Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-04-30
wASHINGTON's OLD CHURCH.
The Quaint Old Records of the Parish
of Fairfax.

The first vestry election ever held in Alex
andria took place on the 2Sth Of March, Easter
Monday, 1866. some years before Christ church
was built At that election John West Charles
Alexander, VIM. Payne, John Dalton. George
Washington, Charles Broadwater, George john
son, Townsend Dade. W. Adams, John Posey
and ID. French were chosen vestrymen. The
| vestry had then many of the powers of county
courts as boards of supervisors. They laid the
county levy, took care of the poor. bound out
apprentices, fixed the boundaries of lands. &c.
At the election of 1865 Gen. Washington was by
| no means the most popular of the vestrymen,
| as he received only pa votes out of $40 cast.
Old Christ church. of Alexandria it is
known. is one of the historic places in this
vicinity, and is visited frequently by tourists.
There the pew in which Washington used to
sit Is shown. When the centenary services
were held in this church, November 20 and u,
| 1873. Bible. once belonging TO George WASH
ington. and presented to the church by q. W.
p. Custis, esq. Of Arlington, was used.
THE EARLY RECORDS.
The parish was created out of a portion of
the parish of Truro in February, 1865, and as
| the record quoted above shows Col. Geo. Wash
ington. then thirty-three years old was elected
a vestryman. Some of the old records of the
parish are interesting as indicating the customs
of that time In 1866. for instance, the sexton
received an annual salary of 500 pounds of to-
bacco. When it was desired to build a new
church, the vestry ordered levy upon the
people of the parish of 81, 1855 pounds of to-
of the new church in February, 1913. Col Geo.
Washington purchased pew No. for the sum
of f36. los, the highest price paid. In those
colonial days, III consequence OF the relation
then existing between church and state, the
| functions of the vestry extended to a variety of
matters BY their order the tithe collector
levied upon the land owners of the parish.
! Under their authority the ''processioners' sur
! veyed and established all land boundaries. The
church wardens also bound apprentices to the
! masters, and to them paid the fines for
the violation of sundry penal statutes. In IT'S
the following entry is found in the proceedings
of the vestry:
BY cash received by Mr.. VIM. Adams for
the several fines for deer-killing out of season,
delivered to him by Mr.. Bryan Fairfax, e.
| los" and in 1778 entries for fines paid for
| gaming and for hunting on the Sabbath. The
/ salary of the first rector. Rev. Townsend Dade,
/ who began his duties there in 1765, was II, 2SO
| pounds of tobacco.
! FEMALE sExTONS.
| Another thing that strikes one to-day as odd
in connection with the old church records is
the fact that the Office of sexton was on two
occasions held by woman. In 1776 Susannah
| Edwards ushered the members of the congre-
CATION up the tile-paved aisles to the seats al
| lotted to each according to dignity" In 1910
| the name of Mrs. Cook appears as sexton. She
! filed the Office till 1921, when she was retired
| on an annuity. 1t is related that she used to
lock the parishioners into their pews and patrol
| the aisles with a military air, alert to detect
| and prompt to suppress any violation of order.
/ The church was not called Christ" church
J until 1911. when it cOnsecrated by Bishop
| Claggett. of Maryland. Near the pew occupied
| by George Washington is shown one that Gen.
| Robert Z. Lee sat in for many years.