Third Church at Kecoughtan
Notable Burials in the Churchyard
You are standing within the foundations of the third church at Kecoughtan (present-day Hampton). The first church (1616–1624) was located 1.5 miles south of here and the second one was constructed across the Hampton River about two miles east. It was abandoned and replaced with this building after the hurricane of 1667. This church measured fifty by twenty-seven feet, was of wood-frame construction, and had glass windows. This site was less subject to storms and floods than the second one and was convenient to the main roads in Elizabeth City County.
By 1691, about eight hundred persons lived in the county. They paid their church tax and the minister’s salary in tobacco, the cash crop and medium of exchange. The county court usually fined those who failed to attend church fifty pounds of tobacco.
Among the eight persons having gravestones here in the churchyard, two were parish ministers: James Wallace and Andrew Thompson. Others include Thomas Curle, a justice on the Elizabeth City County court, Admiral John Neville of the British Navy, who died at sea, and Peter Heyman, who was killed by pirates.
During the sixty years (1667–1727) that the church was located here, Hampton developed as a port notable for shipping and shipbuilding. As the town grew, so did the desire of residents to relocate the church to a more convenient site near Hampton. In 1728, the fourth parish church—St. John’s Episcopal Church—was completed. It stands today a mile east, the earliest surviving building in Hampton, and continues to serve the oldest active Anglican parish in America.
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Epitaph of Peter Heyman
This stone was given by his
Excellency Francis Nicholson
Esq Lieutenant and Governor
Of Virginia; in memory of Peter
Heyman Esq grandson to Sir
Peter Heyman of Sumerfield in
ye County of Kent. He was
Collector of ye Customs in the
Lower District of James River
and went voluntarily aboard
ye king’s shipp Shoreham in
pursuit of a pyrate who greatly
infested this coast after he had
behaved himself seven hours
with undaunted courage was
killed with small shot ye
29th day of April, 1700 in
Ye engagement he stood next ye
Govenour upon the quarter
deck and was here honorably
interred by his order.
Bringing History to Life
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Marker can be reached from the intersection of West Pembroke Avenue and Patterson Avenue.
Courtesy hmdb.org
