Bucke, the minister, that it would please God to guard and sanctifie all our proceedings to his owne glory and the good of this Plantation."[1]
THE FIFTH CHURCH.
(First Brick Church). The fifth Church was the first one built of brick, and was begun in 1639, under the administration of Sir John Harvey. This Church was burned September 19, 1676, being fired by Nathaniel Bacon, Jr. The tower of this building stands,[2] "Lone relic of the past."
THE SIXTH CHURCH.
The sixth Church, also built of brick, was upon the foundations of the Church of 1639, and remained in use for many years. After the removal of the seat of government to Williamsburg in 1699, Jamestown languished. This Church, however, remained in use until about 1758, when it fell rapidly into ruins. The last rector at Jamestown was Rev. James Madison, D. D., the first Bishop of Virginia.
THE SEVENTH CHURCH.
The seventh Church built on the Island has just been erected by the Society of Colonial Dames of America over the ancient foundations. The old tower has not been touched, and stands apart from the new building, to which it gives entrance. The building and grounds about it are now the property of the "Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities." It is a Church without a minister and without a congregation,—a memorial through which and beyond which one catches a vision of the church of the tragic past, and from the ancient tower there seem to come the far away echoes of the service of other days, but,
"The worshippers are scatted'd now
Who met before thy shrine,
And silence reigns where anthems rose
In days of auld lang syne.
