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CHURCHES, MINISTERS, AND FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.

of death, to leave behind me some such notices; but it may be better to have been surprised into this earlier statement, so that if I have fallen into any mistakes I may have the opportunity of correcting them, as I should be grieved to misrepresent even in the slightest degree the Church of my affections, or any member of it.

APPENDIX.

No. I.

A COPY OF THE Journal of THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION HELD AT THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY, IN THE CITY OF WILLIAMSBURG, IN APRIL, 1719.

AT a Convention of the Clergy of Virginia, begun on Wednesday, the eighth day of April, 1719, in the College of William and Mary, in the city of Williamsburg, Mr. Commissary Blair called over a list of the clergymen of this Colony, and the following members answered to their

names:

Mr. Selater, Mr. Guy Smith, Mr. Lewis Latane, Mr. Thomas Sharpe, Mr. Hugh Jones, Mr. Andrew Thomson, Mr. Ralph Bowker, Mr. Cargill, Mr. George Robinson, Mr. Monroe, Mr. Eml. Jones, Mr. Bar. Yates, Mr. Wm. Finney, Mr. John Shaife, Mr. Alex. Scott, Mr. John Worden, Mr. Benj. Pownal, Mr. Wm. Brodie, Mr. John Bagge, Mr. Fran. Mylne, Mr. Brunskill, Mr. Fountaine, Mr. Geo. Seagood, Mr. James Robertson, Mr. James Falconer.

Absent.

Mr. Alex. Forbes, Mr. John Bell, Mr. Giles Rainsford, Mr. James Breghin, Mr. John Span, Mr. Owen Jones, Mr. John Prince, Mr. James Tenant, (out of the country,) Mr. Daniel Taylor, (excused by letter,) Mr. Saml. Bernard, (sick,) Mr. James Cleck, (sick,) Mr. Wm. Black.

Then Mr. Commissary Blair read two letters from the Lord-Bishop of London, our Diocesan, one to himself, and another to Reverend the Clergy of Virginia, and recommended the particulars of them, which letters are as followeth, viz. :

To the Rev. Mr. Blair, Commissary of Virginia.

DEAR BROTHER:-You will find in the enclosed the reason I have for writing it, and will, I doubt not, agree in opinion with me that it cannot but be useful to put the clergy under you in mind of their duty, even if there should be no failing, much more if there be any. I therefore desire you to communicate this letter to them, and to use all proper means to redress any deviations from our rules, considering that both you and I are to be answerable if we neglect our duty in that part.

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I have wrote to the Governor, and entreated him to give you all proper countenance and assistance in these matters, and am persuaded he will be ready so to do upon any application you may have occasion to

make him.

I should be glad to hear from you what vacant churches are in your parts, to the end I may use my best endeavours to procure you a supply. I am, sir,

Your assured friend and brother,

FULHAM, August 6, 1718.

JOHN LONDON.

To the Reverend the Clergy of Virginia.

REVEREND BRETHREN :-It is always a joy to me to hear of the good success of your ministerial labours, and no less a grief to hear of any defaults and irregularities among you; to which disadvantageous reports I am not forward to give credit, finding that wrong representations are frequently made. Some occasions have been given to apprehend, there may have been faults and miscarriages in the life and conversation of some among you, which I trust are corrected; and that the grace of God, and a sense of duty you owe to Him, his Church, and to yourselves, will so rule in your hearts, as that I shall no more hear any thing to the disadvantage of any of you upon that head. Nevertheless, I cannot but give you notice, that I have information of some irregularities, which, if practised, will need very much to be redressed; and I cannot but hope, if such things there be, you will not be unwilling to do your part, as I think it a duty to do mine by this advisement.

Whether any ministers be settled among you who have not a license from my predecessor or myself, I must leave to the inquiry of your Governor, who is instructed in that case, and will, I believe, upon notice given, be ready to act accordingly, as also in reference to institutions and inductions. At least I must hope, that, by this case and yours, none will be suffered to officiate in the public worship of God, or perform any ministerial offices of religion, but such only as are Episcopally ordained; and from all such I cannot but expect a regular conformity to the established Liturgy, from which none of us can depart without violating that solemn promise we made at our ordination.

I have desired Mr. Commissary to communicate this to you, and, as I hope he will use all fitting earnestness in pressing the observation of these things, so I doubt not he will be able to procure a redress for those or any other disorders in the worship of God, when the same shall come to his knowledge.

I am, reverend brethren,

Your affectionate brother and assured friend,
JOHN LONDON.

FULHAM, August 6, 1718.

Then the Convention received a letter from the Honourable the Governor, directed to the clergy, which was read, and with it a copy of a letter from the Governor to the vestry of St. Anne, in Essex, which was read also, which letters are as followeth, viz. :

REVEREND GENTLEMEN:-You are now come hither at your Commissary's desire, that he might have the easier opportunity to communicate to you a letter from your Right Reverend Diocesan. And seeing his Lordship has been pleased to make mention of me in that letter, taking notice that I have instructions to act in reference to institutions and inductions, and that he must leave to my inquiry whether any ministers be settled among you who have not license from him or his predecessor, and as his Lordship seems to rely on my care as well as yours, that none may be suffered to officiate in the public worship of God, or perform any ministerial offices of religion, but such only as are Episcopally ordained, I ought not to be silent on this occasion, and thereupon must remark to you, that the very person whom his Lordship expects should use all fitting earnestness in pressing the observations of these things is he whom I take to be the least observer thereof himself. For none more eminently than Mr. Commissary Blair sets at naught those instructions which your Diocesan leaves you to be guided by, with respect to institutions and inductions; he denying by his practice as well as discourses that the King's Government has the right to collate ministers to ecclesiastical benefices within this Colony; for, when the church which he now supplies became void by the death of the former incumbent, his solicitation for the same was solely to the vestry, without his ever making the least application to me for my collation, notwithstanding it was my own parish church; and I cannot but complain of his deserting the cause of the Church in general, and striving to put it on such a foot as must deprive the clergy of that reasonable security which, I think, they ought to have with regard to their livings.

As to the disorders in the worship of God, which are pointed at in the said letter, it appears as if my Lord of London knew not that this Commissary is more apt to countenance than redress the same; for I myself have seen him present in the church while a layman (his clerk) has read the divine service to the congregation, he himself vouchsafing to perform no more of the ministerial office than to pronounce the absolution, preach, and dismiss with the blessing. I have also seen him present in the churchyard while the same clerk has performed the funeral-service at the grave. And I remember when he was for having the church wardens provide lay readers, who should on Sundays read to their congregations some printed sermons; and so far he declared in Council his approbation thereof, that such practice had like to have had the sanction of the Government, had I not withstood it as destructive to the Establishment of the Church.

Those and many other instances that might be given induce me to believe that a reformation of what has chiefly (as I apprehend) given occasion to your Diocesan's letter will not be pressed very heartily upon you

by your Commissary, especially if he made no such solemn promise at his ordination as his Lordship reminds you all of: wherefore I judge it to be the more incumbent upon the several members now in this Convention diligently to inquire of the disorders which your Diocesan takes notice of, and earnestly to apply yourselves to proper means for redressing them.

As to any faults and miscarriages in the life and conversation of some among you, which your Diocesan likewise touches upon, I trust your Commissary will use all fitting earnestness in pressing the reformation of such manners as may give offence and bring scandal upon your holy profession; and I have so good an opinion of the present body of the clergy, that I do not in the least doubt of a very general concurrence to censure and admonish any one of your fraternity here whom you shall know to have erred in either his doctrine or manners. For my part, I hope, after so many years' experience of my conduct in this Government, there is little need to express in words my disposition toward the Church; and I cannot suppose that any one of you doubts of my real inclination to support the interest thereof, or that I am otherwise than, reverend gentlemen, Your very affectionate and assured humble servant, A. SPOTTSWOOD,

WILLIAMSBURG, April 8, 1719.

To the vestry of St. Anne, in Essex, September 3, 1718. GENTLEMEN:-Though the hurry of public business, wherein I was engaged, did not allow me time immediately to answer your letter of the 1st of August, yet I told Mr. Short on his going hence, on the 5th of that month, that you might expect my answer in a few days; and if he has done me justice he has informed you that I advised your forbearing, in the mean time, to run too rashly into the measures I perceived you were inclining to; assuring him my intentions are to make you easy, if possible, in relation to your minister. But, whether that advice was imparted to you or not, it is plain, by your proceedings of the 8th of the same month, that you resolved not to accept of it, seeing you immediately discarded Mr. Bagge and sent down Mr. Rainsford with a pretended presentation of induction. As soon as that came into my hands, I observed it expressly contrary to a late opinion of the Council, whereby it is declared that the right of supplying vacant benefices is claimed by the King, and by his Majesty's commission given to the Governor; and for that reason I let Mr. Rainsford know that before I could admit of such a presentation it was necessary for me to have likewise the advice of the Council thereon. But, not content to wait their resolution, I understand you have taken upon you the power of induction, as well as that of presentation, by giving Mr. Rainsford possession of the pulpit, and excluding the person I appointed to officiate. I have, according to my promise, taken the advice of my Council upon your pretended presentation, and here send it enclosed, by which you will find that the Board is clearly of opinion that I should not receive such presentation: