plantations being so widely separated, quarrels often arose as to the
portion of the parish on which the chief burden of the minister's support
should fall. In the records of the very early Virginia church history, we
come upon an instance of this in the proceedings in Lower Norfolk County,
at a court held 25th May, 1640.
"Whereas the inhabitants of this parrishe beinge this day conevented for
the providinge of themselves an able minister to instruct them concerning
their soules' health, mr. Thomas Harrison tharto hath tendered his service
to god and the said inhabitants in that behalf wch his said tender is well
liked of, with the genall approbacon of the said Inhabitants, the
parishoners of the parishe church at mr. Sewell's Point who to testifie
their zeale and willingness to p'mote gods service doe hereby p'mise (and
the court now sittinge doth likewise order and establish the same) to pay
one hundreth pounds starling yearely to the sd mr. Harrison, soe Longe as
hee shall continue a minister to the said Parishe in recompence of his
paynes."
This arrangement apparently did not long prove satisfactory, for the
record goes on to state that
"Whereas there is a difference amongst the Inhabitants of the fforesaid
Pishe, concerninge the imployinge of a minister beinge now entertayned to
live amongst them, The Inhabitants from Danyell Tanner's Creek and upward
the three branches of Elizabeth river (in respect they are the greatest
number of tithable persons) not thinknge it fitt nor equall that they
shall pay the greatest pte of one hundred pownds w{h} is by the ffore sd
order allotted for the ministers annuall stipend, unlesse the sd minister
may teach and Instruct them as often as he shall teach at ye Pishe church
siytuate at mr. Sewell's Pointe. It is therefore agreed amongst the sd
Inhabitants that the sd minister shall teach evie other Sunday amongst the
Inhabitants of Elizabeth River at the house of Robert Glasscocke untill a
convenyent church be built and Erected there for gods service w{h} is
agreed to bee finished at the charge of the Inhabitants of Elizabeth River
before the first day of May next ensueinge."
However little value they might set on Gospel privileges, these Danyell
Tanner's Creek men meant to have what they paid for, or cease their
payments.
A Virginia statue of 1696 declared that each minister of a parish should
receive an annual stipend of sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco. This
amounted to about £140, as tobacco sold for many years at two-pence the
pound. But, in the year 1755, there was a shortage in the tobacco crop,
and the legislature passed an act enabling the inhabitants of the county
to discharge their tobacco-debts in money for the present year. The clergy
seem to have made no active opposition; but five years later, when a
similar law was passed, and tobacco rose sharply in price, they took
alarm, and started a violent campaign in defence of their rights. The
Reverend John Camm published a sarcastic pamphlet on "The Two Penny Act."
This was answered by Colonel Bland and Colonel Carter in two very
plain-spoken documents. Camm again rode a tilt against them in a pamphlet
called "The Colonels Dismounted."
The community began by laughing, but ended by getting angry. Mr. Camm
could find no more printers in Virginia, and was obliged to go to Maryland
to carry on the war. The contest grew to larger proportions. It crossed
the ocean and was laid before the king, who, always glad of an opportunity
to repress anything which looked like popular sovereignty, declared in
favor of the clergy. Armed thus by royal approbation, the parsons brought
their case to trial. The Rev. James Maury brought suit in Hanover County
against the collector. The defendants pleaded the law of 1758, but the
plaintiff demurred on the ground that that law, never having been
confirmed by the king, was null and void. The case was tried, Mr. Lyons
arguing for the plaintiff and Mr. Lewis for the defendant. The court
sustained the demurrer, and the clergy looked upon their case as won.
Lewis was so sure of it that he retired from the cause, telling his
clients that there was nothing more to be done in the matter. Nothing
remained but for a jury to fix the amount of damages.
In this desperate state of affairs, Patrick Henry, though almost unknown
at the bar, was called in, and he agreed to argue the case at the next
term. On the first of December, accordingly, he came into the court-room,
to find it densely packed with an excited throng of listeners. The bench
was filled with clergymen. In the magistrate's seat sat the young orator's
own father. The occasion might well have tried the nerve of an older and
more experienced speaker. Lyons opened the cause for the clergy, with the
easy assurance of one who sees his case already won. He told the jury that
the law of 1758 had been set aside, and that it only remained for them to
enforce the law of 1748 by awarding suitable damages to his clients, whom
he exalted to the skies in a eulogy which might have better fitted better
men. Lyons sat down, and young Henry rose. Awkwardly and falteringly he
began, in painful contrast to the easy address of Lyons. The plaintiffs on
the bench looked at each other with smiles of derision. The people, who
realized that his cause was theirs, hung their heads; but only for a
moment. The young orator, whose timid commencement had caused winks and
nods of satisfaction to pass along the bench of the clergy, suddenly
changed his whole attitude. All at once he shook off embarrassment, and
roused himself like a lion brought to bay. The people at first were
cheered, then became intoxicated with his eloquence. The clergy listened
to the flood of sarcasm and invective till they could bear no more, and
fled from the bench as from a pillory. Henry's eloquence swept the jury,
who returned at once with a verdict of _one penny damages_ for the clergy.
The people, wild with delight, seized their hero and carried him out on
their shoulders. Henceforward he was a marked man, and for years, Wirt
tells us, when the old people wished to praise any one's eloquence, they
would say: "He is almost equal to Patrick when he pled against the
parsons."
With so much hostile feeling toward their clergy, how shall we account for
the strong affection felt by the Virginians for their church? I find the
explanation in that loyalty to lost causes and that aristocratic
conservatism which always marked the Cavalier. These, in spite of the
debasement of the clergy, the zeal of the "New Lights," the allurements of
Rome, and the eloquence of Whitefield, Fox, and the Wesleys, long kept the
Cavalier Colonies true to the church of their fathers. It was not till the
church allied itself with the king against the people in the
Revolutionary struggle, that its doom fell.
It was a matter of course that self-interest as well as sentiment should
lead the clergy to espouse the cause of England. In a letter, dated 1766,
the Rev. John Camm writes from Virginia to a Mrs. McClurg in the
mother-country. He begins, as is natural, with what is nearest his heart,
namely his own affairs, and requests the lady to use her influence with
Mr. Pitt to secure him a Living of one hundred pounds a year. Fearing that
his request is too modest: "Observe," he says, "tho' a Living of one
hundred nett will _do_, I care not how much larger the Living shall be. If
by conversing with the Great, you have learnt their manners, and are
unwilling to bestow so considerable a favour on a friend without some way
or other finding your account in the transaction, which the unpolished
call a bribe, you shall make your own terms with me. I will submit to what
you think reasonable, and then, you know, the larger the Living or Post
is, the better for both."
This pious worthy, having thus disposed of the affairs of the church, next
deals in the same public spirited manner with the affairs of the colonial
politics:
"One of our most active, flaming and applauded sons of liberty, Col.
Rich'd Henry Lee, who burnt poor Mercer in effigy, raised a mob on Archy
Ritchie, etc., etc., etc., has been lately blown up in the Publick Prints,
it is said, by Mr. James Mercer. It appears that Lee, previous to his
Patriotism, had made interest to be made Stamp Master himself, from
letters it seems now in the possession of Col. Mercer, so that Lee will
find it difficult hereafter to deceive anybody into an opinion of his
Patriotism."
Posterity has quite definitely settled the question of the comparative
patriotism of Col. Lee and the Rev. John Camm, and only wonders that a
shrewd people tolerated that ecclesiastical fraud so long. Peace to his
ashes! since he and his fellows have given way to good and sincere men who
have purged the church of her disgrace and brought her back to her older
and better traditions.
A gentleman of the old school, in cocked hat and knee-breeches, once said
to Madison that a man might be a _Christian_ in any church, but a
_gentleman_ must belong to the Church of England.
His Education
[Illustration: His Education.]
Governor Berkeley, that old stumbling-block-head who stopped the wheels of
progress in Virginia for fifty years, wrote to the English Commissioners
in 1670: "I thank God there are no free schools nor printing; and I hope
we shall not have, for learning hath brought disobedience and heresy and
sects into the world, and printing hath divulged them, and libels against
the best government. God keep us from both!"
The bigoted Sir William set forth but too accurately the condition of
affairs not only in Virginia, but in Maryland as well. It is impossible to
avoid noting the striking contrast between the South and New England,
where, by this time, every colony except Rhode Island had made education
compulsory, where the school-house and the church stood side by side in
every village. An old New England statute commands that "every township,
after the Lord hath increased them to the number of fifty households,
shall appoint one to teach all the children to write and read, and when
any town shall increase to the number of a hundred families, they shall
set up a grammar school." All the energy of the Puritan which was not
absorbed in religion vented itself on education. Ambition turned its
current to learning as more desirable than wealth. "Child," said a New
England matron to her boy, "if God make thee a good Christian and a good
scholar, thou hast all that thy mother ever asked for thee."
Such a spirit bred a race of readers and students, trained to sift
arguments and to weigh reasons. No such devotion to books or scholarship
prevailed at the South. Yet when the Revolution came, the most thrilling
eloquence, the highest statesmanship, the greatest military genius were
found among these Southerners. Their education had been different from
that of the Puritans, but it had been an education none the less. The
Cavalier had been trained in the school of politics, in the
responsibilities of power, and in the traditions of greatness.
The very absence of the reading habit tended to develop action, and the
power of thinking out problems afresh, unhampered by the trammels of other
men's thoughts. The haughtiness begotten by slave-holding made it doubly
hard for the master to bow the knee even to a sovereign. The habit of
command and responsibility of power, which shone on the battlefield and in
the council-chamber, were learned on the lonely estates, where each
planter was a king. Behind all these elements of training were the ideals
which moulded the mind and the character.
Berkeley's taunting question to Bacon, "Have you forgot to be _a
gentleman_?" owed its sting to this suggestion that he had been false to
the traditions of his class. If we hold that tact and courtesy and
gracious hospitality are results of education, we must admit that the
Puritans of New England might have learned much from their neighbors in
Maryland and Virginia. The education of politics, of power, of high
traditions in virtue and in manners the Colonial Cavalier possessed. The
education of books he lacked. Here and there, however, we find traces of
some omnivorous reader even in the earliest times. Books were highly
valued and treasured by generation after generation. We find among the old
wills that "Richard Russell left Richard Yates 'a booke called Lyons
play,' 'John porter junr. six books' 'John porter (1) my exec'r, ten
books,' 'Katherin Greene three bookes,' 'One book to Sarah Dyer,' 'unto
Wm. Greene his wife two books & her mother a booke,' 'Anna Godby two
books,' 'Jno. Abell One booke in Quarto,' 'Richard Lawrence One
booke.'"[1]
[1] V. _Library_ of Edmund Berkeley, Esq., Member of the Council (Died
15 Dec. 1718), from an inventory taken the 18 and 19 days of June,
1719:
The whole Duty of Mann One old Bible and one old comon pray{r} book
The Christian Sacrifice The great Duty of frequenting the Christian
Sacrifice A Brief chronicle of the Civil Wars of England and Ireland.
Cavalrie the first Book The common prayer book the best companion.
Janna Divoram. Contemplations on the State of Mann the first part of
the English Dixtionary The Wel Spring of Sciences The Young Clerk
guide A compendium of physick The Athenian Oracle A Guide to
Constables Some consideration touching the Stile of the Holy
Scriptures. A perfect Guide for a Studious Young Lawyer The p{r}sent
State of London. a Profitable book for those that are burnt with
Gunpowder. The first part of the English Dictionary a Compleat history
of England The lives of the noble Grecians and Romans. The Tragedy of
Darius and Julius Cæsar A Compleat Collections of all the Laws of
Virginia The new world of English words. The history of the Jews. The
Countrey Justice The first part of Compleat Histrey The Expotion of
the Creed The Surgeons mate An Essay concerning human understanding a
Breife Treatise of Testaments The Decameron A Compendius Dictionary
Lexicon Manuale. Lord Delamers Works. Sixteen sermons on several
occasions ffarquhars Works. An abridgment of all the Statutes in
fforce The standard of the Quakers. The Hearts Ease. A Tryal of Faith
Several Discourses of the great Duties of Natural Religion The Works
of Josephus in three Volumes Doctor Reads Works. Abridgment of the
Statutes of King Wm. Plutarchs Morals. Bethel or a fform for ffamilys
Discourses on the History of the whole world of wisdom the second and
third books. Mr. John Banisters Works. The History of ffrance the
first and fourth volumes of the turkish spy Sermons on several
occasions resolutions and devisions of Cases of Conscience Plutarchs
Morals the Second Volume and the third. A Manual Anatomy England's
General Description Shakespears Works. Second Volume of Tom Browns
Works Copies of Certain Letters. Ancient and the present State of the
Empire of Germany. The Shepards oracles. Physoignomie and Chiromancy
The Genral View of the Holy Scriptures The practice of piety The great
law of consideration Trigonometrie Of generosity and constancy in the
faith The History of the Revolutions in Sweeden The Marrow of
Chyrurgery Toleration discuss'd. Letters of Remarkables in Switzerland
The office of Executors a Companion for a Chyrurgeon The Critick The
Lively Oracles The heaven of health The history of the Conquest of
China Valentine and Orson. a Discourse on the Sacraments Some Motives
to the Love of God. an Introduction to the Skill of Musick. Sermons
and Discourses some of which never before printed. The Nature of Truth
discuss'd The Method of physick The new London Dispensatory. a
Compendius Dictionary Milk for Babes an Introduction to the Eight
parts of Latin speech The use of piety The European Mercury The Books
of psalms. Notes on Mr. Lockes Essay of Human Understanding Britains
Remembrancer An Infallible way to Contentment a view of all the
religions in the world A Description of the Little world. The
portraiture of his sacred Maj{ty} in his solitudes and suferings The
London Dispensatory English Examples a Short Introduction to Gramar a
Short Catechisme The Esopps ffables Works of M{r} Tho{s} Southerne
Eight Lattin Books.
Master Ralph Wormeley's library numbered several hundred volumes, and a
man might have found enough among them to gratify any inclination. If his
tastes were frivolous, here were "fifty comodys and tragedies," and "The
Genteel Siner." Were he an epicure, he might regale himself with "the body
of cookery," and revel in its appetizing recipes for potpies and the
proper method of roasting a sucking pig; and if his mind were piously
inclined, the resources of the library were unlimited. Side by side on its
shelves stood "No Cross, No Crowne," "The ffamous Doct{r} Usher's Body of
Divinity," "Doct{r} ffuller's Holy State," and last and longest, the
ninety-six sermons of the good parson Andros.
Some of these old colonial sermons came to an unprofitable end. A bundle
of them was laid away in a drawer, and, when sought for, it was learned
that they had been torn up and used by the damsels of the household as
curling-papers. The writer might have been at least half-satisfied in the
reflection that his discourses had touched the head, if not the heart.
In spite of all the old inventories which are being brought to light to
show the existence of books and book lovers in the South, the fact remains
that the Cavalier was no bookworm. He felt that a boy who had learned to
ride, to shoot, and to speak the truth, had received the rudiments at
least of education. Whatever he learned more than this was acquired
either in the old _field-school_ or more often from a private tutor,
usually a clergyman of the Church of England. Some attempts were made by
private persons to found public-schools. In 1634, Benjamin Sym devised two
hundred acres of land on the Pocosan River, together with the milk and
increase of eight cows, for "the maintenance of a learned, honest man, to
keep, upon the said ground, a Free-School for the education of the
children of Elizabeth City and Kiquotan, from Mary's Mount downward to the
Pocosan River."
"Richard Russell in his will made July 24th, 1667, and proved December
16th, the same year, now among the records of Lower Norfolk county,
declared: 'the other pte of my Estate I give & bequeath One pte of itt
unto Six of the poorest mens Children in Eliz: Riv'r, to pay for their
Teaching to read & after these six are entred then if Six more comes I
give a pte allsoe to Enter them in like manner.'"
In spite of private gifts, and individual effort, and public Acts of
Assembly, the school system of New England did not and could not thrive at
the South, because it was out of harmony with the spirit and institutions
of the people. The plantations were so separated that any assembling of
the children was difficult, the spirit of caste was too strong to
encourage the free mingling of rich and poor, and the traditions of the
Cavalier were not traditions of scholarship. The sword, not the pen, had
always been the weapon of the gentleman. Montrose, and not Milton, was his
hero. When Captain Smith proudly boasted that he did not sit mewed up in a
library writing of other men's exploits, but that what his sword did, his
pen writ, he expressed the ideal of the Colonial Cavalier.
"I observe," quoth Spotswood ironically to the Virginia Burgesses, "that
the grand ruling party in your House has not furnished chairmen of two of
your standing committees who can spell English or write common-sense, as
the grievances under their own hand-writing will manifest."
Ebenezer Cook in his "Voyage to Maryland," writes with acrimonious sarcasm
of "A reverend judge who, to the shame of all the Bench, could write his
name." The jest of the Sot-Weed Factor scarcely outstripped the sober
truth, and a century later the general ignorance was almost as dense.
Several instances are on record where the servant signed his name and the
master made his mark. The cross or other conventional sign was not
uncommon, and in general the letters of the names are evolved slowly and
painfully, as by men more apt with the gun than with the quill.
Hugh Jones, a Fellow of William and Mary College, writes of his countrymen
that, for the most part, they are only desirous of learning what is
absolutely necessary, in the shortest way. To meet this peculiarity Mr.
Jones states that he has designed a royal road to learning, consisting of
a series of text-books embracing an _Accidence to Christianity_, an
_Accidence to the Mathematicks_, and an _Accidence to the English Tongue_.
This last is "for the use of such boys and men as have never learned
Latin, and for the Benefit of the Female Sex."
The Bishop of London addressed a circular to the Virginia clergy inquiring
as to the condition of their parishes. To the question, "Are there any
schools in your parish?" the almost invariable answer was: "None." To the
question, "Is there any parish library?" but a single affirmative response
was received. One minister replied, "We have the _The Book of Homilies_,
_The Whole Duty of Man_, and _The Singing Psalms_."
It may be to this very scarcity of books that we owe that originality and
vigor of thought which distinguished the leaders of the Revolution.
Governor Page reported Patrick Henry as saying to him, "Naiteral parts is
better than all the larnin upon yearth," and when to _naiteral parts_ we
add the mastery of a few English classics, we touch the secret of the
dignity and virility which mark the utterances of these men who had known
so little school-training.
Randolph of Roanoke, the youngest son of his widowed mother, was taught by
her as a little child. As he grew older he was left a good deal to his own
devices, but his mind was not idle, and he had access to an unusually good
library. Before he was ten, he had read Voltaire's "History of Charles
XII.," "Reynard the Fox," and odd volumes of _The Spectator_. The "Arabian
Nights" and Shakespeare were his delight. "I had read them," he writes,
"with Don Quixote, Quintus Curtius, Plutarch, Pope's Homer, Robinson
Crusoe, Gulliver, Tom Jones, Orlando Furioso, and Thomson's Seasons,
before I was eleven years old."
Washington, unlike most of his compeers, was sent to school, first in the
little cabin taught by the sexton of the church, a man named Hobby, and
afterward to a more advanced school taught by a Mr. Williams. Here he
decorated his writing and ciphering books, school-boy fashion, with
nondescript birds done in pen-flourishes, and with amateur profile
portraits. Here also he copied legal forms, bills of exchange, bonds,
etc., till he acquired that methodical habit which afterward stood him in
good stead. There were good and faithful teachers in those days, though
they were not too common. The Scotch seem to have done most of the
teaching in the colonies, and to have done it well. Jefferson recalls the
"mouldy pies and good teaching" of the Scotch minister who taught him the
languages; and many a Scotch name figures in the list of parish
school-teachers.
In an old file of the _Maryland Gazette_ we may read the advertisement of
John and Sally Stott, who propose to open a school "where English,
arithmetic, book-keeping, mensuration, knitting, sewing and sample-work on
cat-gut and muslin are to be taught in an easy and intelligible manner."
The charges for schooling were not extravagant. The Reverend Devereux
Jarratt taught a "plain school" for the equivalent of about thirty-three
dollars a year. A tutor from London received a salary of thirty pounds
sterling, and Jonathan Boucher charged for tuition twenty-five pounds a
year, "the boy to bring his own bed."