Jarratt, Devereux

(Jan. 17, 1733-Jan. 29, 1801). Leading American Anglican priest during the Great Awakening. He was born in New Kent County, Virginia. Jarratt was first influenced by the Presbyterians and became a rigid Calvinist. He later entered the Church of England and was ordained deacon on Dec. 25, 1762, and priest on Jan. 1, 1763. He returned to Virginia and on Aug. 29, 1763, became the rector of Bath Parish, Dinwiddie County, where he remained the rest of his life. Jarratt was influenced by the Great Awakening and the preaching of George Whitefield and John Wesley. In his preaching he stressed the need for personal conversion and new birth. He formed religious societies in his parish and in neighboring areas, including North Carolina. He was a close friend of the Methodist Francis Asbury, who preached at his funeral. He was deeply hurt when the Methodists separated from the Church of England in the colonies in 1784 and formed their own independent church. In 1776 he wrote A Brief Narrative of the Revival of Religion in Virginia. In a Letter to a Friend, which he sent to John Wesley and which was published in London. His autobiography, The Life of the Reverend Devereux Jarratt, Written by Himself, in a Series of Letters Addressed to the Rev. John Coleman (1806), has much information about the church and the Great Awakening in Virginia. He died in Dinwiddie County.