University of Virginia Library

GARLAND.

The first of the Garland name who settled in Albemarle
was James. He came from Hanover County, where he had

married his wife, Mary Rice. In 1761 he bought land in the
coves of the mountains southwest of the Cross Roads. He
purchased first from James and John Coffey, and afterwards
from Robert Nelson, till he possessed considerably more than
a thousand acres. He also purchased from Samuel and
William Stockton upwards of four hundred acres near the
head of Mechum's River, including a mill which the Stocktons
had built. He was acting as magistrate in 1783, when
the existing records begin, and was appointed Sheriff in
1791. He died in 1812. His children were Elizabeth, the
wife of Thomas Garland, Edward, Rice, Robert, Clifton,
Mary, the wife of James Woods, who in 1797 emigrated
to Garrard County, Kentucky, and as nearly as the lines of
descent in this family can be ascertained, James and Nathaniel.

Edward lived on the south side of the north fork of Hardware,
near the crossing of the old Lynchburg Road. He
was appointed a magistrate in 1801, and in 1808 succeeded
Francis Taliaferro as Commissioner of the Revenue for St.
Anne's, which office he filled until his death in 1817. His
wife was Sarah, daughter of Colonel John Old, and his children
Nathaniel, Mary, the wife of Nicholas Hamner, Fleming,
James, Elizabeth, the wife of Joseph Sutherland, Sarah, the
wife of Pleasant Sowell, and Maria, the wife of Thomas Hamner,
who removed to Lewis County, West Virginia.

The home of Rice was the present farm of Bloomfield near
Ivy Depot. He was appointed a magistrate in 1791, was
elected to the Legislature in 1808, and served as Sheriff in
1811. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel Hamner,
and died in 1818. His children were William, James, Rice,
Samuel, Elizabeth, the wife of Henry White, Mary Rice, the
wife of Robert H. Slaughter, Burr, Maurice and Nicholas.
William and James were their father's executors. The former
lived for a time in Charlottesville, was the constructor
of the present Lynchburg Road, and died in 1841. Rice
was a lawyer, and settled in Leakesville, N. C. Samuel
became a prosperous man of business in Lynchburg.

Robert was an active practitioner at the Albemarle bar, and

about 1822 removed to Nelson. Clifton was appointed a
magistrate in 1806, and in 1813 contested unsuccessfully
the election of Jesse W. Garth to the House of Delegates.
He died unmarried in 1815.

James, as already narrated, lost his life at the Prison Barracks
in 1781. His wife was Ann, daughter of John Wingfield
and Mary Hudson, and his children Hudson M., James
P., and Spotswood. They all removed to Amherst. Hudson
was admitted to the bar, represented Amherst in the
Legislature, was a captain in the war of 1812, was an intimate
friend of General Jackson, and received from him an office in
Washington, which he held until the administration of President
Tyler. His wife was Letitia Pendleton, and he was the
father of Judge James Garland, of Lynchburg, and General
John, of the United States Army, whose daughter was the
wife of General Longstreet. Spotswood became the first
Clerk of Nelson, married a Rose, and was the father of Landon,
late Chancellor of Vanderbilt University.

In 1778 Nathaniel bought land from Colonel Charles Lewis
in North Garden, near Taylor's Gap. He died in 1793.
His wife's name was Jane, and his children were Frances,
the wife of John Woodson, Nelson, Mary, the wife of Isham
Ready, Anderson, whose widow Nancy was married to Richard
Bruce, and whose children removed to Lewis County,
Kentucky, Elizabeth and Peter. Peter married Elizabeth,
daughter of Benjamin Martin, who after her husband's decease
became the wife of Daniel, son of Thomas Martin and Mary
Ann White. Peter's sons were James and Goodrich.

William Garland, who was probably a brother of the first
James, married Ann, daughter of Christopher Shepherd, and
died comparatively young in 1777. His children were Frances,
the wife of Reuben Pendleton, Mary, James, and David
S. David S. resided at New Glasgow in Amherst, and in
1807 represented the district in Congress. His wife was Jane,
daughter of Colonel Samuel Meredith and Jane Henry, sister
of the renowned orator.

Another branch of the Garlands was resident in the county
at a later date. About 1833 a mercantile firm did business

on the public square in Charlottesville under the style of
Binford & Garland. The Garland of the firm was James,
who soon after removed to Richmond. In 1835 his brother
Thomas purchased from John R. Campbell the fine low
grounds on the Rivanna, just below the mouth of Buck Island.
He was appointed a magistrate of the county in 1838. He
was a man of unamiable temper and unsavory reputation.
He died in 1874. The brothers came from Goochland County.
Their mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Morris,
of Green Spring, Louisa, and sister of Mrs. Dr. Frank Carr.