Excerpt from Notes Virginia Colonial Clergy The assembly of 1643 provided for the spiritual independence of the parishes outside of James City, by a law, which gave to the vestry of a parish and the county commis sioners the right to elect and make choice of their ministers, which ministers should not be suspended by the Governor, except by complaint made by the vestry, and that final removal from the parish pulpit was to be left to the Legislature. In the summer of 1641 the minister of the large parish of Upper Norfolk, afterward Nansemond county, signified his intention to leave. In May, 1642, a letter was written and signed by Richard Bennett Daniel Gookin, John Hill, and others, to the pastors and elders of Christ Church in New England, which was carried to Boston by Philip Bennett, one of the best men of Vir ginia, and contained a request for three pastors to occupy parishes which had been created by the legislature a few weeks before. The act was in these words: For the better enabling the inhabitants of this colony to the religious worship and service of Almighty God, which is often neglected and slackened by the inconvenient and remote vastness of parishes. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.