Remembering Acquia
Nott, Walter J.
October 2, I929 THE COMMONWEAL 557 REMEMBERING ACQUIA By WALTER J. NOTT SOON as some more money is collected, the energy of Bishop Brennan will complete the work and crown the...
...The little girl was frightened, too, and hung on to her brother's hand, much to his disgust and embarrassment...
...Upon notice of this, Colonel Brent called for his buckles and his laces, for his sword and his golden snutt-box and the elegant fopperies that befitted his rank and station, and ordered himself rowed to the anchored ship...
...A site has been purchased near the theatre of the historical facts to be commemorated, just fourteen miles north of Fredericksburg, in Virginia, where the Highway crosses the Acquia Creek...
...Whereupon George Brent came and suggested that the little heathen be baptized "for he had heard that the sacrament had an efficacious ettect upon the body...
...Some there were who were half afraid of these strange, fascinating beings...
...The family waxed great and in their isolation prayed how and entertained whom they chose...
...The litle girl knew nothing except that she had been glad when they were out of it...
...They had once owned all this country and even now might get mad and try to take it back...
...A mile below where there were willows and service bushes, black with fruit, the ponds were deeper and there was always running water...
...Pub'k...
...The chief came running from his cabin...
...It was usually at afternoon recess when some sharp-eyed boy would raise the cry "Indians...
...Men took the last of the foundations to fill in the old bridge-head over the Acquia and that was years ago...
...By his Maj'ties Commands Sunderland Directed to our Right The place of This shall Trusty and well bdoved the oblige Francis Lord Howard of Royal Signet Francis Eflingham our Lieutenant This is a true copy of the & Governor Generall of original to me shown and our Collony & Dominions producedmExamined in of Virginia in America London this x9th day of and to our Chide Governor or Governors there February Anno Domini x686.for the time being...
...He built his place over the Acquia and called it Woodstock, after the family palace in England...
...There were in the group huddled together on that grassy hill several who could remember, more or less distinctly, Joseph's uprising in '77, when the people, fearful that the Lolo trails near by would be chosen by the Indians for their journey to the battle-field, had fled to CoHax...
...We did not believe it...
...They called her "Mr...
...Things came to such a pass that Captain Brent, who had defended the frontier and the homes of the settlers for a generation, had to flee from their violence to the estate of his friend Fitzhugh...
...But teacher said no, and the bragging must be done at a safe distance...
...The purpose of the sacred image is to proclaim love for Jesus Christ in a day that is proclaiming a deal of other, strange loves, and to preserve a great Catholic memory...
...Her father had taken them all over to see it last year and they were going this year, too...
...He did not succeed, but retired to shore with all the insolent dignity with which he had gone forth...
...Whereas our Trusty and weU beloved George Brent of Woodstock, in our County of Stafford in that our Colbny of Virginia, Richard Foote and Robert Bristow oi London, Merchants & Nicholas Hayward of London, Notary Publick have by their humble petition informed us that they have purchased of our right trusty and well beloved Thomas Lord Culpeper a certain tract of land in our said Colony between the Rivers of Rappahannock and Potomac containing of estimation Thirty thousand acres lying in or near our said County of Stafford some miles distant from any present settlement or Inhabitants and at or about Twenty Miles from the foot of the mountains, upon part of which Tract of Land the Pet'rs have fortifications and doo therefore pray that for the encouragement of Inhabitants to settle in the said Towne and plantation wee would be pleased to grant them the free exercise of their Rdigion, wee have thought fitt to condescend to their humble request and wee do accordingly give and grant unto the Pet'rs and to aU and every the Inhabitants which now are or hereafter shall bee settled in the said Towne and Trace of land belonging to them as is above mentioned, the free exercise of their Religion without being prosecuted or mdested upon any penall laws or other account for the same, which wee do hereby signifie unto you to the end you may take care and give such orders as may be requisite...
...Quod attesto manu ac Locum Si~Ii sigillo rogatus Sam'l Scorey Not...
...When Washington was building, one of them became the first commissioner...
...how they wanted their boys to learn French and how Brent sent his boys to Douay to get Catholic learning and instruction in their faith...
...The big boys, the tenand twelve-year-olds, thought she was, and spoke scornfully of "cowardy cats" as we went slowly along the upper road until we knew the teacher was safely over the hills in the opposite direction...
...October 2, I929 THE COMMONWEAL 557 REMEMBERING ACQUIA By WALTER J. NOTT SOON as some more money is collected, the energy of Bishop Brennan will complete the work and crown the ambition of his predecessor, Bishop Dennis J. O'Connell, in planting by the great Richmond-Washington Highway an immense crucifix...
...The little girl began to be afraid her father would not care to go, but Brother said he probably would...
...Colonel Mason, on one of these martial expeditions, brought home a little Indian boy who would neither speak nor eat, but lay on a pallet giving not a sign of life...
...but the Brents in Virginia, taking advahtage of the frontier condition of the Northern Neck and the good-will of the King, thought to erect a settlement where the ideas of religious liberty might find root and flourish...
...We knew all about them...
...Brent seized him by the hair and as he tried to escape, shot him...
...To her was also the credit of the first schools for Indian children in Anglo-Saxon America...
...We learn from Fitzhugh's letters that an anti-Catholic fright swept over the people caused by lies that came from the Annapolis crowd in Maryland to the effect that the Catholics were conspiring with the Indians for a general massacre of the heretics...
...This was in I645...
...About I693, affairs took a change...
...When other colonists came George Brent was a captain, and with his friend Colonel George Mason he protected these settlers from the forays of the red man...
...About the time we write of James II, the last of the reigning Stuarts, ruled in England...
...But Brother---~ways wise, Brother--remarked that if people went to other people's churches they ought to behave...
...Bravely through all these years these stones in the wilderness withstood the storms, until the new Highway came near and they could point to us the gallant endeavor of these Catholic gentlemen and the liberal ideas of a Catholic King...
...Squaws with babies slung in skin cradles to their backs, slid from the ponies and began preparations for a meal...
...With these two came also their nephew, George Brent, whose work this projected Calvaire will commemorate...
...A squaw slap a white woman...
...We were called into the schoolroom finally, and before dismissal the teacher instructed those whose homeward way led past the camp to keep well up on the hill on the upper road...
...No, she had not seen it but a lady had told her mama, a lady who never told a lie...
...Fitzhugh wrote reams of paper to prove the falsity of the charges hut to no avail...
...The next day, out of the teacher's hearing, the boys had much to tell of the camp, which by morning had entirely disappeared...
...The schoolhouse, an abandoned one-room and lean-to log cabin, stood on the brow of a little hill, at whose foot was a broad flat traversed by Pine Creek, which, by June, was only a series of pools of varying sizes...
...The original of this document was in the possession of J. C. Brent of Washington, lately deceased...
...Then someone began to tell what the Indians did at the Mission...
...Ponies were hobbled and turned loose or staked out at the end of a long rope...
...They had been on their journey two days now and would stop on the flat for their last rest before reaching their destination...
...Then the someone who had been there the year before delivered a lecture on Catholic Church Behavior as Differentiated from Protestant Procedure...
...The Indians knelt on the floor...
...Given art our Court at Whitehall the xoth day of Feb'ry 1686-7, in the third year of our Reign...
...The graveyard remains, with its elegantly carved and fashioned tombs that date back as far as 1689, when Lady Baltimore's daughter by Richard Sewell, "Secretaire of Maryland," who had married Robert Brent, was buried...
...Nevertheless Brenton seems to have continued its free existence for some years...
...This was the time to recall the grewsome event...
...It will recall a brave story...
...The inscription will read: This sacred image of the Divine Victim of intolerance is dedicated as a memorial of the first charter of religious toleration in the colony of Virginia and of the Catholic gentlemen who procured it from a Catholic king, February Io, I686...
...The homes of all burned, the last Brent left the Northern Neck in 1845...
...There was a meeting in the church and after dinner a procession all around the Mission grounds and they "shot the devil...
...When the Dissenters began to weaken the Catholic hand, and old age came upon him, he retired to his estates on the Acquia in Virginia, where he and his sister Margaret had land grants...
...There were several brothers, his cousins, Giles Brent's children, and his own numerous progeny to cultivate a wilderness and defend a frontier which bordered dangerously on the Indian trail from the West, and which was just beyond the border.of Virginian protection...
...They must take it or cease to practise law...
...W. B. Chilton, of Washington, gathered from old letters and musty records years ago...
...One woman had laughed last year and a squaw had slapped her...
...But, the one who had been there last year defended hersdf and friends, you could hardly help laughing sometimes, everything was so queer...
...558 THE COMMONWEAL October 2, x9z 9 In the rudeness of the frontier they struggled to remain Catholic and gentle...
...The cloud of dust grew less as the ponies reached the fiat and we could watch the process of camp making...
...Someone whispered this and was answered by a brave boy: "Ho, ho, they wouldn't dare...
...Such stories did r i not of course, frighten the boys but they did one little girl...
...This was done and the boy returned to his accustomed health and vigor...
...With a great flourish he went over the side, he went down among the cutlasses of the hostile sailors and blithely required the crew to hoist sail and take him and his friends ashore to Bristol for the relief of the King, who was beleaguered there...
...It was true, cross her heart, hope to die...
...Then there was a great row with Governor Berkeley of Virginia, because they had acted without warrant from him...
...Brent with twenty men followed them across the river and strode into the Doeg town...
...George Brent's idea was to gather on this land the persecuted Huguenots of France and the harried Catholics of England where under the charter of James they could find life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that Jefferson was to write about a hundred years later, a hundred miles from this spot...
...While Duke of York he turned from a deep hatred of Catholics to embrace their religion...
...Other children said they were going, the teacher had talked to two of the directors and they had said she might dismiss school so everybody could go...
...The little girl listened, appalled at the amount of information a schoolmate no older than herself and who could not read nearly so well had been able to...
...His sister was of a like sort with himself...
...Was the teacher afraid of the Indians...
...Squaws went to pools for water...
...someone who had been over there and knew all about it...
...Teacher came out to watch, too, and recess was prolonged...
...W. B. Chilton: (Signed) James R Right trusty and well beloved, Wee greet you well...
...How the elegancies that the pioneers had remembered in England were brought one by one into the wilderness as their means permitted: a silver goblet for madame, and some Madeira to replace the atrocious rum from the Barbadoes...
...Margaret Brent...
...She was a baby when that happened but her mother was afraid of Indians and so was she...
...Ho, ho...
...Tents were set up and blankets spread around...
...Provided they behave themselves in all dviU matters so as to become peaceable and Loyal1 subjects and for so doing this shall your warrant and so wee bid you beartuly farewell...
...Prior to I687, Mr...
...She was the executrix of Leonard Calvert's estate, in which capacity she faced and browbeat the mutinous unpaid soldiers of the late Governor, and one day strode into a meeting of the Assembly and before them all and Governor Green demanded a vote because of the trusts she held...
...There was no end to her knowledge...
...The different families of the Brent name remained faithful through all the penal days...
...Brent's good neighbor, WiUiam Fitzhugh, wrote at this time: But if these troubles and great oppressions that from thence we may guess may fall upon the Roman Catholics in England Brenton (the name of the colony) I esteem a good sanctuary for them...
...He was also Receiver General for the Northern Neck and was now appointed Ranger General for that part of the frontier...
...The work is being done by the Historical Committee of the Catholic Women's Club of Richmond...
...Of the whole enterprise there remain only the facts that the industry of Mr...
...The correspondence of William Fitzhugh, a neighbor, shows the development of the Northern Neck...
...Once a party of Doegs, while at peace with Maryland, came across the Potomac for some hogs and some scalps, alleging that one Mathews had cheated them...
...and we would all rush to the edge of the hill to watch the moving cloud of dust through which could be seen the dim forms of ponies with their burdens of human beings or camp equipment...
...Fires were started and kettles put on...
...The priests wore long dresses, awful pretty, with lace on them...
...DOWN THE LOLO TRAIL By CULLEN BRATTAIN N THAT particular section of the Palouse country the neighborhood was almost all Protestant, the school entirely so, but that did not prevent us from knowing when Corpus Christi Day was at hand...
...But those places were fenced in and off the county road, while the flat was open, offering a camping site for wayfarers...
...I'm not afraid, let's go down to the road...
...This row developed into the Bacon Rebellion, but as it grew the Brents took the Governor's part...
...Desolation has come, too, over the town they built and the harbor for ships from the sea...
...The people who sang were up high in the back of the church...
...Then King James II issued a prodamation authorizing the purchasers and the inhabitants of the land freely to exercise their religion...
...George Brent went to Williamsburg as member of the House of Burgesses in I688...
...In the Catholic Church people did not worship God (her voice dropped to a whisper as she told this) but they knelt down before pictures...
...That they enjoy the full benefit of these our gracious intentions to them...
...The following exact copy was made by Mr...
...Then some boy ventured the opinion that the upper road was out of his way and he intended to go the usual way...
...James Stuart tried hard but could do little for his co-religionists...
...The same writes that even Catholics would be preferable to the red heathen, being Christians...
...No one opposed him, so down the hill we plunged and walked right through the middle of the camp, exchanging greetings with the men, and frightening one or two papooses...
...Later the test act which had been suspended in all Virginia by order of James through Lord Effingham was tendered the Brents...
...In the feud that developed over the Island, the Stuarts' quarrel and religious ditterence, he ran Claiborne out of Maryland and imprisoned Claiborne's friend, the dissenter Ingals, because the latter had publicly said, "Be damned to the King I" When King Charles was in difficulties in England there came a Parliament ship into the Chesapeake called the Reformation...
...Over the fields first plowed by the Catholic pioneers have tramped the armies of two wars, and then followed the desolation of marsh and bramble and honeysuckle...
...She was a masterful woman who never married but who seemed to have managed her own and many other affairs with considerable success and profit...
...Something under three hundred years ago, there moved from the palatinate of Maryland a family of Brents who had been great in that land and courageous in the Faith in the Shakespeare country in England for a hundred years...
...They had come from the reservation to the south and were on their way to the De Smet Mission for the Corpus Christi Day celebration...
...And no one could laugh or whisper, they would be put out if they did...
...Later came John Carroll, with October 2, I929 THE C O M MONWEAL 559 , i i ill i his episcopal consecration, to visit his Brent kindred at Peace, which had been Margaret's plantation...
...One of the big girls said she would just like to see a squaw try to slap her, and another grew bloodthirsty in telling what she would do if one even thought of touching her, and she would laugh as much as she wanted to...
...Indeed, one man who refused to go was shot and scalped by some stragglers...
...He got a priest for that dying worldling his brother, Charles II, and by hereditary succession became the Catholic King of a Protestant natiori...
...There was Giles Brent, Lieutenant Governor of Maryland and commander of its armed forces, a harsh and elegant cavalier who did battle with Claiborne of Virginia for Kent Island in a stirring little private war...
...In x689 James Stuart, for his attempt to extend toleration to the English race in kingdom and provinces, lost his throne to the Dutchman, William of Orange...
...Nicholas I-Iayward with his brother, Richard Foote, Robert Bristow, two merchants of London and factors for the people about Acquia, with Captain George Brent of Woodstock, purchased from Lord Culpeper 3o,ooo acres in Northern Neck between the Rappahannock and the Potomac which they called Brenton, after Captain Brent...
...What happened is not definitely known, but they neither ceased to practise law nor failed to practise their religion...
...The boys said they were cooking dogs for supper, and some of us believed them...
Vol. 10 • October 1929 • No. 22
