earnestly believe, when Free Churches, and weekly offerings, and daily prayers, and comely altars, and frequent Com munions, and choral Services, and zealous ministrations in season and out of season, will be everywhere characteristic of our Church, and when this volume will be a curious memorial of evil days of days when good men, in their way, could cast ont the name of Croswell as evil, because in these things he was an example unto his brethren, and made himself a burning and a shining light in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

• COLONIAL CHURCHES IN VIRGINIA.

No. V.-St. John's Church, Henrico Parish, Richmond, Va.

BEAUTIFUL for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion,' sang the Royal Psalmist, long ages gone bye; and we might take up the spirit of his laud, and respond,-Beautiful for situation' is "Richmond Hill," and hallowed are the memories and memorials connected with the Venerable Old Church of St. John's.. The view which presents itself 15

VOL. VII.-NO. I.

from this spot is one of the most beautiful and picturesque imaginable. Across the River James, known once as the meandering "Powhattan," are seen the broad lowlands stretching away into the distance, crowned in the greenness of Sumner, or in.the golden glories of Autumn, with wheat and corn. The winding river, stealing like a silver thread across through the country down as far as eye can reach,-the falls above, foaming and leaping from rock to rock,-themselves spanned by three noble bridges, and at their head, on the Northern or Richmond side, the very largest flouring mills in the world;-the hills on which the city of Richmond is built, crowned with magnificent mansions, a Medical College, noble churches, and her classic Capitol ;—and, in the distance as a background, the dark forests reposing in solemn rest against the western and northern horizon;-all these taken in by one broad comprehensive glance, with but a slight change in the position of the body, from the old Churchyard of St. John's, render the prospect most inimitable, and the location of the old Church itself, the most desirable and commanding. But this venerable structure is associated with scenes and circumstances, subjects and incidents, which give it an interest in the feelings and affections of Virginia Churchmen, far beyond the emotions excited by locality or situation.

St. John's Church is the sole connecting link between the very earliest records of the Old Parish of Henrico, and the present time. It is the only Church of three, which once formed the second shire parish in Virginia. It is a memorial of those olden times, when men went forth to worship in the house of God, with arms in their hands, by law ordered and appointed; when the Psalm and the Ritual were often interrupted by the wild war-whoop of untamed savages, and the baptism, and the burial, were sometimes and often mingled with blood. It is the sole surviving representative Church of that in which, and at whose font, the revered "Master Whitaker" received into the communion of Saints in the Colony, the brave, the beautiful, the good, the gentle Pocahontas; whose name is so dear to every Virginian. Across the site of its buria[ ground, in which lie not only the "rude forefathers of the hamlet," but the ancestry of the proud chivalry of the olden time, once rolled tides of human blood in the great battle which took place between the troops of Bacon and the Indians in 1676, a carnage so dreadful, and so sanguine,

"All men that are fitting to beare armes, shall bring their pieces to the Church, Upon payne of every offence yf the Master allow not thereof, to pay two pounds of tobacco to be disposed by the Church-wardens, who shall levy it by distresse, and the servants to be punished." [Laws of Virginia, 1631. 7th of Charles 1st.]

"It is enacted and confirmed that Masters of every family shall bring with them to Church On Sondays, one fixed and serviceable gun, with sufficient powder and shott upon penalty of ten pound of tobacco for every Master of a family so offending to be disposed of by the Church-wardens who shall levy it by distresse; and Servants, being commanded, and yet omitting, shall receive twenty lashes On his or their bare shoulders, by order from the County Courts where he or they shall live." [Laws of Virginia, 1642. 18th of Charles 1st. 1 Edition Hening's Statutes at large, Vol. 1, pages 174, 263.]

as to give to a neighboring spring the dark and meaning title of "the Bloody Run." It was within the sacred walls of this old Temple, in years after, that the celebrated Colonial Convention of 1775 held its session; and those walls were the first that echoed those stirring words of Patrick Henry, which, caught up by countless multitudes throughout the convulsed Colonies, shook the throne of England with their defiant jubelant-"Give me liberty, or give me death!" Here, too, in old St. John's, was read for the first time in Richmond, the Declaration of American Independence.

The ground, then, is not only sacred, but classic. The Church is a pilgrim shrine, where the Patriot and the Christian may both kneel, and where each, as he records his vow, may say, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning!" The first mention of the Parish of Henrico we find recorded in Smith's History, and is as follows: "In the beginning of September, 1611, hee (Sir Thomas Dale) sett saile and arrived where hee intended to build his new towne: within ten or twelve daies he had enuironed it with a pale, and in honour of our noble Prince Henry called it Henrico. The next worke he did was building at each corner of the Towne a high commanding Watch House, a Church and store houses; which finished, hee began to think vpon conuenient houses for himself and men, which with all possible speed he could, hee effected to the content of his companie, and all the Colonie. This towne is situated vpon a necke of a plaine rising land three parts inuironed with the Maine River, the necke of land well impaled makes it like an Ile; it hath three streets of well framed houses, a handsome Church, and the foundation of a better laide, to be built of bricke, besides store houses, Watch houses and such like: Vpon the Verge of the River there are fine houses, wherein livd the honester sort of people, as farmers in England, and they keepe continuall centinell for the towne's securitie.

About two miles from the towne into the Maine is another pale, neere two miles in length from River to River, guarded with seuerall commanders, with a good quality of corn-ground impailed, sufficiently secured to maintaine more than I suppose will come this three years. On the other side of the River for the securitie of the towne, is intended to be impailed for the securitie of our hogs, about two miles and a halfe by the name of Hope in Faith, and Coxendale. Secured by fiue of our manner of Forts, which are but Palisadaes, called Charitie Fort, Mount Malado, a quest house for sick people, a high seat and wholesome aire, Elizabeth Fort, and Fort Patience, and here hath Master Whitaker chosen his Parsonage, impailed a faire framed parsonage, and one hundred acres called Rocke Hall, but these are not half finished."*

When, in 1634, Virginia was divided into Shires, Henrico was the second named in that division. While Master Bucke, who succeeded the pious Hunt at Jamestown, was ministering to the Colonists there, Whitaker was no less assiduous in sowing the seed of the Word in the little town of Henrico. He was a son of Dr. W. Whitaker, of St. John's College, Cambridge, and is spoken of by a worthy cotemporary, the holy Nicholas Ferrar, as the "Apostle of Virginia." His character is well drawn by Crashaw, who, in the year 1613, speaks of him thus:

"I hereby let all men know, that a scholar, a graduate, a preacher, well borne and friended in England; not in debt nor disgrace, but competently pro

"The Generall Historie of Virginia, &c., by Captaine Iohn Smith, sometime Governour of those countryes, and Admiral of New England." [Reprint of London Edition of 1629.]

vided for, and liked and beloved where he lived; not in want, but (for a scholar, and as these days be) rich in possession, and more in possibility,—of himself without any persuasion (but God's and his own heart's) did voluntarily leave his warm nest, and to the wonder of his kindred, and amazement of them that knew him, undertake this hard, but in my judgment heroicall resolution to go to Virginia, and help to beare the name of God unto the Gentiles."

Whitaker was the first Preacher of the Gospel in Henrico. The spot on which his little parsonage was built is passed daily by the steamers going up and down the James River. He was succeeded by the Rev. William Wickham. The following extract from an article in the Southern Literary Messenger for June, 1845, may not be uninteresting:

"Nearly due South from Henrico, on a high hill overlooking the river as it winds around the isthmus, Mr. Whitaker, their preacher," (of the Henrico Colonists,)" located himself. The house was just above the rocky precipice under which the steamer passes; it is covered with ivy, and in the spring is a rich and beautiful parterre. John Rolfe, the husband of Pocahontas, lived at Varind, on the river, two miles below the town of Henrico, on the same side of the river, and there the first Court house of the country was built. There were also a jail and a Parsonage all of brick. Stil, the historian of Virginia, was the Parson of the Parish, and wrote his history there."

Between the site of St. John's Church, and the little town of Henrico, Powhattan held his court. Here, standing upon some one of the many hills which rise in succession upon the eye, the savage King might have looked forth proudly upon his broad domains, and like Selkirk have exclaimed,

"I am monarch of all I survey,

My right there is none to dispute."

But even in that hour, on the mighty scroll of coming events were cast the shadows of a power, which, under God, was to subdue and to control. Unconsciously his Kingdom was departing from him, and the tones of the bell in the tower at Jamestown, when they pealed their first chimes to ring in the Sabbath of God, tolled out the requiem of Pagan dominion in Virginia. After Capt. Smith left the Colony, for England, Pocahontas was decoyed aboard the ship of Capt. Argall, and betrayed into the hands of the Colonists for a Copper Kettle. Their object in desiring to obtain possession of the princess, was twofold, and seems to justify the course pursued. Capt. Argall had no idea of injuring her in any way, but to "keepe her till they, (the Colonists,) could conclude a peace with her father," and hee effect a ransom of his beloved child, by returning our men, swords, pieces, tools, &c., he treacherously had stolen." It appears, after her first apprehensions had subsided, she was not an unwilling prisoner. The truth is, the Princess had a tender and susceptible heart. She had, in the hour of his extremity and peril, saved the life of Capt. Smith, when, in her father's power, the bold soldier's head was laid upon the block;-he had gone to England, she had heard he was dead, and Master John Rolfe, "an honest gentleman and of good behaviour," had made a very decided impression; and the silken fetter ,which had been thus flung around her affections was as strong as a hook of steel to bind her to the interests of the Colonists. We feel that our

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