About this time the church at Pembroke Farm had become ruinous, and, on June 17, 1727, Mr. Jacob Walker and Mr. John Lowry were appointed by the court of Elizabeth City to lay off and value an acre and a half of ground on Queen's Street, joining upon Mr. Boswell's lots, for building the church thereon. The same day, Mr. Henry Cary, by order of the minister, church wardens and the court, was permitted to take wood, "at the rate of six pence per load to burn bricks for the church, from the School land. " But it seems that a portion of the people of the parish did not desire to remove from the old quarters, and they appealed the matter to the governor and council. They heard the complaint and decided, October 27, 1727, that "the new church should be built in Hampton Town as the most convenient place in the said parish."
In 1728, Samuel Bownas, a Quaker preacher, told of a visit to Hampton in the following language: "George Walker was very kind, invited us to stay at his house which we did four nights, and had a meeting or two in his house,
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his wife being more loving than I expected. She was George Keith's daughter, and in her younger days showed great dissatisfaction with Friends, but after her father's death the edge of that bitterness abated, and her husband was very loving and hearty to Friends, frequently having meetings at his house." Bownas stayed at Hampton eleven day, and left there May 29, 1728.
In 1727, Mr. William Hopkins was deputy attorney for the King. In 1728, Mr. John Markland was recommended to be the King's deputy attorney. The same year Alexander McKenzie was commissioned to be lieutenant colonel of the militia, and Wilson Gary, major.
