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St. John's Church, Richmond: Cloth

For the new church there were imported from England: "One Parsons Surples, a Pulpit Cushen and Cloth, two cloths for Reading Desks, a Communion Table Cloth, and a Dozen of Cushens-to be of good Purple Cloth, and the Surples good Hollond, also Large Bible and four large Prayer Books."

An entry in the vestry book on December 17, 1773, shows that the rector, Mr. Selden, received as salary 17,150 pounds of tobacco, worth £125. The clerk of the parish received 1,789 pounds of tobacco, or £13 10s., the sexton had 536 pounds, or £3.10s.7d.

Selden was chaplain of the Virginia Convention which met in the church March 20, 1775. At the closing session of this convention Patrick Henry "flashed the electric spark, which exploded the country in revolution," as Burton says in his history of Henrico Parish. This was the speech that closed : "Gentlemen may cry peace, peace, but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, Give me liberty, or give me death."

HOMES AND HAUNTS OF THE CAVALIERS Dr. Burton says that the orator "stood, according to tradition, near the present corner of the east transept and the nave, or more exactly, in pew 47, in the east aisle of the nave.

He faced the eastern wall of the transept, where were the two windows. In the more northern of these stood Colonel Edward Carrington.

He broke the silence that followed the orator's burning words with the exclamation, 'Right here I wish to be buried!'" When the British took possession of Richmond in 1781, St. John's Church became a barracks for Arnold's men. And some of them stood on the spot where Patrick Henry spoke the words that had such large part in stirring up the people to drive all British soldiers from the Colonies.

After the close of the war the diocese of Virginia was reorganized in the building, and plans were laid to overcome the difficulties that would soon come through the loss of the property of the Protestant Episcopal Church, which led Edmund Randolph, later Governor of Virginia and Secretary of State in Washington's Cabinet, to speak the famous words: "Of what is the Church now possessed? Nothing but the glebes and your affections."

That the affections of the people are a better dependence than rich endowments in money has been shown by the later history of the church, the parish, and the diocese.