Excerpt from The History of St. Luke's Parish and the Beginnings of the Episcopal Church in Rowan County: Address Delivered in St. Luke's Church, Salisbury, N. C., On October 19, 1924, in Commemoration of the Centennial of the Union of St. Luke's Parish With the Diocese of North Carolina

Page Threeboundaries and limits as formerly, and all. Deeds and conveyances of land made during the period of the revocation were declared valid.

It is the year 1755. This town, named after the cathedral town of Salisbury, England, is but just laid out, the court house built, and '7 or 8 houses erected. In the entire county of Rowan, which was bounded to the westward in the charter only by the South Seas, there are only about 1250 taxables. Thirteen years later this number had trebled. At the beginning of 1766 Governor Tryon ventured the opinion that North Carolina was being settled faster than any, other province, and that in the preceding autumn and winter about one thousand wagons with accompanying families had passed through Salisbury. When George Washington passed through Salisbury a quarter of a century later (1791) he recorded in his diary: Salisbury is but a small place altho it is the county town and the district court is held in it; there is about three hundred souls in it and tradesmen of different kinds. Whether the Father of his Country meant to intimate that the tradesmen represented soulless corporations is not clear; but we will charitably give both Washington and the tradesmen the benefit of' the doubt.

The many acts on the statute books of these, early times clearly demonstrate the efforts of the royal government of the province to make the Church of England the established church of North Carolina. We must recall that the freeholders that is menowning fifty acres of land or a lot in some town, were required, under penalty of twenty shillings, to elect twelve vestrymen to serve three years. The vestry men so elected had to subscribe on oath that they would not oppose the doctrine, discipline and liturgy of the Church of England as by law established. If a dissenter was elected and failed to qualify, he was liable to a fine. The vestry was authorized to levy a tax of ten shillings on each taxable in the parish for the erection of churches or chapels, the payment of ministers, purchasing a glebe and erecting a parson age. According to an act of 1765, the minister of a parish was to receive an annual salary of one hundred and thirty-three pounds, six shillings; and eight pence, and a fee of twenty shillings for every mar riage solemnized in the parish, whether he performed the services or not, provided he did not neglect or refuse to do so.

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