St. John's Episcopal Church | |
Location | Richmond, Virginia |
---|---|
Coordinates | 37°31′53″N77°25′11″W / 37.53139°N 77.41972°W |
Built | 1741/1611 [1] |
Part of | St. John's Church Historic District (ID70000884) |
NRHP reference No. | 66000920 [2] |
VLR No. | 127-0013 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
Designated NHL | January 20, 1961 [3] |
Designated CP | September 15, 1970 |
Designated VLR | September 9, 1969 [4] |
St. John's Church is an Episcopal church located at 2401 East Broad Street in Richmond, Virginia, United States. Formed from several earlier parishes, St. John's is the oldest church in the city of Richmond, Virginia. It was built in 1741 by William Randolph's son, Colonel Richard Randolph; the Church Hill district was named for it. It was the site of two important conventions in the period leading to the American Revolutionary War, and is famous as the location where American Founding Father Patrick Henry gave his memorable speech at the Second Virginia Convention, closing with the often-quoted demand, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" The church is designated as a National Historic Landmark.
The earliest precursor of St. John's was Henrico Parish Church, initially located at Sir Thomas Dale's progressive development at Henrique (also known as the "Citrus of Henrique", "Henrico polis" or "Henrico Town"). When the colony was organized, the Anglican Church was the established church of the Crown.
Founder in the Virginia Colony in 1611, Henrique was notable for a number of "firsts". It was the first to allocate land to individuals and the site of the first "College" in colonial Virginia, a school modeled after those in Europe during the 17th century. The College at Henricus was to include education for the children of the Native Americans.
It was at Henricus that colonists held Pocahontas captive; she was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, leader of the Powhatan Confederacy. During the year-long wait, the first rector of the church, Rev. Alexander Whitaker taught her about Christianity and helped her improve her fluency in English. She was baptized as "Rebecca". She married John Rolfe, who established Varina Farms, a plantation across the James River. Rolfe smuggled seeds of sweet Spanish tobacco into Virginia, where it rapidly replaced the much harsher local strains.
Whitaker was drowned in the James River in 1617. His associate, the Reverend William Wickham, held the Henrico Parish Church together awaiting the arrival from England of the Reverend Thomas Bargrave in 1619. Also in 1619, Henricus became located in Henrico Cittie (sic), one of four large "incorporations" or "burroughs" formed by the Virginia Company of London in 1619.
Henricus was an outpost of Jamestown, one of the most westerly settlements at the time. This proved a severe disadvantage on Good Friday in 1622, when the entire development at Henricus and the church were destroyed in the Indian Massacre of 1622, in which a third of all colonists in Virginia were killed.
The Virginia Company lost its charter in 1624 and Virginia became a royal colony. Henricus was not rebuilt, but its long-lost site, now located in Chesterfield County (formed from Henrico County in 1749), was discovered in the late 20th century. A county historical park is located there.
Despite the destruction of Henricus, the colony continued to grow, and a small village developed at Rolfe's Varina Farms Plantation, which became known as Varina (also called "Henrico Parish" in early years). The Shire of Henrico (soon renamed Henrico County) was formed in 1634 as one of the eight original shires of Virginia. The initial county seat was at Varina, which officially became a town in 1680. In those days before separation of church and state, the parish boundaries were the same as those of the county.
Notable among Henrico Parish's leaders was the Reverend Dr. James Blair (1656–1743), who was named Commissary in the Virginia Colony for the Bishop of London, making him the colony's highest-ranking religious leader. At the urging of the House of Burgesses, he became a founder and the first president of the College of William and Mary. In doing so, James Blair is said[ by whom? ] to have used some of the plans of the ill-fated earlier College at Henricus. Apparently taking no chances, the newer College was established at the fortified location of Middle Plantation in James City County, later renamed Williamsburg, to which the capital was later moved from Jamestown. Blair became the rector of Bruton Parish Church there.
Exact locations of the church buildings at Varina are unknown. A third or fourth church building was built a few miles east of Varina Farms on a plantation known as "Curles", some twenty miles east of the present city of Richmond, in the current Varina District of Henrico County. The only relic of that church still surviving is the bowl of the baptismal font, which today is used at St. John's.[ citation needed ]
Henrico Parish Church moved to Richmond in 1741, and was housed in what is now the Church Hill neighborhood, on land donated by William Byrd II. Byrd also donated timber used to build the church, and wood to fire the kiln for the bricks for the foundation. Henrico's county seat was also moved from Varina to Richmond in 1752. The county offices were moved to a building still extant at present-day Twenty-second and Main Streets, where they operated until the 1970s.
The builder of the new church was Col. Richard Randolph (1686–1748), great-uncle to Thomas Jefferson. The original church building was completed on June 10, 1741. It remains as the transept of the current church, built along east-west lines. In 1772, a forty-foot-square extension was added to the northern side, orienting the church towards the south, to which end the altar was moved.
Over one hundred frame churches similar to this existed in Virginia before the American Revolution, of which only four are still standing. One of these is the Old Chapel Church in Franklin County, Virginia [5]
The Virginia colonial legislative assembly, the House of Burgesses, was dismissed by the royal governor due to tensions that led up to the American Revolutionary War. The Burgesses met as a provisional government in the First Virginia Convention in Williamsburg. Since the governor had loyalist forces in the vicinity of the capital of Williamsburg, it was decided to hold the next convention in Richmond. On March 23, 1775, the Second Virginia Convention was opened at the church. The President of the Convention was Peyton Randolph, who was also the Speaker of the House of Burgesses.
The Reverend Miles Selden was the rector of St. John's church at the time, and when the Convention assembled, he was chosen as Chaplain. Selden was popularly referred to as the "Patriot Parson." [6] Among the 120 delegates were Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. Other notable delegates were Benjamin Harrison V, Thomas Mann Randolph, Richard Bland, Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee. Debate centered on the perceived need to raise a militia to resist encroachments on civil rights by the British Government under King George III. Patrick Henry, a delegate from Hanover County, rose in support of such a militia and, with his fiery speech (concluding with the words "Give me liberty or give me death!"), swayed the vote.
Under a Resolution offered by Richard Henry Lee, the House of Burgesses on May 15, 1776 resolved that "the delegates appointed to represent this colony in General Congress be instructed to propose to that respectable body to declare the united Colonies free and independent states."
It is notable that the Second Virginia Convention authorized Baptist chaplains to minister to soldiers, an important early step toward freedom of religion in what became the Commonwealth of Virginia. Baptists and Methodists had been influential in Virginia during and following the Great Awakening, and many of the common people had already become affiliated with Baptist and Methodist congregations. After the war, the Anglican Church was disestablished, and the Episcopal Church of the United States was organized.
The Third Virginia Convention was held at St. John's Church on July 17, 1775 to organize the troops and the war effort of Virginia. George Washington of Fairfax had been appointed head of the American Army. The delegates acknowledged the debt to Patrick Henry, whose wisdom had already begun the arming of the colony, and he was named the first Governor of Virginia.
During the American Revolutionary War, in January 1781, General Benedict Arnold, the traitor who was then serving on the British side, quartered his troops in the church when Richmond was occupied.
The church serves an active congregation and ministries, and also receives tourists as a historic site. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
George Wythe, the first law professor in the United States, a delegate to the Continental Congress and signatory of the Declaration of Independence, is buried in the churchyard. Elizabeth Arnold Poe, mother of author Edgar Allan Poe, is buried in the churchyard. Her exact burial spot is unknown, but a memorial marks the general area.
There is a gift shop located within the churchyard from which regular guided tours depart. These tours take place inside the church and explore the events in Virginia leading up to the Second Virginia Convention, Patrick Henry's famous speech, and his political career. Reenactments featuring professional actors in 1700s costumes are offered on Sundays at 1:30 p.m. from Memorial Day to Labor Day and regularly attract over 100 attendees. The Walter W. Craigie Speaker Series brings speakers to St. John's Church to talk about topics related to history and has included the 66th Governor of Virginia, Governor L. Douglas Wilder and the 67th Governor of Virginia, Governor George Allen.
Peyton Randolph was an American politician and planter who was a Founding Father of the United States. Born into Virginia's wealthiest and most powerful family, Randolph served as speaker of Virginia's House of Burgesses, president of the first two Virginia Conventions, and president of the First Continental Congress. He also served briefly as president of the Second Continental Congress.
Patrick Henry was an American politician, planter and orator who declared to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): "Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first and sixth post-colonial Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779 and from 1784 to 1786.
Henrico County, officially the County of Henrico, is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 334,389 making it the fifth-most populous county in Virginia. Henrico County is included in the Greater Richmond Region. There is no incorporated community within Henrico County; therefore, there is no incorporated county seat either. Laurel, an unincorporated CDP, serves this function.
Edmund Pendleton was an American planter, politician, lawyer, and judge. He served in the Virginia legislature before and during the American Revolutionary War, becoming the first speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates. Pendleton attended the First Continental Congress as one of Virginia's delegates alongside George Washington and Patrick Henry, signed the Continental Association, and led the conventions both wherein Virginia declared independence (1776) and adopted the United States Constitution (1788).
The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia.
George Wythe was an American academic, scholar and judge who was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. The first of the seven signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence from Virginia, Wythe served as one of Virginia's representatives to the Continental Congress and the Philadelphia Convention and served on a committee that established the convention's rules and procedures. He left the convention before signing the United States Constitution to tend to his dying wife. He was elected to the Virginia Ratifying Convention and helped ensure that his home state ratified the Constitution. Wythe taught and was a mentor to Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, Henry Clay and other men who became American leaders.
John Rolfe was an English explorer, farmer and merchant. He is best known for being the husband of Pocahontas and the first settler in the colony of Virginia to successfully cultivate a tobacco crop for export.
Richard Bland, sometimes referred to as Richard Bland II or Richard Bland of Jordan's Point, was an American Founding Father, planter, lawyer and politician from Virginia. A cousin and early mentor of Thomas Jefferson, Bland served 34 years in the Virginia General Assembly, and with John Robinson and this man's cousin Peyton Randolph as one of the most influential and productive burgesses during the last quarter century of the colonial period.
William Archer Rutherfoord "W. A. R." Goodwin was an Episcopal priest, historian, and author. As the rector of Bruton Parish Church, Goodwin began the 20th-century preservation and restoration effort which resulted in Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. He is thus sometimes called "the Father of the Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg."
Bruton Parish Church is located in the restored area of Colonial Williamsburg in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. It was established in 1674 by the consolidation of two previous parishes in the Virginia Colony, and remains an active Episcopal parish. The building, constructed 1711–15, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970 as a well-preserved early example of colonial religious architecture.
The "Citie of Henricus"—also known as Henricopolis, Henrico Town or Henrico—was a settlement in Virginia founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1611 as an alternative to the swampy and dangerous area around the original English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. It was named for Henry, Prince of Wales (1594–1612), the eldest son of King James I.
William Randolph I was an English-born planter, merchant and politician in colonial Virginia who played an important role in the development of the colony. Born in Moreton Morrell, Warwickshire, Randolph moved to the colony of Virginia sometime between 1669 and 1673, and married Mary Isham a few years later. His descendants include many prominent individuals including Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, Paschal Beverly Randolph, Robert E. Lee, Peyton Randolph, Edmund Randolph, John Randolph of Roanoke, George W. Randolph, and Edmund Ruffin. Due to his and Mary's many progeny and marital alliances, they have been referred to as "the Adam and Eve of Virginia".
James Blair was a Scottish-born clergyman in the Church of England. He was also a missionary and an educator, best known as the founder of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Varina is a former unincorporated community and current magisterial district in the easternmost portion of Henrico County, Virginia, United States.
Varina Farms, also known as Varina Plantation or Varina Farms Plantation or Varina on the James, is a plantation established in the 17th century on the James River about 10 miles (16 km) south of Richmond, Virginia. An 820-acre (330 ha) property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 as "Varina Plantation". At that time it included two contributing buildings and one other contributing site.
The Gunpowder Incident was a conflict early in the American Revolutionary War between Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia, and militia led by Patrick Henry. On April 21, 1775, two days after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Lord Dunmore ordered the removal of the gunpowder from the magazine in Williamsburg, Virginia to a Royal Navy ship.
The City of Henrico is one of the oldest counties in the Colony of Virginia. It was one of four incorporations established in the colony by its proprietor, the Virginia Company. The City of Henrico, which included the settlement of Henricus, was the furthest incorporation upstream on the James River. In 1634, Henrico was reorganized under royal authority as the shire of Henrico, one of eight shires in the Crown Colony of Virginia, Later, it became known as Henrico County, Virginia.
Beverley Dandridge Tucker was the second bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia. Four of his sons also distinguished themselves within the Episcopal Church.
Reverend Richard Buck was a minister to the Colony of Virginia at Jamestown, Virginia from 1610 to 1624. He was chaplain of the first session of the Virginia General Assembly, which was composed of the House of Burgesses and the Virginia Governor's Council. This assembly met in the church at Jamestown on July 30, 1619, as the first elected assembly and law making body in colonial America.