I suspect part of my reply got buried. Toward the last quarter of the
1720 law exemption was specifically granted from levies and apparently
attendance (since they were required to maintain a minister), but only
in the two county parishes. Hence exemption was apparently focused on
two groups and for only ten years.
"That if any Number of Forreigne Protestants shall at any time within
the said Space of Ten Years, come to dwell and Inhabit the said Countys
of Spotsylvania and Brunswick respectively, and shall keep and maintaine
a Minister of their owne, All and every such Forreigne Protestants, with
their and every of their Tythable persons in their Familys, shall be
Exempt and free from the payment of all Parochial dues and Charges
towards the said Parishes of Saint George or Saint Andrew, for the Space
of Ten Years next after their Arrival, or so much thereof as they shall
keep and maintain such Minister of their owne as aforesaid." See Waverly
K. Winfree, /The Laws of Virginia, Being a Supplement to Hening's
Statutes at Large, 1700-1750/ (Richmond, Va.: Virginia State Library,
1971), 179-185.
We need to remember, that the law then, as now, was only a part of the
issue; it doesn't matter what the law stated if it wasn't enforced. Thus
finding examples of penalties for those not paying taxes or attending
church (or legally married) would demonstrate application. Not finding
them tells us nothing since we don't know whether individuals were
complying to avoid penalties or were allowed to "do their own thing."
Not having read all of the applicable court order books or vestry
minutes cover to cover, I would be most interested in specific examples.
Barbara Vines Little, CG
Dominion Research Services
PO Box 1273
Orange, VA 22960
540-832-3473
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CG, Certified Genealogist, is a service mark of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used
under license by board-certified genealogists after periodic evaluation; the board name is
registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office.
Tarter, Brent (LVA) wrote:
> Craig Kilby asked the other day about exemptions for Germans from taxes
> to support the Church of England in eighteenth century Virginia and
> about church attendance.
>
> The only legal exemption from local church levies that I recall was
> adopted in 1730 for the relief of "Certain German Protestants to the
> Number of twelve or Fourteen Familes, now settled at a Place called
> Licking Run in the Parish of Overwharton in the County of Stafford,"
> Waverly K. Winfree, ed., The Laws of Virginia; Being a Suplement to
> Hening's The Statutes at Large, 1700-1750 (Virginia State Library,
> 1971), 340-341.
>
> Opinions varied whether the English Act of Toleration applied in
> Virginia, and in practice different dissenting congregations may have
> been treated differently in different areas and decades. This is an
> important subject that requires further research, although it appears to
> me that settled (as opposed to itinerating) ministers (at least among
> the Lutherans and Presbyterians) readily obtained licenses to permit
> them and their congregations to enjoy a measure of independence from the
> Church of England--but not in the matter of marriages, which were legal
> only if celebrated by a minister of the Church of England, and the laws
> remained on the books, I think, requiring public officers to take
> communion from time to time according to the service in the Book of
> Common Prayer. How often that law was invoked, I don't know.
>
> Brent Tarter
> The Library of Virginia
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Please visit the Library of Virginia's Web site at
> http://www.lva.virginia.gov
>
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