of the Committee which drafted the law establishing Religious Freedom in Virginia—
Thomas Jefferson, Vestryman of St. Anne's Parish.
Edmund Pendleton, Vestryman of Drysdale Parish.
George Wythe, Vestryman of Bruton Parish.
George Mason, Vestryman of Truro Parish.
Thomas Ludwell Lee, Vestryman of Overwharton Parish.
Being all the members of the Committee."
This principle had been embodied in the immortal work of the Virginia Statesman and Churchman, George Mason, "The Declaration of Rights," adopted here in Williamsburg, in June, 1776. "Never before," says William Wirt Henry, "had any civil government in the whole world allowed the claim of absolute religious freedom." When the contention is made, as it often is, that the Church was the foe to religious freedom, it is worth while to recall these facts of history.
Bruton has the right to place within her walls the names which have been placed upon the pew plates and mural tablets. These men all worshipped here—Washington records in his diary that he attended the service here on Sunday "and fasted all day."
Because these men contributed so much to the nation building, because their presence is associated with this Church, and because, with scarcely an exception, they were vestrymen of the Church in Virginia, their names are recalled in this place as a witness to the truth of history and as a perennial inspiration to men. It may be that many as they read these names will have their minds illumined with the truth of history, and we trust that these memorials will be a means of showing what Virginia has given to America and what the Church has given to Virginia.
The Character of the Colonial Clergy
There is another testimony which one of these memor-
