1702-1708.
Parishes--The Rev. Francis Makemie--Dissenters--Toleration
Act--Ministers--Commissary.
IN the year 1702 there were twenty-nine counties in Virginia, and
forty-nine parishes, of which thirty-four were supplied with ministers,
fifteen vacant. In each parish there was a church, of timber, brick, or
stone; in the larger parishes, one or two Chapels of Ease; so that the
whole number of places of worship, for a population of sixty thousand,
was about seventy. In every parish a dwelling-house was provided for the
minister, with a glebe of two hundred and fifty acres of land, and
sometimes a few negroes, or a small stock of cattle. The salary of
sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco was, in ordinary quality, equivalent
to L80; in sweet-scented, to L160. It required the labor of twelve
negroes to produce this amount. There were in Virginia, at this time,
three Quaker congregations, and as many Presbyterian; two in Accomac
under the care of Rev. Francis Makemie; the other on Elizabeth River.
The Rev. Francis Makemie, who is styled the father of the American
Presbyterian Church, was settled in Accomac County before the year 1690,
when his name first appears upon the county records. He appears to have
been a native of the north of Ireland, being of Scotch extraction, and
one of those called Scotch-Irish. Licensed by the presbytery of Lagan in
1680, and in two or three years ordained as an evangelist for America,
he came over, and labored in Barbadoes, Maryland, and Virginia. The
first mention of his name on the records of the county court of Accomac
bears date in 1690, by which he appears to have brought suits for debts
due him in the business of merchandise. He married Naomi, eldest
daughter of William Anderson, a wealthy merchant of Accomac, and thus
acquired an independent estate. In the year 1699 he obtained from the
court of that county a certificate of qualification as a preacher under
the toleration act, the first of the kind known to be on record in
Virginia. At the same time, upon his petition, two houses belonging to
him were licensed as places of public worship.[372:A] In a letter
written in 1710 by the presbytery of Philadelphia to that of Dublin, it
is said: "In all Virginia we have one small congregation on Elizabeth
River, and some few families favoring our way in Rappahannock and York."
Two years after, the Rev. John Macky was the pastor of the Elizabeth
River congregation. It is probable that the congregations organized by
Mr. Makemie, in 1690, were not able to give him a very ample support;
but, prosperous in his worldly affairs, he appears to have contributed
liberally from his own means to the promotion of the religious interests
in which he was engaged. According to tradition, he suffered frequent
annoyances from the intolerant spirit of the times in Virginia; but he
declared that "he durst not deny preaching, and hoped he never should,
while it was wanting and desired." Beverley, in his "History of
Virginia," published in 1705, says: "They have no more than five
conventicles among them, namely, three small meetings of Quakers, and
two of Presbyterians. 'Tis observed that those counties where the
Presbyterian meetings are produce very mean tobacco, and for that reason
can't get an orthodox minister to stay among them; but whenever they
could, the people very orderly went to church."
From this it may be inferred that the Eastern Shore, where Makemie was
settled, produced poor tobacco, and that in consequence of it there was
no minister of the established church in his neighborhood. He is
supposed to have had four places of preaching; his labors proved
acceptable; his hearers and congregations increased in number, and there
was a demand for other ministers of the same denomination. Mr. Makemie,
about the year 1704, returned to the mother country and remained there
about a year. During the following year two ministers, styled his
associates, were licensed, by authority of Governor Seymour, to preach
in Somerset County, in Maryland, notwithstanding the opposition of the
neighboring Episcopal minister. Makemie's imprisonment in New York (by
Lord Cornbury) for preaching in that city, and his able defence upon his
trial, are well known. He died in 1708, leaving a large estate. His
library was much larger than was usually possessed by Virginia clergymen
in that day, and included a number of law books. He appointed the
Honorable Francis Jenkins, of Somerset County, Maryland, and Mary
Jenkins, his lady, executors of his last will and testament, and
guardians of his children.[373:A]
In 1699 a penalty of five shillings was imposed on such persons in
Virginia as should not attend the parish church once in two months; but
dissenters, qualified according to the toleration act of the first year
of William and Mary, were exempted from this penalty, provided they
should attend at "any congregation, or place of religious worship,
permitted and allowed by the said act of parliament, once in two
months."[373:B] Hening remarks of this law: "It is surely an abuse of
terms to call a law a toleration act which imposes a religious test on
the conscience, in order to avoid the penalties of another law equally
violating every principle of religious freedom. The provisions of this
act may be seen in the fourth volume of Blackstone's Commentaries, page
53. Nothing could be more intolerant than to impose the penalties by
this act prescribed for not repairing to church, and then to hold out
the idea of exemption, by a compliance with the provisions of such a law
as the statute of 1 William and Mary, adopted by a mere general
reference, when not one person in a thousand could possibly know its
contents." It was an age when the state of religion was low in England,
and of those ministers sent over to Virginia not a few were incompetent,
some openly profligate; and religion slumbered in the languor of moral
lectures, the maxims of Socrates and Seneca, and the stereotyped routine
of accustomed forms. Altercations between minister and people were not
unfrequent; the parson was a favorite butt for aristocratic ridicule.
Sometimes a pastor more exemplary than the rest was removed from
mercenary motives, or on account of a faithful discharge of his duties.
More frequently the unfit were retained by popular indifference. The
clergy, in effect, did not enjoy that permanent independency of the
people which properly belongs to a hierarchy. The vestry, a
self-perpetuated body of twelve gentlemen, thought themselves "the
parson's master," and the clergy in vain deplored the precarious tenure
of their livings. The commissary's powers were few, limited, and
disputed; he was but the shadow of a bishop; he could not ordain nor
confirm; he could not depose a minister. Yet the people, jealous of
prelatical tyranny, watched his feeble movements with a vigilant and
suspicious eye. The church in Virginia was destitute of an effective
discipline.[374:A]
FOOTNOTES:
[372:A] It appears from his will, dated in 1708, that he also owned a
house and lot in the new town in Princess Anne County, on the eastern
branch of Elizabeth River, and a house and lot in the new town on
Wormley's Creek, called Urbanna. Whether he used these houses for
merchandise, or for public worship, is not known. It appears from
Commissary Blair's report on the state of the church in Virginia, that
the congregation on Elizabeth River existed before the year 1700. From
the fact of Mr. Makemie's directing, in his will, that his
dwelling-house and lot on that river should be sold, it has been
inferred that he had resided there before he moved to the opposite shore
of the Chesapeake, and that the church in question was gathered by him;
if so, it must have been formed before 1690; for in that year he was
residing on the Eastern Shore. Others have supposed that the
congregation on Elizabeth River was composed of a small company of
Scotch emigrants, whose descendants are still to be found in the
neighborhood of Norfolk.
[373:A] Foote's Sketches of Va., first series, 40, 58, 63, 84; and
Force's Historical Tracts, iv.
[373:B] Hening, iii. 171.
[374:A] Hawks; Bancroft; Beverley, B. iv. 26.