Christ Episcopal Church (Winchester, Virginia)

Christ Church, or Christ Episcopal Church, is an Anglican church in Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia. The church was founded in 1738, with its first vestry elected in 1742. It is the seat of Frederick Parish, Diocese of Virginia, which once covered half of the Shenandoah Valley and western Virginia, including what became West Virginia. The current church building, the parish's third, was designed by Robert Mills (who also designed the Washington Monument and Monumental Church in Richmond, Virginia) - it was completed in 1828, and is the oldest church building continuously used for religious purposes in the county.Handley Library entry for Christ Church Records, available at http://www2.youseemore.com/handley/contentpages.asp?loc=217 It is a contributing building in the local Historic District which predates the National Register of Historic Places, and which has been expanded three times since 1980.nps.gov Contributing buildings at additional page 11 to Item 10 on 1980 NRIS Nomination form available at http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/Winchester/138-0042_Winchester_Historic_District_1980_Final_Nomination.pdf

The early organizational history of Christ Church differs significantly from that of the Episcopal Church in Frederick, Maryland, the nearby and similar gateway parish during colonial era settlement in Maryland, although the two churches had similar experiences of expansion and during the American Civil War, and remain prominent both architecturally and socially in their historic towns. Christ Church is now one of five Anglican churches in the historic Virginia gateway city. The other churches are: historic St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal (founded in 1867, one of the first AME churches and also a contributing building to the historic district), St. Paul's on the Hill (which began as a mission of this church at the city's outskirts in 1966 and became an independent parish in 1996), St. Michael Anglican Church (founded by a British movement and using the 1928 Book of Common Prayer) and Winchester Anglican Church (founded as a mission of the Anglican Church in North America circa 2010).

History

Parish founding King Charles II of England made a large land grant to Lord Culpeper in 1664, which was mapped in the next century. By 1690, the Shawnee had a settlement at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, Shawnee Springs, so a trading post was established. Lord Fairfax succeeded to the land grant in 1710 by marrying Lord Culpeper's daughter, but legal title for the land between the "first heads" of the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers was unclear. Alexander Hollingsworth, a Quaker from Maryland, became the first documented settler when he in 1729 built a cabin near the Shawnee village. By the end of the next decade, Lord Fairfax won the legal dispute and allowed construction of the first houses in what became Winchester. By that time emigrant Quakers had set up the first house of worship Hopewell Meeting in what today is Frederick County. Soon so did Lutheran immigrants from Germany via New York and Pennsylvania led by Jost Hite, as well as Scots-Irish Presbyterians who in 1736 requested ministers from Donegal presbytery in Pennsylvania to visit them.Katherine L. Brown, Nancy T. Sorrells, J. Susanne Simmons, The History of Christ Church, Frederick Parish, Winchester, 1745-2000 ("Parish History"), Staunton: Lot's Wife Publishing 2001, pp. 1-3.

At the outset, all the Shenandoah Valley was considered part of Orange County, Virginia and the established parish was St. Mark's. However, no record exists that Anglican clergy visited the valley in that era, nor that that parish vestry handled social service work expected of the established church. In fact, Governor William Gooch, upon receiving a letter from the Presbyterian Synod in Philadelphia about how they worshipped according to the established forms of the Church of Scotland, assured them they would be allowed to worship publicly in their own way in Virginia so long as they followed the terms of the English Toleration Act 1688 and registered their ministers and places of worship with the local county court.Parish History, pp. 3-4.

In 1738, Virginia's General Assembly created two new counties from the western area of Orange County: Frederick County in the northwest and Augusta County in the southwest were named after the Prince and Princess of Wales respectively. In 1744, the local Frederick County justices (the court being organized in late 1743) wrote Governor Gooch, who authorized election of 12 vestryman. The vestry elected as churchwardens James Wood Sr. (who had first come to the area as Lord Fairfax's surveyor) and Thomas Rutherford (who was also the county's first sheriff and lived in what later became Berkeley, West Virginia). Wood set aside some of his land near the Shawnee Spring as a town which would become the county seat, selling 22 lots to individuals and reserving lots for a courthouse, jail, parish church and cemetery. While the trading post had been established nearby at Opequon, also known as Frederick's Town, Wood named the new town Winchester after his native English city.

The parish's first wooden church was partly built by the end of the 1740s, amidst controversy concerning use of the funds allocated to build several chapels of ease in the still-huge parish. Plus, the first minister, the Rev. John Gordon, realized that his salary was far lower than those of ministers in Virginia counties where tobacco grew (the annual salary was 16,000 pounds of tobacco, but since Frederick and Augusta counties grew little tobacco, legislation allowed payment in cash as a rate of three farthings a pound, or only £74 in 1747). The first chapels were probably McKay's Chapel (near Front Royal in Warren County), Cunningham Chapel in what later became Clarke County, Morgan's Chapel at Bunker Hill in what later became Berkeley County, West Virginia, and Mecklenburg Chapel near Shepardstown in what later became Jefferson County, West Virginia. In 1752, Virginia's General Assembly dissolved the Frederick Parish vestry for misappropriating £1,570 levied to build the structures, perhaps because vestryman Andrew Campbell had fled to Carolina rather than turn over that year's levy for the building, clergy salary and social service duties.Parish History, pp. 6-13.

The new 1752 vestry included Lord Fairfax, his nephew Thomas Bryan Martin, Gabriel Jones (the attorney who had prosecuted Campbell) and Captain John Ashby (all of the established church) as well as Quakers James Cromley, Lewis Neill (the sheriff) and Isaac Perkins (all of whom had initiated the complaint against the initial vestry), plus Major John Hite (son of Jost Hite, who may have been still Lutheran), merchant Robert Lemon and Captain John Lindsay (of unknown religious affiliation but also on the County Court). Lord Fairfax in 1753 donated land as a glebe to support the minister, which remained parish property until the legal divisions of 1770. Also in 1753, the House of Burgesses decided that Gordon and his Augusta Parish counterpart, John Jones, should each receive a cash salary of £100.Parish History, pp. 14-16.

The following year brought hostilities with the Indians and the French. Probably the vestry helped fleeing refugees or made provision for orphans and widows, although those parish records are lost. Records show that Virginia militia colonel George Washington arrived and set up camp in September 1755 and that with the assistance of vestryman Charles Smith, he was elected to represent Frederick County in the House of Burgesses in 1758, as well as that three of Gordon's horses were conscripted for the war effort. Gordon probably died in April, 1757, and his place was taken by the Rev. William Meldrum, who had arrived earlier that year and contracted to share ministerial duties with Gordon. By 1760, Meldrum had joined with Jones to petition the Burgesses for their salaries, since King George II repealed the act setting clergy salaries at £100, perhaps not realizing that the default was then only £50 (although in 1767 the legislature fixed clergy salaries at £91).Parish History, at pp.16-20

At the war's end, the westernmost section was split off as Hampshire parish (although it had problems organizing as well as attracting clergy), and the Frederick parish vestry allocated funds to repair McKay's Chapel. It also decided to replace the wooden church in Winchester with a stone church and build a poorhouse. Three vestryman and two other partners built the new church as well as a parish poorhouse by 1766. This church was considered the town's finest building until the Evangelical Lutheran congregation built a larger stone church and steeple (completed in 1772). Meldrum gave up his position, presumably at least in part over ongoing salary disputes, but while the vestry searched for a rector, he farmed nearby and was occasionally paid for clerical services, as were lay readers. A parishioner, Benjamin Sebastian, wanted to become ordained and agreed to serve as rector, but a year later accepted a position at St. Stephen's Church far to the east in Northumberland County. The vestry next hired Walter MacGowen, who had tutored George Washington's stepchildren, but after ordination he accepted a position in Maryland.

The vestry then hired the Rev. Charles Mynn Thruston, who had served in Col. William Byrd's regiment during the French and Indian War. Thruston was inducted in 1768 and served until the American Revolutionary War, despite complaints since 1770 that he was neglecting his preaching duties. Meanwhile, the vestry built two more chapels of ease, only to have the parish split once again. Virginia's legislature created Norborne Parish to cover the area which much later became Berkeley County, West Virginia, and Beckford Parish was created to serve Dunmore County (later Shenandoah County, Virginia) (after this parish had encouraged Rev. Peter Muhlenberg to move from Pennsylvania to serve those chapels because of his proficiency in German, which many Valley immigrants spoke).Parish History, pp. 16-29.

American Revolutionary War and Alexander Balmain years

The somewhat circuit-riding pastor, Charles Mynn Thruston, resigned in 1777 to join Virginia forces during the American Revolutionary War (as did all other 14 Valley rectors). He returned to farm near Winchester after losing an arm as a result of a battle wound, and continued a political career (which according to new Virginia laws was not permitted for clergymen). He and vestryman James Wood represented Frederick County in Virginia's Revolutionary Convention and the new General Assembly. Religious dissent had grown, as Baptists and Methodists now arrived in the valley to join the Presbyterians, Lutherans and Reformed. After Jefferson's religious freedom bill became law and established Virginia clergy no longer were paid from taxes, the newly elected county Overseers of the Poor took over the old vestry book, and lay readers probably held some services. Meanwhile, another long-term vestryman, the elderly Lord Fairfax (who had remained, though a Loyalist) died at his Greenway Court home in 1781, and was buried in the chancel of the Winchester church, the service being read by Rev. James Thomsom, rector of Leeds Parish (also within the aristocrat's lands).Parish History, pp. 31-41.