income of the school scarce afforded him clothing of the coarsest
kind, but he gained the confidence of his employer, who was an overseer
for a lowland gentleman, so far, that he trusted him with "as much
checks as made him two new shirts." Albemarle was then a frontier
county; there was no minister or public worship within many miles, and
the Sabbath was spent in sports and amusements. Here he met with
Whitefield's Eight Sermons, delivered at Glasgow, the first book of
sermons that he ever saw. Jarratt went next to live with a wealthy
gentleman, whose wife was a pious Presbyterian, spoken of as a New
Light. It was while he was under Presbyterian influences that his
conversion took place. When upwards of twenty-five years old he
commenced the study of Latin under Alexander Martin, sent from Princeton
College, a private tutor in the family of a gentleman in Cumberland.
Martin was afterwards governor of North Carolina. Mr. Jarratt intended
to become a Presbyterian minister, but in 1762 changed his mind, and
began to prepare to take orders in the established church. Upon a
further acquaintance with the subject his prejudices against that church
and its liturgy were removed, and he came to be of opinion that the
Prayer Book contained, at the least, as good a system of doctrine and
public worship as the Presbyterian; the doctrinal articles he considered
the same, in substance, in both churches, and the different modes of
worship he held to be not essential. His mind hung in equilibrium
between the Church of England and the Presbyterian Church as regarded
their theory, and balancing the secular advantages, he decided in favor
of the established church, mainly because "he saw the Presbyterian
ministers dependent on annual subscriptions--a mode of support very
precarious in itself, and which subjects the minister to the caprice of
so many people, and tends to bind his hands and hinder his usefulness."
To this he adds: "The general prejudice of the people at that time
against dissenters and in favor of the church, gave me a full persuasion
that I could do more good in the church than anywhere else." The fact
is, however, that at that time the popular feeling was growing less
friendly to the clergy of the established church and more friendly to
dissenters. Embarking for England, in October, 1762, and being ordained
deacon by the Bishop of London, and priest by the Bishop of Chester, he
preached several times in London, and was "su