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Direct Quotes except items in ( )
p. 25
John Finley's district of nineteen families was in the general area of Waynesboro, extending up and down South River. The families included in this district were the Turks, Gays, Gillespies, McClures, Pattersons, Teas, Edmistons and others. John Finley was assisted in collections by Archibald Stuart, who also resided in this district. (1744)
p. 72
Local roads occupied the attention of the Orange County Court, "Thursday, the 26th Day of July 1744," when they ordered that: A Road be cleared from Finley's Mill to the Tinkling Spring and thence to McCords Mill That John Finley and Archibald Stewart, John Christy and Robert Cunningham oversee the Same and that Jame Patton, Gent lay off their precincts and appoint their several gangs. . .
p. 84
The old minute book of the South Side of this congregation, following the title page, sets forth the first recorded action of the people, with the signatures of many of them, as follows:
Know all men by these presents yt ye undernamed subscribers do nominate and appoint & Constitute our trusty & wellbeloved friends Colonel Jas Patton, J[ohn] Finly George Hutchison Jno Christian Alex's Breckenridge to manage our publick affairs to Chuse & purchase a piece of ground to build our meeting [house] upon it to Collect our ministers Sallary and to pay of all Charges. . ... (signatures included Wm Finley, Geo Caldwell, Jno Thompson, Jas Caldwell, 14 August 1741)
p. 85
The next page of the minutes reveals the manner in which the people proposed to undertake, by an executive group called commissioners, the constructing and supporting of the church and paying the pastor. (signatures included James Patton, John Finly, George Hutchison, Jno Christian, Alexander Breackenridge, 14 August 1741; the commissioners were accountable to the minister and Session twice a year)
p. 86
The first session of record in the church is found in a joint action of the session and commissioners. The commissioners had lost, by the time of this action, two members: Alexander Breackenridge by death and John Finley by his elevation to the session. (before 1748) (first important church document signed by Commissioners: Colo'll James Patton, Jas Alexander, Willm Wright, J[os] T[eas], John Christian; Elders: George Hutchison, Jas Kerr, James Gilaspey, Willm Johnston, Jon Finlo)
p. 91
(John Finley, commissioner, authorizes payment in financing first church building, 7 February 1744)
p. 92
(John Finlow, commissioner, takes action in non-payment for building church, 23 March 1746/7)
p. 95
(Jno. Finlow authorized to oversee building addition to church, 1748)
p. 108
There were no court days, except beyond the Ridge at Orange Court House, before 1745; and regular church gatherings were unknown before 1740. The population of the territory authorized as Augusta County has been estimated, from the lists of people available, to be about 2500 in 1742. A very general estimate on the same basis, along with lists of Tinkling Spring members and contributors, would place approximately 500 citizens within the bounds of the Tinkling Spring congregation.
THE MILITIA
Law and order were assured for the Valley through the Orange County Court. Justices in that court, prior to the functioning of the Augusta Court, included Valley names as follows: Samuel Givens, John Lewis, John Finley, Benjamin Borden, John Buchanan, John McDowell, Andrew Campbell and James Patton. These were nearly all Presbyterians and three of them Tinkling Spring members. We note that the outstanding Tinkling Spring leader, James Patton, was recommended "as a fit and proper person to be added to the Commission of the Peace for this County" on June 25, 1741. He was sworn in as a Justice of the Peace February 24, 1743.
p. 113
The first Augusta County court was formed December 9, 1745.
Twenty-one Justices of the Peace, having been commissioned by
Governor Gooch, October 30, 1745, took office as follows: James
Patton, John Buchanan, Peter Scholl, Robert Campbell, Robert Poage,
Thomas Lewis, Robert Cunningham, Richard Woods, Robert Craven, Adam
Dickinson, John Anderson, John Lewis, George Robinson, James Bell,
John Brown, John Pickens, Hugh Thompson, John Finla,
John Christian, James Kerr and Andrew Pickens. Seven of
these--James Patton, Robert Cunningham, John Lewis, James Bell,
John Finla [Finley], John Christian and James
Kerr--were members at Tinkling Spring.
p. 114
A deposition in court, in 1801, supplies the information on the
first reference found to a school in the county. "John
Finley, aged above 60 years. Depondent went to school in
1747 in the house mentioned. . .The house was on James McClure's
land." James McClure's land was located between Tinkling Spring and
the present site of Waynesboro, Virginia.
p. 158
The May 1759 meeting of synod, having refused to set up a
presbytery in the Valley of Virginia, at a special meeting of Hanover
Presbytery (established 3 October 1755 by New Side Synod of New York
in response to a petition to have a Presbytery in VA), July 18, 1759,
at Rockfish Meeting House, Mr. Craig and John
Finley, presumably the Tinkling Spring elder, were
registered as regular members in attendance. . . ...James Gillespie,
Tinkling Spring elder, attended this meeting (at Stone House Meeting
House in Augusta, April 1760) of presbytery in 1760, and John
Finley attended the fall meeting in Prince Edward County,
where presbytery heard the opening sermon by Mr. Craig and decided
"to meet at Tinkling Spring M. House in Augusta" for its spring
meeting, April 1, 1761. . . .The Reverend Richard Sankey of Buffalo
in Prince Edward County, son-in-law of Craig's former friend, the
late Reverend John Thomson, was "continued" as moderator of
presbytery.
p. 165
At the fall meeting of presbytery (Hanover), in Cumberland County,
October 3, 1764, the first item of business, following "Suplications
for Supplies," is that:
Mr Craig is dismissed from the Tinkling Spring, and sustains the pastoral
relation as to the Congregation of Stone meeting House
only.
The elder representing Tinkling Spring at this meeting was John
Finley. He put in a request for a supply assignment
at Tinkling Spring but none was made except, ". . . ministers in
Augusta County, are left to their own discretion, in
supplying."
Mr. Craig preached his farewell sermon at Tinkling Spring in
November 1764.
p. 166
Tinkling Spring people, with Rev. John Craig as their pastor,
pioneered in the practice of religious freedom in the Colony of
Virginia. . .Her men, though reluctant in aggression, were invaluable
in defense against Indian cruelty. They were among the stalwart
leaders that turned the tide in the frontier phase of the
French-British struggle out of which grew the short-lived English
rule over America. Tinkling Spring's first quarter of a century of
service left her a changed and weakened meeting house group.
Alexander Breckenridge, James Patton, John Preston, Archibald Stuart
and John Lewis were dead by this time; John Finley,
an active elder, disappears from the record, probably transferring
his efforts to Brown's Meeting House (about 12 miles west of Tinkling
Spring in Beverly Manor); and families now removed entirely, or in
part, were the Breckenridges, Lewises, Prestons, Campbells, Bells,
Thompsons and others. Staunton, following the resignation of Mr.
Craig, requested supplies and, though too weak to do so, proposed
building her own meeting house. . ..continued in debt to Mr.
Craig.
p. 168-172
CONTRIBUTION TO CHURCH EXPANSION WESTWARD
The ministry of Rev. John Craig, centering at Tinkling Spring in
the early days of his pastorate, was a tower of strength and light. .
.The preliminary to settlement was the patenting of lands in which
James Patton, John Lewis, William Preston and others took the
initiative. The earliest ventures inland purchased by these Tinkling
Spring men were on the Cowpasture and Calfpasture Rivers. Then
followed immediately their purchases in what is now Southwest
Virginia, but at that time was within old Augusta County. . .The
colonial government's offer of "bounty lands" on the frontier, as a
reward to those who fought the Indians, led many of the best and most
enterprising of the Ulster Scots' second American generation to join
the trek to the west. The strength of the southwest settlements is
suggested in the mission of Mr. Craig to the southwestern part of
Virginia in 1769. The minutes of Hanover Presbytery suggest the ties
with the old Beverley Manor settlers when we note names and families.
It was in the spring of 1768 that the presbytery authorized Mr.
Craig's mission:
Ordered that Supplies be appointed. Mr. Craig six Sabbaths at
Craig's Creek and Reed Creek, & place interjacent: & that Mr.
Craig's Congregation may not thereby sustain too great a Loss, the
Presbytery appoint Messrs. Black, Brown, & Cummings to supply it
one Sabbath each.
(Eight congregations named located from the general area of
Roanoke down to Reed Creek and the Holston: Sinking Spring, Craig's
Creek, Denean, New Antrim, New Derry, New Dublin, Boiling Spring
[probably located near Fort Chiswell and served the people on Lower
Reed Creek in present Wythe County], Unity [served the people settled
on the waters of Holston River and Reed Creek]. . .George Brakenridge
listed as representative for Unity . . . dated 14 October 1768) . .
.
Of the forty-six "Representatives" Mr. Craig ordained in the eight
new meeting houses in Southwest Virginia, at least the following six
came from a Tinkling Spring background: John Miller, Robert
Finley, William Preston, James Davis, William Fleming,
Robert and George Breckenridge. Possibly half of these forty-six
heads of families had come from the Old Triple Forks of the Shenando
congregation area where Mr. Craig had served since 1740. .
.
It appears there were six heads of Campbell families in Tinkling
Spring prior to 1750--Charles, David, James, John, George and
William--but after 1750 there are but three Campbells left with a
bare half-dozen subscriptions credited to all of them. The Campbell
families were on the move to the southwest!
p. 174
A Call from the united Congregation of ebbing Spring and sinking
Spring was given in by Samuel Edmunson to be presented to Mr.
Cummins, who accepted of the same (Rev. Charles Cummings left Brown's
Meeting House in the spring of 1772).
These two old congregations seem to have covered the territory
between present Marion and Bristol, Virginia. The first was located
near Glade Spring, and the other in Abingdon, Virginia.
The signers of that call are found to have many contacts with Rev.
John Craig's Tinkling Spring pastorate. Eight of the number bear the
same names as children baptized by Craig 1740-1749. Among these were
Benjamin Logan, son of David, who with Daniel Boone explored the
Kentucky territory and had Logan County named for him; John
Patterson, son of William, a family who have blessed the church with
many ministers and missionaries; William Christian, son of Robert,
among the founders of Tinkling Spring Church and famous for his
patriotic zeal; Alexander Breckenridge, son of George, a family of
churchmen and statesmen, outstanding in their leadership in Kentucky;
and John Campbell, son of David, a family of daring faith and
adventure who have supplied leadership in state and church affairs in
astonishing numbers.
p. 178
A close examination of this list of contributors, as compared with
the list of members who built the Tinkling Spring log meeting house a
quarter of a century earlier, reveals a large turn-over in membership
(1765-1770). Absent from this list--some conspicuously so because of
their prominence in earlier days--are the following family names:
Breckenridge, Cowan, Craig, Cunningham, Denniston, Edmiston, Gamble,
Gay, Holme, King, Lewis, McCord, Maxwell, Miller, Patterson, Patton,
Preston, Robinson and Scott.
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