Yeocomico History

The history of Yeocomico Church begins in 1655 with an order of the Northumberland County Court appointing the Vestry for the Yeocomico Congregation: Mr Nicholas Jurnew, Jno Powell. and Church-Warden, Richard Holden.  At that time, the congregation was in Chicacoan Parish of Northumberland County.  
In 1655, Virginia was in its third year under the rule of Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth of England.  The offices of King, Lords, and Bishops had been abolished, and were not reestablished until the Restoration of the King in 1660.
Tradition says that the building was erected in 1655.  If there were a vestry as noted in the order, then there may have been a church of some variety.  The earliest mention of a church building is in a patent (grant) of August 1, 1663, on the Northwest Yeocomico granted to Luke Dyne and Thomas Beadles, in which one of the landmarks is a Horse and foot path which goeth to Yeocomico Church."  No deed to the church land has ever been located.  Whatever church building there was would have been a Spartan affair.   
In 1664, that part of Northumberland was transferred into Westmoreland County, and a new Parish called Cople was established.  The name came from the Bedfordshire, England parish of the prominent Westmoreland resident and Secretary of the Colony, Nicholas Spencer (1633-1689).