Virginia and Virginians eminent Virginians, executives of the colony of Virginia from Sir Thomas Smyth to Lord Dunmore. Executives of the state of Virginia, from Patrick Henry to Fitzhugh Lee. Sketches of Gens. Ambrose Powel Hill, Robert E. Lee, Thos. Jonathan Jackson, Commodore Maury |
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WILLIAM H. CABELL. |
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WILLIAM H. CABELL.
The ancestry of William H. Cabell unites several of the worthiest
of the families of the Old Dominion, whose qualities are avouched in an
extensive connection which it is believed now links almost every family
of prominence in the State, and numbers honored representatives throughout
our Union. His paternal ancestor, William Cabell, born March 1,
1687, at Warminster, Wiltshire, England, of an ancient family (said to
have been originally from Spain, and thus indicated in the family arms,
and name, originally Caballos), was a surgeon in the British navy, and
settled in Virginia about 1724, acquiring extensive landed possessions
which enriched his descendants. Two brothers, the heads of an estimable
family in Virginia, Joseph (founder of the historic seat "Powhatan,"
near Richmond), and William Mayo, of the family of Poulshot, England,
who came to Virginia in 1728, after having made some stay at Bridgetown,
Barbadoes, were near relatives of Dr. Cabell, their mothers being
sisters. William Mayo ran the dividing line between Virginia and North
Carolina in 1728, under Colonel William Byrd, laid out the cities of
Richmond and Petersburg, and was the surveyor of Goochland County
when it embraced both sides of James River to the Appomattox River, on
the south, and from Henrico and Chesterfield counties, respectively, to
the Blue Ridge. Of the issue of the first marriage of Dr. Cabell with
Miss Elizabeth Birks, of one daughter and four sons, Nicholas, the
youngest, of "Liberty Hall," born October, 1750, died August 18,
1806, was the father of the subject of the present sketch, who may be
deemed to continue satisfactorily this narrative in a brief autobiography
which has been kindly supplied the writer by his friend Alexander
Brown, Esq., a worthy representative of the family: "I was born December
16, 1772, at `Boston Hill,' about five miles distant from Cartersville,
in Cumberland County, Virginia, the residence of my maternal
of William Mayo, of Powhatan County. I am the eldest son of Colonel
Nicholas and Hannah (Carrington) Cabell. From the spring of 1782
to the spring of 1783 I attended school from my father's [Liberty Hall,
Nelson County, Virginia,] to George Lambert, a teacher of English.
From March, 1784, to Christmas following, I went to school at my
maternal grandfather's, in the county of Cumberland, to Mr. James
Wilson, where I commenced the study of the Latin language. In February,
1785, I entered Hampden-Sidney College, where I continued
until September, 1789. In February, 1790, I entered William and
Mary College, where I continued until July, 1793 [graduating, then,
B. L.]. In the fall of 1793 I went to Richmond to complete the study
of the law, and remained there till June 13, 1794, when, after examination
by Judges Joseph Prentis, James Henry, and William Nelson, I
was licensed to practice law. On the 9th of April, 1795, I married
[Rev. Mr. O'Neal officiating] Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Colonel
William Cabell, of `Union Hill' [his father's brother], in whose family
I lived until his death in 1798, and afterwards with his widow, at
`Union Hill,' till the 29th of January, 1801, when I moved to my
own home at `Midway.' My first wife died November 5, 1801, and
was buried at `Union Hill.' Shortly after this I went to Charleston,
South Carolina. I returned the following spring. I had been elected to
the Assembly [from Amherst county] in the spring of 1796. I was also
in the Assembly of 1798, and voted for the famous resolutions of that
session. I was an elector at the first election of Mr. Jefferson, and filled
the same office again [at his second election]. I was a member of the
Assembly in the years 1802, 1803, 1804. On the 11th of March, 1805, I
was married to Agnes Sarah Bell [born August 22, 1783; died February
15, 1863], eldest daughter of Col. Robert Gamble, of Richmond [a native
of Augusta County, who having creditably served throughout the Revolution,
particularly distinguishing himself as an officer with Lieutenant
James Gibbon, in leading the memorable forlorn hope at Stony Point,
settled, after the war, in Richmond, and amassed in mercantile pursuits
a handsome competence. He was killed by a fall from his horse in the
streets of Richmond, April 12, 1810, in the fifty-sixth year of his age.
His tomb is in the churchyard of the venerable St. John's, at Richmond.
The wife of Colonel Gamble was Catharine, a daughter of Major Robert
Grattan, of the lineage of the celebrated leader of the Irish Parliament,
and who built the first stone mill in the Shenandoah Valley, and from
its manufacture contributed to the two hundred barrels of flour sent by
the people of Augusta County to the distressed city of Boston, during the
British siege of 1776. The second daughter of Colonel Gamble, Elizabeth
Washington, born January 30, 1784, became, in 1802, the second
wife of the celebrated William Wirt, Attorney-General of the United
States, etc. She was the author of Flora's Dictionary, published in
The relations between Governor Cabell and William Wirt, thus closely
established, were ever afterwards the most intimate, touching, and confidential.
The commodious stuccoed residence of Colonel Gamble is still
standing, unchanged in appearance, on the hill designated by his name
in Richmond, and overlooks the famed Tredegar Iron Works]. In
April, 1805, I was again elected to the Assembly, and attended as a
member, but within a few days (December, 1805) after the commencement
of the session, I was elected Governor, in which office I continued
for three years, until December, 1808, when I was elected by the Legislature
a Judge of the General Court, being commissioned by Governor
John Tyler, December 15, 1808, which office I held till April, 1811,
when I was elected a Judge of the Court of Appeals, being appointed
March 21, 1811, by Governor Monroe and the Privy Council, and qualifying
April 3, 1811. I was elected also by the Legislature, December 7,
1811, and then commissioned by Governor George William Smith. After
the adoption of the new constitution of Virginia [1830] I was again reelected
a Judge of the Court of Appeals, April 11, 1831, and commissioned
by Governor John Floyd. And on the 18th of January, 1842, I
was elected president of that court, and commissioned by Lieutenant-Governor
John Rutherfoord, and qualified and took my seat January 20,
1842." It may be added that Judge Cabell continued to serve as
President of the Court of Appeals until 1851, when he retired from the
bench. He died at Richmond, January 12, 1853, widely revered for
his virtues and deeply lamented, and was interred in Shockoe Hill
Cemetery. At a called meeting of the Court of Appeals and bar of
Virginia, held in Richmond, January 14, glowing resolutions in testimony
of the singular purity of character and excellences of Judge Cabell
were passed, which were published in the American Times of January
19, 1853. From thence the following is extracted:
"Resolved, That we cherish, and shall ever retain, a grateful remembrance of
the signal excellence of the Honorable William H. Cabell, as well in his private
as in his public life. There were no bounds to the esteem which he deserved and
enjoyed. Of conspicuous ability, learning and diligence, there combined therewith
a simplicity, uprightness and courtesy, which left nothing to be supplied
to inspire and confirm confidence and respect. It was as natural to love and
honor him; and both loved and honored was he by all who had an opportunity
of observing his unwearied benignity or his conduct as a judge. In that capacity
wherein he labored for forty years in our Supreme Court of Appeals, having previously
served the State as Governor and Circuit Judge, such was his uniform
gentleness, application and ability, so impartial, patient and just was he; of such
remarkable clearness of perception and perspicuity, precision and force in stating
his convictions, that he was regarded with warmer feelings than those of merely
official reference. To him is due much of the credit which may be claimed for
our judicial system and its literature. It was an occasion of profound regret,
when his infirmities of age, about two years since, required him to retire from the
bench, and again are we reminded, by his death, of the irreparable loss sustained
by the public and the profession."
![illustration](https://iiif.lib.virginia.edu/iiif/uva-lib:402660/full/!1600,1600/0/default.jpg")
ROBERT BROOKE,
Governor of Virginia, 1794-6.
The General Assembly of Virginia also passed a series of resolutions
in testimony of the eminent worth of Judge Cabell, and eulogies delivered
in that body alike warmly exhibit the profound regard in which
he was held.
It may be noted that it was during the incumbency of Judge Cabell
as Governor of Virginia, that the serious disputes with England began,
first in the wrangles on the subject of naturalization and protection of
British seamen, which gave rise, in June, 1807, to the attack on the
frigate "Chesapeake," by the British sloop-of-war "Leopard," one of the
preliminary instigations to the war of 1812.
Another event in the administration of Governor Cabell served to
make it memorable—the examination and trial of Aaron Burr, at Richmond,
before Chief Justice John Marshall, in the spring and summer
of 1807, for treason in an alleged design to found an empire in the
western part of America. Messrs. John Wickham, Edmund Randolph,
and Benjamin Botts, eminent lawyers, residents of Richmond, and the
celebrated Luther Martin, of Maryland, were the counsel of Burr.
Alexander McRae and George Hay, of Richmond, and the brilliant
William Wirt, were associated with Cæsar Rodney, the Attorney-General
of the United States, in the prosecution. Colonel Edward Carrington,
a distinguished soldier of the Revolution, was foreman of the jury
which sat in the case, and which had been formed with much difficulty
by repeated venires, summoned from all portions of the State.
So high had been the official position of the accused, and with so
much interest was his character and alleged designs invested, and such
was the legal talent engaged, that the trial attracted to Richmond distinguished
visitors from various portions of the Union, among them
the future President, the famous Andrew Jackson, who journeyed from
Tennessee on horseback. The result, as is well known, was the acquittal
of Burr, but the suspicion of which he was prevailingly the subject,
seemed to attend him through the remainder of his life, and
utterly blasted all of his cherished hopes for political preferment. He
led a precarious existence henceforth, and died in squalor and neglect
on Staten Island, New York, September 14, 1836, in the eighty-first
year of his age.
By the first marriage of Judge Cabell he had issue three children:
Nicholas Carrington, born February 9, 1796, lawyer, died October 13,
1821, unmarried; Louisa Elizabeth, born February 19, 1798, married,
May 23, 1820, Harry Carrington, of Charlotte County, Va., died January
8, 1865; Abraham Joseph, M.D., born April 24, 1800, died October,
1831, in Florida, unmarried. Of the issue of his second marriage,
Doctors Robert G., and J. Grattan Cabell, distinguished physicians, and
Army, in the late war, and a prominent member of the bar,
are well-known citizens of Richmond. Another son, Edward Carrington
Cabell, at one time a member of Congress, resides in the State of
Missouri.
The county of Cabell, formed in 1809 from Kanawha County, was
named in honor of Governor Cabell.
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