Cameron Parish was the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Anglican church in colonial Virginia with jurisdiction over the western part of

Fairfax County Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. With a population of 1,150,309 as of the 2020 census, it is the most populous county in Virginia, the most populous jurisdiction in the Washington ...

and, once it was created in 1757, over

Loudoun County Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Virginia, Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. The county seat is Leesburg, Virgi ...

. The parish was named for the minor title of Thomas, Lord Fairfax, Baron of Cameron. The parish was created in 1748 from

Truro Parish Truro Parish was the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Anglican church in colonial Virginia with jurisdiction originally over all of Fairfax County. The parish had its central church at the Truro Church and the parish was named for the parish in ...

. It was divided in 1770 and Shelburne Parish was formed from the western half of Loudoun County. After 1770, Cameron Parish covered eastern Loudoun County until disestablishment ended the parish system by 1786.

The parish in colonial Virginia

The

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church was the established religion of the

Colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia was a British Empire, British colonial settlement in North America from 1606 to 1776. The first effort to create an English settlement in the area was chartered in 1584 and established in 1585; the resulting Roanoke Colo ...

from 1619 - 1776.Parish in Colonial Virginia ''Encyclopedia Virginia''. Accessed on July 8, 2012
/ref> Each parish in the colony was ministered to by a single minister and governed by a

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

usually composed of 12 local men of wealth and standing in the community. Parishes were created by acts of the

House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses () was the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly from 1619 to 1776. It existed during the colonial history of the United States in the Colony of Virginia in what was then British America. From 1642 to 1776, the Hou ...

and the upper house of the legislature, the

Governor's Council The governments of the Thirteen Colonies of British America developed in the 17th and 18th centuries under the influence of the British constitution. The British monarch issued colonial charters that established either royal colonies, propriet ...

Formation of the parish

Cameron Parish was created by the General Assembly of Virginia in 1748 when Truro Parish was divided along

Difficult Run Difficult Run is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed August 15, 2011 tributary stream of the Potomac River in Northern Virginia in the United States. The stream is part ...

. It included what is, at present, Loudoun County and the western part of Fairfax County. The parish was named for Thomas, Lord Fairfax, who was also 6th Baron Cameron. He was the lord proprietor of much of Northern Virginia during the colonial period, which he inherited through his mother's line, the Culpepers. In 1763, the parish boundaries were adjusted to include all of Loudoun County, as it was then configured. In 1770, Shelburne Parish was created out of the western part of Cameron Parish. Thus, Cameron Parish's boundaries included the

Potomac River The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography D ...

on the north, Bull Run on the south, Goose Creek to the west, and the Fairfax County line in the east.

Places of worship

The oldest chapel built in what would become Cameron Parish was originally a "Chapel of Ease for the comfort of the people above the Goose Creek," built in 1733 by the vestry of Truro Parish. It was a log structure near the Big Spring about two miles north of present-day Leesburg. Other churches built were all also wooden structures and included Rocky Run Chapel, Broad Run Church, and Mountain Chapel. In 1773, the Sugarland Run Church, a brick structure, was built on a site in present-day

Sterling Sterling may refer to: Currency * The English penny, historically known as the ''sterling'' * Pound sterling, the currency of the United Kingdom * Sterling silver, a grade of silver Places United Kingdom * Stirling, a Scottish city whose al ...

Clergy

* Rev. John Andrews (1758–67) * Rev. Archibald Avens (1767–71) * Rev. Spence Monroe Grayson (1773–76)

References

{{Reflist, 2 Episcopal Church in Virginia Colonial United States (British) Anglican organizations established in the 18th century Colony of Virginia

The parish in colonial Virginia

Formation of the parish

Places of worship

Clergy

See also

References