921.73 W589w.pdf - Mesa FamilySearch Library

Whitings of Virginia. 295
ary, x73I-2 about xo in the morning & was
Baptiz'd ye 3th of April following, Mr. Beverly
Whiting & Capt. Christopher Brooks Godfa-
thers, and Mrs. Mildred Gregory, Godmother."
After the Revolution, the established church a
deprived of its "tythes" and its " glebes," lost
its influence; Washington parish had no pastor;
sacrilegious hands carried away the pews, the
tiles were stolen for hearths, the windows were
broken in. But the fortress-like walls remained,
defying the storms, until the brick of which
they were so firmly built was coveted, and the
roof was actually agreed o_. Even then the
groined ceiling stood firmly; and, as if by a
retributive justice, a "valuable" negro em-
ployed by his vandal master in demolishing it
was crushed by a falling column, and so
maimed as to be thenceforth of no service. A
mass of broken brick now alone marks the
sacred spot, above which a growth of sombre
evergreens, pointing heavenward, interlace their
branches as if to "keep green the memory " of
those whose voices once echoed there "in
prayer and in praise."