Cumberland Parish was coextensive with Lunenburg County from its inception in 1745, and Mr. Bell's history of the parish and transcription of its oldest vestry book are of the first importance. The vestry book itself is replete with records of birth, baptism, marriage, and death, as well as an abundance of land transactions. To this, Mr. Bell has added extensive genealogical sketches of families who furnished vestrymen to Cumberland Parish.

In colonial days and until the Statute of Religious Freedom and the "dis-establishment" of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, the Church was not only a religious institution, but it was also in a very real sense a public, official, governmental agency. The whole institution was supported from public revenue. Consequently, and in addition to what we now know as "public records," the only records of births, marriages and death officially kept were parish or church records. Lunenburg County, Virginia, was established on May 1, 1746, from Brunswick County, and shared the same boundaries with Cumberland Parish. The vestry book, which is contained within this work, is replete with records of birth, baptism, marriage, and death, as well as an abundance of land transactions. To this, the author has provided extensive genealogical sketches of many families of Cumberland Parish. Paperback, (1930), Illus, Index, 646 pp.

It is the early fall of 1755 in the backcountry of Virginia. The British army has suffered a stunning defeat at the hands of the French and their Indian allies in the opening battle of the French and Indian War, leaving the frontier in flames and open to attacks from the enemy. William Kay, a young minister well-known to the colonial establishment for his years long stand against a powerful planter and vestryman bent on revenge, is murdered. Three of Kay’s slaves are accused and swiftly condemned to the brutal form of justice reserved for the enslaved, while another man who had threatened Kay’s life disappears from the scene. When the colonial governor and officials aligned with him suppress the news of the unprecedented crime and the court record of the slave trial, the killing of Reverend Kay becomes lost to history––until now.

The Realms of Oblivion explores the complexities involved in reconciling competing versions of history, channeled through Davies Manor, a historic site near Memphis that once centered a wealthy slave-owning family’s sprawling cotton plantation. Interrogating the forces of memorialization that often go unquestioned in the stories we believe about ourselves and our communities, this book simultaneously tells an informative and engrossing bottom-up history—of the Davies family, of the Black families they enslaved and exploited across generations, and of Memphis and Shelby County—while challenging readers to consider just what upholds the survival of that history into the present day. Written in an engaging and critical style, The Realms of Oblivion is grounded in a rich source base, ranging from nineteenth-century legal records to the personal papers of the Davies family to twentieth-century African American oral histories. Author Andrew C. Ross uses these sources to unearth the stark contrast between the version of Davies Manor’s history that was built out of nostalgia, and the version that records have proven to actually be true. As a result, Ross illuminates the ongoing need for a deep and honest reckoning with the history of the South and of the United States, on the part of both individuals and community institutions such as local historic sites and small museums.

The book is a new study that examines the contrasting extension of the Anglican Church to England's first two colonies, Ireland and Virginia in the 17th and 18th centuries. It discusses the national origins and educational experience of the ministers, the financial support of the state, and the experience and consequences of the institutions.

"Holy Things and Profane is a study of architecture -- of the thirty-seven extant colonial Anglican churches of Virginia and of their vanished neighbors whose existence is recorded in contemporary records, particularly the forty-six vestry books and registers that have survived in whole or in part."--Preface.

Ultimately, the book chronicles a dual process of rebirth, as Virginians simultaneously formed a republic and became evangelical Christians.Winner of the Walker Cowen Memorial prize for an outstanding work of scholarship in eighteenth-century studies