Fairfax Parish was the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the

Anglican church in colonial Virginia Anglicanism is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Euro ...

with jurisdiction over part of

Fairfax County Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria, Virginia, Alexandria and ...

with its central church located at

The Falls Church The Falls Church is an historic Episcopal church, from which the city of Falls Church, Virginia, near Washington, D. C., takes its name. The parish was established in 1732 and the brick church still in use today dates to 1769. History Coloni ...

. The parish was created in 1764 from

Truro Parish Truro Parish was the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Anglican church in colonial Virginia with jurisdiction originally over all of Fairfax County. The parish had its central church at the Truro Church and the parish was named for the parish in ...

Formation of the parish

The Anglican church was the established religion of the Colony of Virginia from 1619 - 1776.Parish in Colonial Virginia ''Encyclopedia Virginia''. Accessed on July 8, 2012
/ref> Each parish in the colony was ministered to by a single minister and governed by a

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

usually composed of 12 local men of wealth and standing in the community. Parishes were created by acts of the

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 establishe ...

and the upper house of the legislature, the

Governor's Council The governments of the Thirteen Colonies of British America developed in the 17th and 18th centuries under the influence of the British constitution. After the Thirteen Colonies had become the United States, the experience under colonial rule would ...

. Starting in 1761, residents of the northern reaches of Truro Parish petitioned the Assembly to divide the parish. The Assembly acted in 1764 and created the Fairfax Parish in the areas north of a line "by Doeg creek from the mouth thereof to Mr.

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 ...

's mill, and from thence, by a straight line, to the plantation, of John Munroe, and the same course continued to the line that divides the counties of Fairfax and

Loudoun Loudoun ( gd, Lughdan) is a parish in East Ayrshire, Scotland and lies between five and ten miles east of Kilmarnock. The parish roughly encompasses the northern half of the Upper-Irvine Valley and borders Galston Parish (which encompasses the ...

." It appears that the portion of Truro that remained in that parish was disadvantaged and in 1765 the boundaries were redrawn to place Washington's plantation at

Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is an American landmark and former plantation of Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States George Washington and his wife, Martha. The estate is on ...

and nearby farms back into Truro. Drawn over today's civil boundaries, Fairfax Parish would include all of the

City of Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

Arlington County Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county ...

, the City of Falls Church, the City of Fairfax, and the western and northern areas of Fairfax County.

Places of worship

The main church was located near the falls line and was called the Falls Church. Christ Church in Alexandria was also a chapel of the parish. In addition, The Glebe of Fairfax Parish were the lands and house set aside for the maintenance of the parish and a dwelling for the minister. They are located in present-day Arlington County, with the current house dating to 1810, after the disestablishment of the church.

References

{{reflist, 2 Episcopal Church in Virginia Colonial United States (British) Anglicanism Colony of Virginia

Formation of the parish

Places of worship

See also

References