TreeAlive Map your family tree
← All Virginia markers

Church on the Main

Church on the Main is a Virginia historical marker in James City County, dedicated 2004.

James City County · dedicated 2004 · Rte. 614, north of intersection with 4H Club Rd.

Get directions ↗Start a road tripHistorical trails

Less than one mile to the east is the site of the Church on the Main, a brick Anglican church built by the 1750s to serve James City Parish as replacement for the church on Jamestown Island, which had become difficult for communicants to reach. The Rev. James Madison (1749-1812) was its best-known rector, serving the church from about 1777 until it fell into disuse after the American Revolution and the disestablishment of the Anglican Church. Madison became president of the College of William and Mary (1777-1812) and Virginia's first Episcopal Bishop in 1790. By 1857 all aboveground traces of the church were gone.

Maps this old were drawn largely by eye, so places on them can sit miles from where they really are. The pin is ours and marks the marker's location today.

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Example

The Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania stands under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

Upload your family tree and TreeAlive finds the markers near where your own ancestors lived.

See your family's markers

Start with a tree file, a FamilySearch sign in, or a WikiTree ID.

Report a problem with this page

We may pass what you report to the state's marker program. Please don't include personal details.

Marker program managed by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

More markers nearby

Privacy Policy · Accessibility