Check bookfinder.com, half.com and amazon.com.  Search for:  title:
vestry, keyword: Dinwiddie.  You should find some copies of interest.

John Ragosta

Sunshine49 wrote:
> I am particularly interested in Dinwiddie County, last quarter of the
> 18th Century, there is so little left from there.
>
> Nancy
>
> -------
> I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.
>
> --Daniel Boone
>
>
>
> On Jan 14, 2007, at 12:39 PM, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
>> In a message dated 1/14/07 10:27:54 AM, [log in to unmask] writes:
>>
>>
>>>> So records before then would be with the Anglican Church? Here,
>>>> or in
>>>> the UK? Or were the records shifted over to the Episcopal Church?
>>>
>>
>> As a lifelong Episcopalian and avid historian, maybe I can shed a
>> little
>> light on this topic.   At least I'll try.
>>
>> In the beginning and up to the time of the Revolutionary War,
>> everyone not
>> excepted by Act of the Legislature was required by law to attend
>> the local
>> Anglican Church and participate in its activities. Those excepted
>> after early 1700
>> were German sects, French Huguenots, Scotch Irish Presbyterians,
>> and Quakers.
>>
>>
>> There was, in fact, much contention when the Baptist denomination
>> began
>> making inroads among Virginia population in the 1760s.   One
>> Baptist Pastor,
>> Jeremiah Moore of Fairfax County, was arrested and jailed because
>> he "was not
>> sanctioned by the State as a Minister."  Neither were other Baptist
>> Pastors at this
>> time.   The story is that after he was arrested, the Reverend Moore
>> stood at
>> the latticework window of his Alexandria jail cell and began to
>> spread the
>> Gospel from there.   He attracted such immense crowds, so it is
>> reported, that the
>> local establishment released him from jail.   Today, Jeremiah Moore is
>> considered by many to be the Father of the Baptist Church in
>> Northern Virginia and
>> Washington DC.   His brick home in Vienna VA, built in the late
>> 1700s, has in
>> recent years been painstakingly disassembled and is in storage
>> while financing
>> is being acquired to reconstruct it on another site.
>>
>> In the colonial Anglican Church, territory was divided into
>> Parishes, usually
>> covering a single county. Local records, especially births,
>> marriages, and
>> deaths were kept there.   In addition each Parish had Vestry
>> records kept by
>> local church leaders.   Here the social record of the Parishes may
>> be found; i.e.
>> payments for care of the poor, ill, and orphaned, church
>> improvements and
>> supplies, etc.   The Parish also carried out the important ancient
>> British
>> tradition of "walking the bounds."   This regular process included
>> all owners of
>> adjoining boundaries who agreed in person, or by approved
>> representative, to the
>> placement of the boundary marker. The resulting agreements often
>> appear in
>> Vestry Minutes.   I think that even today, it is against Virginia
>> law to cut down
>> a "marker tree" or destroy a boundary markers.
>>
>> Few colonial Parish Registries or Vestry Minutes survived the
>> centuries; but
>> some   -   specifically in New Kent and Hanover Counties   -   did
>> survive and
>> are invaluable resources in these counties where county court house
>> records
>> up to the Civil War period are largely destroyed.   The Parish is
>> New Kent
>> County was St. Peter's Parish, and in Hanover, St. Paul's Parish.
>> These records
>> have been published and, I believe, are also available on the
>> internet.
>>
>> The modern Episcopal Church is divided into Dioceses who elect
>> their own
>> Bishops.   Most of the social activities, such as "walking the
>> bounds" were passed
>> on to local government from the colonial Anglican Church.
>>
>> Joyce Browning
>> Fairfax County, Virginia
>> Email:   [log in to unmask]
>>
>>
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