and disregarding all impediments. The race, in fact, was run with as much eagerness and desire to win, as is ever manifested on the turf by our sporting characters. The father or next friend of the bride, expecting the racers, stood with the bottle in his hand, ready to deliver to the successful competitor. On receiving it, he forthwith returned to meet the bride and groom. When met, the bottle was first presented to the bride, who must taste it at least, next to the groom, and then handed round to the company, every one of whom was required to swig it.

The Quakers differed from all other sects in their marriage ceremony. The parties having agreed upon the match, notice was given to the elders or overseers of the meeting, and a strict inquiry followed whether there had been any previous engagements by either of the parties to other individuals. If nothing of the kind appeared, the intended marriage was made known publicly; and if approved by all parties, the couple passed meeting. This ceremony was repeated three several times; when, if no lawful impediment appeared, a day was appointed for the marriage, which took place at the meeting-house in presence of the congregation. A writing, drawn up between the parties, purporting to be the marriage agreement, witnessed by as many of the bystanders as thought proper to subscribe their names, concluded the ceremony. They had no priest or clergyman to perform the rite of matrimony, and the whole proceeding was conducted with the utmost solemnity and decorum. This mode of marriage is still kept up, with but little variation.

Previous to the war of the revolution, it was the practice to publish the bans of matrimony, between the parties intending to marry, three successive Sabbath days in the church or meeting-house; after which, if no lawful impediment appeared, it was lawful for a licensed minister of the parish or county to join the parties in wedlock. It is probable that this practice, which was anciently used in the English churches, gave rise to the

custom, in the Quaker society, of passing meeting. The peaceable and general moral deportment of the Quakers is too generally known to require particular notice in this work.

The Baptists were not among our earliest immigrants. About fourteen or fifteen families of that persuasion migrated from the state of New-Jersey, and settled probably in 1742 or 1743 in the vicinity of what is now called Gerardstown, in the county of Berkeley.*

Mr. Semple, in his history of the Virginia Baptists, states, that in the year 1754, Mr. Stearns, a preacher of this sect, with several others, removed from New-England. แ They halted first at Opequon, in Berkeley county, Virginia, where he formed a Baptist church under the care of the Rev. John Gerard." This was probably the first Baptist church founded west of the Blue ridge in our state.

It is said that the spot where Tuscarora meetinghouse now stands, in the county of Berkeley, is the first place where the gospel was publicly preached and divine service performed west of the Blue ridge.t This was and still remains a Presbyterian edifice.

It is not within the plan of this work to give a general history of the rise and progress of the various religious societies of our country. It may not, however, be uninteresting to the general reader to have a brief sketch of the difficulties and persecutions which the Quakers and Baptists had to encounter in their first attempts to propagate their doctrines and principles in Virginia.

In Hening's Statutes at Large, vol. i. pp. 532–33, the following most extraordinary law, if indeed it deserves

*Mr. M'Cowen, an aged and respectable citizen of the neighborhood, communicated this fact to the author.

t This information was communicated to the author by a highly respectable old lady, of the Presbyterian church, in the county of Berkeley. She also stated, that, in addition to the general tradition, she had lately heard the venerable and reverend Dr. Matthews assert the fact. Mr. Mayers, now in his 87th year, born and raised on the Potomac, in Berkeley, stated his opinion to the author, that there was a house erected for public worship at the Falling Water about the same time that the Tuscarora meeting-house was built. Both these churches are now under the pastoral care of the Rev. James M. Brown,

the name, was enacted by the then legislature of Virginia, March 1660:

"An act for the suppressing the Quakers.

"Whereas there is an vnreasonable and turbulent sort of people, comonly called Quakers, who contrary to the law do dayly gather together vnto them vnlaw'll assemblies and congregations of people, teaching and publishing lies, miracles, false visions, prophecies and doctrines, which have influence vpon the comunities of men, both ecclesiasticall and civil, endeavouring and attempting thereby to destroy religion, lawes, comunities, and all bonds of civil societie, leaveing it arbitrarie to everie vaine and vitious person whether men shall be safe, lawes established, offenders punished, and governours rule, hereby disturbing the publique peace and just interest to prevent and restraine which mischiefe, It is enacted, That no master or comander of any shipp or other vessell do bring into this collonie any person or persons called Quakers, vnder the penalty of one hundred pounds sterling, to be leavied vpon him and his estate by order from the governour and council, or the comissioners in the severall counties where such ships shall arrive: That all such Quakers as have been questioned, or shall hereafter arrive, shall be apprehended wheresoever they shall be found, and they be imprisoned without baile or mainprize, till they do adjure this country, or putt in security with all speed to depart the collonie and not to return again: And if any should dare to presume to returne hither after such departure, to be proceeded against as contemners of the lawes and magistracy, and punished accordingly, and caused again to depart the country, and if they should the third time be so audacious and impudent as to returne hither, to be proceeded against as ffelons: That noe person shall entertain any of the Quakers that have heretofore been questioned by the governour and council, or which shall hereafter be questioned, nor permit in or near his house any assemblies of Quakers, in the like penalty of one hundred pounds sterling: That comissioners and offi

cers are hereby required and authorized, as they will answer the contrary at their perill, to take notice of this act, to see it fully effected and executed: And that no person do presume on their perill to dispose or publish their bookes, pamphlets or libells, bearing the title of their tenets and opinions."

This highhanded and cruel proceeding took place in the time of Oliver Cromwell's usurpation in England, and at a time when some glimmering of rational, civil, and religious liberty, manifested itself in the mother country. The preamble to this act is contradicted by the whole history of Quakerism, from its foundation to the present period. In all the written and traditional accounts handed down to us, the Quakers are represented as a most inoffensive, orderly, and strictly moral people, in all their deportment and habits.

This unreasonable and unwise legislation, it is presumed, was suffered to die a natural death, as, in the progress of the peopling of our country, we find that many Quakers, at a pretty early period, migrated and formed considerable settlements in differents parts of the state.

It has already been noticed that the Baptists were not among the number of our earliest immigrants. Mr. Semple says: "The Baptists in Virginia originated from three sources. The first were immigrants from England, who about the year 1714 settled in the south east part of the state. About 1743 another party came from Maryland, and founded a settlement in the north west.* A third party from New-England, 1754.”

This last was Mr. Stearns and his party. They settled for a short time on Capon river, in the county of Hampshire, but soon removed to North Carolina. Mr. Stearns and his followers manifested great zeal and industry in the propagation of their doctrines and principles. Their religion soon took a wide range in the Ca

*It is probable this is the party who settled in the neighborhood of Gerardstown. If so, Mr. S. is doubtless misinformed as to the place of their origin. The first Baptist immigrants who settled in Berkeley county were certainly from New-Jersey.

rolinas and Virginia. They met with violent opposition from the established Episcopal clergy, and much persecution followed. To the credit of the people of our valley, but few if any acts of violence were committed on the persons of the preachers west of the Blue ridge. This is to be accounted for from the fact that a great majority of the inhabitants were dissenters from the Episcopal church. East of the Blue ridge, however, the case was widely different. It was quite common to imprison the preachers, insult the congregations, and treat them with every possible indignity and outrage. Every foul means was resorted to, which malice and hatred could devise, to suppress their doctrines and religion. But instead of success, this persecution produced directly the contrary effect. "The first instance," says Mr. Semple, "of actual imprisonment, we believe, that ever took place in Virginia, was in the county of Spottsylvania. On the 4th June, 1768, John Waller, Lewis Craig, James Childs, &c. were seized by the sherif, and hauled before three magistrates, who stood in the meeting-house yard, and who bound them in the penalty of £1000 to appear at court two days after. At court they were arraigned as disturbers of the peace, and committed to close jail." And in December, 1770, Messrs. William Webber and Joseph Anthony were imprisoned in Chesterfield jail.

The author deems it unnecessary to detail all the cases of persecution and imprisonment of the Baptist preachers. He will therefore conclude this narrative with the account of the violent persecution and cruel treatment of the late Rev. James Ireland, a distinguished Baptist preacher of our valley.

Mr. Ireland was on one occasion committed to the jail of Culpeper county,* when several attempts were made to destroy him. Of these attempts he gives the following narrative:

"A number of my persecutors resorted to the tavern

*In the Life of Ireland, no dates are given. The time of his commitment was probably about the year 1771 or 1772.