R. C. L. Moncure (1805-1882)

Richard Cassius Lee Moncure served on the Vestry in the years 1847-1865 and then in 1869 until he died in 1882, serving a total of 30 years on the Vestry. He purchased pew 73 for $310 in 1849. (During the renovation 2007-2010 this pew was eliminated for the purpose of the daily office services and for better access during weddings and funerals.)

Moncure was born in Stafford and became a lawyer in 1825 and practiced in this area.    He purchased the property Glencairne for $800. By 1840 he added tracts to the property along Accokeek Creek (224 acres), Aquia Creek (458 acres), Deep Run (180 acres) and a tract at the “Old Furnace” (35 acres).  He not only added lands but renovated the properties.  The property was inherited by his children. The property today is located the west side of Jefferson Davis Highway at the intersection of Layhill Road, extending west to I-95.

He was appointed the Virginia Court of Appeals in 1851 and then elected to that court when the Virginia Constitution changed.  He became president of the court in 1865.  He did not serve from 1865-1970 but then elected again under still another constitution and then became president of that court remaining in this office until his death 1882.

He was memorialized in the Tiffany stained glass window dedicated in 1908 entitled “Three Women at the Tomb.” The maker has not been positively identified though  George Hardy Payne also did a similar window at the United Methodist Church in Front Royal, Va. The image used was first painted commercially by Bernhard Plockhurst (1825-1907) a German painter

The window based on the Gospel of Mark depicts the shock of the tomb being open and Jesus not being there. Mark lists the women in the window – Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, follower of Jesus and possibly Mary’s sister.  All three had followed Christ in Galilee and now to the grave. 

Mary Magdalene is holding on to a blue vase. Inside the blue vase would have been perfumes and ointments to perform their own rites on Jesus body in  preparation of burial, traditionally performed by Jewish women.   Mary the mother has a halo and is praying fitting Luke’s account of a praying woman. Salome is transfixed, staring at the vacant tomb, in shock while at the same time comforting Mary the mother.