University of Virginia Library

IRVIN.

Rev. William Irvin was one of the early Presbyterian
ministers of the county. He received his education in part
at the school of Rev. John Todd in Louisa. He was received

by the Presbytery of Hanover in 1769, and settled as pastor
of the Cove and Rockfish Churches in 1771. He married
Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph Holt, who served in the Revolution
as First Lieutenant in the Fourth Virginia, and who
purchased land from Colonel Charles Lewis on the Staunton
Road west of Ivy Depot, where he resided until 1794. Mr.
Irvin bought part of this land from his father-in-law, but
sold it in 1783, and the same year purchased from Charles
Martin a farm on the south fork of Hardware, where J.
Goulet Martin now lives, and where he made his home until
his death in 1809. His relation to Rockfish Church was
dissolved in 1776, and he then devoted his time to preaching
at the Cove, D. S., and Mountain Plains. In July 1793 his
old preceptor, Rev. John Todd, met with a tragic death on
his return from a meeting of Presbytery at the Cove. The
road on the east side of Persimmon Mountain passed then,
as it does still, along the bed of the South Hardware for a
short distance; there the venerable minister was found, lying
in the stream with life extinct. Whether he was smitten
with an apoplectic stroke, or whether his horse took fright,
and starting suddenly threw him, was not known. It is said,
he was accustomed to ride a spirited horse.

Mr. Irvin had ten children, some of whom attained a
degree of eminence in the world; Joseph Holt, Margaret,
Elizabeth, the wife of Dabney C. Gooch, Nancy, the wife of
Thomas W. Gooch, Sarah, the wife of Robert Sangster, John,
William W., James, Thomas and David. Joseph was admitted
to the Albemarle bar in 1796, married Elizabeth,
daughter of William Cole of North Garden, and died in 1805,
leaving two daughters, one of whom, Susan, was married
first to Colonel Thomas Wood, and was the mother of Dr.
Alfred Wood and Mrs. Jeremiah A. Early, and secondly to
John Fray. John lived on the old place, was a magistrate
of the county, and died in 1828, leaving a number of children,
all of whom removed to Campbell and Prince Edward
Counties. William became a member of the Albemarle bar,
but emigrated to Lancaster, Ohio, where he was appointed
a Judge of the Supreme Court, and elected to Congress in

1828. Thomas joined his brother William in Ohio, and became
Judge of the Lancaster Circuit. David was also a
lawyer, received the appointment of Governor of Wisconsin
Territory, and afterwards settled in Texas, where he was
left by the war with only the shreds of a large fortune, and
where he shortly after died.