The Pre-Revolutionary Prayer Book and Bible
In 1905, the Pre-Revolutionary Prayer Book of Bruton Parish Church was accidentally found while removing debris from an unused room adjoining St. Paul's Church, Petersburg, Virginia, and was returned to Bruton Parish by Rev. O. S. Bunting, D. D., Rector of St. Paul's Church. The book, which measures one foot, six and a half inches by eleven inches and a half, was printed in London by John March, for the Company of Stationers, 1729, and has stamped on the outside of the leather binding "Bruton Parish, 1752." In this book, the prayer for the President of the United States is pasted over the prayer for King George III. in the morning service. In the evening service the charges are interlined, "King of Kings" yielding by reason of the then prevailing prejudice, to "Ruler of the Universe." Many other changes are also interlined, making the book conform to the ratified American use.
Later Prayer Book
The Parish also has a book of Common Prayer, printed in Philapelphia in 1837, presented by Mrs Elizabeth Scott of Philadelphia, in which the prayer for the President of the United States is scratched out, and on the margin is written, "April 17, 1861, the Governor of Virginia."
The Old Bible
The Pre-Revolutionary Bible bound in boards covered with thick black leather, measures one foot, seven and a half inches by twelve inches and a half. It was printed in London by Thomas Baskett, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty: and by the Assigns of Robert Baskett, MDCCLIII.
On the blank page of this Bible, between the Apocrypha and the New Testament, are a number of records of births and deaths in the Mills family.
These old books will be kept in the safe in the crypt of the church.
