Pohick Church
Pohick Church[Truro Parish, Virginia|], previously known as Pohick Episcopal 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.
The present structure was completed in 1774 and underwent significant renovations beginning in 1874 and 1890. It is two stories tall with a hipped roof and modillioned cornice, with an interior of early Colonial Revival design. The church building was added to the Virginia Landmarks Register in 1968 and National Register of Historic Places in 1969.
The church's archive includes the original vestry book of
Truro Parish, dating to 1732; a 1761 prayer book imported by Washington; and the grave marker of Katherine Popkins, dated 1766, which is the lone surviving stone from the graveyard of the congregation's former location in Colchester. Charles Mason Remey had contracted a family mausoleum on the grounds in 1937, but "the Remeum" became the target of vandalism and was demolished beginning in 1973.
History
Early colonial period: first churches
The origins of Pohick Church can be traced to a chapel of ease for Overwharton Parish, which appears to have been built around 1695 in the Woodlawn area of today's community of Mount Vernon. This church, the first in the parish and thus the first in Northern Virginia, was recorded in a 1715 land grant as being along the Potomac Path, the "county main road," which today is U.S. Route 1. In 1730 the parish relocated the church south, building a frame structure, the so-called "church above Occoquan Ferry" near what later became the community of Colchester. The site of this church is today occupied by Cranford United Methodist Church; there, a stone in the churchyard marks the original site of Pohick Church, and a walkway of oversized brick on the property is thought to date from the period of the original building. No other trace of the original structure or its site exists; the last remnant was the cemetery, whose location is known but which was empty of grave markers by 1938.By 1730, the population of the parish had grown substantially, and it was decided by the Virginia General Assembly to create a new parish, Hamilton, out of Overwharton to better serve the needs of the people. The church at Occoquan became the parish church of this new parish. In 1732 another split was made, and Truro Parish was formed; the church, now renamed "Pohick Church" in honor of its position along Pohick Creek, became the parish church for this new parish as well, being the only church then in the neighborhood. The first person to preach there was the Reverend Lawrence DeButts, who in 1733 was contracted to preach at various points around the parish three times a month for a year, for the sum of eight thousand pounds of tobacco.
Dr. Charles Green was the first rector of Pohick Church; he was successfully sponsored by Augustine Washington, father of George, who was elected to the church vestry in 1735. Green was confirmed to the post in 1736 and traveled to London for ordination, returning to take up his duties the following year. During his tenure as rector Green was involved in a major scandal when he was accused by Lawrence Washington of sexual misconduct with his wife Anne. Washington demanded Green's ouster from his post at the church; Green refused, and brought countersuit against Washington for slander, whereupon the latter demanded an ecclesiastical trial. This took place in the chapel of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg beginning on November 6, 1745; before a verdict was reached, however, Governor William Gooch stepped in and ordered Green to drop the suit, in exchange for which he would not be removed from his post. In the end, the rector remained at Pohick for the next twenty years as a respected clergyman; at his death in 1765 George Washington served as his executor. He was replaced as rector by Lee Massey, a former lawyer who was ordained in 1766 and took up his post the following year. Massey's duties frequently took him to other churches in the parish, and as a result Pohick Church was not open for services every Sunday of the year.
George Mason began his long association with the church in February 1749–50, when he was named warden to replace the deceased Jeremiah Bronaugh; he would go on to serve the congregation as a vestryman until the dissolution of vestries after the American Revolutionary War. Also elected to the post of warden, on October 25, 1762, was George Washington. He, too, would go on to serve as vestryman, attending frequent meetings at the church despite its distance from his home at Mount Vernon; he also remained otherwise quite active in the parish, and is said to have often persuaded house guests to attend services with him. In October 1763, Washington and George William Fairfax were appointed churchwardens for the following year.
Construction of the present church
By 1767, the Pohick vestry determined that the now-dilapidated frame structure serving the parish should be replaced. George Washington argued the need for finding a new location, believing that the new building should be more centrally located, at the intersection of the Potomac Path and the back road – today's Telegraph Road – for the convenience of members of the congregation. George Mason, for his part, argued that the new structure should be built at the site of the old church, as the cemetery contained the graves of many family members; Washington is supposed to have responded by surveying the new location, showing that it was more convenient to most members of the parish, and presenting the results to a meeting of the vestry, whereupon Mason's objection was dropped, although he is reported to have stalked out of the meeting, exclaiming, "That's what gentlemen get for engaging in a debate with a damned surveyor!" The final vote was seven to five in favor of moving the site of the church. The new location was settled on, and a building committee was impaneled; its members were Washington, Mason, George William Fairfax, Daniel McCarty, and Edward Payne. Recalling the Biblical image of a "city upon a hill", the highest point of land in the vicinity was chosen as the site of the new church.Twenty percent of the building's cost was raised at a 1772 auction of pews in which many local landowners participated; the remainder came from tithes and other contributions, including three annual levies on the tobacco crop. The churchyard was laid out at a meeting of the vestry, held on the future site of the church, in 1769; three acres and twenty-six perches of land were purchased, at the rate of a guinea an acre, and the deed was made by Daniel French of Rose Hill, also the first contractor of the building. French was to be paid £877 for his work, in Virginia currency.
The original plan for Pohick Church was drawn up by James Wren, and was identical to that used for both The Falls Church and Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia; however, at some point during the construction process the footprint of the church was altered to that seen today. Some sources have claimed that George Washington himself drew up the design for the building, and at least one hints that George Mason, too, might have provided input; however, records show that in March 1769 the vestry paid James Wren and William West for the church plans. Construction was initially overseen by the planter Daniel French of Rose Hill, a member of the congregation. He died before completion of the building works, and oversight passed to William Buckland, who was also involved in the building of Gunston Hall nearby, and who may have participated in the decoration of the church interior as well; it is possible that Buckland took over the work at the instigation of his employer, George Mason, who had assumed many of French's debts and obligations at the latter's death. Much of the original woodwork in the building was executed by master carver William Bernard Sears, a longtime associate of Buckland's who was also attached to Gunston Hall, likely in indenture to Mason, and is known to have worked at Mount Vernon as well. The account presented by him for his services survives, and indicates that he was paid £58:19:0 for his craft. Plans for the church complex also called for the installation of mounting blocks and six benches in the churchyard, so that people could sit under the trees, and for the area to be cleared of all rubbish and litter. Washington's records indicate that he took an interest in furnishing the new church; besides paying William Copan for carving ciphers on both his pew and that of his neighbor Fairfax, he fitted his own pew with drawers, and also paid for a latch and a door for the church building.
An early plan describing the initial disposition and ownership of pews in the building was copied by Benson Lossing and republished by him in 1859; the original is currently unlocated. A 1774 entry in the church vestry book assigns an unusual order to four of the pews, stating: "Ordered that the Upper Pew in the new Church adjoining the South Wall be appropriated to the Use of the Magistrates and Strangers, and the Pew opposite thereto to the use of their Wives, and the two Pews next below them be appropriated to the Vestrymen and Merchants and their Wives, in like manner." The two most notable pewholders were George Mason and George Washington; other pews were kept by William Triplett, George William Fairfax, Alexander Henderson, Lund Washington, John Manley, Martin Cockburn, and Daniel McCarty. The eight pews located in the west end of the church were set aside for "Inhabitants and House Keepers of the Parish".
Construction of the church building was completed in 1774, just before the start of the American Revolutionary War. Early discussions of the Fairfax Resolves took place at the site in that year; among those in attendance at the meetings were George Washington and George Mason, and Rector Massey was among the signatories at their adoption. William Grayson is said to have been a member of the congregation in these years as well, and he is recorded as having served as an attorney for Truro Parish on numerous occasions.