I thought of the words of the "sweet singer of Israel,"
"Yea, the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altar, O Lord of hosts!"' The chancel, too, is disfigured; but the Law, the Prayer, and the Creed, painted on a blue ground above it, are quite perfect. The pews are square, with seats upon three sides, and painted lead color. Upon the doors of several of them yet remain the initials of the former occupants, among which I noticed those of George Mason and George William Fairfax, who, with Washington, were the leading men in the parish. ** The whole country around Pohiek seems to be degenerating in soil and population, and the old church edifice is left without a guardian, to molder into oblivion.
* Psalm lxxxiv., 3.
** Washington was a vestryman, in 1765, of both Truro and Fairfax parishes. The place of worship of the former was at Pohiek, and of the latter at Alexandria. Among the manuscripts in the library of the New York Historical Society, is a leaf from the church record of Pohiek. It contains the names of the first vestry, and a few others. By whose desecrating hand it was torn from the records, or how it found its way to its present resting-place. I know not. The following is a copy from the original, from which I also obtained the signatures of Mason and Fairfax, given above. The names were signed at different times, during the summer and autumn of 1765.
"I. A B, do declare that I will be conformable to the
Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England, as by law
established.
"1765. May 20th.—Thomas Withers Coffer, Thomas Ford, John
Ford.
"19th August.—Geo. Washington, Daniel M'Carty, Edward
Payne, Thomas Withers Coffer, Thomas Ford, Edw. Dulin, John
Dalton, Dan]. French, Richard Sanford, Thos. Shaw, Thos.
Wren, Townsend Dade, Charles Broadwater,* J. W. Payne,
William Adams.
"20th August.—G. W. Fairfax, John West, William Lynton, Wm.
Gardner.
"16th September.—Edward Blackburn.
"17th September.—George Mason, Charles Henderson.
"October 21st.—John Possey.
"21st April, 1766—T. Ellzy."
* Captain Broadwater was the owner of a slave who drove a team with a provision-wagon, belonging to his master, over the Alleghany Mountains in the memorable campaign in which Braddock was killed. The slave's name was Samuel Jenkins. He was in the battle at the Great Meadows, but escaped unhurt. On the death of his master, when he was about forty years of age, he was purchased by a gentleman, who took him to Ohio and manumitted him. He settled in Lancaster, Ohio, where he resided until his death, which occurred in 1819, when he was 115 years old. He was probably the last survivor of Braddock's men.
Return to Washington.—Thunder-shower in December.—Aquia Creek.—Almost a Serious Accident.—Potomac Church.