The history of the Episcopal church in Fredericksburg is of peculiar interest to the people of the town because of its antiquity and because of its intimate connection with the history and affairs of the town. In the year 1732, seven years after the town was laid out and named, the first church building was erected in Fredericksburg.[69] It was in St. George's parish, which embraced the whole of Spotsylvania county, which then contained all the territory west, as far as it was or might be settled by the whites. A church building had previously been erected in the county, on the Po river, for the accommodation of the people of the county. This church is said to have been located on the Catharpin road, on the top of the hill west of Mine run, on the south side of the road, where the Yellow church was afterwards built by the Baptists and which was destroyed some years ago. This stream is not the Po, but one of its tributaries and may then have been called the Po. The first pastor the Fredericksburg church had after the completion of its building was Rev. Patrick Henry, uncle of the great orator and statesman of that name. He served the church for two years, and in 1735 was succeeded by Rev. James Marye,[70] of Goochland county, who died as rector of the church in 1769, having served it faithfully for thirty-four years. Rev. James Marye was succeeded in the rectorship by his son, Rev. James Marye, Jr., who was rector for eleven years. From 1780, when the second James Marye closed his labors, to 1813 the church had many rectors, but their stay was of short duration. In the year 1787 the Common Council, through a committee of its members, repaired and enlarged the church building by adding another wing, (one having been previously constructed, mentioned elsewhere,) which made the building a cross in shape. The cost for this work amounted to four hundred and six pounds, a part of which was raised by the committee by an appeal to the private citizens for donations, because of the depleted condition of the city treasury. In the same year the Council prepared and adopted a petition to the Legislature of Virginia, praying for a division of St. George's parish and for vesting "the property of the old church and the new burying ground in Fredericksburg in the corporation of said town."