And, on the 16th day of June, 1761, the record below is made in the vestry-book:
"Agreed that the steeple as before to be built, shall be joined to the west end of the church wall, and that an half brick be added to the thickness of the foundation of the said steeple up to the water table."
And, on the 14th day of July, 1762, the following record on the vestry-book will show its completion:
"Agreed, that Mr. William Westwood, and Mr. Charles Cooper, compute the number of bricks laid in the steeple wall, and if they two disagree, that they chuse a third person; and that this vestry hath this day received the said work, so as not to affect the counting or computing the number of bricks laid in the said steeple."
The occasion of building the tower is found in the extract following, made from the same source, and bearing date February 6, 1761:
"Whereas the late Mr. Andrew Kennedy, did by his last will and testament, devise to the parish of Elizabeth City, forty pounds sterling, to purchase a bell for the church of the said parish, provided the vestry, and churchwardens of the said parish, shall undertake to build a belfry for the same in twelve months after the said Alexander Kennedy's death; and this vestry, willing to embrace the said gift, have accordingly resolved," &c.
Now arises a question of some interest. The will of Nicholas Baker, made December 21, 1667, makes mention of "ye new church of Kighotan." Was there an old church of Kighotan? One older than this? We answer, yes! And now for the writer's reasons for arriving at this conclusion. From the old record of wills, deeds, &c., in the County Court office, and to which I have had access freely, through the politeness and kindness of Samuel Howard, Esq., the gentlemanly clerk of the court, I copy the following:
"In the name of God, Amen. I, Robert Brough, clerke of Kigquotan, in the county of Elizabeth Citty, being sicke and weake in body, but in perfect sense and memory, praised bee God for itt, this seven and twentyeth day of Aprill, in the yeare of our Lord God 1667, for the quieting of my conscience, desire to settle that estate it has pleased God to lend mee, in manner and forme following;—And first of all, I commend my soul into the hands of ye Almighty God my Maker, and my Saviour and Redeemer Christ Jesus, being confident through his meritts and blood shedd for mee, to be an inheritor with Him, His saints and angells of everlasting life. And my body unto ye earthe from whence it came, there to receive decent burial in the old parish church of Kigquotan aforesaid," &c.
"The old parish church of Kigquotan," and "ye new church of Kighotan," cannot be one and the same. We are then led to inquire, where was the old parish church of Kigquotan, and when was it probably built? The last branch of this question, we prefer answering first. By reference to the administration of Sir Thomas Yeardley (not Sir George Yeardley), we find that, in 1621, among several other Colonial enactments, provision is made for the erection of a "house of worship, and the separation of a burial ground on every plantation." We presume, therefore, that it was about this time (1621-2) that the first church of Kigquotan was erected, and we have not forgotten the churchwardens of 1644. And now, in answer to the other question—where was this church built?—we have only to turn our footsteps to the "Pembroke Farm" (the property of John Jones, Esq.), about one mile from the town of Hampton, and, as we there take our stand among the few remaining tombs, shout "Eureka, Eureka!" Whether the old parish church of Kigquotan was of wood, or of brick, we cannot at this day determine. "Like the baseless fabric of a vision" it has disappeared; but we opine it was wooden, from the fact, that the first church (and probably the second also) in Jamestown (both of which were destroyed by fire) was a wooden one; and the presumption is, the first brick church erected would be at the capital of the colony. However this may be, the burial ground at Pembroke could not have been simply a piece of ground, "bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite, for a possession of a burying place" for a family; but that it was a public cemetery, even that of the old parish church of Kigquotan, is evident from the character of the tombs which are still to be seen above the surface of the earth. That there are many covered over with the deposits of years, I have not the slightest doubt. Those tombs, we now see, give the best evidence, in their inscriptions, that those whose remains moulder beneath the moss-grown marbles, were not private individuals—not members of the family owning the estate—but men in public service, and who would not have been laid in an obscure private burial ground, when the church-yard of the new church of Kigquotan was but a mile distant from the spot. Moreover, it will be perceived by the inscriptions which we shall presently give, that one of the sleepers at Pembroke was "minister of this parish." Now, is it probable, that the minister of the parish would have been buried there, if it had not been a church-yard, when there was the new church of Kigquotan to receive his remains, as it was fifty-two years before, to receive those of Mr. Nicholas Baker? I have no doubt that veneration for the old cemetery, the site of the first church of the parish, caused many to bury their dead there, long after the present church-yard was opened. The oldest tomb we can find in the church-yard at Hampton, and standing in the northeast angle of the Cross, is to the memory of Captain Willis Wilson, who departed this life the 19th day of November, 1701. The latest date upon the stones at Pembroke is 1719. "The lapse of years, and the ruthless hand of time," have levelled those graves in "ye old parish church of Kigquotan;" but enough is left to the "tomb searcher," even in the inscriptions following, as he reads them by the slanting rays of the setting sun, and hears the low winds dirging in the pines, and the moaning and sighing of the distant waves, to lead him to say with Blair:
"The time draws on
When not a single spot of burial earth,
Whether on land, or in the spacious sea,
But must give back its long-committed dust
Inviolate; and faithfully shall these
Make up the full account."