spected of being a
Methodist." While in that city he heard Whitefield and Wesley. He
returned to Virginia in July. Shortly afterwards he was received as
minister of Bath Parish, in Dinwiddie, he being then in his thirty-first
year. He found his people as ignorant of true religion as if they had
never frequented a church or heard a sermon. As regarded other Episcopal
clergymen, he did not know of one in Virginia like-minded with himself.
He was indeed opposed and reproached by them as a fanatic, a dissenter,
a Presbyterian. His preaching, although at first unacceptable, proved,
ere long, effective, and crowded congregations attended his
ministrations. The interest extending widely beyond his parish, he spent
part of his time in itinerant preaching, going several hundred miles and
in every direction. The clergy in general being unwilling to open their
churches for him, and they being not large enough to contain the crowds
which he attracted, he was in the habit of preaching in the open air,
under trees, arbors, or booths, and he had the advantage of a voice
which was audible to his large congregations. The clergy frequently
threatened him with writs and prosecutions for the violation of
canonical order, but he retorted upon them successfully, and maintained
his ground. At length he met with sympathy and co-operation from the
Rev. Mr. McRoberts, and an intimacy continued between them for many
years. But as Mr. Jarratt, who was at first in effect a Presbyterian,
became a minister of the established church, so eventually, many years
afterwards, during the revolutionary war, his friend and coadjutor, Mr.
McRoberts, became a Presbyterian minister. Their friendship remained
uninterrupted.

About the year 1769 the increase of the number of Baptists produced
some divisions among Mr. Jarratt's people. The Methodists appearing in
Virginia about the same time, and professing to be virtually members of
the Church of England, Mr. Jarratt (in order to resist the encroachments
of the Baptists) co-operated with them in building up their societies;
but he found reason subsequently to repent of this step, and although
often styled a Methodist himself, yet he finally broke off entirely from
that denomination.[567:A]

FOOTNOTES:

[567:A] Life of Rev. Devereux Jarratt, 5, 107. His sermons were
published in several volumes.

CHAPTER LXXIII.

1773-1774.

Duty on Tea--Dunmore, Governor--Proceedings of Assembly--
Privat