11500 Merchant’s Hope Road 
Hopewell, Virginia  23860
(804) 458-1356
www.virginia.org/site/description.asp?AttrID=39707&CharID=349178
Tours by appointment.

Prince George is home to the oldest Episcopalian church still standing and still being used as a house of worship in America. Merchants Hope Church was completed in 1657 and was named after the Merchants Hope Plantation which was located west of Martin's Brandon. Even though the church has undergone renovation and restoration, it is virtually the same structure today as it was when it was built 50 years after Jamestown was settled.  Merchant’s Hope Church is a state and national landmark.

Merchants Hope Church
This article was researched and contributed by Col. Robert C. Kennedy and James H. Willcox, Jr.

One of Virginia’s early Anglican churches, Merchant’s Hope Church was established c.1657 and is preparing to celebrate the 350^th anniversary of its founding. The area was originally part of Westover Parish in Charles City County until Jordan’s Parish was created around the time the first church was built. In 1688 the parishioners asked to return to Westover Parish where they remained until Merchant’s Hope Church was incorporated as the Upper Church in Martin’s Brandon Parish. On August 25, 1702, the Virginia Act of Assembly created Prince George County[1], and Merchant’s Hope, has been in this county ever since.

The name of Merchant’s Hope comes from both a 1635 land grant on the James River and a barque (sailing vessel), “The Merchant’s Hope”, both of which were owned by transatlantic merchants in London. One of the merchants was Richard Quiney, brother of the husband of Shakespeare’s daughter, Judith. It is believed that at a later time Quiney actually owned the land[2].

The church building, probably the second one, is a plain, low-Anglican house of worship, sixty feet long and thirty feet wide. Its brickwork is done in Flemish bond. The floor of the church has its original Portland flagstones. A prized possession of the Church is its Bible, a 1639 New Testament joined to a 1640 Old Testament. In 1658, London merchant John Westhorpe gave a “great Bible,” and the Merchant’s Hope Bible is thought to be this gift[3]. This Bible is currently on an international tour with the exhibit Jamestown, Quebec, and Santa Fe: Three North American Beginnings, mounted by the Virginia Historical Society and the Smithsonian.

The church and its environs have been involved in several salient events in Prince George County history. In late July 1862, General Robert E. Lee ordered Major General D.H. Hill to use artillery on the south bank of the James River to bombard Major General George B. McClellan’s fleet during the Peninsula Campaign. On the evening of July 30, Major General Hill met with his two subordinate generals at Merchant’s Hope Church to discuss the pending operation at Coggin’s Point. Two years later between September 14-17, 1864, Major General Wade Hampton’s cavalry raid on the Federal herd of cattle at Coggin’s Point netted just under 3000 head for the Army of Northern Virginia. Known as the Great Beefsteak Raid, elements of the Confederate cavalry passed by the church during this eminently successful operation. Most of the original interior of the Church, however, including the pulpit and chancel furniture, was destroyed during the Spring of 1865 when used as a picket station[4].

Architectural and recent dendrochronological evidence indicate the present Church structure was built during the 2^nd quarter of the 18^th century-not 1657 as often quoted. Merchant’s Hope Church is representative of middle-colonial churches, which typically are built on a rectangular plan with a steep gable roof. The time period for such churches is from 1690-1740. Even though the Church has seen extended periods of inactivity due to both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, Merchant’s Hope Church, is still serving an active Episcopal congregation. .

The church was placed on the National Historic Register on October 8, 1969.[5]