In a message dated 10/14/00 3:58:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< In my genealogy research I have run into many notations for example
reading:
 Farmham par. North Richmond VA and Cople parish, Westmoreland VA as well as
 others.  What does the parish or par mean?  Is it a township, county or
 church parish? >>

Per "A Hornbook of VA History", "When the first English settlers came to
Virginia in 1607 they followed the familiar patterns of the Church of England
and established parishes that served as local units of ecclesiastical and
community organization.  ---In Colonial Virginia the General Assembly
established parishes and fixed their boundaries, often at the same time that
it created or altered counties.  A decade after independence, on 16 Jan 1786,
the General Assembly passed Thomas Jefferson's Bill for Establishing
Religious Freedom, ending state-enforced support for the formally established
church and its parishes."

Farnham Church, in Richmond Co, was built about 1737 and was the church of
North Farnham Parish.

Ruby Talley Smith

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