1720-92) of Bristol Parish, are kept at St Pauls Church in Petersburg.
Fork Church of St Martin's Parish, Hanover County VA
     The fork Church of St Martin's Parish in Hanover County gets its name from its location between North and South Anna Rivers.  The church lies on route 738 about 4.5 miles west of the Gum Tree on route 1, which is 3 miles south of Doswell and 4.5 miles north of Ashland.  The present building is the second Lower Church of St Martins Parish.  The first Lower Church (around 1722) of the parish was originally erected as the Chapel in the Forks or Fork Chapel of St Paul's Parish.Dolly Madison and Patrick Henry attended services  at this church  Parson S.S. Hepburn, grandfather of Katherin Hepburn was rector of this parish from 1893 to 1903.
Farnham Church, Richmond County VA
     The parish church of North Farnham Parish is in Richmond county.    Unmarked colonial graves lie on the west and south sides of the preseint, and a burying ground for slaves exists in the thick woods north of the church and its new parish's register (1704-1830).  The vestry book (1743-93) of Upper Parish, Nansemond County, has been published and the original is on deposit at the State Library in Richmond.  St Paul's Church in Suffolk is said to have two other remnants of this parish from colonial times.  One is a 1751 Bible and the other is a hanging, an altar cloth, a pulpit fall, and a funeral pall. 
Pungoteague Church, Accomack County, VA
     Pungoteague Church was origially in Accomack Parish, but became part of St George's Parish in 1762.    The vestry book (1763-86) of St George's Parish is at present kept in the clerk's office at Accomack Courthouse.  The churchyard at Pungoteague Church doesn't appear to have any colonial stones.
Borough Church (St Pauls) Norfolk VA
     Also known as St Paul's, the Borough Church of Norfolk was created by a royal charter in 1736.  It lies in a large churchyard at the corner of Church Street and City Hall Avenue in downtown Norfolk.  The parish museum contains the chair that John Hancock is believed to have used to sign the Declaration of Independence as well as a piece of armor from teh "Merrimac" and early photographs of many of Virginia's colonial churches.  The parish's colonial silver, now on loan in the Norfolk Museum, consists of a silver-guilt chalice (London 1700-01), another silver-gilt chalice with paten-cover (London 1722-23), an alms bason (London 1750-51) and a flagon (1763064). The chalice and paten cover were made by Thomas Farrer, the alms bason by John Robinson and the flagon by Fuller White.  The original manuscript of the vestry book (1749-61) of Elizabeth River Parish is kept at the Seaboard Citizens National Bank in Norfolk.









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