Historic Shrines of America Part 28

Current Money to be paid by the amount of the Sale of Twenty thousand pounds of Tob'o Annually to be Levyd on the parish and Sold here for Money till the whole payment be compleat."

There is no record of the completion of the building, but probably it was finished at the appointed time. Since that date various additions have been made, yet it is possible to trace the lines of the original structure. The original pews are still in use, though they have been lowered. The hinges of the pew doors are handwrought. The wainscoting and the window sashes are those first put in. The original weather-boarding is still in place. It is fastened by nails whose heads are half an inch broad.

For the new church there were imported from England:

"One Parsons Surples, a Pulpit Cushen and Cloth, two cloths for Reading Desks, a Communion Table Cloth, and a Dozen of Cushens--to be of good Purple Cloth, and the Surples good Hollond, also Large Bible and four large Prayer Books."

An entry in the vestry book on December 17, 1773, shows that the rector, Mr. Selden, received as salary 17,150 pounds of tobacco, worth 125. The clerk of the parish received 1,789 pounds of tobacco, or 13 10s., the s.e.xton had 536 pounds, or 3.10s.7d.

Selden was chaplain of the Virginia Convention which met in the church March 20, 1775. At the closing session of this convention Patrick Henry "flashed the electric spark, which exploded the country in revolution," as Burton says in his history of Henrico Parish. This was the speech that closed:

"Gentlemen may cry peace, peace, but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms!

Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand here idle?

What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty G.o.d. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, Give me liberty, or give me death."

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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NELSON HOUSE, YORKTOWN, VA.

_Photo by H. P. Cook_ See page 270]

LIX

THE NELSON HOUSE AND THE MOORE HOUSE, YORKTOWN, VIRGINIA

MADE MEMORABLE BY THE BATTLE OF YORKTOWN AND THE SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS

One day in 1740 a baby a little more than one year old, whose name was Thomas Nelson, stood by the side of his father, William Nelson, as the father was about to lay the foundation of his new home in York, Virginia. The babe had been stationed there that the brick for the corner might be placed in the little hands; then it could be said in later years that the babe had helped in the exercises of the day. The little fellow became a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, a General in the Revolutionary War, and Governor of Virginia.

William Nelson was a merchant, who had invested his savings in land and had become quite wealthy. When his son was fourteen years old he was able to send him to Cambridge, England, to be educated. Nine years later the young man married Lucy Grymes of Brandon, and took up his residence in the house whose foundation he had helped to lay.

For many years the home of the young people was noted for the hospitality shown there. Whenever the owner could leave his guests, he rode to his plantation near town. He kept a pack of hounds, which were frequently employed in fox hunting.

When discontent against England became p.r.o.nounced, he was a leader of the patriots. He was a member of the House of Burgesses of 1774 which was dissolved by Lord Dunmore because of the pa.s.sage of a resolution against the Boston Port Bill, and he was one of the eighty-nine men who met next day at a tavern and took action that led to the first Continental Congress.

On July 17, when the Convention of Virginia delegates gathered in Richmond decided to raise three regiments for home defence, Patrick Henry was named as commander of the first while Nelson was put in charge of the second.

He was among the patriots who sat in the Continental Congress of 1775, 1776, and 1777, and his name was signed to the Declaration of Independence. On August 16, 1777, he retired from public service because of failing health, but when, a little later, the Governor of Virginia, fearing the approach of the British fleet, asked him to serve as brigadier general and commander-in-chief of the forces of the State, he agreed, on condition that he be excused from accepting payment for his services.

During the siege of Yorktown he was at the head of the militia. The sketch of his life as given by Sanderson in the "Biography of the Signers," says: "During the siege, observing his own house uninjured by the artillery of the American batteries he inquired the cause. A respect for his property, was a.s.signed. Nelson ... requested that the artillerists would not spare his house more than any other, especially as he knew it to be occupied by the princ.i.p.al officers of the British Army. Two pieces were accordingly pointed against it. The first shot went through the house and killed two ... officers.... Other b.a.l.l.s soon dislodged the hostile tenants." It is said that Nelson gave ten guineas reward to the man who fired the first shot.

Again Thomas Nelson responded to the call of his State when in June, 1781, he became Governor, succeeding Thomas Jefferson. Four months after the beginning of his term as chief executive of the State, George Washington, in general orders, said:

"The General would be guilty of the highest ingrat.i.tude, a crime of which he hopes he shall never be accused, if he forgot to return his sincere acknowledgments to his excellency governor Nelson, for the succours which he received from him and the militia under his command, to whose activity, emulation, and bravery, the highest praises are due. The magnitude of the acquisition will be ample compensation for the difficulties and dangers which they met with so much firmness and patriotism."

Nelson's term as Governor was shortened by ill health. In November, 1781, he was compelled to resign.

But he was not permitted to rest. Attacks were made on him for certain courses taken during his term as Governor. When he asked and was given permission to defend himself before the State delegates, he was triumphantly acquitted of all blame. On December 31, 1781, this action was recorded:

"An act to indemnify THOMAS NELSON, JUNIOR, Esquire, late governor of this commonwealth, and to legalize certain acts of his administration. Whereas, upon examination, it appears that previous to and during the siege of York, Thomas Nelson, Esquire, late governor of this commonwealth, was compelled by the peculiar circ.u.mstances of the state and army, to perform many acts of government without the advice of the council of state, for the purpose of procuring subsistence for the allied army under the command of his excellency general Washington; be it enacted that all such acts of government, evidently productive of general good, and warranted by necessity, be judged and held of the same validity, and the like proceedings be had on them as if they had been executed by and with the advice of the council, and with all the formality prescribed by law. And be it enacted that the said Thomas Nelson, jr., Esquire, be and he hereby is in the fullest manner indemnified and exonerated from all penalties and dangers which might have accrued to him from the same."

Nelson lived more than seven years after this act approving his emergency actions. But three years were spent in comparative poverty.

Most of his property was sold to satisfy the debts incurred by paying two regiments out of his own pocket, and by going security, with the State, for two million dollars needed to carry on the war. Sanderson says of these acts of generosity:

"He had spent a princely fortune in his country's service; his horses had been taken from the plough, and sent to drag the munitions of war; his granaries had been thrown open to a starving soldiery, and his ample purse had been drained to its last dollar, when the credit of Virginia could not bring a sixpence into her treasury. Yet it was the widow of this man who, beyond eighty years of age, blind, infirm, and poor, had yet to learn whether republics can be grateful."

On the simple gravestone in Yorktown, erected to the memory of the patriot, is this eloquent inscription:

Thomas Nelson, Governor of Virginia.

He Gave All for Liberty.

Not far from the grave is another historic house that should be named with the Nelson house. This is the Moore house, on Temple farm, then less than a mile from Yorktown. In this house, which was built in 1713, the terms of the surrender of Cornwallis were drawn up. It was once the summer home of the colonial governor, Alexander Spottswood.

LX

THE JOHN MARSHALL HOUSE, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

WHERE THE CHIEF JUSTICE CARED FOR HIS WIFE AND ENTERTAINED HIS FRIENDS

An old book, "Richmond in By Gone Days," says that John Marshall was noted in Richmond for his unpretending manner. "His dress was plain even to negligence. He marketed for himself and might be seen at an early hour returning home with a pair of fowls, or a basket of eggs in his hand, not with ostentatious humility, but for mere convenience."

It is related by Flanders that Marshall "was one morning strolling through the streets of Richmond, attired in a plain linen roundabout and shorts, with his hat under his arm, from which he was eating cherries, when he stopped in the porch of the Eagle Hotel, indulged in some little pleasantry with the landlord, and then pa.s.sed on." Just then a man from the country, who wished a lawyer to appear for him in court, was referred by the landlord to Marshall, as the best advocate he could have, but the countryman declined to have anything to do with the careless young man. In court he asked the clerk for a lawyer, and was once more recommended to take John Marshall. Again he refused.

Just then a dignified old man in powdered wig and black coat entered.

He was at once engaged, on his appearance. After a time the inferiority of the black-coated lawyer was so apparent that the countryman sought Marshall, told him of the mistake he had made, said that he had left but five dollars of the one hundred dollars he had set aside for lawyers' fees, and asked Marshall if he would a.s.sist on the case. The lawyer laughingly agreed.

In 1781, when Marshall was twenty-five years old, he walked from Virginia to Philadelphia, to be inoculated for smallpox. "He walked at the rate of thirty-five miles a day. On his arrival, such was his shabby appearance, that he was refused admission into one of the hotels; his long beard, and worn-out garments, probably suggesting the idea that his purse was not adequate to his entertainment. And this in the city which had seen much of the young man's heroic services during the Revolution!"

Before the close of the war, while visiting his father, Colonel Marshall, who was the commanding officer at Yorktown, Virginia, he met Mary Willis Ambler, a daughter of Jacqueline Ambler, the treasurer of Virginia. "She was just fourteen years of age at the time, and it is stated to have been a case of love at first sight." Even when Marshall called to see her he was not prepossessing in appearance, yet he was well received, "notwithstanding his slouched hat, and negligent and awkward dress," for his amiable manners, fine talents, and especially his love for poetry, which he read to them with deep pathos, led them to forget his dress.

The young people were married on January 3, 1783. After paying the fee of the minister, the groom's sole remaining fortune was a guinea!

Mrs. Marshall was for many years a nervous invalid. Bishop Meade says, "The least noise was sometimes agony to her whole frame, and his perpetual endeavor was to keep the house and yard and out-houses from the slightest cause of distressing her; walking himself at times about the house and yard without shoes." The att.i.tude of the people of Richmond to the husband and wife is shown by the fact that "on one occasion, when she was in her most distressing state, the town authorities manifested their great respect for him and sympathy for her, by having either the town clock or town bell m.u.f.fled."

On his marriage John Marshall took his wife to one of the best houses then available in the village of Richmond, a two-room frame building.

In 1789 he bought two acres of ground on Shockoe Hill, and here, in 1793, he built a nine-room brick house. One of the rooms was a large apartment, in which he gave his famous "lawyer dinners."

When Marshall was not in Washington, he lived in this comfortable house, which was near the home of his father-in-law. He had also a farm a few miles from Richmond. Bishop Meade says that one morning, between daybreak and sunrise, he met Marshall on horseback. He had a bag of clover seed lying before him, which he was carrying to his farm.

An English traveller who spent a week in Richmond in 1835 gave his impression of the Richmond home: