Truro Parish, Virginia

Last updated October 01, 2019

Truro Parish was the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Anglican church in colonial Virginia with jurisdiction originally over all of Fairfax County. The parish had its central church at the Truro Church and the parish was named for the parish in Truro in Cornwall. The parish was created on November 1, 1732 from Hamilton Parish. It was divided twice: in 1748, Cameron Parish was formed and in 1764 Fairfax Parish was created. After 1765, Truro Parish covered southern Fairfax County until disestablishment ended the parish system by 1786.

Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax is located in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Part of Northern Virginia, Fairfax County borders both the City of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. The county is thus predominantly suburban in character, with some urban and rural pockets.

Truro Church (Fairfax, Virginia) Church in Virginia USA, United States

Truro Anglican Church is an Anglican church in Fairfax, Virginia, USA.

Cornwall is a ceremonial county in South West England, bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by Devon, the River Tamar forming the border between them. Cornwall is the westernmost part of the South West Peninsula of the island of Great Britain. The southwesternmost point is Land's End and the southernmost Lizard Point. Cornwall has a population of 563,600 and an area of 3,563 km² (1,376 sq mi). The county has been administered since 2009 by the unitary authority, Cornwall Council. The ceremonial county of Cornwall also includes the Isles of Scilly, which are administered separately. The administrative centre of Cornwall is Truro, its only city.

The parish in colonial Virginia

The Anglican church was the established religion of the Colony of Virginia from 1619 - 1776.^[1] Each parish in the colony was ministered to by a single minister and governed by a vestry usually composed of 12 local men of wealth and standing in the community.^[1] Parishes were created by acts of the House of Burgesses and the upper house of the legislature, the Governor's Council.^[2]

Colony of Virginia English/British possession in North America (1607–1776)

The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colony in North America, following failed proprietary attempts at settlement on Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1583, and the subsequent further south Roanoke Island by Sir Walter Raleigh in the late 1580s.

A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England and Wales, which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquially as the "vestry".

The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been established in 1619, became a bicameral institution.

Formation of the parish

Truro Parish was created by the General Assembly of Virginia on November 1, 1732 when Hamilton Parish was divided along the Occoquan River and Bull Run. It included what is, at present, Arlington, Fairfax, and Loudoun counties, and the independent cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, and Falls Church. The parish was named after Truro in Cornwall, England.

Truro Parish initially covered all of the land north of those rivers up to the Potomac, and westward all the way to the Blue Ridge Mountains at Ashby's Gap. The parish originally contained three churches: Occoquan (the parish seat), William Gunnell's, and a chapel "above Goose Creek". The exact locations of the second two are unknown, but the Occoquan church was later known as Pohick Church, which still stands. In 1733, work was started on a new church "near Michael Reagan's"; this was at the site of the present-day Falls Church. In 1742, Fairfax County was created out of Prince William and the boundaries of Truro Parish were adjusted to conform to the boundary between the civil counties.

The Potomac River is found within the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands into the Chesapeake Bay. The river is approximately 405 miles (652 km) long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles (38,000 km²). In terms of area, this makes the Potomac River the fourth largest river along the Atlantic coast of the United States and the 21st largest in the United States. Over 5 million people live within the Potomac watershed.

The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. This province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. To the west of the Blue Ridge, between it and the bulk of the Appalachians, lies the Great Appalachian Valley, bordered on the west by the Ridge and Valley province of the Appalachian range.

Pohick Church is an Episcopal church in the community of Lorton in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Often called the "Mother Church of Northern Virginia," the church is notable for its association with important figures in early Virginian history such as George Washington and George Mason, both of whom served on its vestry. As Pohick Episcopal Church, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.

On June 11, 1749, the parish was divided in two, with the newly formed Cameron Parish constituting the portion north and west of Difficult Run and Popes Head Run. George Mason, author of the Virginia Articles that presaged the Bill of Rights, was elected to the vestry that year.

Difficult Run is a 15.9-mile-long (25.6 km) tributary stream of the Potomac River in Northern Virginia in the United States. The area has had many historical uses dating back to the early 1800s. Today, the area is used recreationally by visitors interested in the watershed's variety of options including hiking, biking, fishing, boating, climbing, and bird watching. The wildlife at Difficult Run is vast as 163 different species can be seen depending on the season. There are 41 different soil types found on the trail and alongside the stream. The stream is part of the greater 57.7- square-mile Drainage basin, or watershed, located in the north-central portion of Fairfax County and drains directly to the Potomac River.

George Mason IV was an American planter, politician and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, one of three delegates who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings, including substantial portions of the Fairfax Resolves of 1774, the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, and his Objections to this Constitution of Government (1787) opposing ratification, have exercised a significant influence on American political thought and events. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, which Mason principally authored, served as a basis for the United States Bill of Rights, of which he has been deemed the father.

The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the often bitter 1787–88 debate over the ratification of the Constitution, and written to address the objections raised by Anti-Federalists, the Bill of Rights amendments add to the Constitution specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government's power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicit declarations that all powers not specifically granted to the U.S. Congress by the Constitution are reserved for the states or the people. The concepts codified in these amendments are built upon those found in earlier documents, especially the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776), as well as the English Bill of Rights (1689) and the Magna Carta (1215).

In 1753, the first church service at the new town of Alexandria was recorded. George Washington was appointed to the Truro Parish vestry on October 25, 1762. His father, Augustine Washington, had served on the vestry for a few years, starting in 1735.

Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 139,966, and in 2016, the population was estimated to be 160,530. Located along the western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately 7 miles (11 km) south of downtown Washington, D.C.

George Washington was an American political leader, military general, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Previously, he led Patriot forces to victory in the nation's War for Independence. He presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 which established the U.S. Constitution and a federal government. Washington has been called the "Father of His Country" for his manifold leadership in the formative days of the new nation.

Augustine Washington Sr. was the father of the first U.S. President George Washington. He belonged to the Colony of Virginia's landed gentry and was a planter and slaveholder.

Truro Parish was further split on February 1, 1765. The new boundary was just south of Washington's estate, and the northern portion became Fairfax Parish, with The Falls Church as its seat. Parishioners of Truro, however, complained that the division was far more favorable to Fairfax Parish, and succeeded in having a new border drawn through Washington's estate, such that Washington was deemed to reside in Truro and he was elected to that vestry.

Drawn over today's civil boundaries, Truro Parish's final incarnation would include the Southern and Southwestern part of Fairfax County.

Places of worship

Within the parish, at formation, there were three churches: Occoquan (now known as Pohick Church), William Gunnells, and a chapel "above Goose Creek."^[3] The Goose Creek chapel would later become part of Cameron Parish. In 1766, a new church was established "on the middle ridge near Ox Road", the present site of Jerusalem Baptist Church off Virginia State Route 123. The Truro Parish vestry contracted Edward Payne to build this new church and it became known as "Payne's Church".

Other church buildings were constructed including replacements for The Falls Church (started in 1763, while it was still part of Truro Parish) and the current Pohick Church in 1767.

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Fairfax Parish was the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Anglican church in colonial Virginia with jurisdiction over part of Fairfax County with its central church located at The Falls Church. The parish was created in 1764 from Truro Parish.

Cameron Parish was the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Anglican church in colonial Virginia with jurisdiction over the western part of Fairfax County and, once it was created in 1757, over Loudoun County. The parish was named for the minor title of Thomas, Lord Fairfax, Baron of Cameron. The parish was created in 1748 from Truro Parish. It was divided in 1770 and Shelburne Parish was formed from the western half of Loudoun County. After 1770, Cameron Parish covered eastern Loudoun County until disestablishment ended the parish system by 1786.

The history of religion in early Virginia begins with the founding of the Virginia Colony, in particular the commencing of Anglican services at Jamestown in 1607. In 1619, the Church of England was made the established church throughout the Colony of Virginia, becoming a dominant religious, cultural, and political force. Throughout the 18th century its power was increasingly challenged by Protestant dissenters and religious movements. Following the American Revolution and political independence from Britain, in 1786 the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom disestablished the Church of England, ending public support and fully legalizing the public and private practice of other religious traditions.

References

1 2 Parish in Colonial Virginia Encyclopedia Virginia. Accessed on July 8, 2012
↑ Seiler, William H. (1959). "The Anglican Parish in Virginia". Seventeenth-Century America: Essays in Colonial History: 119–142.
↑ Slaughter, Rev. Phillip (1907). "The History of Truro Parish in Virginia". George W. Jacobs and Company. Retrieved July 8, 2012.

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[encyclopediavirginia.org-1] 1 2 Parish in Colonial Virginia Encyclopedia Virginia. Accessed on July 8, 2012

[Anglican_Parish_in_Virginia-2] Seiler, William H. (1959). "The Anglican Parish in Virginia". Seventeenth-Century America: Essays in Colonial History: 119–142.

[History_of_Truro-3] Slaughter, Rev. Phillip (1907). "The History of Truro Parish in Virginia". George W. Jacobs and Company. Retrieved July 8, 2012.