John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes
Note 152
When the parish of (new) St. George's was created, it was necessary to elect
a vestry of twelve men to govern it. These men were chosen by the vote of
the parishioners. (Besides the first election to the vestry, citizens voted
for two members of the House of Burgesses, their only other democratic
opportunity.) After the first vestry was elected, it was self-perpetuating.
The vestry has been likened unto a board of supervisors with full autonomous
power including the ability to tax. The work was not hard though, as in many
years only one meeting was required. When a new church was being built or a
new minister was being hired, more meetings might be required.
The legislation creating Spotsylvania County and St. George's parish
specified the county seat and the church would be at Germanna, the home of
Spotswood. It was some time before a church was built at Germanna and
apparently use was made of the blockhouse that the Germans used for church
services. The problem with Germanna, though it was the home of Spotswood,
was that hardly any of the English lived to the west of Germanna. Spotswood
had used his influence to have these functions set up on the very frontier,
at Germanna, because he was the owner of 40,000 acres (it plotted more
closely to 65,000 acres though) to the west of Germanna. He wanted the
action to be near to his land which he hoped to lease to tenants. It is for
this same reason that he built his home, later called the Enchanted Castle,
at Germanna. It was nearer to his vast land holdings. At this time, he knew
there was money to be made in land but he was only speculating on iron which
was unproven. Hence, he did not build close to his iron furnace but he built
closer to the center of mass of his land holdings.
The citizens and vestrymen were very unhappy with the choice of Germanna as
the site of the parish church. One of their first acts was to establish a
new place of meeting to the southeast. It just happened to be home of one of
the vestrymen, Larkin Chew, an enemy of Spotswood. (One can't help but
notice that many political decisions were based on personal considerations,
not on public needs.) In 1724, two new permanent church sites were selected
to the south and east of Germanna. The buildings were primitive, in part
because Spotswood had control of the colonial funds designated for building
a church. A minister was hired but he found life on the frontier to be hard
and unpleasant and he did not stay. In part he had to cover too much
territory and he spent too much time in the saddle. He was unhappy and his
parishioners were unhappy with him and they parted company in 1728. By then,
there were chapels in the Great Fork of the Rappahannock River to the west
of Germanna for the settlers who were beginning to move in there. These were
serviced by readers. For seven years there was a succession of temporary
ministers showing that it was not easy, even in the English community, to
obtain ministers.
The vestry was required by law to provide a glebe or farm for the minister
of 200 acres. How the funds were obtained for this, the church building and
the care of the poor will be discussed in the next note. Ultimately, the
funds came from the parishioners under the taxing power of the church. This
is why our German ancestors complained so bitterly.
[Sorry, I forgot to mention last Friday I would be working Saturday at the
Hans Herr House again. This is why I missed Saturday's letter.]