actress Katherine Hepburn.
THE CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR by Augusta Adams 2001
“The earliest written records concerning the parish (Church of Our Saviour, Oatlands)
date from the early 1870’s, when the Rev’d Sewall S. Hepburn received a call to assist
the Rev’d Richard Terrell Davis, D.D., Rector of St. James Church, Leesburg.
Mr. Hepburn, who from 1871 to 1875 rode circuit to various missions around Leesburg,
giving the following account:
""Mrs. (Kate Powell) Carter was a near relative of Mrs. Hepburn and a woman of rare character.
Through her zeal and wise planning, an abandoned blacksmith’s shop, just out of the lawn
and near the overseer’s house, had been fitted up for a chapel, and here I was to have service
once a month. It was the only organized
religious gathering for the immediate community at that time, which was ‘the day of small things.’
It has since grown into a church located on the pike.
So, although it remains unlikely that the original provenances and location of the present
“restored” cabin can be established with certainty, a log building had been converted into
a chapel under the kind auspices of Kate Powell Carter, mistress of Oatlands Plantation,
probably in the late 1860’s or early 1870’s. It is reasonable to assume that Mrs. Carter’s
daily routine at Oatlands House would have included a regular time for prayers, to be attended
by her family, visiting relatives and friends, and her household staff. It is also reasonable to
assume that these home observances, in the strong Virginia tradition, would have been based
upon the BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. In providing a chapel for the community,
Mrs. Carter was both following strong precedents and fulfilling what she regarded as a religious obligation.
The Rev’d Mr. Hepborn…..arrived in Leesburg on the Saturday preceding the first Sunday
in January 1871. He describes his duties:
My work lay around Leesburg, from the Potomac across the Short Hill range to the foothills
of the Cotoctin and down to Goose Creek, bordering on Aldie. It coverered an area of about
15 by 24 miles. In this I had three places to look after; Christ Church at Goresville (now Lucketts),
Cotactin Union Church, near Hamilton, and Oatlands on the Pike to Aldie, near Goose Creek Mill.
I was to keep each place open twice monthly, take a night service twice montly in Leesburg,
while the rector went on a mission - All those preaching points were missions that had been
established by rectors of Shelbourn Parish, from the mother church in Leesburg. I was the
first rector in charge of them as an independent work.
Oatlands is on the pike from Leesburg to Aldie, and borders Goose Creek. It is one of the most
valuable and attractive plantations of the many in Loudoun. It embraces twelve to fifteen hundred
acres of unusually fine land. The family dwelling is one to please the most fastidious taste.
The walk-in, terraced garden is . . . a charm. In the lawn, a grove of forest trees adds greatly
to the attractiveness of the place.
Oatlands had not suffered materially the the war. it was still in good physical condition.
The great retinue of servants had been depleted; still, there were enough to meet the demands
of the place. The owner, Mr. George Carter, had inherited it from his father, who, with the
display of good taste and the outlay of large sums of money had made it the place it is now.
My work here was most pleasant, made so, by the family owning the place. Oatlands became
my headquarters when in the neighborhood. From there I radiated through the surrounding country.”
Donna Basinger’s Notes 2014
The Rev’d Sewell Hepburn, grandfather of actress Katherine Hepburn, spent many nights as a
guest at Oatlands while riding circuit to various Episcopal missions around Leesburg.
The Oatlands congregation began meeting in the log cabin on the Plantation during the
Civil War when Northern and Southern armies confiscated all the neighborhood horses and
carriages and parishioners were unable to travel to Aldie or Leesburg for church services.
Kate Powell Carter, mistress of Oatlands Plantation, graciously provided a chapel for the
neighborhood. After the war the Rev’d Richard Terrell Davis, rector of St. James Leesburg,
visited the log cabin chapel regularly until he called the Rev’d Sewell Hepburn to assist him
with the various missions around Leesburg.
26 year old Rev’d Hepburn arrived in Leesburg in January of 1871 and immediately took
charge of the congregation at Oatlands and was a guest at the Plantation.
Four months later, on April 13th, he married Kate Powell Carter’s second cousin, 28 year old
Selina Lloyd Powell. They were married in Alexandria, Virginia where Selina was assisting
her parents as a teacher at their Arlington Institute. It is likely they met when Sewell
attended he Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria.
In 1875 he left for another assignment, probably near his family home on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
First service in brick church Easter April 1, 1877
Consecration of building August 21, 1878 by Bishop Francis W. Wittle.
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| East window of Church of Our Saviour, Oatlands is a memorial to Kate Powell Carter |
