sermons every Sunday, the two preachers taking their weekly turns. "Every Sunday, when the Lord Governor went to church, he was accompanied with all the Councillors, Captains, other officers, and all the gentlemen, and with a guard of fifty Halberdiers in his Lordship's Livery, fair red cloaks, on each side and behind him. The Lord Governor sat in the choir, in a green velvet chair, with a velvet cushion before him on which he knelt, and the council, captains, and officers, sat on each side of him, each in their place, and when the Lord Governor returned home, he was waited on in the same manner to his house."[1]
In this Church was celebrated the marriage of John Rolfe, to the Princess Pocahontas in 1614; she having been previously baptized, most probably, by Rev. Alexander Wittaker[errata 1], minister of the Church at Dale's, in the Parish of Henrico.
THE FOURTH CHURCH. The fourth Church, a
frame structure 50 ft. × 20 ft., was built, "wholly at the
charge of the inhabitants of Jamestown," by Captain Argall
in 1617. This was doubtless the first Church built upon the
present site of the Jamestown Church, and it was in this
building that the first representative legislative Assembly
ever held in America met on July 30, 1619. "Where Sir
George Yeardley, the Governor, being sett downe in his
accustomed place, those of the Counsel of Estate sate next
to him on both handes, except onely the Secretary (John
Pory), then appointed Speaker, who sate right before him;
John Twine, clerke of the General Assembly, being placed
next the Speaker; and Thomas Peirse, the Sergeant, standing
at the barre, to be ready for any service the Assembly
should command him.
"But forasmuche as men's affaires doe little prosper where God's service is neglected, all the Burgesses took their places in the Quire till a prayer was said by Mr. (Richard)
- ↑ Correction: Wittaker should be amended to Whittaker
- ↑ Brown, First Republic, 129