Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/353

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

1853-56. He was on waiting orders in 1857, and served at the Washington navy yard, 1857-60. He died in Baltimore, Maryland, March 4. 1861.

Thornton, Scth Barton, born near Fred- ericksburg. Virginia, in 1814 ; was educated in the common schools. After a narrow escape from death by shipwreck he was ap- pointed second lieutenant in the Second United States Dragoons, in June. 1836, and served in Florida against the Seminoles : he was promoted to first lieutenant in 1837, and to captain in 1841. In command of his S(uadron. he exchanged the first shots with the enemy in the Mexican war at Le Rosia, April 25. 1846. was severely wounded, and captured, with the greater part of his force, after a gallant fight by forty dragoons against five hundred lancers. At the close of the campaign, while at the head of his st|uadron in advance of Worth's division at St'U Augustine, near the city of Mexico, Thornton was struck in the breast by a round shot and instantly killed. June 18, 1847-

Morris, Samuel, born in Hanover county, Virginia, about 1700, came to be known as the **Father of Presbyterianism in Virginia." Between 1740 and 1743 a few families who had withdrawn from the services of the Established Church met from time to time at his house for worship. Morris, as de- scribed in Campbell's ''Virginia," was "an obscure man, a bricklayer, of singular sim- plicity of character, sincere, devout and earnest." He read to his neighbors from his favorite religious works, among them Lu- ther's **On the Galatians," and 'Table Talk." He also obtained a volume of Whitefield's sermons, delivered in Glasgow, and read

these to his friends on Sundays and at other times, with such effect some "cried out. and wept bitterly." Morris* house became in- sufficient for the increasing number of wor- shippers, and with their aid he built what come to be called "Morris' Reading Room." Their exercises were reading only, none daring to attempt extemporaneous prayer ^lorris was invited to read sermons in other communities, r.nd thus other reading houses were established. The authorities imposed fines upon those, Morris among them, who absented themselves from the Established Church. When required by the court to de- clare to what denomination they belonged, they, in their ignorance of such distinctions, not knowing what else to call themselves, gave the name of Lutherans; they were un- aware that this name had been taken by a distinct sect, and they afterwards aban- doned it. At length Morris and his asso- ciates were summoned to appear before the governor and council in Williamsburg. One of them, on his way to obey the summons, stopped at a house where he saw a Scotch "Confession of Faith," in which he recog- nized doctrines to which he could readily subscribe. The book was given to him. he and his friends agreed to adopt it, and when they appeared before the governor and council, they exhibited the book as setting forth their creed, and the governor (Gooch), v^ho had been reared a Presbyterian, said, 'These men are Presbyterians," and recog- nized their right to the privileges of the toleration act. The proceedings were inter- rupted by a thunder storm of unusual sever- ity ; the council was softened ; and this was one of a chain of incidents which Morris and his friends regarded as providentially instrumental in bringing about the favor-

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