Kecoughtan 
 
 Old and New 
 
Kecoughtan Old and New 
 
 — OR- 
 
 Three Hundred Years 
 
 —OF— 
 
 Elizabeth City Parish 
 
 
 By JACOB HEFFELFINGER 
 
 
 An address, delivered July 19th, 1910, in St. John's Church, Hampton, Virginia, on 
 
 the occasion of the 300th Anniversary of the occupation of the 
 
 Parish by the English. 
 
Acknowledgements are due, for 
 courtesies extended, to Mr. William 
 G. Stanard, Maj. W. W. Old, Rev. 
 C. Braxton Bryan, D. D., Col. W. 
 Gordon McCabe and Lyon G 
 Tyler, LL.D. 
 
 8 JAM19'3 
 
 HOUSTON PRINTING & PUBLISBING HOUSE 
 Hampton, Virfinia 
 
ST. JOHN'S CilLlall, r.ilu 
 
32. 
 
Kecoughtan Old arid New 
 
 or 
 
 Three Hundred Years 
 
 of 
 
 Elizabeth City Parish 
 
 Elizabeth City Parish may %vell be called a place of be- 
 ginnings ! 
 
 It was a small company, in a small boat, that approached 
 the beach of Point Comfort Island on that thirtieth day of 
 April, 1607, but they made a deep mark in the history of civ- 
 ilization. 
 
 On the sandbanks of the Point we have the first welcome 
 to the Englishman, extended by the five bronze-colored viJettes, 
 who there watched the coming of the unknown strangers. No 
 unshotted guns, or swords pointed to earth ever extended a 
 more gracious and courteous military salute, than that ofl'ered 
 by these wild warriors of the forest, casting their bows and 
 arrows to the ground in answer to the white man's sign of 
 peace. 
 
 Mighty ships of steel have since plowed these same waters, 
 escorting hither the fleets of friendly nations, but no naval 
 escort has ever rivaled that which led Newport's shallop to the 
 home of the red man at Kecoughtan. See those lithe forms, 
 with arms carried in their teeth, swimming at the bow of the 
 strangers' boat in an abandon of chivalrous welcome ! 
 
For three hundred years Virginia hospitality has been 
 greatly noted, but has never exceeded in true spirit, that of the 
 red man at that first dinner to the white man at Kecoughtan — 
 offering to him ' ' such dainties as they had, ' ' not forgetting the 
 after-dinner smoke ; this at a time of the year when the Indians 
 lived poorly. As the strangers climbed the low bluff banks at 
 Kecoughtan an inviting prospect met their gaze. At their feet 
 the strawberries, just coming into fruit, grew in such profusion 
 that they at once named the shore "Strawberry Banks," and 
 to this day it bears that name. These berries were larger and 
 better than those they had known in England. 
 
 Extending back from the water were the Indians' corn- 
 fields, newly planted, two to three thousand arcres in extent, 
 cut into convenient peninsulas by the many bays and creeks 
 that made into the mainland, a pleasant plain, with wholesome 
 air, having plenty of springs of sweet water, with pasture and 
 marsh, and apt places for vines, corn and gardens. 
 
 The town contained eighteen houses clustered on a little plat 
 of about three acres, the present ground of the Soldiers' Home, 
 where lived not over twenty fighting men, besides their women 
 and children. 
 
 Four months afterwards, Captain Smith looking for food 
 for the settlers at Jamestown, visited Kecoughtan and after 
 some dicerning and frightening the Indians with discharges 
 from his guns, obtained sixteen bushels of corn. 
 
 In July, 1608, on his second voyage of discovery, Smith 
 staid some two or three days at Kecoughtan, because of con- 
 trary winds: again the party was kindly received and feasted 
 with much mirth. In December and January, 1608-9, Smith, on 
 his way to Pamunkey, was again halted by extreme weather. 
 The chronicler of the time says: "The next night (December 
 30th, 1608), being lodged at Kecoughtan six or seven dales, 
 the extreme wind, rain, frost and snow caused us to keep 
 Christmas among the savages : where we were never more mer- 
 rie, nor fedde in such plenty of good oysters, fish, flesh, wild 
 fowl, and good bread nor never had better fires in England than 
 in the drie, warm, smokie houses at Kecoughtan." 
 
What a feast was that after the fasting and hardships at 
 Jamestown. The aroma of roasted oysters, cured sturgeon 
 steaks, spots and hog-fish, broiled venison with wild duck, 
 sweet com bread and the dainty cakes made of chinquepin 
 meal comes down to us over the centuries to make our mouths 
 water ! Is there not a touch of home-sickness in the comparing 
 of it all with Old England? 
 
 In the spring of 1610 the Indians planted their last crop of 
 corn in their fields at Kecoughtan, a crop that they were never 
 to gather. Early in the morning of July 19, 1610, the inhabi- 
 tants were startled by a sharp attack by the Englishmen, made 
 in such force and with such rush, that the Indians were quickly 
 overwhelmed, and with their women fled for their lives, leaving 
 twelve or fourteen dead on the field. All this without hurt or 
 loss to any of the attacking party. The town and all that it 
 contained fell as spoil to the English soldiers. 
 
 William Strachey, who was present and wrote home quite 
 a full account of the affair*, complains that the baggage left 
 by the Governor was poor, and that they found only a few 
 baskets of old wheat (maize) and some others of peas and 
 beans, and some little tobacco. He felicitates himself that some 
 fine womens' girdles of grass silk not without art, and much 
 neatness, finely wrought, fell to him as his share of the spoil, 
 divers of which he sent to England. The growing crop of corn 
 which was in ''good-forwardness" of course, fell to the cap- 
 tors. 
 
 Why this sudden change from peace to war with a tribe 
 of agricultural husbandmen against whom there is no record of 
 infidelity to their Xmas guests of two short years before ? 
 
 Strachey says, that three days before, one of the Lieuten- 
 ant General Gates' men named Humphrey Blunt, was killed 
 under the eyes of the General as he was trying to save a long 
 boat belonging to Algernon Fort that had been blown ashore 
 on the Nansemond side, just below the mouth of Pagan Creek, 
 and that he, "in some measures purposed revenge" and there- 
 fore followed the capture and sacking of Kecoughtan. 
 
 * See Appendix A. 
 
But the Indians who lived at Kecoughtan had no hand in 
 the death of Blunt, a wide expanse of some twenty milts of 
 water separating them from the Nansemond Indians, who, no 
 doubt, were the perpetrators of the murder. Why should the 
 blow fall upon the friendly, peaceful farmers at Kecoughtan, 
 rather than the guilty ones, the war-like Nansemonders ? 
 
 Lord De-la-Ware, in his report dated two days before the 
 capture, says, "Our own eyes witness — that no countrie jield- 
 eth goodlier corne or more manifold increase, large fields we 
 have as prospects hourly before us of the same, and those not 
 many miles from our quarters, some whereof — our purpose is 
 to be masters of ere long, and to thresh it out on the floors of 
 our barns when the time shall serve." 
 
 Then again the Nansemonds had two hundred and fifty 
 fighting men, the Kecoughtans not over twenty. The big corn 
 fields and few fighting men of the Kecoughtans fixed their fate ; 
 the murder of Blunt by the Nansemonds, furnishing the excuse 
 for their undoing. In "A Breife Declaration of the Ancient 
 Planters" they say: "We founde divers other Indian houses 
 built by the natives which by reason we could make no other 
 use of we burnt killing to the number of twelve or fourteen In- 
 dians, and possessing such corne as we founde growing of their 
 planting." 
 
 Oh, the pity of it! Killing twelve or fourteen Indians! 
 Were any of them among those who, during the three short 
 years preceeding, had repeatedly entertained their slayers very 
 kindly, feasting them with great mirth, sheltering them in their 
 warm smoky houses, for as long as six or seven days, from the 
 extreme wind, rain, frost and snows at that happy Xmas time 
 of 1608-9 ? Were there among the slayers any that had receiv- 
 ed this gracious bounty? Some of the ancient planters who, 
 "by use were grown practique" in a hard way of living, were 
 there to aid Gates' men, who had been in the country scarce 
 two months, but 'tis hard to think of them as joining in the 
 assault on their friends. 
 
 Thus ended the tenure of the red man, and thus began the 
 possession by the white man of that "ample and fair country" 
 
at Kecoughtan. "An admirable portion of land, high, whole- 
 some and fruitful." 
 
 The record is wholly made up by the white man, the red 
 man's mouth is forever sealed— and the record is against the 
 white man. 
 
 Raise high your monuments to the doughty Captain John 
 Smith— he deserves them— I believe in Smith, but where is the 
 artist who will fittingly mould in enduring bronze a memorial 
 to the five Indian videttes who first welcomed the Englishmen 
 to their shores; and in memory of their tribe who lived at 
 Kecoughtan, and who seem never to have broken faith with 
 their guests? 
 
 Safely in possession. Gates immediately set about fortify- 
 ing the place against a return of the Indians. With the help 
 of some of the ancient planters, who were acclimated, two small 
 forts were erected. These forts were stockades made of small 
 young trees. To shelter the garrison in one, two houses built 
 by the Indians and covered with bark were used ; in the other 
 a tent with a few thatched cabins built by the English. These 
 forts were a musket shot apart, located on the ground now 
 occupied by the Soldiers' Home, and gave to the place the name 
 of Fort Field, a name retained in the records to this day. 
 
 The forts were named Fort Henry and Fort Charles, in 
 honor of Henry, Prince of Wales, and his brother. Prince 
 Charles, afterwards King Charles I., and were commanded by 
 Captain Thomas Holecroft, and Captain George Yeardley. 
 Yeardley was commander of Sir Thomas Gates' company and 
 was afterfards acting governor, 1616-1617— Governor 1619-21 
 and Governor again 1626-1627. Captain Holecroft died at Ke- 
 coughtan. Here they remained until harvest time, when they 
 gathered about one hundred and fifty bushels of corn, besides 
 what was used for their own sustenance, which by order of 
 Lord De-la-Ware was transported to Jamestown. 
 
 At the end of October, under orders from De-la-Ware, 
 Captains Yeardley and Holecroft abandoned the forts, after an 
 occupancy of a little over three months, and with their people 
 
8 
 
 proceeded to Jamestown, to join in the march to the mountains 
 in search of gold or silver. 
 
 The fort at Point Comfort, erected by Percy in 1609, a 
 small one, fenced with pallisades, was still held, and when 
 De-la-Ware sailed away for home, in the spring of 1611, con- 
 tained one slight house, a store, and some few thatched cabins, 
 which shortly afterwards were destroyed by fire. The forts 
 at Kecoughtan remained vacant until the coming of Sir Thom- 
 as Dale, who landed at Point Comfort on the twelfth day of 
 May, 1611, ten days after De-la-Ware 's departure for home. 
 
 At Point Comfort, Dale found tw^o companies, one being a 
 part of Gates' company, not being in sufficient numbers to 
 occupy the forts at Kecoughtan. Dale at once with energy set 
 about the task of bettering the discouraging conditions in the 
 colony, his first move being to repossess the forts at Kecough- 
 tan. After viewing the forts and cornfields on the second day 
 after his arrival, although somewhat late in the season for 
 planting, he landed all his own men, and taking a part of the 
 companies from Algernon Fort, all hands fell to digging and 
 cleaning the ground under the supervision of Dale himself, and 
 in four or five days had planted more about Fort Henry than 
 Gates had found planted by the Indians when he sacked the 
 town in the previous summer. Dale then left for Jamestown, 
 leaving Captain James Davys in command as task-master for 
 the garrisons of all three forts, Algernon, Henry and Charles, 
 with instructions to plant about Charles Fort : the officers of 
 each garrison to report to Captain Davys, and he in turn to 
 Dale. 
 
 Thus began the permanent occupancy of Kecoughtan by 
 the English, never again to be abandoned. Dale was so pleased 
 with the place that in August he declared it "a fit place to fash- 
 ion and lay out a spatious and commodious towne for a chief 
 commander." Two years later Molina, the Spanish spy who 
 had been held a prisoner at Point Comfort since the summer of 
 1611, reported twenty-five men and four iron guns at Algernon 
 Fort, and fifteen men at each of the forts at Kecoughtan — and 
 in October, 1613, Gondomar, the Spanish Ambassador at Lon- 
 
don, reports to his king, that the forts are surrounded by earth- 
 works — that the majority of the men were sick and badly 
 treated, being fed on cornbread and fish, with nothing to drink 
 but water, "which" he says, "is contrary to the nature of the 
 English." 
 
 Dale, after ruling the colony for five years with an iron 
 hand, sailed for England on the 31st day of May, 1616, taking 
 with him among others, the Indian Princess, Pocahontas, Rolfe, 
 her husband, and the Spanish spy, Molina. He left at Kecough- 
 tan, Captain George Webb in command, and Mr. William 
 Mease as minister, with twenty men and boys, eleven of whom 
 were farmers, besides the women and children. For the plan- 
 tation, as well as for the colony, there was peace and pros- 
 perity. How long the Rev. William Mease served as minister 
 at Kecoughtan, or whether he had a Church to preach in is not 
 known, but he was back in England in 1623. If he did not 
 have good congregations it was not Governor Dale's fault, for 
 his code made it very unhealthy for absentees from divine 
 worship ; he not only contended that he tiiat works not should 
 not eat, but added the same punishment for him who prayed 
 not. 
 
 In this first House of Burgesses, the first legislative assem- 
 bl.y to meet in America, in July and August, 1619, the planta- 
 tion was represented by Captain William Tucker and William 
 Capp. In the sixth petition of this assembly to the treasurer, 
 council and company, they were asked to change the name of 
 Kecoughtan and to give that incorporation a new name. In 
 ]\Iay, 1620, this request was granted and the name was changed 
 to Elizabeth City, in honor of the daughter of King James I. 
 English names for English settlements was the fashion and by 
 this change Kecoughtan came into line with the other ten incor- 
 porations and plantations which all had English names. The 
 name Kecoughtan clung to the locality for many years after, 
 and as late as the year 1700, Governor Nicholson, in his official 
 papers, still uses the old Indian name. 
 
 About this time (1619) came over the three old pieces of 
 communion plate now in use in St. John's Church. All three 
 
10 
 
 pieces bear the "hallmark" of 1618. Two of the pieces, the 
 cup and paten, have been in possession of the Parish for many 
 years. The cup bears the inscription, "The Communion Cupp 
 for Snt Mary's Church in Smith's Hundred in Virginia." The 
 paten is inscribed : " If any man eate of this Bread he shall live 
 forever, (Jo. VI.)" The third piece was found among the ef- 
 fects of the late Rev. Mark L. Cheevers after his death, and 
 donated to Saint John's Church by his daughter Miss Julia 
 Cheevers, in 1907.* This plate has been in use in America 
 longer than any English Church plate now known to be in exis- 
 tence. 
 
 In 1620 a guest house or hospital was erected by Lieuten- 
 ant Whittaker, and in a letter from the council in England to 
 Governor Yeardley, dated August 4th, 1621, he is directed to 
 thank and reward the lieutenant for this service, and the build- 
 ing of more of these houses is urged. These guest houses were 
 intended to accommodate fifty persons in each, were to be 
 erected in wholesome localities, each to be sixteen feet broad, 
 one hundred and eighty feet long within, with twenty-five beds, 
 five chimneys for fire, and sufficient windows for wholesome 
 air. Their main purpose was the shelter and recuperation of 
 newly arrived immigrants, after a weary and tiresome sea voy- 
 age. 
 
 In this year 1621, arrived Rev. Francis Bolton, sent over 
 by the Council, for Elizabeth City, and directed to inhabit with 
 Captain Tho. Nuse, at Newport News. Mr. Bolton remained 
 in the parish for a short time only, for in December, 1623, he 
 was serving as minister on the Eastern Shore. Another impor- 
 tant arrival in 1621 was that of Master Daniel Gookins out of 
 Ireland, with fifty men of his own, exceedinkly well furnished 
 with all sorts of provisions and cattle. He settled in the parish 
 at Newport News. Gookins made a successful trial in growing 
 cotton. 
 
 The cruel blow which fell on the colony in the fearful mas- 
 sacre of March, 1622, was felt but little in Elizabeth City, 
 mainly because of the remoteness of the corporation from the 
 
 * For a fuller account of this Church Silver, see Dr. C. Braxton 
 Bryan's monograph in "The Churchman," June 23, 1900. 
 
11 
 
 Indians' stronghold. None of the inhabitants were numbered 
 among the 347 of the colony who perished. When the colonists 
 were ordered to abandon the outlying plantations and concen- 
 trate for mutual protection Master Gookins refused to obey, 
 thinking himself with his force of about thirty-five able to 
 repel any attack by the savages, while his neighbor, Captain 
 Thos. Nuse, instead of abandoning his corn fields as many were 
 doing, planted an extra supply. Captain Nuse also entrenched 
 his home, calling in his nearest neighbors and sharing with 
 them his provisions. 
 
 In September, after the massacre, the Indians grew bold 
 enough to make an attack, and although Nuse sallied forth to 
 resist, they killed four men and carried off some of Edward 
 Hill's cattle. Edward Hill died in May, 1624, Captain Nuse 
 died about April, 1623. 
 
 Not long after the massacre, Edward Waters and his wife, 
 Grace, being detained as prisoners by the Nansemond Indians, 
 managed to escape in a canoe, while their captors were rejoic- 
 ing and carousing over the finding of a boat that drifted to 
 their shore from Newport News, and made their way to Ke- 
 coughtan. The English were greatly rejoiced at the escape of 
 Waters and his wife as they had been reported among the 
 killed. Edward Waters settled permanently in Elizabeth City, 
 had two children— William and Margaret— Virginia born, was 
 a captain, a burgess and a justice of the corporation, and died 
 soon after March, 1629. He came over from England in 1608. 
 
 The expedition organized by Sir George Yeardley to punish 
 the Indians for the massacre of the English, after driving away 
 the Nansemonds, capturing their corn and burning their houses, 
 afterwards came to Kecoughtan, and while quartered here, 
 after the watch was set, Samuel Collier, in going the rounds, 
 was accidentally killed by a sentinel. Samuel Collier came 
 over as a boy with Newport and Captain John Smith in 1607, 
 was page to Captain Smith, left by him with the Indians at 
 Warrascyack to learn their language, and because of his inti- 
 mate knowledge of the Indians and their ways was of great 
 service to the settlers. 
 
 Probably the most interesting papers that have been pre- 
 
12 
 
 Berved of the early colonial period are the "Lists* of the Liv- 
 inge and Dead in Virginia, February 16th, 1624," and the mus- 
 ters of the inhabitants in Virginia, 1625. The list of 1624 gives 
 a total of 349 names for Elizabeth City, a large increase from 
 the twenty men and boys, with a few women and children, re- 
 ported by Rolfe in 1616; an increase, no doubt, largely due to 
 the fleeing in of the inhabitants from the outlying plantations 
 after the massacre. Included in the list are fifty-nine females, 
 four Frenchmen, two Indians, and two Negroes. In the mus- 
 ters of 1625, we find a total of 360, including seventy-one fe- 
 males, and thirty children, born in Virginia, one baptized In- 
 dian, and four Negroes, one of them a child reported baptized. 
 It was a settlement of young people, only forty-six being over 
 thirty-five years of age. 
 
 To be able, after the lapse of nearly three hundred years, 
 to call the name of nearly every inhabitant of the parish, man, 
 woman and child, with the date of their arrival and the name 
 of the ship in which they came, inspires one with a sense of in- 
 timate nearness, as we walk over the ground on which they ac- 
 tually lived. In the muster of 1625 we seem to be invited into 
 each rough cabin, and are introduced to father, mother, and 
 children, told the age of each and often with a touch of pride 
 come the words, ' ' Born in Virginia ! " 
 
 First we note the Laydon family, John and Anne, his wife, 
 with their three daughters, Virginia, Alice, and Katherine in 
 1624, while in 1625, baby Margaret had come to increase the 
 total of the family to six, and the four girls are bracketed 
 "Born in Virginia," no other family boasting more than two 
 with this distinction. John Laydon came over in May, 1607, in 
 the "Susan Constant" and was one of the twelve laborers listed 
 in this first expedition. 
 
 With the second supply in October came over Mistress 
 Forest, wife of Thomas Forest, Gentleman, and her maid, Anne 
 Buras, or Burrows, the first women to arrive in the colony. 
 Among the many who doubtless besieged the heart of the one 
 maid in the colony, John Laydon was the successful suitor, 
 
 * See Appendix B. 
 
13 
 
 and about Christmas, some two months after her arrival, they 
 were married at Jamestown, the first marriage of English peo- 
 ple in Virginia. John was thirty-eight, while Anne was only 
 fourteen years old. Virginia Laydon who was probably fifteen 
 years old at the time of the muster in 1625, was the first child 
 born of English parents, in Virginia. This little family, while 
 not one of the First Families of Virginia, was without doubt, 
 the first Virginia family and as such is of intense interest to us. 
 What became of the Laydon girls? Whom did they marry? 
 Are any of their descendents in the parish today ? I commend 
 to the Colonial Dames or the Association for the Preservation 
 of Virginia Antiquities, the erection somewhere in the parish /^ 
 of a suitable memorial tablet, commemorating the fact that 
 here lived for a number of years, Virginia Laydon, the first 
 child of English parents born in Virginia. In 1632 John Lay- 
 don was granted five hundred acres of land in the parish, pre- 
 sumably in honor of his daughter, Virginia. 
 
 William Capp's name is in the list for 1624, but not in the 
 muster of 1625. He appears to have had much influence in the 
 affairs of the colony. He represented the corporation in the 
 first assembly in 1619. In 1626 he was holder of a dividend of 
 land. He, with others, in 1622 petitioned King James for re- 
 lief in the matter of marketing the tobacco of the colony — was 
 the bearer in 1627 of a message to the colony from King Charles 
 I. in which the King urged varied planting, saying: "This 
 plantation is wholly built upon smoke, tobacco being the only 
 means it hath produced." Capp's patent for land covered what 
 was later known as "Little England" plantation, and is now 
 occupied by an important part of the city of Hampton. 
 
 Listed as a servant in Mr. Edward Waters' muster, he 
 whose escape from the Nansemond Indians we have noted, is 
 Adam Thorogood, aged eighteen years. He rose to a position 
 of influence in the colony. He was a Burgess from Elizabeth 
 City in the General Assemblies of 1629-1630 and 1632. In the 
 session of September, 1632, he was made a member of the 
 monthly court for Elizabeth City and in 1637 was on the coun- 
 cil of Governor Harvey. His land adjoined the lands of Wil- 
 liam Capp and William Clairbome. He also held large tracts 
 
14 
 
 of land in Lower Norfolk, formerly lower part of Elizabeth 
 City. 
 
 Another mustered as a servant in the list of Mr. Francis 
 Chamberlin is a William Worlidge, aged eighteen years. He 
 also became prominent in the affairs of the county, represent- 
 ing it in the Assemblies of 1629, 1649, 1654, and 1660, attaining 
 to the office of Lieutenant, Major and Lieutenant Colonel. 
 
 Others listed are Captain Raleigh Crashaw, who in 1626, 
 was the holder by patent of 500 acres of land between Fox Hill 
 and Pamunkey River ; came over in 1608 and was a Burgess in 
 1624. Captain Francis West, a brother of Lord De-la-Ware, came 
 over in 1608, the owner of one of the four negroes in the cor- 
 poration ; Governor of Virginia from November, 1627, to March, 
 1629. Captain William Tucker; came over in 1610; member of 
 first house of Burgesses in 1619 ; owner of three of the negroes 
 in the corporation; in 1626 held 150 acres by patent and 650 
 acres in the south side opposite Elizabeth City. Councellor in 
 1626 ; member of the monthly county court and military com- 
 mander of the corporation. In 1623, after the massacre, he was 
 actively fighting the Indians along the Rappahannock and at- 
 tacked the Nansemonds and Warrasquekes with vast spoil to 
 their corn and habitations, and no small slaughter. 
 
 The Rev. Jonas Stockton was living in the parish in 1624 
 and 1625 and is listed in the census for these years.- He came 
 over in January 1621, and preached at Henrico before coming 
 to Elizabeth City. 
 
 In these years there seem to have been two ministers resid- 
 ing in the parish, the Rev. Jonas Stockton and the Rev. George 
 Keith. The name Mr. Keith, minister, appearing in the list of 
 1624, and Mr. George Keith in the muster of 1625 on the list of 
 Mr. Cisse, minister. Mr. Cisse is not mustered as present. Be- 
 fore 1624, Mr. Keith was the owner of 100 acres of land in the 
 parish by patent. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Fenton died in the parish in September, 1624. 
 Nothing is known of his service in the parish or colony. 
 
 Another summary for this year, 1625, gives a total of 443 
 inhabitants, thirty-five of whom were land-holders, nine-nine 
 
15 
 
 dwellings, twenty-one store-houses ,twenty-two hogs, seventy- 
 four cattle and seventy-nine goats, 3,965 bushels of corn, be- 
 sides green and dried fish and other provisions. No horses, 
 only two reported in the colony. No Church reported. Mr. 
 Alexander Brown says: '*I am quite sure, however, that there 
 were Churches, or chapels, in each of the four great boroughs, 
 and in the Eastern Shore. ' ' This would include Elizabeth City. 
 
 In 1630, "William Clairborne, at times Surveyor General, 
 Councillor, and Secretary of State, had a trading station at the 
 present site of Hampton. He traded with the Indians for furs, 
 carrying his business far up the Chesapeake Bay. The town of 
 Hampton was established on his land, then belonging to 
 Thomas Jarvis, in 1680. 
 
 In 1634 there were in the county 859 men, women and chil- 
 dren. It must be remembered that all the foregoing figures in- 
 clude the inhabitants on the south side of the river, that is to 
 say, the region around Sewell's Point and beyond, being called 
 the lower part of Elizabeth City, and afterwards becoming a 
 part of Lower Norfolk county. This also applies to the shore 
 of Nansemond. 
 
 In 1635, Benjamin Symmes gave 200 acres of land "with 
 milk and increase of eight cows for the maintenance of a learn- 
 ed and honest man to keep upon the said ground a free school 
 for the education and instruction of the children of the adjoin- 
 ing parishes of Elizabeth City and Kiquotan. ' ' This is the first 
 legacy of an English colonist in America for the cause of edu- 
 cation, antedating the bequest of John Harvard, of Massachu- 
 setts, by four years. The bequest of Symmes was fittingly ac- 
 knowledged by the Assembly of March, 1643, commending his 
 "godly disposition and good intent — for the encouraging of 
 all others in like pious performances." His example was fol- 
 lowed in 1659 by Thomas Eaton, who by his deed of gift es- 
 tablished a similar school near the Symmes' school. The two 
 funds were afterwards merged and became a part of the public 
 school funds of the county. Ten thousand dollars of the fund 
 are still intact, and the income is used in support of the county 
 schools. 
 
16 
 
 The parish and colony were now fairly planted and on the 
 road to prosperity, not only having the necessities of life, but 
 Kecoughtan was rejoicing in an abundance of peaches. How- 
 ever, the toll of English lives that had been paid is appalling, 
 101 deaths for Elizabeth City are reported for ten months end- 
 ing February, 1624,* while for the colony the figures are 
 equally startling. The shores of the James river from Hen- 
 rico to Kecoughtan had become almost a continuous graveyard. 
 Mr. Alexander Brown eloquently says: "Before 1631, 
 more than three thousand English had died in the coloLiy of 
 Virginia, among them being many as honorable people as any 
 in our annals. No stone marks the grave and no epitaph pre- 
 serves the memory of a single one of them, (male or female) 
 and some of them are not even fairly treated in our first his- 
 tory — even the final resting places of Captain Gabriel Archer, 
 who first proposed to have a parliament in Virginia, and after- 
 wards protested against the royal form of government for 
 Virginia ; of the members of the first council who gave their 
 lives in and to Virginia ; of the first Protestant ministers who 
 gave their lives to the cause of Christ in the colony ; of Sir 
 George Yeardley, who inaugurated the form of popular gov- 
 ernment in the present United States and of the members of 
 the first House of Burgesses in America, are not known." 
 
 In January, 1637, Governor John Harvey, on the begin- 
 ning of his second administration, came ashore at Elizabeth 
 City and read his commission in the Church. This Church, the 
 foundation of which has been unearthed this year (1910), was 
 apparently the first Church of the parish. The outside dimen- 
 sions of the foundation, which are of cobble stones with a few 
 bricks are: length, fifty-three feet six inches; width, twenty- 
 three feet. Within the foundations are fragments of the church 
 floor composed of earthen tiles, eight inches square and one 
 and one half inches thick. The Church was erected on an arti- 
 ficial mound on a branch of Hampton river, on the Glebe land 
 now owned by the estate of the late Col. Thomas Tabb, and 
 at the foot of the mound can be seen one of the "springs of 
 sweet water" which so delighted the first settlers. 
 * See Appendix B. 
 
17 
 
 The date of erection of the old Kecoughtan Church is not 
 known, but although apparently abandoned after 1667, about 
 which time the Church at Pembroke was erected, the old first 
 Church seems to have stood until 1698, when one Walter Bai- 
 ley, was given by levy, four hundred pounds of tobacco for 
 ''pulling down ye old Church and setting up seats in ye court 
 House. ° Some claim that the Church then (1698) torn down 
 was the Church at Pembroke, but this would leave the parish 
 without a Church until 1728, a period of thirty years. 
 
 In 1704, the Rev. George Keith, the one time Quaker, and 
 his companion, Mr. Talbott, "preached in the Church at Ke- 
 coughtan," so that at that date the Pembroke Church seems 
 to have been standing and in use ; and while John Fontain, in 
 1716, writes that he finds no Church in Hampton, he probably 
 referred to the village proper, the Pembroke Church being in 
 the country and somewhat distant. Certain it is that in Octo- 
 ber, 1727, at the time the building of the present church (St. 
 John's) was undertaken, sundry inhabitants and the majority 
 of the Vestry represented to the Governor that the parish 
 Church was in a ruinous condition, and dangerous to use for di- 
 vine services, and this parish Church was no doubt the Pem- 
 broke Church. Of course, we are confronted with the possi- 
 bility that there were other Churches of which we have no 
 record, but the discovered records, as we have them today, in- 
 dicate that the old Kecoughtan Church was used, from the 
 time of its erection until about 1667, when it was abandoned 
 except for purposes of interring the dead, and was the first 
 Church in the parish, and stood until 1698 ; that the Church at 
 Pembroke was used from about 1667 until 1727, when it was 
 abandoned and was the second Church in the parish; that 
 about 1728 the present Church, Saint John's, was erected, its 
 original walls still standing, and is the third Church in the 
 parish. 
 
 The site of the Old Kecoughtan Church, with the old 
 grave-yard surrounding it, containing about one-fourth of an 
 acre has recently become the property of the parish through 
 the voluntary deed of gift from Mrs. Virginia Tabb, and her 
 
18 
 
 children. Thus the parish owns the sites of the first and sec- 
 ond Churches, as well as that of St. John's, the third Church. 
 
 In 1644, the Rev. William Wilkinson seems to have been 
 the minister for the parish, in which year he was granted by 
 patent one hundred acres of land, ''in or near Buckroe." He 
 probably was minister as early as 1635 when he had a grant of 
 land on Lynnhaven river. 
 
 In some lists of the clergy of Elizabeth City parish, the 
 name of the Rev. Phillip Mallory appears under date 1664, 
 Mr. Mallory died in England before July 27th, 1661, when his 
 will was probated, and I have been able to find no record show- 
 ing him to have been a resident minister of the parish. He stood 
 high in his calling and profession — the assembly of 1661 declar- 
 ing him to be "eminently faithful in the ministry, and very 
 dilligent in endeavoring the advancement of those means that 
 might conduce to the advancement of religion of this country." 
 
 Bishop Meade, in Vol. 1, page 230, notes that the Rev. 
 Justinian Aylmer served the parish from 1645 to 1667 and then 
 on page 231 limits his service to two years, 1665 to 1667. If we 
 eliminate the Rev. Phillip Mallory from the list the term first 
 given to Mr. Aylmer would seem to be correct. 
 
 The next minister was the Rev. Jeremiah Taylor, who be- 
 gan his ministry in 1667, the one "black sheep" in the list of 
 twenty ministers who resided in the parish in colonial times. 
 He is said to have been insolent to the civil authorities, and 
 was charged with drunkenness and slander by the grand jury. 
 His time of service is not given. 
 
 Rev. William Harris was minister in 1675. 
 
 Rev. John Page began his term of service in 1677. He left 
 the colony in 1687 and was then succeeded by the Rev. Cope 
 Doyley, whose term of service is not known. In 1695 he was 
 minister in Denbigh Parish, in Warwick county, where he was 
 shut out from the Church by one of the wardens and the late 
 clerk without just cause. In 1697 he was elected minister for 
 Bruton Parish, where he died in 1702. Governor Nicholson 
 had doubts of Mr. Doyley 's loyalty to the ritual of the Church, 
 for in 1700 he demands of the Bruton vestry information as to 
 
19 
 
 whether the minister reads the service of the Book of Common 
 Prayer in the Church; the reply was in the affirmative. Mr. 
 Doyley was a graduate of Merton and Oriel colleges. 
 
 By the act of 1691, Hampton was named as one of the ports 
 of the colony, and all of the twenty-six half-acre lots into 
 which the town was originally divided seem to have been sold. 
 In 1716 it was a place of about one hundred houses, was a place 
 of the greatest trade in Virginia ; had the fitting out of all 
 fleets, both of men-of-war and ships of commerce ; drove a great 
 trade with New York and Pennsylvania, and had then as now, 
 the best fish and oysters in the colony. Here all vessels bound 
 to and from Norfolk, had to enter for clearance papers before 
 sailing. 
 
 The Rev. James Wallace was rector of the parish from 
 1691 to 1712, when he died, aged forty-five years. His remains 
 are interred at his farm, Erroll, on Back river, about three 
 miles north of Hampton. He was from Erroll, in Perthshire, 
 Scotland, and was a doctor of medicine. His grandson. Captain 
 James Wallace, was a Burgess from Elizabeth City county in 
 1769 and 1772 ; justice of the county court ; vestryman and a 
 member of the committee of safety. 
 
 Dr. Wallace at times made things lively with the civil au- 
 thoities; especially was he a thorn in the side of the county 
 court. It appears that a number of suits had been instituted 
 against him for various causes, when, making a trip to England 
 and returning, he brought an order from the government to 
 Governor Nicholson, directing that all suits and prosecutions 
 should cease. In a letter to Governor Nicholson, signed by 
 nine members of the county court, they charge that this order 
 from the government had made the doctor insulting, scoffing 
 and deriding in his manner before the court; that he made it 
 difficult to secure the services of a grand jury; that he canvass- 
 ed for votes for his kinsman in the election for Burgesses, and 
 that he boasted that he would be parson when they were not 
 justices. 
 
 Dr. Wallace was an active business man, and while at- 
 tempting to collect a debt for a client, he was violently assault- 
 ed at the courthouse door by the debtor and his son. 
 
20 
 
 On Sunday afternoon, April 28th, 1700, while a party com- 
 posed of Governor Nicholson, Captain William Passenger, com- 
 mander of H. M, Ship, Shoreham, and other gentlemen, was 
 being entertained at the home of Colonel William Wilson, at 
 Kecoughtan, word was brought to the governor that the pirate 
 ship La Paix (The Peace), Captain Guillar, with five prizes, 
 was anchored in Lynnhaven Bay. The governor, acting with 
 promptness, ordered Captain Passenger, of the Shoreham, to 
 attack the pirate, but the wind being contrary and darkness 
 coming on, the Shoreham anchored about three leagues off from 
 La Paix. About 10 o'clock at night Governor Nicholson, Cap- 
 tain Alfred, of the Essex Prize, Joseph Mann, Esq., and Peter 
 Hayman, Esq., went on board the Shoreham. Captain Passen- 
 ger got under way on Monday morning, and at five o 'clock the 
 engagement began, lasting ten hours, when the Pirate surren- 
 dered, under promise of quarter given because of the many 
 prisoners in her hold. Twenty-five or thirty of the pirates 
 were killed, and many wounded. No account of the casualties 
 on the Shoreham is given, save that Peter Hayman "was killed 
 with a small shot as he stood next the governor upon the 
 quarter deck." This we gather from' the stone that marks his 
 grave in Pembroke Church yard. Three of the pirates were 
 hanged under sentence of the court at Hampton, notwithstand- 
 ing the promise of quarter; ninety-nine of them were sent to 
 England in irons ; the making of the shackles giving work to 
 the Hampton Blacksmiths for some days. 
 
 Eighteen years later Captain Henry Maynard sailed into 
 Hampton river, having as a prize the head of the famous pirate. 
 Blackboard, whom he had conquered in Pamlico Sound, N. C. 
 The head was set on a pole at the point on the west side of the 
 mouth of Hampton river, which henceforward was called 
 Blackbeard's Point. 
 
 Rev. Francis Fordyce appears on one list as minister in 
 1696. He must have been an assistant to Dr. Wallace. 
 
 For seven years from 1712 to 1719, the Rev. Andrew 
 Thompson was rector of the parish. Like Dr. Wallace, he was 
 a Scotchman, He died in the parish in 1719, aged forty-six, 
 
21 
 
 ''leaving the character of a sober and religious man;" and his 
 body is interred in the Church yard at Pembroke. 
 
 Mr. Thompson was succeeded by the Rev. James Falconer. 
 From him only of the colonial clergy has come down to us any 
 information as to the condition of the parish. In a report to the 
 Bishop of London, he says that he has in his charge three hun- 
 dred and fifty families ; that service is performed every Sunday, 
 and is attended by most of the parishoners ; that he had about 
 one hundred communicants; that the owners of slaves were 
 careial to instruct the young negro children and bring them 
 to baptism; that the minister's salary was about sixty-five 
 pounds; that there were two public schools, (evidently the 
 Symmes and Eaton schools) and one private one in the parish. 
 The private school was taught by Mr. William Fyfe. 
 
 Mr. Falconer's service seems to have been from 1720 to — . 
 
 The Rev. Thomas Reader was minister in 1727. At a court 
 held on the fifteenth day of November in that year he took the 
 oaths to the Government and signed the test. It is probable 
 that Mr. Reader's rectorship covered the time of the erection 
 of the present parish Chjrch of which Henry Gary was the 
 builder.* 
 
 The walls of Old St. John's made from bricks, moulded 
 and burned in the church grounds, stand today as they did at 
 their erection in 1728, save the renewal of the gable of the 
 west end which was crushed by the falling of the tower in the 
 fire of 1861 ; the thickening of the east wall by the addition of 
 one foot of false work to screen the chimney ; and the enlarging 
 of the north window of the chancel, and the east window of the 
 north wing of the transept into wider arched openings to re- 
 ceive the organ. 
 
 Originally the ceiling was flat, and at the height of the top 
 of the walls, as at present shown by the horizontal beams in the 
 open roof. Three galleries had place in the north,south, and 
 west wings. From 1843, and possibly earlier, until the destruc- 
 tion in 1861, the chancel or east wing was cut off by a partition, 
 thus making the audience room in the shape of the letter "T"; 
 
 * See Appendix C 
 
22 
 
 the space thus cut off being used as vestry and lecture room. 
 A high pulpit was placed against this partition, in the middle, 
 and was entered by steps and a door from the vestry room. 
 Immediately in front of the pulpit was the communion table, 
 and in front of this the reading desk or lecturn, and in front 
 of this the communion rail. The choir with organ occupied the 
 west gallery, and before the purchase of the organ the precen- 
 tor or leader of the choir used a flute. The aisles were paved 
 with earthen tiles, eight inches square and one and one-half 
 inches thick; the spaces occupied by the pews having wooden 
 floors. The pews were of the old box-style with doors. 
 
 From 1731 to the time of his death, the Rev. William Fyfe 
 was rector of the parish. From his name we infer that he, too, 
 was a Scotchman. During the rectorship of Mr. Falconer he 
 taught a private school in the parish, and his rector describes 
 him as "a man of good life and conversation." He died be- 
 tween October 5th, 1755, and January 12th, 1756, his rectorship 
 covering a quarter of a century. 
 
 The first entry in the vestry book, which is the oldest record 
 of the vestry extant, is dated October 17th, 1751. The meeting 
 was held for the laying of the parish levy. The vestrymen pres- 
 ent were : Major Merritt Sweeney, Major Robert Armisted, C. 
 W., Mr. John Allen, Mr. Anthony Tucker, Mr. Baldwin Shep- 
 hard, Mr. Thomas Latimer, Major John Tabb, Mr. William 
 Westwood, and Captain Charles King, C. W., with the minister, 
 the Rev. William Fyfe. 
 
 The levy was partly laid in pounds of tobacco, and partly 
 in pounds sterling, and for the minister's salary is laid 17,280 
 pounds of tobacco, which, after deducting for cost of cask and 
 shrinkage in weight, was supposed to net 16,000 pounds. Pro- 
 vision is made for items for the poor of the parish, the care of 
 whom was one of the chief duties of the vestry; also for the 
 care of the Church, such items as posts for the gate, painting 
 the Church, putting lines and pulleys to the sashes, painting 
 the west gallery, whitewashing the Church, scouring the floor 
 of the Church, and mending the communion cloths, showing 
 that the decent care of God's temple was not neglected. All 
 
23 
 
 records of the parish vestry previous to this date have long 
 since been lost or destroyed, and seem not to have been in exis- 
 tence in 1826 when the book, as it now exists, was ordered to be 
 rebound and new paper added. 
 
 No parish registers prior to 1826 are known to be in exis- 
 tence, and for the period before the Civil War we have only 
 the one kept by the Rev. Mark. L. Cheevers. 
 
 An important duty of the vestry was the appointment of 
 processioners, whose duty it was to go around the land of each 
 owner and renew the land marks, and this work was repeated 
 every four years. In 1751 two hundred and eleven separate 
 tracts of land are mentioned, in a number of cases two or more 
 tracts being owned by one person. 
 
 At a meeting held January 12th, 1756, the following min- 
 ute occurs: "The late Rev'd Mr. Fyfe, minister of this parish 
 being dead, the vestry proceeded to the choice of another min- 
 ister, and (having first received the governor's and commis- 
 sary's letters) and thereupon mature deliberations being there 
 had, proceeded to the choice of a minister for this parish to fill 
 up the said vacancy, and the Rev'd. Mr. Selden, and the Rev'd. 
 Mr. Warrington, standing candidates, the question being put, 
 the vestry are divided in their opinions." This action led to a 
 sharp tilt between the governor and commissary, on one side, 
 and the vestry on the other, the former claiming the legal right 
 of induction, which right many vestries in the colony were dis- 
 posed to resist. In October the vestry surrendered and unan- 
 imously elected the Rev. Thomas Warrington, seven only of the 
 members being present. Mr. Warrington seems to have been 
 preaching in the parish since the previous Christmas and was 
 granted his salary for the service. 
 
 In the winter of 1755- '56, the beginning of Mr. Warring- 
 ton's rectorate, there was anchored in Hampton Roads a fleet 
 of five vessels bearing, as unwilling passengers, 1,140 Acadians, 
 or neutral French, who had been forcibly taken from their 
 homes in Nova Scotia with the intention of settling them in the 
 various English colonies. These were a part of the Acadians 
 immortalized in Longfellow's Evangeline. 
 
24 
 
 Governor Dinwiddle's Council, after investigations, direct- 
 ed that one of the vessels be sent to Richmond ; that the prison- 
 ers on board of two be landed at Hampton ; and that the other 
 two be sent to Norfolk. All were to be provided with houses 
 and rations. Thus it is probable that Hampton furnished shel- 
 ter for a considerable number of these exiled people for five or 
 six months. Great objection was made to the admission of these 
 Roman- Catholics to the Protestant colony of Virginia, and in 
 April or May, 1756, on the petition of the House of Burgesses, 
 all were sent to England at the expense of the colony. 
 
 In 1759 an agreement was made for building the Church 
 yard wall. In 1761, the late Mr. Alexander Kennedy having 
 devised to the parish forty pounds sterling, for the purchase of 
 a bell, contingent on the erection of a belfry, the vestry under- 
 took to erect one of brick at the west end of the Church, and 
 contracted with Charles Cooper for the brick work, and with 
 Mr. Craighead for the wood work, the work being completed in 
 July, 1762. The steeple was painted white with lead color for 
 the roof. After many delays on the part of the executors of 
 Mr. Kennedy's estate, the bell was at last in place in Septem- 
 ber, 1765, when the "bellman's" duties began. Edward Butler 
 was his name, and his salary one thousand pounds of tobacco 
 per year. In a letter of Mr. Richard B. Servant to Bishop 
 Meade, written in November, 1856, he calls the bell the "Old 
 Queen Anne Bell." How did it get that name? Queen Anne 
 . died in 1714, while the bell did not ring until 1765. Wh^le in 
 use in the camp of the American soldiers on Little England 
 farm, during the war of 1812, the bell was cracked; for this 
 mjury the United States government reimbursed the parish in 
 .yS^r years. In 1827 and again in 1828, the old bell was order- 
 f ed to be remoulded, and although several attempts at building 
 •a steeple on the old brick tower were made, one plan calling 
 for a steeple like that on Trinity Church, in New York cit> , not 
 until December 27th, 1843, Saint John's day, was the bell hung 
 in the belfry. It was struck by lightning and injured on the 
 17th of April following. In the fire of 1861 the bell met its 
 final fate, the metal melting under the intense heat. A frag- 
 ment of the metal which I hold inf my hand was preserved by 
 
25 
 
 the late Mrs. Kennon Whiting, and by her given to the late 
 Miss Laura Sclater, and is now in possession of Mrs. Kate S. 
 Sclater, a communicant of the Church, and is all that remains 
 of the old Kennedy bell. 
 
 During Mr. Warrington's rectorate care is shown in the 
 matter of Church ornaments — one order in 1768, directing the 
 warden to "send home for ornaments for the Church" — (Old 
 England was still "home"). This was followed by a levy of 
 14,000 pounds of tobacco to pay for same — to consist of a pulpit 
 and communion cloths and cushions, of crimson velvet, with 
 silk fringe. They were to be insured at thirty pounds sterling, 
 giving some idea of their elegance. Col. Wilson Miles Cary 
 agreed to freight them, free of charge. 
 
 Giving a glimpse into the customs of the time, we find or- 
 ders granting rum and sugar to a pauper "to bury his mother," 
 and another for a lottery to build a work house — the latter was 
 afterwards rescinded. These were among the halcyon days of 
 the parish. What a concourse was that which gathered on Sun- 
 day mornings by the roadside in front of this Church. Here 
 came the Carys from their "Ceely" plantation, the Lowerys 
 and Mallorys from Back river, the Barrons from "Little Eng- 
 land," the Seldens from Buckroe, and others of equal ncte in 
 the community. Four-in-hand coaches, manned with their liv- 
 eried black drivers and footmen, and escorted by the country 
 beaux on horseback, rolled up to the Church yard gate, there 
 depositing their fair burdens. It was a goodly company that 
 gave ear from their high backed box pews to Mr. Warrington. 
 Mr. Warrington died October 28th. 1770, after a service of 
 fourteen years. He came to this parish from York-Hampton 
 Parish, York county. He fought in the courts for his legal 
 rights infringed upon by the Two-Penny Act, and was awarded 
 damages by a jur}^ although the court decided the act to be 
 valid. 
 
 Mr. Warrington was succeeded by the Rev. William Sel- 
 den, his competitor of 1756, who being without orders made 
 the trip to London and returned with the proper credentials, 
 taking charge in May, 1771. The Rev. William Hubbard had 
 
26 
 
 temporary charge of the parish during Mr. Selden's absence 
 from the country. When Mr. Selden assumed charge the un- 
 rest which preceded the Revolution was already disturbing the 
 colony, and his rectorate was the stepping-stone from the old 
 to the new. 
 
 In April, 1777, the last levy for the salary of the rector was 
 made, and this was never collected, for after January 1st, 1777, 
 no taxes for religious purposes were ever paid in Virginia. The 
 Church, as an establishment, was at an end. The Glebe lands 
 and all books, plate and ornaments were saved to the Church, 
 and from the Glebe lands alone the rector could look for re- 
 muneration for his services. 
 
 In May, 1780, the vestry declared the North gallery, for- 
 merly owned by Col. Alexander McKenzie, to be the property 
 of the parish, and directed the same to be divided into four 
 parts and sold for the benefit of the parish ; and in May, 1781, 
 the committee which had the matter in charge reported the 
 gallery sold to the following persons, beginning at the west 
 end: 
 
 No. 1, to John Jones £1,000 
 
 No. 2, to Francis Mallory, Wurlich Westgood, William 
 
 A. Bayley £650 
 
 No. 3, to John Hunter, Miles King £750 
 
 No. 4, to Samuel Barron Cunningham £1,000 
 
 These prices show the depreciation of the Colonial cur- 
 rency.,^ The ownership in these galleries, as well as in the pews, 
 was the same as in real estate. In 1772, Col. Wilson Cary pro- 
 vided in his will that his pew in the parish Church should be 
 attached to his plantation called Ceelys, and should pass with 
 the land. 
 
 Col. Francis Mallory never occupied his portion of the gal- 
 lery in person. He was a member of the vestry, but attended 
 his last meeting May 16, 1780. At this meeting, (May, 1781), 
 he is reported dead. On the 8th of March, at the head of a 
 company of militia of the county he met a superior force of the 
 enemy under Lieut. Col. Dundas, near Big Bethel, and in the 
 
27 
 
 stubborn fight which ensued, Colonel Mallory, after refusing 
 offers of assistance to escape, made by his fellow vestrj'inan, 
 Jacob Wray, fell covered with wounds. His mangled body was 
 returned to his home, and lies interred in the grave-yard of the 
 farm known as "Clover Dale." His descendants for genera- 
 tions continued to worship in the old parish Church, and al- 
 though none of the name are now residents of the parish, yet 
 one of the fifth generation from the patriot of the Revolution, 
 was this year brought hundreds of miles from his home in a 
 distant state, in the arms of his parents, to receive the sacra- 
 ment of baptism within the walls of the Church of his fathers. 
 
 Because of its situation Elizabeth City county suffered 
 much from repeated raids of the British, and while Col. Fran- 
 cis Mallory was a prisoner on one of Cornwallis' vessels in 
 Hampton Roads, his brother. Captain Edward Mallory, a plan- 
 ter of the county, at the head of about forty mounted volun- 
 teers, attacked a foraging party of the enemy in Warwick 
 county about seven miles above Newport News Point. The 
 British were commanded by a marine officer. Captain Brown, 
 who after putting up a gallant fight, was severely wounded, 
 and left on the field, his command escaping to their boats. Cap- 
 tain Brown was brought to Hampton, and well cared for in the 
 house of Dr. Brodie, where after suffering for two months, he 
 died. Prominent in this skirmish was another county-man, 
 familiarly known as "Young Barron," who behaved with much 
 gallantry and daring. He was afterward widely known as 
 Commodore Samuel Barron, United States Navy. 
 
 As early as October, 1775, Captain Squires of the sloop of 
 war. Otter, approached the town, intending to demand some 
 guns and stores which the people had previously taken from 
 one of his tenders, which they had burned. One of his boats 
 approaching too near the shore was fired upon from the win- 
 dows of the houses and two of the king's sailors killed and two 
 wounded. 
 
 The Rev. William Selden ended his service in the parish 
 early in 1783. At a meeting held in October, 1782, the vestry 
 recommended the "good people of the parish to pay six shill- 
 
28 
 
 ings per each tythable toward paying the rector for past ser- 
 vices." His last meeting with the vestry was in January, 
 1783. He was the last of the colonial rectors of the parish. 
 
 In October, 1783, the vestry agreed with the Rev. William 
 Nixon to serve one year for the use of the Glebe and the ne- 
 groes belonging to the land, subject to his producing his cre- 
 dentials. 
 
 The last meeting of the vestry under civil law, was held 
 August 11th, 1784. The minutes are incomplete and unsigned. 
 It is interesting to note the names of those present : John Tabb, 
 Gary Selden, William Armisted, George Lattimer, William Lat- 
 timer, Wurlich Westwood and Miles King. 
 
 From July, 1786, to September, 1793, the vestry book is 
 taken up with the minutes of the overseers of the poor, who 
 took over the civic duties of the vestry, and no meeting of the 
 vestry is recorded until November, 1806, immediately following 
 the sale of the Glebe lands by the overseers of the poor, the 
 deed for which was perfected in October of the same year, 
 under the so-called confiscation act of December, 1802. By 
 provisions of this act the Church and its contents and the 
 Church yards were reserved from sale. During these twenty- 
 two years the Church in the parish does not seem to have been 
 dormant, but supplied with rectors. There were, no doubt, 
 meetings of the vestry, the minutes of which were not recorded 
 in the minute book, then used by the overseers of the poor. 
 
 The parish had a share in the reorganization of the Cliurch 
 in the State. At the convention of 1785, Wilson Miles Gary 
 and George Wray, men of weight in the political assemblies of 
 the time, appeared as lay delegates; in 1786, the Rev. William 
 Bland, as minister, and Wilson Miles Gary, as lay delegate. 
 Mr. Bland came from Warwick parish, and his term of service 
 in this parish is not known. In the convention of 1789, Wilson 
 Miles Gary, and in 1790, George Wray, were lay delegates for 
 the parish. In the convention of 1792, Bishop Madison re- 
 ports a visit to the parish: the first bishop to visit it. He 
 makes no report of any official acts. 
 
29 
 
 From an inscription on his tombstone in the Church yard 
 it appears that the Rev. Henry Skyren succeeded Mr. Bland. 
 Mr. Skyren died in Hampton in 1795. He was born in White 
 Haven, England, in 1729. He came to Hampton in 1789, from 
 the Churches in King William and King and Queen counties. 
 He was reputed to be a scholar and accomplished gentleman, 
 remarkable for his eloquence and piety, and drew large con- 
 gregations to hear him. The Rev. John Jones Spooner suc- 
 ceeded Mr. Skyren. He died in 1799, aged forty-two years, 
 having come to Hampton in 1796, from Martin's Brandon Par- 
 ish in Prince George county. He was a native of Massachu- 
 setts ; a graduate of Harvard, and prominent in the organiza- 
 tion of the militia in that state after the Revolution. He was 
 captain of the Roxbury Artillery, and during the Shay Rebel- 
 lion he commanded a battalion of four artillery companies un- 
 der General Lincoln, who afterwards commended him as an 
 officer of knowledge, bravery and activity. After meeting bus- 
 iness reverses he studied for the ministry and removed to Vir- 
 ginia. Mr. Spooner attended the conventions of 1796 and 1797 
 as rector of this parish. 
 
 From the inscription on his tomb near the south door of 
 the Church, we learn that the Rev. Benjamin Brown was rec- 
 tor of the parish, and died January 17, 1806. He was rector 
 of St. Peter's Church, in New Kent county, 1797 and 1799, and 
 it is presumed came to Hampton in the latter year after the 
 death of Mr. Spooner. In Mr. Brown's will, on file in the clerk's 
 office for this county he states that he ''has been engaged six- 
 teen years in inculcation of the truth of the gospel." He owned 
 land in New Kent county. 
 
 The Rev. Robert Seymour Symms was elected rector at a 
 meeting held November, 1806, but there is no record of his ac- 
 ceptance. 
 
 After a lapse of four years, another meeting is recorded in 
 August, 1810, when the Rev. George Holson was elected rector. 
 He was also principal of the Hampton Academy. There is no 
 record of his term of service, but he was living in Hampton in 
 
30 
 
 July, 1813, and known as "Parson" Holson. He was rector 
 of the Lynnhaven parish in the years 1804 and 1805. 
 
 Hampton suffered severely in the war of 1812-14. On the 
 25th day of June, 1813, the British made an attack on the de- 
 fenders of the town, who, in numbers, about four hundred and 
 fifty, were encamped on Little England plantation with batter- 
 ies on the water front, all under command of Maj. Stapleton 
 Crutchfield. 
 
 The enemy attacked in the front under Admiral Cockburn 
 and by land forces of about twenty-five hundred in the rear, 
 under Sir Sidney Beckwith. 
 
 Major Crutchfield handled his forces with skill, and a stub- 
 born resistance was made ; but the odds of numbers being over- 
 whelmingly against the Americans, they made a retreat, at 
 times in disorder, across the Pembroke farm, directly over the 
 old Pembroke Church yard, and on across New Creek Bridge, 
 leaving the British in full possession of the town, which they 
 held for two days, and then retired. 
 
 During the occupation Admiral Cockburn and Sir Sidney 
 Beckwith had their headquarters in the Westwood mansion on 
 South King street, and in the garden of this house was interred 
 the body of Lieutenant Colonel Williams, a British officer who 
 fell during the engagement, and as late as 1853 his grave was 
 shown to visitors. 
 
 The rectory of St. John's church now occupies the north- 
 ern half of the Westwood lot, and the three large locust trees 
 on the rectory lot and the adjoining lot to the south mark three 
 of the corners of the Westwood mansion. 
 
 The enemy, during the two days' occupation, committed 
 numerous barbaric atrocities, both on the property and persons 
 of the inhabitants.* 
 
 Years of depression had now fallen on the parish, as well 
 as on the Diocese. Until 1826 there is no record of a meeting 
 of the vestry; indeed the parish seems to have had no vestry. 
 
 » "The ("hurch was pillaged and the plate belonging to it taken 
 away, although inscribed with the donor's name" — (Barbarities of the 
 Hnemy. — pp. 115. 
 
31 
 
 From 1798 to 1828, a period of thirty years, the parish was 
 without representation, either clerical or lay, in the conventions 
 of the Diocese, although as we have seen, the parish had rectors 
 until 1813. The attendance at these conventions shows the low 
 estate of the Church in the Diocese. While in the convention 
 of 1785 there was thirty-six clergymen and sixty-five lay dele- 
 gates, in the convention of 1814, only seven clergymen and sev- 
 enteen lay delegates appear, and in 1826, twenty-two clergy 
 and sixteen laymen. The General Convention of the Church in 
 1811, expressed the fear "that the Church in Virginia is from 
 various causes so depressed that there is danger of her total 
 ruin. ' ' 
 
 To the parish could be well applied the words of Bishop 
 Meade, that "it seemed that the worst hopes of her enemies 
 and the most painful fears of her friends were about to be real- 
 ized in her entire destruction." No vestry, no minister, the 
 Church building closed and falling into decay, used as barracks 
 for soldiers, and a common shelter for horses, cattle and hogs — 
 until in 1825 every part, except the walls, required renewal 
 before it could be used for divine worship. 
 
 And now an awakening comes. From the mouth 
 of a good woman comes the challenge: "If I were a 
 man!" "If I were a man, I would have these walls 
 built up." The challenge wakes up the men of the 
 parish, and in April, 1826, a subscription was started, "the pro- 
 ceeds to be used exclusively for the repair of the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church in Hampton, with the laudable design of 
 restoring it to the order in which our forefathers bequeathed 
 it to their children." Ninety signatures are attached to this 
 subscription, ranging in amounts from forty-one cents to one 
 hundred dollars. Among the larger subscriptions we find the 
 names of Commodore Louis Warrington, and Commodore James 
 Barron, while many Norfolk names are on the list.* Commo- 
 dore Warrington was the grandson of the Rev. Thomas War- 
 rington, rector of the parish 1756 to 1770. Little England was 
 the home plantation of the Barrons. 
 
 The subscription was followed in August by a meet- 
 * See Appendix D. 
 
32 
 
 ing in the Court House "of citizens friendly to the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church, for taking into considera- 
 tion repairs of the old Episcopal Church," with Dr. 
 William B. Hope, as chairman, and Richard B. Servant, as sec- 
 retary. At this meeting a vestry of twelve was elected. At 
 subsequent meetings of the vestry committees were appointed 
 to obtain further subscriptions, and to wait on Bishop Moore, 
 seeking his advice and aid. Bishop Moore promised to visit 
 the parish and give counsel. In his letter he says: "To see 
 the temple repaired in which the former inhabitants of Hamp- 
 ton worshipped God, and to see you placed under the care of 
 a faithful and judicious clergyman, will fill my mind with 
 greatest delight. May God Almighty smile on the proposed 
 design, and carry it into full and complete effect." 
 
 At a meeting of the vestry held April 21st, 1827, the Rev. 
 Mark L. Cheevers was elected rector for one year, and the 
 Church was named St. John's. In June, Bishop Moore visited 
 Hampton, confirmed twenty-two and "preached to a large and 
 respectable congregation." In his report he says: "The Church 
 in Hampton had been in a state of ruin for many years, but the 
 inhabitants have now rendered it fit for service, and when the 
 repairs are completed it will form a place of worship inferior 
 to very few in the Diocese." 
 
 Mrs. Jane Barron Hope's* challenge: "If I were a man," 
 had borne fruit, and the old parish was again alive. Frequent 
 meetings of the vestry were held; the repairs to the Church 
 were pushed forward, comprising new roof, girders, joists, raf- 
 ters, wall plates, doors, windows, flooring and plastering — all 
 new except the brick walls — and were completed thus far in 
 April, 1828, at an expenditure of about twelve hundred dollars. 
 A Sunday school with over one hundred scholars of all denom- 
 inations was opened in the Church. The Rev. Mark L. Cheev- 
 ers was elected rector from year to year until May, 1843, serv- 
 ing the parish in connection with his official duties as chaplain 
 at Fortress Monroe, for a period of sixteen years. In 1825, he 
 
 * Daughter of Commodore James Barron, the younger, and moth- 
 er of Virginia's poet-editor, James Barron Hope. 
 
33 
 
 was in charge of Lynnhaven parish, and in 1826 he was at 
 work in Suffolk parish. In May, 1826, he was admitted to the 
 priesthood. He was the first missionery under the Diocesan 
 Missionary Society, his work being in York, Warwick and 
 Elizabeth City counties. His services in Hampton were held 
 on Sunday afternoons, the mornings being taken up with his 
 duties at the Fort. He walked to and from Hampton, being 
 noted as a pedestrian, sometimes walking from Fort Monroe 
 to Richmond, making Yorktown on the first day in time for 
 dinner. When he first began his work in Hampton his robing 
 room was out doors in the northeast angle of the Church. His 
 voice in preaching was stentorian. In addition to his duties 
 at Hampton and the Fort, in 1828, he was preaching from 
 house to house every fortnight on Saturdays in Charles Parish, 
 York county. He continued to live within the bounds of the 
 parish as chaplain at Fort Monroe (the last years on the retired 
 list), until the time of his death, September 13, 1875. His re- 
 mains rest in St. John's Church yard. 
 
 At a meeting in April, 1829, thirty-six pews were assigned 
 to subscribers, having been ordered to be sold at cost of build- 
 ing.* This action afterwards caused the vestry much trouble, 
 as many of the pew owners thought it no part of their duty to 
 contribute to the rector's salary, and resisted any assessment. 
 Two pews, one in the southeast and one in the northeast corners 
 were set apart for the use of strangers. 
 
 In 1829, the rector reports a total of thirty communicants, 
 this is presumably for the whole parish, including Fort Monroe, 
 for in 1833, he reports twelve for Hampton and thirteen for the 
 Fort, a total of thirty-five, while in 1834 the number in Hamp- 
 ton was reduced to ten. ? 
 
 On Friday, January 8, 1830, the Church was consecrated 
 by the Right Reverened Richard Channing Moore, having been 
 until this time, with all its predecessors, without consecration, t 
 
 From May, 1839, to April, 18-42, there are no meetings of 
 the vestry recorded, two pages having been cut from the min- 
 ute book. 
 
 * See Appendix E. § See Appendix F. t See Appendix G. 
 
34 
 
 On April 12, 1843, Bishop Johns made his first visitation, 
 confirming seven; the rector reporting this year a total of 
 thirty communicants. 
 
 Rev. John P. Bausman, of Delaware, was elected rector 
 July 12, 1843, and the next year he reports thirty-four commu- 
 nicants; a flourishing Sunday school; Church repaired; new 
 belfry and lecture room. For the lecture room, which occapied 
 the east or chancel end of the Church, he gives credit to the 
 ladies. Prospects encouraging. 
 
 In 1845, the ladies held a fair which netted three hundred 
 and fifty dollars for improving the Church. In November, 
 1845, Mr. Bausman was succeeded by the Rev. William Goode. 
 He made his last report in May, 1848, showing forty-two com- 
 municants, and seems to have served the parish until Novem- 
 ber, of that year. From 1849, and until October 1850, the par- 
 ish appears to have been without a minister. 
 
 The Rev. John C. McCabe was elected rector, in connec- 
 tion with his work in Surry, in September, 1850, and was in 
 charge in January, 1851. In June of this year an organ was 
 ordered at a cost of two hundred and sixty-three dollars. Com- 
 municants in 1852, forty-nine. The last record of a vestry 
 meeting before the Civil War is dated April 25th, 1855, but 
 Mr. McCabe is present as rector from the parish at the coun- 
 cil at Fredericksburg in May, 1856, when he reported fift;^-five 
 communicants. Shortly after this date he resigned to take 
 charge of Ascension Church, Baltimore, and was succeeded at 
 Hampton by the Rev. Edward Harlow, in November, 1850. 
 
 The Rev. John C. McCabe was admitted to Deacon's Or- 
 ders, in 1848, and to the Priesthood in 1849. In 1863 he was 
 chaplain of the 32nd Virginia regiment, and also engaged in 
 work in the hospitals around Richmond. He was the first to 
 awaken an interest in the historj^ of this parish, through a 
 series of papers in the Church Review, in which he rescued 
 from oblivion many important facts, the original records of 
 which have since been lost or destroyed. Bishop Meade, in his 
 old Churches and Families, drew largely on Mr. McCabe 's 
 work, Mr. McCabe fixed definitely the location of the Old 
 
35 
 
 Pembroke Church by unearthing a part of its foundation. He 
 was an orator of more than usual accomplishments. The degree 
 of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on him by William and 
 Mary College. After the war he again engaged in work in 
 the Diocese of Maryland, also in Pennsylvania. He died in 
 Chambersburg, Pa., February 26, 1875. His son, Col. W. Gor- 
 don McCabe, is now an honored citizen of Richmond. 
 
 In 1857, Mr. Harlow reports $1,500 contributed for rectory 
 and improving Church property, including a legacy of $300. 
 In 1859, or early in 1860, Mr. Harlow was succeeded b> the 
 Rev. William F. Jacobs, whose first report in May, 1860, shows 
 communicants, sixty-two. 
 
 Mr. Jacobs reports to the Council in May, 1861, sixty-two 
 communicants; rectory erected at a cost of two thousand dol- 
 lars; "congregation broken up, and some families have gone, 
 we fear, to return no more." In May, 1862, Mr. Jacobs is re- 
 ported at work in Bloomfield parish, Rappahannock county, 
 and in 1865, at Charlestown, Virginia. He died in Alexandria 
 in the spring of 1867. A short time before his death he for- 
 warded to Hampton, the proceeds of a collection for the resto- 
 ration of Old St. Johns. 
 
 Again the friends of the Episcopal Church are called to 
 meet to take steps for the restoration of Old St. John's. For 
 a third time the tide of war had swept over the old town^ this 
 time leaving nothing but a heap of ashes and tottering walls. 
 In the conflagration of 1861, the Church was consumed, but the 
 old walls, honestly built, by colonial workmen, stood firm ; and 
 again as early as 1866, her friends are at work looking to her 
 early restoration. The first contribution was received from 
 the late William S. Howard, clerk of the courts, a Baptist, in 
 November, 1866, and funds continued to come in until in June, 
 1871, a total of $3,669.00 had been received. The people of 
 Hampton, though very poor, did what they could in contribu- 
 tions ranging from twenty-five cents to twenty-five dollars, 
 given by Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopa- 
 lians. Friends from all over the country sent aid in sums 
 ranging from one dollar to one hundred dollars; the former 
 
36 
 
 rectors of the parish, Cheevers, McCabe and Jacobs, sent in 
 liberal amounts collected by them ; Bishop Potter and the Rev. 
 Morgan Dix, of New York ; the Rev. Mr. Saul of Philadelphia ; 
 Bishop Whittle, Dr. Peterkin, Dr. Pendleton, Dr. Minigerode 
 and Dr. Andrews, of Virginia, sent help. Aid came from 
 Washington, Fort Monroe, Erie, Pa., Norfolk, Philadelphia, 
 New York, Portsmouth, Lexington, Richmond, Alexandria, 
 Maryland, Tarboro, N. C, Lynchburg and Mexico ; and officers 
 of the army and navy made liberal contributions. Truly the 
 people had a mind to work. 
 
 A number of the members of the Church who had fled 
 from their homes in 1861, returned, but not all ; some had fallen 
 on the field of battle ; some had succumbed to privations and 
 disease, while others had found new homes in this and distant 
 States. The remnant that had returned set about to find a 
 place in which to worship, while the work of restoration was in 
 progress. 
 
 The first floor of Patrick Henry Hall on Court street, on 
 the lot now occupied by Tennis' blacksmith shop, was rented 
 and fitted up as a chapel, with pews, communion rail, and lec- 
 turn, and here the little band worshipped with the service of 
 lay-readers until June, 1869, and from that date until April 
 13th, 1870, under the ministration of the Rev. John McCarty, 
 D. D., when the congregation entered the old restored Charch. 
 Some of the pews that were used in this chapel are still in use 
 in the parish house. 
 
 In April, 1869, the parish was visited by the Rev. 
 C. W. Andrews, D. D., of Shepherdstown, and the Rev. 
 C. Minigerode, D. D., of Richmond, who, together, held a 
 series of services in the chapel. A visit by Bishop Johns, who 
 preached in the chapel and confirmed one, is distinctly remem- 
 bered, although the Bishop does not report it, he does, how- 
 ever, in 1871, refer to a previous visit, "when the Church was in 
 ruins. ' ' This visit must have been in 1868, or early in 1860. 
 
 Actual work in rebuilding was begun in May, 1869, and 
 pushed until on April 13th, 1870, the Church was occupied, 
 though still incomplete, being without permanent seats, or 
 
37 
 
 chancel furniture, and the interior unpainted. On this date, 
 the Bishop-Coadjutor, the Right Rev. F. M. Whittle, visited 
 the parish, preached in the restored Church, morning and 
 night, and confirmed ten. The good Bishop was tall of stature ; 
 the lecturn used for a pulpit was too low for him ; turning his 
 back to the congregation he marched to the vestry room and 
 quickly returned, carrying his large traveling valise; this he 
 placed on the lecturn, and on the valise firmly planted his man- 
 uscript, and then earnestly delivered one of his characteristic 
 sermons. 
 
 In his report to the Council Bishop Whittle, speaking of 
 the restored Church, said : ' ' This grand old building, of which 
 there was nothing left after the war, save the walls, by the ex- 
 ertions of the people and the assistance of friends at a distance, 
 has been so far restored as to be again used for the worship of 
 God. Permanent seats and chancel furniture are still wanting. 
 As no people in the Diocese have been more impoverished, and 
 none have been more willing even beyond their powr, to repair 
 their own desolations, so none are more deserving of help than 
 the people of Hampton." 
 
 The Rev. John McCarty, D. D., Chaplain U. S. Army, re- 
 tired, took charge of the parish, June 9, 1869, and remained for 
 two years. He served without compensation, working with 
 great zeal in the restoration of the old Church, and the gather- 
 ing together of the congregation. On taking charge Dr. Mc- 
 Carty found forty communicants, thirty-six of whom were 
 members before the war,* and in May, 1871, before his resig- 
 nation, he reported a total of sixty-one. On leaving the parish 
 Dr. McCarty removed to the Diocese of Oregon and Washing- 
 ton, carrying with him the loving regrets of the whole congre- 
 gation at his departure. 
 
 In the summer of 1871, Bishop Johns assigned to the parish 
 the Rev. John J. Norwood, a deacon from the Seminary, who 
 remained one year, then removing to the Diocese of North Car- 
 olina. 
 
 * See Appendix H, 
 
38 
 
 In June, 1872, twenty-nine pews were assigned to sub- 
 scribers at cost of building, subject to use for two years, and 
 then to revert back to the Church.* 
 
 In the summer of 1873, the Rev. William Jarrett as- 
 sumed charge of the parish and remained until the Spring of 
 1875. He came from the Diocese of Pennsylvania, having been 
 at one time a teacher in the Divinity School at Philadelphia. 
 Mr, Jarrett was English born ; went as a Presbyterian Mission- 
 ary to Australia, where he lived many years. Changing to the 
 Episcopal faith, and not approving of the union of Church and 
 State, he came to America and allied himself with the Episcopal 
 Church. He died in Pennsylvania a few years after leaving 
 Hampton. 
 
 Rev. J. W. Keeble was rector of the parish from April, 
 1875, to April, 1876. 
 
 In September, 1876, the Rev. John J. Gravatt, a deacon 
 from the Seminary, sent by the Bishop, took charge of the 
 parish. His rectorship is within the memory of many now liv- 
 ing, I may add, the loving memory. In June, 1877, Mr. Gra- 
 vatt was regularly called by the vestry, and continued to serve 
 as rector until September, 1893, a period of seventeen years, 
 when he became the rector of Holy Trinity Church, Richmond, 
 where he is still the incumbent. He found here fifty-nine com- 
 municants and left a list of two hundred and thirty-two, which 
 included thirty-five Indians from the Normal and Agricultural 
 Institute. The work among the Indians began in 1879, when 
 eleven are reported as communicants, probably the first to wor- 
 ship in the parish since William Crashaw, the baptized Indian, 
 who lived with Captain William Tucker, in 1624. The parish 
 also made important material growth during Mr. Gravatt 's 
 rectorship; a rectory was built; a new pipe organ installed; a 
 new vestry room erected ; bell purchased and put in place ; new 
 open timbered ceiling constructed ; all the art windows now in 
 the Church erected, except the Colonial Clergy window; walls 
 decorated; south and west vestibules added, and parish house 
 
 * See Appendix I. 
 
39 
 
 erected. Land at Pembroke, containing the site of Old Pem- 
 broke Church and grave-yard was also purchased. 
 
 In November, 1893, the Rev. Corbin Braxton Bryan, be- 
 came rector of the parish, coming from Danville, Va., and re- 
 maining until January, 1905, over eleven years. In 1894, Mr. 
 Bryan reported two hundred and forty-nine communicants, and 
 in 1904, four hundred and ten, of which forty-four were In- 
 dians. Material progress was made in payment of a large debt 
 on the parish house ; building of Emmanuel Church at Phoebus ; 
 addition to the rectory, doubling its capacity; purchase of a 
 new organ ; building of a new vestry room, organ loft and choir 
 rooms ; installation of vested choir, with new chancel furniture 
 needed for same ; erection of Colonial Clergy window'; and new 
 slate roof for the Church, donated by the late Mrs. Annie Dar- 
 ling. Mr. Bryan left the parish to accept the rectorship of 
 Grace Church, Petersburg, where he is still at work. He comes 
 to Hampton, like Mr. Gravatt, from time to time as to an old 
 home, and both always receive a home welcome. 
 
 The present rector, the Rev. Reverdy Estill, D. D., came to 
 the parish from Louisville, Kentucky, in July, 1905. His first 
 report in 1906, shows four hundred and one communicants, and 
 in 1909, he reported five hundred and sixty-six. Best of all he 
 has won for himself a large place in the hearts of his people. 
 
 During Dr. Estill's incumbency St. Cyprian's Church, for 
 colored people, and Grace Church, East Newport News, have 
 been erected and the parish house doubled in size. The work 
 among the colored people, which had its culmination in the 
 building of St. Cyprian's Church, was begun and afterwards 
 suspended during ]\Ir. Gravatt 's rectorship; revived by Mr. 
 Bryan and continued by Dr. Estill. 
 
 It is a long cry from the Rev. William Mease to Dr. Estill. 
 Three hundred years have passed since Gates erected his little 
 stockades at Kecoughtan. In place of the twenty men, with a 
 few women and children, who comprised Captain George 
 Webb's command, in 1616, the parish contains today a popula- 
 tion of about twenty-nine thousand. Its western end, where 
 Gookins and Nuse stockaded their remote houses against the 
 
40 
 
 attack of the savages, is now covered by a part of the thriving 
 city of Newport News. On the eastern border the greatest for- 
 tress of the continent covers the sands of Old Point Comfort, 
 where the Indian videttes welcomed Newport's shallop, while 
 in the surrounding waters the war and commercial navies of 
 the world find an anchorage. A great school welcomes the In- 
 dian to the fields across which his fathers fled before the impe- 
 tous rush of the soldiers of Gates. The old Kecoughtan Church 
 is replaced by six Churches and chapels sheltering congrega- 
 tions of the same faith : while a total of seventy-six Churches 
 and chapels in which worship Christian people of all names are 
 found within the borders of the parish. The mustard seed of 
 1610 is a great tree in 1910. 
 
 The word is said; I thank you for your patient hearing; I 
 assure you that to me the preparation has been a work of love. 
 
 Will you here pardon a reference that may seem too per- 
 sonal, but while I hesitate, I cannot forbear? 
 
 For almost a half century I have known these hallowed 
 walls. Forty-eight years ago, next month, I limped across the 
 bridge at the foot of Queen street, an inmate of the federal 
 hospital on the banks of old Kecoughtan, a wounded boy sol- 
 dier of McClellan's army, fresh from the fields of the seven 
 days conflict and the prison hospitals of Richmond. I sought 
 some comrades of my own regiment whom I heard were in this 
 locality. Wending my way along Queen street, through the 
 ruins of the fire of '61, I found the company for which I was 
 looking bivouacing here in the shade of these old walls, on the 
 north side, di rectly under that Colonial Clergy Window ; that 
 was my first sight of Old St. Johns. 
 
 The walls stood as they now are, save that the gable of the 
 west end had been crushed by the falling of the tower, as a re- 
 sult of the fire. 
 
 Three years later, the war ended — I found myself a resi- 
 dent of the vicinity, and in the spring of 1866, I made my home 
 in Hampton. 
 
41 
 
 For the years 1866 to 1869, the ruins stood uncared for, 
 and my Sunday morning walks usually led me through these 
 aisles, and among the surrounding tombs. 
 
 It was my privilege to assist in the restoration of '69 to 
 '70, and ever since this has been my church home, a home dear 
 from many tender and hallowed associations. 
 
 Dear old Parish! Two baby boys repose in your God's 
 acre, and the mother of those boys, a born daughter of the 
 Parish, still cheers and comforts me down the western slope 
 of life. 
 
 Dear old Parish ! Thy people are my people, and thy God 
 my God, here will I die and here will I be buried. 
 
 Dear old Parish! Today around thy Holy Table bow to- 
 gether the sons and daughters of the first settlers, and the sons 
 and daughters of the red man, now returned from the far west 
 to their fathers' fields at Keeoughtan; the sons and daughters 
 of the soldiers who followed Washington, and the sons and 
 daughters of the loyalists who clung to their king; and here 
 bow together the gray heads of those who followed Grant and 
 those who fought under Lee — all receiving from the old cup 
 and paten the emblems of the broken body and shed blood of 
 the Captain of their Salvation, the Prince of Peace. 
 
 Dear old Parish! go your way into her gates with 
 thanksgiving, and into her courts with praise. 
 
Appendix A 
 
 Strachey's Account of the Sacking of Kecoughtan 
 
 The sixth of J a\j Sir Thomas Gates Lieutenant Generall, coming 
 downe to Point Comfort^ the North wind (blowing rough) he found had 
 forced the long Boate belonging to Algernoone Fort, to the other shoare 
 upon Nansemund s\dQ, somewhat short of Weroscoick: which to recover 
 againe, one of the Lieutenant Generalls menHumfrey Blunts in an old 
 Canow made over, but the wind driving him upon the Strand, certaine 
 Indians (watching the occasion) seised the poore fellow, and led him up 
 into the Woods, and sacrificed him. It did not a little trouble the 
 Lieutenant Governor, who since his first landing in the Countrey (how 
 justly soever provoked) would not by any meanes be brought to a vio- 
 lent proceeding against them, for all the practises of villiany, with 
 which they daily endangered our men, thinking it possible, by a more 
 tractable course, to winne them to a better condition: but now being 
 startled by this, he well perceived, how little a faire and noble intreatie 
 workes upon a barbarous disposition, and therefore in some measure 
 purposed to be revenged. 
 
 The ninth of July, he prepared his forces, and early in the morn- 
 ing set upon a Towne of theirs, some foure miles from Algernoone Fort , 
 called Kecoughtan^ and had soone taken it, without losse or hurt of any 
 of his men. The Governour and his women fled (the young King 
 Powhatans Sonne not being there) but left his poore baggage, and treas- 
 ure to the spoyle of our Souldiers, which was only a few Baskets of old 
 Wheate, and some other of Pease and Beanse, a little Tobacco, and some 
 fine womeus Girdles of Silke, of the Grasse-silke, not witiiout art, and 
 much neatnesse finely wrought, of which I sent divers to England, 
 (being at the taking of the Towne) and would have sent your Ladi- 
 ship some if they had beene a present so worthy. 
 
 We purposed to set a Frenchman heere a worke to plant vines, 
 which grow naturally in great plentie. Some few Come fields it hath, 
 and the Corne in good forward nesse, and wee despaire not but to bee 
 able (if our men stand in health) to make it good against the Indians. 
 
 From Purchas His Pilgrimes, Vol. IV. p. 1755. 
 
Appendix B 
 
 [Reprinted from Colonial Records of Virginia, pp. 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 
 54, 58, 59.] 
 
 LISTS OF THE LIVINGE & 
 DEAD IN VIRGINIA 
 
 Feb. 23, 1623 
 
 A LIST OF THE LIVINGE 
 
 Henry Woodall, Richard Rapier, 
 
 Gregory Dory, Cutbert Pierson, 
 
 John Foster, Adam Rumell, 
 
 John Greene, Richard Robinson, 
 
 John Ward, James, a French man. 
 Christopher Wendmile, 
 
 '7X1 "ElUabetb Clt? 
 
 Capt. Isacke Whittakers, Thomas Lane, 
 
 Mary Whittakers, Barthelmew Hopkins, 
 
 Charles Atkinson, John Jeffergon, 
 
 Charles Calthrop, Robert Thresher, 
 
 John Lankfeild, John Rowes, 
 
 Bridges Freeman, Mr. Yatea, 
 
 Nicholas Wesell, Robert Goodman, 
 Edward L.oyd, uxor Ely, 
 
44 
 
 Thomas North, 
 
 AnthoDy Middleton, 
 
 Richard Popely, 
 Thomas Harding, 
 
 William Joye, 
 Raph Osborne, 
 Edward Barnes, 
 Thomas Thorugood, 
 Ann Atkinson, 
 
 Lankfeild, 
 
 Medclalfe, 
 
 George Nuce, 
 Elizabeth Wliittakers, 
 George Roads, 
 Edward Johnson {fic.)» 
 
 (qy Johnson,) 
 William Fouller, 
 Remold Goodwyn, 
 James Larmount, 
 John JacKson, 
 
 vidua Johnson, 
 
 vidua Fowler, 
 Two Frenchmen, 
 George Medcalfe, 
 Walter Ely, 
 
 infant Ely, 
 Capt. Rawleigh Crashaw, 
 Robert Wright, 
 James Sleight. 
 John Welchman, 
 John More, 
 Henry Potter, 
 Mr. Roswell, 
 William Gawntlett, 
 Osborne iSmith, 
 
 uxor More, 
 
 uxor Wright, 
 
 uxor Wright, 
 
 filia Wright, 
 Thomas Dowse, 
 Samwell Bennett, 
 William Browne, 
 William Allen, 
 Lewis Welchman, 
 Robert More, 
 Mrs. Dowse, 
 
 uxor Bennett, 
 . i Bennett, 
 
 ^«^^^ i Bennett; 
 
 "^t ^ucKe 5\ow 
 
 Thomas Flint, 
 John Hampton, 
 Richard Peirsby, 
 William Rookins, 
 Rowland Williams, 
 Steven Dixon, 
 Thomas Risby, 
 Henry Wheeler, 
 James Brooks, 
 Samuel Bennett, 
 John earning, 
 Thomas Nea res, 
 Robert Salvadge, 
 William Barry, 
 Joseph Hatfield, 
 
 Edward Marshall, 
 Ambrose Griflfith, 
 Peter Arruudell, 
 Anthony Bouall, ) French- 
 La Geurd, \ , men, 
 
 James Bonall, a Frenchm., 
 
 John Arrundell, 
 
 John Haine, 
 
 Nicholas Row, 
 
 Richard Althrop, 
 
 John Loyd, 
 
 uxor Haine (or Hame) , 
 
 uxor Hampton, 
 Elizabeth Arrundell, 
 Margret Arrundell, 
 
5ttore at tlUabelb (Tit? 
 
 45 
 
 Lieutenant Sheppard, ' 
 John Powell, 
 John Wooley, 
 Cathren Powell, 
 John Bradston, 
 Francis Pitts, 
 Gilbert Whitfield, 
 Peter Hereford, 
 Thomas Faulkner, 
 Esaw de la Ware, 
 William Cornie, 
 Thomas Curtise, 
 Robert Brittaine, 
 Roger Walker, 
 Henry Kersly, 
 Edward Morgaine, 
 Anthony Ebsworth, 
 Agnes Ebsworth, 
 Elinor Harris, 
 Thomas Addison, 
 William Longe, 
 William Smith, 
 William Pinsen, 
 Capt. William Tucker,-- 
 Capt. Nick Martean, 
 Leftenant Ed, Barkley, 
 Daniell Tanner, 
 John Morris, 
 George Thomson, 
 Paule Thomson, 
 William Thomson, 
 Pasta Champin, 
 Stephen Shere, 
 Jeffery Hall, 
 Rich. Jones, 
 William Hutchinson, 
 Richard Appleton, 
 Thomas Evans, 
 Weston Browne, 
 Robert Mounday, 
 Steven (JoUoe, 
 Raph Adams, 
 Thomas Phillips, 
 
 Francis Barrett, 
 Mary Tucker, 
 Jane Brackley, 
 Elizabeth Higgins, 
 Mary Mounday, 
 Chouponke, an Indian, 
 
 Anthony, ) „„„„«„ 
 Isabelle, peg^oes. 
 
 Lieut, Lupo, 
 Phillip Lupo, 
 Bartholomew Wethersby, 
 Henry Draper, 
 Joseph Haman, 
 Elizabeth Lupo, 
 Alb la no Wethersby, 
 John Laydon, 
 Ann Laydon, 
 Virginia Laydon, 
 Alice Laydon, 
 Katherine Laydon, 
 William Evans, 
 William Julian, 
 William Kemp, . 
 Richard Wither, 
 John Jornall, 
 Walter Mason, 
 Sara Julian, 
 Sara Gouldocke, 
 John Salter, 
 William Soale, 
 Jeremy Dickenson, 
 Lawrence Peele, 
 John Evans, 
 Mark Evans, 
 George Evans, 
 John Downeman, 
 Elizabeth Downeman, 
 William Baldwm, 
 John Sibley, 
 William Clarke, 
 Rice Griffine, 
 Joseph Mosley, 
 Robert Smith, 
 
46 
 
 John Cheesman, 
 Thomas Cheesman, 
 Edward Cheesman, 
 Peter Dickson, 
 John Baynam, 
 Robert Sweet, 
 John Parrett, 
 William Fouks, 
 John Clackson, 
 John Hill, 
 William Morten, 
 William Clarke, 
 Edward iStockdeil, 
 Elizabeth Baynam, 
 George Davies, 
 Elizabeth Davies, 
 Ann Harrison, 
 John Curtise, 
 John Walton, 
 Edward Oston, 
 Toby Hurt, 
 Cornelius May, 
 Elizabeth May, 
 Henry May, child, 
 Thomas Willowbey, 
 Oliver Jenkinson, 
 John Chandeler, 
 Nicholas Davies, 
 Jooe Jenkins, 
 Mary Jenkins, 
 Henry Gould well, 
 Henry Priehard, 
 Henry Barber, 
 Ann Barber, 
 John Hutton, 
 Elizabeth Hutton, 
 Thomas Baldwin, 
 John Billiard, 
 Keynold Booth, 
 Mary, 
 
 Elizabeth Booth, child, 
 Capt. Thomas Davies, 
 John Davies, 
 Thomas Huges, 
 William Kildrige, 
 
 Alexr. Mountney, 
 
 Edward Bryan, 
 
 Percivall Ibotson, 
 
 John Pen rice, 
 
 Robert Locke, 
 
 Elizabeth & Ann Ibotson, x 
 
 Edward Hill, 
 
 Thomas Best, 
 
 Hanna Hill, 
 
 Elizabeth Hill, 
 
 Robert Salford, 
 
 John Salford, 
 
 Phillip (/hapman, 
 
 Thomas Parter, 
 
 Mary Salford, 
 
 Francis Chamberlin, 
 
 William Hill, 
 
 William Harris, 
 
 William Worldige, 
 
 John Forth, 
 
 Thomas Spilman, 
 
 Rebecca Chamberlin, 
 
 Alice Harris, 
 
 Pharow Philton, 
 
 Arthur Smith, 
 
 Hugh Hall, 
 
 Robert Sabin, 
 
 John Cooker, 
 
 Hugh Dicken, 
 
 William Gayne, 
 
 Richard Mintren, Junr , 
 
 Joane Hinton, 
 
 Elizabeth Hinton, 
 
 Rebecca Coubber, 
 
 Richard Mintren, Senr. 
 
 John Frye, 
 
 William Brooks, 
 
 Sibile and William Brooks, 
 
 Thomas Crispe, 
 
 Richard Packe, 
 
 Miles Prichett, 
 
 Margery Prichett, 
 
 Thomas Good by, 
 
 Jone Godby, 
 
 Jone Grindry, 
 
47 
 
 John Iniman, 
 
 Mary Grindry, 
 
 John Grindry, child, 
 
 John Waine, 
 
 Ann Waine^ 
 
 Mary Ackland, 
 
 George Ackland, 
 
 John Harlow, 
 
 William Cappe, 
 
 Edward Walters, 
 
 Paule Harwood, 
 
 Nick. Browne, 
 
 Adam Througood, ^^ 
 
 Richard East, 
 
 Stephen Read, 
 
 Grace Walters, 
 
 Willm Walters, 
 
 Wilim Ganey, 
 Henry Ganey, 
 
 John Robinson, 
 Robert Browne, 
 Thomas Parrish, 
 Edmund Spalden, 
 Roger Farbracke, 
 Theodor Jones, 
 William Baldwin^ 
 Liuke Aden, 
 Anna Ganey, 
 Anna Ganey, filia^ 
 Elizabeth Pope, 
 Rebecca Hatch, 
 Thomasin Loxmore, 
 Thomas Garnetl, 
 Elizabeth Garnett, 
 Susan Garnett, 
 Frances Mitchell, 
 Jonas Stockton, 
 Timothee Stockton, 
 
 William Cooke, 
 Richard Boulten, 
 Frances Hill, 
 John Jackson, 
 Richard Davies, 
 Ann Cooke, 
 Diotras Chrismus, 
 Thomas Hill, 
 Arthur Davies, 
 William Newcome, 
 Elizabeth Chrismus, 
 Joan Davies, 
 Thomas Hethersall, 
 William Douglass, 
 Thomas Douthorn, 
 Elizabeth Douthorn, 
 Samuel Douthorn, a boy, 
 Thomas' an Indian, 
 John Hazard, 
 Jone Hazard, 
 
 Henry, 
 
 Frances Mason, 
 
 Michael Wilcocks, 
 
 William Querke, 
 
 Mary Mason, 
 
 Maudlin Wilcocks, 
 
 Mr. Keith, minister, 
 
 John Bush, 
 
 John Cooper, 
 
 Jonadab lUett, 
 
 John Barnaby, 
 
 John Seaward, 
 
 Robes t Newman, 
 
 William Parker, 
 
 Thomas Snapp, 
 
 Clement Evans, 
 
 Thomas Spilman, 
 
 Thomas Parrish, 
 
A LIST OF THE NAMES OF THE 
 DEAD IN VIRGINIA 
 
 SINCE APRIL LAST 
 
 Feb. 16, 1623 
 
 :2Vt TElUabetb dit^ 
 
 Charle Marshall, 
 William Hopkicke, 
 Dorothie Parkinson, 
 William Robertts, 
 John Farrar, 
 Martin Cuffe, 
 Thomas Hall, 
 Thomas Smith, 
 Christo Robertts, 
 Thomas Browne, 
 Henry Fearne, 
 Thomas Parkins, 
 Mr. Huffy, 
 James Collis, 
 Raph Rockley, 
 William Geales, 
 George Jones, 
 Andrew AUinson, 
 William Downes, 
 Richard Gillett, 
 Good wife JNonn, 
 Hugo Smale, 
 Thomas Winterfall, 
 John Wright, 
 James Fen ton, 
 Cisely, a maid. 
 
 John Gavett, 
 
 James, | 
 
 John, j Irishmen 
 Jockey Armestronge, 
 Wolston Pelsant, 
 Sampson Pelsant, 
 Cathrin Capps, 
 William Elbridge, 
 John Sanderson, 
 John Bewbricke, 
 John Baker, killed, 
 William Lupo, 
 Timothy Burley, 
 Margery Frisle, 
 Henry West, 
 Jasper Taylor, 
 Brigett Searle, 
 Anthony Andrew, 
 Edmond Cartter, 
 
 Thomas , 
 
 William Gauntlett, 
 
 Gilbert , killed 
 
 Christopher Welchmam, 
 John Hilliard, 
 Gregory Hilliard, 
 John Hilliard, 
 
49 
 
 Whitney Guy, 
 Thomas Brodbanke, 
 VVilham Burn house, 
 John Sparkes, 
 Robert Morgaine, 
 John Locke, 
 Wilham Thompson, 
 Thomas Fulham, 
 Cutberd Brooks, 
 Innocent Poor, 
 Edward Dupper, 
 Elizabeth Davies, 
 Thomas Buwen, 
 Ann Barber, 
 William Lucott, 
 
 Nicholas , killed, 
 
 Henry Bridges, 
 Henry Payton, 
 Richard Griflin, 
 Ralph Harrison, 
 Samwell Harvie, 
 John Boxer, 
 Benjaimine Boxer, 
 Thomas Servant, 
 Frances Chamberline, 
 
 Bridgett Dameron, 
 Isarell Knowles, 
 Edward Bendige, 
 William Davies, 
 John Phillips, 
 Daniel Sand well, 
 William Jones, 
 Robert Ball's wife, 
 Robert Leaner, 
 Hugh Nickcott, 
 John Knight, 
 William Richards, 
 Elizabeth, a maid, 
 Capt. Hickcoeke, 
 Thomas Keinnston, 
 Capt. Lincolne, 
 Chad. Gulstons, 
 uxor Gulstons, 
 Infant Gulstons, 
 George Cooke, 
 Richard Goodchild, 
 Chrisenus, his child, 
 Elizabeth Mason, 
 Symon Wither, 
 
Appendix C 
 
 Orders of Court Providing for the Building of 
 St. John's Church 
 
 At a Court held the 17th day of January 1727. 
 Preseut, Joshua Curie, Jas. Wallace, Jacob Walker, Wilson Gary, 
 
 Justices. 
 
 Mr. Jacob Walker and Mr. John Lowry ara appointed to l<ay off 
 and Valine one Acre and half of Ground at the upper end of Queens 
 Street, joyning upon Mr. Pros well's Lott for the Building the Church 
 
 thereon. 
 
 « * # » 
 
 It is agreed by the Minister, Church Wardens and Court to furnish 
 Mr. Henry Cary with wood, at the rate of Six Pence per load, to burn 
 bricks for the Church, from the School land. 
 
 (From Elizabeth City County records.) 
 
 Appendix D 
 
 List of subscribers to the fund for the restoration of St. John's 
 Church. April 28, 1826. (From the Vestry Records.) 
 
 Wm. Armistead, Ft. Monroe $20. 
 
 Geo. Latimer, 
 
 10. 
 
 Como. Lewis Warrington, 
 
 50. 
 
 Gill Armistead, 
 
 5. 
 
 Wm. Hope, 
 
 10. 
 
 Elizabeth Booker, 
 
 10. 
 
 Wm. Jennings, Jr. 
 
 10. 
 
 Luther H. Read, 
 
 5. 
 
 R. G. Banks, 
 
 10. 
 
 James Phillips, 
 
 4. 
 
 Thos. Fretwell Goodwin, 
 
 25. 
 
 Wilson W. Jones, 
 
 5. 
 
 John Herbert, 
 
 10. 
 
 Ann McLachlin, 
 
 10. 
 
 Robert Lively, 
 
 20. 
 
 Howard Pool, 
 
 15. 
 
 Jno. C. King, 
 
 15. 
 
 Elijah Phillips, 
 
 5. 
 
 James Baker, Ft. Monroe, 
 
 10. 
 
 William Face, 
 
 20. 
 
 James M. Vaughan, 
 
 5. 
 
 Thomas Hope, 
 
 10. 
 
 Thomatia Whiting, 
 
 10. 
 
 Samuel Dubre, 
 
 20. 
 
 Jacob K. Wray, 
 
 10. 
 
 R. B. Servant, 
 
 10. 
 
 Gill A. Cary, 
 
 20. 
 
 Samuel Watts, Sr. 
 
 20. 
 
51 
 
 Jno. W. Jones, 20. 
 
 Jno. F. Wray, 10. 
 
 Anu Goodwin, 25. 
 
 Samuel B. Servant, 10. 
 
 Westwood 8, Armistead, 75. 
 
 A. R. Cary, 10. 
 
 Tbos. S. Armistead, 50. 
 
 Kennon Whiting, 10. 
 
 Alexr. W. Jones, 30. 
 
 Saml. M. Latimer, 10. 
 
 Thos. W. Lowry, 10. 
 
 Ch. C. Cooper, 5. 
 
 Richard Gilliam, 20. 
 
 Geo. Booker, 10. 
 
 Jno. C. Whiting, 10. 
 
 Thomas Massenburg, 5. 
 
 Thomas Skinner, 10. 
 
 Harriett Pool, 15. 
 
 John C Robertson, 10. 
 
 Baley T. Elliott, 10. 
 
 Robert McCandlish, 25. 
 
 Samuel Selden, 10. 
 
 James Pond, 5. 
 Wm. Laughton, Ft. Monroe, 5. 
 Wm. Ashley, " " 5. 
 
 Wm. King, Jr. 5. 
 
 Armistead Booker, 5. 
 
 Ann Robertson, 5. 
 
 Frank Mallory, lO. 
 
 Walter F. Jones, 5. 
 
 Thomas Glenn, 10. 
 
 Miles King, 20. 
 
 Como. James Barron, 100. 
 
 RachaelJennlngs, 10. 
 
 Ann Taylor, 10. 
 
 Dr. P. Barrand, IQ. 
 
 Cash, 10. 
 
 Isaac Talbot, 5. 
 
 Cash, 2. 
 
 Richd. Drummond, 5. 
 
 John Tabb, 5. 
 
 Samuel F. Bright 38. 
 
 James Shelton, 5. 
 
 Wm. Cooper, 5. 
 
 Wm. Moore, 10. 
 
 Baker Rudd, 5. 
 
 Ann Massenburg, 10. 
 
 Spencer Urummend, so. 
 
 Joseph Robertson, 10. 
 
 Rob C. Jennings, 16. 
 
 Thomas Newton, 10. 
 
 Jno. Tunis, 5, 
 
 Geo. Lioyal, 10. 
 
 Ed. Delaney, 6. 
 
 Donation, 5. 
 
 P. E. Tabb, 5. 
 
 Archd. Taylor, 5. 
 
 John Southgate, 5 
 
 Mrs. Tazewell, 5. 
 
 Thomas Davis, 0.47 
 
 Thos. B. Seymour, 10. 
 
 Edward E. Noel, 5. 
 
Appendix E 
 
 Pew holders in St. John's Church. April 1829. 
 (From the Vestry Records.) 
 
 James Baker, 
 
 No. 10 
 
 William Hickman 
 
 33 
 
 Keunou Whitiug 
 
 38 
 
 Samuel F. Bright, 
 
 40 
 
 Richd. B. Servent, 
 
 2 
 
 P. Q. 
 
 7 
 
 Jno. P. Laws. 
 
 9 
 
 John Herbert, 
 
 4 
 
 Jno. C. King, 
 
 34 
 
 Mrs. McLoughiin & Camm, 
 
 43 
 
 G. A Cary, 
 
 14 
 
 Jane Herbert, 
 
 39 
 
 A. \V. Joues, 
 
 85 
 
 James Gammnl, 
 
 15 
 
 Ed. King, 
 
 12 
 
 M. Parks, Ft. Monroe, 
 
 18 
 
 Ro. Lively, 
 
 23 
 
 S. B. Servant, 
 
 11 
 
 G. G. Parker, 
 
 16 
 
 William Ham, 
 
 3 
 
 Jacob K. Wray, 
 
 13 
 
 Thomas Latimer, 
 
 1 
 
 Samuel Watts, Sr., 
 
 41 
 
 Spencer Drumraond, 
 
 3 
 
 Thos. F. Goodwm, 
 
 20 
 
 John T. Semple, 
 
 42 
 
 Saml. Dubre, 
 
 22 
 
 Thos. 8. Armistead, 
 
 36 
 
 W. W. Jones, 
 
 17 
 
 Elias Bartle, 
 
 32 
 
 J. W. Jones, 
 
 8 
 
 G. P. French, 
 
 21 
 
 G. T. Massenburg, 
 
 1 
 
 W. S. Armistead, 
 
 37 
 
 Thos. W. Lowry, 
 
 6 
 
 Rector, 
 
 5 
 
 Appendix F 
 
 List of Communicants of Elizabeth City Parish, May 1831. 
 (From Register kept by Rev. M.L. Cheebers.) 
 
 Rev, M. L. Cheevers 
 Mrs. M. D. Oheev rs, 
 W. S. Armistead, 
 F. S. Armistead, 
 James Baker, Old Point, 
 Mrs. C. Baker. " " 
 Mrs. E. Armistead, 
 Mrs. M. Prior, y 
 Mrs. Laws, 
 Mrs. A. Cooper, 
 Mrs. J. Herbert, 
 
 Miss E. Davis, 
 
 Miss M. Wills, 
 
 Miss M. Shield, York Co. 
 
 Mrs. Carey, 
 
 Mrs. A. Floyd, 
 
 Mrs. Dr. Archer, Old Pt. 
 
 Miss M. Green " " 
 
 John Shield, York Co. 
 
 Mrs. E. Semple, 
 
 Mrs. Mary Jones, 
 
 Mrs. Ham, Sr., 
 
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, 1855 
 
 RUINS OF ST. JOHNS CHURCH. 
 Viewed from Northwest 
 
Appendix G 
 
 Act of Consecration of iSt. Sohn's Church. 
 (From Vestry Records.) 
 
 Know all men by these presents, that We Richard Channing Moore, 
 D. D. by divine permission .Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
 in the Diocese of Virginia, did consecrate to the service of Almighty 
 God, on Friday, January the 8th, in the year of Our Lord 1830, St. John's 
 Church in the Town of Hampton, Elizabeth City County in which 
 Church the services of the Protestant Episcopal Church are to be per- 
 formed, agreeably to the rubrics in such case made and provided. It 
 is always to be remembered that St. John's Church thus consecrated 
 and set apart to the worship of Almighty God, is by the act of conse- 
 cration thus performed separated from all worldly and unhallowed 
 uses; and to be considered sacred to the service of the holy and undi- 
 vided Trinity. 
 
 In testimony wherof, I have OQ the day aad year above wiitten 
 subscribed my hand and affixed my ^eal. 
 
 Richard Channmg Moore, j l. s. \ 
 
 Appendix H 
 
 liist of Communicants in June 1869. 
 
 (From Parish Register.) 
 
 George Wm. Semple. M. D. Mrs. Jeflerson Sinclair, 
 
 James Turner, Mrs. William S. Jones, 
 
 Mrs. Kennon Whiting, Mrs. Jesse S. Jones, 
 
 Miss Liouiza F. Whiting, Miss Virginia Lowry, 
 
 Mrs Ann Sclater, Mrs. Wray 
 
 Miss Laura S. Sclater, Mrs. William Lowry, 
 
 Miss Kate S. Sclater, Mrs. Richard M. Booker, 
 
 Mrs. Diana Jordan,] Mrs. Mollie von Schilling, 
 
 Mrs. Mary Smith, Miss E. Boolier, 
 
 Miss Ehza Green, Mrs. Elizabeth Watts, 
 
 Mrs. Euphan Baiubridge, Mrs. William Ham, 
 
 Miss Euphan Bainbridge, Samuel W. Latimer, 
 
 Miss Virginia Booker, Mrs. Fanny Barry, 
 
 Miss M. C. Semple, Mrs. Diana Howard, 
 
 Miss Emily B. Semple, Mrs. Holt, 
 
 Miss J. McKenzie Semple, Mrs. Benjamin Huestis, 
 
 Mrs. Wm. Causey, Miss Sinclair, 
 
 Edward E. Savage, Mrs. Julia A. Smither, 
 Mrs. Edward E. Savage, 
 
List of Pew-holders, June 1872. 
 
 (From the Vestry Records.) 
 
 Wm. S. Jones, 
 
 Henry Causey, 
 
 H Clay Whiting, 
 
 Miss Nanny iSemple, 
 
 Mrs. Euphan Bainbridge. 
 
 Mrs. S. Sclater, 
 
 Mallory A. Snieki, M. D 
 
 Samuel W. Phillips, 
 
 Mrs. Jerome Tillow, 
 
 Jacob Heflelfinger, 
 
 H, Clay Marrow, 
 
 D. B. White, 
 
 Gen. Wm. F. Barry, U. S. A. 
 
 John W. & Geo. A. Blackmore, 
 
 Mrs. Caleb C. Willard, 
 Geo. Wm. Semple, M. D. 
 Columbus C. Jett, 
 Jesse P. Hope, M. D. 
 Kennon Whitiug, 
 Lemuel H. Sclater, 
 Isaac Jones, 
 George Booker, 
 Thomas Herbert, 
 Mrs. J S. Darling, 
 W. J. Kobbins, 
 Jones & Camm, 
 Gen. Hincks, 
 
 X J 
 
 List of Vestrymen of Elizabeth City Parish, from 1751 to 1910. 
 (From Parish Records.) 
 
 Maj. Merrit Sweeney, 1751-1752 
 Col. Robert Armistead, 1751-1774 
 John Allen, 1751-1767 
 Anthony Tucker, 1751-1758 
 Baldwin Shepard, 1751-1757 
 Thomas Latimer, 1751-1771 
 Col. Johu Tabb, 1751-1762 
 William Westwood, 1751-1770 
 Capt. Charles King, 1751-1754 
 John Moore, 1751-1762 
 Capt. Westwood Armi- 
 stead, 1752-1759 
 William Parsons, 1752-1761 
 Jacob Walker, 1752-1759 
 Maj. William Wager, 1754-1778 
 Capt. John Tabb, Jr. 1757-1784 
 Capt. James Wallace, 1758-1777 
 William Latimer, 1759-1784 
 
 Booth Armistead, 1759-1770 
 
 Maj. George Wray,-. 1761-1767 
 
 Henry King, 1762-1778 
 
 William Armistead, 1763-1784 
 Col. Wilson Miles Cary, 1767-1768 
 
 William Mallory, 1767-1781 
 
 Joseph iSelden, 1770-1777 
 
 Miles King, 1770-1784 
 
 CarySelden, 1771-1784 
 
 Worlich Westwood, 1774-1784 
 
 Col. Francis Mallory, 1777-1781 
 
 George Lattlmer, 1777-1784 
 
 Jacob Wray, 1778-1784 
 
 Westwood Armistead, 1781-1784 
 William Armistead 
 
 Bagley, 1781-1783 
 
 Robert Bright, 1781-1783 
 
55 
 
 Thomas Jones, Jr. 
 John Shepard 
 Robert Armistead, 
 Thomas B. Armistead, 
 Wilham Lowry, 
 Charles Jennings, 
 Robert Armistead, 
 John Cooper, 
 James Latimer, Jr. 
 Thomas Watts, 
 Samuel Watts, 
 Miles Gary, 
 Thomas Latimer, 
 Robert Lively, 
 Benjamin Phillips, 
 John Cary, 
 William Armistead, 
 (Swamp.) 
 
 (1806 ?) 
 
 (1806 ?) 
 
 (1806 ?) 
 
 (1806 ?) 
 
 (1806 ?) 
 
 1806-1810 
 
 1806-1810 
 
 1806-1810 
 
 1806-1810 
 
 1806-1810 
 
 1806-1810 
 
 1806-1810 
 
 1810 
 
 1810 
 
 1810 
 
 1810 
 
 1810 
 
 Capt. Robert Lively, 1826-1832 
 
 Smauel W^atts, Sr. 1826-1829 
 
 Thomas Latimer, Sr. 1826 1827 
 
 William Hope, M. D. 1826-1844 
 
 John W. Jones, 1826-1827 
 
 Col. Gill A. Cary, 1826 
 
 Capt. Thomas Hope, 1826-1827 
 
 Capt. John Herbert, 1826-1827 
 Richard G.Banks, M.D. 1826-1827 
 
 Capt. John h\ Wray, 1826-1829 
 
 Richard B Servant, 1826-1830 
 
 William Jennings, 1826-1827 
 
 Samuel Dewbre, 1827-1832 
 Westwood S. Armistead 1827-1846 
 
 Thomas S. Armistead, 1827-1844 
 
 John C. King, 1829-1835 
 
 Thomas F. Goodwin, 1829-1836 
 
 Samuel M. Latimer, 1829 
 
 John Herbert, 1829 
 Keunon Whiting, 
 
 1829-1832; 1842-1874 
 
 Charels Watts, 1842-1855 
 
 S. R. Sheild, M. D. 1842-1855 
 
 William Massenburg, 1843-1848 
 
 Rix Jordan, 1843-1855 
 
 A. B. McClean, 1843-1848 
 
 Thomas W. Lowry, 1844-1855 
 George William Semple, 
 
 M. D. 1846-1883 
 
 Robert Archer, M. D. 1846-1847 
 William R. Laws, 1855-1864 
 
 William S. Sclater, 1852-1855 
 
 E. E. Savage, 1853-1874 
 Charles Shelton, 1853-1855 
 George Wray, 1854-1855 
 Jesse P. Hope, M. D. 
 
 1852; 1868-1880 
 William Y. Titcomb, 1852 
 William Causey, 1854-1855 
 
 Samuel R. Chisman, 1868 
 Lemuel H. Sclater, 1868-1899 
 
 Col. Charles K. Mallory, 1868-1874 
 J. B. Hope, 1868 
 
 James E. Turner, 1868-i870 
 
 Mallory A. Shield, M. D. 1869-1874 
 Columbus C. Jett, 1869-1880 
 
 Isaac L. Jones, Jr. 
 
 1872-1880; 1884-1888 
 George Booker, 1872; 1878 
 
 Nelson Smith, 1872 
 
 W.J. Robins, 1873 
 
 William S. Jones, 1874 
 
 S. W. Phillips, 1874 
 
 William S. Sclater, 1874-1878 
 
 H. Clay Marrow, 
 
 1875-1884; 1900-1910 
 James Sclater, Jr. 1879-1881 
 
 J. M. Sherman, 1879-1882 
 
 Jacob Heffelflnger, 1881-1910 '^ 
 John M. Willis, 
 
 1882-1887; 1905-1909 
 Marshal A. Booker, 1880 
 William H. Boyenton, 1881-1905 
 
 F. W. Shield, 1881 
 Hugh F. Wallis, M. D. 1884-1890 
 George G. French, 1885-1886 
 Frank Lee, 1886-1887; 1902-1907 
 Benjamin F. Hudgins, 1886-1894 
 Edgar E. Montague, 1889-1910 
 George Face, 1890-1902 
 John W. Blackmore, 1890-1910 
 
56 
 
 Frank W. Darling, 1894-1910 
 
 Lamar Hollyday, 1895-1901 
 
 Nelson S. Groome, 1895-1902 
 
 Joseph C. Outten, 1900-1903 
 
 Charles H. Hewins, 1902-1910 
 
 H. H. Kimberly, 1903-1905 
 
 C. A. Junken, 1903-1905 
 
 W. C. L. Taliaferro, 1906-1910 
 
 John Weymouth, 1908-1910 
 
 John Bugden, 1910 
 
 Howard W. Saunders, 1910 
 
.xuriMKi Ul- ^.UNURESS 
 
 014 442 851 1