A Social Profile Of Virginia’s Ministers, 1607–1700

Abstract

In contrast to England’s ecclesiastical beginnings in Ireland, our knowledge regarding the development of the Anglican Church in seventeenth-century Virginia is fragmentary and anecdotal. Virginia differed from Ireland because the Anglican church encountered no network of congregations or existing corps of clergymen. What we do know rests in large measure on only two important sources, statutes enacted by the House of Burgesses in 1619 and later years, which established and governed the church in the colony, and biographical details of the ministers. We know the names of the 159 ministers who served congregations between 1607 and 1700 and limited details regarding their social origins, collegiate educational experience, place and date of their ordination, and place and range of years served in parishes in England and Virginia.¹ Ninety-five of the ministers (60 per cent) arrived in the province between 1606 and 1680, with the remaining 64 arriving between 1681 and 1700. The increased number of men arriving in the colony during the last two decades of the century reflects the new supervisory authority delegated to Bishop of London Henry Compton over American church affairs.