Notes for Gabriel Penn: Re:Gabriel Penn, Gabriel Penn Married Sarah and his daughter Sophia Penn married Wm. Sidney Crawford born Jan. 6 1760 d. Feb. 19, 1815. Their daughter Julia Ann Crawford, b.1794, married Ralph Watson in 1839. Gabriel Penn was Abram, and Williams brother. He was John Penn's Nephew or cousin
Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia. Article XI.
In the history of the vestries we may fairly trace the origin, not only of that religious liberty which afterward developed itself in Virginia, but also of the early and determined stand taken by the Episcopalians of Virginia in behalf of civil liberty. The vestries, who were the intelligence and moral strength of the land, had been trained up in the defence of their rights against Governors and Bishops, Kings, Queens, and Cabinets. They had been slowly fighting the battles of the Revolution for a hundred and fifty years. Taxation and representation were only other words for support and election of ministers. The prineiple was the same. It is not wonderful, therefore, that we find the same men who took the lead in the councils and armies of the Revolution most active in the recorded proceedings of the vestries. Examine the vestrybooks, and you will find prominent there the names of Washington, Peyton Randolph, Edmund Pendleton, General Nelson, Governor Page, Colonel Bland, Richard Henry Lee, General Wood, Colonel Harrison, George Mason, and hundreds of others who might be named as patriots of the Revolution. The principle for which vestries contended was correct,--viz.: the choice of their ministers. I do not say that it must necessarily be by annual election; but there must be a power of changing ministers, for sufficient reasons. The Governors and the clergy, who came from England, did not understand how this could be, so used had they been to a method widely different. It was reserved for the Church in America to show its practicability, and also to establish something yet more important, and what is by most Englishmen still thought a doubtful problem,--the voluntary principle, by which congregations not only choose their ministers but support them without taxation by law. It may be wise to provide some check to the sudden removal of ministers by the caprice of vestries and congregations, as is the case in the Presbyterian and Episcopal Churches, where some leave of separation is required from Presbyteries and Bishops; but neither of them are ever so unwise as to interpose a veto where it is evident that there is sufficient reason for separation, whether from dissatisfaction on either side, or from both, or any strong consideration. The people have it in their power, either by withholding support or attendance, and in other ways, to secure their removal, and the ministers cannot be forced to preach. Either party have an inalienable right to separate, unless there be some specific bargain to the contrary. In one denomination in our land, it is true that ministers are appointed to their stations and congregations are supplied by its chief officers; but it must be remembered that this is only a temporary appointment,--for a year or two at most. Let it ever be attempted to make it an appointment for life, or even a long term of years, and the dissolution of that Society would soon take place. In the first organization of our general Church in this country, after the separation from our mother-country, an office of induction was adopted, with the view of rendering the situation of the clergy more permanent; but such was the opposition to it from Virginia and some other States, that it was determined it should only be obligatory on those States which chose to make it so. Very few instances of its use have ever occurred in the Diocese of Virginia. In proof of what is said as to vestrymen, we publish the following list of the Convention of 1776. From our examination of the old vestry-books, we are confident that there are not three on this list who were not vestrymen of the Episcopal Church. A list of the members of the Convention of Virginia which began its sessions in the City of Williamsburg on Monday the sixth of May, 1776, as copied from the Journal:-- Accomac--Southey Simpson and Isaac Smith, Esquires; Albemarle--Charles Lewis, Esquire, and George Gilmer for Thomas Jefferson, Esquire; Amelia--John Tabb and John Winn, Esquires; Augusta--Thomas Lewis and Samuel McDowell, Esquires; West Augusta--John Harvie and Charles Simms, Esquires; ______Amherst--William Cabell and Gabriel Penn______, Esquires; Bedford--John Talbot and Charles Lynch,
Old Churches Ministers, and Families of Virginia. Article LII.
Richard Ballenger, Hugh Rose, Ambrose Rucker, Joseph Goodwin, Josiah Ellis, Richard Shelton, Richard Ogilsby, Benjamin Rucker, Wm. Ware, Henry Christian, John Christian, Charles Taliafero, Thomas Moore, Jos. Burras, W. S. Crawford, Nelson Crawford, Richard Powell, James Ware, James Franklin, Reuben Norvel, Thomas Crews, Richard Ellis, Thomas N. Eubank, William Shelton, John Coleman,___ Gabriel Penn___, David Woodroof, James Dillard, Daniel Gaines, Samuel Higginbotham, Robert Christian, Roderick McCulloch, Samuel Meredith, John Wyatt, David Crawford,___ George Penn___, Edward Carter, James Calloway, James Higginbotham, David Tinsley, Robert Walker, Henry Turner, John Eubank, James Ware, John McDaniel, Edward Winston, John Ellis, Arthur B. Davies, Cornelius Powell, ___Edmund Penn___, David S. Garland, Dr. Paul Cabell, William H. McCulloch, Samuel M. Garland, Ralph C. Shelton, Zachariah D. Tinsley, Dr. H. L. Davies, James Thornton, William I. Cabell, William H. Johnson, John I. Ambler, Jr., Henry Loring, Valerius McGinnis, Whiting Davies, William R. Roane, Thomas Strange, James S. Pendleton, Captain J. Davies, Edward A. Cabell, Prosser Powell, William Waller, Wilkins Watson, A. B. Davies, Jr., B. B. Taliafero, Robert Warwick, Marshall Harris, D. H. Tapscott, George W. Christian, William Knight, Dr. William S. Claiborne, Lucas P. Thompson, Martin Tinsley, James Davies, William Shelton, James Rose, William Tucker, Edwin Shelton.
Gabriel Penn (b. July 14, 1741, d. July 1798)
Notes for Gabriel Penn: