JUDGE LEGH RICHMOND WATTS.
Judge Legh R. Watts, son of Dr. Edward M. Watts and Ann Eliza
(Maupin) Watts, was born in the City of Portsmouth, December 12,
1843. His paternal grandfather was Col. Dempsey Watts and his
maternal, Dr. George W. Maupin, surgeon U. S. A. He has continuously
resided in Portsmouth. During the War he served as a private in
the Confederate Army, doing duty principally in North and South Carolina,
he was paroled at Greensboro, North Carolina, on the surrender
of Gen Joseph E. Johnston's Army in 1865. Returning home, he resumed
his studies, interrupted by the war, and attended the University
of Virginia, sessions of 1865-6 and 1866-7, graduating in several of
the academic schools at the end of his first session, and taking the
degree of Bachelor of Law at the end of the second.
He at once engaged in the practice of the law, and continued until
1870, when he was elected by the Legislature of Virginia, Judge of
Norfolk County.
In 1880, he resumed, and still continues the active practice of his
profession. The City Council, in 1883, elected him President, and he
still holds that position.
Since November, 1883, he has been President of the Bank of Portsmouth,
the oldest banking institution in the city, and in 1888, he was
nominated by Governor Lee as a Member of the Board of Visitors of
the University of Virginia, and confirmed by the Senate, for the term
of 1888-92.
On November 26, 1868, at Portsmouth, he married Mattie P.,
daughter of William H. and Mary A. (Reed) Peters, of that city, and
the issue of this union is six children.
