"Shiloh Old Site" and "Shiloh New Site" are the leading colored churches, and each of these has been steadily growing for years. _The Church of England_ _First in Virginia, the Church of England Has the Longest History._ It has been said, and by reliable searchers after historical truths, that the first Christian shrine in America was built by Spanish missionaries, and on the site where now stands the City of Fredericksburg. But as no proof has been found, we relinquish this claim, and find our first authentic beginnings of Christianity in an old entry found in the records of Spotsylvania County, 1724: "Information brought by Thomas Chew, Church warden, against John Diggs for absenting himself from the place of divine worship; he is fined ten shillings, or one hundred pounds of tobacco, or must receive corporal punishment in lieu thereof, as the law directs." These were days in the infant colony when religious freedom had no place. Legislation was paramount and, though never since those times has the need of the gospel been so obvious, the people had to accept the Minister that "His Honorable, the Governor," sent them. St. George's parish and the early history of Fredericksburg are inseparably linked. Affairs of Church and affairs of State were embodied in one system. In the main the character and manner of living of the early ministers of the Church of England here were not in accord with the dignity of their mission. Incidents so indicating were not at all unusual: on one occasion a clergyman of gigantic size and strength had a rough and tumble fight with members of his vestry, in which the laymen were knocked out. The burly Englishman took as his text the following Sunday, "And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair." Bishop Meade says, "Surely God must have greatly loved this branch of his Holy Catholic Church, or he would not have borne so long with her unfaithfulness, and so readily forgiven her sins." But happily, all those who in the olden days ministered in the Parish of St. George were not of this type. [Sidenote: _Some of the Early Rectors_]