| 1. SUBJECT;
Occoquan Church Site. (PW-21 7) 2. LOCATION: In Coichester, Virginia, I mile from Route #1, taking the first road south of the highway (right, going north) continuing on this road, known as the "Ox Road", going under the railroad underpass and thence .1 mile, thence directly south (right) about 400 ft., thence through overgrown pasture and woods .25 mile southeast. 1.25 miles from Woodbridge Post Office. 3. DATE: 1733.
4. OWNERS; As this was in the town of Colchester, the land very likely belonged to Peter Wagoner, as it was his land from which the town was formed. There are no records of any transfer while Colchester was a part of Prince William, but some years ago it was bought by Alfred T. Hyde of Pennsylvania, and now belongs to his heirs. 5. DESCRIPTION: As there is no one living today who saw the actual building, it is impossible to give any description of it. There is nothing left today but a few stones of the foundation, but in the memory of a life long resident of the neighborhood, there was considerable of the foundation left, and it was possible to determine the size and style of the building. It was square and of moderate size. There was also a large cemetery close by. The stones, so I have been told, were of the table type mostly, there being too,some slabs flat on the ground. They nearly all had inscriptions and many were of great age. When Mr. Hyde bought the land, he had them taken up, broken, and mixed in the cement that is used in the foundation and steps of the rather "gingerbread" house that he built next to the old tavern. There are a few markers left of ordinary field stone, that were not worth taking up, but they have no inscriptions and merely prove that there was a graveyard here. If one looks closely in the undergrowth that covers it now, it is possible to see a depression here and there that show where the graves were left unmarked. All the land
surrounding the church was planted in corn, but has now gone back to woods
and a thick undergrowth all the way from the old "Ox Road" which was once
the main street of Colchester, to the site. However, after
going a short distance, traces can be found of the old road as it approached the old church. The remains of a stately row of cedars that once bordered the road can be seen, some of them of great age. In fact they are the largest, with a few except tions, that I have found in the county. Here and there is a piece of holly, but the cedars stand like patriarchs, defying time and vandals and thinking of what they must have witnessed, one looks upon them with reverence. Here must have come processions for christenings and buryings. Here came the gentry from the country-side to hear the genial Dr. Green and men whose names have lived long after their resting places have been forgotten. 6. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The following extract tells the story of this almost forgotten site: "Truro Parish took off the part bounded by Occoquan River----. There was a church building already there, in Hamilton Parish, where the earliest meetings of the Truro vestry were held until the first Pohick Church, the frame building already mentioned was built within the limits of Truro Parish, about four miles from the town of Occoquan and four miles from 'Gunstan Hall'. The first minister was the Rev. Lawrence DeButts, who however, did not remain long in charge. He was engaged for only one year to preach three times a month at Occoquan Church, then in Hamilton Parish, and at the New Church or Mr Gunnell's. I think this was Payne's Church, near the present town of Fairfax. He also preached at the Chapel above Goose Creek. His salary was eight hundred pounds of tobacco clear of the warehouse charges and abatements, with the proviso that if he failed to preach, prevented by weather or otherwise failed to preach at any the places stated, tobacco should be levied upon him in proportion to his services." "It is interesting to note that the first lay reader in the parish elected at a vestry meeting held here the 12th. of October, 1753, was Joseph Johnson, who was to have one thousand, three hundred pounds of tobcaao, provided that he do his duty." It is also interesting to note that on November 18th., 1735, Augustus Washington was elected vestryman and it was he who nominated (at a vestry meeting held 1736) Mr. Charles Green, "a person qualified to officiate in this church as soon as he shall receive orders from His Grace, the Bishop of London." He was then
commended by the vestry to the Right Honorable Lord Fairfax for his letter
of recommendation and presentation to the Bishop of London to qualify him.
Dr. Green then went to England for his orders and on his return to Virginia
in 1737, it is recorded:
The Rev. Charles Green, D. D., by a letter from the Hon. William Gooch, Lt. Gov. of Virginia as by the letter of the Hon. James Blair, Commissary, is legally and regularly ordained and it is therefore ordered by the vestry that the said Charles Green be received and entertained as Minister of this Parish and be provided as the law directs." He remained in charge until his death in 1765. From the manuscript of Rev. Dr. Slaughter the following comes: "When Hamilton Parish was formed in 1730, it was ordered that the freeholders and housekeepers meet at the church above Occoquan Ferry to elect their vestry." This church stood until superseded by the new, or present Pohick. That Dr. Green was a man of considerable means for those day is proved by numerous records in the county records at the clerk's office in Manassas, Virginia. Deed Book "E", folio 275, 1741,"James Whalley of the county of Prince William and the Parish of Hamilton, Planter and Anne his wife, and Charles Green, CIk. and M.D. of the Parish of Truro, for the some of five shillings sterling, the grist mill on the long branch of Accotink and Two acres of land." This is one of the old deeds of lease and release. He also had eleven hundred acres on Little River from Lord Fairfax, inscribed to the"Rev. Doctor Charles Green, 1741". 7. ART: 8. SOURCES OF INFORMATION:
"Colonial Churches", published by the Southern Churchman, in 1907 and found in the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. This article is by the Rev. Samuel A. Willis and notes are taken from pages 123 and 124. Manuscript on Truro Parish by Rev. Philip Slaughter, edited and published by Dr. Goodwin, page 33. This book is owned by Mr. Charles Gillis, Haymarket, Virginia. Court Records, Prince William County, Virginia. Research made by Susan Rogers
Morton,
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