Study & Research Revolutionary Era 1754-1783: Religion

1733-1801 Evangelical Episcopalian

Conversion.

Devereux Jarratt reached his widest fame as a leader of the Great Awakening in Virginia during the 1760s and 1770s. Surprisingly he participated in this revivalist movement as an Anglican and later an Episcopalian minister. Jarratt was born near Richmond, Virginia, on 17 January 1733 and raised in the Church of England. Like many Anglican families in colonial Virginia, the Jarratts were not especially religious, and Devereux lacked any strong feelings about God until he reached adulthood. Pursuing a career as a schoolteacher, Jarratt found himself a tutor to the sons of John Cannon, an evangelical Presbyterian. He felt the first stirring of religious belief while listening to Cannon's wife read pious tracts to her children. After this first step Jarratt learned from local Presbyterian ministers already engaged in the work of religious revival. They taught him about traditional Calvinistic beliefs such as predestination, the depravity of human nature, and...
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