Over Spring Break I had the chance to visit Colonial
Williamsburg centered in modern day Williamsburg Virginia. While there are seemingly unlimited
historical sites to visit in Williamsburg and the surrounding areas, I spent
the majority of my time at the historic Bruton Parish Church.
The
Bruton Parish Church was established in 1674 and the current building that I visited
was constructed from 1711-1715, as has remained an active Episcopal church ever
since, being the oldest running church in America! While now one of thousands
of Episcopal churches across the United States, and numerous churches of England
throughout the world, the Bruton Parish Church was the first Church of England
in the British Colonies.
Having
the parcel of land originally being donated by John Page in 16778, the church
was bursting with history from having weekly services for over 300 years! While
having literally millions of people pass through the doors throughout the long
and prosperous career, the Bruton Parish Church has commemorated box pews for
some of the more “well known” worshippers who have attended. This list includes founding fathers from
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Tyler, and Benjamin Harris all the
way to the famous Virginian James Madison.
In more recent years a number of famous presidents, celebrities, and
well known pastors have made the oldest running church in America a staple part
of their visits to Colonial Williamsburg.
The
church also still uses an extremely old bell, casted in 1761, to commemorate important
historical holidays in America’s past.
Originally, the bell was rung to celebrate the signing of the
Declaration of Independence (1776), marking our separation from our mother
country England, and the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1783), which marked
the end of the American Revolutionary War.
One of
the most astonishing aspects of the historic Bruton Parish Church is the
graveyard that sets just to the side of the church, within the church’s boundary
walls. Originally, the burial customs of
the colonials was that of home burials.
Most people, as I learned from the tour of the church, buried their
deceased loved ones on their own farms or in their own property. The tour noted how Reverend Hugh Jones, one of
the Parish rectors in 1724, complained about having to make ‘house calls’ in
rural and distant plantations. Slowly
changing this practice, the Bruton Parish Church started burying people on a
portion of the land which was donated in the later 17th century.
The
cemetery is the home of the remains of Matthew Whaley, a young boy that passed
away in 1705, and whose name now resides over a famous school in Williamsburg,
founded by John D. Rockefeller in the 1920’s.
The church cemetery also houses numerous wounded Yankee and Confederate
soldiers from the civil war, due to the fact that the church doubled as a
hospital for the Union after the battle of Williamsburg in 1862.
All in
all this beautiful yet historic site was truly enjoyable to visit and learn
about. While the church itself played a
large role in the hospitalization or soldiers and housed many of the founding
fathers, I most enjoying thinking about how the doctrines and theology which
have been preached in that building for over 300 years helped shape the country
as we know it today.
