HENRY WILKINS LEWIS

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VIRGNIA
4

Maney’ NECK

Mogreess Bono

NORTHAMPTON

DRAWN IN 1951
To ILLUSTRATE: THE
HISTORY OF THE

Anencan Croaet
In THE AREA, 1199-195!
—_

 

 

== Eneuest ROADS

MBP coromint. cnvecne's

T PRESENT CHUECHES

T FORMER MISSIONS

In 1129. (L throw
St. Geoece's Preis Croacet
st. Pro's Chares

Bewcers Cacen Cnares

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drorthampton
Darishes

HENRY WILKINS LEWIS

 

Copyright, 1951, by
Henry WILKINS Lewis

 

Printed in the United States of America

JACKSON, NORTH CAROLINA
1951

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PREFACE

The story of the Anglican Church in Northampton County falls into four
segments: the colonial period, the years from the Revolution through the second
decade of the Nineteenth Century, the history of the Church of the Saviour, and
the history of St. Luke’s Church. A part of this study has been assigned to each
of these segments except the second. The reason for this exception will become
obvious.

The record of the Church before 1776 lies in the ponderous Colonial Records
of North Carolina and in the single remaining volume of the minutes of the
vestry of St. George’s Parish. The history of the Church of the Saviour had been
compiled at three different times before this effort was started, once by Frederick
Fitzgerald, once by Gilbert Higgs, and once by Mrs. Edmund Wilkins Lewis.
When the parish register of St. Luke’s Church was destroyed in a fire at Belmont
plantation in the mid 1920's, Miss Edmonia Cabell Wilkins, realizing the loss,
began gathering data on the history of that church, and in time she prepared
valuable notes and memoranda on the subject. Diocesan records and these
earlier parish histories furnished rich sources of information for the present study.

The advent of 1951 lent impetus to a work pursued fitfully for fifteen years.
In this centennial year of the Church of the Saviour it seems appropriate to set
before its members and the members of its sister parish, St. Luke's, the story of
the life of these two churches, as well as the less familiar story of the efforts of
the Church of England in Northampton before the American Revolution.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Through the years in which I have been gathering the information presented
in these pages a surprising number of people have given me assistance; occasionally
they were not even aware of the leads I received from our conversations. Where
that assistance came in the form of documents I have indicated the source in the

text, but footnote references are inadequate in some cases. I must mention espe-
cially the patient counsel and the generous use of his own library given me by
Dr. Lawrence F. London of Chapel Hill, the informative letters from Captain
Philip Lightbourn of Bermuda, the Rev. Dr. Arthur Adams of Trinity College,
Hartford, and the Rev. Charles F. Schilling of Augusta, Georgia, and the careful
searching of the files of the Patron and Gleaner done by my sister, Miss Jane

Crichton Lewis.

The photographs of the earlier Church of the Saviour reproduced here now
hang in the vestryroom of the Jackson Church. Some years ago Mrs. T. W. M.
Long, a member of the Burgwyn family, found these pictures and gave them to
the parish.

Vii

 
My father and mother have for years listened to m

ms i 'y ideas about this s
and their suggestions have been invaluable. Both of th out this study

em read the final manu-

script. To Miss Mary L. Williams of Warrenton I am indebted fi
rip or s
of tiresome proofreading. neue

I am grateful to my brother, Philip Alston Lewis, for su:

this study. SBesting a title for

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONTENTS

The Church of England
The Church of the Saviour ............c:1ceeeeee
S Cent kc els @ unc hn wpeeneamnese tem ete ete eats srerssncratrahs oct feral te utece teenerscce eerste tereesn
Appendix
A List of Clergymen Who Have Served in Northampton ...

A List of the Parishoners of the Church of the Saviour
in 1851 Taken from the Parish Register

Vestrymen of the Church of the Saviour ...

The Churchyard in Jackson ....

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I

Any record of the Anglican Communion in North Carolina must always
begin with a reference to the attempts of Sir Walter Raleigh to colonize the area,
beginning at Roanoke Island as early as 1587. But for the purposes of this
account that story need not be retold. From the time of the disappearance of the
colony on Roanoke Island until 1650, except for the charter of 1629 granting the
colony to Robert Heath, there is little reliable record of happenings in the
Carolina country. But in 1650 one Roger Green, a clergyman of Nansemond in
Virginia, began to take an interest in exploring the area south of the Chowan
River.’ In 1653 he received the promise of a grant of 10,000 acres for the first
100 persons who should settle “on Moratuck [Roanoke] River and on the land
lying upon the south side of the Chowan River and the branches thereof” plus
1,000 acres for himself. This promise was made by the colony of Virginia.*
Whether anything came of the project is still a matter of conjecture. Ten years
later, however, North Carolina history began to take on more positive character-
istics. By 1663 it is clear that there were some settlements in the Albemarle area.

On March 24, 1663, King Charles II granted to the Lords Proprietors their
first charter to the country of Carolina, to be held by them in many respects as
their private lands.* When it was discovered that the existing settlements in the
Albemarle area had been excluded from the territory granted the Lords Pro-
prietors, the grant was redrafted to include those settlements in the second charter
of June 30, 1665." As soon as the first charter was granted in 1663, the County of
Albemarle was organized, and in 1670 this county was subdivided into four pre-
cincts called Chowan, Pasquotank, Perquimans, and Currituck.'

While the story of the quarrels and bickerings between the settlers and their
government in those early years has no place here, it is significant that the
question of religious establishment and preference, which had been provided for
in the charters, was almost consistently an element in the disputes.

From 1672 until 1730 the Quakers played an influential role in Carolina.’
They held their first meeting in 1680; the next year they established the Eastern
Quarterly Meeting; and in 1698 they inaugurated the North Carolina Yearly
Meeting. By 1683 the colonial governor himself, John Archdale, was a Quaker.

With the opening of the new century the Anglican missionaries sent out by
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel began to make some progress in
the colony, and the political power of the Quakers began to decline. The Cary
Rebellion of 1711 practically ended them as a potent force in the colony. In

1 Cheshire, Sketches of Church History (1892), p. 44. This book is cited hereafter as Cheshire.

* Henning, Statutes, I, p. 381. ‘

Connor, North Carolina, Rebuilding an Ancient Commonwealth (1929), Vol. I, p. 77. This
book is cited hereafter as Connor.

‘Ibid, p. 79.

5 Ibid, pp. 85, 98.

* Ibid, pp. 116, 174.

 
 

NORTHAMPTON ParIsHES

1699 North Carolina received a zealous churchman for
Walker.’ Under his leadership, despite considerable Opposition
Act was passed in 1701. When sent to England for the required
act was vetoed by the Lords Proprietors for the interesting reason
to make adequate provision for support of the clergy.

In 1704, when the total population of the colony was under 10,000 people,
the Rey. John Blair, an Anglican missionary in North Carolina, reported i ita a
don that the religious denominations in the colony could be classified in four
groups:

its governor, Henderson
» the first Vestry
approval, this
that it failed

(1) Quakers who “stand truly to one another in whatsoever
be to their interest.”

(2) “A great many who have no religion, but would be Quakers, if
by that they were not obliged to lead a more mor. ran
they are willing to comply to.”

(3) A class “something like Presbyterians” whose leaders
and baptize through the country, without any
from any sect or pretended Church.”

(4) Churchmen “who are really zealous for the interest of th
Church [but who] are the fewest in number.’* : “5

may

al life than

“preach
manner of orders

In all probability the people described by Blair as “something like Prest
terians” were really the early Baptists. These men were in many respects ie
most aggressive of the colonial missionaries. It is known that they were in Cais
lina as early as 1695 although their first congregation, Shiloh in Camden CSaANy
was not organized until 1727.” oe

In 1711 the Carolina colonists met their first Indian trouble of
quence—the Tuscarora War. It lasted more than a year, and, while it served t
drive the Indians out of the area, it left the colony in a weakened condition Om
top of this came the calamitous winter of 1713-1714 which left want and ae a
throughout Carolina.” The unifying forces of war, weather, and want epee
seemed to calm some of the colonists’ internal strife. When Colonel Than
Pollok, the acting governor, released authority to Charles Eden in May a
the colony was enjoying for the first time a decade of “peace and quietness :

Eden served as governor until his death on March 26, 1722."
religious legislation of his term was the passage by the Assembly in
Vestry Act, the one that remained in force until 1741. It set up nine parishes
appointed vestrymen for each parish, and made provision for the aici ie
glebes and general organization. Professor Connor felt that having Grated i of
point by enacting this statute, the churchmen in the colony “forthwith lost aad

any conse-

The significant
1715 of another

7 Ibid, p. 170.
* Ibid, p. 119

* Ibid, p. 1

©” [bid, pp. 126-127.
1 Ibid, p. 129.
#Tbid, p. 130.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tue CHURCH OF ENGLAND 5

est in the Church and allowed it to languish and finally to die of indifference and
neglect.”

While it is difficult to dispute this analysis, before consigning the efforts of
the Church of England to complete dissolution, however, there is a chapter in
its life that opened in 1728 worth investigating.

I

Two hundred and twenty-three years ago, in 1728, the most important politi-
cal issue in the Albemarle country was the location of the line dividing the colony
of North Carolina from the colony of Virginia. The Virginia House of Burgesses

alarmed because they feared their tobacco embargo was in danger, and North
Carolina was alarmed because Virginia was granting tracts of land in territory
Carolina believed was rightfully hers. There were grounds for both claims in the
two charters granted the Lords Proprietors of Carolina. The charter of 1663 set
Carolina’s northern boundary at a line running through the center of Albemarle
Sound, leaving a narrow strip in lower Bertie the only land north of the Roanoke
in the colony of North Carolina. The charter of 1665, however, set this line
some thirty miles north of the 1663 line, roughly along the present dividing line.
All of what is today Northampton County was in the disputed territory.

By the spring of 1728, after a few abortive attempts, the two colonies ap-
pointed commissioners to survey the dividing line. The Virginia commission was
under the direction of William Byrd of Westover, and it is from his detailed
records of the group's day by day activities that the first account of the Northamp-
ton area can be obtained.”

When the Virginia surveying party was organized a chaplain was appointed
to accompany them “because a good Number of Men were to go upon this Expe-
dition” and also in order that “the People on the Frontiers of North-Carolina,
who have no Minister near them, might have an Opportunity to get themselves
and their Children baptized.” While Byrd may have put the religious destitu-
tion of North Carolina a little strong, it seems likely that he was accurate as far
as the Northampton area was concerned.

When St. Paul’s Parish, Chowan Precinct, was organized in 1701, the inhabi-
tants of the “Southwest Shore” (later Bertie) were authorized to build themselves
a chapel of ease once St. Paul’s Church could be erected. By 1712 there still
seems to have been no church in the region, but the Vestry Act of 1715 created
in this Bertie area a parish called Southwest and named its vestrymen." In 1721

8 Tbid, p. 182. i oe Sern ee cies
4 Boyd, William Byrd's Histories of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina,
Raleigh, The North Carolina Historical Commiss 929. This book is cited hereafter as Boyd.

© Tbid, Introduction, p. 14. Pst 4
“Col. ‘Thomas Pollok, Col. William Meade, William Duckenfield, Esq., Maj. Robert West,

Capt. John Bird, Mr. John Hardy, John Worley, Esq., Mr. John Holbrook, Mr. Robert Lanier,
Mr. Lend Sarson, Mr. Lewis Williams, and M s Bryant.

 
 

NorTHAMPTON PARISHES

t pany the Virgini
a own parish church at Wena ‘Gee
(1691-1757), then thirty-seven years of age.* 3

Moving inland from Curri
Meherrin River on April 8, ESS ae ae
stopped at the house of one Charles or
one of his children.”” This baptism is
the area of what is now Northampton

The Meherrin proved to be a nuisance to the surve
yors.

with the Rey. Mr. Fontaine for the Tp, S

the line two miles and thirty-nine Rooee ae es the surveyors carried

rin River was so serpentine, that they crost it 3 ae ream small distance Meher-

eas Eee Maui ont of the river about a ieee Gane sa a

Wifes FENG oa ta oe ee ERE Hn Tele Gh Whats Gare here
5 s to have displayed qualities that tered pra ea ea

, Ss remarks

concerning Kinchen and his family are I ap
acid descriptions of the people he ae ae pects usually
35

‘ying party was the
the Rev. Peter Fontaine

‘ yors reached the banks of the
€Y crossed the stream and on April 4
Carolus Anderson “in order to christen

the first recorded service of any kind in
County.

While Byrd paused

. - . We went on to Mr. Kinchen’ 5
fini, Geucottans edt ik nen's, a Man of Figure and Authorit

ae ee Mile to the Southward of the place
- By the Benefit of a little pains, and

The foregoing information is ¢ 3
Bertie County prepared c. 1950 by } cript_ histo:

Carolina, pp. 1-5. This manuscript is ci Pistorio
‘yler.

ry of the colonial church in
stapher of the Diocese of East

© Ibid, pp. 106-109.
™ Ibid, pp. 108-111.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THe CHURCH OF ENGLAND 7

And writing in the “secret history” of the squire and his lady, Byrd reported
that they

... did their utmost to entertain us & our People in the best manner.
We pitch’t our Tent in the Orchard, where the blossoms of the Apple
Trees mended the Air very Much.”

Two days later, provisions having run low and fearing snakes and bad air, the
commissioners ended what they called their “Spring Campaign” and agreed to
meet again at Mr. Kinchen’s plantation on September 10 to continue the line.

Actually the line commissioners did not return to Mr. Kinchen’s until
Thursday, September 19, and did not start running the line again until the
following Saturday.” That day the surveyors could carry the line “no farther
than 3 Miles and 176 Poles, by reason the Low-Ground was one entire Thicket.
In that distance they crost Meherrin River the 4th time.” The rest of the party
moved twelve miles west to John Hill’s plantation to wait for the surveyors to
catch up with them.*

The next day, September 22, “being Sunday,” Byrd wrote, “we had an Op-
portunity of resting from our Labours. The expectation of such a Novelty as a
Sermon in these Parts brought together a Numerous Congregation.” More flip-
pantly, Byrd added in the “secret history” that

. .. we had a large Congregation, & tho’ there were many Females,
we saw but one Beauty bright enough to disturb our devotions. . . .
When the Sermon was over our Chaplain did his part towards
making Eleven of them Christians. . . .*

This service of Morning Prayer with a sermon, followed by eleven baptisms, was
Mr. Fontaine’s second religious service in the Northampton area.

On Monday, September 23, the surveyors crossed the Meherrin the fifth and
last time. On Wednesday night the party pitched their camp on Beaver Dam
Creek, one of the branches of Fountain’s Creek. Westward from the last Meherrin
crossing they found the country “very proper for raising Cattle and Hogs, we
observ’d the Inhabitants lived in great plenty without killing themselves with
Labour.”” The camp on Beaver Dam was near the dividing line between the
Virginia counties of Brunswick and Isle of Wight. In that area they found the
soil rich, and Byrd wrote “as a Proof the Land mended hereabouts, we found
the Plantations began to grow thicker by much than we had found them lower
down.”*

Ibid.

= Tbid, pp. 112-113.

“Ibid, pp. 144, 145, 147.

*“In our way we crosst Fountain’s Creek, which runs into Meherin River, so call'd from the
disaster of an unfortunate Indian Trader who had formerly been drowned in it, and, like Icarus,
left his name to that fatal stream.”

*TIbid, pp. 148-151.

™ Tbid, pp. 150-1

= Ibid, pp. 15

 
 

NorTHAMPTON PARISHES

The next day, Thursday, September
westward, and at about four o’clock in th
“Caban Branch, which also discharges it

26, the Surveyors moved about ten miles
e afternoon the party set up its camp on
self into Fountain Creek,”

We halted by the way to Christ i

; en two Children at a Spri

their Mothers waylaid us for that good Purpose. = Siueeaet

On the 27th the party moved four miles fron F

crossed it, and then moved on three more miles i “ pee
two Creeks a poor Man waited for us with five Children to b iP ee fee
halted till the Ceremony was ended” and then moved on pean spe: ie Be
where they stopped for the night. The next day, Septemb _ Saami ya
crossed the Roanoke.” Altogether, en ee ee

» in the surveying "5 ;
7 A ¥ i ‘ party’s trek from the
Meherrin to the Roanoke, the Rev. Mr. Fontaine had baptized nineteen children

have been a great comfort. They still
of the Church were there.

Some four years after the : ee ah
according to ee Cheshire’s erehee eS ere ee
Virginia was conducting services in the Bertie enone ev. Mr. Jones from
month.” And about this time, when the colony was eae pe once a
proprietary to royal control with George Burrington aso ne trans cmed fem
sign of life for the Church in Bertie appeared. Dr. Jot ee the first real
Bertie, applied to the Bishop of London for ondlinastemn Ena web slean ae
Governor Burrington’s letter to the bishop recommending Boyd, March 15
» Ma b

1731/2, illustrates the kind of backin a 5 -
; colana
obtain ordination. After reporting ee here ea ntent needed before he could

t F rea
in the colony, one Presbyterian and ia Ou only two Anglican ministers
continued: aker meeting houses, the governor

Mr. Jno. Boyd, (the Gentleman w 3 2
at the university of Ghugevsr who delivers this letter) , was bred

has practis ic i
thet 0 2 actised Physic in the C
f olony of
Naren 7 Neary is now desirous to take orders, several Cates
of my acquaintance in this Country give him the Ch: a
worthy, conscientious man, w saan

r 1 : ell qualified for the Mini
desirous of Bee for their Pastor, and ae eee ae
to recommend Mr. Boyd to my Lord Bishop for aie a certib

cate and an allowance from the Soci
c ) ciety, ; rt hi

if your Lordship thinks him ase ere fae eee ii,
designs are purely to do good in takeing the Ministry Poa

* Ibid, pp. 4
™ Ibid, pp. 156-159.
” Cheshire, p. 66.

 

 

 

 

 

Tue CHurcu OF ENGLAND

not out of any view of gain. I humbly recommend him to your
Lordship for Orders and a certificate. . . .”

Boyd’s own petition is also interesting.

... That your petitioner hath lived for some time in North Carolina
& is well acquainted with the Country & there is no minister residing
of the Church of England in any part of that Government, for
want of which many of the people are drawn away by Presbyterian
anabaptists or other Dissenting Teachers, many of their children
unbaptized & the administration of the Sacrament of the Lords
Supper wholly neglected.*

Dr. Boyd’s petition was received favorably, and he was ordained in London,
the first candidate for holy orders from the Colony of North Carolina. Upon
returning to the colony to begin his missionary work, he was asked to preach
before the General Assembly on July 13, 1733, at Edenton.” After reporting to
Governor Burrington and delivering to him his letter from the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel, Boyd moved into the Northwest Parish of Bertie (the
area that later became Northampton) and began work. Ina letter headed “North
West Parish, No. Carolina” and dated April 12, 1735, Boyd gave an account of
his activities.

From thence [Edenton] I went up into the Country & agreed with
the Vestry of North West parish in Albemarle County for 10 months
reserving 2 months for visiting the other parts of the Country they
were to pay me £400 of their currency, (which at 10 for | is not
at par with sterling) & I have not yet received 50. The parish I live
in is of a vast extent being upwards of 100 miles in length & 50 in
breadth. I preached in 7 different places which obliges me to ride
every month 260 miles. I have baptized about a thousand infants
and 30 adults. The first time I administered the blessed sacrament
of the Supper I had only four communicants the last time 20.

We have as yet no church or Chapel in this parish but since
my coming the parishoners have raised by private subscriptions
enough to build four. We are very happy in having no different
sects or opinions in this part of the Country but I have great reason
to complain of a Laodecean™ luke warmness immorality but lower
down in the Country there are a great many Quakers and Anabap-
tists. In my last journey I had a great many of them as my Auditors
& I baptized 5 adults that formerly professed Quakerism & I believe
were there a minister settled among them they would mostly come

‘8 Colonial Records of North Carolina, p. 339. This source is cited hereafter as Colonial
Records.

ao) lonial Records 394.

3} jonial Records 556, 584, 591.

**T know thy works, that thou are neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So
then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”
(Rebuke to the church of Laodicea) Revelation, UI, 15 and 16,

 
 

NorTHAMPTON PARISHES

over to the Church & a better w.

ay of thinking q
get any of the library that was | Tyke Ae eeae come

eft here by Dr. Newnam.®

at the colonists w

From this letter it would seem th

ere ready to support the

t Boyd had succeed, i i c
cers = 0 sige a ceeded in gettine aay
organized. There is no hint in the letter that all was not well or Gettin IG Waa

But as was the case with so many of the early
tendency to paint two pictures of Boyd and his y

Two years after assuming office, Governor G.
that divine worship was almost wholly neglected
of London’s commissary, the Rey. Alexander G
following year (1737) he seems to have gaine
favorable impression of Boyd,
Johnston:

ith Boyd himself.
clergymen, the records have a
work.

abriel Johnston reported in 1736
in the colony. When the Bishop
arden, inspected the Carolinas the
d from Governor Johnston an un-

f issar i
or the commissary wrote his bishop, quoting

... this very missionary [Boyd] is

dalous persons in the gover
nment. I gave you i i

- Peer Para ga some
Idleness and inclination to drunkenness une since a Se 3
‘ tis 5 toe = tha

have od such accounts of his behaviour as are reall again

particularly that on a Sunday, this spring, at noon d he e

by many persons lying dead : Theeencee

drunk (& fast asleep
EXO [EY z , (& fast a on th
to vee with his horses bridle tied to his ee this i is ee
assured of by several persons of the best credit. As he is ammalen oti

inspection I hope you will ta of such horrid practices.”
actices.

Governor Johnston, but the times were such oe ii mt nee eats
even of eae neighbors. Boyd died shortly Hee ates
still a missionar carat §
ene ee of the S. P. G. The ficant event of his ministry was the
private subscription. This is the first mae cae R ea jae zi
RE ana ae any effort to build Anglican
Boyd’s successor in Northwest Parish
nothing is known of his career.”
The colonial Assembly of 1741
much better than the one previous
have been better still had it not b
vestries to hire their own clergyme
and it deserves some explanati

one of the vilest and most scan-

ke some notice
The unfortunate clergyman may have been

was the Rey, John Holms, but almost

passed another Vestry Act.®

iby 4 It was considered
y in force, and

another passed in 1743 would
eee cause it permitted the parish
3 1s was known as the right of presentation,
or state Church the right to

in charge of a parish) nor-

mally adhered to the colonial governor. Had it been allowed, th
allowed, the

1743 would have permitted each Parish ves

*®4 Colonial Records 7.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THe CHuRCH OF ENGLAND ll

that might possibly have bettered the general feeling toward the Church itself.
It should be noted that subsequent Vestry Acts of 1758, 1760, 1761, and 1762 were
similarly disallowed on the ground that placing the right of presentation in the
hands of the vestries was “incompatible with the rights of the Crown and ecclesi-
astical jurisdiction.”” ;

IV

Until the year 1741 the history of Northampton County is one with the
history of the Northwest Parish of Bertie, but in 1741 Northampton became a
county separate and apart from Bertie. The exact wording of the act of the
colonial Assembly describes the boundaries of the new county as follows:

That part of Bertie County which lieth North and West of Sandy
Run, and in a direct Line from the Head of the said Run, to the
Head of the Beaver Dam Swamp, and down the said Swampt and
Meherrin Creek and River. . . .°

One familiar with local geography will immediately recognize this territory as
roughly identical with the Northwest Parish of Bertie and will also know that
Northampton County, as laid out, included within its borders a fair-sized part of
what is today Hertford County, the part called Maney’s Neck. This, of course, is
exactly correct.

For about seventeen years after Northampton County was established its
one parish continued to bear the name of Northwest. The records during this
period shed little light on religious activity among the people in the new county.
In reading wills written in this seventeen-year period one will occasionally find
testators identifying themselves as being “of Northwest Parish,” but that is the
only hint of ecclesiastical organization in the records. Of course it is not unlikely
that an occasional minister from one of the surrounding counties visited the
county, and if any of the churches promised under Boyd had been erected it is
possible that they had lay services from time to time.

One of these visiting ministers deserves mention. The Rey. Clement Hall
of St. Paul’s, Edenton, did much to keep the Church alive in the backcountry
parishes with no priests. Bishop Cheshire wrote of him this way:

From the old settlements of Perquimans and Pasquotank to the
distant frontiers of Granville, this eager messenger made his annual
or semiannual tours, baptizing infants and adults, catechising the
children, churching the women, and administering the Holy Com-
munion to the rude folk, who learned to love and trust this holy
man. ... Upon one of these tours during the pleasant weather of
September and October, 1753, he reports that in 35 days he traveled

* Ibid.
* State Records of North Carolina, Vol. XXII, p. 205, and quoted in Corbitt, The Formation
of the North Carolina Counties, 1663-1943, (1950) p. 163.

 
 

J Ty
Nortuam PTON ParisHes
536 miles, officiated in 23 con:

black children and 2 w Sregations, baptized 467 white and 21

hite women."

It is well to keep in mi

nd that all relioj ivi
: ata 'g1ous activit r wha r E i

an exe ‘ or wha yas
vel Gua i the work of Anglicans. The early uate fh Pale ake i a

mentioned 7. Scraps
eae sae but by 1750 they had ceased to spread to ne aerial

- As y as 1739 George Whitfield visited North Caroli Money

of Methodism as a separate sect w: eee ra ec

as sti ins 9
mentioned the presence of a sect Teper eaee New adlar Cenc
ing like Presbyterians” j 5
ans” in North Caro-

lina as early as 1704. i
y , and it has been assumed that he was refer ring to some of

neli ) si

pata Church was predominant among

3 ra was not the only religious body with
sinning in 1742 the New Light Baptists

» and the year
arm 4 “7 Pa ae x the arrival i f
in important religious individualist whos iz ee ae aos ae of
‘a increasing! y impor-

Sec came from New Engl hewtl ae &
called themselves Separatist Baptict« a band of followers wh
ee ino ie ee tes ppusts Pascal’s history of the Baptists quotes Mor.
ef ie Gait oo ea arn ie = Steamy arrived “the neighborhood was alarmed
eax ty) dn tsalaomudeton oe Ow as a mighty rushing wind.’ Preaching the
eno (its Ibaal ined: dina cin Some ’ the Separatist Baptists within three
Even before the arrival of oe iS Ga claimed a membership of 900 persons.
Hadlenernied & aetetes ms and his group, however, the Baptists in Bertie
a PA Saoon CUNNL 750 "aathercolon ue facta x
cially Anglican. The colonial laws were desio, ¥ nevertheless, remained offi-
established Church as much as possible. For Riots 5
to perform marriage ceremonies, ahs Ava ere th
of the peace to marry persons in Parishes a 7 eae
there were a minister in the parish a justice :
only after receiving the Minister’s bean es e
minister.” See

the early Baptists. Thus, while the A
the gentry of the coastal plain,® j

ey alone were permitted
q however, permitted justi

hich no minister was residing. If
£ the peace could marry a couple
and even then the fee went to the

Vv

In 1758 Northampton Count
ing all of the area north of Potec.
where Jack’s Swamp crosses the
Northwest. The remaining

y was divided into tw
‘asi Creek and east of
Virginia line,
territory in the cou

© parishes. One, compris-
Ota line from Gumberry to
Continued to bear the name of
nty became a new parish by the

"Cheshire, p. 70.
Connor, p. 177.
* Johnson, G. G. Antebellum Nor i
Tanai North Carolina, (1981), p, 18
“Pascal, A General History of North ¢ ;
his congregation was called Bertie C busts, p. 271
® By 1766 Presbyterian ministers cose). ay itis known ;
y } Presby ministers ¢ Y it is Known as § aptist Churel
of any denomination and all justices oe marriages, and by 1p AIS sees
: eace could donee, md by all regular ministers
. See Johnson, p, 204

This book is cited hereafter as

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tue CuurcH oF ENGLAND

name of St. George’s. At the time of this division the Assembly named the fol-
lowing persons as vestrymen for the two parishes:”

For Northwest Parish

Benjamin Deberry
Robert Warren
James Maney
John Figures

Joseph Sykes
Charles Skinner
William Battle
James Smith

William Murfree
James Washington
James Turner
Samuel Thomas
For St. George’s Parish
Thomas Barrett William Pace
William Winborne Thomas Winborne
William Allen Green Hill William Short
Harwood Jones John Dukes

This two-parish division of Northampton County lasted for only one year.
In 1759 the colonial Assembly passed an act setting up a new county called
Hertford containing a new parish called St. Barnabas’s. Hertford was formed
from parts of both Northampton and Bertie, and when the area of Northampton
was thus reduced the Assembly combined its two parishes into one under the
name of St. George’s Parish. Northwest Parish ceased to exist.*

This action closes the foggy years of the colonial Church in Northampton.
Just how many of the four chapels started in Boyd’s time were left in Northampton
when it lost some of its territory to Hertford can only be a matter of conjecture.
There is a strong possibility that two or even three of them fell in the Hertford
County area—old St. John’s between Rich Square and Ahoskie, one called Wic-
cacon in lower Hertford, and one in Maney’s Neck where Buckhorn Baptist
Church now stands. Some of Boyd’s work must have survived in Northampton,
however, for even before St. George’s Parish was established another minister had

William Cathcart
John Jones

come to reside in the area.

This first rector of St. George’s Parish was William Fanning, and he deserves
special consideration. Born at Riverhead, Long Island, New York, on October
26, 1728, the son of Captain James and Hannah (Smith) Fanning, William Fan-
ning was ordained priest by the Bishop of Gloucester in England at the age of
twenty-six on March 10, 1754. Seventeen days later he set out on his voyage to
North Carolina at the direction of the Bishop of London. He did not come as
a missionary of the S. P. G. He seems to have come directly to Northampton
upon his arrival in the colony. Certainly he was already living there in 1758 and
apparently had well-formed intentions of making it his home. The Northampton
County land records show that on January 3, 1759, one Joseph Thomas, “Gent.,”
of the Parish of St. George conveyed to “the Revd. Doct. William Fanning of the
Parish of St. George” three hundred and fifty acres on the north side of Roanoke

Tyler, pp. 6, 7. ;
ate Records of North Carolina, XXII, p. 508; see also Corbitt (footnote 40), pp. 122-123,

163-164.

 
 

14 NortHampron ParIsHES
River and on the east side of Mill Creek Swan:
£ 200.* It is interesting to note that eee es
Dancey, Joseph Reynolds, and Edmund Wants
have been the minister’s brother who later be :
Carolina affairs, and who later still became ‘=
: A year later, March 6, 1760, Dr. F.
adjoining his first purchase from Blake Baker of Halifax.”
same year, he bought seventy-five more acres s ae
Robert Dukes.* Thus, while there is no ey :
the county, it seems plain that this minister ae e
his flock. This makes it somewhat surprising -

1761 Dr. Fanning left St. George’.
ee er are sae ee to take a parish in the rapidly developing
the records st Sinia. Soon after he left North Carol; March 4, 176 Y
e records show that William Fann ent mini ~ a t mae peel)
ister of the parish of Til-

letson” in Albemarle Count irgini

A y, Vir Inia, is enti 0

Northampton to William saan ra eee ae Seco aa
5 y, Virginia, for £ 400."

tge’s Parish ended at this time, it

+5 is ies f 5
ig subsequent career for the light it throws

; a ;
he colonial clergy in general. How long he

n determined, but the probabilities
i Kou or five years, for on October 3,
mpton County. This time he paid Chap-

er 7 nine acre: x 2
beginning “in the old count es acres on the north side of Meherrin River
y “me” then west to the line of Chaplin Williams

Senior, and to “the new ine.”
eRe ees county line.” This deed was recorded i
i ishop Meade mentions the traditi tea nme Genter

Meherrin Parish in wha

For this land Dr. Fanning paid
Sses to this deed were Joseph
g- This Edmund Fanning must
me such a storm center in North
4 general in the British Army.”

inning purchased three hundred acres

and on June 9, the
1€ same neighborhood from
Fanning’s religious work in
ager to establish himself among
© find that around the first of

is interesting to follow Dr. Fannin,
on his character, if not on that of

lin Williams, Jr., £20 for thirty-

ia, and when it is
ell (Mary, daughter
ampton County, Virginia) it becomes
€ about the time of his 1765 purchase.
in Greensville during the Revolution,

of Joseph Gray of the White House, South:
fairly certain that he arrived in Greensvill
It is known definitely that he was living
“Northampton County Deed Book 5
been granted originally to William Pope, Rie), (*e°orded July, 1759). The tr
Re a reac ee April I, 1723, and by Mee ae ce

ee Lom u ntor,
Edmund Fanning, according to the Dictionar:

1739, and died Februar i
ship, in 1757. The nex? inert graduated fror piegraphy, was born April 24,
Te ENG HS pocualenne hig ten he began the study of lowed Won @ Berkley scholar-
seems to support the conclusion chee ame On the Northammt caw 2 Hillsboro, North Caro-
* Northampton County Decaline he first came to N { Jaroli SR AK cainly
this deed places the land as adjoining wns, 12, (Cecorded November, viet his older brother.
ie, vier Go ke River, Bact Purchase, the Mil Gut ithe Mil Waste
‘ope, and it ~ Baker had pur see ee eae
to reach his mill. i ly soe eel te pee) ftom Henry
Nee : hr roperty
; Reiter iam County Deed Book 3, p. 50 (econ ‘ough the property
eee Northam Lond Granville on Febrats ay November,
ary 21, 1760,

** Northampton County Deed Book 3, at Halif:
‘alifax Court, September 3, 1761).

in question had
illiam Evans who,

of American
m Yale, where

1760). Dukes had received

“ Northampton County Deed Book geo gfecorded

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tue CHurcH OF ENGLAND 15

for it was then that he wrote a letter to Governor Thomas Jefferson asking a
passport for one John Wickham, a loyalist who was a prisoner of the patriots,
to let him get to Portsmouth and then to New York, then in British hands. In
reply Jefferson wrote that Wickham must be considered an enemy and prisoner
of war, and continued:

They [i.e. the Governor and Council] are at the same time as thor-

oughly satisfied of the decided principles of Whigism which has

distinguished the character of the Rev. Mr. Fanning that they shall

think the young gentleman perfectly safe under his care so long as

he stays in the State. To him they therefore remit him until a flag

daily expected from New York . . . shall be returning to that place,

when they shall expect him to take his passage back.”
As a sort of footnote for those with a romantic tendency it should be added that
the young Mr. Wickham was actually a cousin of the Fannings and that he later
married Fanning’s daughter.

On August 25, 1779, the Rev. Dr. Fanning, by then “of Brunswick County,
Virginia,” sold his thirty-nine acres on the Meherrin to John Wilkinson of
Southampton,” and not quite three years later, in the early part of 1782, this
clergyman died in Brunswick at the house of his wife’s sister, Mrs. Edmunds.

Just how far the efforts of the Church progressed under Dr. Fanning would
be difficult to say. Two rather astonishing things should be remembered about
this first rector of St. George’s. First, this missionary sent out by the Bishop of
London was somehow able in the course of a few years to obtain £ 300 to invest
in Occonneechee Neck river lands—an amazing sum of money for a poor clergy-
man. Second, despite Fanning’s well-known family and political connections with
the loyalist cause, he was able to receive from Thomas Jefferson a clear testimonial
of that “decided character of Whigism” which he was known to have.

VI

When Dr. Fanning left the county in 1761 St. George’s found itself without
a minister. The vacancy lasted for about one year, although there is some evi-
dence that the chapels in the county were the scene of occasional services during
this year by the Rev. James Moir. In the spring of 1762 this clergyman moved
his residence to St. George’s and became its second rector.”

Bishop Cheshire made a study of Mr. Moir’s career in the colony and wrote
some rather interesting comments about him. As early as 1741 this clergyman,
who had come to North Carolina from South Carolina, was serving St. James’s
in New Hanover County.” From St. James’s Moir moved to St. Philip’s, Brunswick

% G. MacLaren Brydon, “The Clergy of the Established Church in Virginia and the Revolu-
tion,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. XLI, No. 2 (April, 1938), pp. 123-143.

% Northampton County Deed Bock 7, p. 3 (recorded March 11, 1780) .

® Cheshire, pp. 72, 73.

% Cheshire, p. 69.

 
 

16 NortTHAMPTON ParIsHES

County, and, despite his repeated requests for a transfer t
get away from fevers,” remained there until Easter, 1747, i cama ae
Edgecombe County upon the invitation of the fratheabiti ene
a while Moir traveled and preached extensively fa
time included all of present Halifax County as well
Edgecombe. In 1756 while Moir was there (and much to his di
part of Edgecombe County was cut off and given the na Been, mn
while the upper part of the county (that part which we eae
County) was called Edgecombe Parish. Mr. Moir ae
Mary’s. In 1760 he was among those appointed to lay oj o
of Tarboro, and Bishop Cheshire has suggested fet p - eres
work might be traced in the names Tarboro’s old str ae
St. Patrick’s, St. David’s, etc. ie
Having been in the colony more than twenty years at the ti
probability being well on in middle age, Mr. Moir re: zs ae and in all
Parish, Edgecombe, to St. George’s, Northampton in ee from St. Mary’s
Northampton he found a parish church and three chapel. i SOF Ute
dition to his work in Northampton, he still gave a oe pe eos
parish in Edgecombe.” "
Bishop Cheshire has characterized the Rev. Mr
“the Establishment idea” as applied to American eoitonte life
opinion Moir illustrates the reasons for the basic failure a ae 2
in the province. He did not lack ability, and his worth is u ie Anglican Church
continually vexed himself and railed at the circumstance a ae Det Thre
faced because he could not make the established iaaTA a pase ons he
frontier country.” Today we would say he lacked ima ee ae pons Hn ts
to leave Edgecombe and move to Northampton is eee as Why
is not hard to piece together enough clues to indicate ee
began to look for a parish more advanced in oxembation th 5
in which there was a more peaceful population. Contemporz ee oy Mary's, One
and about this clergyman tell his story effectively. OES ESS oth from
Despite the fact that Moir had been making regular r
about his work in Edgecombe as late as August, 1761 4 Sees XO dhe Sip, G
ernor Arthur Dobbs wrote to the Secretary of the § P Fat on oo), 1762, Gov.
“an abandoned missionary who does little or no duty cath eet WES
neglects his mission.”“ This was before Moir left St M a age totally

months later (November 10, 1762) the clergyman wrote ogee
-cretary a

Parish to
le removed

4 5 7 #9
ants of that parish.” 7,
Edgecombe which
as the present co

or
at that
unty of
€ lower
Mary's Pari

a arish,
S soon to become Halifax
‘as placed in charge of st

puiessite the town
association with this

ill bear: St, George’s

In
In ad-

‘onal services to his old

Wie c 5
foir as the Incarnation of

In the bishop’s

he chose
y clear, but it
as he grew older he

4 Colonial Records 791, 7
theshire, p. 70, 4 Colonial Records 872

"\ Cheshire, pp. 72, 73. a

" Thid.

"6 Colonial Records \

6 Colonial Records 709 at 710.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tue CHURCH OF ENGLAND

Since my last of 15 April, I have officiated in Northampton County
for the most part and in that and some other Counties have baptized
340 white children, and upwards of 50 Black. The Communicants
are generally from 90 to 40; Summer and Fall having been much
hotter than usual, the intermitting fevers with which I was so much
pestered at Cape fear attacked me with such violence at the begin-
ning of Septr, that for the space of 5 weeks my life was despaired of,
But (thank God) I am much recruited, since the weather begun to
grow cold, Physicians assure me it would mightily restore and
strengthen my constitution, were I to spend a summer in the north-
ern Colonies, but I should choose (would the Venble Society permit)
to do it at London, where I might point out the real causes of the
unhappy state of this Province in a much clearer light than I can

think it would be expedient for me to do in a letter.

Probably as a result of Governor Dobbs's complaint, the S. P. G. wrote Mr.
Moir inquiring into his activities and asking that he get affidavits or certificates
attesting his character from people in the area acquainted with his work. This
letter seems to have been delayed, but when Moir finally answered the Society's
request he took the opportunity to pour out his version of the whole controversy.
This letter dated April 6, 1763, is an interesting document.

Your letter of July 16. 1762, not coming to hand till the end of Jany
when all the Vestries of the Province were dissolved, I could not
apply to any vestry of the Parishes, wherein I have or do now
officiate, for a certificate of my behaviour. As there was no prospect
of vestries being soon re-established I laid your complaint before
the former churchwardens, as I chanced to meet with them, they
assured me that as soon as they could conveniently meet, [they
would] undeceive the venble Society by transmitting a true account
of my behaviour attested before a Justice of the Peace, this they did
on Good Friday, when assembled to celebrate the Sacrament of the
Lords Supper & I now send it enclosed, the Revd Dr. Bearcroft sig-
nified to me several years ago, that Govr Dobbs complained against
me: So that I make no doubt his being the author of the Present
complaint. upon his arrival I waited on him & he soon convinced
me he would act quite contrary to what was reported of him. Among
other things I told him I was well assured that the deputy secretary
& deputy auditor had been guilty of abomnible frauds & forgeries in
the Kings Land office; upon which he was seized with a violent
passion & I withdrew, the deputy auditor was his countryman &
without any other thing to recommend him, his excellency has ever
been loading him with Power & dignity, he appointed him an
ant judge & has also recommended him to a seat in the council.
His excellency seems to have a natural antipathy to every one that
acts uprightly in a public office. . .. when his excellency & the deputy

since

© 6 Colonial Records 735.

 
 

NorTHAMPTON PARISHES

auditor, with their confederates found it was i F
vestry in Edgecombe that would not euyeitoy + apes to get z
ae a a most ridiculous manner, & by a Sea: eaacedithe
hrew enses of i > act of injusti
expected 1 Would settle in, Pe T7E YEU Upon the Parih they
enumerate all the little ape Ata Hou dite cut Call a ae
PETALS ¢ Irty tricks, they have used vera sano
In short I have been so persecuted by the G ee oo ative me away.
that I have several times laid down my offi oe Re us
settle in Virginia but have been irate fi oer
on the road, by the importunities of the Peaks
oblige them, they are so fond of me, Sani
Province where Fraud, injustice & fo) eis in
Govr Dobbs complains against me for : Sere
not he take the law of me? he never ae
this way. I have told 2 Chief Justices -
they misbehaved in suits, for the rec :
Sheriffs who had squandered them Beat I
ne Captain of the

al 2 5 4
ibove mob being put into the commission of the peac

peace stood candi

‘andi-

date at a i rgesses in E
ofthe Govr's Faction in theee ran feeombe, with all the in
I painted the scoundrel in ee pane Set the huzzah i igre
I pain is proper colors & oven on his side,
tis true he came up to me with his m Oaset his election
but I soon stopt his mouth b:
what I had charged him with. I have b F © prove again
I could desire for the payment of my salaries } as good security as
inspecting the vestry accounts & rejected eS uel would cease
eee and saneebany such instances, no wonder the oe aE ewer: such
na raed ee aie all the ill Area a should
ete mega gun I sion on the People, who wt Ous stories
d ) 1 vestrymen, as they thi Te seca nen they have
Is it to be supposed that the people think | nea}. LL employ me.
they have several times offered me neglect my duty when

{ : a better mainte
tion, than I had on the Establishment: In Rae Dy subscrip-
> ne Pari

N. Hampton where I reside, there ; arish of St. G
ses 5 » there is a church & t. George
are 2 places besides, where I preach now nie chapels. There
en on a week da
ay.

I officiate monthly by subscri ption i rti

& have thrice administered heseemern eat ty On week da
officiated in Hertford County. Since m i Loa
white children, and one adult, & 54 BI

generally from 20 to 30. Iam

accomplices,
resolution to
n after I was
ple & were it not to
ot stay one day in the
ron’ are triumphant; if
at misbehaviour, why al

n have er
ve greater advantages

Oo ir F;

a their a aces how grossly
; y of Parish Taxes from
ay. when ¢

Revd Sir, your most humble servant

James Moir

6 Colonial Records 978,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The S. P. G. seems to have taken no action against this clergyman.
20, 1763, about six months later, Mr. Moir again addressed the S. P. G. from

Northampton:

THE CHuRCH OF ENGLAND

at the earnest request of the people of Edge-
the Province) I officiated in that
1 July and baptized 283 white and

Since my last of April,
combe (there being no vestry in
Parish in the months of May anc
6 black children. Before the expiration of my year in No. Hampton
the Parishoners insisted on my continuing to officiate among them,
and assured me they would give me full satisfaction either by sub-
scription or by voting in a vestry to do it by the first opportunity,
to which I consented and have baptized in this and the neighboring
counties of Bertie and Hertford 238 white and 56 black children, the
communicants are often from 10 to 30, and seldom above 30 as I
administer the Sacrament in the different Chapels and sometimes in

rivate houses when the Church and Chapels are inconvenient to
the aged and infirm. .. . I have not drawn for my salary this last
year, hoping the venerable society will give me leave to come to

London next Summer.”

follows:

... Mr. Moir who lives at a distance from me [he was writing from
Cape Fear] as I am informed by Gentlemen who live in the neigh-
borhood, has no parish performs very little casual service; he has
been endeavoring to procure a certificate of his good behaviour, but
I am informed with very bad suc from any men of rank or
character, he lives upon a plantation penuriously & inhospitably;
and lays out his salary as missionary in England to retire to & live
upon when he loses his support as a missionary; his character as
Iam informed is to stir up and make divisions in the neighborhood
instead of Promoting Peace & love; having observed that he made
a return to the Society of great numbers of negroes & others baptized
by him, I enquired into it & was informed by gentlemen in his
neighborhood that they never heard of any number baptized by

him.

Since my last of Octr I baptized in No. Hampton, and the neigh-
counties 136 white children & 46 blacks, I baptized also in

boring

"6 Colonial Records 994.
°6 Colonial Records 1039.

19

On October

These letters seem to belie the conclusions generally drawn about Moir, but in
all fairness to those conclusions the documents presenting a different point of
view must be examined. Some months after the last quoted letter was written,
on March 29, 1764, Governor Dobbs wrote to the Secretary of the S. P. G. as

Despite this complaint and report by the governor, the Rev. Mr. Moir still con-
tinued in St. George’s. On April 4, 1764, a short while after the governor's letter,
Moir again reported to the S. P. G. secretary:

 
 

Tea =
NortTHAMPToON Parisues

Edgecombe 171 white children 2 2 3 qi
the vestry act passed last Yay dec ee ren By
the Vestry, the election of which is put off to He cn pesident o
August, and It 1s to continue 3 years, Dissenters ; - : Soe) of
into it, and which is worst of all, the Sheriff takes ae at sees
the venerable Society would have permitted ae ra ar OU: Hoping
London I did not draw for my salaries from Mich Nice ers
1764. But there being now very nigh 7 years 762 to Ladyday
in Edgecombe & N. Hampton counties, which rene ene ook pe
the new vestries are qualified next fall, obli res Gap ach el
the forsaid Salary of 1Y%4 vente Ses me to draw now for
When he reported to the Society on October 2, 1764, Moir descri
as having a parish church and three chapels at which h Sree Seat
Once a quarter he made it a habit to Preach on a eae alternately.
4 or those persons

be to attend church on Sundays. He also mentioned the f. hat L
called upon to preach a large number of funeral ccm acu GOAL ING ES
G » SOMetimes as many

‘as three a week. As for baptisms, |
a S, he stated that sj F s
had performed 207 white and 50 black. He Re eae Sane une

5 3 h 5 s
with the parish. en turned to his own relations

...I have also hz
after unanimously agreeing to

that had Parish money in i
aris their hands; Ty
eames er ‘ands; The al als
themnmnext meeting they would lay tax ee Eso ahead
debts, when I consider how well disposed the alee the ates
are towards

ur rch, a yna ig]
° Church, and w hat might have been done for g i
worship through my influence wi coiees conepublic

make the proper use of either » It grieves me that I cannot

collectors refund under the present Ae) Sh meking
MOM og a

Early in 1765 Governor Dobbs died and in referenc arn
the Secretary of the S. P. G. on April 10 that h ie ‘0 this fact, Mr. Moir wrote
the Province that had a most contemptible o Dini anes
far as I can learn the news of his d see
throughout the Province.”™ But apparently Moir qd
missionary, Daniel Earl of Chowan, who three sd
wailing the death of Dobbs as the “great P
Just which side the S. P. G, decided to
Moir’s activities cannot be determined,
determine what to believe.

ampton,

employ me, order Citations for all

2 “been the only one in
of his morals and politics, as
ceived with the greatest joy
id not consult with his fellow

wes days later wrote the Secretary be-
atron of Religion.”
credit with th

€ correct version of Mr.
It must h ae

ave been a hopeless task to

°° 6 Colonial Records 1042.
6 Colonial Records 1050.

“7 Colonial Records 7.

® Ibid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THe CHurcH OF ENGLAND 21

Governor Dobbs’s successor, William Tryon, qualified as governor on April

3, 1765. By July he had made a survey of the Church situation in the colony
and on July 31, 1765, reported to the S. P. G. that Mr. Moir was an itinerant
missionary.

As this country is now settled more than 200 miles to the westward

of Mr. Moir’s residence [presumably Tryon referred to Northamp-

ton] I do not think the province receives any benefit from him as

an itinerant missionary; for under that general license of preaching

everywhere, he seldom preaches any where; this report I have from

some gentlemen in his neighborhood near the Town of Halifax. I

do not represent him as an immoral man, but should think it ad-

visable he might be fixed to some parish. . . .*

The rest of the story is found in Moir’s last letter to the S. P. G.* This he wrote
from Suffolk, Virginia, October 13, 1766. It appears that he left St. George’s Parish
in November, 1765, after asking the vestry to secure the services of another min-
ister. His complaint was that the sheriff refused to sue for the taxes out of which
he was to have been paid his salary for the preceding two and one-half years.
The following April, 1766, Moir returned to St. Mary’s Parish, Edgecombe, and
in May went to New York for his health. In July he went from New York to
Boston, and in August he went to Rhode Island, and five weeks later sprained
his back painfully. He then took a packet-boat back to New York where he re-
mained a fortnight before returning to the south. When he wrote this letter
Moir had been in Suffolk for three days. Whether he ever returned to North
Carolina is not known. He died in February, 1767.

VII

From Moir’s own letter it appears that he left St. George’s in November,
1765. On January 9, 1767, the Rev. Andrew Morton wrote from Northampton
that he had been serving St. George’s since the preceding August, 1766, at the
governor’s direction.” As far as can be determined then, St. George’s seems to
have been vacant from November, 1765, to August, 1766.

When the Rev. Mr. Morton was sent to Carolina in 1766 he was destined to
serve St. Martin’s in Mecklenburg County, but he soon wrote the Society that
upon inquiry he had learned that the inhabitants of that parish were all “Coy-
enanters” and “Seceders,” and that, therefore, with Governor Tryon’s conseni,
he had agreed to take St. George’s Parish “in Bertie.””

Mr. Morton was not a healthy man, and he complained bitterly of “the sick-
liness of the Climate” and told the S. P. G. that “I have had a very severe

%7 Colonial Records 102.
*7 Colonial Records 265.
%®7 Colonial Records 424.
® Cheshire, p. 78.

 
 

22 ig
Nort HAMPTON ParisHEs

seasoning in so much that I was given over b:
of, but it has pleased God to raise and res
ie oe he made it clear that had not “that aimable and Good
ee ma Nahe the Nursing Father of the eRe Hees
Taran ae era ee cnent he would certainly have left the foe
Heenan RN general dislike of the climate he seems to h eS
pea maen aicho gh among his parishoners during th ave
io) nistry in St. George's, for he was able to inform aS 3 » ia pee
- P. G. that “the

ened ERs in ion more effectually to settle me among tl I
is Excellency to induct me i re" ish, See baain a rON
y nto St. George’s Parish.”

In those first five months of his term +
121 white children, thirty-eight black shan orthampton, Mr.
adults “after proper Instruction.” On Chee
ned Sars ec communicants, This apparently al a ing
: : ‘ at year Governor Tryon report 1 ee ee) Ol Wes) lls
Morton was already established in St, George’s fr ‘i ‘o the 8. P. G. that Mr.
the Governor’—evidently in compliance with the ee ae of Presentation from
We have some statistics left us f, © Parishoners’ petition.

TO ee
George's Parish in comparison w Pee Seem Meloy that shed light on St.

ith the other pari 5
aro Sin 3 Parishes in
of white people subject to taxation in the Parish that es See ae number

3 a ar was 1,600, a figure

that placed it as A
ae Wea nena we most heavily populated parishes east of Rowa
more taxables. cacien Pari si is Hof which were then extensive areas BF 3. i or
in the official report a nae cay had 930 white taxables and ay dle: nea
fspcre Gi, Rermetba? Benign a be apable to Maintain & willing to receive a was
minister, but was considered Moe pee ep taxables and was also can sate
by that time in Ie ei Cou ee make Provision for one. Edgecomt : es
under the ministrati Seba taxables had f as ae ‘
ations of the elder Mr. Burges. But for & ae three years been
- George’s, Northamp-

ton, was reserv i .

ours ed the one truly Interesting remark j ‘

governmental report. The entry reads as follow wn all the statistics in this
Sas 1S:

'y my Physicians and my life despaired
tore me to a tolerable state of health

i Morton baptized
white adults, and eight black
Y, 1766, he administered the

Northampton, St. Geor

ze’s, 16
AC aaa tae 8 500. Intended for the Revd. Mr. Bar-

This is certainly a significant comment
George’s was a desirable field for the cree
of the new sectarian Shubal Stearns h:
ton, although he and his follow
lower Virginia and upper North Carolin, f.,

Referring again to the official ieee St ie ee
1767, it should be noted that Mr. ie

George’s, but rather that the parish
needs some explanation.

At least in th

€ eyes of officia
ain. iormercnrn y' officialdom, St.

ad not penetra y the dissenting followers
ws, fle Gea rated too deeply into Northamp-
paratist Baptists, travelled widely in

one chat made in the summer of
ot listed as the incumbent at St.

1s “Intended for” the Rev. Mr. Barnett. This

7 Colonial Records 541.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tue CHurcH OF ENGLAND 23

It will be remembered that from the first Mr. Morton complained of the
climate and its effect on his health. Apparently it eventually outweighed the
encouragements he received in his work from Governor Tryon, for on September
17, 1767, we find Mr. Morton writing to the S. P. G. from “Caroline County in

Virginia” as follows:

I take this first opportunity of acquainting you that I have been
obliged to leave Carolina on account of a bad state of health. In
eveiy other respect I was as happy there as I could expect to be... .
I have therefore a few weeks ago accepted of a parish in Caroline
County, Virginia. .. . The honourable Society may be assured that
nothing but the immediate danger of life could have prevailed on
me to desert my mission—This will be the more evident to them
when they know that since I have been in Carolina I refused a living
in Maryland of £ 300 ster per annum out of an unshaken attachment
to their service.

I have not drawn on the Society’s Treasurer since last Christmas
and as I am in no want of money they are humbly requested to
accept of my last half years salary as my mite towards carrying on
their benevolent design of propogating the Gospel. . . .*

While these protestations and explanations from Mr. Morton must have
been somewhat comforting to the Society, they must still have been keenly aware
of a basic problem in the colony of Carolina, one much detailed in a letter written
them in June that year (1767) from another of their missionaries (the Rev. Mr.
Alexander Stewart):

The duty is so much less, and the Salaries so much better in all the
provinces round us, that they [the Society’s missionaries in Carolina]
are held but for a season and quickly take their flight, Nay, some
of the Missionaries (Mr. Morton lately) have removed for those very
reasons.”

Regardless of which version of his resignation we accept, the fact remains
that in the summer of 1767 the “good parish” again became vacant, and the
governor had decided that it was the place to put the Rev. Mr. John Barnett. In
the meantime, services were continued by lay readers, at least one of whom, Wil-
liam Knight, did not receive payment until 1773 when the vestry paid him £5
Proclamation money for “Reading at the School House for the year 1768.”"

It has not been settled as to just when Mr, Barnett actually arrived in
Northampton, or, for that matter, exactly how long he remained, but certainly
he had left the parish some months before August, 1771. Thus at most he did
not serve St. George’s more than three years. It is difficult to understand what
change took place in this minister. Governor Tryon, a zealous guardian of the

*87 Colonial Records 520.
7 Colonial Records 492.
® See minutes of Vestry of St. George’s Parish, October 29, 1773,

 
 

24 NorTHAMPTON PARISHES

Church’s welfare, apparently held Barnett inh
to the large parish of St. Philip’s in Brunsw

he indicated tha “ B
that no AERP ARS uke “gad parish” for him—certainly indication
: is character had become known to 1 y ; ions
yet we also know that things did not 80 well with him i the governor. And
evidence of his successor, who wrote the Society ay enna oan
, 71, that Mr.

Barnett “has fled into Virgini i
: ginia, being charge . z
tioned." s ged with crimes too base to be men-

pee esteem. He first assigned him
ck County, and then, as we know,

VIII

With the advent of the Rev. Ch
t - Charles Edw: 29
the affairs of the parish took on a much eee Pe eee Seat

its role as one of the best parishes in the STR” eae Seooree syresumed
Since Mr. Taylor played such ‘

an important part i

Ge ee i ey
parish, it is pertinent to examine his career in Be ; = eee
is some indication that he was a n ieee

F Fro: i .
- . ative of Chow: m his letters there
conclusively established.

an. County, but this has not been

It is clear, however, that ay 77
landed at Edenton after a isiaes Aa ees ees
days—a slow passage even for 177], He a
uproar. The seeds of rebellion were spr
The political history of North Caro
had been a story of constant strugg’
the representatives of the Crown. 1

ly ordained Mr. Taylor

ng and that took eleven weeks and two
arrived to find the w

hol i
oni e colony in an

lina throughout the

le be repr
tween representatives of the people and

: In the “back-c 7
sive taxes, and the oppressive manner of ae Sere Ser rane
-ung them had b is ti

‘ad by this time brought

about a a isi
es est aurea one arte ia re Regulation, Violence had followed tk
a nmilieny capedlten eeetines Faas ber, 1768, Governor Tryon was forced to le: id
anneal io cehtihernal ane paces Scouts, They, however, had not been a
ecu ee e a at te ae orces and had submitted without Nica
governor, and on May 16, 1771 ee eked d military expediti £ th
Tryon met about eee th frre ane res C. about 1,000 m i a ae ee
i en an en number of Regulators on the Revi fl ene
HE s ghting, with losses on each denen i pean
> qual, the am-

munition i rS Wa
unition of the Regulators was exhausted and they were d
routed. About fi
ere executed.” os

period of royal rule

the secon

were taken prisoners, and, of those seven w

9 Colonial Records 20.
® The assumption is princi
J pally based on th
2 pos i le fi ‘
rector of St. Paul's, Edenton, claimed to have examin hat Taylor reported
ordination, and while Taylor denied the examination, it et peor
it is unlikely

made the allegation had Taylor no i
nade | : t bee : A
Colonial Records 20 et seq.” been 10. oF near his parish bef

“Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th ed., 1999,

that Daniel Earl, long
€ he went to England for
that Earl would have even
ore he was ordained. See 9

article on North Carolina

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tue CuurcH OF ENGLAND 25

Thus when the Rev. Mr. Taylor first wrote the Secretary of the S. P. G. in
August, 1771, he explained that he had been unable to make the customary call
on the governor upon arriving in the province, for he discovered that Tryon
“was gone to Suppress a set of Rebels, who I make no doubt you have heard
resided in the Western parts of this Province, for they, principally instigated by
one Husbands a Quaker resident among them, despised Government, and refused
to pay their Taxes. As I imagine you have already received Authentic Accounts
of His Excellency’s Engagement and victory over them it would be needless for
me to say anything on that head.”

In all respects here we have the comments and interpretation of the Regu-
lation movement of a proper British official experiencing what may have been
his first encounter with colonial life. His tone is one of righteous indignation at
rebels who hate government and who refuse to pay their taxes. This first evidence
of Taylor’s political ideas should be kept in mind in examining his subsequent
career.

Having found the governor away on business of state, the young clergyman
had to decide whether to stay in the coastal area and wait for Tryon’s return or
go out and seek work. He seems to have made his decision without much delay.

I adjudged it expedient for me to seek a parish for myself, and to
wait on His Excellency with your letter on his arrival at Newbern
but his sudden Embarkation for his new Government, prevented
my purpose, I have therefore settled myself for a while in St.
George’s Parish Northampton County, void by the resignation of
Mr. Barnett one of the Society’s Missionaries.

Mr. Taylor was profoundly disturbed by the low state of ecclesiastical disci-
pline in North Carolina. Twenty years before his arrival the saintly Clement
Hall had written the S. P. G.: “We have the pleasure to hear that a Bishop (who
is much wanted & by all good men earnestly desired) is about to be sent over &
settled in Virginia—Please to let me know whether it be true or not.” Mr. Hall
had been disappointed, and when Mr. Taylor learned of Barnett’s behavior in

Northampton he wrote the Society:

It is a great pity but an American Episcopate were established, if it

tends to no other purpose than to take cognizance of the behaviour

of the Clergy, some of whom (I am sorry to say) are the greatest

scandal to religion we have.
This was a matter that gave Mr. Taylor great concern, and in a tremendous zeal
for his work, he did not hesitate to inform the Society of the conduct of other
missionaries whom he felt were not properly representing the Church. The first
person to incur his criticism was the Rev. Daniel Earl, long known as the “Fishing
Parson” of Chowan County.

9 Colonial Records 20.

 
 

 

NORTHAMPTON PARISHES

Mr. Taylor was particularly annoyed when some inhabitants of Edenton
asked Earl to permit the new minister to preach in St. Paul’s and Earl refused
on the ground that he had examined Taylor before he went to England for
ordination and that he had found Taylor unqualified. In reporting the incident
to the Society, Mr. Taylor did not conceal his feelings. He called Earl’s excuse
“a palpable falsehood” and added that Earl “has reported it in the public houses
in Town (his places of Rendezvous) in all companies. Things of this kind have
great weight with the people in this Country, who may from hence be induced
to think that the Bishop of London would ordain any one that made application,
and from hence must consequently proceed a total disrespect to all the Clergy.
. .. I would not have it thought to proceed from any private pique, that I
mention his misbehaviour, for I look upon it the indispensible duty of every
professor of the Christian Gospel to endeavour to suppress immoralities of every
kind, but more especially those which proceed from the root from whence true
religion ought to branch and spring up.” So Northampton came under the care
of a man willing to fight immoralities, and most especially within his own Church.

“This misbehaviour in the Clergy has induced the people to be very cautious
of having a Minister inducted to their parishes, as they see so much misconduct
and no remedy easily to be obtained since everyone of them dislikes being the
first complainant.” This is a significant comment on the Carolina character, and
gives a proper background for an understanding of the arrangement that Mr.
Taylor worked out with the Northampton vestry upon his arrival. He was to
stay in the parish until Easter, 1772, “at which time, (provided we unite in ap-
probation) they are desirous of having me inducted.”

But what did Taylor think of his new parish? His first letter after his arrival
is so interesting and so well-expressed that it is best to let him speak for himself:

It is as wealthy a parish as any in the province, but rather too large.
I have 4 churches to attend which in the course of every month, lays
me under the necessity of travelling very near 200 miles, exclusive
of my Journies to visit and baptize in cases of necessity. I suppose
(God willing) to administer the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper next
Sunday; which has not been administered but twice in this parish
in the space of 7 years. It is my intention to order my affairs in such
a manner as to administer it 8 times in the year, which will be twice
at each church in the parish. I have communicated this plan to the
church wardens and several orderly people who seem very much
rejoiced at it, and are very desirous of receiving.

The people in general seem very fond of coming to church and
my congregations are very much crowded. I have been in this parish
exactly a month, and have baptized 66 white and nineteen black
infants besides 18 black adults. I purpose to take a Journey yearly
through some parishes which are greatly in want of a minister and
but poor, who I understand have scarcely ever an opportunity of
having their children baptized yet preserve some sparks of religion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tue CuurcH oF ENGLAND

among them. I should be very happy in my parish were it not for
some Sectaries who call themselves New Light Baptists, and harbour
in the skirts of my Parish” and are very troublesome, but with the
blessing of God I hope to eradicate them by convincing them that
the Old Light is the only true one. I have talked with some of them
and find them to be in general a very ignorant set of people yet
notwithstanding that they busy themselves with the most mysterious
parts of Scripture and believe they are absolutely bound to under-
stend them. There is yet no Glebe in my parish but the vestry pur-
pose buying one immediately, if I am inducted into the parish and
the reason they give why there is none, is, because they never had a
Minister they would like to settle among them. There is a great
want of Books in this parish as there were never any distributed
here. The Vestry have desired me to write home for three prayer
Books and Bibles for three of the churches, one being provided. I
told them I would write and enquire if the Society were willing to
send them, and if they are not must beg the favor of you to give my
respects to Mr. Rivington and desire him to send them, as I shall
direct, and should desire he were paid for them out of my Salary the
Society allow. . . .

If the Society are desirous of making any enquiry into my con-
duct, I hereby humbly beg leave to acquaint them that Willie Jones
and Howell Edmunds, Esquire, are the two Representatives for this
county, and Howell Edmunds and Mr. Samuel Lockhart the present
church wardens, who I hope can never give me any other than that
character which I have hitherto preserved untainted, and I pray
that the Almighty may always afford me his assistance to discharge
the trust reposed in me, and to grant that after I have preached to
others, I myself may not become a castaway.”

The concluding paragraph of this letter carries special interest, and is the first
record of the names of any of the churchwardens of St. George’s Parish.

The period of probation proved satisfactory to both priest and people. After
ten months the people unanimously petitioned the governor to induct Mr. Taylor
into the parish as rector. The winter of 1771-72 was a hard one, and there was
a great deal of sickness in Northampton. Mr. Taylor was so busy visiting his
ailing parishoners that he let another year elapse without paying a call on the
governor, and he informed the Society that since His Excellency planned to
come through Northampton in October, after spending the summer of 1772 at
Hillsboro, he had decided to pay his respects at that time.”

It was at about this time that the Methodist movement within the Anglican
Church was beginning to make itself felt in North Carolina. Led by Joseph
Pilmour who had been sent to America to preach Methodism, a number of

® Probably a reference to the congregations at Meherrin and Bertie Baptist Chapels.
® This and the preceding quotations are from 9 Colonial Records 20 et seq.
=9 Colonial Records 325.

 
 

 

28 NorTHAMPTON PARISHES

English lay preachers began to work in the colony. Pilmour preached first at
Currituck Court House on September 28, 1772, and from then until the following
December went to Edenton, New Bern, and Wilmington. He was followed by
Robert Williams who organized the Methodist Society in North Carolina, and
by Devereux Jarratt, rector of Sapony Church in Dinwiddie County, Virginia.
Later William Meredith, William Glendenning and Robert J. Miller continued
the work. None of these men ever left the Anglican Church.®

Between September 29, 1771, and August 24, 1772, the Rev. Mr. Taylor
baptized 112 white infants, forty-six Negro infants, two white adults and fifty-five
colored adults in Northampton. Of the Negroes in general he remarked that
they were “very desirous of instruction in their duty.” In reporting the two
white adult baptisms Mr. Taylor was careful to point out that one of them
had been a Quaker and that the other “had been brought up a New Light
Baptist, but never initiated into their profession by their method of plunging.”

During the same period Mr. Taylor celebrated the Holy Communion twice
in each of the four churches in his parish. The first series of celebrations brought
a total of fifty-one communicants, and the second round saw sixty-three make
their communions.

Not content with working in his home parish alone, during the unusually
hot summer of 1772 Taylor left Northampton for a week in which he travelled
219 miles around St. Mary’s Parish, Edgecombe, then vacant by the resignation
of the Rev. John Burges. During that six-day journey he preached four times,
and in the first three days alone baptized 159 white and four black children.

On August 24, 1772, Mr. Taylor wrote the Society as follows:

I am extremely happy in my Parish having the united affections of
the people. The Vestry have not yet purchased a Glebe as they have
been at great expense in building 2 new churches and repairing
and enlarging the others since my coming here. I have rented a
Plantation in the centre of the parish that I may be as convenient
as possible to my churches.”

It will be remembered that in his first report to the Society Mr. Taylor had
remarked that there were some New Light Baptist on the “skirts” of St. George’s
Parish. After having seen more of them, his 1772 report is not quite as optimistic
about the chances of winning them over.

I don’t know what they call themselves, some term them Anabaptists,
some New Light Baptists, and others Baptists. I have talked with

_ Johnson, pp. 343, 346. This statement is not completely accurate. Miller accepted Lutheran
giainations but was ace in the efforts to organize the North Carolina diocese and was eventually
ordained deacon and priest on the same day by Bishop Richard Channing Moore in Raleigh on
May 1, 1821. See Cheshire, p. 396. : a ae

9 Colonial Records 325.

” Tbid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THe CuurcH oF ENGLAND
some of their preachers," who are surprisingly ignorant, and pre-
tend to Illumination and assurances, they are so obstinately and
wilfully ignorant themselves and teach their fellows to be so too,
that they will hearken to no reason whatever, but are obstinately
bent to follow their own absurd Notions. They increase surprisingly
in Virginia, and in some parts of Carolina, but I bless God they
rather decrease in my parish. Multitudes of them having left their
Teachers are constant attendants at my Churches. We have a few
Quakers in this Parish but they are no way troublesome.”

The Baptists were not the only troublemakers in the “skirts” of Mr. Taylor's
parish. One of his brother clergymen of the Church of England was causing a
stir of considerable proportions. The Rev. Devereux Jarratt of Dinwiddie County,
Virginia, had already made excursions into North Carolina preaching “a peculiar
doctrine in a peculiar manner.” His theme was the necessity of a new birth to
be gained through the “knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins.” “Day
and night in private house and in chapel, in Virginia and in North Carolina, he
went about ‘testifying the gospel of the Grace of God’. It was his custom ‘to
descend from the stiff and formal services of the church, and conduct the exer-
cises in a familiar conversational manner; addressing plain and searching ques-
tions to various individuals; and encouraging all present to ask him questions
that they might feel necessary to their better acquaintance with spiritual things,
or for the removal of their doubts and fears.’ ”””

Between 1763 and 1775 Jarratt claims that revivals of religion rewarded his
effort, but there is no evidence that he came into Northampton during that
period. On the contrary, in May, 1774, Mr. Taylor, disturbed by Jarratt’s dis-
regard of parish boundaries, reported to the S. P. G. that “he has not yet been
in my parish, neither would I suffer him to preach in it could I hinder him,
which I understand he says cannot be done, and that he has authority to preach
where he pleases—of which I should be glad to be made acquainted.’™

Beginning in 1776, however, and from then until 1783, Jarratt went regularly
into Northampton, Halifax, Warren, Franklin, and Granville. Charles Edward
Taylor’s active ministry in Northampton and his clear distrust of Mr. Jarratt’s
methods unquestionably account for Jarratt’s not coming into the county until
after the establishment had been abolished.

In closing his 1772 report to London, Mr. Taylor again reminded the Society
of the parish’s desperate need for books for the four churches:

" Thomas Pope is the first known Baptist preacher at Bertie Chapel. He was followed by
James Abingdon, a Bertie native, who served until 1772. From 1773 until his death thirty-four
years later, this Baptist congregation was served by the well-known Lemuel Burkett. See Tyler,
“History of Sandy Run Baptist Church,” News and Observer, Raleigh, N. C., July 16, 1950.

"9 Colonial Records 325.

% Johnson, p. 874, citing Lee, Life and Times of the Rev. Jesse Lee, pp. 37-38; see also
Devereux Jarratt’s Autobiography, pp. 89-94.

™ 9 Colonial Records 1003.

 
 

NorTHAMPTON PARISHES

I presumed so far upon the Society’s good nature as to request the
favor of them for the parish, as I imagine they would be made as
good use of here as in any parish that has been favored with such a
present. For my own part a few Books would be of great utility as
you know my circumstances in England would not admit of my
procuring many.”

This personal reference is interesting. Taylor's interest in books must have been

a characteristic of the man, for there are in existence today at least two theological
works that were once in his possession.”

IX

Beginning with the year 1773 the history of St. George’s Parish must be
drawn from a source other than Mr. Taylor's letters. With its first entry dated
March 12, 1773, the only known Vestry Book of the colonial parish begins.”

This book records an election held at the Northampton County courthouse
on March 12, 1773, at which William Eaton, Esq., Sheriff of Northampton, certi-
fied that the following persons had been selected as vestrymen of St. George's
Parish:

Lewis Williamson
Joseph Smith

William Bennett
Soloman Pace
Hezekiah Hough Joseph Wood
Bartholomew Figures Charles Thompson
Bennitt Hill Drury Gee

Jeptha Atherton Howell Edmunds

These names still have a familiar ring to Northampton ears.
their first meeting, the vestry chose James Edmunds as their clerk for
1773 and elected Lewis Williamson and Bartholomew Figures
The clerk and sexton for the parish church that year was George Berkley who

Upon the day of
the year
as churchwardens.

served for £ 6 a year.

Some three months later, at its regular meeting on May I, 1773, the Rev.
Mr. Taylor was finally enabled to present to his vestry the document his letters
indicate he had been seeking for over two years:

®9 Colonial Records 325.

* In an appendix to Cheshire, pp. 484-435, there is a list of books exhibited at the joint con-
vention of the Diocese of North Carolina and the Diocese of East C: olina at Calvary Church
Tarboro, May, 1890. Among these books were two that had belonged to the Rev. My. Taylor.
University Sermons by the Rev. Henry Adams, published in London by Henry Sacheverell, 1716,
and Bishop Barlow's Remains, published in London in 1798, and printed by the famous John

unton,

"For years this valuable book lay unnoticed in the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court
of Northampton County. It was discovered during the county records survey conducted by the
Works Progress Administration; subsequently it was transferred to the library of the State His.
torical Commission in Raleigh where it is now preserved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE CuHurcH OF ENGLAND

This day the revd. Charles Edward Taylor produced Letters of
Presentation from his Excellency the Governor and also a Commis-
sion for Colonel Allen Jones to induct the said Mr. ‘Taylor which
together with the certificate [was] ordered to be recorded.

Having worked in Northampton more than two years he had finally been
presented with “the living” of St. George’s. For salary the vestry agreed to pay
Mr. Taylor £ 153,6s,8d, per annun. This figure was somewhat larger in money
than the usual clergyman’s stipend, because St. George’s still had no glebe on
which Mr. Taylor could live, and the vestry felt that he should receive some
additional compensation for the hardship of having to provide himself with a
house. In addition to the salary, Mr. Taylor was also allowed the sum of £ 1,85
“for providing elements for the Sacrament and washing Surplasses [sic] for the
year 1772.”

The effectiveness of Mr. Taylor’s ministry in Northampton can be judged
from his reports to the Society, but it can also be seen in the laconic financial
records of the vestry. From letters to the Society, both from Mr. Taylor and
others, it has been seen that St. George’s boasted a substantial parish church
and a number of chapels, and that during this clergyman’s rectorate regular
services were conducted at all of them.

The names of the parish church and the chapels as well as their possible
location are matters of interest. The Vestry Book never refers to the parish
church in any way except as “the church,” but from a study of the early maps
of the area, especially the well-known Mouzon map of 1775, it seems almost
certain the parish church was known as “Cherry Chapel” and that it was located
near the center of the county, not far from what is now Mount Carmel Baptist
Church. That this was the location of an early Anglican Church is further
attested by deeds transferring land in that area and by older residents there
who have heard it as a tradition.

The names of the various chapels, on the other hand, can be learned from
the Vestry Book itself:

(1) St. John’s Chapel at which William Gardner served as clerk and Henry
Clark as sexton.

(2) Bridger’s Creek Chapel at which G. Ewing served as clerk and Catherine
Boddie as sexton.

(3) St. Paul’s Chapel at Dawson’s Mill at which Abraham Stevens served as
both clerk and sexton.

(4) In addition to the parish church and these three chapels, the vestry
records indicate that there was at least one other chapel in the county in 1773.
This one, called “the old chapel at Meherrin,” the vestry ordered Bartholomew
Figures and Howell Edmunds to sell to the highest bidder. Apparently this
entry meant that this old chapel site had been abandoned, because an entry
dated October 29, 1773, states that Richard Figures, Charles Thompson, and

 
 

32 NorTHAMPTON ParisHES

Howell Edmunds, appointed commissioners “to view the chapel which Benj.
Roberts built, do agree to receive the said work.” The inference is that the
vestry had Roberts build St. Paul’s Chapel at Dawson’s Mill and, that building
having been completed and accepted, they ordered the old building at Meherrin
sold. The Baptist Church at Pendleton still bears the name Roberts Chapel.”

It might be assumed that in an established or state-supported Church there
would have been little evidence of private donations to religious causes, but
that assumption is at least partially refuted by another notation in the Vestry
Book ordering that

The thanks of the vestry be given Dr. Samuel Pete of this county

for his Generous present of a chalice and salver for the use of the
parish.

This entry makes it interesting to speculate about the appearance and fur-
nishing of Northampton’s colonial churches. Unfortunately there are no records
giving even a slight clue to the architecture or ornamentation of these structures,
but certain generally accepted theories can be applied to the speculation about
them.

First, it would seem reasonable to suppose that by 1773 there were at least
four substantial church buildings in the county. Without much dispute it can
be assumed that the largest and best furnished would have been the parish church
itself, situated in the middle of the parish, near which the rector resided.

As for the building itself, it can reasonably be assumed that it was a wooden
structure, since it is unlikely that a brick building would have been completely
eradicated within the course of time from the end of the Revolution to the early
1830's, nor is it probable that a brick structure would have been as completely
forgotten as have been all the chapels that originally stood in St. George’s.” On
the other hand, the parish itself having been established for a fairly long time,
and remembering that there had been churches in it since the time of William
Fanning or before, remembering also that it had been officially recognized as a
“good parish,” and adding Mr. Taylor’s own testimony that the vestry had decided
to put money into churches rather than in purchasing a glebe, it can be said
with some degree of accuracy that the parish church itself, if not all the chapels,
was of a substantial construction and suitably furnished. As for furnishings, the

*“A member of Roberts Chapel furnished the writer with the following memorandum in
1949: “Some say that Roberts Chapel Baptist Church was named after the carpenter who built
the first house away beyond 100 years ago. They say he fell off the building and died. Some say
the first building was a mission ‘station given by Lord Granville to his subjects settling in this
section of the county and that the name came from a family who lived nearby—that all denomi-
nations worshipped there. Gradually the Baptist faith outgrew when the Methodists went to
Zion, to Providence and Sharon Methodist churches. The land was deeded to the Baptists by
Silas Edwards. Nicholas Tyner was said to own all the land around and he was said to have
given the chapel.”

“ There were some traditions about old churches still known when the Rev. Frederick Fitz-

gerald came to Jackson in 1851. See Fitzgerald's history of the Church of the Saviour in the
Parish Register.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tue CHurcH OF ENGLAND

Vestry Book and Mr, Taylor's letters show that the parish church was furnished
with Prayer Books and that Dr. Peete had donated vessels for the sacrament.

If the parish church was of frame construction, and realizing that it was
built between 1740 and 1770, it is not improbable that it was something like the
original building erected for St. John’s, Williamsboro, the only colonial church
building standing in the Diocese of North Carolina. The churches at Bath and
at Edenton, both brick, probably represent a more elaborate style, although it
is quite possible that Cherry Chapel was built in frame much along the San
lines as St. Thomas's, Bath. Both St. Thomas's and St. John’s are plain rectangular
buildings. The church at Williamsboro had a barrel ceiling, that in Bath, a tiled
floor. Both had rectangular windows with large clear panes, typical Eighteenth
Century buildings. Box pews, a high pulpit placed either against the oe wall
or at the altar end, and a communion table behind a simple rail, probably
constituted the basic features of the building.

As for the usual furnishing of the colonial churches, there is unusually good
evidence of what was considered desirable in the questionnaires submitted by
the Church of England to its Virginia clergy about the provisions made in their
parishes for such things.” The Holy Table and the Pulpit were considered
“essentials” and were, of course, to be found in all the churches. The other
furnishings were usually called the “Ornaments,” and parishes varied dng their
ability to have all of them. The list which follows will give some idea of how
the Northampton churches might have been furnished. i ;

(1) There was to be a copy of the Holy Bible to be used in reading the
Lessons. j ; : ;

(2) Each church was to have at least two copies of a large-size Book of
Common Prayer, one for use by the minister, and one for the parish clerk who
led the responses, the chanting, and the singing of the Psalter. i

(3) There were to be vessels for celebrating the Holy ‘Communion a flagon,
one or two chalices, and a paten. St. George’s was furnished with at least one
chalice and one paten. ; ! 5

(4) The Holy Table was to be furnished with a “Carpet or heavy cloth of
silk, velvet, or damask, to go on the table under the communion Fae and vessels.

(5) There was to be Communion linen—“fair white linen cloth upon which
the vessels were placed, and “a fair linen cloth” to be used in covering them.

(6) Oddly enough, the next item in the list of church ornaments was the
surplice to be worn by the minister when conducting the ser rices of Morning
and Evening Prayer and the Holy Communion, and also at baptisms, marriages,
and funerals. Before preaching the sermon, it was customary for the priest to
remove the surplice and put on a black scholastic gown, as the sermon was not
a liturgical but scholastic function. The parish vestry was expected to provide
the minister with a surplice, but every minister was expected to have his own

” George MacLaren Brydon, Virginia’s Mother Church, (1947), pp. 381-385.

 
 

34 NortTHAMPTON PArIsHES

gown and bands. The vestry of St. George’s provided surplices for their rector
and, furthermore, made provision for having them laundered, facts that appear
in the vestry records.

(7) The Pulpit Cloth, a hanging used to cover the reading-desk of the pulpit
and hang downwards from it as an antependium.

(8) The Cushion, to be placed upon the pulpit, and upon which the sermon
was laid as the minister preached. Whenever possible it was covered with rich
silk or velvet.

(9) The font. This ornament was usually placed in one of the box pews
immediately inside the west door, although there were cases in which it was
placed in different locations, for example, some were placed within the chancel
rails.

Whether the parish church of St. George’s was furnished with all the orna-
ments cannot be proved, but in view of the known fact that the surplice was
provided and that vessels were provided for the Holy Communion, and that
there were Prayer Books, it can probably be presumed that most, if not all, of
the ornaments were provided.

With this picture of the church buildings and their furnishings in mind, a
few words can be added about the services of the Church. Where a minister was
resident in the parish it was customary for him to hold regular services of Morning
and Evening Prayer at the.parish church on Sundays, the Evening Prayer service
being in the afternoon, not at night. These daily offices were read by the minister
at the chapels on week-days and occasionally on Sundays, but generally they were
read by the chapel clerk on Sundays. The sermon was an important part of the
Sunday services, and was seldom dispensed with. In the absence of the minister,
the clerk usually read a homily approved for such use. The Prayer Book was
strictly adhered to, and there was no Hymn Book as we know it today. Instead,
the Psalter was sung or said under the clerk’s leadership. There is little reason
to suppose that the churches were provided with musical instruments.

The Holy Communion was normally celebrated at Christmas, Easter, Whit-
sunday, and the feast of St. Michael and All Angels. These celebrations were, of
course, repeated in each chapel in Northampton, so that the persons at each
place of worship had the opportunity of receiving the sacrament.

One of the principal duties of the minister, there being no church school
in colonial times, was to instruct the children and slaves in the Catechism. It
was customary in most places for the minister to conduct regular catechetical in-
struction during Lent each year. Funerals and weddings were not commonly
celebrated in the churches. People lived on plantations, often at some distance
from the church, and the custom of the times was for these services to be cele-
brated in private homes. Baptisms, however, were usually held at the church in
conjunction with Morning or Evening Prayer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THe CHURCH OF ENGLAND 35

This will give some idea of the normal operations of the Church in St.
George’s during Mr. Taylor’s rectorate. The tranquil minutes of the vestry
reflect a growing Church in a fairly stable community, and to some degree
North Carolina was less stirred by the times than were some of the other colonies.
But the year 1773 saw all of this change.

In 1773, under the leadership of Massachusetts and Virginia, the thirteen
American Colonies set up Committees of Correspondence to serve as channels of
communication and coordination for colonial action against the series of legis-
lative irritations that England was attempting to enforce.

On May 17, 1774, the Rev. Mr. Taylor made what is his last remaining
report to the S. P. G.

I presume you have heard of the calamitous situation this Country
has long been involved in for want of civil law, of which it has been
deprived by the difference of his Majesty’s instructions to the senti-
ments of our Assembly, which has put an entire stagnation to all
public business, and falls particularly heavy upon the Clergy who
have had no money collected for them for the year past.

We have been much perplexed of late with sectarists, who some-
time ago called themselves Anabaptists, but of late have assumed
many different denominations, and have great influence over the
weak part of the world, by persuading them that they possess a more
extraordinary share of divine grace and favor than the rest of man-
kind accompanied by extraordinary influence of the holy Spirit, and
pretend to a familiar intercourse with the Son of God.

Never was the body of the blessed Jesus more torn by the cruelty
of the Jews, than his Church is now rent by these people, who take
judgment out of his hands, and anathematize every one who con-
forms to the doctrine of the Church of England, but at last they
cannot erase nor break a pillar of that Church against which the
Gates of Hell shall not prevail. . . .

I have the pleasure to acquaint the Society, that under all these
disadvantages there are yet a large number in my parish who despise
these Innovators, and continue steadfast in their faith. The number
of my communicants are greatly increased to whom I administer the
Sacrament twice a year in each Chapel. We have two more churches
lately finished and have repaired and enlarged the two others at a
considerable expence.™

Governor Josiah Martin insulted the North Carolinians by refusing to call
a meeting of the Assembly, and, in defiance, the first Provincial Congress was
called and met in New Bern on August 25, 1774. It sat for three days and com-
mitted North Carolina to the support of the American cause. One of the principal
acts of this Congress was to provide for an executive authority for enforcing its
policies. This took the form of five-man Committees of Safety for each county in

*.9 Colonial Records 1003.

 
 

 

 

36 NORTHAMPTON PARISHES

the colony. Northampton County duly chose a committee and named its rector,
the Rev. Charles Edward Taylor, to serve as chairman of the committee.”

The next year, when Governor Martin called the Royal Assembly to meet
at New Bern on April 4, 1775, John Harvey infuriated the governor by calling
the Provincial Congress to meet at the same place. The two bodies met there in
the same hall, the Congress at 9 a.m., the Assembly at 10 a.m., both presided over
by Harvey. Seeing that nothing was to be accomplished, Martin dissolved this
last Royal Assembly on April 8, and soon fled from the colony.

A month later in May, 1775, the pot boiled over. The Massachusetts farmers
fired on the British troops at Lexington, and the Revolution began. In August
when the Provincial Congress met in Hillsboro, the delegates chose two chaplains
for the meetings, one the distinguished Presbyterian from Granville, Henry
Patillo, the other St. George’s rector, Charles Edward Taylor.” Selection as chair-
man of the Northampton Committee of Safety and as chaplain to the Provincial
Congress are proof enough that the rector of St. George’s Parish was no Tory
but an ardent supporter of the colonial cause.

In spite of all the political excitement and the coming of actual war, Church
affairs ran smoothly in St. George’s. The vestry continued to meet regularly. Mr.
Taylor went about his dual political and religious duties and found time to buy
some more land in the county. On April 8, 1776, he purchased for £ 145, 10s,
from Arthur Hart and his wife Martha, 219 acres on the South side of Fountain
Creek, bounded partially by the run of Cypress Swamp and partially by the
county line.”

But this orderly existence was not to last. Meetings of the vestry stopped
abruptly on October 16, 1776, a few months after Mr. Taylor had bought the
land. The Revolution had become a hard fact. North Carolina adopted a Con-
stitution for itself. In its adoption churchmen joined with dissenters in inserting
a section prohibiting the “Establishment of any one religious Church or Denomi-
nation in this State in Preference to any other.” The establishment was gone.

x

The vestry meeting of October 16, 1776, needs careful examination. Present
were Abraham Stevens and James Ingram, the churchwardens, William Eaton,
Howell Edmunds, Hezekiah Hough (Hoof), George Berkley, and William Ben-
nitt, vestrymen, together with the Rev. Charles Edward Taylor, the rector. Busi-
ness proceeded as usual. The rector’s salary for the coming year was approved
for payment as well as his allowance in lieu of a glebe.

No vestry meeting was recorded after that date. Almost two years passed
before the Vestry Book received its next entry. This next entry reads as follows:

1210 Colonial Records 140.
7° Cheshire, p. 435; 10 Colonial Records 169.
Northampton County Deed Book 6, p. 232 (recorded June Court, 1777) .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND

At an election of the [illegible] poor of the sd County the 20th of

April 1778 Persuant to an act of Assembly made and provided in

that case, the free-holders being duly summoned met and elected

the seven following persons as by the return of Drury Gee Esqr

Sheriff of sd County appointed (to Wit)

Howell Edmunds Hezekiah Hoof Thos Parker

Richd Veal George Berkley Saml Cryer

William Pace
Three of the seven elected to be wardens of the poor had been vestrymen. Ed-
munds and Parker were appointed “county wardens” for the coming year. John
Edmunds was named clerk. The collectors of parish taxes from the year 1769
were ordered to meet at the next Court of Overseers to settle their accounts with
St. George’s Parish. No ecclesiastical matters were mentioned.

When the Court met on June 2, 1778, however, we find several significant

entries in the minutes:

Ordered that the Revd Charles Edward Taylor be paid the sum of

thirty Eight pounds six and eight pence in full of an order obtained

by the sd Taylor vs. the parish Oct. 16, 1776—38.6.8.
This was a reference to the old vestry’s approval of the rector’s salary and glebe
allowance from October, 1776, to October, 1777. The amount paid indicates that
the Rey. Mr. Taylor continued to draw salary until about January 1, 1777.

Another entry of June 2, 1778, ordered that George Berkley be allowed £6

as clerk at the parish church, the usual annual fee—an indication that he was
still serving in that capacity. Still another entry is of more interest:

Ordered that the revd Chas Edward Taylor deliver the surplasses,

Callace & Salver to the County Wardens.

These entries show beyond question that the Rev. Mr. Taylor continued to
serve as rector of St. George’s until the first of January, 1777. They seem also
to indicate that regular Anglican services were maintained until at least the time
of this vestry meeting, June 2, 1778. Since Mr. Taylor did not dispose of his
Northampton land until September 8, 1779," it is possible that he continued
his ministrations until that time or even later. In his case it is difficult to take
the traditional view that he was simply an unpopular Anglican clergyman, The
fact that the authorities paid his salary after disestablishment is some evidence
that he was not turned out peremptorily. The fact that he was required to turn
over church property to the civil authority can be explained as a result of the
county wardens’ interpretation of an act of 1777 making them answerable for
old vestry debts. Possibly they felt that these items had become state property
and should be subject to sale for meeting obligations of former vestries.”

* Taylor and his wife Sarah conveyed 219 acres to William Peterson for £ 1200 on that date.
The deed was recorded in Northampton Deed Book 7, p. 9, March 20, 1780.

7° Cheshire, p. 263, commenting on similar action in Edgecombe as a result of Chapter 7,
Acts of North Carolina General Assembly, 1777.

 
 

 

 

 

NORTHAMPTON PARISHES

If the records give a true picture of Charles Edward Taylor it is almost in-
conceivable that he ceased to exercise his priestly functions. Whether he remained
in Northampton after 1778-79 is more questionable. The court records disclose
no will and no administration of his estate in the county—an indication, if not
proof, that he left Northampton before his death. There is some evidence that
he was alive as late as 1793, and Bishop Cheshire hints that he moved to Halifax
County.” The court and land records there, however, fail to disclose any evidence
to substantiate the bishop’s statement. It is fairly certain that he was dead or had
removed from the state by 1795."*

Even if Mr. Taylor moved to Halifax it is not improbable that he continued
occasional services in Northampton. The number of clergymen immediately after
the Revolution was cut almost to the vanishing point, and the few who remained
could afford to pay only slight attention to parish boundaries.

Contrary to the usual notions, much the same situation was true with respect
to the Methodist preachers. All of them, with the exception of Francis Asbury,
left America when the Revolution started. Asbury lived in what amounted almost
to hiding in Delaware. The work of the Methodists was at a standstill.” With
almost no Anglican clergymen in the country, “the members of the Methodist
societies found themselves totally deprived of the sacraments, which they had been
accustomed to receive from them; and for their children they could obtain no
baptism. . . .”"° Immediately after the Revolution, however, Devereux Jarratt
began work in Northampton, work that prepared the ground for the Methodist
revival a few years later.

Toward the close of the Revolution, Asbury wrote John Wesley asking for
more preachers. By that time Wesley was an old man. He called Thomas Coke,
an Anglican priest working with the English Methodists, and in February, 1784,
in Wesley’s own words, “Judging this (namely, the peculiar condition of the
societies in America after the war) to be a case of necessity, I took a step which
for peace and quietness I had refrained from taking many years. . . .”"" He then
“set apart” Coke as a “Superintendent.” The words of Coke’s ordination scroll
are significant:

To all to whom these presents shall come, John Wesley, late Fellow
of Lincoln college in Oxford, Presbyter of the Church of England
sendeth greeting.

Whereas many of the people in the Southern provinces of North
America, who desire to continue under my care, and still adhere to
the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, are greatly dis-
tressed for want of ministers to administer the sacraments of baptism

1 Tbid, p. 434.

8 Ibid, p. 416.

2° Samuel Drew, The Life of the Rev. Thomas Coke, LL.D., New York (1818), p. 54.

10 [bid, p. 59.

41 [bid, p. 62-65. See also Nolan B. Harmon, The Organization of the Methodist Church,
Nashville (1948), pp. 1-25.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THe CHURCH OF ENGLAND

and the Lord’s supper, according to the usage of the same church:
and whereas there does not appear to be any other way of supplying
them with ministers—

Know all men, that I, John Wesley, think myself to be provi-
dentially called at this time to set apart some persons for the work
of the ministry in America. And therefore, under the protection of
Almighty God, and with a single eye to his glory, I have this day
set apart as a Superintendent by the imposition of my hands and
prayer, (being assisted by other ordained ministers) Thomas Coke,
Doctor of Civil Law, a Presbyter of the Church of England, and a
man whom I judge to be well qualified for that great work. And I
do hereby recommend him to all to whom it may concern, as a fit
person to preside over the flock of Christ. In testimony whereof, I
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this second day of September,
in the year of our Lord, one thousand, seven hundred and eighty-
four.

John Wesley’

The Methodist Church as such was formed at a conference held in the city
of Baltimore in 1784."* Under Coke’s leadership the first Methodist Conference
for North Carolina was held at Green Hill’s plantation in Franklin County,
April 19, 1785. About thirteen years later Rehoboth Methodist Church in
Northampton was organized in 1798 by Richard Whitaker, a deacon ordained
by the Methodist Bishop Asbury. This church is still active in Northampton, and
in 1948 its congregation celebrated the 150th anniversary of its founding.”

The records disclose nothing to indicate what happened to the Anglican
Church in Northampton after the departure of the Rev. Charles Edward Taylor.
In 1790, 1793, and 1794 conventions were held in Tarboro in an effort to revive
the Church in this state. At the last of these the Rev. Charles Pettigrew was elected
to be bishop of North Carolina, a position he never lived to fill. It was Mr. Petti-
grew, however, who drew up a list of Anglican ministers living in North Carolina
in 1795. That list contains the name of the Rey. Stephen Johnston, and states
that he was then living in Northampton. It also mentions the Rev. Joseph Gurley
in Hertford County.” This is the only reference to Mr. Johnston that has been
discovered. When he came to the county, how long he stayed, and whether he
served actively, are all unknown facts. He attended none of the Tarboro conven-
tions. Certainly he was the last Anglican minister to live in Northampton until
the late 1840’s—a period of some fifty years.

43 Drew, (footnote 109) p. 66.

us Harmon, The Organization of the Methodist Church, pp. 3-4.

44 News and Observer, Raleigh, N. C., September 8, 1948. The statement in the newspaper
article that the church was organized in 1793 is probably a misprint.

u5 Cheshire, p. 416.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I

Speaking before the Convention of the Diocese of North Carolina in Hender-
son in 1916, Bishop Cheshire reminded his listeners that

An attempt was made to effect a diocesan organization of the Church
in North Carolina during the last decade of the eighteenth century;
and conventions with this purpose met in Tarborough in 1790, 1793,
and 1794. At the last of these the Rev. Charles Pettigrew was chosen
to be Bishop, deputies were appointed to attend the General Con-
vention to be held in Philadelphia in 1795, and a Standing Com-
mittee was elected. But the Church throughout the United States
was so weak and widely scattered that only during the session of the
General Convention could three Bishops be gotten together for the
consecration of another Bishop. Mr. Pettigrew was prevented from
reaching Philadelphia to attend the General Convention of 1795 by
quarantine regulations incident to an outbreak of yellow fever.
Before another opportunity occurred his failing health disabled him
from undertaking so arduous a work, and his death soon after
brought to an end this first effort to effect diocesan organization.”

During Mr. Pettigrew’s life religious awareness in North Carolina was rare.
When Joseph Caldwell, that stern Presbyterian, came from New Jersey in 1797
to teach at the infant University at Chapel Hill he was profoundly shocked.

In New Jersey [religion] has the public respect and support; but in
North Carolina, particularly in that part that lies east of us, every
one believes that the first step he ought to take to rise into respect-
ability is to disavow, as often and as publicly as he can, all regard
for the leading doctrines of the Scripture.”

At the opening of the new century religion was not fashionable. The French
Revolution, following closely on the heels of the American Revolution, made
doubters in North Carolina as it dic elsewhere. The writings of Volney and Vol-
taire, of Hobbes and Thomas Paine, supplanted the Bible in popularity among
men of education. While it is doubtful that those with less of this new “enlighten-
ment” had completely deserted Christian principles, the leaders, as a class, did
little to foster religion. In 1809 an Edenton resident wrote:

I have remarked on inquiring for a bible, in opulent and respectable
families, that they have, without any apparent confusion, confessed

4° Journal of the 100th Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese
of North Carolina, 1916, pp. 61, 62. Citations in the remaining portions of this study to diocesan
convention journals will be numerous; often the citation will be used to refer to more than one
part of a particular journal. Since the context will almost invariably indicate the part of the
journal to be examined in order to confirm the reference, no page numbers are used. The year
for which the journal was issued will appear after the word Journal in such cases.

™ Quoted in Johnson, pp. 330-331.

 
 

 

NORTHAMPTON PARISHES

they never possessed one. Others, with no small degree of self ap-
probation, have declared they never, in the course of their lives, read
the bible."*

But all religious life was not dead. The seeds of Methodism sown before,
during, and immediately after the Revolution by Joseph Pilmour, Robert Wil-
liams, and Devereux Jarratt and later by William Meredith, William Glenden-
ning, and Robert J. Miller, had not all fallen on unfavorable soil. Nor had the
spiritual descendants of Shubal Stearns’s Separatist and New Light Baptists faded
from the North Carolina scene. While the Great Revival slept for some twenty
years after the Revolution, the evangelicals were not dead.

As early as 1783 John Wesley suggested the probable necessity of forming a
separate church in America. Less than two years later the members of the Meth-
odist societies in North Carolina held their first conference near Louisburg and
in their wisdom and understanding of the needs of the people declared:

Our call is to save that which is lost... . Now we cannot expect them
to seek us. Therefore we should go and seek them... .”

This was the ethic of the Great Revival that was to come. Circuit riders ranged
the country in southern Virginia and North Carolina. Northampton was soon
a center of revival.” In 1788 the indefatigable Asbury found “life” among the
people in Northampton. “Preaching and prayer is not labour here,” he wrote,
“their noise I heed not; I can bear it well when I know that God and Christ
dwells in the hearts of the people.”

Between 1801 and 1803 the four Baptist churches in Bertie, Hertford, and
Northampton baptized 600 people.* By 1804 the Great Revival had reached its
climax in North Carolina, but at intervals it continued until the Civil War. The
effect on the people was astounding. Sometimes the results were boisterous. In
advertising his coming revival in Northampton in 1808, Elder Phillip Bruce said:

We trust that every gentleman and lady who may be at this appoint-
ment for worship, will endeavor to set good examples, and promote
decorum; and if any are accustomed to behave bad at other places
of worship, we pray them not to attend here.™

But the lasting result of this missionary work was a great evangelical awakening.
The most graphic account of a Northampton revival runs this way:

John Easter was preaching . . . to a large assembly of people. . . .
A large cloud drew near. A few drops fell and the crowd began to
leave the grounds. With solemn authority Easter commanded them

45 Tbid.

n° Tbid, p. 874.

™ Ibid, p. 375.

21 Tid.

"2 Jbid, p. 387.

= Edenton Gazette, August 25, 1808, quoted in Johnson, p. 407.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tue CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR

to stop. He knelt and fervently prayed that God should withhold
the rain until after the service and then send a heavy shower, for
rain was much needed, ‘and it happened according to his petition.”

I

Without a single clergyman, pitifully weak in numbers, deserted by the
people from whom it would normally have expected support, and shackled with
an unpopular British tradition, the Episcopal Church was very slow to organize
its forces. From the time of the Tarboro Convention of 1794 until 1817 the
number of clergymen and active congregations dwindled almost to the vanishing
point. Shortly before 1817, however, two northern clergymen arrived in North
Carolina, Adam Empie and Bethel Judd. Starting with only one operating con-
gregation, they began the work that led to the convention held in Christ Church,
New Bern, on April 24, 1817. That convention was attended by clergymen and
lay delegates from four parishes.” That year for the first time in the state’s history
a bishop, the Rt. Rev. William Channing Moore of Virginia, began to minister
to the scattered churchmen in North Carolina.” This Bishop Moore continued
until the election of the first bishop of North Carolina in 1823, John Stark
Ravenscroft."

Even before the bishop was chosen, parishes near Northampton were or-
ganized. Emmanuel Church, Warrenton, was admitted to the Convention of 1821,
and St. Mark’s, Halifax, was admitted in 1822. In 1828 Bishop Ravenscroft sent

a missionary to Halifax, Scotland Neck, and Windsor.”* Trinity Church, Scot-
land Neck, was admitted in 1833, and St. Thomas’s, Windsor, in 1843. Bishop
Ravenscroft left no record of having visited Northampton, but the county was
e clerical ministrations. A history of the parish written in 1878
states that the first services in Northampton were held at the courthouse in
1830. On November 24, 1831, the Roanoke Advocate published at Halifax

not without som

carried an interesting notice:
The Rev. William Norwood, an Episcopalian, will preach at Jack-
son, Northampton County, on Sunday the 27th. instant; on Sunday
the 4th of December at Turner's Cross Roads, Bertie County; and
on Sunday the 11th of the month at Windsor and thereafter statedly

at those places for a twelvemonth.

44 A report by the Rev. James Patterson quoted in Johnson, p- 375.
1% Jn 1817 there were fewer clergymen and congregations in North Carolina than there had

been in 1794, but, to quote Bishop Cheshire, “they were of a more hopeful and confident spirit.”
See Journal, 1916, pp. 61-62.
18 Journal, 1817.
Johnson, p. 385.

nal, 1829 pan ae ‘
ee cov. Gilbert Higgs wrote a history of the Church of the Saviour in 1878 and inserted

a copy in the Parish Register. Hereafter this manuscript is cited as Higgs.

 
 

 

46 NorTHAMPTON PARISHES

The Rev. Mr. Norwood, a native of Hillsboro, graduated at Chapel Hill in 1826
and came to the Roanoke country as a bachelor of thirty. In Bertie he soon
found a bride, Winifred Blount Hill. How long he actually stayed in the area
is hard to determine, but his ministry elsewhere was long and distinguished.”

Bishop Ravenscroft was succeeded by the Rt. Rev. Levi Silliman Ives. From
the first he seems to have concentrated his efforts on the establishment of new
churches. Soon parishes at Elizabeth City, Clinton, Pittsboro, Chapel Hill, Hen-
derson, Plymouth, and in Washington County, were admitted into union with
the diocese. When the bishop visited Windsor in 1841 he found St. Thomas’s
growing. In the summer of the same year the bishop had sent a young deacon,
Charles Disbrow, to work in Murfreesboro and Maney’s Neck, but after a prom-
ising beginning in Hertford County the work lapsed in 1844 when the diocese
could no longer afford to pay the missionary.”

The little spark kindled by the Rev. Mr. Norwood’s services at Northampton
courthouse in 1831 was fanned occasionally until 1848 by visits from the Rev.
Joseph Saunders from Warrenton and the Rey. John M. Robinson from Windsor.
These clergymen held services from time to time at the courthouse and at the
residence of Mr. Samuel Calvert in Jackson.” In 1843 the Rev. Cameron MacRae,
then rector of Emmanuel Church, Warrenton, reported to the convention that
at the request of the late J. Collinson Burgwyn he had been to Alveston plantation

. in Northampton County and baptized thirty-two colored children.” Again in
1847 Mr. MacRae reported having baptized fourteen infants in Northampton,™
and in 1848 the Rev. Samuel Iredell Johnston, rector of St. Paul’s, Edenton, and
his assistant, the Rev. Charles A. Maison, reported the baptism of twelve adults
and four infants “at Mr. T. P. Burgwyn’s plantation on the Roanoke.”

On November 13, 1844, accompanied by the Rev. Mr. MacRae, Bishop Ives
visited the village of Gaston on the Roanoke in the upper part of the county.
There the bishop preached and confirmed the first person to be confirmed in
Northampton County.”

The occasional visits from neighboring clergymen increased as the years
passed. More and more people with Church ties were moving into Northampton.
Some like the Tuckers, the Lockharts, and the Exums, had been in the county
all the time, but they were scattered and had been without the guidance of
ministers for so long that they saw little hope for the Church. Some of them,
however, participated as actively as possible in neighboring Virginia parishes. It

1 For more detailed information about the Rev. Mr. Norwood consult the typewritten manu-
script volumes of genealogy and local history compiled by Stuart Hill. These volumes are filed
in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina, in the Warren County
Memorial Library, Warrenton, North Carolina, and in other libraries.

1 See Journals, 1842, 1845.

1 Higgs.

38 Journal, 1843.

14 Journal, 1847.

1® Journal, 1848.

3 Journal, 1845.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tue CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR 47

was the arrival of men like Thomas Bragg, the Burgwyns, Samuel Calvert, and
Dr. William Barrow that spurred the work of the Episcopal Church in North-

ampton.

Ul

Bishop Ives spent March 16 and 17 in the year 1848 in and around the town
of Jackson. He preached and baptized an infant, and later at a private house
he baptized and confirmed an adult person." This marked the opening of a
year of progress. The Rev. William H. Harison came to North Carolina about
this time from Ogdenburg in the Diocese of New York and was sent by the bishop
to serve St. Thomas’s, Windsor, and to do missionary work in Northampton
County."* This young clergyman was unmarried, and during his work in the
area he lived with the Henry K. Burgwyn family in Occoneechee Neck. The
results of Mr. Harison’s first year of work at what was called “Missionary Station
at Jackson” must have been cheering:"”

Baptisms—Infant 22, Adults 15 37

Confirmations
Burials

Communicants : i
Collections—For Valle Crucis $15.00
Communion Alms 18.41 $33.41

9
2
0

1

On the Third Sunday after Easter, 1849, Bishop Ives again visited the county.
At the courthouse he confirmed two persons and administered the Holy Com-
munion. His report to the following convention contains the first record of the

plans for a church in the county.

The friends of the Church here are making: what, I trust, by God’s
blessing, will prove a successful effort to build a Church.

On the evening of the same Sunday, I officiated at the house of
Henry K. Burgwyn, Esq., and confirmed 7 colored persons. Mr.
Burgwyn is making very laudable efforts to christianize his slaves
which thus far have proved eminently successful.

By the time of the Convention of 1850 the Rev. Mr. Harison was able to
report forty-seven more baptisms and communion alms of $86.08.%* Mr. Samuel

197 11 48. . . ii
108 faa 135. Much of the information concerning the Rev. Mr. Harison used here was

furnished the writer by the Rev. Charle: Schilling, rector of St. Paul’s Church.
September 15, 1950. Mr. Harison’s life and work are sed ina brochure, chur
of the Atonement,” compiled by the Rev W. B. D and in an article, Organization
of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the CG nfederate States of America,” by Edgar L. Penning-
ton, Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Vol. XVII, No. 4, December, 1948.

1 Higgs.

40 Journal, 1849.

11 Thid,

42 Journal, 1850.

 
 

 

48 NorTHAMPTON ParisHEs

Calvert presented the congregation with half an acre of land for the new church
building,“ and a carpenter named Rose started the work. Before the building
was well underway Mr. Harison received a call to become rector of a new parish,
the Church of the Atonement, in Augusta, Georgia. He left Northampton, and
on May 4, 1851, held the first services in his new parish church.’ His friends
in Jackson must have followed Mr. Harison’s subsequent career with interest.
He remained in Augusta for many years. When the first General Council of the
Confederate Church met there in 1862, he was elected secretary of its House of
Bishops, and in 1865 at its second and last meeting he served in the same ca-
pacity.”

IV

In 1851 Easter fell on the 20th of April. Nine days later in St. Paul’s Church,
Edenton, Bishop Ives ordained three deacons.** One of these men was twenty-
seven year old Frederick Fitzgerald, an Englishman raised in the family of Josiah
Collins, Esq., at Scuppernong. Mr. Fitzgerald, who was educated at Valle Crucis,
had been a candidate for holy orders in the diocese since 1847." The bishop
sent him to Northampton immediately after ordination. On the following Sun-
day (the Second after Easter), May 4, 1851, the Jackson church was consecrated
even though it was not completely furnished. Both Bishop Ives and the Rey. Mr.
Fitzgerald left accounts of the day.

Mr. Fitzgerald described the building as “a small neat Gothic Church. .. .
The nave 25 feet by 30 feet, the Chancel 14 feet by 18 feet. A vestryroom attached.
In a small neat Bell-Cote above was hung a clear toned bell of sufficient size to
gather together the little flock of worshippers.” Bishop Ives wrote:

I consecrated to the Worship of Almighty God, in the town of Jack-
son, Northampton County, a neat and commodious building, by the
title of the Church of the Saviour. I preached on the occasion, and

“8 The deed was dated May 3, 1851, and under its terms Mr. Calvert conveyed the land in
trust to the Rt. Rey. L. S. Ives, George W. Mordecai, and John W. Wright, trustees of the diocese,
and their successors in office, for a congregation worshipping in a building on the lot according to
the liturgy established by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America.
See Northampton County Deed Book $4, p. 321, and Higgs.

“4 The carpenter’s name appears in the accounts kept in the Parish Register.

™ Journal, 1849.

“° Parish Register of the Church of the Atonement, Augusta, Georgia. It is interesting to

ve the coincidence in dates here: on the day Mr. Harison held the first services in his new
parish the building started while he was in Jackson was consecrated by Bishop Ives, see infra IV.

See supra, footnote 138.

*S Journal, 1851.

** Much of the personal information concerning the Rev. Mr. Fitzgerald can be found in
two obituaries. One of them, published in The Church Intelligencer, September 13, 1866, was
furnished the writer by Dr. Lawrence F. London, historiographer of the Diocese of North Caro-
lina. The other, published in the Church Review, Vol. XVIII, No. 3, October, 1866, was furnished
by the Rev. Arthur Adams, librarian of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.

™ This is a quotation from a history of the Church of the Saviour written by the Rev. Fred-
erick Fitzgerald while serving as rector. It can be found in the Parish Register. Hereafter this
paper is cited as Fitzgerald.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tue CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR, JACKSON
Exterior — 1851-1885

 
 

 

 

 

NORTHAMPTON PAariIsHES

administered the Holy Communion,—being assisted in the services
by the Rev. Messrs. [Joseph Blount] Cheshire and [Charles A.]
Maison, presbyters, and the Rev. Messrs. [James G.] Jacocks and
Fitzgerald, deacons. The friends of the Church here are entitled to

due encouragement and aid for this liberal effort in behalf of Christ’s
kingdom.”

Mr. Fitzgerald added that “notwithstanding the rain which poured in torrents,
there were 71 persons present.” He might also have added that the collection
the service amounted to $7.05."

at

It was a singular happening for a congregation to be able to present a debt-

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tue CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR

Vv

t parish as vestrymen merit more

The eight n sen to lead the infan
Q
g) nen cho: ;

aris) yi a 'S

than mention. To them the parish or erate dite hears Fide Bates
y. William Barrow,” the senior warden, Ne vs Guaite :

Dr. William f£ Thomas Barrow, Jr., and Mary Duke Lawrence, Dr.

ane sein © colina in 1837 and 1838, and received

Medical College in Philadelphia in

Halifax County, ‘i winx
Barrow attended the University of North Ca

f spe tuel ee fferson
a. doctorate in inca eae he married Eliza Rebecca, daughter of

Be - October 2, 1841, Soe Dyes SEVERE
1839. Two years later, mae Wore In politics an ardent Whig, Dr. Barrow
Samuel and| Margaret (roby 50, and after the Civil War, like many

in 18
served in the House of Commons 1n ai a
other Union Whigs, he joined the Republican Party

i iversity.
legislature and as a trustee of the aoe ae
Dr. Barrow was elected senior Maar oe
Se Er
until his death in 1881. He and his wite
parish purchased a rectory.

ildi z i Far 8 a erved in the state
free building for consecration even before the congregation itself was admitted mel 8

to union with the convention of the diocese. Yet that is what happened, for
only on the following day, on Monday after the building was consecrated on
Sunday, did the minutes of the vestry show that “the friends of the Protestant
‘ Episcopal Church assembled at the house of Henry K. Burgwyn, Esq., in Jackson”
and petitioned the diocese for admission as a parish. Thirteen people signed the

n 1851 and served in that capacity
anced the money with which the

His reports to the diocesan conventions when the
u P ahs 2
his zeal in making sure the parish kept its

petition:

Henry K. Burgwyn Morgianna M. Randolph
Samuel Calvert Caroline B. Calvert
William Barrow Virginia A. Bynum

John B. Bynum John Burgwyn

David A. Barnes Thomas P. Burgwyn
Samuel J. Calvert John Randolph

Anna Greenough Burgwyn

The congregation then proceeded to elect vestrymen and delegates to represent
them in the Diocesan Convention of 18512" The first vestry named was composed
of eight men:

Dr. William Barrow John B. Bynum
John Randolph Henry K. Burgwyn
Thomas Bragg Samuel Calvert
Thomas D. Sterling Edmund Wilkins

The convention delegates were:

John Burgwyn John B. Bynum
Henry K. Burgwyn David A. Barnes

! Journal, 1851.
See accounts in the Parish Register.
itzgerald.

church had no rector demonstrate

I ledges and shared in the work of the whole communion
W
IR a sixty-one attest
esolutions of the vestry at the time of his death at the age of sixty-o

his character:

He was a good physician in W $s
professional brethren had nee
prudent, honest and brave, gen’

hose skill and honor his patients and
cit. confidence. He was wise and
and kind, charitable and generous,

i rivate life, his
and an earnest Christian worker. In public aoe ue
chief characteristic was firmness and unswerving integ

Today Dr. Barrow’s great grandson, the Rt. Rev. William Jones Gordon, is the
ay Dr. Barr great gra

wih vhole of Alaska.
a Oy amare: , serving the whol
Church’s youngest missionary bishop. warden of the parish. It has proved almost

ling, first junior F : a
{ Thomas D. Steyr ling, ira about Mr. Sterling. That he was cartels
punboss! ble tte find any eee wyn family in connection with their agricultura
in some capacity by the Burswy well-established. That he was held

is reasonably v ;
Operations in Occoneechee NGS pee eee in Jackson elected him
in hish res: 4 the fact tha € e TEES ee Pa
in eh Tega a aaa tet his fellow vestrymen named him their first junior
to serve as a vestryman an

r y one year after his
1 Gai remained in Northampton for only 01 St gia
eee ne 5 ; yas elec b
Bare Bae ane and when he left David A. Barnes was P.
ction to the v ,

him
: st ry of the first ve
John Randolph, oe of North C

After two years at the Univers!

stry, was still a young man in 1851.
tarolina, 1837-38, as a classmate of

ished the writer by Miss Evelyn Barrow of Ports-

I vas furni

Dr, Barrow’s family background We daughter. eee ee

a ies ie sere Church of the Saviour, Ap the Parish Register, the Minutes
" Minutes of the Vestry

Information con ng Thomas D. Sterlin is found in
re nas D. St
rmation concerning ‘Thor is

of the Vestry, and in Fitzgerald. Ate
“7 This information was taken principally

= rom t
Of the University of North Carolina, and fron

m the Parish Register, from the Alumni History
ron s
whe Minutes of the Vestry.

 
 

52 NorTHAMPTON ParisHEs

Dr. Barrow’s, he returned to Jackson and, like Dr. Barrow, married one of the
daughters of Samuel and Margaret (Proby) Calvert, Morgianna Moseley Calvert,
the widow of Mr. James Goosley. Mr. Randolph (usually remembered as Captain
Randolph) was a native of Northampton and a Confederate soldier. When the
Civil War broke out he raised a company of volunteers and became their captain.

Both Captain and Mrs. Randolph were present at Mr. Burgwyn’s house and
signed the petition for admission of the Jackson congregation to the diocese in
1851. The vestry records indicate that he was active in parish affairs from the
beginning, but military service kept him away from church matters during the
war, and in 1866 he died.

Mrs. Randolph, one of the true founders of the parish, lived to the age of
eighty-seven with the family of her son-in-law, William Wallace Peebles, and her
grandson, Calvert Goosley Peebles, both loyal churchmen. Mrs. Randolph’s “‘ami-
ability and gentleness of disposition, her buoyancy and cheerfulness of spirits,
her fondness and talent for giving pleasure to others—especially the young; her
generous unbounded hospitality . . . endeared her to the hearts of all those whose
privilege it was to be honored by her intimacy. . .. With this Parish her affections
were entwined for many long years of her useful life, always doing her part
cheerfully in every measure that could contribute to its prosperity. She but
seldom failed at her attendance at Divine Worship until prevented by the in-
firmities of age, and was always present at the Celebration of the Blessed Sacra-
ment.”**

Thomas Bragg.” At the time of his election to the first vestry Mr. Brage was
forty-one years old. He was born in Warrenton, November 9, 1810, the fourth
child of Thomas Bragg, a carpenter-contractor, and Margaret Crossland Bragg.
Although not in the best financial circumstances, his parents were determined to
give all of their children™ a thorough education. Thomas Bragg first attended
the Warrenton Academy under the Rev. George W. Freeman, later Bishop of
Arkansas. At sixteen he was sent for three years to a military school in Middle-
town, Connecticut.™ He then returned to North Carolina, studied for a time at
Chapel Hill, and then studied law under Judge John Hall of the state supreme
court. Upon being admitted to the bar, he went to Jackson to practice. Four
years later, October, 1837, he was married to Miss Isabelle M. Cuthbert of Peters-
burg, Virginia. Ashe’s biographical sketch of Bragg contains an interesting com-
ment on the young lawyer’s habits:

*5 Minutes of the Vestry, April 24, 1907.

™ For information on Thomas Bragg consult Ashe, Biographical Hi of North Carolina,
Vol. 6, pp. 94-101, North Carolina Supreme Court Reports, Vol. 66, p. et seq., the Parish
Register, the Minutes of the Vestry, and Fitzgerald.

‘The other Bragg children were John, an Alabama judge and member of Congress, Alex-
ander, an architect, Dunbar, a Texas merchant, William, a resident of Chattanooga, and Braxton,
distinguished Confederate general.

There he studied under the celebrated Capt. Allen Partridge and was a classmate of
another distinguished North Carolinian, Paul Carrington Cameron.

 

Tue CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR

rnor Bragg confine himself
ases and to his delightful
1 from his community.

In those early days so closely did isthe

to study and to the preparation 0! pis)

home life that he seemed almost estranged a ra —
Despi is retiring habits Mr. Bragg took an active interest 1n Democra ic
Ses cue J. Gatling, a Whig, for a seat in the

Party politics. In 1842 he defeated Thomas J. 2 aes
Ae iran but at the next election David A. Barnes, another Whig and

i s at same year Bragg
Bragg's fellow churchman, defeated Bragg: Nevertheless that same y; ee

defeated William W. Cherry of Bertie (“the most brilliant orator of the state at

e P and Dallas ticket. Four
that time” z presidential elector on the Polk and i ae
Nat time”) to become a } for the post of presidential elector, anc

Years: laces eidteieatea aaa elected to the parish vestry with Bragg,
5 es cwas
the same year that David A. Barnes wa

ra é im in still another presid : sat AS
Bib rere ons coc General Alfred Dockery to run for governor.
5 Whigs a

5G -ourt term at which the

Mr. Brage happened to be attending the Gates Comgy Car hei sree
rents PP “st campaign speech. Mr. Bragg arose and 1 | peaeeoescr

general made his first campé i rtly afterwards the Democratic Convention met

thing happened at Edenton. Shortly 4 3 n against Dockery. After
3 s inated Bragg to run ag :

ig animously nomina eg seth Ss > he

neuen ae et an. * re most remarkable campaigns ever conducted in t
what Ashe called “one

Sta vi rm he ran against John A. Gilmer
e, e rving one term A
tate,” Bragg was elected. After serving

and defeated him by 12,628 votes.
the end of his second term he was ©

Asa Biggs. : d soon became highly respected. In
r 3 yas quite active and soo) é y Seore
pin ee o avoid civil war by taking an aot ne ie
niger eS tral States held in Washington. While he ee ee
Peace Congress of the Centr elieve that the South could establish her

i b ”
oppose the war openly, he did not reat against her.
aur al ' ie ea the odds were too great aga ME agama 0)

ependence. ina seceded Bragg resigned his sea : ‘i thi
nae ae Ta ocenanenbe! 91, 1861, Jefferson Davis appointed him
returned to Raleigh.

A 1 of the Confederacy. He served for only about four months,
ttorney General o
and on March 16, 1862, he was succ

yy Watts Alabama.”

eeded by Watts of 3 oun

d of the war Bragg resumed the practice of law in Raleigh. In
At the end o .

‘iin i ous Johnston will case and made pabeliy
February, Ra OC ‘ General Assembly of 1870 impeached Governor
a beta aucaes: gies 2 ae Graham, and Judge Merrimon Aa eect ae
Holden, Bragg, former Gover ne i aeaunrage was forced to stop work on accent
conduct the trial. On January *¥> i . On Tuesday, January 22,

ary 21, he died. pagt re
: 7 Atenaa| aDUAD) aa Hah, & vas buried in
of illness, and two days hae J ‘st Church, Raleigh, and he was bu
funeral services were conduc’

1 in Chri
Elmwood Cemetery there.

ential elector race.

He proved to be an able chief executive. At
lected to the United States Senate to succeed

“unrecorded,” to quote Ashe, there is
4 ion are “unrecorded, i 1 Whie i
~ for Brage’s resignation tage of placing an ol¢ hig in
™2 Although the reasons for Bragg y the advantage of p!

rat, Bragg Sav i mos
some reason to believe Get as 3 SS ay for such an appointme
Davis's cabinet and resigned to le; a

atten ht

 
 

 

 

NorTHAMPTON ParisHES

John Bowen Bynum, son of Thomas Bynum and Eliza S$. Nicholas, was
born September 6, 1827. He was educated at the University of North Carolina
where he played a prominent role as a student. At the University commencement
of 1847 when President Polk, accompanied by his Secretary of the Navy, John Y.
Mason, returned to their alma mater to receive honorary degrees, young Bynum
served as a student marshal. The following year (1848), at his own graduation,
Bynum delivered a speech on “The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina,”
obviously a subject drawn from his legal studies.

Upon admission to the bar he returned to Northampton County and began
to practice in Jackson at the age of twenty-one. He married Virginia A. Smith.

When elected to the parish vestry in 1851 John B. Bynum was not yet twenty-
four years old, but his position in the community was established.

In December, 1851, Mr. Bynum and his wife moved from Jackson to’ Chestnut
Hill plantation in Gaston Township near the Warren County line. There on
October 2, 1856, at the age of twenty-nine this promising young man died of
tuberculosis. On October 5 his body was placed in the churchyard of the Church
of the Saviour, the third to be buried there.

Henry King Burgwyn.™ When the Church of the Saviour was organized in
1851 Mr. Burgwyn was thirty-eight years old. The second son of John Fanning
and Sarah Pierrepont Hunt Burgwyn, he was born January 7, 1813. After study-
ing engineering at the United States Military Academy for three years, he married
in 1838 Anna Greenough of Jamaica Plains near Boston. Mrs. Burgwyn was the
daughter of David Stoddard Greenough and the step-daughter of General Wil-
liam Hyslop Sumner. After Henry K. Burgwyn and his brother, Thomas Pollok
Burgwyn, inherited large tracts of land on the Roanoke, they moved to North-
ampton in 1840. Mr. and Mrs. Burgwyn lived first at a plantation known as
Hillside. At the time the parish was organized they were living in Jackson. When
the house at the Hillside was burned sometime later they moved to another
plantation, Thornbury. Later still they moved to Richmond where Mr. Burgwyn
died February 2, 1877.

Henry K. Burgwyn and his brother Thomas were known throughout the
country for the wheat crops grown at Thornbury and Occoneechee Wigwam.
When they inherited their river land cotton was the staple crop grown there.
They set themselves at once to study agriculture. When he first came to North-
ampton Henry Burgwyn was eager to use Irish labor instead of slaves, and he

*8 Information concerning John B. Bynum has been drawn from his tombstone, from Battle,
History of the University of North Carolina, from the Parish Register, and from conversations
with collateral descendents.

“The data on Henry K. Burgwyn and his family has been compiled from several sources:
Phillips, Life and Labor in the Old South, (1929) pp. 258-254, Ashe, Biographical History of
North Carolina, Vol. 8, pp. 58-66 (John Burgwin), pp. 67-72 (Colonel Harry Burgwyn) , letter
to the writer from his grandson, Judge W. H. S. Burgwyn, October 2, 1949, and from a bound
volume of Henry K. Burgwyn’s letters in the Southern Historical Collection of the University of
North Carolina.

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE SAVIOUR 55
Tue CHURCH OF THE SAVIOU

ork on the plantations. By 1860, however,

i n for w
ie n that year he even wrote a pamphlet on

imported a number of Ir I ee :
he had entirely reversed his position.
? a lances i crati e Church of
e ino aie aa and an of 1851, following the Sane soe pee cea
he summ a met 5 a ? watik ; :
the S. ni ur, Mr. Burgwyn spent studying sen mee phn en
Oct coe he ‘was in Florence with the idea o} it : ig a Dae
- hat year a ; a eheuaiaie Hee
Hien mi est the next year. On Sunday, October |
: i report
he English Episcopal Church today that I Fee Be oe
J ; ‘i ice is li rs y ae
eee a ' ia much pleased, the service 1s like ours ony ones att
a was a L ne tke te
i Vaecatnent church and there were about 1000 peo}
is quite a nea

English and Americans.

2 ached Par!
By vember $ he had reache ‘
ee in comparison with Jackson with you

is, and with affection he wrote again:

Paris even has no charms }
there.

In August, 1852, the Farm

They have done more to

ers’ Journal wrote of the Burgwyn brothers:

show what our state might be in an agri-

vi i ye are ac-

int, than any other gentlemen with anon oe es

ge U am these farms we saw land that tnisnyes i even

fe ul x Ww 2 Da K

a bs is estimated to average from tence ae weibarrels
ae a t ant bushels of wheat per acre, whic years s

of corn, and tw 2

r acre, a arcely any wheat.
have made that of corn per acre, and scarcely any
would not h: isted chiefly in draining the bottom fields, Beane
ir improvements consist® ili sing lime a clover as fertilizer.
Bee Bee horse plows sub-soiling, and using lime and ¢
deeply with three-hors S, §

8 e bro fi i a is wheat b

had fifteen reaping machines. One Sa Ww A yy
ie ‘ ad Aes vie es f nea
ie ae ma oe a water.” In 1855 Solon Robinson, traveler and w
steam power; the other, @

Vigwam the best
5 1 subjects, called Thornbury and One ee ae tees Hee
a c al su ana Stee a ar nry K. gw) 2
on agricultura su as and Louisiana. That year Her y i see ce
a ae ich the estimated would yield twenty bushels to F F
900 acres in wheat whic s

k Burgwyn had 700 acres in wheat.

50,000, and Thomas Pollok Burgwyn h ad i niger ie

be worth cde: wy earn had 450 acres in corn and 500 in 5 s
In addition, Henry 8)

mabntoye exeypa tioned the excellence of the slave quarters on these
Visitors frequently Saran ith the provisions made for the com-

plantations. “We were pa

Be of the negroes on the planta

with a garden attached to each

sick” and at Thornbury Henr

for the slaves.

arly struck w t @ com:
a Their houses are all good framed buildings

mes Both brothers had “regular hospitals for the
a chapel for religious services

ry Burgwyn erected

1 Confederacy,” State Journal, Raleigh, December 5,
rn C acy,

, reitona
1 “Considerations Relative to

1860. eo
i Johnson, p. 485: ne ee
= Araton July, by Past rece in the Raleigh Register, July 4, 1855
“Southern Weekly Post,

109 Johnson, p. 527.

Southe

 
 

 

NorTHAMPTON PARISHES

Samuel Calvert. Born in Norfolk County, Virginia, in 1792, Mr. Calvert
moved to Northampton courthouse in the late months of 1823 at the age of thirty-
one. There is a well-attested story that at the age of eleven one of his seafaring
uncles took him on a voyage to South America, probably with the notion that
the boy would want to follow the sea. Instead, he moved with his father to South-
ampton County, Virginia. In 1814 he married Louisa Collins Glenn who bore
him one child then died in 1816. In 1817 Mr. Calvert married Mrs. Margaret
(Proby) Wynans of Hampton. She became the mother of five children. In
North Carolina Mr. Calvert became a large landowner and for a number of
years operated the hotel in Jackson. At the time of Nat Turner’s Insurrection in
late August, 1831, people in the areas near-by became alarmed. “It was rumored
that Nat was headed toward Northampton County. The militia was quartered
in the old Clerk’s office for the protection of our people. The signal was to be
the firing of a gun should Nat be coming this way. That night the soldiers were
frolicing and accidentally fired a gun. The people near enough to hear it rushed
to town in a panic, and more came as the rumor spread.” Something had to be
done to house these frightened people. Mr. Calvert’s hotel was the only place big
enough to take care of them. At the time Mr. Calvert was staying near Warren-
ton with some of his “sporting friends,” and, according to his grandson, Mrs.
Calvert felt she had better send for him. He made the trip home in record time.
Most of Mr. Calvert's hospitality on this occasion turned out to be free. When
the legislature met, Dr. Godwin Cotton Moore of Hertford made an attempt to
have the state compensate Mr. Calvert for sheltering these refugees but was
unsuccessful.

When General Lafayette made his triumphal tour of the country, he entered
North Carolina near Murfreesboro. In the course of his trip from there to Hali-
fax, and later to Raleigh, he and the escorting party passed through Jackson. Mr.
Calvert’s hotel served to welcome the distinguished Frenchman.

Mr. Calvert made each church in Jackson a present of the land on which to
erect its building. When he died at the age of eighty-nine in 1881, the vestry
adopted resolutions memorializing his long service:

-.- One who will be sadly missed by those who so often shared his
hospitality, and by the poor, the helpless and the needy. He was a
representative man in business and in public affairs — possessing
quick perceptions, good judgment and conservatism. He made a
large fortune which was mostly lost by the result of the war, and
being surety for his friends. He was a member of the House of
Commons from Northampton in 1838 and in the Constitutional

“Information concerning Samuel Calvert has been obtained ly from letters to the
writer from his great-granddaughter, Mrs. Sallie Calvert Parker, ‘5, 1949, and November

1, 1949, from the Parish Register, the Minutes of the Vestry, Fitzgerald, and Higgs.

 

 

Tue CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR

tion to the old Whig Party

aos 5 is We erful devo! \ :
Convention in 1835. His wonde mean Gf ine CRORE CT

Y i be at
and its principles show ed him to

ofa Nea i ARS b
een ‘Ikins, the son of William Wyche Wilkins eens
: Edmund Ra | Greensville County, Virginia, Oates sa eA ‘hich
Kins Raines, Wee porn ae nt to the University of North Cx: ona a iH fey
age of sixteen in 1812 ine was ner During this period Mr. WTS Be ent
si ne : a bee the Roanoke River in Gaston Township and r
Chased Belmont planta

we ied i 40.
7 ILE Vilkins Ff me, 7s a
Hae ae aa coveted Berkley Prize. From Yale he went to
to Phi Beta Kappa a

sJebrated school established by Judge

i rt icut, at the celebrated fab ig
irae cee ER eons! his legal studies Mr. Wilkins settled for a
apping Reeve. hi

. i surrounding counties.
a kg racticed in the sur ‘ fects :
time at Scotland Neck ae Belmont from his brother, ae NN ine eae
In 1847 Mr. vee apes a addition to his legal and farming
Wilkins, and moved th 2

R
a i » development of the Ra-
lent Whig, became interested in the develoy

Mr. Wilkins, an arder 7

anoke railroads.

ille and Roanoke rai

. 2 sreensville and A 3 a sta ch churchman.

leigh and Gaston and the cre student of theology and a staunch churcl
Edmund Wilkins was a

te e parish vestry in 1851
par tas a bachelor when elected to Grey ae He ae
pamiep et ae : rved the Jackson church as i a St. Luke’s
ag y-five: He serv i Fl 58-5 at became St. s
at the age of fifty ee ied re contin 1858-59 that
the organization o!
1 ee 3 e]mor
Church. Mr. Wilkins died at Beln
Luke’s churchyard.

in 1817 he was elected

t on January 20, 1867, and is buried in St.
a anuary 20,

vI

he Saviour was admitted to the diocese at the Con-
nia jergyman set about his work in earnest. Since
hfu} chersy

Mr. and Mrs. Burgwy? took Mr. Sela l peda ies
there was no rectory, Mr. at sop) sar TET in each month, making 2 ae oH ee
at Thornbury. On three Sut wavered services in the new church. he i er
eS ati attention to instructing a colored peubees ice
noons of those days he cevens was remarkably good, and the eet ae ae
he atten poe eern thankfulness that God has manifestly blessed his
“there is great cause for hee

ishi ay School, and on two
» He soon had a Rouushinei ie! he fourth Sunday
Church in this place.” He s ices of Evening Prayer. On the ay
ing: veek there W'
evenings each week t

The youthful Church of
vention of 1851, and its yout

ere Serv:

881. ae AAS Lo a
September 11 (ore Pa ‘s taken from the Wilkins family Bible,

7 Mi S eaye V ia Ca kins y in the

™1 Minutes of the Vestry, oof -dmund ¥ ‘a Cabell Wilkins, now
a i c i an Edmonia i M MK

™™ The information concen ne ‘his great-niece, Miss Edmonts TC arolina and Yale Uni-
from a sketch of his life Wart mani records of the University O° 1ST fence in the development
writer’s possession, from the allwni TSA ,, wilkins’s interest and influence ws, Church,
Mee cial sc go GI aan in ao joeae CE GHEE

y atietiea
of the Gaston church is dea) ster
¥9 Accounts in the Parish Regt

 
 

 

 

NorTHAMPTON PARISHES

in each month Mr. Fitzgerald remained at Thornbury where Mr. Burgwyn had
erected “a plain Chapel” for the Negroes.”

Under their minister’s leadership the congregation of the Church of the
Saviour turned their attention to procuring furnishings for the sparsely adorned
building in Jackson. In the year following the consecration $61.00 in cash was
contributed toward “finishing the building.” The parish records show that this
money was given by Mrs. Frank Lockhart, Miss E. A. Collins of Edenton, the Rey.
Dr. Francis Vinton of Emmanuel Church, Brooklyn, New York (a friend of Bishop
Ives’s), a Mrs. Greenough, and an unidentified “lady in Boston.” To this list
should also be added the Church in Middletown, Connecticut, and $13.00 of the
total came from a special collection taken at Shocco Springs in Warren County.
In the same year Mr. John Burgwyn contributed $5.00 for the purchase of a
Prayer Book for the altar, and Miss M. A. Exum gave $20.00 to be spent for a
lectern Bible and for Prayer Books. Mrs. H. K. Burgwyn gave $2.00 for Prayer
Books and $5.00 for a vestment case to be placed in the v stry room. With some
other members of the parish, Mrs. William Barrow collected and presented $18.50
to be used for purchasing a stove. Lamps were a necessity, and they proved hard
to procure. Mrs. “General” Sumner, Mrs. William Beverley of Brooklyn, and Mrs.
George Devereux of New Haven contributed $45.00 for lamps, but the lamps did
not arrive until January, 1853." .

In that first year the lectern Bible, chancel Prayer Books, and the Parish
Register were purchased and neatly lettered in gold to show the parish name. A
lectern, “curtains,” and a pedestal for the font’ were also purchased. The build-
ing itself was plastered and painted, and a chimney was added. The congregation
purchased a Sunday School library for $10.00 and installed a vestment case in the
vestry room. A melodeon was purchased to furnish musical accompaniment for
the services, and a sun dial was placed in the churchyard.”

Material improvements do not tell the whole story. When the Rey. Mr.
Fitzgerald came to Northampton he found six white and twelve slave communi-
cants of the Church, a total of eighteen. In exactly one year the number of white
communicants had doubled, four by way of confirmation. That same year Mr.
Fitzgerald baptized six white and forty-nine Negro children, a total of fifty-five
baptisms, the largest number in any single year of the parish’s existence. The
offerings amounted to $229.00, and the congregation met its three diocesan obli-
gations, $6.00 for the Episcopal and Contingent Fund, $9.00 for the Missionary
Fund, and $2.40 for the Relief Fund. The Sunday School was ministering to
twenty white children and five Negro children.™

“4 Journal, 1852.
Accounts in the Parish Register.
® This probably refers to hangings for the altar and lectern.
™ The font itself was a marble bowl, and the pedestal was painted wood. It can be seen in
photographs of the interior of the church.
®* Accounts in the Parish Register.
™® Journals, 1851, 1852.

 

 

 

 

 

Saviour, JACKSON

§ CHURCH OF THE vé 2
a Interior — 1851-1885

 
 

NORTHAMPTON PARISHES

The Rev. Mr. Fitzgerald’s salary was supplemented by diocesan funds, and i
was clear that Northampton could have little hope of having his eee es
clusively. Shortly before the Convention of 1852, Bishop Ives Aaeranarcal Win ies
gerald to give the lapsed church in Halifax one Sunday each month. The is ae
still seven communicants there, and almost as soon as this remarkable ay Cay
Ht on the other side of the Roanoke he reported that “active ee ice
ai ce taken towards the erection of a house proper for God’s holy

Another year passed, and the work in Jackson, Halifax, and Occoneechee
Neck progressed steadily. There was no episcopal visitation to the parish in 1853,
and consequently there were no confirmations. The baptismal weawarxal iG @ iit
ferent story, for the rector baptised two white and six Negro acdbrikig an : * :
white and fourteen Negro infants, a total of twenty-nine persons. The Su ia
School had grown by a leap. Thirty white children and forty Negri } yan
were being instructed from “Mrs. Sherwood’s Tales.” ae

Late in 1852 Bishop Ives made his decision to resign the bishopric and joi
the Roman Catholic Church. Strangely, the effects on the struggling Claw nee
of no consequence. Perhaps the only unusual thing to happen iil 183 ee
when it came time for Mr. Fitzgerald to be ordained to the priesthood ihre iver =
no bishop in the diocese, the Standing Committee requested the As Fern: Bisl =
of Connecticut, the Rt. Rev. John Williams, to officiate” Mr. Fitzgerald ee
Philadelphia and in Christ Church in that city was ordained on & »tember ve
‘sare September 4,

In March, 1854, the newly consecrated Bishop of North Carolina, the Rt. Rev.
Thomas Atkinson," made his first visitation to the northeastern camila on
Thursday, March 9, he was in Scotland Neck planning to proceed to Jacksc 1 i
the Roanoke River changed his plans. AIR.

In consequence of a flood in the Roanoke obstructing the direct road
to Jackson, I returned to the Wilmington Rail “Rent ointah
reached at Enfield, and thence proceeded to Garysburg, ane procur-
ing a conveyance there went down to the residence of H. x Bur H
wyn, Esq. On Friday, the 10th., at a little Chapel on his estate ari
Evening Prayer, I preached to his slaves, who attended most ranannna:
ously and with a gratifying appearance of interest and devotion
The Rey. Mr. Fitzgerald who lives at Mr. Burgwyn’s, gives much f
his time and labor to this important and often neglected part of ne
population; and with the efficient aid which he receives from Mr

i Journal, 1852.
4st Parish Register (record of baptisms and accounts) ; Journal, 1858.

* Journal, 1854.
+3 Obituary, Church Review, Vol. XVIII, No. 8, October, 1866.

™ Born August 6, 1807, died January 4, 1881. See National Cycl edit i
VI, p. 52, Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. I, p. 411, and Hugibehen ieee es Mole
Third Bishop of North Carolina,” Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episc AGM Ra
XVII, No. 4, December 1948, p. 422 et seq. HONE E CHAD, Nill

Tue CHurcH OF THE SAVIOUR
ho resides as a Tutor in the

Morrell,*® now a candidate for Orders, wl
£ the household, the good

family, and from the excellent mistress 0:
work seems to make gratifying progress samara ae

On Sunday, March 12th, [at Jackson] Twas gr elite pen ey ie
assistance, not only of Mr. Fitzgerald, but of the Rev. Ml iam G.
Jackson, who had come on to the Diocese with ae epee eae ai
transferring his residence to it, which I am happy to in aoe ane
done. In the morning, I preached, and assisted by ges ! sede
administered the Holy Communion. In the evening after prayers,

Mr. Jackson preached. sec

Os ae March 18th, I returned to Mr. Burgwyns, where,
in the evening, at his Chapel, after prayers, I preached and con-
firmed thirteen of his slaves. ; ‘ :

Tuesday March Ith, I went, accompanied by Mr. Fitzgerald,
to Murfreesborough, where, at night, we held service in meets
odist Church, which had been courteously offered to coe m t sey

ion I preached. Mr. Fitzgerald officiates at Murlreesborough
on each fifth Sunday, but as the village is growing and the a
of persons attached to the Church increasing, there is a demanc
for more services, which I t

rust he will be able to provide for them,
and there is also an earnest desire on the part of many and a hopeful
effort for the erection of a Church. i i pein,
On Wednesday, I went with Mr. F. to Mr. Stephen Norfleet’s,

ere Wi ai n Thursday. ; j ree
whereiwe ronan at Woodville, in Bertie County,
are preparations making

On Friday, we held service

where I preached. In this place also, there

to build a church.”

ae Fitz@era vith both Halifax and
Now sharing the ministr Fitzgerald with bo AMER fate

Murfreesboro, the Church of the Saviour was having services on. om a first ane
third Sundays each month. The church was out of debt, an ee) eat oe had
been placed around the churchyard, and several improvements hac been made to
tag 1 that the Sunday School

the buildi re rtant, Mr. Fitzgerald reporite
ng. More important, . xe Dove
continued Bs prosper and that ices were better attended than ever before. In

servi sad .
addition to his regular parochial work Mr. Fitzgerald vee SaaS al peated
Possible at the county poor house, and he paar pe ee a the 5 aes:
€vening and every fourth Sunday with the Negroes ae a ins a be eee a
of 1858 the church at Halifax was almost completed and grega

s : ecting a building.”
Murfrees y inds for erecting @ building.
BOK nic Cones of 185 Mr. Fitzgerald resigned and went to the

new church in Goldsboro.

Having been called to a 1

an adequate support, J res
iShnpaaraaeneeee

ee infra, footnote 229.

* Journal, 1854.
*" Journals, 1854, 1855.

ations of Mr.

of labor, and forced to seek

arger sphere i
od srish on the 17th of last June,

igned this Pa

 
 

NORTHAMPTON PARISHES

deeply sorrowing that circumstances called for a separation from it,

which, from four years of peaceful and prosperous labor, together

with constant tokens of strong affection had become very dear to
168

me.

This was Mr. Fitzgerald’s report to the Convention of 1856 meeting a year after
his resignation. He continued:

To my great regret the Parish is still without a Pastor. By a recent
resolution of the Vestry, I learn that a Rectory will be erected during
the ensuing year,—without which no parish can reasonably expect
permanent pastoral ministration.

I have performed several services in this Parish since my resigna-
tion.”

Just before the 1856 Convention Bishop Atkinson spent two days in Jackson
and at Thornbury in company with the Rev. Peyton Gallagher, then rector in
Halifax, and shortly after the convention he sent a newly-ordained deacon,
Thomas Goelet Haughton, to serve in Northampton.” The Rey. Mr. Haughton
served the Church of the Saviour from July, 1856, until he became assistant at St.
Luke’s, Salisbury, on January 1, 1857. His laconic report of his service in North-
ampton contains this interesting statement:

I deem it due to the zeal of the Parish to state, that they have taken
the necessary steps toward securing regular and permanent Minis-
terial services. They have purchased a neat and comfortable Par-
sonage, with 15 acres of land, and are disposed to pay their Minister
liberally."

In July, 1857, the vestry voted unanimously to recall Mr. Fitzgerald. Although
he felt that he could not leave Goldsboro at that time, he agreed to give the Jack-
son church two Sundays a month. This arrangement continued from November,
1857, until November, 1858. At the bishop’s request Mr. Fitzgerald then resigned
the Jackson charge so that the congregation might seek a resident priest.”

Few people associated with the history of the Church of the Saviour occupy
the honored place accorded Frederick Fitzgerald. His work in Goldsboro was as
successful as it had been in Jackson. He was largely responsible for the erection of
St. Stephen’s Church there. In 1859 Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut,
awarded Mr. Fitzgerald a Master of Arts degree, honoria causa." Shortly after the

+8 Journal, 1856.

9 Thid.

Journal, 1857. Mr. Haughton was ordained deacon at the Convention of 1856 at St. Peter
Washington, and priest in 1857. The Journal of 1870 states that Bishop Atkinson deposed Mr,
Haughton that year at the minister’s own request.

Journal, 1857. The rectory purchased at this time is still standing about three quarters of
a mile beyond the church on the highway from Jackson to Seaboard,

arish Register.
‘Obituary, The Church Intelligencer, September 18, 1866, and a letter from a correspondent
published in the same periodical, September 27, 1866.

™ Tetter from the Rev. Arthur Adams, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, to the writer,

April 13, 1949.

 

Tue CHuRCH OF THE SAVIOUR

-cupied the dual position of
ivi i vyhere he occupied t : 1
Civil War broke out he went to Raleigh w See tr cer = one eae

ites C
slant at S30 Sa a nae Pach at the beginning of the
three Church papers being published in

4 meee March 14, 1860, a large
war. Mr. Fitzgerald edited the first issue eases ae mee PERE OF
Po]; ea , 00 61, he resigned as 4 eer
folio of eight pages.” On June 6, ae Carolina sent as chaplains to the Confed-
fifteen clergymen the Diocese ot ne : higher sphere of usefulness can be found
= : og at “no = an07 AT he war
erate Army, stating that he felt tha i > anenslk ie When the wa
for the Ee of Su beloved country than ees Neat accepted a call
v: ° ati r revenue, 5 a
I aving “neither occupation nor ; 20 ta year’s time he
oe Pave pees hen New Jersey, 10 1865.” In abou eee <
0 Trinity C ch, Hob » S . shvi nnessee, a as
rec eaed S ae the Church of the Advent in Nee oe ust, 1866. He was
sived a ca 2 C k in la gust, : é
paring to accept when he suffered a heart ee eeenie 2 EGRC
3 wer ken, on Sunday, § 7 7 z
buried fr rrinity Church, Hoboken, 2 188 < yerhaps occasionally
er, resignation in the fall of ener Seat ated
bef : ne fe 1 ment y ordained deacon at Windsor, th 2
‘tore that time, a ae re

i 1 201
i -vices from time to lume.
Be -kson congregation services fro
Bronson, gave the Jac SO) 2;

vil

eular visit to the parish on March 23 and
"The entry in the bishop's journal for
htbourne, who has recently taken cheney
1 to the diocese, read prayers, morning
confirmed one person, and admin-

When Bishop Atkinson made ne
24 in 1859 the picture was cecal
March 24 states that “the Rev. Mr. Lis

the Parish ugh ni et transferred
i igh not y
sh, althoug’ :

cca
and evening. I preached on inert -

istered the Holy Communion.” Pre pourny twenty-four year old grad-
This Mr. Lightbourn was F Penraes a id recently been ordained deacon

vee inary who ha
uate of the General Theological Sem y

F -, Lightbourn came from a
, sn in Bermuda, Mr. Lig] from
by the Bishop of New York. Born a Bermramily of eleven, he Was SE

nily o: I y a Se) ake a aay ne

a iy Of Clete as ie eee: his father, rector of Pembroke and Devonshire
i ila r] before 3 ,

a private school in Ber muda

OCR 7 cate
inary in New York.
Parishes there, sent him to the seminary
5 Ge A ts
Mr. Lightbourn arrived in Ja

kson on February 1, 1859," and like his two
= ¢ a 1a horn-
for races at Jackson and at
rices for both races at |
: i resular services
predecessors continued reg)

f the Confederate Gianna BERET SEE of the
Sut Gas? Ore ner 1948, pp. 350, 351, 359. hie
i OF Vol, XVII, No. 4, December Ine EE annual Council of the Diocese
Protestant Episopal Ciigaes oenne iitzgerald’s report to
7 Tondon, supra, p- 372, Quoting May 14, 1863. :
of North Carolina at St John's lyase ea aeacet September 27, 1866.
08 Pe burch Re E OIL, No. 8, Oc : ;
ve SS aia Review, Vol. aS tye
2% The Church Intelligencer, October 1"
™1 Journals, 1857, 1858.
2 Journal, 18: al i,
S eae from Major Philip’ ee
muda, to the writer, March 28, ; ee
letter is cited hereafter as Lightbo

** Journal, 1859.

5 Journal, 1860.
10 Lawrel F. London,

* Cut Road, St. George’s, Ber-

m of “Sunny Gleamev. Mr, Lightbourn’s son.” This

Lightbourn is the Rev.

 
 

ae Tue Rey. Freperick LiGHTBOURN
ector of the Church of the Saviour, Jackson, 1859-1867
and rector of St. Luke's Church, Gaston, 1859-1863

 

 

Tue CHurcH OF THE AVIOUR 55
began to hold a service once each month
had visited the little river town and
o establish a church there.

In addition, he
p Ives
ad been made t

bury where he lived.*
at Gaston As early as 1844 Bisho

confirmed one person, but no effort h 2
Although the distance from Gaston to Jackson was difficult to cover, two members

of the Church of the Saviour’s first vest'y lived in the Gaston community, Edmund
Wilkins, and later John B. Bynum. Mr. Wilkins was especially interested in es-
tablishing a church in the town adjoining his plantation. : He peucdnasetd an old
cocoonery building the Methodists had been using 1” the village,” and on July 7,
1859, Bishop Atkinson made the mission a visit.

I preached and admin 1 the Communion at Gaston, in a build-

ing recently purchased, and appropriated, ce Na usages,

to the worship of God, and in which a congregation has ta o gan-

ized, and is ministered to by the Rev. Mr. Lightbourne. We owe this

advance mainly to the Christian zeal and liberality ai Sere

in the neighborhood, whose benefactions had been Peta se

useful in encouraging the building of Churches iO her ee aad

who now thought it his duty to provide one for himself and his

neighbors.”
The Rev. Mr. Lightbourn continued to :
ch was beginning to show gains the country was

peaceful work of the Churc y
thrown into the Civil War. A training camp called Camp Advance was set up

ned there required the ministrations of the local
In 1861 Bishop Atkinson reached Gaston for
e to Jackson. In 1862 he managed to visit both
able to visit either place. During these years parish

reports were fragmentary. Mr. Lightbourn held to his a oe aie in the
rectory but staying at Thornbury where he served sae a ot ie oy
Colonel Harry Burgwyn, and then for his two brothers, HESIOD ane 40 itiavera:
Years afterwards he told his children of how one one occasion ine as forced to
hide all night in a ditch to escape capture by the Union soldiers. One 0Ie
cheer and hope from Northampton was reported to the oN oaaae of UCI The
Rey. Israel Harding of St. Timothy's, Wilson, wrote acknowled aaa
of $7.85 from Jackson and $26.50 from Gaston toward paying off the debt on St.

Timothy’s Church.”

istered

serve the parish. But just when the

at Garysburg, and soldiers statio:

clergyman. Things were disrupted.

a visitation but did not com
churches.” In 1863 he was un

2 gion,
ournal, 1859.
27 [. J. Miles, article on old town of Gaston, N
*8 Journal, 1860. The “gentleman 10 the neig!
2” Journal, 1862.
2 Journal, 1863.
Lightbourn.
Journal, 1863.

rver, Raleigh, N. G. (date?) .

News and Obse p IN}
dmund Wilkins.

hborhood” was E

 
 

NorTHAMPTON ParIsHES

From December 11 through December 14, 1868, a convocation of the clergy
was held in Warrenton, and at that time Bishop Atkinson advanced Mr. Light-
bourn to the priesthood.** :

When the Convention of 1864 met at Williamsboro, Bishop Atkinson re-
ported that the Rev. Robert A. Castleman was residing in Halifax, and that in
addition to his work there he was engaged in missionary work in both Halifax
and Northampton counties. This work was centered at Gaston, where he relieved
Mr. Lightbourn for one Sunday a month.”* Under Mr. Castleman’s leadership
$250.00 was raised at Gaston for the construction of a church in Weldon in 1864,
the first indication of such a move there.”"

Mr. Lightbourn remained in Jackson until September 1, 1865, when he re
turned to Bermuda” for about one year during which time he was married.
During this time he did not relinquish the parish,” and with his wife, returned
for a short period in 1866-67.*" He then returned to Bermuda and served churches
there until his death from a fall at the age of eighty-one, January 20, 191¢

Just a few years ago the clergyman’s son wrote this about his father:

He was beloved by his parishoners—particularly by the poorer peo-
ple. The coloured people especially were devoted to him and the
older ones among them still speak with affection of him. He had a
powerful voice which remained strong all his life. He was fearless
and did his duty as he saw it. He was a good preacher, but there was
nothing showy about him. He did not extemporize and he did not
philosophize. He was of the old conservative school, neither high
church nor low. Briefly, I should describe him as a manly man whose
religion was just naturally a part of his life. His hobby was garden-
ing in which he was quite a local authority. I should not call him a
student, although he had quite a good theological library.

*8 Journal, 1864,

24 Thid.

2 Thid.
* Journal, 1867 (Parochial report hy Dr. William Barrow, senior warden of the parish.)
Lightbourn.

*8 See clergy lists in Journals, 1866, 1867.

** Parish Register and Lightbourn.

2" Lightbourn.

21 Thid,

Tue CHuRcH OF THE SAVIOUR

VII

antitorn Ce SESE, Bishop Atkinson spoke of
1867-68 as “a time of great agricultural and commercial Cee : us xe
a conservative Bese uci In Jackson the Church ae omnes aes
the crisis of war by a faithful punistet bulge a is parish sent no dele-
Bermuda hope almost faded. From 1865 through 186 ee a of sestinen | cn ts ee
gates to the diocesan conventions. “Prostrated by ihe che csi aes ofa wet
quote a later minister, “this parish was unable to ate nee

from 1865 to 1868.”*" And the full blast of aaa alt a priest from

Early in the spring of 1868, however, the Rev. Niels i

ar -k’s Churc alifax, and the
the Diocese of Maryland, became rector of St. Mark’s church, pane iva ay.
creer Ati Rats He officiated in Jackson on erg aig Sane ae
each month until the spring of 1869 when he prtiee oy a cae Rae
Morganton, Burke County.” Another year shee ae : Siete ee
in the spring of 1870 the Rev. Edward Winslow | x1 ‘ Eee ‘anaes eyatnineton,
came to this diocese from Kentucky. He Senet Sen ackson Fpl take charge
for a few months and then came to live in the resent a, pees — re
of both the Church of the Saviour and St. Luke’s, Gaston.

sioned to accept a parish in
Gilliam served well. In the summer 0 s I

f 1873 he resig aaattas © 1
ear F ; y that Brigadier Genera
Denison, Texas. It was during his ministry in the aaa Rata K
? ea ; Megat ecember II, 16/0.
Matt W. Ransom was baptized in Weldon, Decem

x ty. Charles Fetter, the local schoolmaster,

During the Reconstruction years Mr Cate in Chapel Hill in 1845, the

e ch ti he affairs of the church, Born i I Si ane ea

devoue mh ine he ST er gh ol a number of to
North Carolina and V! ne our ae oe Ge aa corde priest.
eight (i he was ordained cea mie a8 : cky Mount, and
He ees me in Wadesboro, Ansonville, one where he
in Kentucky and Southern Virginia. In 1908 he ne SARE atone peeies
lived for a short time until his death on Soe none aes pees
on the vestry and was elected as a delegate to the cuoctst

ae I associated with this parish before 1900 also eae the Bs
vi r men ass < A “tha y nty, and an OS
nee we eae Augustus Elythe, 2 native of Northampton Cour 3 ay aera

Bake ee A.M. 1866) was admitted as a candida y
alumnus of the University (A.M. Bern and sent to serve

A Se VI
Orders. On June 18, 1871, he Ca ca Be se sty ahee bis
St. Thomas’s Church in Craven County: °°

Addressing the Diocesan Conv

ate unknown). Upon becoming a

ges. ;
5 9 an. pte (A
Journal, 1869. ly 11, 1859, priest (¢ Soptember 26, 1881.

7 u
Ordained deacon at Warrenton, July 11, «vt an on
Roman Cees in Gilliam was deposed by Bishop 1Y
* Parish Register. 5
"7 See Journals, 1870-1908, pass”.

 
68 NORTHAMPTON PARISHES

ministry.™ Earlier still, Mr. Daniel Murrell, a tutor at Thornbury, Was ordained
deacon during the Convention of 1856 at St. Peter's Church, Washington. He first
served as assistant to Mr. Fitzgerald at Goldsboro, and for a number of years after
that he served St. Paul’s Church, Wilmington, and a Negro congregation
there.”

Beginning on November 30, 1873, the Rev. Edward Wooten, a zealous mis-
sionary, rector of St. Thomas’s Church, Windsor, began holding services for the
Jackson congregation once each month on a weekday, and on Sunday about once
every three months. This arrangement continued unchanged until November,
1877.

At the diocesan convention held in Fayetteville in 1873 Theodore B. Lyman
was elected first assistant bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina. On Septuage-
sima Sunday (February 1), 1874, he made his first visit to the Church of the

, Saviour and later reported:

This Parish possesses quite a neat Church building, while the ad-

jacent graveyard is cared for in a most commendable way. I could

not but lament that we have no resident clergyman in this pleasant

town, and where an active laborer could scarcely fail to achieve

most encouraging results.”
Bishop Lyman took an immediate interest in the parish. When he returned to
spend the night a month later (March 12, 1874) he found the town saddened by
the death of Mr. Matt Calvert.

I officiated next morning, in company with the Rev. Mr. Wootten

at the funeral of a young and attached member of our Church who

had been very suddenly called to his account.”
The following February, while Mr. Wooten was still serving Jackson as best he
could from Windsor, Bishop Lyman set out to visit St. Luke’s (February 28, 1875).
When he reached the Gaston railway station on the south side of the Roanoke on
Saturday he found the river so swollen no one could cross. He promptly decided
to go on to Jackson where, in his words, “they rarely enjoyed the advantages of
a Sunday service.”*” }

Upon my unexpected arrival there, about sunset, I was very warmly

welcomed, and notice was given at once of service the next CEN 0 6

It is very sad that this Parish should be so long without a Rector.

... There is quite a neat Church, a number of zealous families and

a very excellent field for work, if only a clergyman can be found

to undertake the duty.”

See Journals, 1869-1876, passim. ;
= Journal, 1856, and subsequent years, passim.
*» Journal, 1874.

2 Tbid.
2 Journal, 1875.
= Tbid,

SAV 59
Tue CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR 69

It was apparent that the assistant bishop was eager to see a priest settled in

Northampton.

IX

one of its truly devoted servants first ap-
On November 25, 1875, Mr. William Thomas Picard began
he Church of the Saviour three Sundays in each
tor wrote that Mr. Picard was “a layman

whose daily walk and zealous labors for the inelene a ne aoe pies
the esteem and highest regard of the whole Parish. 18 ae abs a a eae
Mr. Picard aaractinea eal the services until the first of No aes Gilb rt Hig a
another devoted man entered the history of the parish. The Rev. Gilber iggs

f v. y Asst. Bishop of
acce ate “a ands of the Rt. Rev. T. B. Lyman, 4 ishoy
accepted the rectorate “at the hands coun es A

coming to North Carolina he had

At this point in the parish history
pears in the records.
holding regular lay services int
month.** Some years later the new rec

the Diocese, Like the earlier rector,
* Immediately prior to

y District of Dakota.

born in Bermuda.”
served in the Missionar

The arrival of this fine clergy
the arrangements with Bishop Lyman,

man galvanized the parish into action. Under
Mr. Higgs occupied the rectory in Jackson,
Bet ke’s, 1 Emmanuel Church

a x -al church, St. Luke’s, anc ¥

and from there he served the loca é 3 Bes co :
Warrenton. Within a few months after his arrival he was able to report that the
“i Cont nae building is being put in thorough repair. A mission Is springing
Jackson church\buuleane h Church.” On the second Sunday of

2 “ i rom the Parist
up at Sea Board, eight miles from eae : a pee
Bie TmOnthite vas to St. Luke’s where he found the attendance is very good.

«os was living in Jackson, both railroad
2 > RTT. an - Higgs was living in Jac '
In the winter of 1877-78, while Mr. Hige 28 sai 3 : 5
> Roanoke.™ s seems to have hin-
bridges at Weldon were washed out by the Noa res a ee
dered his getting to Warrenton for a time, but by ie TENS ot) 5 f
BA a r day.
Se A ere every four th Suni f :
(Co Sienti negli Seca Mr aes moved his residence to Warrenton so as to
The next year te zi aera giving Jackson and Gaston one Sunday
ri at chur vo Sundays a » £ i
one a ihn ae eae as lay reader in Jackson undoubtedly made Mr.
ach. he presence p S on vig - vere two services
Higgs inte willing to make the change. At this hme pee ve me ay i
Ps con lay in the Jackson church, and a service every WwW i. ee lay Be: i
ach Sunday in JEG and during Holy Week,
Lent there were services eveTy

Wednesday and Friday,
i issi saboard was continued.
every evening. The mission at Seaboa

* Journal, 1876. :

mie w. Montgomery, Sketches of Old Warrenton, p- 185. mee Ae ee

P 5 ith of s, Ringwood, Journal,

moun hil port ofthe REY IAG og on veo ul the By ih
1878. That year the pau ae eum Rodgers, “Roanoke, ‘River of me ue } Pp:
See Te nea and Observer, Raleigh, N. C., Se}

8 Journal, 1878.

 
 

Tue Rey. Gitpert Hices, D.D.
Rector of the Church of the Saviour, Jackson
and St. Luke’s Church, Gaston, 1877-1890 :

 

 

 

 

71

Tur CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR

d been repainted

ntion the Jackson church hat
silver paten and

d been carpeted, and a new
arrangements were made to hold services
evening each month.

at the age of seventy-three, and
t same year the Church of the
William Barrow and then Mr.

By the time of the 1880 Conve!
inside and out, the vestry room ha
alms basin purchased. In the same year
for Negroes in the church one Sunday

On January 4, 1881, Bishop Atkinson died
Bishop Lyman succeeded him as diocesan. Tha
Saviour lost two of its original vestrymen, first Dr.
Samuel Calvert.

1881 witnessed the beginn
church. A new credence table w:
and paid for, and at Christmas “a h
the church by a lady now at Patapsco Institute,

one of the Church’s women,” to quote Mr. Higgs.
was a new organ." Mr. Higgs’s love fo ail GR |
f church music in his

sisters made to improve the calibre 0}
He controlled and also improved the Order of Divine Service by
making it more beautiful and ornate, especially the musical por-
~ f ecclesiastical music

tions, being greatly aided by his knowledge 0 stical
and by the richness, strength and melody of his own voice.”

In July, 1882, the old rectory purchased before the Civil War was sold to
Mr. J. A. Weaver, and the proceeds were invested to be used for building a new
one later. The same year, at @ cost of $100.00, the vestry purchased land for an
addition to the burial ground. But the most significant event of 1882 was the
organization of a Ladies ‘Aid Society, the first organization for women in the
history of the parish. Their frst Lenten work was making handsome altar and

lectern cloths.”*°

1883 saw the enlarged chur
Ladies Aid Society's second project W:
vention of 1884 Mr. Higgs stated tha
seeking ordination to the permanent diaconate,
mitted as a candidate for Holy Orders.“ A ae

In the fall and winter of 1884-85 the parish Bee te pls ony,
. a Fs . mbership. It was ecided that the church building
ing the energies of its entire me a P. Aipeitedairo\ the an:

shouldibetenIareed| andi thatmamObels ceiling” shoul A
d be enlarged ane ring of 1886 Mr. Higgs made this

nual convention held in Tarboro 1n the sp’

interesting report:

more improvements for the Jackson
a complete set of lamps were bought
andsome memorial chair was presented to
whose memory we all hold dear—

» Another significant purchase

ing of still
as installed,

+ music and the great efforts he and his

parishes is traditional.

ely enclosed with a new fence. The
as a new carpet for the church. To the Con-

t his faithful lay reader, Mr. Picard, was
and in due course he was ad-

chyard complet

0 Journal, 1882.

21 Tbid.

22 Minutes of the Vestry, 1911.
Journal, 1883.
Journal, 1884.
Journal, 1885.

 
 

 

 

 

 

Tue CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR, JACKSON
Exterior — 1887-1895

Tue CHurcH OF THE SAVIOUR

arish began the work of extending

On the 8th of July, 1885, this P:
Iding. It is now finished and paid

and remodeling the Church bui

for. A tower has been erecte

the Church; also a gallery with capacity for seating fifty persons.
dingly pleasant and attrac-

The interior now presents an excce
e. The roof is open, ceiled with pine, oiled. The new

chancel organ room is divided by Gothic arches; the walls are a
pleasant drab tint; the lighting is by four double lancet windows on
each side of the nave, filled with figured and colored glass. The
chancel and front lights are each a triplet of lancet windows, filled
with stained glass. The nave is further ornamented by two choice
memorial windows.

The work of this year has been full of sacrifice and _persever-
ance. The moneys given for this work have been carefully and
judiciously expended. :

I do not know where to go to find more satisfactory results for
such a sum as the cost. The Ladies’ Aid Society has been largely

instrumental in accomplishing this noble work.
The congregation of ‘the Church of the Saviour’ esteem it a

privilege to place on record in the Diocese their grateful apprecia-
tion of the generous kindness of Mrs. H. K. Burgwyn of Richmond,
Va., for enhancing the comfort and convenience of worship by alter-
ation and extension of the Church at her own expense, the benefit
of whose generous liberality and fervent Christian spirit is felt and

acknowledged by pastor and people.
The extension of the church building is

H. K. Burgwyn, Esq. é , z
A school building to cost about $400 is to be built this year.
It is due this parish furthermore to say, that considering the
financial embarrassment of most of its members during the past year,

through short crops, from which this hamlet has exceptionally suf-

fered, the above is a remarkable report.”
Rejoicing with the Jackson people, on April 28, 29, and 30, 1887, the Con-

vocation of Tarboro held its meetings in the Church of the Saviour.
At the opening service of the 71st Annual Convention of the Diocese of

North Carolina, May 11, 1887, in the Church of the Good Shepherd, in Raleigh,
William T. Picard for ordination as deacon.

the Rey. Mr. Higgs presented Mr. ue
After public examination, he was ordained by Bishop Lyman.

Improvements to the Jackson church property continued. In 1886 the
twenty-six Sunday School children presented the parish with a brass hanging
lamp for the choir and a brass “hood-lamp” for the lectern. A new chandelier
was installed to light the nave. most important event Mr. Higgs reported

d and 12 feet added to the length of

tive appearanct

a memorial to the late

But the

20 Journal, 1886.
*7 Journal, 1887.

 
74 NorTHAMPTON PARISHES

in these words: “A school building, in keeping with the church, and well fur-
nished with all the modern improvements, has been erected, A flourishing school
is in operation.” Miss Lucretia Whitfield, long associated with the parish, took

charge of this work.** :
On April 12, 1887, Bishop Lyman arrived in Jackson for his annual visitation:

We were all made very sad the next day, by the tidings of the death
on the very evening of the visitation, of Mrs. Henry Burgwyn, a
former member of this parish, and who had during the last two
years shown her deep and abiding interest in it by contributing
liberally to those improvements in the Parish Church, which have
added so much to its beauty and attractiveness. She had been look-
ing forward with special interest to being with us at this visitation,

and had left Richmond with that purpose, but tarrying a few days
in Henderson, she contracted a severe cold, which soon assumed an

alarming form, and proved fatal only a short time after our evening
service had closed. Her death is not only a great loss to that Parish,
but to her own immediate family, and to that large circle of friends,
who so honored and loved her.
The activity of the parish during Mr. Higgs’s rectorate was remarkable. Mr.
Picard and Miss Whitfield were able assistants, but much of the energy must be
credited to Mr. Higgs’s leadership. His report to the Convention of 1888 was

another chapter in progress:

This has been a red letter year for our little church.

In memory of the late Mr. and Mrs. Henry King Burgwyn, her
[sic] children have placed, at a cost of $1,032, a handsome window,
black walnut communion rail on brass standards, and a steeple and
in it a Seth ‘Thomas clock. The clock will be of untold benefit to
the church and the whole community. It strikes on the church bell
and has been heard at a distance of six miles from the church,

A pretty reredos of native woods has been erected in memory of
the late Anna Greenough Burgwyn by her parents, Mr. and Mrs,
George P. Burgwyn.

The Easter gifts embrace an Altar Service and polished brass
altar desk, black walnut chancel chair, a handsome brass cross, urns,

and candlesticks. :
The debt on the school house has been paid and there is on

hand $470 towards a rectory.”
That same year, when the memorial windows were installed in the Church of the
Saviour, the parish gave the three stained glass windows replaced to St. Luke’s
Church, Gaston, where work was progressing on a new building.**

1887-1895

Interior

 

THE CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR, JACKson

\
SS aaa —; POAT YR. 0 0 we!
28 Tbid. cae
20 Ibid,

9 Journal, 1888.
= Tbid.

 

 

 
 

 

NorTHAMPTON PARISHES

All of this growth and interest at Jackson Mr. Higgs repeatedly attrib:
the efforts of Mr. Picard of whom he wrote: Pee ate
Tam more than ever convinced of the importance of having week]
services kept up by a deacon or lay reader in small parishes where it
is possible only to have the rector once a month. It is but just oe
the credit should be largely given to the Rev. W. T. Picard he
earnest and energetic assistant who has labored diligently to fulfil

the requirements of the canons in every respect.

By 1889 Mr. Higgs himself was filling an impressive number of ir r
posts. The Journal of the Convention of that year lists him as Parate ae
manuel Church, Warrenton, the Church of the Saviour, Jackson, Grace Ct ae
Weldon; missionary at St. Luke’s, Gaston; Dean of the Conoextern of T: aa
and Secretary and Registrar of the Diocese. gaDOrU:

. Despite the discouragement of great agricultural failure in 1889 the offeri
continued to be good. The rector and Mr. Picard began concerted on aan
work in other sections of Northampton. At Rich Square and at Mar Serta
small parochial missions were started. “Great interest is shown in eee
services held at these points. Steps are being taken for the erection of pan
at Rich Square, and a Lay Reader [Dr. Robert Henry Stancell] has been « a ee
for Margaretsville.” In Jackson Mr. J. Alveston Burgwyn became la) eae
the parochial school Miss Whitfield was busy teaching three boys ca ee ar NG
The Ladies Aid Society was working to procure wire screens to protect Roa cae
windows. In December, 1889, Mr. Higgs was able to relinquish his - ae
Weldon when the Rev. W. Lawton Mellichampe, a deacon from East ae =
came to serve Weldon, Halifax, and Littleton. Soon Mr. Mellichampe a pe!
holding services once a month at Garysburg and Pleasant Hill.** feet nee

This is the story of what happened “in Mr. Higgs’s time,” an expressi
known to every member of the Jackson congregation. The story of Reena
provements is easier to tell than the story of baptisms, confirmations, and Chris ad
service, but it does show something of the spirit of the parish under his lead ae
Statistics from the convention journals tell an equally encouraging stor ome

At the height of his usefulness, on August 1, 1890, Mr. Higgs ae it
was transferred to the Diocese of Florida. For some time he held a diane ae
West, then in 1903 he returned to the Diocese of North Carolina ae a
rector of Calvary Church, Wadesboro.” He stayed there for only a shor; Sa
and subsequently took a church in Atlanta where he died in 1911. At rename
men who had known him intimately in Jackson wrote: : eae

He came to us unheralded and unknown but by the urbanity of his
manners, his winning personality and zealous interest in all matters

Journal, 1889.
Journal, 1890.
Ibid.

Journal, 1903.

‘Tre CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR

urch—soon made friends of everyone with whom
_. Dr. Higgs was an excellent and im-
ell thought out, well preached

concerning the Ch
he was thrown in contact. -

pressive preacher. His sermons were W
and well expressed, and he lovingly taught the Catholic truth. ...

As a pastor he was unexcelled, especially in his work among the
men and with the poor and those under affliction and bereavement.

Not only was he loved by his own flock, but those of other religious
As a man he was genial, com-

faiths held him in high esteem... - /S @
in his friendships, and always took great

panionable, loyally true K
interest in all matters for the betterment of those communities in

which he lived.™

x

When Mr. Higgs left the parish Mr. Picard, of course, continued to hold
regular services in Jackson. From time to time the Rev. Aristides S. Smith, an
elderly clergyman at Ringwood, Halifax County, came to administer the Holy
Communion. Mr. Mellichampe continued his missionary efforts at Pleasant Hill
and Garysburg. On January 1, 1891, the Rev. Frederick Towers of the Diocese
of Florida took up his duties as minister for Warrenton, Jackson, and Gaston,

living in Warrenton." This clergyman served these churches for eight months
and then became rector of the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill.
of 1892 lists the Rev. Edward Benedict as

The Journal of the Convention
living in Warrenton and serving the church there as well as those at Jackson and
Gaston. Mr. Picard maintained regular services in Mr. Benedict’s absence in
Jackson and also held a monthly service at Rich Square. From Weldon Mr.
Mellichampe continued his work at Pleasant Hill, but he seems to have given up
services at Garysburg.™

In the early weeks ©}
Saviour experienced a season of extr
Mrs. May Calvert Jordan, wife of Mr.
thirty-nine. Mrs. George Burgwyn, one of
mediately:

Her life was remarkabl
no evil, suffereth long, and
gifts of person, mind, and heart,
and association to adorn the most eleva

kindness with a radiant smile, and ‘word

0

man... .

f the year 1893 the congregation of the Church of the
aordinary sadness. On Sunday, January 22,
Douglas A. Jordan, died at the age of
her closest friends, wrote almost im-

he charity which ‘thinketh
ed by nature with choicest

y illustrative of t
is kind.’ Endow
and eminently qualified by birth
ited position, she dispensed
1 fitly spoken’ to her fellow

=° Miriutes of the Vestry, 1911.
ra Journal, 1891.
© Journal, 1892. afiayeh
20 This and the two following obituaries were found as clippi | the Bible of M
W. Lewis (Sally Ana Ridley) , a pees of the parish at the time of these deaths. It is imp }
to identify the publications in which these pieces were printed, but they probably appeared in

the Southern Churchman.

ngs in the Bible of Mrs. Henry
ble

 
78 NORTHAMPTON ParisHES

Early on Wednesday morning, three days later, Mrs, Josephine Southall Bowen

wife of William C. Bowen, died at the age of forty: Mr. John MacRae wrot
. a a wrote:

Again the pall of deep grief has fallen on our village, and our littl
church mourns once more the loss of a devoted daughter an ittle
days ago, alone she sung at Evening Prayers the ibeanstin
‘Brest the wave, Christian.’ A consistent, pious Christian a
she was early attached to the services of the Church ane
us whose privilege it was to listen to the exquisite tones of Reta a
sympathetic voice can ever forget its melody, as she sang the eueee
and hymns of the Church she loved so dearly. Lovin: 8 x chants
fectionate, she easily won the hearts of all who knew mae Hees

ten

Mrs. Bowen was buried in the churchyard on Januar
: 2 anuary 26, and tha 3
Mrs. Emma Ridley Burgwyn, who had written with such feelin Sonya
Ss.

Jordan’s death, died in her forty-sixth year. Again Mr. MacR 5
cousin, wrote: acRae, her husband’s

The heart of him who writes these lines is so full that he can
a not

speak as he would of the great loss her famil 5
Church and the entire community have been ea eatoatenee “
ain.

. .. Bright and cheerful, fond of the society of her friends, sh

the soul of hospitality and kindness. . . . She was truth’s Ss, st € was
ror. .. . None of those who privilege it was to know her oun mir-
can ever forget her kind, generous, loving disposition and pe

character. Only a few short days before two amongst her dearest f
a °

friends in this village were taken from her. Little did we th i

that so soon she would be with them. .. . ‘Let us therefore eae
and love and follow them, our dear ones who have gone perce
when our last change is over, we with them may “sleep ad Pete

At Mrs. Burgwyn’s funeral Mrs. Caroline Brown, faithf rn
ful sexton of the Church of the Saviour, tolled cc ae eect! feaitih
practice in the parish. About a week and a half ie .
this good woman’s death and burial in the ceca at ahews
from exposure at Mrs. Burgwyn’s funeral. When the present ant Eee ine
was erected the congregation paid tribute to Mrs. Brown’s devoti net t
a memorial window in the nave in her honor. votion by erecting
The Rev. Mr. Benedict, from July, 1892, until he gave u

to Jackson for week-day services only. The Rey. Mr. Pi
aren 6 . Picard
Burgwyn, the lay reader, maintained services in the church aa Mr. Alveston
The Rev. Walter J. Smith of Scotland Neck came occasionall as Sane Sunday.
Holy Communion. At Rich Square five communicants tins ee
egularly

once a month, and Mr. Picard collected “the nucleus
of 2 5
building a small chapel” there.” a fund to be used in

accordance with the

building

p the parish, came

2 Journal, 1893.

Tue CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR 79

On October 15, 1893, the Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire, Jr., was consecrated
assistant bishop of the diocese. Two months later on December 13, 1893, Bishop
Lyman died at the age of seventy-eight. On Palm Sunday (March 18), 1894, the
new bishop visited Weldon and the following day, Monday in Holy Week, he
made his first visitation to the Church of the Saviour. Assisted by Mr. Picard he
celebrated the Holy Communion." Many years later Bishop Cheshire wrote:

I... was entertained by Mr. Alveston Burgwyn, Senior Warden. At
the time there was no rector of the parish. . . . During the long
vacancy in the rectorship . . . services were regularly maintained by
the Rev. William T. Picard, Deacon. .. . It seems to me that the life
service of this godly and faithful man forms one of the most beauti-
ful episodes in the history, not only of this parish but of the Diocese.
... 1 must also mention that in piety and in all the graces of the
Christian life and in their faithful devotion to the Church, Mrs.
Picard and his children, seconded his good works. . . . When I first
knew the parish Mr. Alveston Burgwyn was Senior Warden, the
leader of a notable body of laymen, among whom I may mention his
brother, Mr. George Burgwyn, Mr. W. W. Peebles and Robt. B.
Peebles, Dr. Stancell, John B. MacRae, and a number of younger

men.”

The bishop’s recital of this visit to the parish refreshes the memory of the staunch
laymen who worked with Mr. Picard.

To the Convocation of Tarboro the absence of a rector for Jackson was a
matter of real concern. The dean wrote that “the Convocation is anxious to
see a good, earnest man, unmarried if possible, placed at Jackson, and another at
Weldon. With each of these points as a center the right kind of man could do
very effective work.”

In May, 1895, Bishop Cheshire suggested that Weldon and Jackson together
call the Rev. Norman B. Harris of the Diocese of Florida. This was done, but Mr.
Harris served these-churches for only a few months, and resigned in August,
1895.% Mr. Picard continued alone.

XI

On the night of September 29, 1895," the parish church on which so much
effort had been spent was burned to the ground in a fire that swept through the
neighborhood. Fortunately almost all the ornaments and furniture were saved.

= Journal, 1894.

=2Letter from Bishop Cheshire to Mrs. Edmund Wilkins Lewis, undated, but probably
written in 1928-29. ‘

3 Journal, 1894.

* Minutes of the Vestry.

2% The Minutes of the Vestry record the date as October 29, but this seems to be an error.

 
30 NorTHAMPTON ParisHEs

The little school building behind the churchyard was made to eee 7
in addition to its usual functions. Almost immediately the Conc , a sane
gregation began

to plan for a new church. Two committees were formed to solicit contributi ad
The committee of men was composed of oes

The Rey. William T. Picard
Henry Wilkins Lewis, M.D.
William Wallace Peebles
John Burgwyn MacRae.

George Pollok Burewyn
Robert Bruce Besbien

Calvert Goosley Peebles

The committee of women was composed of
Mrs. Eliza Calvert Barrow
Mrs. W. T. Picard

Mrs. W. Paul Moore
Miss J. W. Whitfield.

When Bishop Cheshire visited the parish in March, 1896,
courthouse.” :
By October 1, 1896, the foundations of the new church had bi i
Mr. P. Burke came from Henderson to superintend the sone ah Hach andl
itself came from the quarries at Graystone in Vance CG hs
cember work was discontinued on account of bad we:
slowly and funds were hard to collect.
In February, 1897, the women of the parish beg:
Patron and Gleaner called a “pleasing entertainm

Mrs. H. W. Lewis
Miss Julia Southall
Mrs. Samuel Simpson

he held services in the

The stone
‘ounty. On the first of De-
‘ather.” The work moved

an arrangements for what the
ent”

aan . to be giv. ae
for the benefit of the building fund. The same Paper carried aS a on March 1]
announcement:

CoME To THE E) PERTAINMENT.
Under the auspices of the Ladies Auxiliar
an entertainment will be given in J
1, in which :

y of the Episcopal Churct
acks, = ie
ackson on the evening of March

Madame Jarley

will appear with her famous waxworks, w

hi pea
TERE eet cae hich has been exhibited in

Also that sparkling ¢
a = comed
Kafoozlum : :

will be given on the same evening.
Admission: Adults, 25c; Children T5c

Something must have gone wrong with the |].

adies’ plans
paper announced that the entertainment had bee: ain

; A The next week’s
n indefinitely postponed.**

** Minutes of the Vestry.
2" Patron and Gleaner, L:
after as Patron and Gleaner.
™S Tbid, October 1, 1896.
=” Thid, December 3, 1896.
7 Tbid, February 11, 1897.
= Tbid, February 18, 1897.

r, North Carolina, Mz 6 5
orth Carolina, March 26, 1896. This newspaper is cited }
spa t ‘d here-

THE CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR 81

Later in the spring, work was resumed on the church building, and by June
24, 1897, the stone work had been completed.™

In the meantime the congregation, led by Mr. Picard, continued services in
the school house. From time to time the Rev. Walter J. Smith from Scotland
Neck, or the Rev. Girard W. Phelps, came to celebrate the Holy Communion."
The year the old church was burned witnessed the formation of the first branch
of the Women’s Auxiliary in the parish to supercede the Ladies Aid Society.
There were thirteen members in the senior branch, a junior department with
fourteen members, and a Babies Branch with one member. The first “United
Offering” from the senior branch was $10.00.% This was the situation in the
Church of the Saviour when the Spanish-American War began.

On September 15, 1897, the Rev. James Taylor Chambers from the Diocese
of Indiana, came to Weldon as rector of Grace Church there and of the Jackson
church.”* Mr. Chambers remained in the parish throughout the Spanish-American
War and through the remainder of the building period.

In March, 1898, the memorial windows for the new building began to arrive,
and the people looked forward to its completion.” But that same month the
congregation suffered “a great loss in the death of Mr. J. Alveston Burgwyn. . . .
A loyal son of the Church, his last public act was the discharge of his duty as Lay
Reader within a week of his decease.”"" The Patron and Gleaner reported that
his death ‘‘cast a gloom over the entire county.”** The next month Mr. John J.
Long was elected to fill the vacancy on the vestry created by Mr. Burgwyn’s
death.”

On Palm Sunday (April 3), 1898, Bishop Cheshire visited the parish for con-
firmation. In the afternoon he went to Margaretsville and preached “in a Public
Hall.” Later the same year the bishop returned and held confirmation services
at both Jackson and Margaretsville. The work at Margaretsville, started in Mr.
Higgs’s time under Mr. Picard’s ministrations, received tremendous support from
the Stancell family living in that neighborhood. The elder Dr. Stancell™ and his
wife* were people of piety and influence. Their son, Dr. Robert Henry Stancell,
Jr." was one of the most promising men in the county. His death in 1896 was
a blow to the community and to the Church. The Jackson correspondent of the
Patron and Gleaner wrote at the time that

bid, June 24, 1897.
8 Journal, 1897.
= Journal, 1896.
8 Journal, 1898. Mr. Chambers was ordained priest on June 11, 1865.
= Patron and Gleaner, March 17, 1898.
7 Journal, 1898.
=8Patron and Gleaner, March 10, 1898.
= Tbid, April 28, 1898.
2 Journal, 1898.
1 Born 1842, died 1917; buried in the churchyard.
*2 Annie Summerell, born 1844, died 1874.
Born 1872, died 1896.

 
 

 

NorTHAMPTON ParisHEs

His body was brought here [from Southern Pines] :
interred in the Episcopal Church yard by the side of his mother who
fell a victim of the same disease [consumption] several years ago. His
burial was attended by a larger number of people it is said than ever
assembled here before on a similar occasion. A large number of
friends and acquaintances deeply sympathize with his devoted father
in the great loss he and the county has sustained in the death of this
bright and highly esteemed and beloved young man. In him were
happily combined the elements that go to make upa manly character
of rare excellency and usefulness. He was about 25 years old and
grew up in a house of deeply pious parents.
medicine before he was 21 years old
fore the State. Board before he v
practice medicine.

On November 17, 1898, the Patron and Gleaner reported that the “Episcopal
Church is now about completed . . . the furniture having been put in place. We
believe it to be one of the finest church edifices in any town in the state.” Three
days later, Sunday, November 20, 1898, although the building could not yet be
consecrated, the first services were held in the new Church of the Saviour. It was
a great occasion. There were services on the following Monday and Tuesday

evenings in addition to those held on Sunday. The Weldon newspaper account
has been preserved.

on Sunday and

- .. He graduated in
and passed his examinations be-
was old enough to receive license to

The choir of Grace Church of this place united w

ith the choir there,
and the excellently arranged musical programme was beautifully
rendered.

On Sunday morning the Rev. Mr. Chambers, preceding the ser-
mon, made a short address in which he welcomed the w.

present, and thanked all who by their offerings had made
to build such a House in the name of the Lord. He said, in part,
that the contractors, builders and laborers were entitled to thanks
for the faithful work done; that it was generally admitted that to
the Rev. Mr. Picard, more than to anyone else, thanks were due for

his earnest, patient faithfulness in having erected such a handsome
Church... -

Shortly following this address was his serr
propriate to the occasion; his text from Genes
none other but the House of God.’ . . ,

He exhorted his people to be doers of the V
only; and concluded by saying: ‘God be praise:
this House; and may God not forget your
and reward all who have aided it with gilts
and may it gather many souls into the Churct

orshippers
it possible

mon being most ap-
is 28:17 was ‘This is

Vord, and not hearers

d that ye have builded
work and labor of love

and prayers, sevenfold:
h Militant on earth and

2 Patron and Gleaner, January 30, 1896.

Tur CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR, JACKSON

Exterior since 1898

 
 

 

 

NORTHAMPTON ParIsHES

the Church Triumphant in Heaven, for His sake who is the corner-
stone of the one and the capstone of the other, even Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen.’

At the suggestion of the Rector the offerings were given to the
ladies to help cancel the remaining debt on the church carpet.

During the collection Miss Kate Cohen of Weldon sang ‘One
Sweetly Solemn Thought.’ ... At the night service she sang, in her
usual sweet style, “Phere is a Land Mine Eye Hath Seen.’ é

On Monday night the Rev. H. S. Lancaster, rector of St
Thomas’ Church, Berkley, Va., preached an excellent sermon eaitedl
to the occasion. Following this Dr. W. Paul Moore, in his sympa-
thetic style, sang ‘I Heard The Voice of Jesus Say.” On aReatks
evening the Rev. Mr. Lancaster preached again to a large and a
terested congregation. During the collection at this service Dr.
Moore sang ‘Jesus The Very Thought of Thee.’ .. = j

To the Convention of 1899 Mr. Chambers and Mr. Picard reported that the

new church had cost to that time about $3,800. With the exception of $16.50,
this amount was raised within a two-year period. nee:

The church has a handsome reredos, altar, and chancel rail, put in
to the memory of our late esteemed lay reader, Mr. J. A. Bates nN.
and many handsome memorial windows; notably a chancel Gentes
by General M. W. Ransom to his son Thomas R. Ransom, and a

triplet window by Capt. R. B. Peebles in memory of his wi 2
and nephew.” y of his wife, niece,

On November 5, 1899, Bishop Cheshire visited the parish and in the after-

noon went to Seaboard and preached in the school house there” With the
exception of a brief period early in 1903 when Mr. Picard’s health Rona him t
give up services, he and Mr. Chambers continued their joint ministrations. 4
In 1903-04 the parish purchased the marble font still in use. and, in aatitifion
had the interior walls of the new building painted. Gradually the Glaeorertiorn cael
furnishing of the church were completed.** Ornaments from the altar the chancel
and sanctuary furniture, and the little reed organ purchased in 1

lr. Higes’s ti
had been saved from the old church and were placed in the new pula ae

little organ took a lowly place, however, upon the acquisition of a pipe organ
the first in the county. The remaining debt was paid off and the ae 2 :
secration arrived. y ‘on-

=5 A xeprint of this article was found in 1950 by the Mis 5 f
old home in Jackson and given by them to the writer,” sss Harriet and Ellen Bowen in their
2 Journal, 1899.
= Journal, 1900.
8 Journal, 1904.

THe CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR, JACKSON

Interior since 1898

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

86 NORTHAMPTON PARISHES

On the Third Sunday after Trinity, June 19, 1904, Bishop Cheshire came to
Jackson to consecrate the new church. His report of the occasion reads as follows:

I consecrated The Church of The Saviour, Jackson. The Petition
for Consecration on the part of the Rector and Vestrymen was read
by the Rev. Wm. T. Picard, and the Sentence of Consecration was

read by the Rev. Gilbert Higgs, D. D., who also preached the sermon.

The Rev. J. Taylor Chambers, rector of the parish, also joined in the
service.”

XII

Nine months after the new church was consecrated (March 15, 1905) Mr.
Chambers resigned and was transferred to the Diocese of Okina i

following June 1 the Rev. Francis Joyner, then Archdeacon of
a call to the parish.”
Mr. Joyner, aged fifty-two at the time he acc F
the Diocese of North Carolina from East Carolina ape ae a ae to
and in Pamlico and Craven counties. In 1901 he became rector of the Gare
the Good Shepherd, Ridgeway, and priest-in-charge of St. Alban’s Littlet c ef
the Church of the Heavenly Rest, Middleburg." In October 1902 he ie = e
archdeacon of the Convocation of Raleigh,” a position he Gomianegl toh id for
several months (until November, 1905) after he accepted charge of the see ; ‘or
Jackson.” In addition to his responsibilities at the Church of the ae a
served Littleton, Gaston, and the mission he was working to establish in ale
Ree Jpmeny oll, TENS) Iie WES ee Go relinquish his work in Roanoke
During this period in the Jackson church’s history the records make i
clear that the communicant strength declined sharply on account of a 4 € it very
ber of deaths and removals. The Sunday School dwindled almost to piece
i

point. The minutes of the vestry mention particularly th /
Burgwyn and Mrs. Randolph in the spring of 1907. ei eee: ae

pillars in the parish. The vestry resolutions spoke of Mr.

sel, “always looking foremost to the welfare of the Parish
and liberally to its support. . . . Those in this communit
distress have lost a generous friend. It was characteristic of the man n

a deaf ear to the appeals of the needy and suffering—and we ma area He ea,
his good offices were tendered with such grace . . . that ihe y also add—that
without sense of obligation.”** recipient was left

On the
Raleigh, accepted

and contributing freely
y who were in need or

20 Journal, 1905.

2 Thid.

*1 Journal, 1901.

22 Journal, 1903.

283 Journal, 1906.

2 Journal, 1909.

© Minutes of the Vestry, February 17, 1907.

Tue Rey. FRANCIS JOYNER
Rector of the Church of the Saviour, Jackson, 1905-1916, and
priest in charge of St. Luke’s Church, Gaston, 1901-1914,

 
 

 

NortHAMPTON Parisurs

By early 1914 Mr. Joyner’s health forced him to r
Jackson and Littleton where he continued to reside.
Picard were ill at the time of the convention that —
continued.” When Bishop Cheshire made two Visit: :
went to Caledonia to confirm prisoners on both occ

esign all his charges except
Both Mr, Joyner and Mr.
but their missionary work
S to the parish that year he
ed c asions.*”
On March 1, 1916, Mr. Joyner resigned the rector

Saviour to take St. Bartholomew’s, ate of the Church of the

Pittsboro, in conj

ee ae aS 3 unction wi 8 08
Three years later he retired and continued to live in Littletor te eae
February 28, 1942, at the age of eighty-nine.” nuntil his death on

Shortly after Mr. Joyner’s resignation the Rey. Norvin Corneli
eee rector of Grace Church, Weldon, and the Church of eee mage
z pate 2 ema 7
uncan had come to die Erwin (then called Duke) and Smithfield NOL. Mr.
the Diocese of East Carolina on November 1, 1914 and from _ yaaa
é Eva Pi a a : ‘
Weldon and Jackson.” The nation was involved in the first V ae a
his ministry in Northampton. Mr. Duncan was P st W
development of Christian social relations and rural missions, field:
vACHITIC Savant eerie m Be S, fields Shur
Was just beginning seriously to explore. He served as chairr elds the Church
Committee on Social Service during the war years," man of the Diocesan

ame to
‘ orld War during
articularly interested in the

XII

On December 31, 1917, Mr. Picard died, only a month less tt
years of age. Some months later, when the convention Ss than seventy-nine

- yo ce a met a i
mittee of clergymen presented the following memorial t at Salisbury, a com-
the convention: which was adopted by

In Memory of / Rev. William Thomas Picard / Ordaj
May 11, 1887 / Coming into the Ministry late i one peony
a Deacon to the end of his earthly pilgrimage pee Ss he remained
more than thirty years. Supporting himself a ang aa that office
pursuit of his secular business, he served the Ch mh analy iby ne
wherever he could, and without financial nian whenever and
this was a labor of love. / Modest, humble and searee On To him
inspiration and benediction to the communié y pe his life Was an
He finished his work in quietness and confi y a hich he lived. A
into his reward.*” reence and has entered

ee this eine Mr. George Pollok Burgwyn Jr, we
reader for the parish.” Mr. Burgwyn, like his father pute mileuiee ns fe
‘ ather, served the
Journal, 1914. re
Journals, 1914, 1915.
»s Journal, 1916.
2 Journal,
2” Journal,
* Journals, 1917, 1918,
™ Journal, 1918,
3 Tbid,

 

Tue CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR 89

Church faithfully. In the conventions he took an active part and served on a
number of diocesan committees.

On February 1, 1919, a few months after the Armistice, the Rev. Mr. Duncan
resigned the rectorate to become archdeacon of the Convocation of Raleigh.”
Later Mr. Duncan served parishes in South Carolina and in the Diocese of
Western North Carolina. In 1932 he retired and since that time has lived in
Asheville.

Mr. Duncan was succeeded at Jackson and Weldon by an English priest, the
Rey. Frederick Gousins, from the Diocese of Keewatin in the Province of Prince
Rupert's Land. He remained in the parish a little more than a year. On
October 3, 1920, he was canonically transferred to the Diocese of Michigan. For
many years he served in Darien in the Diocese of Georgia where he still lives.

Within a few months after Mr. Cousins left, on February 3, 1921, the Rev.
Charles Frederick Westman, a priest from the Diocese of Northern Indiana, took
the two churches,” and served until canonically transferred to the Diocese of
Massachusetts on November 1, 1923.*" The parish suffered from the fact that it
seemed unable to procure the services of a man who could remain in the area
for a substantial period of time.

When Mr. Duncan resigned as archdeacon in 1921 he was succeeded by the
Rey. Morrison Bethea,”* and when the Rev. Mr. Westman left this parish Mr.
Bethea took over its supervision.” Mr. Pollok Burgwyn held lay services and
Mr. Bethea came from time to time to preach and administer the sacraments.

In the years following the first World War the church property fell into bad
repair. Honeysuckle and brambles choked the churchyard, and ivy crept up the
walls of the church and pushed its way inside. Boys with sling shots and air
rifles pecked holes in the windows, and after Mr. John MacRae’s death, the old
school house which he had occupied rotted away untended. In these difficult
years when interest lagged, when there was no regular minister and no active
vestry, a few devoted men and women determined to keep the parish alive. Most
of them are active members of the congregation today, but two of them who have
died will always stand high in the history of this church, Mr. Calvert Goosley
Peebles and Mrs. H. B. Hardy. The parish has had no more faithful members
than these two. Mr. Peebles worked hard with the Sunday School and in almost
every other lay capacity. Almost as if the responsibility of her father, Mr. Picard,
had fallen to her, Miss Mabel, as Mrs. Hardy was known, served this church
without stint as organist, Sunday, School teacher, canvasser, parish visitor, and, if
necessary, as sexton. Children remember how she worked to insure that the

«Journal, 1919.
ournal, 1920.
0 Journal, 1921, See also Parish Register of Grace Church, Weldon. The Rey. Mr. Westman
was ordained priest, June 18, 1905. He died November 22, 1944.
"7 Journal, 1924.
ms Journal, 1922.
9% Journal, 1925.

 
 

 

90 NorTHAMPTON ParisHEs

traditional egg hunt was held on the
But chiefly Mr. Peebles and Mrs. H
Christian living.

At the convention of 1922 the Rev. Edwin Anderson
bishop coadjutor of the diocese and placed in char

Charlotte.™” Bishop Cheshire continued his regular visi
churches, and Bishop Penick made his first ae to Rete ae
when he went to St. Luke’s but did not come to Jackson.™ i » 1924,
On January 1, 1925, the Rev. Clarence Henr iu
and take charge of the church there and the Gee ee
first minister to occupy the new rectory in Weldon.” When Bisho aaa e
visited this parish on December 14 that year Mr. Jordan presented He eshire
for confirmation, one of the largest classes in many years." In 1996 we site
assumed charge of St. Mark’s, Halifax, in addition to his work at Ja ie Jordan
Weldon.” In the following spring (1927) the whole Episcopal Church : a and
an evangelical mission known as the Bishops’ Crusade." For a woes be gue
Wayne Hughes of Holy Innocents’ Church, Henderson, held services i ib oe
On November 6, 1927, Bishop Penick made his first visit to Jackson aus son.
ning service conducted by Mr. Jordan, the bishop coadjutor preached au ined
The number of children in the parish increased considerably b <
and 1927. For a time parents gave them religious instructi Hees Seana
Mrs. Henry K. Burgwyn, Mrs. S. B. Boone, Miss Lou Balmer, Mrs. Fra k
Mrs. Wilkins Lewis, and other women began to work ron erl a an
church school. The results of this work appeared first in the a ea ae the
the convention of 1928. A Sunday School with five teachers Senet report to
was operating under the direction of Mrs. Lewis as superintendent nA €en pupils
In 1928 the Rev. Mr. Jordan resigned his charge without ac vee
assignment immediately, “desiring,” as Bishop Chest HSEENS Exrolenge

i hire reported, “ i :
of rest before resuming pastoral work.”™ Later he see t Fl ‘ Been
ata 0 Florida where he

courthouse square each Easter Monday.
ardy are remembered for their examples of

Penick was chosen
ge of the Convocation of

Harris,

0 Journal, 1922.
a Journal, 1925.

%2 bid. See also the Parish Register of Grace Chur
33 Journal, 1926, = pace scuurchi |Weldon.

™ Tbid.
35 Journal, 1927.
0 Tbid.
57 Journal, 1928.
48 Tbid.
#9 Journal, 1929.

 

THE CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR

XIV

At the convention in Henderson in 1929 Bishop Cheshire, by then eighty
years old, announced that he had requested Bishop Penick to take over the ad-
ministration of the whole diocese.” Nevertheless, the venerable bishop did not
stop all visitations. He visited Jackson on October 27 that year and confirmed
two persons, the first class presented by the new deacon in charge at Weldon,
Halifax, and Jackson, the Rev. deSaussure Parker Moore.™

Mr. Moore had been ordained deacon by Bishop Penick in St. Paul’s
Church, Winston-Salem, on June 16, 1929, and had come immediately to his
three churches.” A year later, June 15, 1930, Mr. Moore was ordained to the
priesthood.

Both bishops visited the Church of the Saviour in 1930. Despite his age
Bishop Cheshire continued annual visitations to the parish as late as October 16,
1932." On December 27 that year he died.

As diocesan, Bishop Penick conducted his first confirmation in Jackson on
the afternoon of December 10, 1933. After the service he met with the vestry to
consider the possibility of giving consent to the erection of a community house
for general use on the old parochial school lot behind the churchyard." By this
time the school building had been demolished. This project never materialized.

For thirteen years the Rev. Mr. Moore had charge of the parish. During the
second World War, on November 11, 1942, having accepted a call, Mr. Moore
was canonically transferred to the Diocese of Southern Virginia where he took
charge of a church in Petersburg, and two churches in Dinwiddie County,” one
of which was old Sapony from which Devereux Jarratt had conducted his
evangelical mission in the Eighteenth Century.

The military service record of the Church of the Saviour in World War II
was remarkable. A fourth of its communicant strength saw military or naval
service.”

For slightly less than a year after Mr. Moore left, the Jackson, Weldon, and
Halifax churches had no regular ministerial care. Then, after his ordination as
deacon on September 19, 1943, the Rev. Robert Eugene Cox took charge of the

© Tbid.

821 Journal, 1930. The Rev. Mr. Moore was born in Sumter, South Carolina, July 19, 1892, the
son of DeVeaux and Carolina Parker Moore. During the first World War he served as a line officer
for three years. Later he attended Clemson College and the Virginia Theological Seminary. He
was married to Miss Nina Tresvant.

=2 Thid.

3 Journals, 1931, 1932, 1933.

= Journal, 1933.

* Journal, 1934.

8 Journal, 1943.

® The following members of the parish entered the armed forces of the United States: Bart-
lett Roper Burgwyn, William Hyslop Sumner Burgwyn, Jr., Henry King Burgwyn, Henry Boone,
Rogers Jordan Boone, Henry Peebles Harris, William Exum Harris, Edward Bolling Duke Jones,
Henry Wilkins Lewis, Philip Alston Lewis.

 
THe CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR 93

three places. On June 20, 1944, Mr. Cox was ordained priest by Bishop Penick
in Grace Church, Weldon.” He held the three churches until May 31, 1945,
when he became rector of Holy Trinity, Greensboro.” Mr. Cox was succeeded
by the Rev. Robert Lansing Hicks who had been ordained deacon on February
21, 1945. Mr. Hicks was ordained to the priesthood in Grace Church on No-
vember 21 that same year.“" Some months afterward he resigned to continue his
theological studies. Both Mr. Robert Cox and Mr. Hicks subsequently became
members of church seminary faculties, Mr. Cox at Virginia and Mr. Hicks at
Sewanee.

On October 1, 1946, Mr. Hicks was succeeded by the Rev. Thomas Lawson
Cox, brother of Mr. Robert Cox. He had been ordained deacon on June 9,
1946.** In St. Mark’s Church, Halifax, he was advanced to the priesthood on
July 9, 1947. Mr. Lawson Cox held the three churches until March 1, 1948,
when he took a parish in Blacksburg, Virginia.™

The old difficulty of retaining a minister for a reasonable time was again
with the parish. For a period of nine months the church had no rector. Then on
December 15, 1948, for only the second time in the history of the parish, a former
rector returned to serve the church. The Rev. deSaussure Parker Moore again
took charge of the Weldon and Jackson churches. Mr. Moore did not again
take charge of St. Mark’s, Halifax, but when the Rev. Edmund Berkeley left
Roanoke Rapids and St. Luke’s in May, 1949, Mr. Moore agreed to serve St.
Luke’s in addition to his work in Weldon and Jackson.” On July 9, 1950, Bishop
Penick visited the Church of the Saviour and Mr. Moore presented two candidates
for confirmation.”

On September 14, 1950, a special diocesan convention met at St. Mary’s
School in Raleigh for the purpose of electing a bishop coadjutor. Immediately
after the convention was called to order, Bishop Penick announced that he had
just been informed that Mr. Moore died that morning in a Roanoke Rapids
hospital.

Mr. Moore served the Church of the Saviour slightly more than fifteen years
altogether, the longest rectorate in the church’s hundred years. No man in the
history of the parish was more beloved.

athe, 1s ie : Journal,
HE REv. DESAUSsURE PARKER Moore esi

Rector of the Church of the Saviour, Jackson, 1929-1942; 1948-1950 ey he
priest in charge of St. Luke’s Church, Gaston, 1939-1940; 1949. 1950. ea cuaal,
: : : “Journal,
fournal,
bid.
* Journal, 1950.
Yorth Carolina Churchman, Vol. XL, No. 1, September, 1950.

 

 
 

 

 

94 NORTHAMPTON ParisHES

At the regular diocesan convention in 1951, one hundred years after the
convention at which the Church of the Saviour was admitted to the diocese, with
the whole convention standing, Bishop Penick read this tribute:**

We record with a sense of personal loss the death of the Revy-
erend deSaussure Parker Moore on September 14, 1950. Mr. Moore
was born in Sumter, S. C., in 1892. After studying at Clemson Col-
lege he engaged in the dairy business for several years.
trained for the ministry at the Virginia Theological Semin:
was ordained Deacon in 1929. He became Priest in 1930.

For thirteen years he served as Priest in Charge of Grace
Church, Weldon, St. Mark’s Church, Halifax, and the Church of
the Saviour, Jackson. After leaving this diocese in 1942 he had three
short rectorships in Virginia, Georgia and South Carolina, and then
returned to his first charge in the Weldon field where his hosts of
friends were happy to welcome him back.

I have never known any minister who was more generally be-
loved by “all sorts and conditions of men.” During the hour of his
funeral, the stores in Weldon were closed as a tribute of respect. T. LUKE’S CHURCH
The secret of his popularity and far-reaching influence lay, not in a Ga
his possession of any brilliant gifts, but in a simple love for ordinary
people, combined with a sincere desire to minister to them in
homely, unpretentious ways. He had a pastor’s heart,
care for his flock, the humility of a child

He was
ary, and

a shepherd’s
» a tender sympathetic

friendliness that regarded the world as his neighbor.

*8 Excerpt from the address of the Rt. Rev.

Edwin A. Penick, D.D.,
of the Diocese of North Carolina, May, 1951, kind!

\ to the annual convention
ly furnished the writer
1951.

by the bishop in August,

 
 

 

 

 

 

I

On November 13, 1844, Bishop Ives, accompanied by the Rev. Cameron
MacRae of Warrenton, visited the town of Gaston and there he confirmed one
person.™ This was the first episcopal visit to Northampton County and repre-
sents the opening event in the history of St. Luke’s Church.

The little town named in honor of Judge William Gaston stood on the
north bank of the Roanoke River near Wilkins Ferry. It became the eastern
terminus of the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad. For many years passengers and
freight were ferried from the railroad station on the south bank of the river to
the village on the north bank where passengers could spend the night at the
Wainwright Hotel or change to the Greensville railroad leading to Petersburg.
Later a covered wooden bridge supported by stone pillars was erected to span
the river at the town, and a large brick depot was built in Gaston. Merchandise
from Petersburg, Richmond, and the north was brought to Gaston for trans-
shipment to Raleigh by rail and to Clarksville, Danville, and the adjacent plan-
tations by boat. The main street of the little town ran parallel to the river. At
one end near the bridge stood the hotel; at the other stood a little cocoonery
building which had been erected by William Wyche Wilkins in connection with
his experiments with silk worms.”

Sometime after the death of Mr. Wilkins in 1840 the Methodists purchased
the little cocoonery and used it for religious services. On November 12, 1858,
Mr. Edmund Wilkins, one of the first vestrymen of the Jackson church, purchased
this building from the trustees of the Methodists’ Greensville Circuit." Mr. Wil-
kins lived at the Belmont plantation adjoining the town. While he was the
only communicant of the Episcopal Church in the Gaston community at that
time, Mr. Wilkins intended to exert his energies in starting a mission there. It
was for this purpose that he bought the little building.

When the Rev. Frederick Lightbourn took charge of the Church of the
Saviour, February 1, 1859, he agreed to hold services once each month at Gaston.”
The bishop began to take interest in the work also. Zealous in his efforts to get
the mission started, Mr. Wilkins must have been happy when Bishop Atkinson
notified him that he would make a visitation. One of the letters Mr. Wilkins
wrote to people in nearby Virginia and North Carolina is still in existence:

... I now avail myself of the opportunity by Mr. Benjamin Lewis
to inform you that Bishop Atkinson will hold service at Gaston at
11 A.M. o'clock on Thursday, July 7th next A.D. 1859. If convenient

Journal, 1845
aw'P, J. Miles, article on old town of Gaston, News and Observer, Raleigh, N. C. (date 2).
Some valuable information about the town has been obtained from unpublished manuscript notes
made by Miss Edmonia Cabell Wilkins now in the possession of the writer.
1 See deed from Henry A. House, William Miles, and Nathaniel Mason, Sr., to Edmund Wil-
kins, Northampton County Deed Book 37, p. 433.
42 Journal, 1859.

 
NorTHAMPTON ParisHEs

we should be glad to see you and your friends at church at that time

or on the Sunday after the 7th of Jul i
J y being the 2nd § i
July when Mr. Lightbourne, our regular eee will Sees. is

To the following annual convention Bishop Atkinson reported his visit

follows: as

I preached and administered the Communion at Gaston in a build
ing recently purchased, and appropriated, according i the u: ae
to the worship of God, and in which a congregation has been noe
ized, and is ministered to by the Rev. Mr. Lightbourne ; We alae
advance mainly to the Christian zeal and liberality oi a ae as
in the neighborhood, whose benefactions had been rete a
useful in encouraging the building of churches in other mise ad

who now thought it his duty to provid z
. vide one for him i
neighbors.** nself and his

Slowly the little mission took root. Mr. Wilkins continued t
spirit. With no organ to accompany the music, he
manfully “raised the hymns” for the services.™*

0 be its leading
procured a tuning fork and

Il

The Gaston congregation had hardly star} i aera
the Civil War began. It is remarkable ae the ce Snes oes ae
of the credit for survival must go to the Rey. Mr. Lightbourn’s pes Much
tinued service. He and his successor maintained regular services ha eee Pa
war, and each year from 1860 through 1864 they presented pornuaiens out the
to Bishop Atkinson at the time of his visitations, The 1864 class pent classes
largely of people who had taken refuge at Mt. Rekcut Mr. Thon composed
Tucker’s plantation in the community.” An evidence emne Rear Goode
gregation is the record of how it raised $26.50 in 1862 to re a ee his CO
Wilson, another struggling parish, to pay off a debt on its ates bt ‘ fea S,
In 1863 Mr. Lightbourn was relieved of his work at Gast 2 ding.
Robert A. Castleman who came to serve the church at Halifax ce hi x ae ne
Gaston jointly. He gave Gaston one Sunday service each riemth Dae
e S

year in the community the Gaston congregation contribut 5
total raised to erect a church in Weldon.*" *uted $250.00 of an $800.00

While Mr. Castleman seems first to h
his large family to live in a house at a rai

ave resided in Halifax he soon brought
lroad stop called Summit near the town

*8 Letter from Edmund Wilkins to Mrs. Alexander
I S s. Alexander hn Brodn; 5
ossession of Mrs, H. Stuart Lewis of “W se Beodonn Brodnax, June 3, 1859 i

possesion of Mrs, H. ewis of “Woodlands,” Brodnax, Virginia SPS

%6 Letter from Mrs. Lucy Goode (Capehart) Oert i
Edmonia Cabell Wilkins, February 20, 1948, Boe rea ee rat Garolina, to. Miss
and Miss Wilkins were intimately associated with St. Luke's Church for tt: Both Mrs. Oertel
cited hereafter as Oertel. em for many years. This letter is

% Journals, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864; see als

27 Journal, 1864. seonaeael:

 

Sr. Luke’s CHurcH 99

of Gaston.“* From there he continued his work in Weldon until September, 1865,
when the railroad company withdrew the pass on which he travelled back and
forth. The Civil War had ended, and the minister had no money with which to
pay the fare, so he resigned the care of Weldon. The congregation there, realizing
that the $800.00 in Confederate money would be of little help toward building
a church, gave it all to Mr. Castleman. With this money the poor man was able
to purchase one barrel of flour.” As if poverty were not enough, tragedy fell on
the little congregation. To the Convention of 1866 Bishop Atkinson reported:

Of the Clergy, we have lost by death, one valued and beloved mem-
ber of our body, the Reverend Robert A. Castleman. He was foully
assassinated in the month of October last [October 12, 1865], near
the village of Gaston, by some wretch, as yet unknown, who either
bore him a grudge, the existence of which he himself did not suspect,
or mistook him for another person. It is not creditable to the ad-
ministration of justice in this State that the murderer has so far
gone unpunished. The true criminal was either not arrested, or if
so, was dismissed. The whole matter seems to have been followed
up with little zeal or public spirit.

A former resident in the community wrote of the incident many years later:

I know that Grandmother [Mrs. Thomas Goode Tucker of Mt.
Rekcut] got the news as breakfast was brought in, and she had it
put in her carriage and went right down to Mrs. Castleman and
brought her and the children (five or more in family) to Mt. Rekcut
where they stayed until they went back to Virginia.

In the spring of 1865 before Mr. Castleman’s death, on orders of a Confed-
erate officer stationed at Weldon, the river bridge at Gaston was burned. This
was a death blow to the little town. The war ended; Mr. Castleman was murdered;
the bridge was burned. The winter of 1865-66 was a severe strain on the whole
community. It was bitterly cold, and an eye-witness later recalled how loaded
wagons were driven across the Roanoke on ice near the burned bridge.

Il

With the Gaston bridge gone, Mr. Wilkins and the other members of the
congregation felt that the church should be moved from the dying town to a
spot on higher ground nearer the homes of its members. Not long before Mr.
Wilkins died on January 20, 1867, the old building was moved two miles to a
place on Mr. Wilkins’s land near the Belmont gate on the Lawrenceville road,
the spot the church occupies at the present time.

8 Qertel; see also Miss Edmonia Cabell Wilkins’s unpublished notes in the writer's possession.
#9 Unpublished manuscript notes of Miss Edmonia C. Wilkins.

80 Tbid.

1 Journal, 1866.

2 Oertel.

%3T, J. Miles article in News and Observer, see footnote 340.

 
 

 

 

 

NORTHAMPTON PARISHES

On May 31, 1867, in the midst of the “great agricultural and commercial
depression,” Bishop Atkinson visited the congregation at its new location and
reported:

The Church building has been removed from the village to a site
considered more convenient, two miles distant, and although the
congregation has lost one of its most useful and efficient members

in the person of the late Mr. Edmund Wilkins, yet there seems to

be full determination on their part to secure their regular
services, . . .™

On January 1, 1868, the Rey. W. C. Hunter took charge of a girls school in
Warrenton and assumed temporary care of the Gaston mission where the rector
of Emmanuel Church also performed some parochial functions.* Later in 1868
the Rev. Neilson Falls of Jackson also held services at Gaston. This work was
effective, for when Bishop Atkinson again visited the church early in 1869 and
late in 1870 there were candidates for confirmation."

In the spring of 1870 the Rey. Edward W. Gilliam came to serve the Jackson
church, and at the same time he took charge of the work at Gaston. He was a
diligent worker and achieved good results until he resigned in 1873.*"

Accompanied by the Rev. M. M. Marshall of Warrenton and the Rev. Mr.
Ward of Virginia, Bishop Lyman made his first visitation to the Gaston congre-
gation on January 30, 1874. In his report he refers to the mission as “St. Luke’s
Chapel,” the first time it appears under that name in the diocesan records,*

For several years after the Rev. Mr. Gilliam’s resignation the church had
no regular minister. Bishop Lyman reported that on May 1, 1877,

religious

In St. Luke’s Church, Gaston, I read the service, baptized an infant,
confirmed one person, and administered the Holy 5
Parish has been for a long time without any services.
much anxiety on that account, and a cheerful readiness to unite
with some other adjacent Parish in the maintenance of
By such an arrangement a comfortable support would be

Communion. This
I found here

a clergyman.
assured.*?

IV

Anxiety for the life of St. Luke’s was allayed when the Rey, Gilbert Higes
took charge of Jackson and Warrenton on November 1, 1877, for he also paren

uae ip eats 15.9 Sees seas :
priest-in-charge of St. Luke’s.™ To the Convention of 1878 meeting in Wilming-
. g

Journal, 1868.
Ibid.
Journals, 1869, 1871.
Higgs.
Journal, 1874.
0 Journal, 1877.
0 Journal, 1878.

 

Sr. Luke’s CHuRCcH 101

ton the Rev. Mr. Higgs reported the following statistics concerning St. Luke’s at
the time his ministry there began:

Number of families . .

Number of persons 8

Number of baptisms (infant)

Number of communicants .

Number of burials

Niwa? OF SINE 6 9 5 9 5 3
Number of Holy Communions A oe eer eaares 7
Value of Church property . . . 3 - —. $300.00

To these statistics he appended these remarks:

This Mission has been connected at various times with Warrenton,
Ringwood, and Jackson. Now with Jackson and services on 2nd
Sunday each month. The attendance is very good. The energies
of the congregation are now being directed to repairing the Church
and purchasing a small organ.”

Mr. Higgs was a determined builder. He seemed to feel that “the energies
of the congregation” should always have a positive objective, and his philosophy
worked well in Northampton. When Bishop Lyman came to St. Luke’s on April
22, 1879, he wrote, “I was much pleased by the decided improvement made in
the Church building and the evident signs of increased life and activity in the
Parish.”** The organ was purchased, and most importantly, a Sunday School was
opened with seventeen male and seven female scholars, together with five teachers
and five “other officers.”™

The following year Mr. Higgs reported that

An acre of land; on which the Church is standing, has been given by
deed to the Bishop and Trustees of the Diocese of North Carolina,
in accordance with the desire of the late Edmund Wilkins, Esq.,
deceased, by Edmund W. Wilkins, Esq., M.D., and Mary D. Wilkins,
his wife’. . .. Arrangements have been made to enclose at once a
portion of this land for the protection of the Church and for burial
purposes.*”

This plan for the churchyard was soon accomplished. For some time both
the members of the congregation and the minister had felt that the old cocoonery
building had seen its best days. Under Mr. Higgs’s leadership a vigorous effort
was initiated “to secure the erection of a new, commodious and more churchly

1 Tbid.

%2 Journal, 1879.

3 Tbid.

*4 The deed was dated April 10, 1880.
© Journal, 1880.

 
 

 

 

 

102 NorTHAMPTON PARISHES

edifice” than the converted cocoonery.” The area around the building was laid
out in burial lots, and shrubs and flowering plants were set out. Before long
$235.00 had been subscribed toward building a new church.”

For the next few years the people continued to work toward getting the new
church. In the meantime attendance at services at St. Luke’s was very encouraging.
By the time of the Tarboro Convention of 1886, as had been feared, the old
Gaston church was not considered safe for use. This was an added spur to the
efforts for a new building. “The people are united in earnest in an endeavor to

build a new church. .. . With a little aid from outside friends, this much needed
work can soon be accomplished.”**

A year later Mr. Higgs reported that

It would be difficult to find anywhere a more earnest and reverent
worship. The interest in the new church building is not only un-
abated, but is increasing with the growing interest felt in the church,
«as manifested by the larger congregations attending Divine Worship.
The report of the Building Committee is most gratifying to all, and
is an earnest that the church will in all probability be built this year.

The amount now subscribed is $695.31. Of this sum $438.86 has
been paid.”

By the time of Bishop Lyman’s visit on April 14, 1887, “active steps” had already
been taken toward erection of the new building.”

Up to this time in its history St. Luke’s status in the diocese, like that of a

good many other churches, was somewhat ambiguous. It was only partially selt-
supporting; officially it was spoken of as a mission station, a parish, or simply as
a chapel. At the Convention of 1888 held in Salisbury, St. Luke’s was admitted
into union with the diocese as a mission, and became one of the earliest congre-

gations to receive this status.“ To the same convention, in reporting events in
his field, Mr. Higgs wrote that

On the 17th April [1887] work was begun on the new Church. The
style is Gothic, open roof, finished in native wood (pine oiled). A
pretty stained glass window has been placed in the Chancel, a gift of
the Parish of the Church of the Saviour, Jackson. The work is going
on as fast as means will allow, and we hope to have it ready for

consecration at the next visit of the Bishop. About $1,030.00 has
been expended at this date.™

Describing St. Luke’s long effort for a new church, a former parishoner has written
that

20 Journal,
27 Journal,
%8 Journal,
2 Journal,
m0 Tbid.

™ Journal,
2 Ibid.

 

 

Sr. Luke’s Cuurcu, Gaston
Exterior since 1889

 
 

 

 

 

NORTHAMPTON PARISHES

The present new building was built in Mr. Higgs’ time, and all of
us gave pledges for several years to pay a certain amount each year
toward its erection. I was teaching by that time, but all our family
sent in or met their pledges. . . . Grandmother™ was at that time
the moving spirit, [your] uncle Edmund [Wilkins] being dead. She
sold quilts (works of art) and had tableaux and cultivated an acre of
land for the benefit of the parish. Everybody was very poor in money
after the war.”

The construction continued. Outside friends of the parish gave what help
they could. Bishop Lyman gave pews for the church, and the Rev. Bennett
Smedes of St. Mary’s School presented a chair for the sanctuary.” But the princi-
pal burden remained on the local people. By the late spring of 1889 the work
was completed.

Wednesday, June 12, 1889, was the date set for the consecration. The little
congregation made careful preparations for the seryice and for the entertainment
of the visitors from other parishes invited to join with them in celebrating the
occasion. Bishop Lyman officiated at the service. The request for consecration
was read by Mr. Ashley Wilkins, and the sentence of consecration by the Rev.
Mr. Higgs. The Rev. Aristides S. Smith assisted in the service. Writing about
the event, Bishop Lyman described the new church as “beautiful . . . one of the
most chaste and attractive of any of the rural churches in the Diocese, and re-
flects great credit upon the refined taste and untiring watchfulness of the Rec-

tor... .” The bishop also remarked on the number of visitors who had come

from considerable distances. “After the service, a very elegant and bountiful
collation was provided under the trees near the Church, to which all who came
to the service were most cordially invited.”*"

When the Aes church was consecrated the congregation had paid off its
entire cost—$1,500.

Vv

Mr. Higgs continued his work at St. Luke’s for a year after the new church
was consecrated. On August 1, 1890, however, he resigned his three churches,
Warrenton, Jackson, and St. Luke’s. For about six months there were no a
at Gaston. Then on January 1, 1891, the Rev. Frederick Towers came from the
Diocese of Florida to take the churches left vacant upon Mr. Higgs’s departure.
Two months later Bishop Lyman joined Mr. Towers at Warren Plains and to-

Mrs. Thomas Goode Tucker of Mt. Rekcuty
Oertel.
Journal, 1889.

° Journal, 1890.

57 Tbid,

 

 

Sr. Luke’s CHuRCcH 105

gether they went by train to Gaston. There, at St. Luke’s, on Sunday, March 8,
they celebrated the Holy Communion. Of this visit Bishop Lyman wrote:

I found that Mr. Towers had been very warmly welcomed here, as
he had also at his other congregations at Warrenton and Jackson,
and had already secured the warmest confidence and affection on
the part of his entire flock.”

Unfortunately for these congregations, Mr. Towers did not remain with
them long. On September 1, 1891, he left to become rector of the Chapel of the
Cross in Chapel Hill." There were no services at St. Luke’s from the time he
left until early in 1892 when the Rev. Edward Benedict from the Diocese of
Newark took charge of Warrenton, Jackson, and Gaston.“ Mr. Benedict served
until August 1, 1892, when the Rey. W. Lawton Mellichampe who had been
rector of Grace Church, Weldon, since December 15, 1889, took charge of St.
Luke’s. He held regular services there until March 1, 1893."* Mr. Mellichampe
felt that the Gaston church was “one of the most inviting points for Mission
work in this portion of the Diocese.”"* But for some time after he gave up the
work St. Luke’s again had no services.

At an adjourned session of the Diocesan Convention in June, 1893, the Rev.
Joseph Blount Cheshire was elected assistant bishop of the diocese,“ and on
October 15, the same year, he was consecrated in Calvary Church, Tarboro. On
December 13, 1893, Bishop Lyman died, and the new assistant bishop became the
diocesan.“* Accompanied by the Venerable William Walker, Archdeacon for
Colored Work, the new bishop made his first visitation to St. Luke’s on Tuesday
in Holy Week, March 20, 1894. On the following morning he baptized and
confirmed an adult person and, assisted by Mr. Walker, administered the Holy
Communion. In reporting this visit, Bishop Cheshire wrote that he was trying
to get a minister for St. Luke’s and several surrounding churches then vacant.

Despite the fact that the congregation had no priest to lead them, St. Luke’s
continued to work on its Sunday School. Mr. Ashley Wilkins reported to the
Convention of 1894 that together “with some noble and self-sacrificing ladies” he
had been conducting this work and was “thankful to say that we believe St.
Luke’s Sunday School is now on a stable foundation.” The children in this
Sunday School contributed $2.36 for diocesan missions in 1894."

While the congregation had no minister of its own at this period, all serv-
ices were not discontinued. Under the convocation system then employed in

"8 Journal,
*° Journal,
9 Tbid.

81 Journal, 1
882 Thid.

= Tbid.

4 Journal,
*® Tbid.

8 bid.

8 Ibid.

 
 

 

106 NORTHAMPTON Parisi

the diocese, the Rev. Walter J. Smith, rector of Trinity Church, Scotland Neck
served as dean of the Convocation of Tarboro. From time to time he came to
St. Luke’s for services.”

VI

On December 1, 1895, the Rev. Girard W. Phelps, carrying the title of
“Evangelist of the Convocation of Tarboro,” came to live in Littleton to serve
as rector of St. Clement’s, Ringwood, and as priest-in-charge of the missions at
Littleton, Gaston, and in Edgecombe County.®’ This was an enormous field for
one man, but at least it gave St. Luke’s some claim on the services of a priest.

During the first year of Mr. Phelps’s ministry at Gaston the women of St.
Luke’s formed a Women’s Auxiliary and made their first “United Offering” of
$1.25." Despite this evidence of renewed vigor, Mr. Phelps was very pessimistic
about the church in his 1897 report.

I wish I could say something encouraging as to the future prospect
of St. Luke’s. But thus far I have found little to encourage much
hope for us in the future. If we can hold on for a while, there may
be developments in our favor, at least I so hope, in a few years. In
a little more than a year we have lost by death a gentleman and his
wife, who were ever liberal helpers at St. Luke’s. And we sorely
miss them. Another obstacle to us is, that several of our members
live at such a distance from the church as seldom to be able to get
there. And to add to all this, last year the farmers on the Roanoke
river suffered great losses by freshets and therefore find it no easy
matter to meet their obligation:

As if to multiply these woes, the country soon found itself involved in a
war with Spain. In 1898 Mr. Phelps again detailed the situation at St. Luke’s

I have found this place much as an old field, run down and unpro-
ductive. It is not impossible to revive this work. There is a good
church building, erected perhaps twelve years ago. There has been
no increase in membership for a long while. The membership is
confined mainly to two families, living within a few miles of the
church. Two other families live at a distance, one at
miles, the other seven, and in Brunswick County, Va., and they
rarely attend, being poorly provided with means for that aie
There are not a great many white people, but mostly negroes in
the immediate neighborhood of the church. Yet I think the work
should be maintained, since it is quite possible that

about five

a change for

“Journals, 1894, 1895.
= Journal, 1896.
Tid.

1 Journal, 1897.

 

Sr. Luke’s Cuurcu

the better in the vicinity, and consequently in the Church, must
come at no distant day. Patience is the word to use for work like

this, for haste and fret can do nothing.”

Poor Mr. Phelps seemed to think that Gaston was the last outpost of civilization,
and, of course, in 1898 it was remote. The roads were very poor and the popu-
lation was sparse. The old town of Gaston had gone out of existence.

After the Convention of 1898 the Rev. Mr. Phelps moved from Littleton
to Scotland Neck where he became rector of Trinity Church. While he retained
charge of Ringwood and the Edgecombe missions, Mr. Phelps relinquished both
Littleton and St. Luke’s. At the bishop’s request the Rev. Mr. Picard, long the
assistant minister in Jackson, assumed the care of St. Luke’s upon Mr. Phelps’s
departure.” At this time Mr. Picard’s health was not very good, so when Bishop
Cheshire visited St. Luke’s for confirmation on November 14, 1899, he relieved
Mr. Picard of responsibility for the Gaston church.™

On April 1, 1901, the Rev. Francis Joyner of the Diocese of East Carolina
came to live in Littleton and became rector of the Church of the Good Shep-
herd, Ridgeway, and priest-in-charge of St. Alban’s, Littleton, the mission at
Middleburg, and St. Luke’s, Gaston.’ In October, 1902, Mr. Joyner became
archdeacon of the Convocation of Raleigh in addition to his other duties, and
Bishop Cheshire wrote, “It is hoped that some arrangement may soon be made
whereby he may receive assistance in the care of these congregations.” But
this help was slow in materializing. Nevertheless, with all his duties, the arch-
deacon found time to develop the beginnings of a mission in Roanoke Rapids
that has now grown into All Saints Church." Both before and after he resigned
as archdeacon, Mr. Joyner was able to give St. Luke’s services on fifth Sundays
only.**

On November 1, 1905, the Rev. George M. Tolson became rector of Grace
Church, Weldon, and succeeded Mr. Joyner as archdeacon.® The following
year Mr. Tolson visited St. Luke’s, held four services there, and administered
the Holy Communion.” While the number of services Mr. Joyner could give
the church remained few, the Sunday School and Women’s Auxiliary were

Journal, 1898.

m3 Journal, 1899.

«Journal, 1900.

© Journal, 1901.

0 Journal, 1903.

%7 Journal, 1904. On April 20, 1905, this mission was organized with Dr. Augustus C. Hoyt as
warden and Mr. William Francis Joyner as treasurer. See Journal, 1905. On January 30, 1908, the
Rev. Mr. Joyner gave up the supervision of the work in Roanoke Rapids. Journal, 1909. In the
summer of 1909 the Rev. Hardy Hardison Phelps became rector of Grace Church, Weldon, and
also assumed charge of the work at Roanoke Rapids, Ringwood, and Enfield. Journal, 1910. On
January 9, 1911, Mr. Phelps died at the rectory in Weldon. Journal, 1911, About a year later,
under the direction of Archdeacon Hughes, the work at Roanoke Rapids was placed under the
care of Mr. Arthur W. Taylor, a lay worker. Journal, 1912.

8 Journals, 1905, 1906.

we Journal, 1906.

«© Journal, 1907.

 
 

 

108 NORTHAMPTON PARISHES

stoutly maintained. By the time of the 1914 Convention in Raleigh Mr. Joyner’s
health forced him to resign the care of St. Luke’s as well as the care of the Church
of the Good Shepherd, Ridgeway."* From December, 1914, until the time of
the 1915 Convention the new archdeacon, the Venerable N. Collin Hughes, gave
St. Luke’s a monthly service.“*

VII

Within a few months after the 1915 Convention the Rev. Henry Clark
Smith became priest-in-charge of All Saints, Roanoke Rapids, and St. Luke’s.**
This marked the beginning of the union of these two congregations in the
support of a minister. The Rev. Mr. Smith’s report to the 1916 Convention
names Mr. Reginald H. Joyner as warden and treasurer of St. Luke’s,“ a position
he held for many years.

On April 1, 1917, Mr. Smith was succeeded by the Rev. Lewis Taylor, a
native of Oxford, who, since his ordination as deacon on March 30, 1913, had
been serving the churches at Townesville, Stovall, and Middleburg.” Mr. Taylor
was sincerely interested in the development of rural churches,“ and St. Luke’s
offered fertile ground in which to work out his ideas.

Just as the first World War was closing Bishop Cheshire came to St. Luke’s
for his annual visitation on October 6, 1918. The time is significant. The great
influenza epidemic that swept the country was at its height. After his visit to
St. Luke’s the bishop suspended further visits that year. Five days later the
Armistice was signed.”

With a regular minister living nearby, the life at St. Luke’s began to
quicken. In 1919 Mr. Taylor held twenty-five services at the church, the ‘largest
number there in many years. The same year the Convocation of Raleigh al-
located $2,200.00 toward the work of Mr. Taylor and two lay workers in Roa-
noke Rapids and Gaston.” Similar contributions were continued for several
years. The Journal of the Convention of 1921 contains some interesting statistics
about St. Luke’s: the value of the church was set at $3,000.00, the land, $100.00,
the furniture, $300.00, and the insurance on the property, $1,000.00

«0 Journal, 1914.

«2 Journal, 1915.

«2 Journal, 1916.

te Journals, 1913, 1914, 1915. Mr. Tay

#5 Journals, 1913, 1914, 1915. Mr. Taylor was born October 29, 1889, ordai
priest, 1914. On May 14, 1914, he married Miss Adelaide Henrietta Trekon Weep ligase
rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Columbia, South Carolina, where he served until his
death. ‘

406 At the Convention of 1918, on motion of the Rev. Mr. Duncan ctor ksi
Weldon churches) , the Rev. Alfred S. Lawrence, the Rev. Mr. Taylor, Meee Le ee
Mr. George Pollok Burgwyn were appointed a committee on the Country Church and Rural Life
See Journal, 1918. és :

42 Journal, 1919.

#8 Journal, 1920.

 

Sr. Lukr’s Cuurcu 109

On October 11, 1921, Bishop Cheshire visited St. Luke’s and confirmed six
persons presented by Mr. Taylor, a very large class for this congregation.”

Under Mr. Taylor's leadership the Gaston congregation began work on a
parish house. By 1923 it was completed and valued at $1,500.00. The building
proved very useful throughout Mr. Taylor’s ministry.

On October 10, 1923, the Women’s Auxiliary of the District of Edgecombe
held their annual meeting at St. Luke’s with Bishop Cheshire attending.” This
was symbolic of the way in which St. Luke’s was assuming a stable position in
the work of the Church.

On April 24, 1924, the bishop coadjutor, the Rt. Rev. Edwin A. Penick,
made his first visit to Northampton and confirmed one person at St. Luke’s.‘*

VIII

The Rev. Mr. Taylor continued to serve Roanoke Rapids and St. Luke’s
until March 18, 1925, when he was canonically transferred to the Diocese of
Upper South Carolina."* He was succeeded by the Rev. Henry deChartignier
Mazyck who had formerly served at Mayodan."* Mr. Mazyck remained in charge
for only about one year.

On January 14, 1926, Bishop Cheshire turned supervision of St. Luke’s over
to Bishop Penick, but the old bishop made a final visitation to the church on
November 5 that year for the confirmation of three persons.”

When the 1928 Convention met Mr. Mazyck’s place had not been filled.
Shortly thereafter, however, on June 4, 1928, the Rev. Joseph Nicholas Bynum
of the Diocese of East Carolina took charge of Roanoke Rapids and Gaston.”

Under Mr. Bynum services were held regularly for a ten-year period. On
October 29, 1937, the Women’s Auxiliary of the District of Edgecombe held its
annual meeting at St. Luke’s for the second time in the parish’s history. On
February 24, 1938, the Rev. Mr. Bynum was forced to become inactive on account
of his health.”

The Rey. Charles Upchurch Harris, Jr., of Raleigh, was ordained deacon
on June 13, 1938, and came to Roanoke Rapids as Mr. Bynum’s successor at All
Saints and at St. Luke’s. Mr. Harris served these churches until his ordination
to the priesthood on October 2, 1939, when he went to New York for work at

4 Journal, 1922.

#© Journal, 19

4 Journal, 192:

“2 Thid.

#8 Journal, 1926.

‘4 Journal, 1927. On November 7, 1933, Bishop Penick received notice that the Bishop of
Kentucky had deposed Mr. Mazyck from the priesthood, see Journal, 1934.

5 Journal, 1927.

“© Journal, 1929. Mr. Bynum was born at Farmville, North Carolina, December 4, 1885, or-
dained deacon, 1916, priest, 1917. On December 24, 1920, I arried Miss Grace E. Potter. Before
coming to St. Luke's he served in Gatesville, Southport, Wilmington, and Belhaven.

Journals, 1930, 1937, 1939.

 
 

110 NorTHAMPTON PARISHES

Union Theological Seminary." During the ensuing vacancy, the Rev. deSaussure
Parker Moore of Weldon and Jackson gave St. Luke’s occasional services. On
December 1, 1940, the Rev. Edmund Berkeley from the Diocese of Southwestern
Virginia assumed charge of Roanoke Rapids and Gaston.”

Mr. Berkeley served these churches throughout World War II. On May 13,
1945, Bishop Penick made his regular visit to St. Luke’s and, as was fitting for
the time, said special prayers for V-E Day.™

On October 30, 1948, Bishop Penick issued a lay reader’s license to Mr.
Breedlove Shaw for use at St. Luke’s Church, the first record of authorization
for lay services in this parish.

On May 1, 1949, the Rev. Mr. Berkeley left the diocese to become rector of
Gallilee Church, Virginia Beach.“ Again the Rev. Mr. Moore volunteered to
give services at St. Luke’s. When the Rev. Marshall McCormick Milton assumed
the rectorate of All Saints, Roanoke Rapids, in November, 1949, it was decided
that he should serve that church only. The Rev. Mr. Moore then assumed
charge of St. Luke’s and held regular services there until his death.

4s Journal, 1940. The Rev. Mr. Harris was born in Raleigh, N. C.,
Aterwaniin OHS ypsitets in IGEED Ola price uel, WYUy, Me mevetteal Enea Gants, ONG
Rapids he served as assistant at St. Bartholomew’s, New York, 15
Roslyn, N. Y., 1940-46, and Trinity, Highland Park, Mlinois, 1S

48 Journal, 1941. ‘The Rev. Mr. Berkeley was born at Mayodan, N 9

( 1 v ) at May .N. e 28, 16 ra

deacon in 1936, priest in 1937. On May 1, 1937, he married Mary Wotigennatier ae Sein
Natural Bridge Parish, Buena Vista, Virginia, 193740; Roanoke Rapids a St. Luke's "
and Galilee Church, Virginia Beach, 1949—. TELE Os MLS LES

4” Journal, 1946.

«1 Journal, 1949.

Ibid.

y 2, 1914, ordained
After leaving Roanoke
1940, and as rector of Trinity,

APPENDIX

 
 

 

 

A LIST OF CLERGYMEN WHO HAVE SERVED IN NORTHAMPTON

The Colonial Clergy

Peter Fontaine* 1728—1729
sxeecmarone JONES? 1731—1733
John Boyd 1733—1737
John Holmes 1738—(?)
Clement Hall* c. 1753
William Fanning 1754—1761
James Moir 1762—1765
Andrew Morton 1766—1767
John Barnett 1767—1770
Charles Edward Taylor 1771—1778
Stephen Johnston c. 1794

The Clergy of the Episcopal Church
1. At Jackson

William Norwood November 27, 1831—November (?), 1832
Joseph Saunders* These clergymen from Windsor,
John M. Robinson* | Warrenton, and Edenton held services
Samuel Iredell Johnston* in Jackson, at the Burgwyn plantations,

Charles A. Maison* | | and at other places in the county

Cameron MacRae* between 1832 and 1848.
William H. Harison January (?), 1848—May, 1850
Frederick Fitzgerald May 1, 1851—June 17, 1855
Thomas Goelet Haughton July, 1856—January 1, 1857
Frederick Fitzgerald November, 1857—November, 1858
Frederick Lightbourn February 1, 1859—Fall, 1867
Neilson Falls Spring, 1868—Spring, 1869
Edward Winslow Gilliam Spring, 1870—Summer, 1873
Edward Wooten* November 30, 1873—November 1, 1877
Gilbert Higgs November 1, 1877—August 1, 1890
William T. Picard August 1, 1890—January 1, 1891
Frederick Towers January 1, 1891—August 31, 1891
William T. Picard August 31, 1891—Winter, 1891-92
Edward Benedict Winter, 1891-92—(?) 1893
William T. Picard (?) 1893—May, 1895
Norman B. Harris May, 1895—August, 1895
William T. Picard August, 1895—September 15, 1897
James Taylor Chambers September 15, 1897—March 15, 1905
William T. Picard March 15, 1905—June 1, 1905
Francis Joyner June 1, 1905—March 1, 1916
William T. Picard March 1, 1916—Spring, 1916
Norvin Cornelius Duncan Spring, 1916—February 1, 1919
Frederick Cousins Summer, 1919—October 3, 1920

“Indicates clergymen who served at the places indicated without being officially assigned.

 
2.

NorTHAMPTON ParisHES

Charles Frederick Westman
Morrison Bethea*
Clarence Henry Jordan
deSaussure Parker Moore
Robert Eugene Cox
Robert Lansing Hicks
Thomas Lawson Cox
deSaussure Parker Moore

At Gaston

Cameron MacRae*
Frederick Lightbourn
Robert A. Castleman
Frederick Lightbourn
W. C. Hunter

Nielson Falls

Edward Winslow Gilliam
Gilbert Higgs

Frederick Towers
Edward Benedict

W. Lawton Mellichampe
Walter J. Smith*

Girard W. Phelps
William T. Picard
Francis Joyner

N. Collin Hughes*
Henry Clark Smith
Lewis Taylor

Henry deChartignier Mazcyk
Joseph Nicholas Bynum

Charles Upchurch Harris, Jr.

deSaussure Parker Moore*
Edmund Berkley
deSaussure Parker Moore

*Indicates clergymen who served at the places indicated without being

February 3, 1921—November 1,
Winter, 1923-24—December,
January 1, 1925—(?)

June 16, 1929—November 11,
September 19, 1943—May 31,
Summer, 1945—September

October 1, 1946—March 1,
December 15, 1948—September 14,

©
February 1, 1859—(?)

(?) 1863—October 12,

(?) 1865—Fall,

Early months of

(?) 1868—Spring,

Spring, 1870—Summer,
November 1, 1877—August 1,
January 1, 1891—August 31,
Early 1892—August 1,
August 1, 1892—March 1,
(?) 1893—(?)

December 1, 1895—Spring,
Spring, 1898—November 14,
April 1, 1901—Spring,
Spring, 1914 Spring,
Spring, 1915—April 1,

April 1, 1917—March 18,
Spring, 1925—Spring,

June 4, 1928—February 24,
June, 1938—October 2,
October, 1939—November,
December 1, 1940—May 1,
Spring, 1949—September 14,

1923
1925
1928
1942
1945
1946
1948
1950

1844
1863
1865
1867
1868
1869
1873
1890
1891
1892
1893
1895
1898
1899
1914
1915
1917
1925
1926
1938
1939
1940
1949
1950

officially assigned.

APPENDIX

A LIST OF THE PARISHONERS OF THE CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR

IN 1851 TAKEN FROM THE PARISH REGISTER

David A. Barnes

Dr. William Barrow

Eliza Calvert Barrow (Mrs. William)
Mrs. Virginia Bilbro

Thomas Bragg

Isabelle Cuthbert Bragg (Mrs. Thomas)

Henry King Burgwyn

Anna Greenough Burgwyn (Mrs. H. K.)

Thomas Pollok Burgwyn

John Bowen Bynum

Virginia A. Bynum (Mrs. J. B.)
John Calvert

Caroline Betts Calvert (Mrs. John)
Samuel Calvert

Margaret Proby Calvert
(Mrs. Samuel)

Samuel Calvert, Jr.

Mrs. Nathaniel Eaton

Martha A, Exum

Mrs. George Kee

Frank Lockhart

Mrs. Frank Lockhart

John Randolph

Morgianna Calvert Randolph
(Mrs. John)

Charles Smith

Mrs. Charles Smith

Thomas D. Sterling

Edmund Wilkins

 
NORTHAMPTON PARISHES APPENDIX 117

VESTRYMEN OF THE CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR

The following laymen were serving in 1916 or have served subsequently:

The minutes of the vestry of the Jackson church record elections to the Rogers Jordan Boone Erskine Ehringhaus (see above)
parish vestry from 1851 through 1916. Members elected during those years are Bartlett Roper Burgwyn Henry Benjamin Hardy (see above)
listed here in the order of their election. The date of their retirement or death George Pollok Burgwyn, Jr. (see above) William Exum Harris |
is also recorded. Members elected since 1916, the dates of election not being Coo ene Bure il eee ae (see above)
oa we Ihe +8 a eK wases : hatte. enr in, urgw
recorded, are listed alphabetically without regard to the initial date of service. John irae ses eve Nea Te
William Hyslop Sumner Burgwyn Eric Norfleet

(see above) Calvert Goosley Peebles (see above)
William Hyslop Sumner Burgwyn, Jr. Joseph N. Selden

Dr. William Barrow 1851—1881

Captain John Randolph 1851—1866

Thomas Bragg 1851—1855

Thomas D. Sterling 1851—1852

Henry King Burgwyn 1851—1858

John B. Bynum 1851—1854; 1855—1856
Samuel Calvert 1851—1881

Edmund Wilkins 1851—1858

David A. Barnes 1852—1858

James William Newsom 1854—1890

Henry Benjamin Hardy 1855—1858

John Burgwyn MacRae 1876—1916

William Thomas Picard 1876—1918

Charles Fetter 1876—1880; 1881—1884
William Wallace Peebles 1876—1899

Robert Bruce Peebles 1876—1907

Dr. Virginius St. Clair MacNider 1876—1880

George Urquhart 1878—1880; 1883—1890
Douglas Alexander Jordan 1880—1895

Dr. Robert Henry Stancell 1881—1895

George Pollok Burgwyn 1884—1907

John Alveston Burgwyn 1886—1898

Dr. Henry Wilkins Lewis 1890—1914

Calvert Goosley Peebles 1895—1915; also after 1916
Samuel M. Simpson 1896—1899

John Joseph Long 1898—1901

Thomas Ridley Burgwyn 1900—1908

Etheldred John Peebles 1906—1916

George Pollok Burgwyn, Jr. 1907—1930

Henry Benjamin Hardy 1912—1916; also after 1916
Erskine Ehringhaus 1914—after 1916
Edmund Wilkins Lewis 1914—after 1916
William Hyslop Sumner Burgwyn 1916—after 1916

 
NORTHAMPTON PARISHES

THE CHURCHYARD IN JACKSON

When Mr. Samuel Calvert presented the congregation of the Church of the
Saviour with one-half acre of land their first efforts were directed toward building
a church. But shortly thereafter the vestry and rector laid off as a burial ground
the portion of the property not needed for the building itself. In the minutes
of the vestry can be found a plat of the half-acre carefully drawn by the Rev.
Mr. Fitzgerald to show how it was laid off in lots.

The frontage on Church Street (the East side of the property) was 132 feet;
the depth was 165 feet. Just inside the boundaries and running around the
entire property was a strip, 13 feet deep on the front and back and 7 feet deep
on each side. This border was planned and subsequently used as a place for
the burial of individuals without family lots.

Just inside this outer strip was a 5-foot walk running around the whole
property. Two similar walks running East and West divided the remaining
area into three rows of burial lots. Four 5-foot walks running North and South
at right angles to the East-West walks separated the lots.

The original church building (nave: 80 feet by 25 feet; chancel: 15 feet by
14 feet; vestry room: approximately 8 feet square) occupied the Southeast corner
of the property.

In the exact center of the half-acre, bordered on all four sides with walks,
was a rectangular area 34 feet wide (North-South) and 45 feet long (East-West).
The central part of this rectangle was marked out by a circular walk. The
portion of the rectangle inside the circular walk was designated as the “Rector’s
Lot”; the remaining portions of the rectangle were plainly intended for shrubs
and grass. Both Mr. Daniel Murrell and Mrs. Fitzgerald contributed funds for
the purchase of a sun dial for the churchyard, and it was purchased in 1855.*
It is possible that this ornament was placed in the Rector’s Lot, but since the
sun dial disappeared long ago it is impossible to say with certainty where it
was located.

Just behind or West of the church, and South of the Rector’s Lot, and
lying beside it, was a similar rectangle (32 feet by 45 feet), Lot Number 1. On
February 5, 1854, Mr. Samuel Calvert, the donor of the half-acre, purchased
this lot. To the North of the Rector’s Lot, corresponding with the Calvert lot,
was Lot Number 10 (32 feet by 45 feet) purchased by Mr. Henry King Burgwyn
on May 8, 1854.

Behind the Calvert lot were lots 2 and 8, each 32 feet by 16 feet. On April
4, 1855, Lot Number 2 was purchased by Mr. Henry B. Hardy. Lot Number 3
had not been sold when Mr. Fitzgerald left the parish.

Lot Number 5 lay immediately West of the Rector’s Lot. Its dimensions
were $4 feet by 16 feet, and it was purchased by Mr. John B. Bynum, the third

*See accounts in the Parish Register.

APPENDIX 119

person to be buried in the churchyard. Lot Number 4 of the same dimensions
lay West of Lot Number 5, but it had not been sold at the time of Mr. Fitz-
gerald’s departure.

Lot Number 6 (34 feet by 16 feet) lay immediately East of the Rector’s Lot
and was purchased by Dr. William Barrow, the first senior warden, on November
16, 1853. Lot Number 7 (of the same dimensions) lay East of Lot Number 6
and was purchased by Governor Thomas Bragg on May 8, 1854.

Lot Number 11 (32 feet by 16 feet) lay immediately East of the Burgwyn
lot and was purchased on May 8, 1854, by Captain John Randolph. Lot Number
12 (of the same dimensions) lay East of Lot Number 11. It was in this lot that
Miss Virginia Newsom, aged fifteen, was buried on July 9, 1853, the first burial
in the churchyard recorded in the Parish Register.

Lots 8 and 9 (each 32 feet by 16 feet) lay West of the Burgwyn lot but they
had not been sold at the time Mr. Fitzgerald left the parish.*

The size and shape of the original lots have been somewhat changed through
the years. This has resulted from the fact that the Rector’s Lot as such was not
retained in the plan, from the fact that the present church building occupies
more ground than did the original, and from the fact that the burial ground
has been enlarged.

From the first the congregation and its vestry cared for the churchyard with
affection. Box bushes, crepe myrtles, rose bushes, cedars, magnolias—all the
trees and shrubs found in southern gardens—were set out, and grass was planted.
Entries in Mr. Fitzgerald’s meticulous accounts tell of sums paid the early sextons,
Solomon, Joe, and Wade, and other “hands,” for “keeping the churchyard in
order.” One entry mentions the purchase of a watering pot.

An early concern was the construction of an appropriate fence around the
entire property. For .00 the first vestry purchased the necessary posts, from
Mr. T. P. Burgwyn they acquired the necessary lumber, and for $2.50 the smith
on Mr. W. J. Capehart’s place made four hinges for the gate. Mr. Bragg was
paid $187 for “carpentry work” on the fence. Not long after it had been erected
there was a severe electrical storm during which one post was struck by lightning
and had to be replaced. This original fence can be seen in photographs of the
first church building.

All through the Civil War period the members of the church seemed to take
good care of the property. At one time during the war several Union soldiers
killed at Boone’s Mill were buried in the churchyard.

When Bishop Lyman first visited Jackson in 1874 he wrote that he noticed
the “graveyard is cared for in a most commendable way.”

During the rectorate of Mr. Higgs the vestry bought adjoining land at the
rear of the property for an addition to the graveyard. For this land they paid

*The information concerning the location and dimensions of these lots is taken from the

plat prepared by the Rev. Mr. Fitzgerald in the Minutes of the Ve: The sale of lots is
recorded in the accounts in the Parish Register.

 
120 NorTHAMPTON PARISHES

$100.00. The next year, 1883, the whole churchyard as enlarged was enclosed
with a new fence. A glimpse of this second fence can be seen in photographs of
the church after it was enlarged.

When the church was burned in 1895 the wooden fence must certainly have
suffered considerable damage if not total destruction. After the present stone
church was erected a strong wire fence anchored to iron posts set in cement
was placed around the burial ground. This last fence stood the test of many
years. Even when the churchyard was neglected and became overgrown in the
years immediately after the first World War this fence stood up remarkably
well.

The efforts to clean up the property and make it attractive which were
started in the 1920’s have been maintained to the present time. By the physical
labor of members of the parish, by financial contributions from former residents
as well as parishoners, and by the constant watchfulness of interested laymen,

the churchyard has become the pleasant and dignified place envisioned by those
who planned it a century ago.