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Abingdon Parish is an Episcopal Church that was founded in the 1650s in Gloucester County, Virginia, and is also the name of a new extinct subdivision of Gloucester County, Virginia. It lies in the southeastern part of Gloucester County, on the York River and Mobjack Bay.

The parish register for Abingdon Parish for the years 1677-1780 burned in a fire in 1916. At the time, Judge Fielding Taylor of Rosewell was serving as the registrar of the church and was completing a new copy of the register. Rosewell, the home of Fielding Taylor, caught fire and was gutted on 24 March 1916, taking with it the original register of Abingdon Parish, along with all of the vestry minutes. There are three known handwritten copies of the register, created before 1916. They are:

  • The Tyler/Lee Copy, 1892
  • The Stubbs Copy, 1908
  • The Robins Copy, circa 1907, in possession of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.

There are also (at least) two printed copies of the Register of Abingdon Parish. The one most often recommended is by Robert W. Robins, who consulted all three extent copies in the publication of his book. There is another published copy which seems to be a publication of the Tyler/Lee copy and which did not consult the other two copies.

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A note about the contents of this site

This website contains the best available information from known sources at the time it was written. Unfortunately, many of the early original records of William & Mary were destroyed by fires, military occupation, and the normal effects of time. The information in this website is not complete, and it changes as we continue to research and uncover new sources.