ttled at Manakintown, on the south bank of the James
River, about twenty miles above the falls, on rich lands formerly
occupied by the Monacan Indians. The rest dispersed themselves over the
country, some on the James, some on the Rappahannock. The settlement at
Manakintown was erected into the parish of King William, in the County
of Henrico, and exempted from taxation for many years. The refugees
received from the king and the assembly large donations of money and
provisions; and they found in Colonel William Byrd, of Westover, a
generous benefactor. Each settler was allowed a strip of land running
back from the river to the foot of the hill. Here they raised cattle,
undertook to domesticate the buffalo, manufactured cloth, and made
claret wine from wild grapes. Their settlement extended about four miles
along the river. In the centre they built a church; they conducted their
public worship after the German manner, and repeated family worship
three times a day. Manakintown was then on the frontier of Virginia, and
there was no other settlement nearer than the falls of the James River,
yet the Indians do not appear to have ever molested these pious
refugees. There was no mill nearer than the mouth of Falling Creek,
twenty miles distant, and the Huguenots, having no horses, were obliged
to carry their corn on their backs to the mill.

Many worthy families of Virginia are descended from the Huguenots, among
them the Maurys, Fontaines, Lacys, Munfords, Flournoys, Dupuys, Duvalls,
Bondurants, Trents, Moncures, Ligons, and Le Grands. In the year 1714
the aggregate population of the Manakintown settlement was three
hundred. The parish register of a subsequent date, in French, is
preserved.

FOOTNOTES:

[368:A] Memoirs of Dr. Chalmers, iv. 287, 316.

[368:B] Mrs. Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte.

[369:A] Old Churches, etc., i. 158; ii. 291.

[369:B] Bancroft, ii. 82.

CHAPTER XLVII.

1702-1708.

Parishes--The Rev. Francis Makemie--Dissenters--Toleration
Act--Ministers--Commissary.

IN the year 1702 there were twenty-nine counties in Virginia, and
forty-nine parishes, of which thirty-four were supplied with ministers,
fifteen vacant. In each parish there was a church, of timber, brick, or
stone; in the larger parishes, one or two Chapels of Ease; so that the
whole number of places of worship, for a population of sixty thousand,
was about seventy. In every parish a dwelling-house was provided