A history of Caroline county, Virginia :: :: University of Virginia Library

Benjamin, Moses, and Philemon Hurt, who were brothers,
came from England to America probably in the early part of
the eighteenth century. They settled on the Rappahannock
River in St. Margaret's Parish, near Port Royal, Caroline county,
Va. Some of the descendants of Moses Hurt went to Fauquier
county, Va., and a Colonel Moses Hurt was living on his plantation
near the Fauquier White Sulphur Springs just prior to the
Civil War. Some of the descendants of Philemon Hurt settled
in Nottoway county, Va., and intermarried with the Turners
of that county. Other descendants of the Caroline Hurts went
early to Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, and probably to
Mississippi. Complete data of this family are not obtainable,
as many of the Court records of Caroline were destroyed or lost
during the Civil War.

An old deed, however, shows that Benjamin Hurt, the grandfather
of Thomas Hurt, of the "Thornhill" plantation mentioned

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below, bought land from James Murry, in St. Margaret's Parish,
on April 13, 1764. He was an officer in the commissary department
of the American Army during the Revolutionary War, and
the steel-yard and quinine scales used by him in this capacity are
now in the possession of his great-great-granddaughter, Mrs.
Elizabeth Rowland Hurt Louthan. He had two sons, Benjamin
and William Hurt, the latter went south, probably to Alabama.

Benjamin Hurt, the son of the Revolutionary soldier, m.
Frances Richerson about 1793, and lived on his plantation near
Sparta in Caroline. They left the following children: Benjamin,
Thomas, James and Jane. James and Benjamin grew to manhood,
but never married. Jane, m. a Mr. Stuart, leaving one
daughter, Frances, who m. a Mr. Chapman. They had two sons,
Scott Chapman, who m. a Miss Sinclair, and had two sons, and
a daughter named Narcissa. Scott Chapman's brother, Robert
Henry Chapman, was a successful business man, but never
married. These last two generations of the Chapman's lived at
Ripley, Tenn.

Thomas Hurt, the second son of Benjamin Hurt and Frances
Richerson, his wife, was born September 13, 1798. On December
24, 1829, Thomas Hurt, m. Mrs. Mary Margaret Croughton
Peatross. She was the daughter of Charles Croughton and
Margaret Hudson, his wife, who were married in Durham Parish,
Charles county, Md., on July 29, 1799. Their daughter, Mary
Margaret Croughton, was born at "Woodend," her father's
plantation near Falmouth, Stafford county, Va., on December
30, 1804. Charles Croughton was a native of London,
England, and his wife, Margaret Hudson, was born February
15, 1777 at Whitehaven in the shire of Cumberland, England.
Their daughter, Mrs. Thomas Hurt, was taken from Virginia,
when a girl, by her father to the home of her grandmother
Croughton in England and was educated at Spark Hill, at that
time a suburb of London.

Thomas Hurt and his wife, nee Mary Margaret Croughton,
lived at "Thornhill," a plantation which joined "Needwood"
and "White Chimneys" plantations, near the present postoffice
of Lorne in Caroline. Thomas Hurt was a successful business
man, and prior to the Civil War his estate consisted of fifteen
hundred acres of land, about one hundrd slaves, and many real
estate mortgages. His entire property is estimated to have been
worth something over a half million dollars. He and his family

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frequently spent the summer at The Greenbrier White Sulphur
Springs, the noted all-South resort in the mountains of Virginia,
taking their private coach and a certain number of slaves with
them. They had three children, who reached their majority:
Elizabeth Young Hurt, b. December 2, 1830; Charles Benjamin
Hurt, b. February 6, 1833; and James Thomas Hurt, b. December
31, 1842. Thomas Hurt died at "Thornhill" full of years and
of honors, on February 16, 1870, and is buried there with his
brothers, James and Benjamin, and with his wife, who died on
July 10, 1888.

Elizabeth Young Hurt was m. on November 23, 1856 to
Joseph M. Seay, who about this time was High Sheriff and
Treasurer of Caroline county. After the Civil War they made
their home on the "Greenwood" farm, a part of the "Thornhill"
plantation. Here Mr. Seay engaged successfully in merchandising
and farming, until his death in September, 1891. Mrs. Elizabeth
Young Hurt Seay was a fine business woman and took an especial
interest in Concord Baptist church, of which her father and
mother, and brothers had also been members. She exercised a
wide influence for good, had a large circle of friends, and dispensed
a bountiful hospitality at "Greenwood." There on
September 9, 1911, surrounded by relatives and friends, she
passed to her reward, and was laid to rest among her dearest
kin at "Thornhill." Charles Benjamin Hurt was educated by
private tutors and at Richmond College. He was at the latter
institution from about 1853 to 1856. He died on July 12, 1871,
never having married.

James Thomas Hurt was educated at a neighboring plantation
school at "Alan Gowan," under a master of arts from
Harvard, and at Ellington Academy in Hanover county. The
war prevented his receiving a college training. During the last
months of the Civil War, he was a member of Colonel John S.
Mosby's Partisan Rangers of the Confederate States Army. On
July 14, 1870, he was m. to Ann Eliza Ewing Thomas, a daughter
of Ira Lomax Thomas and Mary Jones Morgan Thomas, of
"Vernon," Caroline county, Va. James Thomas Hurt and his
wife lived for several years after their marriage at "Thornhill,"
where their daughter, Elizabeth Rowland Hurt, was b. on January
3, 1874. On March, 1874, he and his wife went to Detroit, Mich.,
where a son, Ira Thomas Hurt, was b. on August 12, 1876, but
d. on December 24, 1881. Mr. Hurt was a forceful speaker and

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a good debater. He was in business in Detroit until his death on
August 17, 1895, when his wife and daughter returned to
Virginia.

Elizabeth Rowland Hurt was born in Virginia, but was reared
and educated in Detroit, Mich. She visited her aunts in Caroline
and King William counties, Va., practically every year of her
girlhood days. On March 25, 1903, she was m. to Henry Thompson
Louthan, at "Retreat," the home of her uncle and aunt,
Mr. and Mrs. Rowland Greene Tyler, in the northern part of
King William county, Va. Mr. Louthan at this time was pastor
of the Baptist church in Williamsburg, Va., and that fall became
a professor in the College of William and Mary. There in
Williamsburg were born their two children, Mary Tyler Louthan,
on May 9, 1904; and Carter Thomas Louthan, on July 23, 1906.
The "Greenwood" farm, a part of the "Thornhill" plantation,
is now owned by Mrs. Elizabeth Rowland Hurt Louthan.

University of Virginia Library

THE HURT FAMILY

Martin Arms