The Washingtons at Pohick Church

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George Washington, like his father before him, served on the vestry of Truro Parish, which the Virginia General Assembly established in 1732. Colonial vestries managed parish affairs and provided crucial services to the community, including care for widows, orphans, the poor, and the sick. Washington served several terms as church warden and is credited with leading the effort to replace the old Pohick Church, about two miles south, with a new building that opened here in 1774. He donated furnishings to the church and attended services here with his wife, Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, a devout Anglican. Their home, Mount Vernon, is six miles to the east.

Department of Historic Resources, 2018

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia Tom Costa, “George Mason and Pohick Church,” http://gunstonhallblog.blogspot.com Edward L. Bond, “The Parish in Colonial Virginia,” Encyclopedia Virginia http://www.pohick.org/history.html David L. Holmes, The Faiths of the Founding Fathers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006). Mary V. Thompson, “In the Hands of a Good Providence”: Religion in the Life of George Washington (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008). Dell Upton, Holy Things and Profane: Anglican Parish Churches in Colonial Virginia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997). Peter A. Lillback, George Washington’s Sacred Fire (Providence Forum Press, 2006). Founders Online (https://founders.archives.gov)