The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-03-04
SOME CHURCHES
IN OLD VIRGINIA
Historic Edfces Where Our Ancestors
Wors',ipped.
ST. PAUL'S, ISLE OF WIGHT co.
This is the "Oid Brick Church land
Was Erected in 1852 as Shownby
tic Bricks-Blandford Church
Near Petersburg.

Standing as old Virginia Does first in
point of permanent English settlement,
first in the establishment Of representa- tive
government, first in American chiralry
and romantic story. first in the great men
Of the Revolution, and first in the eminent
statesmen who moulded the nation in the
first half century Of its existence, she
also stands first in having on her sacred
soil the Oldest English church in America,
besides having the site of the first one
erected here by EESlishmen.
Though her people never approa ched,
even distantly. the verge OF insane fanat-
6cism as did the PuTitans OF New Eng
land, yet they were religious people, Nv
Ing their lives according to the laws and
commands of God. Always among their
first buildings after making settlement
was one dedicated to the worship Of God.
In May, 1907, the first act OF the advent
urers on landing at jamestown was to
offer a prayer of Thanksgiving and to
prepare a place of worship, where the
Rev Robert Hunt administered the Holy
Sacrament
This place, Captain John Smith says,
was only an awning or old sail, which
we hung to three or four trees, to shadow
US from the sun; our walls We're rails OF
wood: our seats unhewn trees TIL we cut
planks; our pulpit bar of wood nailed
to two neighboring trees. In foul weather
we shifted into an old rotten tent, 1oT
we had few better, and this came by way
of advertising for a new one thus the
early adventures in the primeval forests
OF America worshipped God as did pre-
Historic man when
.Thc groves were Gods first temples,
Ger man learned
To how the shaft and lay the arch!tect"Ia
And spread the roof upon them; e'cr he
framed
The lofty vault to gather and roll back
The sound of anthems; in q dafkHnG
wood
Amid the cool and silence he kneit down
And offered the mishueSt, sollnen thanks
And applications"
A LOG HUT.
The OLD sail was soon replaced by log
hut described by Captain John Smith as
"a homely thing like barn set in crcch-
cts covered with RATS, sedge and earth,
and so were the walls This in turn was
followed by another log building OF better
workmanship and dimensions. Iropapi!
II was in this building that the lnolan
princess. Pocahontas. was conllrmcu, anu
later. in 1914 became the wife OF an Eng
Nsh gentleman by the name OF John hoi.e.
From them are descended many OF lht
best Virginia. families, among whom may
he mentioned, especially, John Randolph,
of Roanoke
About lSSs-ao this last wooden church
1ss succeeded by one of brick, whose
ruined tower now stands silent, so!lialy
sentinel guarding the dust OF the cream
less sleepers reposing at its 1907. scat
tered about the old graveyard are me
fragments Of severa! tombs. Among
them are the slabs that once marked the
graves of Lady Frances Berkeley ana the
famous old Commissary Blair. The Larn
inscription on the latter recites the many
honors and offices Of the old gentleman
who died in 174S at the age of eighty
eight.
The very first act passed by the OLD
Bsur:esses was THAT there shall be IN
every plantation, where the people use u
meet for the worship of God. house OF
room seouestered for that purpose, ana
not to be of any temporal use whatsoever,
and a place eupaled in sequesterec only
to the burial of the dead They also
enacted that all ministers SHOULD. every
Sunday, read divine service ana cate
chise those too young TO come to commu-
MON. And that ..All persons whatsoever,
upon the Sabbath day shall frequent d.
vino service, both forenoon and after
noon.'
Concerning these laws I quote from the
admirable paper Of DR. r. S. Thomas. in
the collection of the Virginia Historical
Society. am also much indebted to this
article for facts concerning old Smithhe!d
church. ana TO Dr. Lyon G. Tyler's his
tory OF Bruton Parish.
DR. Thomas says
such were a part OF the laws relating
.S,at en-
first legislative assembly that ever con-
veaed in this country-an assembly that
convened seventeen months before the
eternally-lauded pilgrims ever landed upon
plymouth Rock. and ten years before the
Colony OF Salem and OF Boston increased
their meagre numbers beyond one hun
drcd. And yet the historians Of that
Colony are forever paraGing before the
world. for lis worship, the names of a
Cotton. a Hooker and an Elliot, who never
set foot upon this continent until the
Colony al jamestown had for twenty
seven years biaZcd the way and taught
Them wisdom by their sad exp er.ence:
Who never fron l'uritanical lips FRO
CLAIMED the siories OF their Maker until
hunt ana Wnttakar. and Thorpe had
laia down their lives as 4 sacrifice 10
their duty
TRUE MISSIONARIES.
One has but 10 read the stories OF
Robert Hunt, Richard Burke, Alexander
Whitaker. David Sands. Jonas Stockton.
Z Thomas White, and others of the carly
VirginIa ministers, to see the true zeal
that animated these missionaries in
marked contrast 20 the cruel fanaticis:n
OF the Puritans of New England, who as
early as 1859 shipped John Morton and
John ana Samuel Brown back TO Eng
iana Cor no crime save that OF eating
cnistsnas pies and using tbs book OF
common prayer; who. by 1850. had esiled
every Episcopal minister in all New Eng.
land but one-o:d Father Jordon. who
was too broken IN fortune and IN spirit
60 move; who. In 1S4a. In the depths OF