Page:Annals of Augusta County.djvu/37

 The Rev. John Craig was born in 1709, in County Antrim, Ireland. He was educated at Edinburgh; landed at New Castle upon the Delaware, August 17, 1734; and licensed by the Presbytery to preach in 1737. As stated, he came to Augusta in 1740. "I was sent," he recorded, "to a new settlement in Virginia of our own people, near three hundred miles distant."

At his death, in 1774, Mr. Craig left a manuscript giving some account of himself and the times in which he lived. Referring to his settlement in Augusta, he says: "The place was a new settlement, without a place of worship, or any church order, a wilderness in the proper sense, and a few Christian settlers in it with numbers of the heathens travelling among us, but generally civil, though some persons were murdered by them about that time. They march about in small companies from fifteen to twenty, sometimes more or less. They must be supplied at any house they call at, with victuals, or they become their own stewards and cooks, and spare nothing they choose to eat and drink."

It is interesting to learn how the Dissenters of the Valley managed their congregational affairs; and here is a copy of the obligation subscribed by the people of Tinkling Spring: "Know all men by these presents, yt us, ye undernamed subscribers, do nominate, appoint and constitute our trusty and well-beloved friends, James Patton, John Finley, George Hutchison, John Christian, and Alexander Breckenridge, to manage our public affairs; to choose and purchase a piece of ground arid to build our meeting-house upon it; to collect our minister's salary, and to pay off all charges relating to said affair; to lay off the people in proportion to this end; to place seats in our said meeting-house, which we do hereby promise to reimburse them, they always giving us a month's warning by an advertisement on the meeting-house door, a majority of the above five persons, provided all be apprised of their meeting, their acting shall stand; and these persons above-named shall be accountable to the minister and session twice every year for all their proceeds relating to the whole affair. To which we subscribe our names in the presence of Rev. Mr. John Craig, August 11th, 1741."

One of the subscribers having failed to pay his subscription, or assessment, was sued in the County Court, and the commis-