History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia

by Charles Campbell

In May, 1746, the assembly appropriated four thousand pounds to the raising of Virginia's quota of troops for the invasion of Canada. They sailed from Hampton in June, under convoy of the Fowey man-of-war; the expedition proved abortive. Governor Gooch, who had been appointed commander, but had declined the appointment, was knighted during this year. Not long afterwards the capitol at Williamsburg was burnt, and the burgesses availed themselves of this conjuncture to propose the establishment of the metropolis at a point more favorable to commerce; but this scheme was rejected by the council. Governor Gooch, on this occasion, appears to have exhibited some duplicity: in his communications to the board of trade he extolled the enlarged views of the burgesses, while he censured the selfishness of the council; yet in public he blamed the burgesses, "as he thought this the best method to stifle the flame of contention." In this case he would seem not to have reckoned "honesty the best policy;" and it often is not, else there would perhaps be more of it in the world; but it is certainly always better than policy.

In the year 1748 Petersburg and Blandford were incorporated. In the same year the town of Staunton, in Augusta County, was laid off, and it was incorporated in the following year. This happened to be one of the acts repealed by the crown under subsequent protest of the house of burgesses; and another act of incorporation was not applied for until about 1762-63. Hence originated a mistake in all the histories as to the date of the charter.[438:A] Staunton thus appears to be the oldest town in the valley.

The assembly appointed a committee to revise the laws of Virginia; it consisted of Peyton Randolph, Philip Ludwell, Beverley Whiting, Carter Burwell, and Benjamin Waller. During this year the vestries were authorized to make presentation to benefices, an act which Bishop Sherlock complained of as a serious encroachment on the rights of the crown.

Dissent from the established church began to develope itself in Virginia. In 1740 the celebrated Whitefield, then about twenty-six years of age, preached at Williamsburg, by the invitation of Commissary Blair. The extraordinary religious excitement which took place at this time in America, and which was increased by the impassioned eloquence of Whitefield, was styled "the New Light Stir." It produced a temporary schism in the American Presbyterian Church, and the two parties were known as Old Side and New Side. The Synod of Philadelphia was Old Side; the Presbyteries of New Castle, New Brunswick, and New York, New Side. The preachers of the New Side were often styled "New Lights." A hundred years before, the Presbyterians of Ireland denounced the sectarian (or Cromwell) party of England, as those who "vilify public ordinances, speak evil of church government, and invent damnable errors, under the specious pretence of a gospel-way and new light."[439:A]

Between the years 1740 and 1743 a few families of Hanover County, in Lower Virginia, withdrawing themselves from attendance at the services of the established church, were accustomed to meet for worship at the house of Samuel Morris, the zealous leader of this little company of dissenters. One of these, a planter, had been first aroused by a few leaves of "Boston's Fourfold State," that fell into his hands. Morris, an obscure man, a bricklayer, of singular simplicity of character, sincere, devout, earnest, was in the habit of reading to his neighbors from a few favorite religious works, particularly "Luther on the Galatians," and his "Table-Talk," with the view of communicating to others impressions that had been made on himself. Having (1743) come into possession of a volume of Whitefield's Sermons, preached at Glasgow, he commenced reading them to his audience, who met to hear them on Sunday and on other days. The concern of some of the hearers on these occasions was such that they cried out and wept bitterly. Morris's dwelling-house being too small to contain his increasing congregation, it was determined to build a meeting-house merely for reading, and it came to be called "Morris's Reading-Room." None of them being in the habit of extemporaneous prayer no one dared to undertake it. Morris was soon invited to read these sermons in other parts of the country, and thus other reading-houses were established. Those who frequented them were fined for absenting themselves from church, and Morris himself often incurred this penalty. When called on by the general court to declare to what denomination they belonged, these unsophisticated dissenters, knowing little of any such except the Quakers, and not knowing what else to call themselves, assumed for the present the name of Lutherans, (unaware that this appellation had been appropriated by any others,) but shortly afterwards they relinquished that name.[439:B]

Partaking in the religious excitement which then pervaded the colonies, limited in information and in the means of obtaining it, these unorganized dissenters became bewildered by discordant opinions. Some of them seemed to be verging toward antinomianism; and it came to be a question among them whether it was right to pray, since prayer could not alter the Divine purposes, and it might be impious to desire that it should. At length, Morris and some of his associates were summoned to appear before the governor and council at Williamsburg. Having discarded the name of Lutherans, and not knowing what to call themselves, they were filled with apprehensions in the prospect of the interview. One of them making the journey to Williamsburg alone, met with, at a house on the way, an old Scotch Presbyterian "Confession of Faith," which he recognized as embodying his own creed. The book being given to him, upon rejoining his friends at Williamsburg they examined it together, and they determined to adopt it as their confession of faith. When called before the governor and council and interrogated, they exhibited the book as containing their creed. Gooch, being a Scotchman, and, as is said, having been educated a Presbyterian, immediately remarked, on seeing the book, "These men are Presbyterians," and recognized their right to the privileges of the toleration act. The interview between the governor and council and Morris and his friends, was interrupted by a thunder-storm of extraordinary fury; the council was softened; and this was one of a series of incidents which Morris and his companions looked upon as providentially instrumental in bringing about the favorable issue of this affair.

The Rev. William Robinson, a Presbyterian, was the first minister, not of the Church of England, that preached in Hanover. The son of a Quaker physician near Carlyle, in England, he emigrated to America, and (1743) sent out by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, visited the frontier settlements of Virginia and North Carolina. Near Winchester he was apprehended by the sheriff, to be sent to the governor to answer for preaching without license, but the sheriff soon released him. He preached among the Scotch-Irish settlers of Charlotte, Prince Edward, Campbell, and Albemarle, and in Charlotte established a congregation. Overtaken at Rockfish Gap by a deputation from Hanover, he was induced to return and visit that county, and he preached for some days to large congregations, some of his hearers publicly giving utterance to their emotions, and many being converted. Before his departure he corrected some of the errors into which the dissenters had fallen, and taught them to conduct public worship with better order, prayer and singing being now introduced, so that "he brought them into some kind of church order on the Presbyterian model."[441:A] He was followed shortly afterwards by the Rev. John Blair, whose preaching was equally impressive. Another missionary, the Rev. John Roan, from the New Castle Presbytery, preached to crowded congregations there and in the neighboring counties. The consequent excitement, and his speaking freely in public and in private of the delinquency of the parish ministers, and his denouncing them with unsparing invective, in spite of reproaches, ridicule, and threats, gave alarm to them and their supporters, and measures were concerted to arrest the inroads of these offensive innovations. To aggravate the indignation of the government a witness swore "that he heard Mr. Roan utter blasphemous expressions in his sermons," preached at the house of Joshua Morris, in James City County.

At the meeting of the general court in April, Governor Gooch, in his charge to the grand jury, denounced, in strong terms, "certain false teachers lately crept into this government, who, without order or license, or producing any testimonial of their education or sect, professing themselves ministers under the pretended influence of new light, extraordinary impulse, and such like satirical [sic] and enthusiastic knowledge, lead the innocent and ignorant people into all kinds of delusion." He even suspected them to be Romish emissaries, saying, "their religious professions are very justly suspected to be the result of jesuitical policy, which also is an iniquity to be punished by the judges." He calls upon the jury to present and indict these offenders. On the next day the jury presented John Roan for "reflecting upon and vilifying the established religion," and Thomas Watkins, of Henrico County, for saying "your churches and chapels are no better than the synagogues of Satan," and Joshua Morris, "for permitting John Roan, the aforementioned preacher, and very many people, to assemble in an unlawful manner at his house on the seventh, eighth, and ninth of January last past."

The intolerant spirit of the government continuing unabated, the Conjunct Presbyteries of New Castle and New Brunswick, at the instance of Morris and some of his friends, who were apprehensive of severe measures being adopted against them, sent an address in their behalf to Governor Gooch, by two clergymen, Gilbert Tennent and Samuel Finley. They were respectfully received, and allowed to preach in Hanover, where they remained for a week.

The Synod of Philadelphia being now apprehensive that their congregations in the valley of Virginia might also be involved in the penalties threatened by the governor, in May, 1745, in an address to him, disclaimed all connection with the Presbytery of New Castle, which had commissioned Mr. Roan, and expressed their deep regret that any who assume the name of Presbyterians should be guilty of conduct so uncharitable and so unchristian as that mentioned in his honor's charge to the grand jury; and they assure him that these persons never belonged to their body, but were missionaries sent out by some who, in May, 1741, had been excluded from the Synod of Philadelphia by reason of their divisive and uncharitable doctrines and practices, and whose object was, in a spirit of rivalry, "to divide and trouble the churches." To this address Gooch made a very kind and respectful reply.