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Archiver > GERMANNA_COLONIES > 1999-08 > 0933937472


From: John Blankenbaker <>
Subject: (676)Germanna Colonies, History of
Date: Fri, 06 Aug 1999 07:04:32 -0400


The six hundred and seventy-sixth note in a series on the Germanna Colonies

The last note closed with the concept of processioning and processioners. It
was a requirement by law that all boundaries between properties would be
walked by the processioners and the property owners. Thus, in essence, the
property owners would be saying, "This is the line that divides us." The
processioners were witnesses to this. The objective was to forestall
litigation between property owners by affirming where the property lines
were. Thus, the Church of England was an arm of the civil authority.

There were conflicts between the civil and church officials. Who had the
right to appoint pastors? This question also involved a conflict between the
central civil authority in Williamsburg and the local parish. For a period,
all pastors had to come from England as there was no school for training
pastors in Virginia. This made it very difficult to obtain pastors as they
had to be hired in England. More and more, the local parishes wanted
"Virginia men" meaning they did not want someone from England. And the
parishes wanted local election and rejection of the pastors.

In the Church of England, there were bishops who governed the church.
Virginia had no bishops in residence, probably because no bishop wanted to
live in Virginia. (Originally, there were so few people in Virginia that a
bishop for Virginia did not seem warranted.) For governing the church, the
Bishop of London was the nominal head of the church in Virginia. Since he
did not come to Virginia, he appointed a commissioner in his place. Often,
there was a conflict between this commissioner and the civil authorities,
especially as represented by the governor. In theory, the crown was the head
of the Church of England throughout the lands of England. The governor of
Virginia was the agent of the crown. The commissioner was the agent of the
Bishop of London. Who controlled the church in Virginia?

Some say (the whole subject is murky) that Lt. Gov. Spotswood was removed
from the post because of conflicts with Commissioner Blair. The commissioner
carried his contentions back to England where he was able to get the
Governor of Virginia, Lord Orkney, to remove his agent, Spotswood.

A common theme between the European civil and religious leaders was to
regard the people in the New World as second class or nonexistent citizens.
The people in Virginia detected this and it led to their thinking of
themselves as Virginians, not Englishmen. As one reads the early eighteenth
century history, one detects that the seeds of revolution were being sown
long before hostilities broke out.

As a final example, in the Church of England, bishops confirmed the youth as
members of the church. There were no bishops in Virginia so that a youth who
wished to be confirmed had to go back to England. This was totally
impractical for the general citizen. Therefore, what developed was the
"Virginia way" which was to be distinguished from the "English way." In this
case, the Virginia people went without confirmation of their membership in
the church.

John Blankenbaker ()
P.O. Box 120, Chadds Ford, PA 19317-0120
http://www.germanna.com
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~george/johnsgermnotes/germhis1.htm

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