Tea... with the President of the United States

Here's a photograph of The Old Vicarage in Church Road Northop...  well one of the three old vicarages in Northop.

Whilst researching history about the place I came across a letter written from Virginia (USA) in 1763.  The letter was from a former vicar of Northop, one Price Davies to the Reverend Conway of Soughton Hall - then the Vicar of Northop and Liverpool too.

It is fascinating that a vicar from Northop (he  also officiated at Mold and Cilcain) took up a Parish in Virginia in the mid-1700's and made a success of it by all accounts. Sounds too, from the letter, that Virginia was the place to be, although Rev'd Price Davies, as you will read, was still worried about a debt he had left back home! Was it debt that made him make the journey to Virginia? ... we will never know. What we do know from papers is that Price Davies was also the headteacher at Northop Grammar School prior to leaving for the American Colonies.

The Rev Price Davies made it big in the colonies too. He became comfortably settled in his new country and married. He was well housed in a modern rectory and was given a salary of sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco - the normal stipend for a man of such standing in the colonies. His salary at Northop was £22 per annum.

No wonder he went to America and never looked back!

“York River, Virginia, June 3Oth, 1763

Dear Sir,

I arrived here on the 4th day of May last, having had a moderate and safe passage. When I came here several parishes were vacant. I offered myself for one of them, & was unanimously received. After I had given the people (as it is always required here) a specimen of my performance in the ministerial office. The parish is called Blisland, pleasantly situated near the seat of government with a good house, a large garden, with every other convenience, and about 200 acres of land belonging to it as a glebe.

The country is woody, or to speak in a more poetical manner, covered with sylvan shades, the plains are fruitful and pleasant, & well watered, the rivers are large and well teemed with fish of various sorts, corn and fruit in great abundance. Fowls both wild and tame in great plenty, and fine deer which the sportsmen hunt in the season the people are kind and hospitable; the ladies are neat in their dress, fair, genteel, and comely in their persons.

The people in general live in luxury. Their equipages here are many and grand, commonly drawn by six fine horses. The country Parsons roll either in chariots, or chairs. I am not so ambitious yet, but am contented to bestride a beast of a mean shape upon the back of which I can, with as much ease, draw up a hole in my breeches. I was obliged to contract a small debt, perhaps of ten or 12 pounds, this shall be discharged honestly very soon, whatever may be the opinion of some the other side of the water about it. I should be glad to know if Miss Parry has been paid her demand, and if the few things I left at Northop for that purpose have been sold.

To all friends please to give my compliment and please to accept of the same yourself. I have wrote to Davies my successor at Northop.

I am, with the greatest respect, Revd & dear Sir,

Your most obliged, a very humble servant

Price Davies”

As an interesting aside the Rev Price-Davies met George Washington too... George Washington's Diary entry of May 18th 1771 reads:

" Ride to Brickhouse after which went to Rev Mr Davies' house and drank tea."

So a famous boy of Northop had a cuppa with the First President of the USA.

After Rev Price Davies left Northop the new Vicar refused to live in the house describing it as "a wretched hovel of mud and sticks, not fit for human habitation" He decamped and lived in Hawarden prompting the church authorities eventually to build a new vicarage on the other side of the road (now called Lislea House). The village tanner bought 'the Hovel,' rebuilt the dwelling and established workshops in the surrounding grounds - I believe the row of attached cottages now called "Caernarvon Terrace" were once tannery workshops/living quarters for the workers.

The Old Vicarage in Northop as it stands now has been much altered over the ensuing years making it a very intriguing place to live !!

Price Davies was Rector of Blisland from 1763 – 1792 – more here on Blisland.

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