Chapter IX: Appendix: A

The following extracts from the Journal of the Life of Thomas Story, during his visit to Virginia in 1698 are indicative of the attitude of the people of Virginia toward religious toleration:

8th Day of the 12th Month, we landed in Mockjack Bay----

Next Fourth Day being the 1st day of the 1st month (i.e.
January, 1698/99) we went again by water to a monthly meeting
at Chuckatuck, where came our friend Elizabeth Webb from
Gloucestershire in England, who had been through all the
English colonies on the Continent of America and was now
about to depart for England. The meeting was large and the
Sheriff of the County, a Colonel, and some of others of note
in that county were there, and very sober and attentive.

On the 22nd we had a pretty large meeting at Southern Branch,
at the house of Robert Burgess. He was not a Friend by
profession, but a Justice of the Peace, and of good account
in these parts. There had never been a meeting there before;
yet the people were generally solid and several of them
tendered; and after the meeting the Justice and his wife were
very respectful, and treated us to beer and wine, and would
gladly have had us to have eaten with them and lodged in
their house that night, but being otherwise engaged in the
course of the service.

The next day [several days later] we had a meeting at
Romancock, which was large and open. Many persons of note
from those parts were there, as Major Palmer, Captain
Clayborn, Doctor Walker, and others, all very attentive.