George W. B. Spooner, Wm. Drummond, Elisha Hall, Wm. Jones, Anthony Buck, Richard Richards, Robert Patton, Wm. Glassell, Tho. Southcomb, Andrew Parks, Tho. Rootes, Peter Gordon, Wm. Taylor, George Murray, James Pettigrew, Timothy Green, Wm. Payne, James Carmichael, Law. Bowes, Thos. Hodge, George French, Richard Johnston, Jr., John Anderson, John Coakley, Wm. Fitzhugh, of Chatham, Charles Croughton, David Henderson, Roger Coltart, David Blair, Jeff. Wright, Charles Yates, Wm. Lovell, Alexander Duncan, Wm. Wilson, Rob. Lilly, Thos. Cochran, James Stevenson, John Brownlow, Jos. Thornton, Benj. Day, Wm. Wiatt, Zack. Mayfield, John Newton, David Simons, Philip Lipscomb, Daniel Grinnan, James Vanshell, Daniel Stark, Samuel Stevens, Godlove Heiskell, Thos. P. Basye, John Harris, Thomas Seddon, Jr., Robert Wellford, Philip Glover, John Legg, Edward McDermot, John Alcock, Jacob Grotz, John Moore, Adam Darby, Tho. Miller, James Blair, Wm. Hamilton, R. Dykes, David Williamson, Wm. Acres, Wm. Talbot, James Ross, John Bogan, Robert Walker, John Kirck, Sam. M. Douglas, Wm. Welsh, Alexander S. Roe, John Dare, James Slater, Charles Stewart, Christian Helmstetter, Wm. Smith, Benj. Sabastian, James Adams.
CHAPTER XVI
Some Distinguished Men Buried in Fredericksburg—A Remarkable Grave Stone—Three Heroic Fredericksburgers, Wellford, Herndon, Willis—The Old Liberty Bell Passes Through Town—Great Demonstrations in its Honor—What a Chinaman Thought of it.
A town is not less renowned for the noble, heroic dead who sleep within its borders than it is for its gallant soldiers, Statesmen and others who are yet on the stage of action. Indeed its renown may be more enduring because of its dead than of its living. The deeds of the dead are embalmed in our hearts and in history and cannot be tarnished, obscured or obliterated. The greatest deeds of the living may be obscured and even almost blotted from the approving mind by some adverse, evil cloud—by some act of folly or perfidy.
If Judas Iscariot had died before he betrayed his Master his good deeds would have lived forever. If a Britton’s bullet had taken off Benedict Arnold before his treasonable thoughts had resolved into action he would have been written down in history as one of the heroes of America. We, therefore, with pride refer to some distinguished men who peacefully sleep within our corporate limits.
ARCHIBALD M’PHERSON.
Archibald McPherson was born in 1715 in the northern part of England. He came to this country in early manhood and settled in Spotsylvania county. He is represented as being a gentleman of education, refinement and wealth, and a friend to the poor and needy. He died in the prime of manhood, leaving to the world an unsullied name and to the poor of the town a legacy to be expended in the education of their children, which is elsewhere mentioned in these pages.
Mr. McPherson was interred in the burial ground of St. George’s church and a marble slab erected over his grave, which is now secured to the wall of the Mission House, at the west end of the lot on Princess Ann street. On that slab is the following inscription: