From the preface to the Parish Register opened in 1895 yet recording parochial events as far back as 1844.
Up to the year 1894 the Records of St. John’s Church had been kept in a fragmentary way in the Register of St. Paul’s Church, Suffolk, the Church being served by the minister at that point. In January 1894 when Rev. F. G. Scott, the Rector of Christ Church, Smithfield, took charge of St. John’s, steps were taken to procure a Register. Such items as could be gotten from the Register of St. Paul’s Suffolk, and from private memoranda kept by Rev. H. L. Derby, the immediate predecessor of Rev Mr Scott at St. John’s – were entered in the new Register. While the Records are necessarily very incomplete, since the Church has now a Register of its own, it is hoped that they will be more complete from this time on. As is well known the Church dates back to the Colonial Period but what has become of the Registers – if there were any – of all those early years this writer, after diligent enquiry made, has been unable to ascertain. Pity tis, tis so.
Jno Hallowell Dickinson took charge of St. Jno’s Chuckatuck, Va. July 15, 1897 & left Dec. 1st, 1898.
The Parish Register records Baptisms, Confirmations, names of Communicants, Marriages, and Burials for the Parish. For the period from 1844 – 1895 the records are piecemeal because:
For many years prior to 1889 the Rector of the Upper Parish of Nansemond (who lived in Suffolk) also had charge of Saint John’s Church, Chuckatuck in Lower (Suffolk) Parish.
These several Clergymen recorded their official Acts in the Register of Saint Paul’s Church Suffolk.
The following entries of Baptisms (and later Burials) have been copied from this Register in Suffolk which begins in about 1840.
Older Parish Registers have been lost or destroyed.
Yet the partial records from the register reflects the state of the Parish for over one century.
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