xt780g3gxq7t https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt780g3gxq7t/data/mets.xml Christian, Bolivar. 1860  books b92-107-27902265 English Macfarlane & Fergusson, : Richmond : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Virginia History Colonial period. Scotch-Irish Virginia. Scotch-Irish settlers in the valley of Virginia  : alumni address at Washington College, Lexington, Va. / published by the Alumni Association. text Scotch-Irish settlers in the valley of Virginia  : alumni address at Washington College, Lexington, Va. / published by the Alumni Association. 1860 2002 true xt780g3gxq7t section xt780g3gxq7t 
THE



,CG"ITH-IRISH SETTLERS



'the falee of



ALUMNI



ADDRESS



AT



WASHINGTON COLLEGE, LEXINGTON,


                 BY

     BOLzIVAR OCISPSANX7
       :Bl-, b sV.1 ro



VA.,



iPUBLISHED BY THE AWMNI ASSOCIATIONZ



   RICHMOND:
MACFARLANE  FERGUSSON,
     1860.



;f 'IT q i ni la.


 
This page in the original text is blank.

 







                    CORRESPONDENCE.




                          WASHI NGTON COLLEGE, Lexington, Va., 
                                                    JULY 2nd, 1859.     s
DEAR SIR:
  The Association of Alumni of this Institution, wiri1ing to give to the Address,
with which yoti favored them last eveninr, as permanent a form and as wide a cir-
culation as possible, appointed the undersigned a Committee to transmit to you the
following resolution:
  "1 Resolh ed. That the thanks of this Association be tendered to BOLIVAR CHRISTIAN,
Esq'r, for the very entertaining and instructive Address to which we have just
listened with so much pleasure, and in order that others besides the large and
intelligent audience in attendance may have the benefit of the interesting and im-
portant matter in which it so richly abounds, that a Committee of three members
be appointed to request a copy for publication.
  Wlhile we hereby express the wishes of those we have the honor to represent,
we add our own earnest solicitations that you will comply with the request embod-
ied in the foregoing resolution.
              We are, with high regard, your Fellow-Alumni,
                                                      46ONSO SMITH,
                                                      swN L. CAMPBELL,
                                                      GREENLEE DAVIDsoN.
  To Col. BOLIVAR C  o1AbI bahMton, Va.



                                               STAUNTON, July 29th, 1859.
Gentlemen:
  Although conscious of the imperfections in the Address you request for publica-
tion, yet as it was written for the Alumni of Washington College, I feel that they
have a right to dispose of the manuscript as they shall determine.
  If it may awaken the attention of others to its subject, the object of its prepara-
tion will be accomplished ; and if other facts illustrating the settlement of this
Valley may be thus elicited and communicated to the Society of Alumni, or to some
proper person for preservation, its wider publication may be permissible.
  While it has seemed unnecessary to encumber the MS. with notes of reference,
I have been careful to state nothing but oil authentic tradition, or as corroborated
by reliable history. The plan of the Address was to omit all familiar history not
indispensable to embody the floating traditions, and unpublishe l incidents concern-
ing the Scotch-Irish of Augusta. The sources of information are the fading memo-
ries of the old settlers; the records of the courts and of the Virginia Legislature;
Hening's Statutes; American Archives; the various histories of Scotland and
Ireland; of Virginia and the adjoining States; and the Sketches of Monette,
Foote, Kercheval, Davidson, Collins, Chambers, and others.
  Arl.reciating the kindly manner in which you have conveyed the request of the
Alumni Association-I remain, with friendly esteem, yours truly,
                                                 BOLIVAR CHRISTIAN.
 .To Messrs. ALPHONSO SMITE, JOHN L. CAMPBELL, GREENLED DAVIDSON,
                               Committee of Alumni Association, L exivgton, Va.


 
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                          ADDRESS.




GENTLEMEN OF THE ALUMNI:
  Our Alma Mater was born of the habitual esteem for learning among the
Scotch Irish settlers of this Valley. It had a genial nurture in the classic
taste and training of their pastors-hereditary exemplars for their people,
not more in piety than in political virtue. Its primal dowry was a tribute
from the Father of his country to patriotism and valor, so long and often
illustrated under his own eye, from the fatal day of Braddock's defeat till
Freedom's crowning conflict on the plains of Yorktown.
  The Alumni of Washington College may well find it a fitting duty to trace
out, in all its associations, the unwritten history of the Scotch-Irish Settlers
in the Valley of Virginia. Of this race most of the Alumni are themselves
direct descendants, and dispersed as they now are in every part of this con-
tinent, it can be but a labor of love for each to gather as he may, even from
the four -winds themselves, some Sybilline leaves, or floating traditions, to
illustrate a history rich in story of brave men and noble deeds-

                          "Sed omnes illachrymabiles
                    Urgentur, ignotique longs
                    Nocte, carent quia vate sacro."

  Let us, then, in a spirit of filial love-akin to that of the pious iEneas-
attempt the task of rescuing from impending oblivion, even so little of the
honored memory of our fathers tefore it be too late forever. Let us as
patiently, for the sake of the charity of the undertaking, wander awhile,
like Old Mortality, among the graves of the past, and with humble but per-
sistent effort retouch the fading tombstones of virtue.
  We propose not to travel along the broad highways of History, but mostly
on a more rugged route, amidst remote forests and rude mountains, where
only weird Tradition has her trackless haunts. We will attempt not in this
brief hour to treat such a theme in artistic style, but only to present, as we
have gathered, something of the traits and incidents characteristic of the
people and the times in the early days of our Valley, and leave to some more
epic pen to trace the moving story in all its fair proportions and poetic con-
trasts-from the simple wigwam homes, the virgin prairies, and forest-cov-


 





ered mountains of this new world, far back to its origin amidst the moors
and time-honored highlands of Ancient Scotland, where-

                   " Splendor falls on castle walls
                   Atid snowy summits old in story.'

  The familiar term, " Scotch-Irish," implies not the amalgamation of dis-
tinct Scotch and Irish families, but like " Anglo-Saxon," and " Indo-Briton,"
simply that the people of one country were transplanted into the other. The
Scotch-Irish Settlers in the Valley of Virginia, are direct descendants of
the Scotch who colonized the North of Ireland during the religious troubles
of Great Britain, from the reign of Henry VIII., and continuously to the
time of William III.
  Their lineage is more distinctly traced from the date of the unsuccessful
rebellion of the Earls of Tyrconnel and Tyrone, that forfeited to the British
crown the factious province of Ulster. Thither James I. transplanted colo-
nies of Scotch and EDnlish during the early part of the seventeenth century.
The Rev'd Andrew Stewart, a cotemporaneous writer, records, that " of the
English not many came over, for it is to be observed that being a great deal
more tenderly bred at home in England. and entertained in better quarters
than they could find in Ireland, they were unwilling to flock thither except
to good land, such as they had before at home, or to good cities where they
might trade; both of which, in those days, were scarce enough here. Be-
sides, the marshiness and fogginess of this island were still found unwhole-
some to English bodies. The King, too, had a natural love to have Ireland
planted with Scots, as being, besides their loyalty, of a middle temper be-
tween the English tender and the Irish rude breeding, and a great deal
more likely to adventure to plant Ulster."  . . . Among these colonists
are mentioned the Ellises, Leslies, Hills, Conways, Wilsons and others,
"gentlemen of England and worthy persons"-and the Forbeses, Grahams,
Stuarts, Hamiltons, Montgomerys, Alexanders, Shaws, Moores, Boyds, Bar-
clays and Baileys, described as " knights and gentlemen of Scotland whose
posterity hold good to this day." And here, this evening, I may well re-
peat this quaint encomium in the presence of many of their lineal posterity,
still bearing with honor the same names and " holding good" to this day-
two full centuries later.
  In the channel thus opened the tide of emigration fluctuated from Scot-
land to Ireland throughout the succeeding century, swollen too long and
often from the ruthless persecutions of the unflinching Covenanters by the
faithless Charles and his successors, down to the time of the momentous
revolution of 1688, which placed the Presbyterian Prince of Orange on the
throne of Great Britain.
  The history of these people while yet in Scotland, written in the blood of



6



ADDRESS.


 


THE SCOTCH-IRISH OF AUGUSTA.



their sufferings, illustrates a character which bore fruit for their descendants
in later years and other lands. Under the extraordinary trials and intense
excitement of the times exhibiting devotion to their principles of faith and
freedom to a degree readily magnified by their enemies, and exaggerated
almost to insane fanaticism. Many of them, men of high estate of the
nobility of Scotland, sacrificed everything for the common cause, undergoing
a persecution which, in the opinion of Bishop Burnet himself, " surpassed
even the merciless rigors of the Duke of Alva." Proclaiming, in a loyal
petition to a perjured King, that "the only desire of our hearts is for the
preservation of true religion amongst us, which we hold far dearer than our
lives and fortunes," they resisted to the bitter end the canons and liturgy
prepared by the impious Charles without the sanction of any church;-
driven from their time-honored kirk, they still gathered in conventicles like
Maybole, and Ayr, and Remfred, and Teviotdale;-renewing, ever and anon,
with heartiest zeal, their fealty to their fathers' "SOLEMN LEAGUE AND
COVENANT,"-that Magna Charta of Scottish rights,-and rallying under
their " brave banners," emblazoned at once with the ancient thistle of Scot-
land and the shibboleth of their own faith in the famous golden letters,
" FOR CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT,"-they awaited, undaunted, the
wrath of tyranny defied. Overborne at last by the oppressor's power, goaded
by the insolence and cruel tortures of Claverhouse, and Carstairs, Sharpe,
Dalzell, and Drummond, too many sealed their testimony with their blood,
and the survivors of the red fields of Bothwell-moor, Airsmoss, and Pent-
land Hills, homeless and hopeless, sought a resting place and refuge amid
the fens and bogs of Ulster.


                 " Ah, days by Scotia still deplored!
                 When faithless king, and bigot lord,
                 On their own subjects drew the sword!
                                        S    

                 "But FIRM in faith of Gospel truth,
                 Stood hoary age, and guileless youth,
                 Against oppressors void of ruth,
                       In cold blood killing wantonly.

                  "Their preachers silent and deposed,
                  Their house of prayer against them closed,
                  Homeless, on mountain heaths exposed!
                       But though in dark adversity,
                 Their harps were NOT on willows hung,
                 But tuneful still, and ever strung,
                 Till mountain echos round them rung
                       To notes of bravest melody !"



7


 





   They and their descendants, thus saved as by fire, would scarce submit
patiently to like oppression in their new-found homes in Ireland. Under
the rule of William and Mary, Queen Anne, and the Georges, their con-
dition here was endurable only for its contrast with their former sufferings,
-the equivocal consolation of the companions of Ulysses "1 tulimus duriora."
Strained constructions of the Act of Toleration ;---tithes and taxes on the
wreck of their estates to support an established church, not of their choice;-
restraints in the exercise of their cherished opinions --disabilities and
degradations to be endured for conscience' sake;-peculiar dangers from
dwelling amidst such bitter and powerful enemies of their faith, already ma-
lignantly gloating over one massacre, and muttering threats for more,-all
combined to make them an unhappy and restless people.
  It was then that like the delusive whisperings of hope in the captive's
dream, prophetic tidings came wafting across the wide ocean, that in the
far-off forests of America, the Huguenot and Puritan had found a refuge
from persecution and " full freedom to worship God." And though the
tempest-tossed Eagle-Wing, years before had so trustingly sailed from the
same shores only to be driven back a wreck-as their fathers feared and
believed by the warning hand of Providence-they yet remembered that
the frailer Mayflower, freighted with the hopes of others tried like them-
selves, had passed over the deep waters in safety. They trusted that now
the fullness of time for their departure had come, that the measure of their
afflictions in this land was full, and a home in this new world would fulfil,
for their relief, the promise of their God, so often hopefully dwelt upon in
all their congregations:-" For thou 0 God hast proved us; and thou hast
tried us as silver is tried; thou broughtest us into the net, thou layedest
affliction upon our loins; thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we
went through fire and through water, BUT THOU BROUGHTEST US OUT
UNTO A WEALTHY PLACE."
  Gathering what little of worldly gear was left from out of their troubles;
many with naught save the Bible, but which alone had so often before, in
their sorrowful history, seemed to suffice for even more than spiritual sus-
tenance in many a dreary day--precious as the one draught of sweet
water that cheers the patient camel through the weary wastes of the desert
-sadly but trustfully they turned away, as they well knew forgever, from the
homes and the graves of their fathers and fathers' fathers for long
centuries gone.   Without any known     or definite destination within
that distant land to which they turned, they hopefully embarked, and in
long and wearisome voyages crossing a wide and fathomless ocean that
rolled its waves like the dark waters of Lethe over all the crowding memo-
ries of their past, they only knew that now their anchors dropped upon
the silent shores of another continent, within whose trackless forests they



8



ADDRESS.


 


THE SCOTCH-IRISH OF AUGUSTA.



fondly hoped to find at last that peace for body and soul elsewhere so vainly
sought. The outcasts of Eden were not more desolate-

             " Some natural tears they dIropt, but wiped them soon
             The world was all before them wvhere to choose
             Their place of rest, and Providence their guide."

   It was upon the banks of the Delaware they landed, and some rested for
a season in the province of Penn, naturally looking for sympathy from a
people who in the old world had suffered like themselves for conscience'
sake. Others following their native instincts, passed on towards the blue
mountains whose towering peaks and waving outlines along the distant
horizon recalled the memories of their childhood's home among the hills
and heath-clad highlands of Scotland. Ascending the tops of the Kittoch-
tinny-the Indian term for Blue Ridge -they gazed with charmed eye
upon this lovely Valley, blooming in all its pristine beauty before them, as
on " some fairy land they'd longed to see." It fulfilled their fondest dreams
of that promised land of peace, as it lay enwrapped in its primal silence,
broken only by the sighing of winds among the forest trees, the song of
birds, and the sounds of murmuring waters. The long lines of mountain
peaks, fading away in distant view, stood ranged on either side like guar-
dian sentinels, while clouds of purple and of gold, gathering along the
loftiest crests, hung round the blue horizon like waving banners of wel-
come.
  Tradition relates that the various Indian tribes long held thisValley
sacred as a neutral hunting ground. The growth of forest trees was pre-
vented by annual firings at the close of the hunting season, and thus its
fertile soil by each returning summer would spread the waving grass over
all its plains, and the flowering dogwood, the redbud, azalia, rhododendron,
and laurel would crown all its hills with beauty. Lowing herds of buffalo,
the stately elk, and the graceful deer in countless numbers found their fa-
vourite haunts among the green pastures and beside the still waters of this
beautiful vestal land. Like the classic isle of Leuce, it was a modern Elys-
ium, where the forest warriors, elsewhere foes, might here in perfect truce
pursue together the pleasures of the chase. Here the wanderers found a
genial home, and within a short score of years following their first per-
manent settlement in 1732, spread along the banks of the Opequon and
Cedar creek in the Northern portion of the Valley, and soon over all the
waters of the Cohongoruton, and far up its branches to the triple forks of
the silvery Sherando. Pressing on Southward and Westward, they set-



0 Original Indian name for Shenandoah, or " Silver Water."



9


 


ADDRESS.



tled the sources of the James and Roanoke, the Greenbrier, and the head
waters of the Holston.
  The government of Virginia with a wise policy encouraged these infant
settlements by liberal grants of choice lands, total exemption from taxation
for a term of years, and guaranty for freedom in all their forms of religous
worship. Thus was secured for the fron ier a bold and hardy and loyal
people, a palisade of defence in savage warfare, and a proper nursery for
pioneers to push her empire Westward to the inviting valley of the Mis-
sissippi.
  The mountain boundaries of this isolated land stood as obstacles alike
to visitors from abroad, and wanderer, from their own folds. Settled in
clusters of families of the same faith and fatherland, strangers to all others
on this side the broad Atlantic, their social desires were satisfied solely
within the confines of their own new homes. The luxuriant soil, and abun-
dant game of the forests, afforded in profusion the comforts of their simple
life. The pack-horse now and then wending a solitary way across rugged
mountains and through trackless forests to the distant cities of Newcastle
or to Williamsburg, "when they needed money to pay their quit-rents,"
measured their commercial intercourse with the outside world.
  They could be but a peculiar people. With all the piety, they had
none of the ascetic sanctity of the Puritan; with a jealous sense of
honour, they had something like the chivalry of the Cavaliers, yet with-
out wealth they escaped the enervating influences of luxury. The common
sacrifices of all their fortunes in long contests with the oppressor in their
native country left all poor alike, and a common suffering and kindred sym-
pathies subdued all social distinctions. Their untiring struggles for free-
dom  of thought and life, "bequeathed from bleeding sire to son," had
brought through succeeding generations a physical and mental training
that made them independent in spirit, self-reliant in strength, and " hardy
as the Nemean lion's nerve." True types of their ancestral Scottish char-
acter, which ever shows to most advantage in adversity, and has been well
likened to the sycamore of their native hills, that scorns to be biased in its
growth by sun or wind or tempest, but shoots its branches defiantly in every
direction, shows no weather-side to the storm, and is broken before it will
ever bend.
  Religious observance, if not innate, was at least their second nature.
Like faithful Abraham, they built the altar wherever they pitched the tent.
The Bible mostly furnished their library of faith and of philosophy, en-

   Deposition (in old chancery suit in Augusta) of Mrs. Greenlee, daughter of
Ephraim McDowell, the first permanent settler in Rockbridge, and ancestor of
Governor McDowell.


 


THE SCOTCH-IRISH OF AUGUSTA.



closing Rouse's version of David's psalms for their poetry. Every tradi-
tion extant shows how these sacred words were interwoven like golden
threads in all their daily discourse. When the captive survivors of the
Carr's Creek massacre, in this (Rockbridge) county, reached the Shawnee
towns on the banks of the Muskingum, the Indians in cruel sport called on
them to sing. Unappalled by the bloody scenes they had already witnessed,
and the fearful tortures awaiting them, within that dark wilderness of
forest where all hope of rescue seemed forbidden, undaunted by the fiend-
ish revellings of their savage captors, they sang aloud with the most pious
fervour from the 137th Psalm, as they oft had done in more hopeful days
within the sacred walls of old "Timber Ridge Church":

        " On Babel's streams we sat and wept when Zion we thought on,
        In midst thereof we hanged our harps the willow trees among,
        For then a song required they who did us captive bring,
        Our spoilers called for mirth and said, a song of Zion sing."

  From this very familiarity with these sacred psalms, it may well be
feared they did not always apply them in such sanctified use as expressions
for solace in sorrow; but in the fullness of heart in other emotions, the
mouth might well speak these ready words, and naturally enough in the
confidential language of faithful love. A lineal descendant tells how his
ancestor, when a disconsolate lover because not allowed to visit the lady of
his heart from the opposition of her parents, contrived still to interpret his
love by the words of the sweet singer of Israel-" closing the correspond-
ence" with the stanza from the 63d psalm:-

        " Oh daughter take good heed, incline and give good ear,
        Thou must forget thy kindred all, and father's house most dear,
        Thy beauty to the king shall then delightful be,
        And do thou humbly worship him, because thy lord is he."

  On this hint she acted, and returned to "the king" her answers in kind:-
On a concerted day the daring lover dashed before the house on a strong
charger, and in full view of " brothers and kinsmen and all," like another
Lord Lochinvar:

        " So light to the croupe the fair lady he swung,
        So light to the saddle before her he sprung,
        She is won, they are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur,
        They'll have fleet steeds to follow that young Lochinvar."

  They had constant controversies over doctrines and texts of the Bible.
The oldest newspaper extant in Augusta county, contains an advertisement
by a lay member of the " Stone Church," appointing a day on which he



11


 


-1 )



ADDRESS.



proposed to discuss his tenets in regard to a certain text, and inviting all
who differed in opinion to meet him then and there.
   When these men commenced a controversy it was ever most stoutly and
persistently maintained; for they were seldom convinced against their will,
and if vanquished, would argue still. An old resident of Hay's Creek,
in Rockbridge county, contended all his life for his particular theory, as to
what tribe of Indians were interred in the mound on that Creek; and on
his death-bed made it his most solemn request to be buried on the hill
facing the Indian graves, that he might, as he said, be "the first to see the
truth of his theory established at the resurrection."
   The ministers of the Gospel were true exponents of their people's char-
acteristics. The Rev. John Craig, a Master of Arts of the University of
Edinburgh, was for one-third of a century pastor of the " Augusta Church."
He walked five miles to service on every Sunday, and in time of the Indian
troubles carried a rifle on his shoulder. "Preaching" commenced at 10
o'clock, A. M., and with a recess of one hour at midday, was continued till
sunset. One of his sermons, still extant, is divided into fifty-five heads.
Walking ever in the example of the upright man of David's psalm, he
" spoke truth in the heart," and was " moved not" even in the least thing,
from the straightest line of integrity. In choosing the site for a church, the
congregation disregarded his opposition, and the "Tinkling Spring" was
selected; whereupon he declared that "none of that water should ever
'tinkle' down his throat;" and for thirty years he kept his word,-and
through his long sermons, in the parching summer days, never once allaying
his thirst with a drop from that cool and limpid spring-

                    "For though be promise to his hurt
                      He makes his promise good."

  Brave and patriotic, after Braddock's disastrous expedition had left the
Valley exposed to the raids of the ruthless savages, and the helpless in-
habitants in utter consternation were councilling safety in flight, his Journal,
yet extant, says, " I opposed that scheme as a scandal to our nation, falling
below our brave ancestors, making ourselves a reproach among Virginians,
a dishonour to our friends at home, an evidence of cowardice, want of faith,
and noble Christian dependence on God, as able to save and deliver from the
heathen; and withal a lasting blot forever on all our posterity." He advised
the building of forts in convenient places for refuge. His appeal and
example had its effect, " for my own flock," he adds, " required me to go
before them in the work, which I did cheerfully, though it cost ame one-third
of my estate; but the people followed, and my congregation, in less than
two months, was well fortified." And they maintained their homes most
bravely through all the fiery trials of these times. Honoured forever among


 


THE SCOTCH-IRISH OF AUGUSTA.



all their posterity be the name of the noble and pious old patriot! Survi-
ving the subsequent struggles of his adopted country for the freedom he so
dearly prized, he fell at last like fruit fully ripe, but mourned by all, and
leaving a memory to be revered, and examples of life and faith that like all

                              -"the actions of the just
                    Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust."

Let him be taken as the type and ante-type of the Presbyterian preachers
of the Valley, for time will fail to tell of Brown, and Wilson, and Wad-
dell, and Scott, and Graham, and many others; men of thorough learning
and approved piety, whose names their descendants should not willingly let
die, whose appeals for patriotism will echo in this land while its everlasting
hills abide, whose lesssons of piety and faith will be effectual for time and
for eternity, whose canonized memory will remain among their successors
as a monument forever, and stand before them like that lofty "tower which
David builded for an armory, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers,-
shields of mighty men."
  A description of the old covenanters of Scotland, in "Burnett's Own
Times," will, in many particulars, singularly illustrate the life of the
Scotch-Irish settlers of this Valley, and show an unadulterated descent, and
most tenacious maintenance of the customs of their ancestors. Bishop Bur-
nett can scarcely be accused of partiality, and amidst all his charges of af-
fectation, fanaticism and enthusiasm, we may well believe he gives a faithful
picture of the old covenanting congregations of his day, by its strong
family likeness to the early Presbyterian congregations of this Valley. Of
the covenanting ministers ejected by the Glasgow Act, he writes, "they
were a grave and solemn sort of people. Their spirits were eager, and
their tempers sour. But they had an appearance that created respect.
They used to visit their parishes much; were full of the Scripture, were
ready at extempore prayer, and had brought the people to such a degree of
knowledge, that cottagers and servants would have prayed extempore.
Their ministers brought their people about them on Sunday nights, where
the sermon was talked over; and every one, women as well as men, were
desired to speak their own experience; and by these means they had a
comprehension of matters of religion greater than I have seen among people
of that sort anywhere. The preachers went all in one tract, of raising
observations on points of doctrine out of their text, and proving these by
reasons, and then of applying those, and showing the use that was to be
made of such a point of doctrine, both for instruction and terror, for ex-
hortation and comfort, for trial of themselves upon it, and for furnishing
them with proper directions and helps. And this was so methodical that
the people grew to follow a sermon quite through every branch of it. As



13


 




they lived in great familiarity with their people, and used to pray and talk
oft with them in private, so it can hardly be imagined to what a degree
they were loved and reverenced by them. They kept scandalous persons
under a severe discipline: for breach of Sabbath, for an oath, or the least
disorder in drunkenness, persons were cited before the church session, that
consisted of ten or twelve of the chief of the parish, who, with the minister,
had this- care upon them,-and were solemnly reproved for it."
  The unexplored records of the courts held for Augusta county, at Staun-
ton, and the church-warden's book for Augusta parish, furnish materials,
scanty as they are, that illustrate the lives and characters of this peculiar
people. For the purposes of history these records are necessarily insuffi-
cient, but give here and there in the technical and curt recitals of court
proceedings some incidental cotemporaneous facts which can be confirmed,
explained and expanded from other sources; while around them all the
mellow light of tradition still falls to impart to these quaint old papers
something of the sanctity and value of the illuminated manuscripts of the
middle ages.
  The court of Orange county had jurisdiction, and its Clerk's office was
for a whole decade the depository of the title deeds, and such other papers
pertaining to this territory as indispensable necessity required to be re-
corded. In the year 1738 all Virginia West of the Blue Ridge, was laid
off into two counties, called Frederick and Augusta, in honour of the Prince
of Wales, and the Princess Augusta. Frederick embraced the North-
eastern portion of the Valley, while Augusta extended throughout the West
"to the utmost limits of Virginia." The inhabitants were exempted from
"all public levies for ten years ;" but in 1842, " at the humble suit of the
inhabitants of Augusta," an act passed "appointing James Patton, John
Christian, and John Buchanan to levy a tax on each tithable, to pay for de-
stroying wolves, relieving the poor, building bridges, and clearing roads"
within said county.
  The church-warden's book for the Parish of Augusta, commences early
in the year 1746. It was doubtless difficult, if not impossible, at that date
for the freeholders to find "twelve able and discreet men of the county"
from choice "conformable to the doctrine and discipline of the church of
England" to serve as their vestry. It is not surprising, therefore, that
probably all of the vestry elect were " dissenters," and certainly some of
the number who continued as vestrymen for the succeeding quarter of a
century, were all the time ruling elders in the Presbyterian churches of
Augusta.
  In that day of little sectarian excitement between Protestant denomina-
tions, it was not so unusual in any part of Virginia to find dissenters take
with the oath of secular office a declaration of conformity to the doctrine of



14



ADDRESS.


 


THE SCOTCH-IRISH OF AUGUSTA.



the established church, and yet retain their connection with dissenting de-
nominations. The first twelve vestrymen elected by the freeholders of
the county in 1745 were all, perhaps, descendants, and some bore the
family names of conspicuous Presbyterian covenanters of Scotland; and for
over twenty years no notice by the vestry or the Assembly is taken of the
fact of their being non-conformists. The usual oaths of conformity were
meantime taken, but the ves