rish to question every newcomer as to his
religious beliefs, but there is no record of any Protestant dissenter
or any Calvinist having been presented for trial before an
ecclesiastical court. It is of course known as an historical fact that
Sir Edwin Sandys labored long to secure from the King and the
Archbishop permission to bring the Pilgrim Fathers from Holland, under
the British flag again and establish them as a "hundred" in Virginia.
It is of record also that such permission was obtained and that the
Pilgrim Fathers set forth for the Chesapeake Bay but were diverted from
their course by storms that carried them to a place which they named
Plymouth. It is of record furthermore that the Reverend Henry Jacob,
who founded the first Independent or Baptist congregation in London,
was later forced out and came to Virginia where he found a home and
peace until his death.

Reverend Alexander Whitaker, rector of the two adjoining parishes of
Henrico and Charles City from 1611 until 1617, was the son of a famous
Puritan divine. In a letter discussing conditions in Virginia he said:
"I marvaile much--that so few of our English ministers that were so
hot against the surplis and subscription come hither where neither are
spoken of." Whitaker was rector of two parishes because William
Wickham, the minister of one parish, was not of Anglican ordination and
could not lawfully celebrate the Holy Communion. After the death of
Whitaker the Governor of Virginia requested the London Company to ask
the Archbishop of Canterbury to authorize Mr. Wickham to celebrate the
Sacrament, "there being no one else." Such authorization to a clergyman
of Presbyterian ordination could have been given by the Archbishop at
that time as it was permitted then by law. Wickham was not the only
minister of Presbyterian ordination who served as incumbent of a parish
of the Established Church in Virginia. In a report made to London in
1623 it was stated that in Virginia in 1619 "There were three ministers
with orders and two without." The "two without" were unquestionably of
Presbyterian ordination.

Among the first laws enacted in Virginia was one requiring every
minister who came into the colony to take the oath of "conformity" to
the Church of England. The law did not include laymen; it was the
minister only who was required to take the oath. Later, the laws
enacted by the General Assembly required every clergyman coming into
the colony to subscribe to