St. Mary’s Whitechapel

St. Mary’s Whitechapel Episcopal Church had already served its parish of Virginia colonists for more than a century by the American Revolution. Founded under the supervision of the House of Burgesses sometime after 1652, the parish first used the name St. Mary’s Whitechapel in 1669, the accepted date of the original church, which is believed to have been built on land owned by nearby tobacco planter David Fox. Fox came from Stepney Parish near London, where the mother church, St. Mary Matfelon, was commonly called St. Mary’s Whitechapel because of its white exterior, which may explain the Virginia church’s name. Near the Rappahannock and Corrotoman rivers, the church was reached by water as well as by land along an Indian trail that is now Route 354 and passed places including Millenbeck and Epping Forest, home of the Ball family. Mary Ball Washington was born nearby in the parish, her father served as a church warden, and several of George Washington’s other maternal relatives are buried on the grounds. Over more than three hundred years, the building underwent major alterations, including a ninety-degree reorientation from its original form. Some believe the first structure was a rectangular east-west building, marked today by four ground markers beside the present church. In 1739-1740, transepts were added to create a cruciform plan. Around 1800, after the Revolutionary War, the church fell into disuse because of competition from other denominations and the effects of Disestablishment. By 1832, interest had revived, and the easternmost wings were torn down, the walls filled in, and the building returned to a rectangular north-south orientation. Inside are notable colonial survivals, including altar boards bearing the Ten Commandments from 1702 and the Creed and Lord’s Prayer from 1718, the oldest surviving examples in Virginia; a baptismal font from 1718, one of only a few in Colonial Virginia made in one piece with its own pedestal; and an L-shaped side gallery built by the Ball family, authorized in vestry records of 1741, that is the only one of its type in the state. Before the Revolution, the Church of England was the established church of Virginia under the House of Burgesses, but as the Revolution approached it fell into disfavor because of its ties to the British Crown and tax support. In 1802, the Virginia Legislature narrowly passed an act allowing seizure of church property for the maintenance of the poor, and many Episcopal churches fell into disuse during the period known as Disestablishment. Although St. Mary’s Whitechapel suffered heavy neglect, its original communion silver dating from 1669, along with the baptismal font and altar boards, survived. In this tobacco-producing region, church expenses and ministers’ salaries were paid in pounds of tobacco; in 1776, the Rev. David Currie received 16,000 pounds for his services, and tithes were assessed by church members called processinors, with the sheriff sometimes used to collect unpaid amounts.

Virginia · United States