University of Virginia Library

JOHN MERCER PATTON.

John Mercer Patton was worthily descended. His father, Robert
Patton, a native of Scotland, emigrated thence to America[25] some time
before the Revolution, landing at Charleston, South Carolina, where he
lived for awhile, but soon removed to Fredericksburg, Virginia, where
he established himself as a merchant. He was very successful, and
acquired a competent fortune. He was a high-spirited man, and in
full sympathy with the struggle of his adopted countrymen for freedom,
as a well-authenticated incident, which has been transmitted, emphatically
evidenced:

Being a non-combatant, he was on terms of social intercourse with the
invading Britons. On one occasion, whilst dining with some officers of
Tarleton's legion, one of them took upon himself to denounce in unmeasured
terms the people he had come to subdue. He was very free in
the use of the terms "rebels," "rebellion," etc., which he finally coupled
with abusive terms with the names of certain officers of the patriot
army. This, Robert Patton (who had been an indignant listener, but
had curbed his feelings) could not allow to go unrebuked. He calmly
but decidedly told the officer that he felt it to be right to inform him
that some of those whom he had just named were his friends. This
warning being disregarded by the officer, Patton threw a glass of wine
in his face. This produced a storm of fury from the insulted officer,
when Patton said the affair must be then and there settled; and going
to the door, locked it and put the key in his pocket. They fought with
pistols across the table, and the officer was killed.

Robert Patton married, October 16, 1792, Ann Gordon, daughter
of the gallant General Hugh Mercer, who fell, mortally wounded, at
the battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777, and who died nine days afterwards,
and is buried in Christ Church, Philadelphia. Robert Patton
died November 3, 1828, and his wife May 12, 1832. They had issue:

• i. Hugh Mercer, born November 22, 1793; died in the autumn of 1844.

• ii. Robert, born September 11, 1795; member of the House of Delegates,
  1821; died September 13, 1830.

• iii. John Mercer, born August 10, 1797; died October 28, 1858; married,
  

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  January 8, 1824, Peggy French (born 1804; died September
  14, 1873), daughter of John Williams,[26] of Culpeper County,
  Virginia.

• iv. Isabella Gordon, born October 21, 1799; died November 3, 1804.

• v. William Fairlie, M. D., Surgeon United States and Confederate
  States Navies, born June 15, 1802; resides with his son-in-law,
  General John R. Cooke,[27] late Confederate States Army, at Richmond,
  Virginia.

• vi. George Weedon, born March 8, 1804; died October 29, 1804.

• vii. Eleanor Ann, born September 13, 1805; married John Chew, of
  Fredericksburg, Virginia, and has issue.

• viii. Margaretta Patton, born November 1, 1807; died July 2, 1852;
  married Hon. John M. Herndon, sometime Secretary of the Commonwealth
  of Virginia, son of Dabney and Elizabeth Herndon,
  and a brother of the gallant Lieutenant William Lewis Herndon,
  United States Navy, who went down with the ill-fated "Central
  America" off the South Atlantic coast; of the late Hon. Charles
  Herndon; of Dr. Dabney Herndon, who died a few years ago at
  his post of duty, during the yellow fever visitation of Mobile, Alabama;
  of Dr. Brodie Herndon, of Savannah, Georgia; of the
  widow of the late Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury; and of
  Miss Mary Herndon, of Fredericksburg, Virginia.

John Mercer Patton, the third son of Robert and Anna Gordon (Mercer)
Patton, as above, was liberally educated, and, adopting the profession of
the law, commenced practice in his native city, Fredericksburg. He
soon attained honorable distinction at the bar, and, embarking in politics,
he was elected to Congress in 1830, and continued to serve in that
body with conspicuous ability until 1838, when he removed to Richmond,
and was elected a member of the Council of State; and as the
senior Councillor, on the resignation, March 18, 1841, of Governor
Thomas Walker Gilmer, succeeded him as Acting Governor of Virginia,
serving as such until the expiration of his yearly term as senior
Councillor, on the 31st of March, when he was succeeded by senior
Councillor John Rutherfoord. In learning and ability the rank of

Mr. Patton was acknowledged as second to none practicing in the
higher courts of Virginia in his day, and which included an array of
legal talent which has been scarcely surpassed at any period or in any
section of the United States. In 1849 he was associated with the late
eminent jurisconsult Conway Robinson in a revision of the Code of
Virginia. Mr. Patton died at Richmond, October 28, 1858, and is
buried in Shockoe Hill Cemetery there. A handsome fluted column of
white marble, emblematically capped with several volumes, marks his
resting-place. The tomb of his wife is near by. They had issue:

i. Robert W., who died in 1877; Hugh, Philip, Lucy Ann, all died
in infancy; ii. John Mercer, a distinguished practitioner of law;
Captain of the Richmond Light Infantry Blues (organized in 1793—
the oldest company in the State), 1852-55 and in 1859-60; Reporter,
with Roscoe B. Heath, of "Cases decided in a Special Court of Appeals,"
and General Index to Gratton's Reports (volumes 2 to 11
inclusive; published at Richmond in two volumes, 8vo, 1856, '57);
Colonel, 1861-2, of the 21st Regiment Virginia Volunteers, and for a
time in command of the 2d Brigade (composed of the 21st, 42d and
48th Virginia Infantry, and the Irish Battalion), Stonewall Jackson's
division; author of several theological works, among them The Death
of Deaths; married Sarah, daughter of Alexander and Mildred C.
(Lindsay) Taylor,[28] and has issue; now resides at Ashland, Virginia;
iii. Isaac W., married Miss Merritt; Colonel of Louisiana Infantry,
severely wounded and made prisoner at the fall of Vicksburg, and
afterwards commanded one of the forts in Mobile Bay to the end of
the late war; iv. George S., married Susan S., daughter of Andrew
and Susan (Thornton) Glassell;[29] Colonel of 22d Virginia Infantry;
wounded twice in previous battles; and then at 2d Manassas; killed
by a shell while commanding a brigade at the battle of Winchester,
in 1864; v. W. Tazewell, Colonel of 7th Virginia Infantry; killed
whilst leading his regiment in the memorable charge of Pickett's
division on the heights of Gettysburg, in 1863; vi. Hugh Mercer,
Lieutenant Confederate States Army; wounded at the second battle
of Manassas; married Miss Bull, of Orange County, Virginia; vii.
James F., Lieutenant Confederate States Army; wounded at the
battle of Cold Harbor; made Judge of Court of Appeals of West Virginia;
married a daughter of Hon. Allen T. Caperton, United States
Senator; died in March, 1882; viii. William M., married Miss Jordan,
of Rockbridge County, Virginia, ix. Eliza W., married John Gilmer,
of Pittsylvania County, Virginia.

RICHARD CHANNING MOORE,

Beloved Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Virginia.

Silhouette cut by Brown of Philadelphia, in 1830