University of Virginia Library

JOHN RUTHERFOORD.

The frequent representation of those of Scottish blood among the honored
Executives of Virginia is worthy of remark. Another instance
now passes in review. Possibly no other city in the United States has
been more honored in a class of citizens so representative of material
prosperity and influence as has that of Richmond in her merchants, whose
probity, system, and promptness have been widely proverbial quite from
the period of its accession to such titular dignity in 1782. Prominent
among these useful and excellent men was the justly esteemed father
of the subject of this sketch.

Thomas Rutherfoord, son of Thomas and Janet (Meldrum) Rutherfoord,
who were both natives of Kircaldy, Scotland, was born in Glasgow,
where his parents then resided, January 9, 1766. Having received
the educational advantages of the grammar schools, and finally of two
sessions in the College of Glasgow, he entered, in July, 1780, the employment
of Hawkesley & Rutherfoord, of Dublin, Ireland—a mercantile
firm, of which his elder brother, John Rutherfoord, was the junior
partner. They were exporters as well as importers, and conducted a
large trade with the ports of Europe and America. It was customary
in the last century for youths designed for a mercantile life to fit themselves
for the calling by a regular term of indentured apprenticeship,
which was entered upon by the payment of a fee. This had been the
training of the employers of Thomas Rutherfoord, they having served as
fellow-apprentices, in the province of Maryland, in the house of Spiers
& Company, merchants and factors. Their pleasurable reminiscences of
American life, as narrated to young Thomas, inspired in him a desire
for a like residence abroad. This, together with his exemplified prudence,
sagacity, and business habits, induced Messrs. Hawkesley &
Rutherfoord to intrust him, at the early age of eighteen, with a cargo
of goods valued at £10,000 for disposition in Virginia. He set sail
from Dublin, October 10, 1784, furnished with a letter of recommendation
to General Washington from Sir Edward Neversham, member
of Parliament from the county of Dublin. The vessel, the "Jane and
Diana," anchored in Hampton Roads, Virginia, December 21st following,
and soon thereafter the youthful merchant located in Richmond,
Virginia. He met with deserved success, was admitted a partner with
his employers, and soon succeeded to the entire business, and extensively
engaged as merchant, miller, and importer and exporter. He became in
time one of the largest real estate owners in Richmond. He was a man
of strong individuality of character and excellent judgment, and a clear
and vigorous writer. He contributed at different periods of his life excellent
papers to the press, on the commercial requirements of the nation

and the destructive influence of political agitation. During the discussion
of the tariff question in Congress, in 1839-1840, the papers from
his pen were among the ablest submitted to that body. His life, as a
zealous member of the Presbyterian Church, was one of marked and
uniform piety. He died January 31, 1852, affectionately reverenced
for his worth and manifold usefulness by the entire community which
he had seen grow up around him, and to the prosperity and progress
of which he had so greatly contributed. His remains rest beneath a
handsome marble tomb in Shockoe Hill Cemetery, the predecessor of
Hollywood Cemetery, and where lie also the remains of Chief Justice
Marshall, Bishop Richard Channing Moore, John Hampden Pleasants,
Judge Robert Stanard, Benjamin Watkins Leigh, John Wickham,
Major James Gibbon, and many other distinguished contemporaries of
Mr. Rutherfoord, whose memories are cherished in Virginia. Mr. Rutherfoord
was married, August 21, 1790, by the good Parson John D.
Blair (so lovingly remembered), to Sarah, daughter of Geddes and
Mary (Jordan[30] ) Winston. Mrs. Rutherfoord died March 2, 1839. It
is of interest to note that her sisters married as follows: Mary, the Rev.
John D. Blair; Martha, Henry S. Shore; Margaret, Dr. John Adams,
long the Mayor of Richmond; and Rebecca, William Radford.[31] The
issue of Thomas and Sarah (Winston) Rutherfoord was as follows:[32]

• i. Maria, born August 9, 1791; died April 14, 1793.

• ii. John, the subject of this sketch.

• iii. Jane, born March 13, 1795; married, January 11, 1815, S. H. B.
  Meade, of Amelia County. She died October 2, 1839; he died
  January 21, 1842.

• iv. Sarah, born February 23, 1797; married, November 18, 1815,
  William Beverley Randolph, of "Chatsworth," Henrico County,
  Virginia. She died April 18, 1819; he died May 3, 1874.

• v. Thomas, born June 24, 1799; died August 13, 1803.

• vi. Mary, born April 10, 1801; married, in 1826, Richard E. Hardaway,
  who died in 1830.

• vii. William, born May 18, 1802; married, April 20, 1843, Sarah Radford
  Sherrard. She died September 15, 1873, in her fifty-first
  year; he died November 5, 1873. His son William married,
  

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  October 28, 1874, Leslie, daughter of Dr. John F. Carter. He
  died November 12, 1876, and she married secondly, October 4,
  1877, Edward S. Rose, real estate agent of Richmond.

• viii. Martha (Patsey), born August 13, 1803; died May 4, 1873; married,
  November, 1842, Thomas Garland Tinsley, of Hanover
  County. Both dead. Their son, James Garland Tinsley, is interested
  largely in manufacturing enterprises in and near Richmond.

• ix. Thomas, born March 20, 1805; married first, 1840, Isabella Syme;
  secondly, Sarah, daughter of Spotswood Wingfield, of Hanover
  County.

• x. Samuel Jordan, born May 1, 1806; married, November 20, 1834,
  Frances C. Watson; died December 26, 1880. His son Thomas
  M. Rutherfoord, who married, April 16, 1872, Laura W., daughter
  of the late James Thomas, Jr., is a prominent tobacco manufacturer
  of Richmond. A daughter, Mary Elizabeth, married,
  April 22, 1836, Charles A. Rose, a lawyer of Richmond. Both
  dead, leaving issue.

• xi. Alexander Hawkesley, born August 30, 1807; married April 10,
  1838, Keziah K. Clarke. Of his issue: James Clarke, returning
  from a European tour in 1861, was appointed a Captain on
  the staff of Brigadier-General James Dearing, Confederate States
  Cavalry, and gallantly fell in action. Another son, Alexander
  Hawkesley Rutherfoord, Jr., married, October 16, 1878, Rosa,
  daughter of the late Hon. James A. Seddon, member of Congress,
  Secretary of War of the Confederate States, etc. A
  daughter, Annie C. Rutherfoord, married, April 24, 1878, Gideon
  A., son of Isaac Davenport, Jr., a prominent banker of
  Richmond.

• xii. Elvira Rebecca, born February 4, 1809; died July 20, 1810.

• xiii. Augustus Smith, born December 5, 1811; died August 10, 1875.

John Rutherfoord, the subject of this sketch, and the eldest son of
Thomas and Sarah (Winston) Rutherfoord, as above, was born in Richmond,
Virginia, December 6, 1792. After preliminary preparation in
the schools of his native city, he completed his collegiate course at
Princeton, New Jersey. Having studied law, he was admitted to the
bar of Richmond, and entered upon a successful practice. Taking a
deep interest in politics, he early rendered effective service to the Democratic
party, to which he was attached. In 1826 he was elected to
the House of Delegates from the city of Richmond (then entitled to only
one Delegate) and served, with some intervals, in that body until 1839,
when he was appointed one of the Councillors of State, as provided by the
amended constitution of 1830. As Senior Councillor, Mr. Rutherfoord,
on the 31st of March, 1841, succeeded John Mercer Patton as Acting

Governor of Virginia, and continued so to serve until March 31, 1842,
when he was succeeded by John Munford Gregory. Governor Rutherfoord
continued to serve as a member of the State Council until the
year 1846. In 1836 he was elected President, or Principal Agent, as
the office is termed, of the Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia, the
oldest institution of fire insurance in the State, and which was established
by William Frederick Ast, a native of Prussia, in 1794. In this
position Governor Rutherfoord efficiently served for the long period of
thirty years. His predecessor was James Rawlings, a highly esteemed
citizen of Richmond, who resigned the position to accept that of President
of the Farmers' Bank of Virginia, vacated by Philip Norborne
Nicholas to accept the Judgeship of the Sixth Judicial Circuit. Governor
Rutherfoord in early life took a great interest in the volunteer
military, in which he attained the rank of Colonel, by which title he
was familiarly known. He was the originator and first Captain of the
Richmond Fayette Artillery, organized June 20, 1821, as the Richmond
Light Artillery, by the former membership of two companies
of artillery commanded respectively by William West and Andrew Stevenson,
and which had served in the war of 1812. The name of the
company was changed in honor of the generous friend of America, Lafayette,
on the occasion of his second visit to this country in 1824. The
company rendered gallant service in the cause of the South in our late
war, its first commander in that period being Captain (subsequently
Colonel) Henry Coalter Cabell.

Governor Rutherfoord married, April 24, 1816, Emily Anne (died
August 26, 1871), daughter of John and Rebecca (Tucker) Coles,[33] of
"Enniscorthy," Albemarle County, Virginia. They had issue: i. John
Coles (born November 14, 1825; died August 14, 1866), of "Rock
Castle," Virginia, represented Goochland County in the House of Delegates
for a number of years; married Ann Roy. Their daughter,
Ann Seddon, married, June 25, 1880, Bradley S. Johnson, son of
General Bradley T. Johnson, late Confederate States Army, now of
Baltimore, Maryland. ii. Emily Anne, died November 16, 1880; married
January 24, 1853, Patrick Henry Aylett[34] (born May 9, 1826),
son of Philip Aylett, of King William County, Virginia, and grandson
of the orator Patrick Henry; editor of the Richmond Enquirer and of
the Times; Confederate States District Attorney for Eastern Virginia;

killed at the calamity at the State Capitol by the falling through of the
floor of the Court of Appeals room, April 27, 1870. Left issue three
daughters: Emily, married, December 20, 1876, John Enders, Jr.;
Sarah, married Thomas Bolling, Jr., a descendant of the Indian princess
Pocahontas; and Page.

Governor Rutherfoord died at Richmond, August 3, 1866, and is
buried in Shockoe Hill Cemetery. Governor Rutherfoord was endowed
with a strong and well-balanced intellect. Unassuming and winning in
manner, gentle and modest, yet firm in his convictions and steadfast in
purpose, he was alike faithful in his public and private relations, and
maintained a character admirable for its virtue and purity, its integrity,
gentleness, serenity, and generosity. There is an excellent portrait of
him in the State Library at Richmond.