Abingdon Church is a historic Episcopal

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

located near White Marsh,

Gloucester County, Virginia Gloucester County () is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 38,711. Its county seat is Gloucester Courthouse. The county was founded in 1651 in the Virginia Colony and is named for Henry Stuart, ...

. It and its glebe house are among the oldest buildings in Virginia and were added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1970. The parish was established shortly after the founding of Gloucester County in 1651, to serve the county's southern portion along the York River, and a church was built near the current site on land donated by Col.

Augustine Warner Jr. Colonel Augustine Warner Jr. (1642 – June 19, 1681) was a Virginia politician, planter, and landowner. He served in the House of Burgesses 1666–77 and was its Speaker in two separate sessions in 1676 and 1677, before and after Bacon's Rebelli ...

, who twice served as speaker of Virginia's

House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been established ...

. His daughter Mildred would marry Laurence Washington of Westmoreland County to the north, and her grandson would become

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

. The glebe (land to support the parish priest) is about four miles from the church, just inside the boundaries of neighboring Ware Parish, as rector Thomas Hughes noted in a letter to the Bishop of London in 1724. The rector of Abingdon parish taught at the Peasley School, administered by both parishes. Thus, the glebe house, built around 1700, is older than the current parish church and is one of the earliest examples of a hipped roof in the state, as well as being one of the most well-preserved after restoration circa 1954. Though many Gloucester County records burned in either 1820 or 1865, a contract to expand the Abingdon church was discussed in 1751, and the current one-story brick church was probably finished in 1754 or 1755. The church has a Latin cross plan with gable roof, pedimented gable ends and modillioned cornice. Col. Lewis Burwell donated a communion set made in London in 1702 to the parish, which remains in use today. The church interior features an elaborate reredos. Following the disestablishment of the Episcopal Church in Virginia in 1802, the building fell into disrepair, although Methodists worshipped at Abingdon Church 1818–1822, and an Episcopal congregation was re-formed in 1826 and repaired the church in 1841. Federal troops occupied the church and caused damage, so it was also repaired in 1868, 1897 and 1950. an
photo''
/ref>

References

External links

Official websiteAbingdon Church, U.S. Route 17, White Marsh, Gloucester County, VA
10 photos, 4 measured drawings, and 3 data pages at

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

Historic American Buildings Survey in Virginia Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Episcopal churches in Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Gloucester County, Virginia Colonial architecture in Virginia Churches completed in 1754 18th-century Episcopal church buildings 1754 establishments in Virginia {{Virginia-church-stub