John Littlejohn (preacher)
While not particularly religious as a youth, he was inspired by Methodist revivalist sermons and began service as a circuit rider in 1776, after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War.
After several years of itinerancy he settled in Leesburg, Virginia, where Littlejohn served as a local preacher and saddler for several decades, and occasionally as a county magistrate, sheriff, and tax collector.
As the Loudoun County sheriff during Britain's burning of Washington in 1814, he protected a safehouse containing the relocated National Archives, including the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
[2] Writing retrospectively in his journals, Littlejohn described frequently gambling and playing cards in his early years in the Thirteen Colonies, abandoning religious observances instilled by his mother.
Littlejohn frequently changed apprenticeships as a youth, traveling first to Northumberland County with a local saddler, then to Norfolk, Virginia, to apprentice for a harnessmaker named Eldred Fisher.
Here, he began regular church attendance, but had difficulties with Selby, who boarded other tradesmen and collected fines for breaching household rules in order to supply alcohol for parties.
In December 1773, the seventeen-year-old Littlejohn was appointed foreman and manager at a store in Alexandria, Virginia, and he began attending regular Methodist preaching with his boss's family.
"[9] He began to pray frequently, and reported an intense dream where he attempted to preach as armed soldiers shut down a Methodist revival in Norfolk, only to be pelted with stones by a mob as he climbed the timbers of a house to escape.
[10] Littlejohn was greatly inspired by this dream, and took it as a divine signal of future persecution of Methodists and his duty to become a preacher, although he continued to struggle with self-doubt.
[11] Two months later, in October 1774, he reported returning home from evening preaching and hearing a voice call his name, with another whispering "Thy Sins be forgiven thee" as he arose from his bed.
[14] Soon after, he partnered with two other young Methodists to establish a regular prayer circle at a "large thatched pen" in Falls Church, drawing several hundreds from the surrounding area.
American magistrates fined and imprisoned many for preaching and refusal of service, believing John Wesley, and Methodists generally, held Loyalist sympathies.
In June 1775, an Anne Arundel magistrate fined Littlejohn for traveling without a pass, condemning John Wesley and describing Methodist preachers as Tories.
[23] Writing while in Baltimore in early 1777, Littlejohn described feeling as a "fatherless child, abandoned by my friends" due to his preaching and refusal of military service, despite sympathies for the Patriots.
Littlejohn cautioned fellow Methodist preachers against judging the revolutionaries, writing on July 4, 1777, that "those that were willing to defend their rights had more power of religion than any others I have met on this side of the Rappahannock.
Despite the urging of his friends, he refused to swear the oath to the state, and was one of twenty preachers indicted in a single October 1778 case of the Annapolis-based General Court of the Western Shore.
Littlejohn refused, and traveled in August 1778, to propose to Monica Talbott, the daughter of a Fairfax Methodist whom he had first met several years prior.
Mr. Littlejohn to finish a saddle, preside on the bench as a magistrate, preach a funeral sermon, baptize a child, and perform a marriage ceremony, all on the same day.
John Littlejohn and Monica married in December 1778, settling at Leesburg in Loudoun County, Virginia, where he would serve as a local preacher for the next three decades.
He continued employment in the trades in order to supply for his family, including twins born in September 1789, as well as Monica's two sisters staying with the household.
Following the birth of his children, rumors of monetary problems led to an offer from Anglican planter Bryan Fairfax, promising ordination within the Church of England and material benefits from glebe in return for assuming responsibility for two local parishes.
[34] Prior to the British burning of Washington in August 1814, the federal government evacuated the National Archives, including crucial founding documents such as the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.
[35] Stephen Pleasonton, a Treasury Department official tasked with protecting the documents, initially hid them inside an Alexandria County gristmill adjacent to the Chain Bridge.
The presence of an armament foundry nearby prompted fears of a British attack, and the archives were moved further west to a vacant house in or adjacent to Leesburg.
[36] Wishing to have more property to divide among his children in inheritance, Littlejohn and his family purchased land and departed Leesburg for Kentucky in early September 1818.
[38] From there on, Littlejohn traveled to Christian County, where he discovered land acquired from a fellow Methodist was unsuitable for farming and falsely advertised.
