Artist/Maker

Eastburn, James Wallis

Place Made

Date Made

1819

Medium

watercolor and ink on paper

Dimensions

HOA: 5 1/4″; WOA: 7 3/8″

Accession Number

4396

Description

SUBJECT: This small watercolor depicts St. George Parish Church at Pungoteague, Accomack County, Virginia. A church was established on or near the site in the 1670s. The church depicted was probably constructed about 1738. The church was cruciform in plan with a semi-circular apse and a hipped gambrel roof. The church was badly damaged during the Civil War. In the 1880s the church was renovated. At that time the transept wings were demolished and a simple gable roof was put on leaving only the original nave. The church still stands.

It was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1936:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/va0033/

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970: https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Accomack/001-0040_Saint_George%27s_Episcopal_Church_1970_Final_Nomination.pdf

ARTIST: James Wallis Eastburn (1797-1819) was the rector of St. George Parish in Accomack County, Virginia. He was born in London, but emigrated to New York with his family as a young child. Educated at Columbia College (later Columbia University) in New York, he took holy orders in 1818. He is best known as a poet and composer of hymns. This watercolor was used as the frontis for a volume of Eastburn’s poems.

REFERENCES: Ralph T. Whitelaw, “Virginia’s Eastern Shore: A History of Northampton and Accomack Counties” (Richmond, Virginia: Virginia Historical Society, 1951) 705-706.

DESCRIPTION:A watercolor and ink sketch on paper depicting a brick church in the form of a Latin cross with a hipped gambrel roof. On the left is a large tree and in the background is a landscape with trees and a fence.

Artist Biography

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY: James Wallis Eastburn is described as having been “a young rector of St. George’s Parish” in 1819. (George Carrington Mason in Whitelaw, p. 705)

Credit Line

Given by Charles G. Dorman in Honor of Frank Horton