ADOLESCENCE
Our upper country, at last, has graduated from being classified as
merely part of the backwoods of Lord Fairfax's Northern Neck and is now
enrolled in the rapidly growing roster of colonial Virginia's counties.
Unfortunately the conferring of that dignity did not alter the social
problems of the frontier nor change, to any great degree, the turbulence
and heterogeneous character of its population. The Irish element,
particularly, appears to have been pugnacious and lawless, if one may
judge from the frequency of proceedings before the Court for "battery"
wherein defendants carry distinctly Hibernian names. There was no dearth
of business, civil or criminal, awaiting the court's sessions.
Those of the poorer class, however, were not alone in taking the law
into their own hands. Cameron Parish, as heretofore appears, was set up
in 1748. Whether its vestry was more arbitrary and tenacious of office
or merely less diplomatic than was the rule elsewhere is not clear; but
that there developed great dissatisfaction with its activities the
records show. The Parish vestry, it will be remembered, exercised many
powers of civil government. Originally the vestry of twelve gentlemen
and their successors were chosen by vote of the parishioners; but
gradually the practice developed in existing vestries, upon the death or
resignation of a member, for the survivors themselves arbitrarily to
appoint his successor. There never was unanimity of religious belief in
Cameron the Parish nor in Loudoun the county. From the very beginning,
as we have seen, the land was peopled by men and women of definitely
divergent religious views--the Churchmen from Tidewater with some
Baptists and Presbyterians, a large number of Quakers from Pennsylvania,
Germans from overseas and no small number whose religious convictions,
if existent, were of nebulous tenuity. Had the vestries stood annually
for election the populace might have felt more closely represented; but
with their membership exclusively taken from the landowning class which
had migrated from the lower country, the Quakers, the Scotch-Irish, the
Germans accepted a somewhat arbitrary rule less willingly than were they
all churchmen and meeting together in common worship. The friction was
not confined to Cameron. Similar troubles had developed elsewhere and
petitions had been sent to Williamsburg for relief. In 1759 the
Legislature decided to act. "Whereas" reads the preamble to Chapter XXI
of the Laws of 1758-59
"it has been represented to this present General Assembly, that the
Vestries of the parish of Antrim, in the County of Halifax; of the
parish of Cameron in the County of Loudoun; of the parish of Bath, in
the County of Dinwiddie; and of the parish of Saint-Patrick, in the
County of Prince Edward, have been guilty of arbitrary and illegal
practices to the great oppression of the inhabitants of said parishes
... and the inhabitants of said parishes have respectively petitioned
this Assembly that the said vestries may be dissolved;"[88]
[88] 7 Hening, 301.
the Legislature thereupon dissolved the vestries named, their future
acts were "declared utterly void to all intents and purposes whatsoever"
and the freeholders and housekeepers of the respective parishes
authorized to meet, on notice, and "elect twelve of the most able &
discreet persons of the said parishes respectively to be vestrymen of
the same." So far was the Legislature willing to go; but the orthodox
rulers of Virginia did not for a moment propose to turn over control of
the vestries in the dissatisfied parishes to a dissenting element; there
was a further provision that should any vestrymen dissent from the
communion of the Church of England and join "themselves to a dissenting
congregation, and yet continue to act as vestrymen" they should be
displaced.
During the ensuing ten years Loudoun's population grew rapidly and a
parish extending from Difficult Run to the Blue Ridge covered so much
territory that it made it difficult for a vestry, chosen from different
parts of the parish, to assemble frequently for business. The project of
dividing Cameron was the subject of a petition to the Legislature in
1769 but because of opposition and disagreement the division was not
made until June, 1770, when an act was passed creating a new parish
beyond Goose Creek and running to the Blue Ridge.[89] It was given the
name of Shelburne in compliment to the British statesman William
Petty-FitzMaurice, Lord Shelburne.
[89] 8 Hening, 425.
This contemplated division of Cameron had repercussions in the relations
between that parish and its mother parish Truro. The new Shelburne would
take from Cameron many of its tithables or taxpayers and suggested
intensive study of its remaining economic resources. In November, 1766,
or twenty-eight years after the creation of Cameron, the Legislature
passed an act empowering Truro's vestry to sell its parish Glebe and
church plate and divide the proceeds between Truro and Cameron; while
three years later, in the act creating Shelburne, it was provided that
as the Cameron Glebe was then located inconveniently, the latter's
vestry was authorized to sell it and use the proceeds "toward purchasing
a more convenient glebe, and erecting buildings thereon, for the use and
benefit of the minister of the said parish of Cameron, for the time
being, forever."[90]
[90] 8 Hening, 202.
[Illustration: WILLIAM PETTY-FITZMAURICE. Earl of Shelburne, 1st Marquis
of Lansdowne, for whom Shelburne Parish was named.]
The parish well may continue to take satisfaction in having been named
worthily. Shelburne came of an historical and noble family, being a
direct descendant of the very ancient Lords of Kerry. Born in Dublin on
the 20th May, 1737, his childhood is said to have been "spent in the
remotest parts of the south of Ireland and according to his own account
when he entered Christ Church, Oxford in 1755 he had both everything to
learn and everything to unlearn." Perhaps his friendship and
conciliatory attitude always shewn toward the American Colonies arose
from his naturally amiable and considerate disposition, perhaps from his
participation under Wolfe in campaigns against the French. However that
may be, he was well-liked and trusted in Virginia. He succeeded his
father as Earl of Shelburne in 1761. During the critical years of 1766
and 1767 he was serving, under Pitt, as Secretary of State and sought,
as a friend of the Colonies, to avoid the crisis which was surely
developing. Unfortunately his efforts toward conciliation were
blocked by others of the ministry and the King and in 1768 Shelburne was
dismissed. In 1782 he reassumed office under Lord Rockingham, with the
express understanding that the independence of the American Colonies
should be recognized; an attitude requiring courage and strength to
maintain. When Rockingham died, Shelburne succeeded him as Premier but
through an alliance of Fox with Shelburne's old enemy North, he was
forced to resign that position in 1783. A year later, when Pitt returned
to power, he caused Shelburne to be created first Marquis of Landsdowne
with which his public career ended. He was succeeded in his titles and
estates, upon his death on the 7th May, 1805, by his eldest son.[91]
[91] See biography in _Encyclopedia Britannica_ under name of
Landsdowne.
More fortunate in its fate than the early vestry books of Cameron, which
have been destroyed or lost, the first vestry book of Shelburne,
covering the period from 1771 to 1805, has been preserved and after
being for many years in the library of the Episcopal Theological
Seminary at Alexandria was sent to the State Library in Richmond. A
photostatic copy has been made and is held in Loudoun.[92]
[92] In Loudoun National Bank.
By way of contrast to the first vestry books of Virginia's older
parishes, the earliest entries in that of Shelburne do not yield a great
amount of interesting material. Its pages are largely filled with
details of the levy of taxes and there is a protracted quarrel over the
sites to be chosen for new church buildings which, in the event,
prevented action until the Revolution and its aftermath deprived the
Vestries of much of their authority. A few entries in the Vestry book
have been abstracted:
"30th November 1772 Ordered that the Church Wardens for the Present Year
do provide Benches to accomodate the persons who come to attend Divine
Service at the Court House in Leesburg."
And then, to shew what a Church the Parish might have had but did not,
there is this entry on the 30th December 1774. (Page 30) "Ordered that
there be a Church built at or near the place where the Chapple now
stands at Stephen Rozels and that it be 50 feet long & 40 feet broad in
the clear. To be built either of brick or stone. To be of Sufficient
Pitch for two rows of Windows, if built of brick the wall to be 2-1/2
brick thick if built of stone the walls to be 2 feet thick; the Pews &
all the Carpenter work to be of pine plank (framing excepted) The Base
to be of Stone 2-1/2 feet thick & to be finished off in such manner as
the person appointed shall direct."
From the 10th day of June, 1776, no meeting of the vestry is recorded
until the 1st day of April 1779.
At the meeting of the 4th November, 1795, Mr. Jones, the minister was
ordered to preach "one Sunday at the Church at Rozels & the rest at
Leesburg."
Thus the county was divided into two parishes. A little later Cameron
secured the services, as Parson, of a member of another well-known
family of the Northern Neck when, in 1771, the Rev. Spence Grayson
returned from his theological studies and ordination in England and
assumed that position. He was the son of Benjamin Grayson and Susan
Monroe and had inherited from his father his home, Belle Air, in Prince
William County which he left to go to England to enter the church. He
married Mary Elizabeth Wagener, sister to Colonel Peter Wagener (clerk
of Fairfax County and subsequently an officer in the Revolution) and
became one of the original trustees in 1788 of the town of Carrborough
on the south side of the mouth of Quantico Creek, where now are situated
the Marine Corps Barracks. His nephew was the well-known Colonel William
Grayson who, after serving with distinction in the Revolution, became
one of the original two senators from Virginia.
But Shelburne was not to be cast in the shade in this matter of Parsons.
In 1771 there was inducted there as minister the man who, of her long
line of clergy, has left in Church, State, and Nation the most prominent
name of all. The Rev. Dr. David Griffith had been born in the city of
New York in 1742. Like the Rev. Charles Green, early minister of Truro,
Dr. Griffith first became a physician, taking his medical degree in
London and then returning to New York and beginning his practice as a
physician there in 1763. Determining to enter the church ministry, he
returned to England and was ordained in London by Bishop Terrick on the
19th August, 1770. Again he returned to America and worked as a
missionary in New Jersey, whence he came to take charge of Shelburne
Parish in 1771. When the Revolution came on, he, in 1776, became
Chaplain of the 3rd Virginia Regiment and, in December of that year, he
"was acting as a surgeon in the Continental Army in Philadelphia." Long
a close and confidential friend of George Washington, he became the
Rector of Christ Church, Alexandria, in 1780, in which position he
continued until his death. He was a leader in building up the church in
Virginia from its depressed condition after the Revolution, was a member
of its first convention in Richmond in 1785 and was elected first Bishop
of Virginia at the second annual convention of the Diocese in May, 1786.
Unfortunately there were no funds available to pay his expenses to
England and thus he was never formally consecrated. He died at the house
of Bishop White in Philadelphia, while attending a church convention
there, in 1789. He has been described as "large and tall in person but
firm in manner. Without perhaps being brilliant, he was an able man of
sound judgment and consecrated life, who had the esteem and affection as
well as the confidence of his contemporaries. His memory ought to be
held by us in highest honour."[93]
[93] _The Colonial Church in Virginia_, Rev. E. L. Goodwin, p. 116. Also
see _Colonel Leven Powell_, by Dr. R. C. Powell and Appleton's
_Encyclopedia American Biography_.
In those days Loudoun shared, with other of Virginia's frontier
counties, a pest of numerous wolves which indeed penetrated into the
older counties as well. There was a broad demand that the bounty for
killing the animals be increased and in 1765 the Assembly passed an act
authorizing Loudoun and six other counties to pay larger bounties,
providing that a person killing a wolf within their respective
boundaries "shall have an additional reward of fifty pounds of neat
tobacco for every young wolf not exceeding the age of six months, and
for every wolf above that age one hundred pounds of neat tobacco, to be
levied and paid in the respective counties where the service shall be
performed."[94] The act was to continue in force, however, only three
years.
[94] 8 Hening, 147.
Five years later the hunting activities of Leesburg, at least, took on a
more domestic hue. The inhabitants of the little town were busy in
building up the reputation of a famous Virginia delicacy but apparently
were rather overdoing it. "It is represented" reads an act of 1772 "that
a great number of hogs are raised and suffered to go at large in the
town of Leesburg, in the county of Loudoun to the great prejudice of the
inhabitants thereof;" so the act forbade owners from allowing such
liberties to their porkers and permitted any person to "kill and destroy
such swine so running at large."[95]
[95] 9 Hening, 586.
That Francis Aubrey established the first ferry from Loudoun's shore
across the Potomac prior to 1741 has been noted in Chapter IV. It was at
the Point of Rocks and was inherited by Thomas Aubrey, son of its
founder, who obtained a license for its operation in 1769. By 1775 the
travel was very light at that point and complaint was made of inadequate
equipment. In 1834 it, with the surrounding land on the Loudoun side,
was in the possession of Rebecca Johnson and in 1837 in that of Margaret
Graham. The construction of the Point of Rocks bridge by the Potomac
Bridge Company in 1847 ended its usefulness.
A second ferry, also across the Potomac and heretofore recorded, became
far more famous than that of the Aubreys. When Philip Noland acquired
land on that river where travel over the old Carolina Road had, from
time immemorial, crossed it, he had the most valuable and frequented
ferry-site in the neighborhood. He had sought, but unsuccessfully, a
ferry license as early as 1748; in 1756, with or without a license, he
was operating his ferry. Its operation was eventually authorized by the
Legislature in 1778 to the land of Arthur Nelson in the State of
Maryland. No other ferry from Loudoun's shores acquired the fame that
did Noland's. At the height of its activities the travel at that point
is said to have supported a country store, a blacksmith's shop, a wagon
shop, a tailor and a shoemaker. The coming of the railroads and the
construction of the Point of Rocks Bridge together were responsible for
its ultimate abandonment. We have a suggestive glimpse of conditions
there. In May, 1780, the Moravian emissary John Frederick Reichel, in
the course of his ministrations to those of his faith in America,
undertook a journey from Bethlehem in Pennsylvania down the Carolina
Road to the present Winston-Salem in North Carolina. One of his
companions kept a journal from which we learn that upon successfully
crossing into Virginia at Noland's Ferry, Bishop Reichel and his company
"made camp near Mr. Th. Noland's house close to the road which turns to
the right from the Foart road towards Noland's Ferry which crosses the
Patomoak two miles from here. So far our journey had been very pleasant.
Now, however, the Virginia air brought storms." While the weary
travelers were resting that night from their journey, some of Noland's
negroes left their "Quarters" and proceeded to lay their hands on the
strangers' equipment. The diarist on the next day indignantly records
the following "Note. Mr. Th. Noland and his father and father in law
have 200 negroes in this neighbourhood on both sides of the Potomoack
and this neighbourhood is far-famed for robbery and theft." On their
return the travellers found that Mr. Noland had busied himself in
recapturing much of the loot and duly returned the articles to their
rightful owners.[96]
[96] _Landmarks_, 504.
Between Noland and Josias Clapham there was a controversy for many years
over which of the two should control the very profitable ferry business
over the nearby stretches of the Potomac. Both had powerful associations
and friends and both were, through their own activities and characters,
outstanding figures in the Loudoun of their day. Noland as the
son-in-law of the most prominent of Loudoun's earliest settlers, Francis
Aubrey, and through his wife in possession of part of Aubrey's great
land-grants, could well have entertained a conviction that he was
Aubrey's representative and as such entitled to especial consideration
as well as for his own accomplishments; while, on the other hand,
Clapham's inherited friendship with Lord Fairfax and his own recent
military services as a lieutenant in the troublous times following
Braddock's defeat and death, his early and continued ownership of
extensive tracts of land, his sound personal qualities and the high
esteem in which he was held by his neighbours, made him a formidable
opponent and rival. He successfully fought Noland's application to the
Legislature for a ferry license in 1756 and in 1757 obtained one himself
for the operation of a ferry below that of Noland, "from the lands of
Josias Clapham, in the County of Fairfax, over Potowmack river, to the
land on either side of Monochisey creek, in the province of Maryland;
the price for a man four pence & for a horse the same."[97] Though this
license was afterwards suspended, Clapham appears to have operated his
ferry until 1778 when the Legislature ordered it discontinued as
inconvenient. As Clapham at that time was himself a member of that body,
it is probable that the old rivalry between the neighbours had ended.
[97] 7 Hening, 126.
We learn something of yet another ferry from this same act of the
Legislature passed in the war year of 1778. Therein it was also provided
"that publick ferries be constantly kept at the following places and the
rates for passing the same be as follows, that is to say: From the land
of the earl of Tankerville, in the County of Loudoun (at present in the
tenure of Christian Shimmer) across Potowmack river to the opposite
shore in the state of Maryland, the price for a man eight pence, and for
a horse the same: ..." The act authorized Noland to collect the same
tolls at his ferry, thus permitting the doubling of the ferry charges by
the act of 1757.[98]
[98] In this ferry situation, _Landmarks of Old Prince William_ is an
invaluable guide.