FOOTNOTES:
[364:A] A meeting of the council was held, consisting of his Excellency Francis Nicholson, Esq., lieutenant and governor-general, and William Byrd, John Lightfoot, Benjamin Harrison, Robert Carter, John Custis, Philip Ludwell, William Basset, Henry Duke, Robert Quarry, and John Smith, Esquires.
[366:A] Documents in S. Literary Messenger, communicated by Wyndham Robertson, Esq., having been copied by his father, while he was clerk of the council, from old papers in the council chamber.
CHAPTER XLVI.
1703-1705.
Quit-rents—Northy's Opinion against the Custom of the Vestry's employing a Minister by the Year—The Free Church Disruption in Scotland—Controversy between Blair and Nicholson—Convocation—Nicholson recalled—Notice of his Career—Huguenots.
By the account of Colonel William Byrd, receiver-general, the nett proceeds of her majesty's revenue of quit-rents for the year 1703 amounted to five thousand seven hundred and forty-five pounds.
In the Church of England the people have no part in the choice of their minister; a patron appoints him, and a living supports him. In Virginia, on the contrary, the salary being levied directly from the people by the vestries, they fell upon the expedient, as has been repeatedly mentioned, of employing a minister for a year. Governor Nicholson, an extreme high-churchman, procured from the attorney-general, Northy, an opinion against this custom, and it was sent to all the vestries, with directions to put it on record. The vestries, nevertheless, pertinaciously resisted this construction of the law. In two important points the church establishment in Virginia differed from that in England—in the appointment of the minister by the vestry, according to the act of 1642, and in the absence of a bishop.