Presbyterians in Virginia

proportion of the Presbyterians to the aggregate population, 1890
Source: Library of Congress, Statistical atlas of the United States, based upon the results of the eleventh census (1898)

Most Presbyterians entered Virginia initially by way of Philadelphia and then the Shenandoah Valley. Some immigrant, such as those who established the Caldwell settlement in what is today Charlotte County, probably traveled south using paths east of the Blue Ridge.¹

Starting in the 1720's, Virginia's Anglican governors encouraged "dissenters" to move to Virginia. The lands west of the Blue Ridge required hauling agricultural crops up and down the mountains in order to reach a port for loading onto an ocean-going ship. Lands along the Roanoke River lacked a direct water route to the ports on the Chesapeake. Those areas had failed to attract settlers moving west from Tidewater, where the Church of England was dominant. Settling Protestants in those areas would block Native American raids, and deter the French from moving eastwards from the Ohio River.

Some Scotch-Irish moved from the Shenandoah Valley to Southside, and then kept moving to more-distant frontiers as English settlement streched westward. For example, William Bean was in Augusta County in 1742, but four years later he was in Lunenburg... and in 1768, he may have been the first Englishman to settle in Tennessee. ²

Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, Disestablishing the Official State Church, and the First Amendment

Links

• The History of First Presbyterian Church
• The Presbyterian Church of Norfolk: Its Origin and Development (1916)
• The Planting Of The Presbyterian Church In Northern Virginia Prior To the Organization Of Winchester Presbytery (1904)

References