Dr. Burton says that the orator "stood, according to tradition, near the present corner of the east transept and the nave, or more exactly, in pew 47, in the east aisle of the nave.... He faced the eastern wall of the transept, where were the two windows. In the more northern of these stood Colonel Edward Carrington. He broke the silence that followed the orator's burning words with the exclamation, 'Right here I wish to be buried!'"
When the British took possession of Richmond in 1781, St. John's Church became a barracks for Arnold's men. And some of them stood on the spot where Patrick Henry spoke the words that had such large part in stirring up the people to drive all British soldiers from the Colonies.
After the close of the war the diocese of Virginia was reorganized in the building, and plans were laid to overcome the difficulties that would soon come through the loss of the property of the Protestant Episcopal Church, which led Edmund Randolph, later Governor of Virginia and Secretary of State in Washington's Cabinet, to speak the famous words:
"Of what is the Church now possessed? Nothing but the glebes and your affections."
That the affections of the people are a better dependence than rich endowments in money has been shown by the later history of the church, the parish, and the diocese.
Photo by H. P. Cook
NELSON HOUSE, YORKTOWN, VA.