01/31/2022
The Northern Neck of Virginia is steeped in history. I am a member of St. Paul's Church and proud of its legacy.
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, King George County, Virginia
“To be let to the lowest bidder on Friday the 29th of August, the Building of a Brick Church in St. Paul’s Parish, Stafford County, in the form of a Cross, of the following dimensions: each Wing to be 16 feet in Clear for the Length and 26 in Breadth, 2 feet high to the Water Table, and 24 to the Ceiling, with 3 Galleries.” This call for bids appeared in the Virginia Gazette on July 18, 1766.
Two years after the call for bids was issued, and perhaps while the new church was nearing completion, the members of St. Paul’s vestry included Samuel Washington, John Washington, and Lawrence Washington, the first two being brothers of George Washington and the third his cousin. Other vestry members were Colonel Henry Fitzhugh of “Bedford,” Captain John Alexander of “Caledon,” Captain Baldwin Dade, and Francis Thornton.
George Washington recorded in his diary, that on Sunday September 4, 1768, and on May 22, 1769, he attended services at St. Paul’s Church, while visiting his “brother Sam.”
It is interesting to note that two wood-framed churches, constructed in about 1690 and 1725, preceded the present ca.1768 brick church. And, that during most of the eighteenth century, for a period of about eighty years, the rectorship was held by but two men, father and son, David and William Stuart of “Cedar Grove.”
The current rector of St. Paul’s Church is the Rev. Lee Gandiya.
