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From a talk given by Steve Avent to the New Kent Historical Society
The parish of St. Peter's was established by the general court of Virginia on April 29, 1679.
There were at that time two churches in the parish: one was the "upper church", located about three
miles west of the present village of Old Church, near a town on the Pamunkey River named Newcastle,
now vanished. The second was called the "lower church" to distinguish it from the other and was also
called the "broken back'd" church, referring apparently to some structural weakness in the building.
This church was the precursor to present day St. Peter's, and was most likely located some three 1/2
miles west of the present church, near where routes 608 and 606 meet. St. Peter's parish must have been
a rather difficult place for its ministers. From 1680 to 1700 the parish had 12 ministers. In a letter to the
Lord Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, dated April 12, 1697, the Rev. Nicholas Moreau, who had come
to St. Peter's in 1696, said that he had "got in the very worst parish of Virginia and the most troublesome".
Hopefully, things have settled down a bit since then.
At a vestry meeting held the 13th of August, 1700, the following vestry order was made: "whereas the lower
church of this parish is very much out of repaire and standeth very inconvenient for most of the inhabitants
of the said parish, (it is) therefore ordered that as soon as conveniently may be a new church of brick 60
foot long and 24 foot wide in the clear and 14 foot pitch with a gallery 16 foot long be built and erected
upon the main road by the school house near Thomas Jackson's."
Thomas Jackson lived next door to St. Peter's, in a house which still stands called "Marl Hill", and it was
he who sold the original acre of land upon which the church was built. It also fell to him to see that the
construction of the new church was carried out. He burned brick, hauled cypress shingles from the
Chickahominy swamp, burned lime for mortar, and delivered nails to the carpenters. There has long
been a persistent legend that the bricks came from England, but it is much more likely that they were
made locally, here in New Kent County. The remains of a colonial-era kiln have been found just west
of the church.
The main road referred to by the vestry, by the way, that is, the old colonial stage road, is the dirt road
you saw on your right and left as you entered the church gates. The school house they mentioned stood
just outside the present-day church gates on the west side of that road.
Construction began in 1701, and by 1703 services were being held in the church. The present church,
which measures 64 x 28 feet, is basically identical to the church as it would have looked in 1703, except
for the tower, which was built sometime between 1722 and 1740, and the present slate shingles, which
were originally cypress. The final cost for the completed church was 146,000 pounds of tobacco.
In 1719, a churchyard 100 ft square was enclosed with a wall 4 ½ feet high and 14 inches thick, specified
"to be in all respects as well done as the capitol wall in Williamsburg". This wall is now gone, though
some traces of it still remain in the churchyard.
St. Peter's main claim to fame is its connection with George and Martha Washington. Martha Dandridge
was born at Chestnut Grove plantation in New Kent county on June 2, 1731. She married Col. Daniel
Parke Custis, a vestryman and former churchwarden of St. Peter's, in June, 1749.
In 1757 Col. Custis died, leaving Martha a widow with two small children. On January 6, 1759, the rector
of St. Peter's parish, the Rev. Mr. David Mossom, who is believed to be buried beneath the chancel of the
church, solemnized the marriage of the widow Custis to Col. George Washington.
A great controversy has raged since then as to the actual location of the marriage ceremony. A strong case
can be made for St. Peter's church as the location, though many people believe it took place at the Custis
plantation, "the White House" which stood 3 miles away on the Pamunkey River. No less a personage than
Robert E. Lee, who was married to Martha Washington's great-grand daughter, believed it took place in
St. Peter's church. Be that as it may, another first lady, Letitia Christian Tyler, the wife of Pres. John Tyler,
was baptised in the church in 1790.
Following the revolution, St. Peter's, like most churches associated with the Church of England, fell into
disrepair and basically was abandoned for a period of about 20 years. One early writer stated that the
building was open to the weather and was frequently used by wandering cattle as a refuge during stormy
weather. In a letter written in 1814, Samuel Mordecai writes of marching through New Kent county
during the war of 1812 and states that one night he "dozed in a pew of St. Peter's church, an ancient
structure but not quite in a ruinous state."
Beginning around 1820 the Presbyterians began using the church and it was they who saved it from
destruction. They worshiped here until 1843, their minister living in the small room over top of the
tower, at which time an Episcopal minister named Rev. Edwin Dalrymple was sent by the bishop
to revitalize the old parish. The Episcopalians and Presbyterians shared the church for a time,
by alternating the liturgy from week to week, until 1856, when the Presbyterians built a church
of their own and left St. Peter's.
In the summer of 1862 war came to New Kent County, and the church paid a high price due
to its central location in the county and its proximity to the main roads. The historian Douglas
Southall Freeman wrote:
"St. Peter's is located in a district that had strategic importance during the Revolution
and during the War Between the States. Past it moved armies and raiders.
Hundreds of soldiers, Confederate and Union, rested in the churchyard. Confusing reports
of hurried marches often are clarified by references to halts at. St. Peter's. It is one
of the few famous buildings in New Kent that survived the devastation of war, which
makes it doubly precious."
The division of Union Gen. "Bull" Sumner camped here much of May 1862 (there are several
Matthew Brady photographs of Sumner and his men camped here hanging in the parish house),
and the commander of the Union army, Gen. George B. McClellan, an admirer of George Washington,
visited the church at that time. He later wrote:
"The Washington marriage ceremony took place in St. Peter's church. Finding
one's self alone within that historic building, it was a natural impulse to invoke
the aid of God to enable me to serve the
country as unselfishly and truly as did
the great man who often worshiped there…"
Sad to say, not all of our northern visitors shared Gen. McClellan's sense of reverence for the old
church. The building was used for stables and storage space, and was heavily vandalized. The
Richmond Times-Dispatch reported in 1871 that
"The church itself was broken and battered, and rendered wholly unfit for use.
The old massive stone font, in which the children of two centuries had been baptized,
was broken and scattered in fragments
over the floor. The chancel was torn down,
the pulpit and desk broken and defaced, and not a sash
was left in the windows".
Gen. Robert E Lee wrote in 1869:
"I visited St. Peter's this past spring. It is 3 miles from the White House and in
better days I was able to give it more attention. During the war it was made a stable
of by federal cavalry. The pulpit, chancel, doors, windows, etc. Were broken and
destroyed. Since the cessation of hostilities the neighbors and others have in the best
way they could restored the doors, windows, floor and stoves, and procured the
services of Mr. Kepler to preach for them every fortnight. On these occasions he
makes the White House his resting place, going down every alternate Saturday
and returning Monday or Tuesday. The pulpit and chancel ought to be restored,
and the whole church made worthy of its associations. It is one of the old colonial
churches, is beautifully situated on the road from New Kent courthouse to Richmond
in a grove of native oaks, and is the church where Gen'l Washington was married and
attended in early life."
You can still find, by the way, the names and units of several of Sumner's men carved into the bricks
of St. Peter's.
Martha Washington's girlhood home, the White House Plantation, which was owned by the family of Martha's great-granddaughter, Mrs. Robert E. Lee, was used as a supply base by Union forces and then burnt to the ground .
The church was partially renovated in 1872 and again in 1900, and periodic services were held here throughout
the first half of this century. In 1922 the St. Peter's church Restoration Association was formed with the purpose
of restoring and preserving the old parish church. In 1940 a serious effort was begun to raise funds sufficient to
restore the church, with the idea of completing this restoration by January 6, 1959, the 200th anniversary of the
Washington marriage. This goal was not met, though many structural improvements were made to the building
during the 1950's. In 1964, thanks to a sizable legacy left to the church by the Hon. Richard C. Richardson,
complete restoration of the church was begun. This restoration required the complete gutting the interior of the
church, and involved restoration experts from both sides of the Atlantic.
Soon after that, we built a new parish house and, three years ago, we completed an expansion project which
more than doubled the size of the existing parish house.
In closing, being such an old and historic church, hardly a day goes by that St. Peter's does not get visited by
tourists. They frequently seem surprised at what they find here, because they expect to find just a museum or
a shrine to George and Martha. The truth is, we are happy to say, St. Peter's is an active, thriving and growing
church. We take pride in our history, but feel that we are much more than just our history, and we are looking
forward to the beginning of our 4th century of service to God.
Return to the St. Peter's
Parish Church home page
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