Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-02-10
HASKIN TELLS OF HISTORIC
BLANDFORD ~CHUNCHYARD
Daily Letter by Frederic j. Haskin

PETERSBURG, Va, Feb. TO-
When a stranger in Petersburg meets
an old inha bitant he is sure to be
asked eagerly, Have you seen
Blandford?
AS a result of this spontaneous
press agen work on the part of
Petersburg citizens, few visitors
leave town without seeing Blandford,
! and the fame of old Blandford
church and it's historic graveyard
steadily increases.
Five minutes ride from the center
| of town you come upon a little colo
| NAL brick chapel, overgrown with
English ivy. The church is freshly
painted, and eleven fine stained glass
windows make it a shrine for art
lovers as well as students of the past.
About the little church is a neatly
kent lawn dotted with old and
crimbling tombstones. This is
Blandford. 1t is a bit of colonial
Virginia. Legends on the stones tell
! Of men and women born in England,
Scotland, and Ireland who came to
Virginia before the Revolutionary
War.
Blandford was once the most i'm
portant and fashionable section of
Petersburg. To its church in pre-
revolutionary days Virginians of
wealth and culture gathered on sun
days for worship. The high old pull
pit, like a watch tower, still stands
in the church. You can imagine the
silk and satin clad colonials sitting in
three wings of the o shaped
chapel and the rector bending from
his carved balcony to counsel his
parishioners regarding their duty in
those troublous times.
The chapel was abandoned as old
in 1900, when the national capital
was just being established at WASH
ington. But the history of Bland
ford was not complete. The dead OF
three more wars were to be added
to the revolutionary heroes in the
~churchyard, and one of the hottest
| battles of the Civil War was to be
fought close enough to the church
to damage it's walls and break the
old sravestones. After that siege
$4,000 Confederate dead were laid to
rest in Blandford cemetery, and the
chapel was left a picturesque ruin OF
the wal with ivy growing over Its
broken walls.
About twenty years ago the chapel
was carefully restored and painted
and its vines trimmed. Eleven stain
ed glass windows were presented by
| the Southern States. Blandford be-
came formally a memorial chapel to
the Confederate dead.
English Officer Buried There
Petersburg calls Blandford unique,
| and it has facts to back the claim.
For one thing, n corner OF the
! churchyard holds the body of the
only British officer ever buried
/ abroad before the recent World War.
TTzyoNI a. -1AnaC had alyyaV vs. the
| policy of bringing all her officers
! home for burial. But during the
| Revolution, General William Phillips
was taken i'll with fever while Pet
| ersburg was a center of lighting.
| Cannon balls were falling around
| Bollingbrook Mansion where the
general lay, and he was removed to
| the basement for safety. The old
| colored cook. Molly, was accidentally
killed by a ball as she stood in the
doorway with the generals dinner in
her hands. .
Phillips died and was buried at
Blandford. But because local senti-
ment was so strong against him, 1t is
said that old Molly was buried over
his grave, so that his body might not
be found and ~desecrated.
When steps were taken to remove
the general to England the body
could not be located. The where
abouts of General Phillips became
one Of the mysteries Of the day-a
persistent mystery. The British mad
to abandon the quest.
Shortly before the recent war
however, the British government was
reminded of the strange fact that an
English general lay under American
sod, and another request for the
missing officer was sent. But Phillips,
called by Jefferson the proudest man
of the proudest nation on earth, lay
in an unmarked and forgotten grave
A fire in 1S43 had destroyed the old
est records Of the churchyard, and
the story Of old Molly was vague
tradition. 1t was finally agreed that
the general must remain in Bland
ford, and the D. A. r. put up a stone
to his memory. close by the church,
The devotion of two children for
one another, the tragedy of an unre-
Quilted love, affairs of honor fought
to the death, and the early signs oil
American democracy can be read IN
the old stones of Blandford.
A Corsicau Tragedy
The tragic lover of the churchyaro
waa a Corsican named Antommatti
who in 1914 made himself famous
LIN La R1st9x Of RsSsEsRurg 81