By a general law passed in the Colony in 1667, Act IV, 19th Charles II, the right was vested in the county courts, when expedient, to set aside and appropriate not more than two acres of land for church and burial purposes; ministers' salaries had been fixed the year before at 16,000 pounds of tobacco, or about $650.
As early as October, 1734, John Trammell was paid by the Vestry of Truro Parish 320 pounds of tobacco for grubbing a place for a new church, for which Robert Blackburn had drawn plans.
Mrs. Charles A. Mankin
In November of the following year, Thomas or James Bennitt was paid 150 pounds of tobacco as sexton of the New Church. Record of the payment of 400 pounds of tobacco to James Bennitt, Sexton of the New Church, appears under date of October 6, 1740, and again May 21, 1745. On the latter date the Vestry decided to build a church "at or near the spring nigh Mr. Hutchinson's on the mountain road ... with doors, windows & seats after the manner of the Upper Church." The deed from Andrew Hutchinson to the Vestry of Truro Parish for two acres of land upon which this new church was to be erected, recorded in Liber A. No. 1, page 464, Fairfax County Land Records, does not show this land to have been in the vicinity of Falls Church.
On October 12, 1747, the vestry records indicate that Mary Bennitt was sexton of the Upper Church, supposed to be the same which was called the New Church before this date, and that Wm. Grove was sexton of the more recently built church on the mountain road near Mr. Hutchinson's. Mary Bennitt's salary as sexton of the Upper Church was 400 pounds of tobacco until 1749, when it was increased to 460 pounds. Her salary was again raised to 560 pounds in 1752, and so continued until 1755, when James Palmer became sexton at "Falls Church," so designated in the records. James Palmer appears to have been succeeded by Gerard Trammell, the Vestry at a meeting held November 12, 1759, having allowed the latter 560 pounds of tobacco as sexton of Falls Church.
Mrs. Annie Eells