LONG WEEKEND IN WILLIAMSBURG - BRUTON PARISH CHURCH IN COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA

 Gregg and I were in Williamsburg from Thursday to Sunday.  We were there to join in the celebration of a nephew getting married.  The Bride and Groom had glorious weather and it was a wonderful gathering of family and friends. 

Not wanting to drive up on the same day as the wedding rehearsal, we left 24 hours earlier and was able to enjoy a leisurely walk around Colonial Williamsburg.  It has always been one of our favorite places.  We have taken many people who visited, from both sides of our family, friends also, all of whom enjoyed it tremendously.  Most of Gregg's immediate family have lived not so far away since the 60s. I have been coming here off and on since we were married, as we only lived an hour's drive away for several years. Even now it is only a short three-hour drive.

I saw the above artwork on the wall of one of the gift shops. I thought it was delightful!

The painting shows part of The Bruton Parish Church, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970 as a well-preserved early example of colonial religious architecture.  

The church was named after Bruton in the County of Somerset, England.  The name honored the prominent Ludwell family and Governor Sir William Berkeley whose ancestral homes were from Bruton.  It traces its roots back to both the Church of England and the new settlement of the Colony of Virginia at Jamestown in the early 17th century.

There is a lot of history at this website also.  It says it was the first Anglican church built in 1660, and its first rector was Reverend Rowland Jones.

In 1761, merchant James Tarpley presented the church with a bell. Bids for a steeple or belfry to house the bell were let on January 1, 1769. The vestry awarded a £410 contract for a brick tower surmounted by a wooden octagon and for miscellaneous repairs, to Benjamin Powell that September 14. The addition can be seen from outside the church, as the steeple bricks have a darker color than the salmon-hued bricks of the rest of the church. Tarpley's bell is still in use.

From this website, I read that among the Williamsburg notables buried beneath the marble flagstones inside the church was Governor Francis Fauquier, one of the best loved of the colonial governors, who died in 1768. 

The same year an English organ was installed. Gaolkeeper Peter Pelham was hired to play it for £25 a year, a position he held until about 1802. Pelham brought to church with him a prisoner from the Gaol, whose job it was to pump the instrument. The organ remained in service until 1835. The present organ, the church's fourth, was presented by John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1954.

There is a lot more interesting history at the links provided above.  I will have more posts of our time in Williamsburg when I can put them together.