Westover Parish, Virginia

United States   Virginia    Westover Parish

History
Westover Parish has served Charles City and Prince George counties. Since 1724, it has been "coterminous with Charles City County."

Merchant's Hope Church belonged to Westover Parish from the late 1600s through 1720.

Founded

 * by 1625

Boundary
Two acts, culled from Colonial Office at the National Archives in London, provide information about Westover Parish:


 * 1) "An Act for enlarging Charles City County; and for consolidating those parts of the Parishes of Westover and Weynoake, on the North side James River; and that part of Wallingford Parish, on the West side Chicohominy River" (1720)
 * 2) "An Act to divide those parts of the Parishes of Westover and Weynoake, which lie on the South side James River, from those parts of the said Parishes which lie on the North side the said River; and for uniting Westover and Weynoake Parishes; on the South side James River, to Martin Brandon Parish, in the County of Prince George; and for erecting a Chapel in Bristol Parish, in the said County" (1720)

Published in:


 * Chamberlayne, Churchill G. "Seven Parish Acts Heretofore Unpublished," The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Jan. 1938):106-118. ; digital version at JSTOR ($).

Cemetery
More than 250 graves from this parish church's cemetery are described at Find A Grave.

A professional reading of some prominent Westover Parish graves was published back in 1896:


 * Tyler, Lyon G. "Old Tombstones in Charles City County," The William and Mary Quarterly, 1st Ser., Vol. 4, No. 2 (Oct. 1985):122-125; Vol. 4, No. 3 (Jan. 1896):143-150. Digital versions at JSTOR ($); USGenWeb Archives (partial). Also republished in Virginia Vital Records (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1984). Digital version at Ancestry ($).

Parish History
Mary Morris Tyler's history of Westover Parish (1907) has been digitized by Google Books. Tyler transcribed epitaphs of some prominent parishioners, such as the Byrds.

Saunders published another history of the parish in 1937:


 * Saunders, Kirkland Ruffin. Westover Church and Its Environs. Richmond, Va.: W.M. Brown &amp; Sons, 1937..


 * Robbins, Gus. Merchants Hope Church: Erected in 1657, Oldest Protestant Church Still Standing in America and Used As a House of Worship: Prince George County, Virginia. 1970s..

Parish Records
Colonial parish registers do not survive. Saunders published abstracts of baptisms, marriages, and burials from the 1830s through the 1930s, see Parish History.

Websites

 * Westover Episcopal Church (official website)
 * Westover Church, The Historical Marker Database
 * Herring Creek &amp; Kimages, The Historical Marker Database