University of Virginia Library

EXECUTIVES OF VIRGINIA, 1606-1889.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

For a due understanding of the status of the several and successive
executives of Virginia from its settlement, some explanation seems necessary.
It may be thus concisely given: By the charter of the London
Company for Virginia, from King James the First, of England, dated
April the 10th, 1606, under which colonization was first effected, the chief
direction of the affairs of the colony was vested in a Council in England,
appointed by the King. They, in turn, named the resident Councillors
in the Colony—each body electing its Executive or President. This plan
was modified somewhat under a second charter granted the Company
May the 23d, 1609, by which it was empowered to choose the Supreme
Council in England, and under its instructions and regulations a Governor
was provided, invested with absolute civil and military authority,
with the title of "Governor and Captain General of Virginia." The
resident Council was still retained. In the absence of the Governor-in-Chief,
authority was vested in an appointed Deputy, or Lieutenant-Governor,
or, in the absence of such officer, in the President of the
Council. Upon the annulling of the charter of the London Company,
and its dissolution July the 15th, 1624, the King henceforth appointed
the Governor-in-Chief, who, however, but rarely resided in the Colony,
his functions there being exercised by a Deputy, or Lieutenant-Governor.
The resident Council was continued, being appointed by the King on
the recommendation of the Governor, or Lieutenant-Governor. This
mode obtained whilst Virginia remained a British Colony. The salary
of the resident Governor in 1670, then Sir William Berkeley, was
£1,200. In 1754 the salary of the Governor-in-Chief was £2,000, of
which he retained £1,200, paying his Deputy, the Lieutenant-Governor
residing in Virginia, £800. Upon the rupture with the

mother country, Lord Dunmore, the last royal Governor, having fled
from Williamsburg, the seat of government, in June, 1775, a recently
dissolved Assembly met in Convention in the town of Richmond, July
the 17th following, and organized a provisional form of government and
plan of defence, with a Committee of Safety consisting of Edmund Pendleton,
George Mason, John Page, Richard Bland, Thomas Ludwell
Lee, Paul Carrington, Dudley Digges, James Mercer, Carter Braxton,
William Cabell and John Tabb. A succeeding general Convention met
by appointment at Williamsburg, May the 6th, 1776, and on the 29th
of June following adopted a State Constitution which provided a Council
of State, and a Governor, with a salary of £1,000, to be elected annually
by a joint ballot of the Assembly. It is of interest to note in exhibition
of the depreciation of the currency of the period that the salary of the
Governor was successively increased until in October, 1779, it was made
£7,500, and in May, 1780, because of the instability of the currency,
was fixed in the primitive medium of Virginia and paid in 60,000 pounds
of tobacco. In November, 1781, the amount was restored to £1,000,
payable in specie, and this, or its equivalent in decimal currency —
$3,333.33⅓—continued to be the salary until by act of the Assembly of
June the 5th, 1852, it was increased to $5,000. In 1781 the term of
the Governor was made three years. Under the amended Constitution of
Virginia, of 1851, the Council of State was abolished and the Governor
made elective by popular vote. Upon the surrender by General R. E.
Lee, of the Confederate Army, April the 9th, 1865, Virginia was under
martial law until May the 9th following, when, under proclamation of
President Andrew Johnson, Governor Francis H. Pierpoint assumed the
government, which he held, provisionally, until April the 16th, 1868,
when he was superseded by Henry H. Wells, under the military appointment
of General John M. Schofield, commanding the First Military
District, comprising Virginia. A State Convention met at Richmond
in December, 1867, and framed a new Constitution, which, having been
adopted by a vote of the people on the 6th of July, 1869, the State was
re-admitted to the Union, and a Governor—Gilbert C. Walker—elected,
who took his seat January the 1st, 1870, for a term of four years.

EXECUTIVES.

                                                                                                                                       

1606,			—Sir Thomas Smyth, or Smith, first President of the Council of the London Company, and its Treasurer.
1607,	April	26	—Captain Edward Maria Wingfield, President of the Council in Virginia.
1607,	Sept.	10	—Captain John Ratcliffe, President of the Council in Virginia.
1608,	Sept.	7	—Captain John Smith, President of the Council in Virginia.
(1609,	May	23	—Sir Thomas West, Earl De La Warr, or Delaware, appointed "Governor and Captain General;" did not reach the Colony until June 10th, 1610, the resident executives in the interim being as follows:)
1609,	August		—Captain George Percy, President of the Council in Virginia.
1610,	May	23	—Sir Thomas Gates, Lieutenant-General and Deputy Governor.
1610,	June	10	—Earl De La Warr, Governor and Captain General.
1611,	Mar.	28	—Captain George Percy, President of the Council.
1611,	May	19	—Sir Thomas Dale, "High Marshall" and Acting Governor.
1611,	August		—Sir Thomas Gates, Acting Governor.
1613,	March		—Sir Thomas Dale, Acting Governor.
1616,	April		—Captain George Yeardley, Deputy or Lieutenant-Governor.
1617,	May	15	—Captain Samuel Argall, Deputy or Lieutenant-Governor.
1619,	April	9	—Captain Nathaniel Powell, President of the Council in Virginia.
1619,	April	19	—Sir George Yeardley, who had been knighted and appointed Governor and Captain General, Nov. 18, 1618, arrived in the Colony.
1621,	Nov.	8	—Sir Francis Wyatt, Governor and Captain General.
1626,	May	17	—Sir George Yeardley (commissioned March 4th), Governor and Captain General. Died November, 1627.
1627,	Nov.	14	—Captain Francis West, President of the Council.
(1628,	Mar.	26	—Sir John Harvey, appointed Governor and Captain General, but did not arrive until later. In the interim, as follows:)
1629,	Mar.	5	—Doctor John Pott, President of the Council.
1630,	March		—Sir John Harvey, Governor and Captain General, "thrust out of his government" by the people, but re-commissioned by King Charles I., January 11, 1635. Until his arrival April 2, 1636, the executive was:
1635,	April	28	—Captain John West, President of the Council.
1636,	April	2	—Sir John Harvey, Governor and Captain General.
1639,	Nov.		—Sir Francis Wyatt, Governor and Captain General.
1642,	Feb.		—Sir William Berkeley, who had been commissioned Aug. 9, 1641, arrived as Governor and Captain General.
1644,	June		—Richard Kempe, President of the Council, Acting Governor during the absence of Sir Wm. Berkeley in England.
1645,	June		—Sir William Berkeley, Governor.
1652,	April	30	—Richard Bennet, Acting Governor under the Commonwealth of Cromwell.
1655,	March		—Edward Digges, President of the Council under the Commonwealth of Cromwell.
1658,	Mar.	13	—Captain Samuel Matthews, President of the Council under the Commonwealth of Cromwell until January, 1660, from which time the Colony was without a Governor until the election, by the Assembly,
1660,	Mar.	23	—Of Sir William Berkeley, as Governor. He was commissioned as such by Charles II., July 31, 1660.
1661,	April	30	—Col. Francis Morryson, Deputy or Lieutenant-Governor.
1662,	fall of,		—Sir William Berkeley, Governor.
(1675,	July	8	—Thomas Lord Culpeper appointed Governor and Captain General for life—died in 1719. Until his arrival:)
1677,	April	27	—Herbert Jeffreys, appointed Governor Oct. 9, 1676, (with Captain Robert Walter as his Deputy, who died Oct. 10, 1676); commissioned Lieutenant-Governor Nov. 11, 1676. Died Dec., 1678.
1678,	Dec.	30	—Sir Henry Chicheley, Deputy Governor.
1680,	May	10	—Thomas Lord Culpeper, Governor and Captain General.
1683,	Sept.	17	—Nicholas Spencer, President of the Council.
1684,	April	16	—Francis Lord Howard, Baron Effingham, Lieutenant-Governor; commissioned Sept 28, 1683.
1688,	Oct.	20	—Nathaniel Bacon, President of the Council.
1690,			Sir Lionel Copley, Governor.
1690,	Oct.	16	—Col. Francis Nicholson, Lieutenant-Governor.
1693,	Oct.	16	—Sir Edmund Andros, who had been commissioned Governor March 1, 1693.
1698,	Dec.	9	—Col. Francis Nicholson, Lieutenant-Governor; commissioned July 20th, 1698.
(1704,			—George Hamilton Douglas, Earl of Orkney, commissioned Governor-in-Chief; never came to Virginia; died July 29th, 1737.)
1705,	Aug.	15	—Edward Nott, Lieutenant-Governor; died Aug., 1706.
1706,	August		—Edmund Jenings, President of the Council.
(1707,	April	4	—Col. Robert Hunter, commissioned as Lieutenant-Governor, but being captured by the French on his voyage for Virginia, and conveyed to France, never acted.)
1710,	June	23	—Col. Alexander Spotswood, Lieutenant-Governor.
1722,	Sept.	27	—Hugh Drysdale; died July 22, 1726.
1726,	July	22	—Robert Carter, President of the Council.
1727,	Oct.	23	—William Gooch (subsequently knighted), Lieutenant-Governor.
(1737,			—William Anne Keppel, Second Earl of Albemarle; appointed Governor-in-Chief Sept. 6, 1737; died Dec. 23, 1754.)
1740,			—Between Sept. 16th and Dec. 5th, as indicated by land patents, signed respectively by Sir Wm. Gooch and James Blair, D. D., the latter, as President of the Council, was Acting Governor during the absence of Sir Wm. Gooch in command of the expedition against Carthagena. The last patent signed by James Blair was on July 25, 1741.
1741,	July		—Sir William Gooch, Lieutenant-Governor.
1749,	June	20	—John Robinson, President of the Council.
1749,	Sept.	5	—Thomas Lee, President of the Council; died 1751.
1751,	Feb.	12	—Lewis Burwell, President of the Council.
1751,	Nov.	20	—Robert Dinwiddie, Lieutenant-Governor.
(1756,	July		—John Campbell, Earl of Loudon, appointed Governor-in-Chief, and though he came to New York, was never in Virginia.)
1758,	January		—John Blair, President of the Council.
1758,	June	7	—Francis Fauquier, Lieutenant-Governor; appointed Feb. 10, 1758.
(1763,			—Sir Jeffrey Amherst appointed Governor-in-Chief.)
1767,	Sept.	11	—John Blair, President of the Council.
1768,	Oct.	28	—Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt, Governor-in-Chief; died Oct. 15, 1770.
1770,	Oct.	15	—William Nelson, President of the Council.
1771,	August		—John Murray, Earl Dunmore, Governor-in-Chief; appointed July, 1771; fled, June, 1775, from the seat of Government.

GOVERNORS UNDER THE STATE CONSTITUTION, ETC.

                                                                                         

1776,	June	29	—Patrick Henry.
1779,	June	1	—Thomas Jefferson.
1781,	June	12	—Thomas Nelson, Jr.; resigned.
1781,	Nov.	20	—Benjamin Harrison.
1784,	Nov.	29	—Patrick Henry.
1786,	Dec.	1	—Edmund Randolph.
1788,	Dec.	1	—Beverley Randolph.
1791,	Dec.	1	—Henry Lee.
1794,	Dec.	1	—Robert Brooke.
1796,	Dec.	1	—James Wood.
1799,	Dec.	1	—James Monroe.
1802,	Dec.	1	—John Page.
1805,	Dec.	1	—William H. Cabell.
1808,	Dec.	1	—John Tyler.
1811,	Jan.	11	—James Monroe; appointed Secretary of State of the United States, Nov. 25, 1811.
1811,	Nov.	25	—George William Smith, Lieutenant-Governor, and Acting Governor; died Dec. 26, 1811.
1811,	Dec.	26	—Peyton Randolph, Senior Member of Council of State.
1812,	Jan.	3	—James Barbour, Governor.
1814,	Dec.	1	—Wilson Cary Nicholas.
1816,	Dec.	1	—James P. Preston.
1819,	Dec.	1	—Thomas Mann Randolph.
1822,	Dec.	1	—James Pleasants, Jr.
1825,	Dec.	1	—John Tyler.
1827,	March		—William B. Giles.
1830,	March		—John Floyd.
1834,	March		—Littleton Waller Tazewell; resigned April 30, 1836.
1836,	April	30	—Wyndham Robertson, Lieutenant-Governor.
1837,	March		—David Campbell.
1840,	March		—Thomas Walker Gilmer; resigned to take his seat as a Member of Congress.
1841,	March		—John Rutherfoord, Lieutenant-Governor.
1842,	March		—John M. Gregory, Lieutenant-Governor.
1843,	January		—James McDowell, Governor.
1846,	January		—William Smith.
1849,	January		—John B. Floyd.
1851,	Jan.	1	—Joseph Johnson.
1856,	January		—Henry Alexander Wise.
1860,	January		—John Letcher.
1864,	January		—William Smith.
1865,	May	9	—Francis H. Pierpoint.
1868,	April	16	—Henry H. Wells.
1870,	Jan.	1	—Gilbert C. Walker.
1874,	Jan.	1	—James L. Kemper.
1878,	Jan.	1	—Frederick W. M. Holliday.
1882,	Jan.	1	—William E. Cameron.
1886,	Jan.	1	—Fitzhugh Lee.

SIR THOMAS SMITH.

Sir Thomas Smith, an eminent merchant of London, and the chief of
the assignees of the patents of Sir Walter Raleigh, was the first President
of the Council of the London Company of Virginia, and its treasurer

SIR THOS SMITH

First Treasurer of the Virginia Company

until the close of the year 1618, when he was succeeded by Sir
Edwin Sandys, who was succeeded by his brother, George Sandys, who
came to Virginia and completed, on the banks of the James river, a
translation of the Metamorphoses of Ovid, the first English book prepared
in America, which was published in London in 1621. The portrait
of George Sandys appears in this work. Sir Thomas Smith was a
man of ability, and evidently an astute politician. He is stated by the
historian, Rev. E. D. Neill, to have been embassador to Russia, but it is
probable that the envoy was another of the same name and title, who
died Nov. 28, 1609.

EDWARD MARIA WINGFIELD.

Edward Maria Wingfield, the first President of the Council in Virginia,
was a man of gentle birth and honorable record, who had been a companion
of Ferdinando Gorges in the European wars, subsequently served
in the English army in Ireland, it is presumed with the rank of captain,
as he is so designated in the "List of Adventurers," and, later, had been
a merchant in London. Because of disagreements in the Colony, he returned
to England in 1608. He wrote "A Discourse of Virginia,"
which was first printed in 1860 by the American Antiquarian Society,
with an introduction and notes by Charles Deane, LL.D.

JOHN RATCLIFFE.

Captain John Ratcliffe was President of the Colony from September 10,
1607, to September 7, 1608, when, suffering from a wounded hand and
enfeebled by sickness, he went to England, but returned in command of
the "Diamond," with colonists, in July, of the following year.

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH

A biographical notice of Captain John Smith, President of the Colony
from September 7, 1608, to August, 1609, will be found in the historical
sketch of Virginia, in the second volume of Virginia and Virginians.
He has been justly termed "the father of Virginia."

CAPTAIN GEORGE PERCY.

Captain George Percy, a younger brother of Henry, Earl of Northumberland,
President of the Colony of Virginia from August, 1609, to
May 23, 1610, and from March 28, 1611, to May 19, 1611, and sometime
its faithful treasurer, was born September 4, 1586, and died, unmarried,
in March, 1632. He was "a gentleman of honor and resolution,"
and had served with distinction in the wars of the Low Countries,

and his soldierly qualities were evidenced in the Colony as a leader against
the Indians, as well as his administrative ability as the successor of John
Smith. The portrait of him given in this work is from a faithful copy
of the original at Syon House, the seat of the Duke of Northumberland,
made, in 1853, for the Virginia Historical Society. A mutilated hand in
the portrait, it is said, was the result of a wound received in battle.

LORD DE LA WARR.

Sir Thomas West, third Lord De La Warr (or Delaware, as the name
now obtains in America), the first resident Governor-in-Chief of the
Colony of Virginia, and the descendant of a long line of noble ancestry,
was born about the year 1579. His relatives and family connections,
who were closely allied with royalty, were among the most active and
influential agents of American colonization. The Virginia colony being
in a languishing condition, the London Company obtained, May 23,
1609, a second charter, with enlarged privileges and territory, and, under
it, Lord De La Warr received the appointment of "Governor and
Captain General of Virginia" for life. He is contemporaneously characterized
as "one of approved courage, temper and experience," and as
"religious, wise, and of a valorous mind." The newly organized Company
embraced an imposing representation of rank, wealth and influence,
and to the "example, constancy and resolution" of Lord De
La Warr is ascribed this revival of "that which was almost lifeless."

The new Governor arrived at Jamestown, June 10, 1610, and immediately
instituted vigorous measures for the recuperation of the drooping
settlement. The church at Jamestown was repaired and religious
services regularly held; two forts were built on the Southampton river, and
called after the King's sons, Henry and Charles, respectively. The administration
of Lord De La Warr, though ludicrously ostentatious for so
insignificant a dominion, was yet highly wholesome, and under his judicious
discipline the settlement was restored to order and contentment.
His health failing, Lord De La Warr sailed March 28, 1611, for the
Island of Mevis, for the benefit of the warm baths, leaving his colony in
the charge of Captain George Percy. His health improving somewhat, he
desired to return to his government in Virginia, but was overruled by
medical advice, and sailed for England instead. His generous exertions for
the welfare of the Colony here continued were most assiduous, and were
largely instrumental in the frequent procurement for it of new supplies,
and in securing a third and yet more advantageous charter for the
Company, which was granted by the King, March 12, 1611-12. Lord
De La Warr set sail from England to return to Virginia some time in
March or April, 1618, but unfortunately died in or near Delaware Bay,
on the 7th of June following, sealing his devotion to the Colony

with his life, after having dissipated his fortune in the advancement of
its interests. The portrait of Lord De La Warr given in this work is
from a photograph of the original at Buckhurst Park, in the county of
Sussex, England, the seat of the present Earl De La Warr, and was
furnished by Hon. L. S. Sackville West, a younger brother of the Earl
and the present British minister at Washington, D. C. He prepared a
"Relation" of the planting of his Colony in Virginia, which was published
at London in 1611. It was reprinted (50 copies) in 1859,
and again by R. W. Griswold (20 copies) in 1868. A letter from Lord
De La Warr, July 7, 1610, from the Harleian manuscript, is printed in
the Hakluyt Society's edition of Strachey, p. xxiii.

SIR THOMAS GATES.

Sir Thomas Gates, a patentee named in the first charter to the Virginia
Company, was a Captain in the English army, and, by leave,
served in the United Netherlands in 1608. He sailed for Virginia with
the title of Lieutenant-General, accompanied by his wife and daughters,
June 1, 1609, in the "Sea Venture," with colonists and supplies. The
vessel being shipwrecked on the Bermudas, they were detained there some
months, during which the wife of Gates died. He arrived at Jamestown
May 23, 1609, and assumed the government of the Colony until
the arrival of Lord De La Warr on the 10th of June following. Gates
was sent to England the same year, and returned to the Colony with
supplies in August, 1611. He remained as Governor until March, 1613,
when he finally departed for England. He is mentioned subsequently
as being present at a meetimg of the Virginia Company, held in
London, July 13, 1619.

SIR THOMAS DALE.

Thomas Dale, a soldier of distinction in the Low Countries, was
knighted by King James the First in June, 1608, as Sir Thomas Dale of
Surrey. He sailed with the appointment of "high marshall" from
England, for Virginia, March 17, 1611, arrived at Jamestown on the
19th of May following, and superseded Captain George Percy in the
government of the Colony. The States-General soon after gave him a
three years' leave of absence, which, in 1614, was extended. Under an
extraordinary code of "Lawes, Divine, Morall and Martial," compiled by
William Strachey, Dale inaugurated vigorous measures for the government
and advancement of the Colony. He planted a new settlement at
Henrico, remedied to some extent the pernicious system of a community
of property by allotting to each settler three acres of land to be worked
for his individual benefit; planted "comon gardens for hemp and flaxe,
and such other seedes," and conquered the Appomattox Indians and took

their town. He was superseded by Sir Thomas Gates in August, 1611,
but continued to take an active part in the affairs of the Colony; and
on Gates' return to England in March, 1613, he resumed the government.
It was under his auspices that the marriage of John Rolfe and
Pocahontas was consummated, and this politic example he singularly
attempted to follow himself, though he had a wife living in England.
He sent Ralph Hamor (who had been Secretary of the Council under
Lord De La Warr) to Powhatan, with a request for the younger sister
of Pocahontas, a girl scarce twelve years of age, but his overtures were
disdainfully rejected.

Dale returned to England in April, 1616. He was in Holland in February,
1617, and in January, 1619, was made Commodore of the East
Indian fleet, and had an engagement with the Dutch near Bantam.
His health gave way under the climate and he died early in 1620.

SIR GEORGE YEARDLEY.

Captain George Yeardley, as President of the Council, was left by
Dale as his Deputy in the government of Virginia, upon the departure
of the latter for England in April, 1616. Yeardley was superseded by
Captain Samuel Argall, May 15, 1617, and returned to England. Upon
the intelligence of the death of Lord De La Warr, Yeardley, who was
knighted on the occasion, was appointed to succeed him. He arrived in
the Colony April 19, 1619, and assumed the government. On July 30th
following the first representative legislative assembly ever held in
America was convened at Jamestown. Yeardley was superseded November
18, 1621, by Sir Francis Wyatt, but resumed the government May
17, 1626. He died in November following. During his administration
many important improvements were made, and the power, population
and prosperity of the Colony much enhanced.

He is reported in January, 1622, as having built a windmill, the first
erected in America. He left a widow, Lady Temperance, and two sons,
Francis and Argall, the first of whom remarkably instanced individual
enterprise, effecting, in 1654, discoveries in North Carolina, and purchasing
from the natives at a cost of £300, "three great rivers and all such
others as they should like Southerly," which country he took possession
of in the name of the Commonwealth. Sir George Yeardley has representative
descendants of the name in the United States, but it is not known
to the writer that such exist in Virginia.

SIR SAMUEL ARGALL.

Captain Samuel Argall, born at Bristol, England, in 1572, was a relative
of Sir Thomas Smith, the Treasurer of the Virginia Company. He

first arrived in Virginia at Jamestown in July, 1609, with a ship-load
of wine and provisions to trade on private account, and to fish for sturgeon
contrary to the regulations of the Company. The colonists, suffering
for provisions, seized his supplies. Argall remained in the Colony
until June 19, 1610, when he sailed in the "Discovery" for the Bermudas
for provisions for the Colony, in company with the vessel of Sir George
Somers, from whom, however, he was soon separated in a violent storm.
Being driven northward, he came to anchor in a great bay, which he
named Delaware Bay. He soon made his way back to Jamestown, and
about Christmas, sailing up the Potomac to trade with the natives, recovered
from Jopassus, a brother of Powhatan, a captive English boy,
Henry Spelman, who afterward wrote a narrative of his captivity, which
was printed from the original manuscript by J. F. Hunnewell in 1872.

In February, 1611, Argall attacked the chief of the Warroskoyaks for
a breach of contract, and burned two of his towns. Early in 1613 he
bribed Jopassus with a brass kettle to deliver Pocahontas into his hands,
designing to hold her for a ransom.

In 1614, under orders from Sir Thomas Dale, Argall broke up the
French settlement at Mt. Desert, on the coast of Maine, causing a war
between the French and English colonists. He also destroyed the French
settlements at St. Croix and Port Royal. He now sailed for England,
where he arrived in June, 1614. He returned to Virginia as Deputy
Governor, May 15, 1617, with a purpose to traffic in violation of the
laws he was to administer. He found "the market place, streets, and
other spare places in Jamestown planted in tobacco," so alluring to the
colonists was the profit yielded by the weed. He enacted severe sumptuary
laws, and by his arbitrary conduct rendered himself odious. He was
recalled, and Sir George Yeardley appointed in his place, but, before the
arrival of the latter, Argall secretly stole away from the Colony. Called to
account for his misconduct, he was shielded from punishment by his trading
partner, the Earl of Warwick. In 1620 he was a captain in the expedition
against the Algerines; was knighted by James I. in 1623, and
in 1625 was engaged in Cecil's expedition against the Spanish. He died
in 1639. An account of his voyage from Jamestown in 1610, and his
letter respecting his voyage to Virginia in 1617, are preserved in Purchas.
After the death of Lord De La Warr, Argall took charge of his
estate; and letters of Lady De La Warr are in existence accusing him
of the most flagrant and barefaced peculation

CAPTAIN NATHANIEL POWELL.

Captain Nathaniel Powell, of the Council, was Acting Governor of the
Colony from the departure of Argall, April 9, 1619, until the 19th inst.,

when Governor Yeardley arrived. Powell, with his wife and eleven
others, was slain at his plantation, "Powle Brooke," by the savages, in the
memorable massacre of March 22, 1622.

SIR FRANCIS WYATT.

The father of Sir Francis was George Wyatt, and his mother was a
daughter of Sir Thomas Finch. His sister Eleanora married Sir John
Finch; and his wife was a daughter of Samuel Sandys. Sir Francis
arrived in Virginia in October, 1621, with an appointment to relieve
Governor Yeardley (whose term expired November 18th) at the request
of the latter. Sir Francis was accompanied by his brother, Rev. Hunt
Wyatt, Dr. John Pott, physician (afterward Acting Governor of the
Colony), William Claiborne (subsequently prominent, and designated in
history as "the rebel") as surveyor, and George Sandys, treasurer, who
during his stay translated the Metamorphoses of Ovid and the First Book
of Virgil's Æneid. This first Anglo-American poetical production was
published in London in 1626. Sir Francis brought with him a new constitution
for the Colony, granted July 24th, by which all former immunities
and franchises were confirmed. Trial by jury was first secured,
and an annual assembly provided. During the administration of Wyatt,
which was judicious, occurred the Indian massacre of March 22, 1622,
in which three hundred and forty-seven of the colonists fell victims; and
on the 16th of June, 1624, the charter of the Virginia Company was
annulled. The death of his father, Sir George Wyatt, in 1626, calling
Sir Francis to Ireland to attend to his private affairs, he was succeeded
in the government of Virginia by Sir George Yeardley. Sir Francis
was re-appointed Governor in November, 1639, but was relieved by Sir
William Berkeley in February, 1642. He died at Bexley, Kent, England
in 1644.

CAPTAIN FRANCIS WEST.

Captain Francis West, a younger brother of Lord De La Warr, arrived
in the Colony in September, 1608. He is said by the historian
Neill to have married a widow in the Colony; no issue is mentioned.
He was long a member of the Council, and in 1622 held the appointment
of Admiral of New England. He owned lands near "Westover," James
River, famed as the seat of the Byrds. He was Acting Governor of Virginia
from the death of Sir George Yeardley, November 14, 1627, until his
departure for England, March 5, 1629, when he was succeeded by Dr.
John Pott. He must have returned to Virginia, as his name appears as
a member of the Council in 1632-3. By a tradition in the family he is
said to have been drowned; when, it is not stated.

DOCTOR JOHN POTT.

Doctor John Pott, who accompanied Sir Francis Wyatt to Virginia as
physician, arriving in October, 1621, as President of the Council succeeded
Captain Francis West in the Government of Virginia upon the
departure of the latter for England. Pott was superseded by the arrival
of Sir John Harvey in March, 1630, and in July following by a strange
mutation of fortune, the late Governor was tried for cattle-stealing and
convicted. This was the first trial by jury in the Colony.

SIR JOHN HARVEY.

John Harvey was commissioned Governor of the Colony March 26,
1628, and knighted soon after. He had been one of the Commissioners
sent in 1623 to procure evidence to be used against the Virginia Company
to secure the annulling of the charter, and was a member of the
provisional government in 1625. He arrived in Virginia in March, 1630.
He was one of the most rapacious, tyrannical and unpopular of the
royal governors, and in the contest of Colonel William Claiborne with
George Calvert, of Maryland, for the possession of Kent Island, Harvey—actuated,
it was charged, by motives of private interest—sided with
Maryland in the disputes, and rendered himself so obnoxious that an
assembly was called for the 7th of May, 1635, to hear complaints against
him. Before it met, however, he consented to go to England to answer
the charges. He was remstated by Charles I. as Governor, by commission
dated April 2, 1634, but in November, 1639, was displaced by Sir Francis
Wyatt.

CAPTAIN JOHN WEST.

Captain John West, a younger brother of Lord De La Warr, and
long a member of the Council, succeeded Sir John Harvey when the
latter was "thrust out of his Government" April 28, 1635. He was
superseded by Sir John Harvey, April 2, 1636. He remained in Virginia,
and has many worthy descendants in Virginia in honored family
names. In March 1659-60, the House of Burgesses passed an act acknowledging
"the many important favors and services rendered to the
country of Virginia by the noble family of the West, predecessors to
Mr. John West, their now only survivor."

SIR WILLIAM BERKELEY.

Sir William Berkeley, the son of Sir Maurice, and brother of Lord
John Berkeley of Stratton, was born near London about 1610. He
graduated M. A., at Oxford, in 1629, traveled extensively in Europe in

PEYTON RANDOLPH,

First Speaker of the Continental Congress.

From the original in the possession of Peyton
Johnston, Esq., Richmond.

1630, and returned an accomplished courtier and cavalier. He was commissioned
Governor of Virginia, August 9, 1641, and arrived in the
Colony in February, 1642, and by some salutary measures as well as by
his prepossessing manners, rendered himself acceptable to the colonists.
On the 18th of April, 1644, a second Indian massacre occurred in the
Colony. The number of the victims has been variously stated as three
and five hundred. During a visit of Berkeley to England from June,
1644, to June, 1645, his place was filled by Richard Kempe, a member
of the Council, and who had been its Secretary. During the civil war
in England, Berkeley took the royal side, and Virginia was the last of the
English possessions which acknowledged the authority of Cromwell. He
manifested shrewdness as well as courage when the fleet of parliament
appeared in James River in 1651, and made terms satisfactory to both
parties. He was superseded in the Government, according to Hening,
April 30, 1652, by Richard Bennet, but there are grants of land of record
in the Virginia Land Registry, signed by Bennet in January, 1652.

He was re-elected Governor by the Assembly March 23, 1660, and
commissioned by Charles II., July 31, 1660. He was sent, April 30,
1661, by the Colony to England to protest against the enforcement of the
Navigation Act, Colonel Francis Morrison acting as Governor until
Berkeley's return in the fall of 1662.

Berkeley lost popularity with the colonists by his extreme severity
towards the followers of Nathanial Bacon, whose so-called "rebellion"
had been occasioned by Berkeley's own faithlessness and obstinacy.
Twenty-three of the participants were executed, and Berkeley was only
restrained from the further shedding of blood by the remonstrance of the
Assembly.

Charles II. is reported to have said: "The old fool has taken more
lives in his naked country than I have taken for my father's murder."
Through the influence of the planters, Berkeley was recalled, and died at
Twickenham, July 9, 1677, before he could have an interview with the
King. Berkeley in his reply to commissioners, sent to inquire into the
condition of the Colony, said, "Thank God! there are no free schools or
printing presses, and I hope there will be none for a hundred years; for
learning has brought disobedience and heresy and sects into the world,
and printing has divulged these and other `libels.' " He wrote two plays,
and is the author of "A Description of Virginia," folio, 1663. His
widow, Lady Frances Berkeley, who had before been Dame Stephens,
and whose maiden name was Culpeper, married thirdly, Philip Ludwell
of "Green Spring," Virginia, long the secretary of the Colony.

RICHARD KEMPE.

Richard Kempe appears as a Member of the Council of Virginia in
1642, and as its President, in June, 1644, upon the departure of Sir

William Berkeley for England, became the acting Governor of the
colony. It is notable that during his incumbency the first fast and thanksgiving
days in the Colony of which any record is preserved, were ordered.
"Att James Cittye the 17th of February, 1644-5," it was "enacted by
the Governour, Counsell and Burgesses of this present Grand Assembly,
for God's glory and the publick benefit of the collony to the end that
God might avert his heavie judgments that are now vpon vs, That the
last Wednesday in every month be sett apart for a day of ffast and
humiliation, And that it be wholly dedicated to prayers and preaching,"
also, "That the eighteenth day of April be yearly celebrated by
thanksgivings for our deliverance from the hands of the Salvages."
[Referring to the recent massacre by the Indians.] (Hening's Statutes,
I., pp. 289, 290.)

Sir William Berkeley, returning in June, 1645, resumed the government
of Virginia, but Richard Kempe continued to serve the colony as a
member of the Council until 1648, and perhaps later, latterly as the Secretary
of the body. He died sometime before 1678. William Kempe,
probably a kinsman, was a Burgess from Elizabeth City County in
1630. The name is a highly respected one in Virginia, and the parish
records of Middlesex county present frequent representatives among the
lists of vestrymen.

RICHARD BENNET.

Richard Bennet, who is mentioned as being "one of Lord Arlington's
family," was a merchant, and appears as a Burgess from "Warrosquoyeake"
in October, 1629. He was a Member of the Council in 1642.
A Puritan in religious belief, he fled into the province of Maryland in
1643 to escape persecution. From thence he went to London, and in
September, 1651, returned to Virginia with the appointment from the
Parliamentary Government as one of the Commissioners to effect the
reduction of the royal colony of Virginia, the remaining Commissioners
being Captain Robert Dennis, Thomas Stegge (an uncle of the
first William Byrd, of "Westover"), and Colonel William Claiborne,
"the rebel." Bennet was elected Governor of the Colony by the
Assembly, April 30, 1652, and was continued in office until March 30,
1655, when he was sent to England as the Agent of Virginia to represent
its interests before Parliament. In 1666 he commanded the
militia of three of the four military districts into which Virginia was
divided, with the rank of Major-General. The remaining district was
commanded by the Governor, Sir William Berkeley. In 1667 Major-General
Bennet served as a Commissioner to Maryland to regulate the
cultivation of tobacco. He was a member of the Council as late as
1674, and is presumed to have died soon after this period. He owned
the plantations "Weyanoak" and "Kicotan," on James River. His
daughter Anne (died November, 1687) married Theodrick Bland, of

"Westover," (born January 16, 1629; died August, 1669) and their
descendants, in the honored names of Randolph, Lee, Harrison, Beverley
and others, have been and are among the most worthy people of
Virginia.

EDWARD DIGGES.

Edward Digges, a younger son of Sir Dudley Digges, of Chilham,
County Kent, England, Knight and Baronet, and Master of the Rolls in
the reign of Charles the First, was born in 1620. He was appointed
a member of the Council November 22, 1654, and was elected by the
Assembly Governor of Virginia March 30, 1655, to succeed Governor
Bennet, and served until March 13, 1658, when he was sent to England
as one of the agents of the colony. He married Elizabeth Bray,
and died March 15, 1675. In the epitaph upon his tomb at the family
seat, "Bellefield," distant eight miles from Williamsburg, he is
described as "a gentleman of most considerable parts and ingenuity,
and the only promoter of the silk manufacture in this colonie, and in
everything else a pattern worthy of all pious imitation." He left six
sons and seven daughters, whose blood now intermingles in the best
esteemed families of the State. Several of his sons were prominent in
the affairs of the colony, one of them, Dudley, being long a member
of the Council, as was also his grandson, Cole Digges.

COLONEL SAMUEL MATTHEWS.

Samuel Matthews, who is termed "an ancient planter," was a member
of the Council as early as 1629. In March, 1630, he built the fort
at Point Comfort, James River. He served continuously in the Council,
or Assembly, and latterly as County-Lieutenant of Warwick County,
deriving thence his title of Lieutenant-Colonel. In 1656 he was sent
as one of the agents of the colony to England, and on March 13, 1658,
was elected by the Assembly Governor to succeed Edward Digges. He
was an honest, energetic and capable servant of the colony, and his
death, which occurred in January, 1660, was universally lamented.
The colony was now without a Governor until the 23d of March, when
Sir William Berkeley was elected by the Assembly. There are highly
esteemed descendants of Governor Matthews in Virginia, one of them
being James M. Matthews, Esq., of Richmond, late the able Reporter
of the Court of Appeals of the State.

COLONEL FRANCIS MORRYSON, OR MORRISON.

Major Francis Morryson, or Morrison, embarked from London with
his brother loyalists, Colonel Henry Norwood and Major Richard Fox,

for Virginia, September 23, 1649, and arrived in the colony in November
following. They were kindly received by Sir William Berkeley,
the Governor, whe gave Morrison the command of the fort at Point
Comfort. He became a member of the Council, and it is presumed
County-Lieutenant of James City County, since his later designation was
Colonel. He was Speaker of the House of Burgesses in 1656, and from
April 30, 1661, to sometime in the fall of the following year (during
the absence of Sir William Berkeley in England), Governor of Virginia,
March 26, 1663, he was sent to England as the agent of the colony, with
an annual salary of £200. The records do not evidence that he ever
returned to Virginia. He married Cecilia, the sister of Giles Rawlins,
who died during her residence in Virginia, and she petitioned afterward
for a share in the distribution of his estate.

HERBERT JEFFREYS.

Colonel Herbert Jeffreys was commissioned Governor of the Colony
of Virginia, October 9, 1676, and Captain Robert Walter appointed his
Deputy the following day, but the latter died without entering upon
office, and Jeffreys was recommissioned Lieutenant-Governor, November
11, 1676. He entered upon his office, April 27, 1677. He effected a
treaty of peace with the Indians (who had long held the Colony in
terror) by which each town agreed to pay three arrows for their land,
and twenty beaver skins annually for protection. Jeffreys died December
30, 1678, and was succeeded by Sir Henry Chicheley.

SIR HENRY CHICHELEY.

Sir Henry Chicheley is first mentioned in Virginia in November, 1649,
as the guest of Captain Ralph Wormeley, of "Rosegill," Middlesex
County (afterwards Clerk of Lancaster County), whose widow, Agatha,
he married sometime before 1667. In 1656 he was a Burgess from
Lancaster County, and in 1674, a member of the Council. In March,
1676, he was appointed commander of the forces to be sent against the
Indians, but the forces were disbanded before marching by Sir William
Berkeley. He became Deputy Governor of Virginia, December 30,
1678, upon the death of Governor Herbert Jeffreys, under a commission
dated February 28, 1674, and served until the arrival of Lord Culpeper,
March 10, 1680, but he continued to act as Deputy Governor during the
absence of Lord Culpeper until 1683. Sir Henry Chicheley died sometime
after 1692, and was buried at Christ Church in Middlesex
County. His descendants intermarried with the Corbin, Thacker, and
other families, and there are representatives of his own name, as well, in
Virginia at the present day.

LORD CULPEPER.

Thomas, Lord Culpeper, Baron of Thorsway, who had been one of
the Commissioners for Plantations, was on July 8, 1675, appointed by
Charles II., Governor of Virginia for life. He is described as "an
able, but artful and covetous man." Regarding his office doubtless a
sinecure, he lingered in England until a reproof from the King impelled
his departure. He came over to Virginia in 1680, and was sworn into
office May 10th. He brought with him several bills ready prepared for
the consideration of the Assembly, and procured the passage by that
body of several popular acts, including one of "free and general pardon,
indemnitie, and oblivion" for all participants in the recent movement
known as "Bacon's Rebellion."

He had the address, withal, to have the import of two shillings per
hogshead made perpetual, and instead of being accounted for to the
Assembly, as formerly, to be disposed of as his Majesty might deem fit.

He also, notwithstanding the impoverished condition of the Colony,
contrived the enlargement of his salary from one thousand pounds to
upwards of two thousand, besides perquisites amounting to eight hundred
more. He went over to England in August, 1680, leaving Sir Henry
Chicheley as Deputy Governor of the Colony. An act of the Assembly
requiring tobacco for shipment to be laden at established towns, having
created much popular commotion and riotous destruction of tobacco
plant beds, to quell the disaffection Culpeper was commanded to return
to Virginia. He arrived in November, 1682, and as a result of his
measures taken, several of the ring-leaders in the riots were hanged.
One of them, Major Robert Beverley, clerk of the House of Burgesses,
and the father of the Virginia historian of the same name, endured a
lengthy and rigorous imprisonment, and was disfranchised. Culpeper
returned to England September 17, 1683, leaving his kinsman, Nicholas
Spencer, as the executive of the Colony.

Thus, again, quitting his government in violation of his orders, he
was arrested immediately upon his arrival in England, and being found
guilty, also, of receiving presents from the Assembly, a jury of Middlesex
found that he had forfeited his commission. He died in 1719. He was
in 1669 a co-grantee with Henry, Earl of Arlington, of the extensive
territory between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers, Virginia,
known as the "Northern Neck." By purchase, he became sole proprietor;
his daughter, Catherine, sole heiress, married Thomas, fifth Lord Fairfax
and Baron Cameron, and the proprietary descended to their son Thomas,
sixth Lord Fairfax, who established his seat, in Virginia, at "Greenway
Court," Frederick County, where he lived in much state, dispensing
a liberal hospitality. He was the friend and patron of Washington,
whom, at the age of sixteen, in 1748, he employed to survey his lands

west of the Blue Ridge. Lord Fairfax died December 12, 1787, aged
90 years; his barony and immense domain of 5,282,000 acres descending
to his only brother Robert, seventh Lord Fairfax, but as the latter
was in the possession of Lord Thomas during the Revolution, it was
confiscated. The portrait of Lord Culpeper in this work is from a
photograph of a copy in the collections of the Virginia Historical Society,
at Richmond, Va., of the original at Leeds Castle, England, painted by
Andr. Hennemorn in 1664.

NICHOLAS SPENCER.

Colonel Nicholas Spencer, a kinsman of Lord Culpeper, who had been
a member of the Council and its Secretary from 1679, as President became
the acting Governor of Virginia upon the departure of Lord Culpeper
for England, September 17, 1683. He was superseded April 16,
1684, by Lord Effingham. Spencer was still Secretary of the Colony
in 1689, and perhaps served later.

FRANCIS HOWARD, BARON EFFINGHAM.

Francis Howard, Baron Effingham, son of Sir Charles Howard, succeeded
to his title in 1681. He was commissioned Governor of Virginia,
September 28, 1683, and arrived in the Colony and entered upon the
duties of his office, April 16, 1684. He was instructed to prevent the
use of the printing press in Virginia. Owing to the incursions of the Five
Nations upon the frontier of Virginia, it was deemed expedient to treat
with them through the Governor of New York; and for this purpose,
Lord Effingham sailed for Albany the 23d of June, and in July effected
a treaty with the chiefs of the warlike tribes. During Effingham's absence
from Virginia, the Government was administered by Nathaniel
Bacon, Senior, President of the Council.

Effingham, no less avaricious and unscrupulous than his predecessor,
Culpeper, had been, by his tyranny and rapacity aroused a general
spirit of indignation. He prorogued and dissolved the Assembly;
created a new Court of Chancery, making himself a petty lord chancellor;
multiplied fees, and stooped to share them with the clerks, silencing
the victims of his extortions by arbitrary imprisonment. The
prayers for relief of the groaning colonists were at length heard, and
Effingham was recalled, embarking for England, October 20, 1688,
leaving Nathanial Bacon, Senior, President of the Council, in the Government.
Lord Effingham died in England, March 30, 1694.

NATHANIEL BACON.

Nathaniel Bacon, Senior, of the lineage of the celebrated Francis
Bacon, Lord Verulam, and a cousin of Nathaniel Bacon, Junior, known
in history as "the rebel," was born in 1620. He was prominent in the
affairs of the Colony, and held various offices of distinction and trust.
He was County-Lieutenant, or "Commander-in-Chief" of the County
of York; long the auditor of the Colony, and, as his epitaph recites,
a member of the Council "for above forty years." As President of
the body, he was the acting Governor of Virginia from the departure
of Lord Effingham, October 20, 1688, until the arrival of Francis
Nicholson, October 16, 1690. He died March 16, 1693. His wife
was Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Kingsmell, a name corruptly
perpetuated in Kingsmill Wharf, York County, James River. The
tombs of Nathaniel Bacon and his wife, massive marble tablets with
armorial insignia, remained a few years since in the ancient burial
ground near the mouth of King's Creek, York County.

Nathaniel Bacon, Senior, bequeathed his estate to his niece Abigail
(nee Smith), wife of Major Lewis Burwell, as he left no issue. But
of his chivalric kinsman, "the rebel," there are claimed representative
descendants of the present generation.

SIR FRANCIS NICHOLSON.

Colonel Francis Nicholson was by profession a soldier. Lieutenant-Governor
of the Colony of New York under Sir Edmund Andros, he
was at the head of the administration there in 1687-1689, but was driven
thence by a popular outbreak. He came from England to Virginia as
its Lieutenant-Governor in 1690, and relieved President Nathaniel
Bacon, October 16. Courting popularity, he instituted athletic games,
and offered prizes to those who should excel in riding, running, shooting,
wrestling and fencing. He also proposed the establishment of a
post-office, and recommended the erection of a college, heading, with
the Council, a private subscription by which £2500 were raised, and
the result was the charter in February, 1692, of the ancient seat of
learning, William and Mary College.

Nicholson was relieved October 15, 1693, by Sir Edmond Andros,
Governor-in-Chief. Nicholson was now appointed Governor of Maryland,
serving as such until December 9, 1698, when he relieved
Sir Edmond Andros as Governor of Virginia, under a commission,
dated July 20th preceding. Nicholson entertained a plan to form the
several colonies into a Confederacy, of which he aspired to be made
viceroy. Disappointed in his aims, he displayed ultimately such freaks
of caprice, and such audacity in misrule, as to call in question his
sanity. Becoming passionately attached to a daughter of Lewis Burwell,
Jr., and failing to win her favor, or that of her parents, he exhibited
furious manifestations, and persisted Quixotically for years in his

MACE

Of the Borough of Norfolk,
Presented by Gov. Dinwiddie,
1754.

futile attentions to the lady, venting threats against her father, brothers
and others.

He became involved, also, in contentions with the clergy. For
a more healthy location, Governor Nicholson removed the seat of Government
from Jamestown to Middle Plantations (subsequently named
Williamsburg) in 1698. Upon the complaint of the clergy and Council,
Governor Nicholson was recalled to England in August, 1705, and
on the 15th of that month, succeeded by Edward Nott as Lieutenant-Governor.
In 1710 Nicholas was appointed General and Commander-in-chief
of the forces sent against Port Royal, in Acadia, which was surrendered
to him October 2. He returned to England to urge another
attempt upon Canada, taking with him five Iroquois Indians, who were
presented to Queen Anne. He commanded the unsuccessful expedition
against Canada in 1711. From October 12, 1712, to August,
1717, he was Governor of Nova Scotia. He was knighted in 1720,
and served as Governor of South Carolina from 1721 to June, 1725,
when, returning to England, he was made a Lieutenant-General. Bancroft
describes him as "an adept in colonial governments; trained by
long experience in New York, Virginia, and Maryland; brave and not
penurious, but narrow and irascible; of loose morality, yet a fervent
supporter of the church." He was the author of "An Apology or Vindication
of Francis Nicholson, Governor of South Carolina," London,
folio, 1724, and of "Journal of an Expedition for the Reduction of
Port Royal," London, 4to, 1711. He died in London, March 5, 1728.

SIR EDMOND ANDROS.

Edmond Andros was born in London, December 6, 1637. Bred a
soldier, he distinguished himself in the war with the Dutch, which
closed in 1667, and in 1672 was appointed a major in Prince Rupert's
Dragoons. In the year 1674, upon the death of his father, he succeeded
him as bailiff of Guernsey. He was appointed Governor of the
Colony of New York, where he had previously served in a military
capacity in 1678, and continued governor until 1681, being principally
employed there in passing grants to the subjects, and in presiding in
the Court of Sessions. Appointed Governor of New England, he
arrived in Boston December 21. There his administration was to the
utmost degree arbitrary and tyrannical. He interfered with the liberty
of the press, levied enormous taxes without authority, and required the
proprietors of lands to obtain from him new titles at great expense. In
October, 1687, he demanded, at the head of his troops, the surrender
of the charter of Connecticut, but it was successfully concealed in the
famous Charter Oak, at Hartford. His wife died and was buried at
Boston, February 10, 1687-8, in King's Chapel burying ground. In 1688
he caused an Indian war by his aggressions on the Penobscot tribe. At

last, under the weight of his oppressions, the people of Boston deposed
and imprisoned him. The abdication of James the Second prevented
any consequent trouble with the British Government, because
of this summary assertion of popular prerogative, and no
judicial decision was rendered regarding Andros. He was commissioned
Governor of Virginia March 1, 1693, and arrived in the colony
October 16th, following, relieving Colonel Francis Nicholson in the
government. He was kindly received by the Virginians, whose
solicitations to King William for warlike stores he had promoted. He
soon gave some offence, however, by ordering ships to cruise against
vessels engaged in contraband trade, yet his administration was a salutary
and prosperous one for Virginia, and by his conduct here he is
considered by some to have largely condoned his previous lawless career.
During his term of office the ancient seat of learning, William and Mary
College, was established, and in 1693 an act was passed for organizing a post-office
department for Virginia, with a central office and sub-offices in each
county, with fixed rates of postage, and Thomas Neale as Postmaster-General.
Andros's love of order carried him into the public departments,
and finding the documents and papers in great confusion, torn, soiled and
moth-eaten, he ordered their reparation, and pressed reform with vigor.
He encouraged manufactures, incited the planters to the cultivation of
cotton, and gave his assent to an act establishing the first fulling-mills
ever known in the settlement. Invested with the power of Ordinary, or
representative of the King and the Bishop of London, his acts brought
him in collision with commissary James Blair, President of William and
Mary College, who, in 1694, preferred charges to the King against him
as an enemy to religion, the church, and the college, and occasioned, thus,
his removal from office. He was succeeded, December 9, 1698, by
Colonel Francis Nicholson. Andros was Governor of Guernsey from
1704 to 1706. He died at London, February 27, 1713-14, honored
and respected. The narrative of his proceedings in New England was
published in 1691, and republished in 1773. The "Andros Tracts,"
edited by William H. Whitmore, were published by the Prince Society,
Boston, 1868, 2 vols. 4to.

EARL OF ORKNEY.

George Hamilton, Earl of Orkney, a member of a distinguished
family, was appointed Governor-in-chief of Virginia in 1697, and enjoyed
it as a pensionary sinecure for forty years, all the while residing
in England, and out of the annual salary of £2,000 receiving £1,200.
George Hamilton entered the army in his youth, was made a colonel in
1689, and, in 1695, was created Earl of Orkney, in consideration
of his gallantry. He was present at the battles of the Boyne, Athlone,

Limerick, Aghrim, Stimkirk, Landen, Namur, and Blenheim, and
was a great favorite with King William the Third. In the first year
of Queen Anne's reign he was made a major-general, and shortly
afterwards a Knight of the Thistle, serving with distinction in all
the wars of her reign. As one of the sixteen peers of Scotland, he
was a member of the House of Lords for many years. He married,
in 1695, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Edward Villiers, Knight, (Maid
of Honor to Queen Mary,) sister of Edward, Earl of Jersey, by whom
he had issue three daughters: Lady Anne, who married the Earl
of Inchequin; Lady Frances, who married Sir Thomas Sanderson
(brother to the Earl of Scarborough), and Lady Harriet, who married
the Earl of Orrery. He died January 29, 1737, and, on September 6
of that year, was succeeded as Governor-in-chief of Virginia by the
Earl of Albemarle. The nephew of the Earl of Orkney, the celebrated
Sir William Hamilton, the husband of the famous beauty,
Lady Emma Hamilton, whose name is connected with that of the
heroic Lord Nelson, of the Nile, was, in 1772, an unsuccessful applicant
for the resident governorship of Virginia.

EDWARD NOTT.

Edward Nott, born in 1654, succeeded, August 15, 1705, as the
deputy of the Earl of Orkney, Francis Nicholson, in the resident government
of Virginia.

Governor Nott procured the passage, in October, 1705, by the assembly,
of an act for the building of a palace for the governor, with an appropriation
of £3,000, also an act establishing the general court, but
the last was disallowed by the British Board of Trade. During Governor
Nott's administration the College of William and Mary was destroyed
by fire. Governor Nott died, greatly lamented by the Colony,
August 23, 1706, and in the epitaph upon the handsome tomb to his
memory, still standing in the church yard of Old Bruton Church, in
Williamsburg, the regard in which he was held is thus testified: "In
his private character he was a good Christian, and in his public a good
Governor. He was a lover of mankind and bountiful to his friends.
By the prudence and justice of his administration he was universally
esteemed a public blessing while he lived, and when he died it was a
public calamity. * * * In grateful remembrance of whose many
virtues, the General Assembly of this Colony have erected this monument."

EDMUND JENINGS.

Edmund Jenings, son of Sir Edmund Jenings, of Ripon, Yorkshire,
England, Member of Parliament, is first mentioned in Virginia annals,
August 1, 1684, as Attorney-General of the Colony. Captain Peter
Jenings, of Gloucester county, probably a relative, was an "Adjutant-General"

and a burgess in 1660, and then, or later, Attorney-General.
He died in 1671. John Jenings appears as a grantee of land in James
City county in 1649. Edmund Jenings married Frances (died in London,
November 22, 1713), daughter of Henry Corbin, emigrant ancestor
from England of the family of his name in Virginia. Jenings
was, in 1696, Deputy Secretary of Virginia, and, a little later, the
agent of the proprietary of the Northern Neck. He was long a member
of the council, and, as its president, upon the death of Governor Nott,
became, August 23, 1705, the executive of Virginia. He was one of the
commissioners the same year for laying off the city of Williamsburg.
His daughter Ariana became the wife of John Randolph, Attorney-General
of Virginia, and their son, Edmund Randolph, became the Governor
of Virginia and Attorney-General of the United States under
Washington. Another daughter of Edmund Jenings married William
Hill, of the family of the Marquis of Downshire. The blood of Edmund
Jenings has intermingled with that of the worthiest families of Virginia,
comprising the honored names of Randolph, Carter, Lee, Ludwell,
Meade and others. Jenings continued the executive of Virginia until
the arrival of Lieutenant-Governor Spotswood, June 23, 1710.

ROBERT HUNTER.

Robert Hunter was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, April
4, 1707, and his commission from George, Prince of Denmark, consort
of Queen Anne, and Lord Admiral, is preserved in the cabinet of the
Virginia Historical Society. It is a huge vellum document, measuring
two feet by two feet six inches, closely covered with Latin script, and
is probably the only example in Virginia of the commissions of her governors
in colonial times; and yet Hunter, being captured by the French,
then at war with England, on his voyage to Virginia, never acted as
her executive, being conveyed as a prisoner to Paris by his captors.
It appears that, soon after this, a plan having been proposed to reduce
the Spanish West India Islands, Hunter was proposed, by the Duke of
Marlborough, to command it. During Hunter's detention in Paris, he
corresponded with Dean Swift, who, it appears, had been suspected of
being the author of the famous letter concerning enthusiasm, usually
printed in Lord Shaftesbury's Characteristics, but which was really written
by Hunter. Returning to England, Hunter was made Governor
of New York, and was sent thither in 1710, with 2,700 expatriated
Palatines, to settle that colony. He returned to England in 1719. On
the accession of George the Second, he was reinstated in the government
of New York and New Jersey. The climate not agreeing with him,
he obtained the government of Jamaica instead, arriving there in February,
1727. He died March 31, 1734. He was a friend of Addison,

as well as of Swift; was a wit and scholar, and, in addition to the letter
mentioned, wrote a farce called "Androboros."

ALEXANDER SPOTSWOOD.

Colonel Alexander Spotswood, who arrived, June 23, 1710, in Virginia,
as the deputy or lieutenant of George Hamilton, Earl of Orkney,
the Governor and Commander-in chief of the Colony, was descended
from the ancient Scottish family of Spottiswoode, a local surname assumed
by the proprietors of the lands and barony of Spottiswoode in the
parish of Gordon and county of Berwick, at the earliest period when surnames
became hereditary in Scotland; but his lineage is yet more nobly
avouched in the virtue, learning, ability and courage of its representatives
through centuries of succession. The traditional account of the family
is, that the male line of the ancient barons of Spottiswoode, failing in
the reign of Alexander II., a younger son of the illustrious house of
Gordon, which was then seated in the same county, married the heiress
and was obliged to take upon himself the name of Spottiswoode;
but he retained the boar's head of the Gordons, which his successors,
the barons or Spottiswoode, carry to this day. The immediate progenitor
of this family was Robert de Spotswoods, born during the reign of
Alexander III., who succeeded to the crown of Scotland in 1249.
Seventh in descent from Robert was John Spotiswood; born, 1510;
died 1585; superintendent of Lothian, a zealous Protestant divine and
one of the compilers of "The First Book of Discipline and of the Confession
of Faith." His son, John Spotswood, of Spotiswoode, born in
1595, became archbishop of Glasgow and one of the privy counsel
of Scotland in 1635. He suffered from the popular indignation at the
attempt, discouraged by him, to impose a liturgy on the Scottish
Church, and was deposed and excommunicated by the Assembly which
met at Glasgow in November, 1638. He retired to London, where he
died November 26th, 1639. He was the author, among other works,
of "The History of the Church and State of Scotland." His second
son, Sir Robert Spottiswoode, president of the Court of Sessions, author
of "The Practicks of the Laws of Scotland," a man of distinguished
learning and merit, was born in 1596, and met his death at the hands
of Parliament, January 17th, 1646, as an adherant of the royal cause.
The son of the last Robert Spotswood, who died in 1688, married a
widow, Catharine Elliott, who had by her first marriage a son, General
Elliott, whose portrait is in the State Library at Richmond, Virginia.
The only child of Robert and Catherine (Elliott) Spotswood, Alexander,
the subject of this notice, was born in 1676, at Tangier, then an
English colony, in Africa, his father being then resident surgeon to
the governor of the island, the Earl of Middleton, and to the garrison
there. Alexander Spotswood was literally bred in the army from his

childhood and, uniting genius with courage, served with distinction
under the Duke of Marlborough. He was dangerously wounded in the
breast by the first fire of the French on the Confederates at the battle of
Blenheim, during the heat of which sanguinary encounter he served as
deputy quartermaster-general, with the rank of colonel. Though Virginia
enjoyed tranquillity and the voice of faction was hushed at the
time of the arrival of Spotswood, yet the condition of the colony was
not prosperous. Her defenseless coasts were invaded by privateers and
pirates, and through the decline of her staple commerce, because of the
quantities of tobacco procured from Germany by the Dutch, the surreptitious
shipment of it from the colony, and the greed of the English
factors, there was a just complaint of the scantiness of essential supplies
of English manufactures. Spotswood was hailed with acclamation by
the colonists, because he brought with him the invaluable benefit of the
habeas corpus act, which had been denied by the late ministers when
their representatives endeavored to extend it by their own authority.
But while the assembly regarded the recent favors granted, they could
not, October, 1710, be persuaded to see the defenseless condition of the
colony, since the certain expense of protection appeared more immediate
than distant danger; nor did the fear of a threatened French invasion
the following summer, appeal any more effectually. They refused to
pay the expense of collecting the militia or to discharge the debt due, because,
as Spotswood informed the Ministry, "they hoped by their frugality
to recommend themselves to the populace."

They would only consent to levy £20,000 by duties laid chiefly on
British manufactures, and insisted on discriminating privileges to Virginia
owners of vessels, in preference to British subjects, upon the plea
that the exemption had always existed. The governor declined the
proffered levy, dissolved the assembly, and in anticipation of an Indian
war, was obliged to secure arms and supplies from England. By
prompt and energetic measures he quelled in the neighboring province of
North Carolina, an insurrection which threatened to subvert all regular
government there; and later, in the war with the Tuscarora Indians
(commenced by a massacre on the frontier of North Carolina, in September,
1711), by a conciliatory course, prevented the tributary Indians
from joining the enemy, with whom, in January, 1714, he concluded
a peace, and blending humanity with vigor, he taught them that
while he could use violence, he commiserated their fate. When a new
Assembly was called by Spotswood, in 1712, they did more than
he expected, and discharged most of the debts of the Colony, when he
demonstrated that the standing revenue had been so defective during
the previous twenty-two years as to have required £7,000 from the
monarch's private estate to make up the deficiencies in governmental expenses.
The frontier of the Colony being no longer subjected to Indian

incursions, the expenditure of government was reduced to one-third of
what had been previously required, and under the able administration
of Spotswood, Virginia advanced in commerce, population and wealth
more rapidly than any of her sister colonies. A settlement of German
Protestants was also effected under the auspices of the Governor, on the
Rapid Anne river, which was called after the name of his residence,
Germanna. A profitable trade was established with the West Indies,
in the exchange of corn, lumber and salted provisions, for sugar, rum
and wine. In 1715 the population of Virginia was 72,500 whites and
23,000 negroes, it being of the American colonies second in number
only to Massachusetts, which was only one thousand greater. The
slave population of Virginia was, during the reign of George I., increased
by 10,000. The colony now comprised twenty-five counties,
represented by fifty-two burgesses. The government was administered
by a governor (appointed by the king), who nominated inferior
magistrates and officers; and also by twelve councilors, also created by
the royal mandate. The energy and discipline of Spotswood soon ran
counter to the economical spirit of the Assembly, whom he further offended
by his haughtiness. Anonymous letters were constantly transmitted
against him to the board of trade, who gave him an opportunity
of vindicating, in the vigor of his replies, the wisdom and beneficence
of his administration. As zealous a churchman as he is proven to have
been, he yet, in the exercise of the right of induction of ministers, incurred
the animosity of the Bishop of London's commissary, James
Blair, who laid formal complaint against him before the king. Colonel
William Byrd was also sent over by the colony in 1719, to represent
its grievances, but being unsuccessful in his embassy, he begged the
board of trade "to recommend forgiveness and moderation to both parties."
A more harmonious season ensued, and the Governor, Council
and the Assembly concurred in measures for the public welfare and prosperity.

The pirates who infested the coast were subdued, and the frontiers
were extended to the foot of the Blue Ridge mountains, a passage
across which had been discovered by an expedition made under the
leadership of Spotswood in 1716, and composed of some of the first
gentlemen in the Colony. Upon its return, the governor presented each
of his companions with a golden horseshoe (some of which are said to
have been covered with valuable stones, resembling heads of nails),
bearing the inscription: "Sic juvat transcendere montes." In the year
1720, two new counties, Spotsylvania and Brunswick, were established.
Spotswood urged upon the British Government the policy of establishing
a chain of posts beyond the Alleghanies, from the lakes to the Mississippi,
to restrain the encroachments of the French. His wise recommendation
was at first unheeded, and it was not until after the treaty of
Aix-la-Chapelle that it was adopted. He was the author of an act for

THOMAS WEST, Earl De La Warr.

From the original in the possession of the
present Earl Delaware, England.

improving the staple of tobacco, and making tobacco notes the medium
of circulation. Being a master of the military art, he kept the militia
under admirable discipline. He was a proficient in mathematics; built
the octagon magazine at Williamsburg (still standing), rebuilt William
and Mary College (which had been burnt) and made improvements in
the governor's house (then called palace) and gardens. He was an excellent
judge on the bench. At his instance a grant of £1,000 was
made by the governors and visitors of the college, in 1718, and a fund
established for instructing Indian children in Christianity, and he
erected a school for that purpose on the southern frontier, at Fort
Christiana, established on the south side of the Meherrin river, in what
is now Southampton county. The Rev. Charles Griffin had charge of
the school in 1715, at which time there were seventy-seven Indian
children under instruction. Spotswood was styled the "Tubal Cain of
Virginia," and he was, indeed, the first to establish a regular iron furnace
in North America. But, despite his momentous services to the Colony,
intrigue, as his friends urge, at length effected his removal as governor,
in September, 1722. His character and administration are thus warmly
eulogized by Chalmers: "There was a utility in his designs, a vigour in
his conduct, and an attachment to the true interest of the kingdom and
the colony, which merit the greatest praise. Had he attended more to
the courtly maxim of Charles the Second, `to quarrel with no man,
however great might be the provocation, since he knew not how soon he
should be obliged to act with him,' that able officer might be recommended
as the model of a provincial governor. The fabled heroes who
had discovered the uses of the anvil and the axe, who introduced the
labors of the plow, with the arts of the fisher, have been immortalized as
the greatest benefactors of mankind. Had Spotswood even invaded the
privileges, while he only mortified the pride of the Virginians, they ought
to have erected a statue to the memory of the ruler who gave
them the manufacture of iron and showed them by his active example
that it is diligence and attention which can alone make a
people great." In the county of Spotsylvania, Spotswood had, about
the year 1716, founded on a horse-shoe peninsula of four hundred
acres, on the Rapid Anne, the little town of Germanna, so called
after the Germans sent over by Queen Anne, and settled in that
quarter, and at this place he resided after his retirement. A church
was built there, mainly at his expense. Possessing an extensive tract
of forty-five thousand acres of land, which abounded in iron ore,
he engaged largely, in connection with Robert Cary of England, and
others in Virginia, in the iron manufacture. In the year 1730, he was
made deputy postmaster-general for the American Colonies, and held the
office until 1739; and it was he who promoted Benjamin Franklin to the
office of postmaster for the province of Pennsylvania. He married,
in 1724, Anne Butler, the daughter of Richard Brayne, Esq.,
of Westminster, England. She derived her middle name from James
Butler, Duke of Ormond, her godfather. Her portrait in this work is
from one in oil in the library of the State of Virginia, at Richmond,
and now first engraved. She had issue: John, Robert, Anne Catharine
and Dorothea. John Spotswood married, in 1745, Mary, daughter of
William Dandridge, of the British navy, and their issue was two sons:
General Alexander and Captain John Spotswood, of the Army of the
Revolution, and two daughters, Mary and Anne. Robert, the younger
son of the governor, and an officer, under Washington, in the French
and Indian war, was slain by the Indians. Anne Catharine, the elder
daughter of Governor Spotswood, married Bernard Moore, Esq., of
"Chelsea," in the county of King William, Va. Dorothea, the younger
daughter, married Captain Nathaniel West Dandridge, of the British
navy, son of Captain William Dandridge, of Elson Green.

Promoted Major-General, and on the eve of embarking with troops
destined for Carthagena, Spotswood died at Annapolis, Maryland, on the
7th of June, 1740. There is reason to believe that he lies buried at
"Temple Farm," his country residence near Yorktown, and which was
so called from a sepulchral building erected by him in the garden there.
It was in the dwelling-house at "Temple Farm" (called the Moore
House) that Lord Cornwallis signed the articles of his capitulation. The
widow of Governor Spotswood surviving him, and continuing to reside
at Germanna, married, secondly, November 9, 1742, the Rev. John
Thompson of Culpeper County, a minister of the Episcopal Church, and
of exemplary character. The descendants of Governor Spotswood in
Virginia are now represented, in addition to the family names already
given, in those of Aylett, Braxton, Brooke, Berkeley, Burwell, Bassett,
Chiswell, Carter, Campbell, Callaway, Cullen, Claiborne, Dandridge,
Dangerfield, Dabney, Fairfax, Fontaine, Gaines, Gilliam, Kemp, Kinlock,
Lloyd, Lee, Leigh, Macon, Mason, Manson, Marshall, Meriwether,
McDonald, McCarty, Nelson, Parker, Page, Randolph, Robinson, Smallwood,
Skyring, Talaferro, Temple, Thweatt, Taylor, Walker, Waller,
Wickham, Watkins, and others, scarce less esteemed. The portrait in
this work is from a contemporaneous portrait in oil, in the possession of
the eminent sculptor, Edward V. Valentine, Richmond, Va., whose late
estimable wife was of the lineage of the Governor.

HUGH DRYSDALE.

Hugh Drysdale succeeded Spotswood as Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia,
September 27, 1722. He was a man of but mediocre capacity,
and his administration was not marked with any event of importance.
It may be noted, however, that to relieve the people of Virginia from a
poll-tax, a duty was laid by the Assembly on the importation of liquors

and slaves, but owing to the opposition of the African Company and interested
traders in England, the act was annulled by the British Board
of Trade. Thus did Great Britain, and later the New England States,
foster the institution of slavery so long as the importation of slaves was
profitable to them, though the Southern Colonies repeatedly and ineffectually
enacted laws prohibiting further importation. Drysdale, dying
July 22, 1726, Colonel Robert Carter, President of the Council, succeeded
to the government of the Colony.

ROBERT CARTER.

Robert Carter, born in 1667, was the son of John Carter, an emigrant
from England, who settled in upper Norfolk County, which he represented
in the House of Burgesses in 1642; later for a number of years
the representative of Lancaster County; Commander-in-chief of the
forces sent against the Rappahannock Indians, and who died in 1669.
Robert Carter was long the agent of Lord Fairfax, proprietor of the
Northern Neck grant, and by the extent of his landed possessions, thus
acquired, obtained the sobriquet of "King Carter."

He was speaker of the House of Burgesses for six years, treasurer of
the Colony, for many years a member of the Council, and, as President
of that body, he was at the head of the government of Virginia from
the death of Governor Drysdale, July 22, 1726, until the arrival of
Governor William Gooch, October 13, 1727. Robert Carter built a fine
church on the site of one formerly built by his father, near his seat, "Corotoman,"
on the Rappahannock River, in Lancaster County, and it is still
standing, in good preservation. Robert Carter, by his two wives, Judith
Armistead and a widow whose maiden name was Betty Landon, left
many children, who are now represented by a legion of names of the
most worthy people of Virginia. He died August 4, 1732, and lies
beneath a handsome tomb with a long and eulogistic Latin epitaph, near
the east end of Christ Church, before mentioned as having been built by
him.

SIR WILLIAM GOOCH.

William Gooch was born at Yarmouth, England, October 21, 1681.
He was an officer of superior military abilities, and had served under
Marlborough, and in the Revolution of 1715. He arrived in Virginia
October 13, 1727, relieving President Robert Carter in the government.
The council, without authority, allowing Gooch three hundred
pounds out of the quit-rents in augmentation of his salary, he in
return resigned, in a great measure, the helm of government to
them, and so insinuating was he in his diplomacy and so facile in accommodating

himself doubly to the home authorities and to the people of
Virginia that he greatly endeared himself to them, and he is said to
have been the only Colonial Governor in America against whom there
was never any complaint, either from inhabitant or merchant abroad.

Owing partly to his address, and partly to a well-established revenue and
the enforcement of a rigid economy, the Colony enjoyed prosperous
repose during his long administration. During the year 1728, the boundary
line between Virginia and North Carolina was run by Colonel
William Byrd and Messrs. Fitzwilliam and Dandridge, Commissioners
in behalf of Virginia, and others on the part of North Carolina, and the
transaction is most entertainingly detailed in the "Westover MSS."
of Colonel Byrd. In 1740, troops for the first time were transported
from the Colonies to co-operate with the forces of the mother country in
offensive war. An attack upon Carthagena being determined on, Gooch
raised four hundred men as the quota of Virginia, and the Assembly
voted £5,000 for their support. Major-General Alexander Spotswood,
who had been appointed to the command of the four battalions
raised in the Colonies, dying June 7, 1740, at Annapolis, on the eve of
embarkation, Governor Gooch assumed the command of the expedition.
During his absence the government of Virginia devolved on Commissary
James Blair, President of the Council. During the administration
of Gooch, the settlement of the fertile valley of Virginia was effected,
first in 1734, twelve miles from the present town of Woodstock. In
May, 1746, the Assembly appropriated £4,000 to the raising of Virginia's
quota of troops for the invasion of Canada. They sailed from
Hampton in June; the expedition, however, proved abortive. Governor
Gooch, who had been appointed Commander, but declined, was
created a Baronet during the year, and in 1747 was made a Major General.
He returned to England in 1749, leaving John Robinson, President
of the Council, as the Acting Governor of the Colony. Sir William
Gooch died December 17, 1751. The press in 1878 chronicled the unhappy
estrangement of his descendant, Sir Thomas Gooch, the eighth
baronet, from his childless wife, Lady Anne (Sutherland), because of an
attempt to deceive him with a spurious heir. Broken in spirit and
health, the sorrowful wife, in her death the following year, expiated her
offense.

It may be of interest to note that another of the lineage of Governor
Gooch, and bearing the same Christian name, preceded him as a resident
of the Colony. At "Temple Farm," a seat of Governor Spotswood,
near Yorktown, Va., within the structure known as the "Temple" is the
tomb of Major William Gooch (who died October 29, 1655, aged twentynine),
bearing the arms of Gooch of Norfolk (of which family was the
Governor) as follows: Paly of right ar. and sa. a chev. of the first betw.
three dogs of the second spotted of the field. Crest—A greyhound

passant ar. spotted sa. and collared of the last. This William Gooch
was a Burgess from York County, in 1654, and it is claimed there are
those of the name, of his lineage in Virginia now.

COMMISSARY JAMES BLAIR.

James Blair, D.D., was born in Scotland about the year 1655. Having
graduated from the University of Edinburgh, he was admitted to
orders in the Established Church of England, and commenced his ministry
in Scotland, but finding his usefulness obstructed by popular prejudice,
he went to London, and was sent by its bishop in 1685 as a missionary
to Virginia. He served here first as rector of Henrico parish for nine
years. His ability and great zeal displayed in furtherance of the cause
of religion, procured him, in 1689, the appointment of Commissary of the
Bishop of London. He removed his residence to Jamestown to prosecute
plans for the founding of an institution of learning in the Colony.
Meeting with much encouragement, he proceeded to England, where,
having secured a subscription of £2,500, he obtained from the King in
February, 1692, a charter for William and Mary College, with a grant
of twenty thousand acres of land for its support. The King himself
subscribed £2,000 towards its building out of the quit-rents. Seymour,
the Attorney General of Great Britain, having received the royal commands
to prepare the charter of the college, remonstrated against the
liberality of the King, urging that the nation was engaged in an expensive
war; that the money was needed for better purposes, and that he
did not see the slightest occasion for a college in Virginia. Commissary
Blair, in reply, represented to him that its intention was to educate and
qualify young men to be ministers of the Gospel; and begged that the
Attorney-General would consider that the people of Virginia had souls
to be saved as well as the people of England. "Souls!" exclaimed
the imperious Seymour, "damn your souls!—make tobacco!" The
college was erected according to a design by Sir Christopher Wren, at
Williamsburg, in 1694, with five professorships of Greek and Latin, the
mathematics, moral philosophy, and two of divinity, with Dr. Blair as
President, which position he held during life. In 1710, Commissary
Blair became rector of Bruton Parish at Williamsburg. He was long a
member of the Council, and, as the President of this body, was the Acting
Governor of Virginia during the absence of Governor Gooch in command
of the Carthagena expedition from June 1740 to July 25, 1741,
and perhaps later. Commissary Blair in 1727 assisted John Hartwell
and Edward Chilton in compiling "The State of His Majesty's Colony
in Virginia," and one hundred and seventeen of his "Sermons and Discourses"
expository of the Sermon on the Mount, were published in four
volumes 8vo at London in 1742. He died August 3, 1743, aged 88,

and was buried at Jamestown, where his tomb with a long epitaph in
Latin was still standing, though in a damaged condition, just prior to our
late war. By his will Commissary Blair bequeathed his library and
£500 to William and Mary College.

THE EARL OF ALBERMARLE.

William Anne Keppel, second Earl of Albermarle, was born at Whitehall
in 1702, and received his second Christian name from Her Majesty
Queen Anne, who in person and as sponsor graced his baptism. He
succeeded George Hamilton, Earl of Orkney, as the Governor-in-chief
of Virginia, after the death of the latter, September 6, 1737. Appointed
August 25, 1717, by George I. a captain in the British army, he was continuously
promoted, and on February 20, 1743, was made a Lieutenant-General,
and distinguished himself June 2d in that year at the battle
of Dettingen in the Netherlands. In 1744 he made the campaign
with Marshall Wade, and in 1745, under the Duke of Cumberland, at
the battle of Fontenoy, he was wounded. On April 16, 1746, he commanded
the right wing at the battle of Culloden, and succeeded to the
command in chief, as General, August 23d. Distinguished himself July
2, 1747, at the battle of Vall; was embassador to France in 1748; was
created a Knight of the Garter, July 12, 1750; was made a member
of the Privy Council, July 12, 1751, and on March 30, 1752, one of the
Lords Justices during the absence of the King in his German dominions.
He married, in 1722, Anne, daughter of Charles, first Duke of Richmond,
and who was one of the ladies of the bed-chamber of Queen Caroline.
The issue of this marriage was eight sons and seven daughters.
The portrait of Lord Albermarle, with those of Sir Charles Wager;
Charles Montague, first Earl of Halifax; Colonel Daniel Parke, Governor
of the Leeward Islands, whose daughter Lucy was the wife of the
second Colonel William Byrd: the third Earl of Orrery; the Earl of
Egremont; the second Duke of Argyll; Peggy Blount, the favorite of the
poet Alexander Pope; Sir Robert Walpole, Lady Betty Cromwell, Sir
Wilfred Lawson, Sir Robert Southwell, and others of colonial distinction,
with those of the second William Byrd, and of members of his
family, from a gallery formerly at "Westover," are now preserved at
the hospitable seat of the Harrison family, "Lower Brandon," on James
River. Lord Abermarle died at Paris, December 22, 1754, and was
succeeded in the title by his eldest son George, the third Earl. Admiral
Augustus Keppel, of the British Navy, was his second son. The name of
Lord Albermarle is commemorated in a sound on the coast of North Carolina
and in a county in Virginia.

JOHN ROBINSON.

The ancestor of the distinguished family Robinson in Virginia, was
Christopher Robinson, of Cleasby, in Yorkshire, England, who settled
about the year 1666, at "Hewick," near Urbanna, in Middlesex County.
He was the brother of the Right Reverend John Robinson (born 1650,
died 1722), a distinguished prelate and statesman, who was Bishop of
London as well as embassador for many years to Sweden, and who
represented England as First Plenipotentiary at the Congress of Utrecht
in 1712.

Christopher Robinson was born in 1645; married, first, Agatha Bertram,
secondly, Catharine, daughter of Theodore Hone, and widow of
Robert Beverley, of Virginia. John Robinson, their second son, was born
in 1683. As President of the Council, he was Acting Governor of Virginia
from June 20th to his death in September, 1749. He married,
first Catherine, daughter of Robert Beverley, and, secondly, Mrs. Mary
Welsh, of Essex County, Va. His descendants through intermarriage
have been connected with nearly all of the old Virginia families, and
the name Robinson itself has had many worthy and valued representatives
in the annals of the Colony and State.

THOMAS LEE

Thomas Lee, the fourth son of Richard and Lettice (Corbin) Lee,
and descended in the third generation from Richard Lee, who emigrated
from Shropshire, England, and settled in Westmoreland county, Virginia,
in 1641, was born about the year 1680. He married in 1721, Hannah,
daughter of Philip Ludwell, and granddaughter of Lady Berkeley
(widow of Sir William), who married, thirdly, in 1680, Philip Ludwell.
Thomas Lee was long a member of the House of Burgesses and of the
Council, and as President of that body after the death of John Robinson,
became the Acting Governor of Virginia, and but for his death,
which occurred in the early part of 1751, it was presumed, from the influence
of his connections in England, that he would have received the
appointment of Deputy or Lieutenant-Governor, for which, it is said, a
commission had been executed. He had been also the recipient of royal
bounty, it is said, upon the destruction of his residence by fire, being
then aided from the privy purse of Queen Caroline towards the building
of the famous "Stratford" mansion.

He was a member of the historical Ohio Company, and was a man
of great enterprise and sagacity. Rarely has a sire been so distinguished
in his offspring as was Thomas Lee, the father of six sons, severally
eminent among the lustrous patriots of the Revolution. The names of
Philip Ludwell and Thomas Ludwell Lee are indelibly engraven on the
pages of the history of Virginia, whilst the fame of Richard Henry and
of Francis Lightfoot Lee (signers of the instrument of American Freedom)

CAPT. GEORGE PERCY,

Treasurer of the Colony of Virginia, and
Governor in 1609.

From the original at Syon House, England, seat of
the Earl of Northumberland.

and of William and Arthur Lee, is food for national pride. The
grand hero, Robert Edward Lee, was a descendant in the third generation
of Henry Lee, the brother of Governor Thomas Lee.

LEWIS BURWELL.

The Burwell family is "of very ancient date upon the borders of
England and Scotland." It was settled at Berwick-upon-Tweed as early as
the year 1250. The names Minion Burrell and William Burrell appear
in the list of adventurers for Virginia. The ancestor of the family in the
Colony was Major Lewis Burwell, who settled on Carter's Creek, in
Gloucester County, in 1640. In 1646 he was a member of the deputation
sent to invite Charles the Second to come to Virginia as its King.
He married Lucy, daughter of the "valiant Captain Robert Higginson,
one of the first commanders who subdued the country of Virginia from
the power of the heathen." Of the issue of this marriage, Major
Nathaniel Burwell, the fourth son, born about 1680, married Elizabeth,
eldest daughter of "King" Robert Carter, who, after his death in 1721,
married Dr. George Nicholas, and was the mother of Robert Carter
Nicholas, long the Treasurer of Virginia. The eldest son of Major
Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Carter) Burwell, Lewis Burwell, known by
the name of his seat, as of "The Grove," Gloucester County, was born
about the year 1710. He matriculated at Caius College, Cambridge,
England, in 1731, and was a man of genius and learning. He married
in October, 1736, Mary, daughter of Colonel Francis and Ann Willis.
He was a Burgess from Gloucester County as early as 1736, a little
later became a member of the Council, and as the President of that body,
after the death of Thomas Lee, was, on February 12, 1751, acting Governor
of Virginia. He was relieved by the arrival of Lieutenant-Governor
Robert Dinwiddie, November 20, 1751, and died in 1752.

ROBERT DINWIDDIE.

The period of the accession of Robert Dinwiddie as the executive of
the Colony of Virginia, was one of anxiety and momentous presage in
its history, and the dignity of Lieutenant-Governor at this critical exigency
was conferred on him in royal recognition of the singular ability,
zeal and fidelity exhibited by him in previous positions of governmental
trust. The Dinwiddie is an ancient Scotch family of historic mention.
On the "Ragman's Roll," A. D. 1296, appears the name of Alleyn
Dinwithie, the progenitor, it is said, of the Dinwiddies who were long
seated as chief proprietors on lands called after them, in the parish of
Applegarth, Annandale, Dumfries-shire. The immediate ancestors of
Governor Dinwiddie were denizens of Glasgow, and had been, for some

generations probably, merchants in honorable esteem, as was his father,
Robert Dinwiddie. His mother was of an old Glasgow family of the
same calling. She was Sarah, the daughter of Matthew Cumming, who
was Baillie of the city in 1691, 1696 and 1699. The son, Robert Dinwiddie,
was born in 1693, at Germiston, his father's seat.

He was disciplined in the counting house, and was probably for a time
a merchant in Glasgow. He was appointed, December 1, 1727, a collector
of the customs in the Island of Bermuda, which position he held
under successive commissions, until April 11, 1738, when, in acknowledgment
of his vigilance and zeal in the discharge of official duty,
in the detecting and exposing a long practiced system of fraud in the
collection of the customs of the West India Islands, he received the appointment
of "Surveyor General of the customs of the Southern ports
of the Continent of America."

He was named, as his predecessor had been, a member of the respective
Councils of the American Colonies. This mandate was recognized by
Governor Gooch, of Virginia (in which colony Dinwiddie appears to
have fixed his chief residence), but was resisted by the Councillors, who,
jealous of interference with their prerogatives, refused to allow him to sit
with them, and transmitted a remonstrance to the King for his exclusion.
The controversy was decided by the Board of Trade in May, 1742, advising
that the royal purpose should be enforced, in opposition to claims
dangerous because they were new. Dinwiddie was specially commissioned,
August 17, 1743, with the designation of "Inspector General,"
to examine into the duties of the Collector of Customs of the Island of
Barbadoes, and, in the discharge of this trust, exposed to the English
Government an enormous defalcation in the revenues there. In 1749,
he appears to have resided in London as a merchant, engaged in trade
with the colonies. He was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia,
July 20, 1751, and with his wife Rebecca (nee Affleck) and two
daughters, Elizabeth and Rebecca, arrived in the Colony November 20th
following. He was warmly welcomed with expressions of respect and
regard, but in a little while gave offence by declaring the dissent of the
King to certain acts which his more insinuating predecessor, Gooch, had
approved. Governor Dinwiddie finding that the regulations governing
the patenting of lands were but little regarded, and that a practice had
long prevailed of securing the possession and use of lands by warrants of
survey without the entering of patents, by which more than a million
of acres of land were unpatented, and the royal revenue from the quitrents
of two-shillings annual tax upon every fifty acres, seriously defrauded—with
the advice of the Council, in an endeavor to correct the
abuse, and by the exaction of a fee of a pistole (about $3.60 in value)
on every patent issued, incurred yet greater animosity. The House of
Burgesses unavailingly remonstrated against this exercise of the royal prerogative,
and, in 1754, sent Peyton Randolph (then Attorney-General

of the Colony and ultimately distinguished as the first President of the
Continental Congress) to England, as its agent, with a salary of £2500,
and bearing a petition to the King for relief from the fee. The decision
of the Board of Trade was virtually in favor of Governor Dinwiddie,
though their instructions were at first singularly indefinite. This difference,
when harmony in Council and concert in action were so essential,
was unfortunate. The aggrandizing policy in North America of the
French—who asserted their claim to the whole Mississippi Valley, in
virtue of primal rights of discovery and occupation under the explorations
of Marquette, La Salle, and others—was a constant menace to
English colonization. In every treaty between the two competing
powers, the territorial limits of France had been left undecided. To
that fatal treaty between Charles I. and Louis XIII., by which "was
restored to France, absolutely and without demarcation of limits, all the
places possessed by the English, in New France, Lacadie and Canada,
particularly Port Royal, Quebec and Cape Breton," holds McPherson,
may be ascribed the subsequent troubles with France. From 1690, the
colonies from New Hampshire to Georgia were engaged in almost unremitting
hostilities with the savages on their borders, instigated by the
French in the North and the Spaniards in the South. The intent of the
French to link their possessions in Louisiana and on the St. Lawrence
by a chain of forts on the Ohio, was manifest. Governor Dinwiddie,
viewing with alarm their encroachments, at the close of October, 1753,
dispatched Major George Washington, then only twenty-one years of
age, to M. Le Gardeur de St. Pierre, the Commandant of the fort on
the Ohio, to demand by whose authority an armed force had crossed the
lakes, and to urge a speedy and peaceable departure. The mission, accomplished
under many hardships, was ineffectual, and Governor Dinwiddie
immediately instituted the most energetic and widespread efforts
for defense. His vigilance, zeal and activity were signal. Though suffering
from the debilitating effects of a stroke of paralysis, his personal
activity for the public good would have been creditable to one of physical
capacity the most favored. He promptly reported the impending
danger to the English government, and to the Executives of the several
Colonies, urging immediate and effectual measures of resistance, and
praying their assistance. He had but meager response in America, but
in the course of the year 1754 was aided with a grant of £20,000, arms
and ordnance stores from Great Britain. The money was ordered to be
reimbursed from the export duty of two shillings per hogshead on
tobacco. The English Ministry perceiving, from the unfortunate events
of 1754, that expedients were fruitless, and that no effective conjoined
action of the American Colonies could be hoped for, determined on an
offensive policy by sea and land, and early in 1755, Admirals Boscawen
and Mostyn were sent with a powerful fleet into the North American
seas, to intercept the reinforcements of France; and General Braddock,
with the appointment of Commander-in-chief, was sent to Virginia with
two regiments from the regular army. This last was a succor which had
been persistently solicited by Governor Dinwiddie, but which now, unfortunately,
availed not. However, the disastrous defeat of Braddock
inspired the colonists with such alarm that their reviving martial spirit
found expression in the organization of companies for defense. Their
ardor was stimulated from the pulpit, and several of such stirring appeals
from the eloquent Samuel Davies, "the father of the Presbyterian
Church in Virginia," are incorporated in his published sermons. The
Assembly voted £40,000 for the service, and the Virginia regiment was
enlarged to sixteen companies, and the command given to Washington.
He had scarcely completed a tour of inspection of the mountain outposts
before he was called to arrest the horrors of a savage invasion of the
frontiers of Augusta County. The terror inspired by the atrocities committed,
influenced the Assembly, in 1756, to direct the building of a line
of forts from the Potomac River through the Alleghany Mountains to
the borders of North Carolina. The construction of these, with the constantly
demanded service of the Virginia troops in the protection of the
frontiers from the Indians, debarred them for a time from participation
in the campaigns in the North against the French, and the futile expedition
under Major Andrew Lewis against the Indian towns on the west of
the Ohio, known as the Sandy Creek expedition, was the most pretentious
offensive operation of the Colony during the year. Among the officers
in this expedition were Captains Peter Hog, William Preston, John
Smith, Archibald Alexander, Obadiah Woodson, James Overton, and
David Stewart, Commissary. It was accompanied by a party of friendly
Cherokees under Captain Richard Pearis.

The Earl of Loudon arrived in America in July, with the appointment
of Governor of Virginia, and a commission as Commander-in-chief of
the British forces in America, but he was never in the Colony, and Dinwiddie
continued in the control of its affairs. He appears to have so
met the varied and onerous duties of his trust as to have commanded
repeatedly the thankful commendation of the colonial clergy and Assembly,
and of the English Ministry.

The year 1757 was as uneventful in Virginia as its predecessor had
been, and at its close, Governor Dinwiddie, worn out with fatigue, was
at his own request relieved from his arduous station. He sailed for
England in January, 1758, after receiving voted testimonials of the
regard of the Council and of the municipal authorities of Williamsburg,
the seat of government. By the Council, also, he was charged with the
delivery to the great Pitt, then at the head of the English Ministry,
of an address of thanks for his generous course towards the colonies, and
with the negotiation of some important interests of Virginia.

The administration of Governor Dinwiddie had been a peculiarly
trying one. His disputes with the Assembly, and his difficulties with
Washington, have, through the prejudicial representations of some
writers, left an unpleasant impression on the American mind, which has
been allowed to veil virtues which would otherwise have commanded
undivided esteem and regard. An attempt has been made to stigmatize
his memory with the crime of dishonesty in the charge of misappropriation
to his own use of funds intrusted to him for the public service—a
calumny which rests alone upon the unsupported allegations of his
enemies. In all public expenditures he appears to have acted in conjunction
with, and by authority of, a committee appointed by the
colonial Council, and his reports of the disposition of the funds received
from England were systematically regular. It should not be forgotten
that the government of Virginia was bestowed on him as the meed of
singular integrity and vigilance in previous stations; that he was the
warm friend of religion, and, withal, entirely tolerant of all mere differences
of creed; that he sought the enforcement of morality, and was the
patron of knowledge and of education. The library of the ancient seat of
learning, William and Mary College, until its destruction by fire, during
our late internecine war, preserved many tokens of his generosity, each
marked with his armorial book-plate. Another memorial still exists in
Virginia—the silver mace presented by him to the corporation of Norfolk
in 1754, an engraving of which is presented in this work. The
faithful services of Governor Dinwiddie appear to have been duly recognized
in Great Britain; and Chalmers, the authoritative colonial annalist,
warmly and repeatedly commends his "vigilant" and "able" administration
in Virginia. James Abercromby, the agent of the Colony in
Virginia, whose letter-books are in the possession of the present writer, in a
letter dated London, March 6, 1758, to Richard Corbin, Receiver-General
of the Colony, a member of the Council, and the friend and patron of
Washington, says, "Your good opinion of your late Governor is fully
confirmed by the kind reception he has met with from the Ministry." He
makes use of similar expressions also to John Blair, President of the
Council, and who was the Acting Governor of the Colony until the arrival,
on the 7th of June, 1758, of Governor Fauquier.

Abercromby also makes frequent later acknowledgments of essential
aid received by him from Governor Dinwiddie, in his solicitations of the
English Ministry in behalf of the Colony. These services, and many
others for his personal friends in Virginia, were continuously rendered by
the amiable and benevolent old man when his infirmities had become such
that all physical exertions were painful. He died at Clifton, Bristol,
whither he had gone for the benefit of the baths, July 27, 1770, and
was interred in the parish church there with much "pomp and circumstance."

The curious bill of his funeral expenses is given in the Dinwiddie
Papers, Vol. I., published by the Virginia Historical Society. The
honorable and stainless record of Governor Dinwiddie was publicly
attested.

John Dinwiddie, a brother of the Governor, a merchant on the Rappahannock
River, married a granddaughter of George Mason, and a
sister, Mary, the Rev. Andrew Stuart, of Pennsylvania. Their descendants
in the honored names of Fowke, Phillips, Johnston, Ficklen,
Mason, Peyton, Stuart and others, are quite numerous in the United
States. To the campaign of 1758, under Forbes, Virginia contributed
2,000 men, in two regiments, with Washington in chief command as
Colonel of the first, and Wm. Byrd (the third of the name in lineal
succession in Virginia) of the second. These troops nobly sustained the
reputation which they had valorously earned in the ill-fated expedition
of Braddock, and it was largely due to their bravery, admits Chalmers,
that the French were driven from Fort Duquesne, which was taken possession
of November 25th, repaired, and re-named Fort Pitt, in compliment
to the Prime Minister.

In a preliminary engagement with the French of a reconnoitering party
under Major Grant, a detachment of one hundred and sixty-two Virginians,
in command of Major Andrew Lewis, gallantly participated.
Of their number, sixty-two were killed and two wounded; and of the
eight officers present, five were slain, a sixth wounded and the seventh
captured. Captain Thomas Bullitt, the remaining officer (Major Grant,
the commanding officer, having fallen into the hands of the enemy),
with fifty Virginians, defended the baggage with great valor, and was
instrumental in saving the remnant of the force. The war was prosecuted
at the North with vigor, and in the succeeding summer of 1759,
Niagara and Crown Point fell into the possession of the British crown,
and on the 18th of September, Quebec surrendered to the gallant Wolfe.
The treaty of Fontainebleau, in November, 1762, put an end to the war
(which it is estimated had cost the British empire the loss of the lives of
more than twenty thousand adults), and the English were supreme in
North America.

THE EARL OF LOUDON.

John Campbell, son of Hugh, Earl of Loudon, was born in 1705, and
succeeded his father in the title in November, 1731. In July, 1756,
he arrived in New York with the appointment of Governor-in-chief of
Virginia, and also with the commission of Commander-in-chief of the
British forces in America, but, proving inefficient, returned to England
in 1757. He was made Lieutenant-General in 1758, and General
in 1770. He died April 27, 1782. He was succeeded by Norborne
Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt, as Governor of Virginia, in 1768.

JOHN BLAIR.

John Blair, the son of Dr. Archibald Blair, and a nephew of Rev.
James Blair, D.D., President of William and Mary College, was born
at Williamsburg, Va., in 1689. He was a member of the House of
Burgesses from James City County as early as 1736, and a little later
became a member of the Council, of which as President he was Acting
Governor of Virginia from the departure of Lieutenant-Governor Robert
Dinwiddie for England, in January, 1758, until the arrival on June
7th following of Lieutenant-Governor Francis Fauquier, and again from
the death of the latter, March 3, 1768, until October following, when
he was relieved by Lord Botetourt. During the trying period of the
incumbency of President Blair, his ability, vigilance and discretion were
signally displayed in protecting the frontier of the colony from Indian
invasion. He served for some years from 1752 as Deputy Auditor of
the Colony, and from 1758 to 1761, was a visitor of William and Mary
College. From a MS. diary kept by him and now in the collections
of the Virginia Historical Society, it is manifest that his life was one of
manifold usefulness. An extract regarding the rebuilding of the Capitol
at Williamsburg, which was built in 1699, and destroyed by fire in 1746,
is of interest. President Blair records, December 12, 1752: "This
afternoon I laid the last top brick on the capitol wall, and so it is now
ready to receive the roof; and some of the wall plates were raised and
laid on this day. I had laid a foundation brick at the first building of
the capitol about fifty years ago, and another foundation brick in April
last." President Blair died November 5, 1771. His sister Harrison was
the third wife of Dr. George Gilmer of Williamsburg, a skilled
physician and the ancestor of the distinguished Gilmer family of Virginia.
One son of President Blair, Archibald Blair, was the Secretary
of the Patriot Convention of 1776, and another, John Blair, was nationally
distinguished. The last, born in 1732, after graduating from William
and Mary College, studied law at the Temple, London, being here a
protege of Governor Dinwiddie. Returning to Williamsburg, he rose to
the first rank as a lawyer and enjoyed a lucrative practice, and was
prominent in public affairs. He was a member of the House of Burgesses
as early as 1765, and on the dissolution of that body in 1769, he,
with Washington and other patriots, met at the Raleigh tavern, Williamsburg,
and drafted the non-importation agreement. He was one of the
committee which in June, 1776, drew up the plan for the government of
the State; was a member of the Council in 1779, was made chief justice
of the general court, and upon the death of Robert Carter Nicholas in
1780, he was appointed a judge of the high Court of Chancery, and by
virtue of both stations, was a judge of the first Court of Appeals of the
State.

Two Views of Drinking Cup made from the bowl of the Silver Mace of the
Speaker of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, before the Revolution.

(Original in the Cabinet of the Virginia Historical Society.)

Upon the formation of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted
Masons of Virginia, Judge Blair was elected, October 13, 1778, the first
Grand Master of the State. In 1787, he was a member of the convention
which framed the Federal Constitution, and in 1788, was a member
of that which ratified it. In 1789, he was appointed by Washington a
Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, but resigned the
office in 1796. He died at Williamsburg, August 31, 1800.

FRANCIS FAUQUIER.

Francis Fauquier, born in 1703, was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of
Virginia to succeed Dinwiddie, February 10, 1758, and arrived in the
Colony on June 7th following. He was generous and elegant in his
manners and an accomplished scholar, but brought with him the frivolous
tastes and dissipated habits of a man of fashion; he was addicted to
gaming and by his example diffused in the Colony a passion for gaming.
Notwithstanding these charged frailties, he was, in the opinion of Mr.
Jefferson, the ablest of the Governors of Virgnia. It is noteworthy that
the odious and portentous stamp act was attempted to be enforced
during his administration, a measure which had the happy effect of encouraging
domestic manufactures in Virginia and of inducing an abstinence
from luxuries. Governor Fauquier died March 3, 1768, and
until the arrival of Botetourt in October following, the government
devolved on John Blair, President of the Council. Fauquier was the
author of a pamphlet: "Raising Money for the Support of the War,"
8vo, published at London in 1757. Fauquier County, Va., was named
in his honor.

SIR JEFFREY AMHERST.

Sir Jeffrey Amherst was born in Kent, England, January 29, 1717.
He was page to the Duke of Dorset while Lord Lieutenant of Ireland;
became an ensign in the army in 1731; was aide to Lord Ligonier at
Dottingen, Fontenoy, and Roncoux, and afterwards to the Duke of
Cumberland at Laffaldt. He was made Major General in 1756, and in
1758 was given the command of an expedition against Louisburg. Landing
there June 8th, a lodgment was effected July 26, and the place surrendered,
as did also St. Johns and other French strongholds. He was
appointed Commander-in-chief of the British army in America, September
30, 1758, and the surrender of Quebec to Wolfe's forces, and that
of Fort Niagara to Townsend and Johnson, was followed by that of
Crown Point, July 26th, and that of Ticonderoga, August 4, 1759, to
Amherst in person. Obtaining the naval supremacy on Lake Champlain,
Fort Nevis and Isle Aux Noix fell into his hands; and September

8, 1760, Montreal and the whole of Canada became a British possession.
Amherst was rewarded with the thanks of Parliament, with the
insignia of the Order of a Knight of Bath, and was made Governor-in-chief
of Virginia in 1763. When in 1768 it was desired by the Ministry
that he should reside in the Colony, he resigned, and was succeeded in
July by Lord Botetourt. General Amherst was appointed Governor of
Guernsey in 1771; created a baron in 1776; was commander of the
British army from 1778 to 1795, and was made a Field Marshal in July,
1796. He died August 3, 1797. His brother, William Amherst, was
Lieutenant-General and Colonel of the 32d Foot and Governor of St.
Johns, New Foundland. He was aide-de-camp to Sir Jeffrey Amherst
in America, and was at the capture of Louisburg. He died May 13,
1781. Amherst County, Va., was named in honor of Sir Jeffrey Amherst.

LORD BOTETOURT.

Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt, son of John Symes Berkeley,
was born in 1718. He was Colonel of the North Gloucestershire
Militia in 1761; represented that shire in Parliament; and in 1764 was
raised to the peerage. He was the second of Lord Talbott in a duel
with John Wilkes in 1762, and was Constable of the Tower of
London in 1767. The accession of Lord Botetourt to the vice-royal
government of Virginia, occurred at a period rife with discontent
among the American Colonies, and pregnant with swiftly approaching
and momentous events. The brilliant Horace Walpole, writing to Sir
Horace Mann, August 14, 1768, after alluding to the disquiet in America,
says: "Virginia, though not the most mutinous, contains the best
heads and the principal boutes-feux. It was thought necessary that the
Governor should reside there. It was known that Sir Jeffrey Amherst
would not like that; he must besides have superseded Gage. At the
same time, Lord Botetourt, a court favorite, yet ruined in fortune, was
thought of by Lord Hillsborough."

To this bit of cabinet history, the relentless Junius personally adds
of Botetourt, "Having ruined himself by gambling, he became a cringing,
bowing, fawning, sword-bearing courtier." It would appear from
the subsequent career of this best beloved of our colonial viceroys that
the character so pitilessly drawn by the stern censor was hardly merited.
He received the appointment of Governor (succeeding Sir Jeffrey Amherst)
in July, 1768, though he did not arrive in the Colony until sometime
in October following. A contemporary presents a foil to the
venomously drawn picture of Junius. Edmund Randolph, in a MS.
history of Virginia, in the collections of the Virginia Historical Society,
says of Lord Botetourt: "If from birth and education he had not been

a courtier, his dependence on the Crown for the revival of an extinguished
title, must have generated habits to conciliate and please. He
came hither, not only with the grace of polished life, but also with the
predilections of the people, who were proud in being no longer governed
by a deputy. His predecessors, Fauquier, Dinwiddie, Gooch, Spotswood,
Nicholson and Drysdale, had been the vehicles of sinecures to
some principals who never cast an eye or thought on Virginia. Through
Botetourt, the Colony was assured by the King, that as a mark of honor
to it, the residence of the chief Governor there should never be dispensed
with in the future. Always accessible on business, adhering
without a single deviation to the resolution of sleeping every night in
the metropolis, affable to the humblest visitor in social circles, easy
himself, and contributing to the ease of others, he was sincerely and universally
beloved. In his public functions, his purity and punctuality
confirmed the attachment which his qualities as a gentleman had begun.
By his patronage, he inspired the youth of William and Mary with
ardour and emulation, and by his daily example in the observance of
religion, he acquired a kind of sacred ascendancy over the public
mind."

Solicitous to serve the Virginians, Botetourt pledged his life and
fortune to extend the boundary of the Colony on the west to the Tennessee
River, on the parallel of 36½ degrees. On the 11th of May, 1769,
when the Assembly was convened, the Governor, attended by a numerous
retinue of guards, rode from the palace to the capitol in a luxurious
state-coach drawn by six milk-white horses—a present from George
III.—and the insignia of royalty was displayed with unusual pomp. On
that day and the one following, he entertained fifty-two guests at dinner.
The Assembly, however, on the 16th instant following, venturing upon
the assertion of certain colonial prerogatives by the passage of resolutions
against parliamentary taxation, and the sending of accused persons to
England for trial, was dissolved by him. But this exercise of arbitrary
power was speedily condoned by an action of cordial conciliation.
Botetourt, having received from the Earl of Hillsborough, Secretary of
State for the Colonies, assurance that it was not the intention of the
Ministry to propose any further taxes, and that they intended to advocate
a repeal of those already complained of, called the Assembly together,
and communicated these assurances, pledging himself to every
exertion in his power towards the redressing of the grievances of the
colonists, and the promotion of every measure tending to their advancement
and prosperity, which led to an interchange of cordial greeting between
the colonial legislative bodies and the Governor, and the inauguration
of that warm sentiment of esteem and affection already so graphically
portrayed. But the generous-minded Botetourt, soon finding that the promises
held out to him by the Ministry were utterly faithless, and indignant
at the deception practiced upon him, demanded his recall. Shortly after

this, on October 15, 1770, he fell a victim to an attack of bilious fever.
He appears to have met death with the calm fortitude of the philosopher
and the confiding trust of the Christian. The pure-minded and deeply
pious Robert Carter Nicholas, the Treasurer of the Colony, with whom
he was on terms of the strictest friendship, having during one of his
visits to the Governor observed that he thought that the latter would be
very unwilling to die, "because," as he said, "you are so social in your
nature, and so much beloved, and you have so many good things about
you, that you must be loth to leave them," his lordship made
at the time no reply; but a short time after, being on his death-bed, he
sent in haste for Colonel Nicholas, who lived near the palace, and who
instantly repaired thither to receive the last sight of his dying friend.
On entering his chamber he asked his commands. "Nothing," replied
his lordship, "but to let you see that I resign these good things which
you formerly spoke of with as much composure as I enjoyed them;" after
which he grasped his hand with warmth, and instantly expired. His
death was deeply lamented by the colony, and the funeral ceremonies
incident upon his burial were conducted with great state, the ostentation
exhibited being unprecedented in the country. A verification of the
display, being copies of bills presented against his estate (inclusive of
those for the funeral expenditures) lies before the writer.

The originals, lately in his possession, have been returned to their
owner, Miss Sarah Nicholas Randolph, of "Edgehill," Abermarle
County, Va., the great grand-daughter of Thomas Jefferson. The expenses
aggregate about £700 sterling, and the items are stated with great
minuteness. The remains appear to have been enclosed in three several
coffins—one of lead, furnished by one Joseph Kidd; an "inside coffin,"
and one of black walnut, by one Joshua Kendall. The "inside coffin"
was laid with "Persian fully ornamented," and the "outside coffin," covered
with "crimson velvet," ornamented in the best manner. There
were "eight silver handles and sixteen escutcheons for his lordship's
coffin," and "one large silver plate engraved, a lute-string shroud, mattress,
pillow and cap." The church was hung with black cloth, and it
and the hearse were ornamented with "escutcheons." "Sixteen books of
silver leaf," and "one dozen books of Dutch metal," also appear as
charges. Staffs were borne by, and cloaks furnished the mourners.
There were "streamers for the horses," and an extensive list of articles
for the costuming of the numerous attendants upon the obsequies.

The interment did not take place until the 20th of October, if it was
not later, as numerous items of the incidental expense were entered on
that date. The body was deposited in one of the vaults beneath the
chapel of William and Mary College, and a beautiful marble statue of
Botetourt was erected at the expense of the Colony in 1774 in front of
the old capitol. It now stands, much mutilated, in front of William
and Mary College, whither it was removed in 1797.

The pedestal is inscribed with a glowing tribute to the merits and
virtue of the beloved viceroy. In the parish church of Stoke Gifford,
Gloucestershire, England, a long monumental inscription also commemorates
his worth. Lord Botetourt gave to the College of William and
Mary a sum of money, the interest of which was sufficient to purchase
annually two gold medals—one to be given to the best classical scholar,
and the other to the best scholar in philosophy. This medal was annually
awarded until the Revolution. In Howe's Historical Collections
of Virginia, an account is given of the joyous and impressive reception
of Lord Botetourt by the colonists, together with an ode, recited and
sung with an accompaniment of music on the occasion.

On the evening of the 22d of February, 1876, there was held at the
theater in the city of Richmond, Va., a ball, in commemoration of the
the vice-regal court of Williamsburg, as it appeared during the government
of Lord Botetourt. The participants, in most instances the lineal
descendants of distinguished men and courtly dames who formed the
society of the colonial capital, Williamsburg, reproduced the attire of
that day in all of its original resplendance and impressive concomitants.
Many were the treasured memorials, transmitted heirlooms, jewels,
swords, fans, rich brocades and satins, and costly laces—which were
drawn forth from careful and jealous keeping for the occasion. The
stage of the theater was fitted up for the brilliant tableaux, the body of
the building being filled to overflowing with spectators. This memorable
occasion was the accomplishment of a number of patriotic ladies
who desired to celebrate appropriately the birthday of Washington,
and at the same time earn money with which to improve the condition
of the Virginia room at Mount Vernon.

The name of Botetourt is commemorated in that of one the counties of
Virginia.

The portrait of the Governor given in this work is from a very rare
print, of which probably the copy in the collections of the Virginia Historical
Society is the only one in America.

WILLIAM NELSON.

The progenitor of the Nelson family in Virginia was Thomas (distinguished
in the traditions of the family as "Scotch Tom"), the son of
Hugh and Sarah Nelson, of Penrith, Cumberland County, England, who
was born February 20, 1677, and emigrated to the Colony in early manhood.
He settled as an importing merchant at Yorktown, then the chief
seaport of Virginia. Here he died, October 7, 1745. He married
twice; first, Margaret Reed, and secondly, Mrs. Francis Tucker nee Courteney.
He had issue by his first wife, two sons and a daughter, and by
the last a daughter. Some notice of each of his sons may here be appropriately

given in virtue of their important association with the history
of Virginia and because the second has been conflicted in the minds of
some with his more eminent nephew of the same name. William Nelson,
the eldest son of the emigrant "Scotch Tom," was born in 1711, and
died November 19, 1772. He followed in the respected career of his
father as a merchant, adding largely by his honest gains to the ample
estate which he inherited. It is claimed in evidence of his enterprise
that he imported goods to supply the then incipient marts of Baltimore
and Philadelphia, as well as for Virginia consumption. He was long a
member of the Council of Virginia and often its presiding officer. Hence
the designation of President Nelson, by which he was commonly called.
On the death of Lord Botetourt, October 15, 1770, President Nelson, in
virtue of his office, was invested with the Government of the Colony,
which he administered until the arrival of the Earl of Dunmore, early in
1772. He married in February, 1737, Elizabeth, daughter of Nathaniel
and Elizabeth (Carter) Burwell, and had issue five sons and one
daughter. Three of these sons, one of whom was General Thomas
Nelson, Jr., distinguished themselves in the American Revolution. The
tombs of both, Thomas Nelson, the emigrant, and of his son President
William Nelson, with elaborately wrought marble slabs with the arms of
the family, are in the old church-yard at Yorktown. This epitaph of
the last is a glowing recitation of public service and personal worth:

The second son of "Scotch Tom," the emigrant, Thomas Nelson, Jr.,
as he subscribed himself, was born in 1716, and died at Yorktown in
1786. He occupied a seat in the Virginia Council for thirty years,
during which protracted period he also acted as its Secretary. This was
an office of important trust and of emolument, it being charged with the
preservation of the records of all public acts, and of the land office.

Secretary Nelson, as he was known in virtue of his office, married
Lucy, daughter of John and Martha (Burwell) Armstead, by whom he
had issue ten children, among whom were three sons who served with
distinction in the army of the Revolution.

The noted Nelson House, which attracted so much attention in the Centennial
observances at Yorktown in 1881, is a large two-storied brick
structure with corners of hewn stone, "built on the old English model,"
and stands on the main street of Yorktown, fronting the river. The
time of its erection, according to the gentle annalist Bishop Meade, may
be fixed at 1712, since he narrates that "the corner stone of it was laid
by old president Nelson (born 1711), when an infant, as it was designed
for him. He was held by his nurse, and the brick in his apron, was
passed through his little hand." The good bishop whose ancestors were
among the occupants of its spacious halls, thus enthusiastically apostrophizes
the old mansion: "It was long the abode of love, friendship,
and hospitality.

As one said of modern Italy, "Our memory sees more than our eyes in
this place." What Paulding said of Virginia, may emphatically be said
of York:

The Nelson mansion descended to the eldest son of President Nelson,
the glorious patriot, General Thomas Nelson, Jr., and was his residence
until the threatened dangers of the prospective siege of York prompted
the removal of his family to "Offley," in Hanover county. The head-quarters
of Lord Cornwallis during the siege were first in the mansion
of Secretary Thomas Nelson, which was destroyed by the fire of the
patriot army. The Nelson House, described, and still standing, was also
occupied by Cornwallis or portions of his staff subsequent to the destruction
of the mansion of Secretary Nelson, and while thus the shelter
of the foe, General Nelson loftily exemplified his patriotism. Having
command of the first battery which opened upon Yorktown, he

LORD DUNMORE

Last Royal Governor of Virginia.

pointed the first gun against his own dwelling, and offered to the gunner
a reward of five guineas for every bombshell that should be fired into it.
The marks of their effects are visible to this day.

Among the illustrations of our work is a delineation of the commemorative
Yorktown monument proposed to be erected by the nation.

LORD DUNMORE

John Murray, fourth Earl of Dunmore, the last royal Governor of
the Colony of Virginia, was born in 1732. He was descended in the
female line from the royal house of Stuart, and succeeded to the
peerage in 1756. He was appointed Governor of New York in January,
1770, and of Virginia in July, 1771. He arrived in the Colony early
in 1772, and found that he had already incurred suspicion on account of
the appointment of Captain Edward Foy as his clerk or private secretary,
with a salary of five hundred pounds, which was to be derived from
newly created fees to be exacted from the colonists. The Governor,
however, relinquished the objectionable fees, and thus conciliated so
cordial a feeling that the Assembly expressed their gratitude in terms
of warmth and affection. They also endeavored to permanently honor
the family titles of Lord Dunmore and of his eldest son George, Lord
Fincastle, in creating from Frederick County those of Berkeley and
Dunmore, and from Botetourt that of Fincastle, by acts passed in
February, 1772. The flood of patriotic resentment, incident upon the
struggle for freedom, caused them subsequently, in October, 1776, to
obliterate Fincastle County, by dividing it into the counties of Kentucky,
Washington, and Montgomery, and to change, in October, 1777, the
name of Dunmore to "Shanandoa," now rendered Shenandoah. Captain
Peter Hog, a gallant soldier of the French and Indian War, an
intimate friend of Washington, was appointed Deputy Attorney-General
of Virginia for the county of Dunmore, by Lord Dunmore, April 10,
1772. Captain Hog became distinguished in the practice of law, and
his descendants in the name of Hoge, Hogg, Hall, Blair, Blackley,
Hawkins, McPherson, and others, are numerous in Virginia and West
Virginia, and are held in high social estimation. Fincastle, the county-seat
of Botetourt, is said by Howe (Historical Collections of Virginia,
p. 202) to have been named after the seat of Lord Botetourt in England;
but it is probable that it was a revival of the name of the obliterated
county.

The Assembly of February, 1772, passed also several important acts
for the promotion of internal improvements, in making roads and
canals, and clearing the navigation of the Potomac and Matapony rivers.
The Assembly was prorogued to the 10th of June. Dunmore, notwithstanding
his recent complaisance, evinced his regal proclivities and

jealousy of popular assemblies, by proroguing the Virginia Burgesses
from time to time, until at last a forgery of the paper currency of the
Colony compelled him to call the Assembly together again by proclamation,
March 4, 1773. The political horizon of America was again darkening
by gathering clouds. A British armed revenue vessel having
been burned in Narragansett Bay, an act of Parliament was passed,
making such offenses punishable by death, and authorizing the accused
to be transported to England for trial. Virginia had already, in 1769,
remonstrated against this last measure. Patrick Henry, Jefferson,
Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Dabney Carr, and others
were at this gloomy and threatening period in the habit of meeting
together in the evening in a private room in the old Raleigh Tavern,
to hold consultations on the state of affairs. In conformity with an
agreement entered into by them, Dabney Carr, the brother-in-law of
Jefferson, on the 12th of March, moved a series of resolutions, recommending
a committee of correspondence, and instructing them to inquire
in regard to the newly constituted court in Rhode Island. Richard
Henry Lee and Patrick Henry made speeches of memorable eloquence
on this occasion. Mr. Lee was the author of the plan of inter-colonial
committees of correspondence; and Virginia was the first Colony to
adopt it. The resolutions passed without opposition, and Dunmore
immediately dissolved the House of Burgesses. These resolutions
"struck a greater panic into the ministers" than any thing that had
taken place since the passage of the Stamp Act. The Committee of
Correspondence appointed were Peyton Randolph, Robert Carter Nicholas,
Richard Bland, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, Edmund
Pendleton, Patrick Henry, Dudley Digges, Dabney Carr, Archibald
Cary, and Thomas Jefferson. On the day after the dissolution of the
Assembly, the Committee addressed a circular to the other American
Colonies.

In the Summer, Dunmore visited the frontiers of the Colony, on a
tour of observation. He remained sometime at Pittsburg, and endeavored,
with the aid of Dr. John Connolly, to extend the bounds of Virginia in
that quarter. Late in April, 1774, the Countess of Dunmore and her
family, George, Lord Fincastle, the Honorables Alexander and John
Murray, and the Ladies Catharine, Augusta, and Susan Murray, arrived
in Williamsburg, accompanied by Captain Foy and his wife. A younger
daughter of Lord Dunmore, born subsequently and during his residence
in the Colony, named Virginia, was formally adopted by the Assembly
as the daughter of the Dominion, with provision for her life support.
After the Revolution she reminded the State Assembly of its spontaneously
assumed obligations, and later in life, in the present century,
she petitioned the United States Congress in mediation or by its own act
to secure to her some provision, being infirm and in indigent circumstances;
but her prayers were unheeded. The visit to this country of

the present representative of the earldom of Dunmore during the past
year is fresh in the memory of the public. The three sons of Lord
Dunmore were students in the College of William and Mary in 1774.
Captain Foy had served with distinction in the battle of Minden, and,
subsequently, as Governor of New Hampshire. The arrival of the
family of Lord Dunmore was celebrated with an illumination of the
city of Williamsburg, and the people with acclamations welcomed
them to Virginia. When the Assembly met in May following, the
capital presented a scene of unwonted gayety, and a court-herald published
a code of etiquette for the regulation of the society of the viceregal
court. At the beginning of the session, the Burgesses, in an
address, congratulated the Governor on the arrival of his Lady, and
agreed to give a ball in her honor on the 27th of the month; but the
horizon was again suddenly overcast by intelligence of the act of Parliament
shutting up the port of Boston. The Assembly made an
indignant protest against this act, and set apart the 1st of June, appointed
for the closing of the port, as a day of fasting, prayer, and
humiliation, in which the divine interposition was to be implored to
protect the rights of the Colonies and avert the horrors of civil war,
and to unite the people of America in the common cause. On the
next day Dunmore dissolved the Assembly. The Burgesses repaired
immediately to the Raleigh Tavern, and in the room called "the
Apollo" adopted resolutions against the use of tea and other East India
commodities, and recommended an annual congress of representatives
of the Colonies. Notwithstanding the ominous aspect of affairs, Washington
dined with the Governor on the 25th of May, and attended the
ball, which was given, as proposed, to Lady Dunmore on the 27th. The
Burgesses, remaining in Williamsburg, on the 29th of the month held
a meeting, at which Peyton Randolph presided, and they issued a circular,
recommending a meeting of deputies to assemble in convention
there on the first of August following. In April, 1774, the Indians
renewed their hostilities upon the frontiers of Virginia. In September,
Dunmore, with two regiments under Colonels William Fleming and
Charles Lewis, marched to the relief of the inhabitants. General
Andrew Lewis later marched with eleven hundred men. Dunmore
concluded a peace with the Delawares in October; but a band of Delawares,
Mingoes, Cayugas, Iowas, Wyandots, and Shawnees, under the
Chief Cornstalk, had determined to surprise the camp of Lewis with an
attack. An engagement, known as the battle of Point Pleasant, took
place on the 10th of October, in which the Virginians lost between
forty and seventy-five in killed and one hundred and forty wounded.
The loss of the savages was unascertained. Dunmore, later, concluded
a treaty with the several Indian tribes. Logan, the Cayuga chief,
assented to the treaty, but, still indignant at the murder of his wife in
the preceding spring, refused to attend the camp. In the charge by
Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia, that this tragic event was instigated
or committed by Captain Michael Cresap, when it was known to him
that one Greathouse was the author of the bloody deed, he most
unworthily maligned the memory of a brave soldier, a useful pioneer,
and an honorable man. In the beginning of 1775, the people of Virginia
were still in a state of anxious suspense, expecting civil war. The
second convention assembled at Richmond on the 20th of March. Here,
in the venerable St. John's Church, Patrick Henry sounded the tocsin
of liberty. Militia, called minute men, were established. On the 20th
of April, Lord Dunmore caused the removal of the powder from the
magazine at Williamsburg to an English ship. This proceeding produced
great excitement, the people took arms under Patrick Henry,
and Dunmore was forced to compromise the affair by paying for the
powder. June 6th, he fled with his family, and took refuge on board
the "Fowey" man-of-war. Rallying a band of tories, runaway negroes,
and British soldiers, he collected a naval force, and carried on a petty
warfare, plundering the inhabitants along the James and York rivers,
and carrying off their slaves. December 9th, 1775, his followers suffered
a severe defeat at the battle of Great Bridge, near Norfolk; and
on the following night Dunmore took refuge on board his fleet. January
1st, 1776, he set on fire and destroyed Norfolk, then the most
flourishing and populous town in Virginia. Continuing his predatory
warfare, he established himself early in June on Gwynn Island, in
the Chesapeake Bay, whence he was dislodged by the Virginians, July
8th, being wounded in the leg by a splinter. He shortly afterward
returned to England, and in 1786 was appointed Governor of Bermuda.
He died at Ramsgate, England, in May, 1809. He was a man of culture,
and possessed a large and valuable library, volumes from which
frequently appear in auction sales of books. The armorial book-plate
from one of these is reproduced in the illustrations in this work. His
portrait, which we also present, is from the portrait in oil in the State
library at Richmond, and has never before been engraved. It may be
trite to notice also, in connection with the last royal Governor of Virginia,
the chair of the Speaker of the Colonial House of Burgesses,
now also preserved in the State library at Richmond, and of which we
present a faithful semblance from a photograph specially made for us.
It has never before been pictured. According to a statement by Edmund
Randolph in a MS. and unpublished History of Virginia, in the
collections of the Virginia Historical Society, the Speaker's chair was
originally richly decorated with various insignia of royalty, of which it
was denuded in the beginning of our struggle for independence by the
hasty hands of fervent patriots, to whom all tokens of royalty were
obnoxious.

PATRICK HENRY.

In vigor of intellect, in its varied exemplifications, in true manhood,
and in illustrious and material service in church, state and the army,
in the one sex, and in the typical exhibition of the sweet graces and exalted
virtues characteristic of Virginia and the Southern States, in the
other and gentler, no citizen of the Old Dominion, within its annals or
traditions, has been more honored in his descendants, including the
present generation, than John Henry, a native of Aberdeen, Scotland,
and son of John Henry and his wife Jane, the sister of William Robertson,
D.D., the divine, scholar and historian. He was a cousin of David
Henry, the publisher of the Gentleman's Magazine, and through Dr.
Robertson, the cousin of the distinguished Lord Brougham. The late
British Premier, William Ewart Gladstone, is also of the same lineage.
John Henry settled in Virginia some time prior to 1730. He enjoyed
the friendship and patronage of Governor Robert Dinwiddie, who introduced
him to the acquaintance of Colonel John Syme, of Hanover
county, who dying, his widow, née Winston, John Henry in time married.
John Henry was a most useful citizen of Hanover county, serving
as Colonel of militia, surveyor, and presiding magistrate for many
years. He had been liberally educated, was well grounded in the
classics, and, withal, was endowed with an excellent judgment and a
vigorous mind. He executed a map of Virginia, which was published
in London, in 1770. A copy of it was in the possession of Joseph
Horner, Esq., Warrenton, Virginia, a few years since. Charles Campbell
(History of Virginia, p. 521), says that "appended to it is an epitome
of the state and condition of Virginia. The marginal illustration
is profuse and, like the map, well executed." Soon after the settlement
of Colonel John Henry in Virginia, Patrick, a minister of the
Church of England followed him, and in April, 1733, by his brother's
interest, became rector of St. George's parish in the county of Spotsylvania.
He was subsequently rector of St. Paul's parish, in Hanover
county. The wife of Colonel John Henry, says Wirt, "possessed in an
eminent degree, the mild and benevolent disposition, the undeviating
probity, the correct understanding and easy elocution," for which the
ancient family of Winston is distinguished. Her brother, William
Winston, an officer in the French and Indian war, is said to have been
noted for his oratorical powers. The grave of Colonel Henry, and
presumably that of his wife, is at "Studley," their latest residence in
Hanover county. Patrick, the second son and the youngest of the family
of nine children, of Colonel John and Sarah (Winston-Syme) Henry,
was born at "Studley," May 29, 1736. Under the tuition of his father
he received the basis of a sound English education, with a knowledge
of mathematics, and of the Greek and Latin, a well-thumbed copy of

the Testament, in the former language, which was through life a prized
possession, being still preserved by a descendant. The pecuniary circumstances
of Colonel Henry impelled him to qualify his sons at an early
age to support themselves. With this view, Patrick was placed, at the
age of fifteen, with a country merchant. In the year following, his
father was encouraged by his apparent qualifications to purchase for his
two sons, William and Patrick, a small adventure of goods, to "set
them up in trade." The chief management of this mercantile venture
devolved upon Patrick, whose levity of disposition, and proclivities for
the chase and for social gatherings, illy comported with his responsibilities.
The result was a very natural one; one year put an end to the
business of the store, but Patrick was engaged for two or three years
following, in winding up the disastrous experiment. Notwithstanding
his misfortunes, at the early age of eighteen he married Sarah Shelton,
the daughter, it has been said, of the keeper of a house of entertainment
at the county seat of Hanover. By the joint assistance of their parents
the young couple were settled on a small farm, and Mr. Henry, with
the assistance of one or two slaves, again essayed the struggle for a livelihood,
but his want of agricultural skill and his aversion to systematic
labor, drove him, necessarily, after a trial of two years, to abandon this
pursuit. Selling out for cash, at a sacrifice, his little possessions, he resumed
his inauspicious mercantile pursuits, which he continued until
some time in the year 1759, as evidenced by the memorial illustration
in this work—reduced fac-similes from the originals, of an account in his
autograph, and of a quaint pair of iron-framed spectacles, said to have
been possessed and worn by him in advanced life. The second mercantile
venture was more unfortunate than the first, involving him in absolute
bankruptcy. His situation was indeed lamentable; penniless, with
an increasing family, and with the resources of his friends exhausted,
nevertheless he was sustained by innate fortitude and buoyancy of heart.
Jefferson, who first made the acquaintance of Mr. Henry after his disasters
in the winter of 1759-60, states that they were "not to be traced either
in his countenance or conduct," and that his passion was "music, dancing
and pleasantry." Mr. Henry now determined on the study of law,
"and at last found the path for which he was designed, and into which
he had been driven by the severe but kindly discipline of Providence."
Within the alleged, but absurdly inadequate time of six weeks only in preparation,
he obtained a license to practice at the age of twenty-four. According
to Wirt, Mr. Henry was but little employed in his profession for
several years; his family was chiefly maintained during this period by his
father-in-law, Mr. Shelton, who kept a tavern at Hanover Court House,
Mr. Henry lending his assistance in the entertainment of the guests, and
that his talent remained unknown until it blazed forth like a meteor,
as the advocate of the people in the famous "Parson's Cause," tried at
the November term, 1763, of Hanover Court. The opposing counsel
was Peter Lyons, subsequently of the Supreme Court of Appeals, of
the State.

The story is a winning one, but Mr. Wirt was mistaken as to the
facts. Patrick Henry came to the bar in the latter part of 1760. His
fee books, now in the possession of his family, show that his practice
was extensive from the beginning. They disclose, according to a recent
publication by his grandson, William Wirt Henry, that "from
the September of 1760, when he came to the bar, to the 31st of December,
1763," Patrick Henry charged fees in 1,185 suits, besides
many fees for preparing papers out of court, indicating that his success
was remarkable and his talents appreciated. In 1764 Mr. Henry removed
his family to the county of Louisa, residing at a place called
"Roundabout." In the fall of that year he had the opportunity of a
new theater for his genius, as the advocate before the House of Burgesses,
at Williamsburg, of Nathaniel West Dandridge, who contested
the seat in that body, on the charge of bribery and corruption, of James
Littlepage, who had been returned from Hanover County. Here Mr.
Henry "distinguished himself by a copious and brilliant display on the
great subject of the rights of suffrage, superior to any thing that had
been heard before within those walls." The same year, 1764, is memorable
as that of the passage of the Stamp Act, and for the origination
of the great question which finally led to American Independence, to
which, says Jefferson, "Mr. Henry gave the first impulse." On the
1st of May, 1765, Mr. Henry entered the House of Burgesses as the
representative from Louisa County. His first address to the House
was upon the proposition for a public Loan Office, devised by John
Robinson, the Speaker, to allow the public money to be loaned out to
individuals, on security. It was a scheme to hide certain misappropriations,
which Robinson, as Treasurer, had made and wished to conceal.
Henry opposed it with such vigor and eloquence that it was lost on the
first vote. On the 20th he was added to the committee for courts of
justice. A few days afterward his celebrated resolutions on the Stamp
Act were offered. The original, hastily written upon the fly-leaf of an
old law book, is now in the possession of Mr. William Wirt Henry.
In the stormy debate which ensued, Patrick Henry vehemently exclaimed:
"Cæsar had his Brutus; Charles the First, his Cromwell,
and George the Third"—"Treason!" cried the Speaker, the cry was
echoed from every part of the House—"may profit by their example![1]
If this be treason, make the most of it." The resolutions were carried,
the last by a majority of one only.

AUTOGRAPH BILL OF PATRICK HENRY, WHILE A SHOPKEEPER,

With massive iron spectacles worn by him, from the original in the possession of R. A. Brock,
Secretary of the Virginia Historical Society.

Henry left the capital that morning for his home, and the next day,
the defeated leaders, taking advantage of his absence, succeeded in having
expunged, the fifth, last and most obnoxious of the resolutions,
which claimed "that the Assembly had the sole right to levy taxes, and
that the vesting such power in any other person whatsoever, had a
manifest tendency to destroy British as well as American freedom."
In 1769 Mr. Henry was admitted to the bar of the General Court,
where he came into competition with the most eminent characters in the
colony, some of whom had been educated at the Temple, London, and
the names of a majority of them are historical. Here his wonderful
powers of oratory were pre-eminent. His reputation was such that in
January, 1773, Robert Carter Nicholas, who had enjoyed the first practice
at the bar, being forced to relinquish it by accepting the office of Treasurer
of the Colony, committed to him by public advertisement, his unfinished
business. Mr. Henry removed from Louisa to his native county,
Hanover, in 1767, but was continued a member of the House of Burgesses.
The exactions and odious inflictions of Great Britain continued,
and the storm of Revolution was gathering strength. Every act of resistance
on the part of the Colonial Assemblies, was met by the royal
Governors by a prompt dissolution. Thus matters progressed for several
years; when, in 1774, the Virginia House of Burgesses, having
been suddenly dissolved by Lord Dunmore, for their spirited resentment
of the Boston Port Bill, the members met at the Raleigh Tavern, and
recommended the first call of a Congress of all the friends of liberty.
By the Convention at Williamsburg, shortly afterward, Mr. Henry was
elected a delegate to the Continental Congress which met at Philadelphia,
September 4, 1774. He was the first to address this body, in an
address of such surpassing eloquence, that great as was his reputation,
he seemed to exalt himself to the magnitude of the occasion. His extraordinary
powers astonished all listeners, and he took rank as the
greatest orator of America. In the Virginia Convention, which on the
20th of March, 1775, reassembled at Richmond, in the venerable St.
John's Church (of the exterior and interior of which, before alteration,
accurate representations from photographs are given in this work), to
take further steps in the cause of liberty. Mr. Henry, on the 23d,
moved the organization of militia and that the "Colony be immediately
put in a state of defense." The bold proposal roused the resistance of
many of the firmest friends of the colonial cause, and the debate was
fierce in the extreme. But the genius of Henry rose to the full demands
of the occasion, and as the last thrilling exclamation, "give me
liberty, or give me death!" fell on the ear of the House, all were infused
with the spirit of the orator; the bill passed, and the colony was at
once placed in an attitude of defense. Lord Dunmore, on the 20th of
April following, having clandestinely removed all the powder from the

public magazine at Williamsburg, to a sloop of war lying in York river,
Henry placed himself at the head of the company of Captain Samuel
Meredith (who resigned in his favor), of Hanover county, marched
upon Williamsburg and forced the Governor to give him an order on
the Receiver-General of the Colony, for the value of the powder. In
June, Henry was appointed to the Colonelcy of the First Virginia
regiment, and the command-in-chief of all the forces of the Colony.
Colonel Henry at once went into camp at Williamsburg and ardently
began the recruitment and disciplining of the troops. But the act of
the Virginia Committee of Safety, in intrusting to Woodford, the second
colonel in rank, the duty of arresting the ravages of the motley band
of Dunmore, drove Henry, who had solicited the enterprise, from
the military service back into the councils of state. Mortified by this
disregard of his prerogative of rank, and being wounded further by
the promotion over him, in the Continental line, to the rank of Brigadier-General,
of two Colonels, to whose appointments his own was prior, he
resigned his commission. The action of the convention excited universal
condemnation, and nearly produced a mutiny in the army.

Ninety officers united in an address to Henry, regretting his loss to the
service and applauding his spirited resentment. With exalted unselfishness,
Henry exerted himself to quiet the discontent of his soldiers, and
having accomplished this, retired to his home.

Immediately upon the resignation of his commission as Colonel, he was
elected a delegate to the Convention from the county of Hanover. The
session of that body which was approaching, was pregnant with importance.
Dunmore had abdicated the government, and the royal authority
in the Colony was seen and felt no longer except in acts of hostility.
The Convention met at Williamsburg on the 6th of May, 1776. On the
29th of June, a plan of government having been adopted, Patrick Henry
was elected Governor of Virginia under its new constitution for a term
of twelve months, at a salary of one thousand pounds per annum, Virginia
currency, equivalent in value to $3,333.33⅓ in our present currency.
His competitors for the office were Thomas Nelson and John Page, the
latter of whom was subsequently Governor of Virginia. Shortly after
the election of Mr. Henry as Governor, Lord Dunmore was driven from
Gwinns Island and from the State, to return to it no more. The autumn
of the year 1776 was one of the darkest and most dispiriting periods of
the Revolution, and of which Thomas Paine, in his Crisis, used the
memorable expression, "These are the times that try the souls of men."
For a time the courage of the country fell. Washington alone was undaunted.
Even the heroism of the Virginia Legislature gave way,
and in a season of despair, the mad project of a dictator was seriously
meditated. Mr. Henry is said to have been thought of for this office,
but there is no evidence that the project was ever countenanced by him,

and his firm and unselfish patriotism, so abundantly evidenced, irrefragably
refutes bare suspicion even. That the Virginia Assembly entertained no
doubt of him is manifest in the fact that he was unanimously re-elected
Governor for another annual term on the 30th of May, 1777.

The "Father of his Country," even, did not escape the insidious
attacks of those who were basely envious of him. One of these anonymous
letters was received by Mr. Henry in January, 1778, filled with
the grossest imputations of the incapacity and dishonesty of Washington,
and suggesting Gates, Lee, or Conway as Commander-in-chief instead.
Mr. Henry at once inclosed the letter to his loved and revered friend.
Mr. Henry having completed a third term as Governor, retired from the
office, being inelegible to re-election under the constitution. His administration
had been able, vigilant and effective. The wife of Mr. Henry
died in 1775. He soon after sold the farm in Hanover, called "Scotch
Town," on which he had resided, and purchased about ten thousand
acres of land in Henry County, formed in 1776 from Pittsylvania county
and named in his honor, as was subsequently the neighboring county of
Patrick carved from Henry county in 1791. In 1777 he married, secondly,
Dorothea Dandridge, granddaughter of Governor Alexander Spotswood,
and daughter of Nathaniel West Dandridge, a descendant of Captain
John West, the brother of Lord Delaware—both early Governors of
Virginia. Soon after the expiration of the governmental office of Mr.
Henry, he removed with his family to his newly acquired estate in Henry
county, called "Leatherwood," and resumed the practice of law. In
1780, he was again in the State Assembly and one of the most active
members in the House. He continuously served in this body until
November, 1784. Mr. Henry gave an endearing exhibition of his
generous sensibility, in the winter session of 1780, in the resolution which
he moved expressing sympathy with General Gates in his unfortunate
defeat at Camden, and giving him assurance of continued regard and
esteem upon the entrance into Richmond of the retreating General. In
November, 1784, to conciliate the Indians on the borders of Virginia,
and to avert the danger of hostility from them, Mr. Henry introduced a
remarkable resolution, providing for the intermarriage of the white with
the Indian race, and investing the offspring of such alliances with all
the rights of citizenship. It was rejected. Washington visited Richmond
on the 15th and Lafayette on the 17th of the month, and they
were received with public demonstrations. On the 17th of November, 1784,
Mr. Henry was again elected Governor of Virginia; his term of three
years to commence on the 30th of the month. The necessities of his
family compelled his resignation of his office on the 29th of November, 1786,
declining re-election for another year, as constitutionally provided. On the
4th of December in the same year, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Edmund
Randolph, John Blair, James Madison, George Mason and George
Wythe were appointed by the Virginia Assembly delegates to the convention

to be held in May following in Philadelphia for the adoption of the Federal
Constitution, but Henry was debarred by his pecuniary circumstances (being
oppressed with debt) from obeying this honorable call. Of the Virginia
Convention to decide the relations of the State to the newly proposed
Federal Constitution, Mr. Henry was elected a member from
Prince Edward county. In this body, composed of the grandest intellects
in the Old Dominion, and which met in Richmond on the 2d of June,
1788, in a quaint old edifice subsequently known as the African Church
(and now displaced by another church with a colored membership of
nearly 4,000 members), Mr. Henry opposed the ratification of the instrument
of compact with all the eloquence and vigor of his nature. He
feared that the final result would be the destruction of the rights of the
sovereign States. His faculties rose to the altitude of the occasion, and
during his whole brilliant career he had never before appeared to greater
advantage. But, for almost the only time in his life, he failed to carry
his point. The opposing array of intellectual giants, backed by predominant
popular sentiment, were not to be overcome. His opposition, however,
was not fruitless. He secured the passage of a Bill of Rights and a
variety of amendments, afterward incorporated into the Constitution.
The Constitution having been adopted, the government organized, and
Washington elected President, the repugnance of Mr. Henry measurably
abated. The chapter of amendments considerably neutralized his objections;
but it is believed that his acquiescence resulted more from the consideration
of his duty as a citizen, his confidence in the chief magistrate
and a hopeful reliance on the wisdom and virtue of the people, than from
any material change in his opinions. In 1794, he retired from the bar
with an ample estate, and removed to his seat, "Red Hill," in Charlotte
county. In 1794 he was elected United States Senator, and in
1796 Governor of the State, but declined both offices, as he did, in 1795,
the appointment by Washington as Secretary of State, to succeed Jefferson,
and subsequently that of Minister to France by Adams.

From a letter of General Henry Lee, still preserved in the original,
it appears that Washington, in December, 1795, after the declination of
the office of Secretary of State, desired the acceptance by Mr. Henry
of the Chief Justiceship of the Supreme Court of the United States. In
1798, the strong and animated resolutions of the Virginia Assembly in
opposition to the Alien and Sedition Laws called again for his services
in the councils of Virginia, and he presented himself as a candidate, at the
spring election of 1799, for the House of Delegates. His speech on this
occasion before the polls were opened was the last effort of his eloquence.
As he finished, he literally descended into the arms of the uncontrollable
throng and was borne about in triumph; whereon the eminent Presbyterian
Divine, John H. Rice, D. D., touchingly exclaimed, "The sun has
set in all his glory."

It is memorable that the brilliant and erratic John Randolph (who
subsequently designated himself as "of Roanoke") offered himself on the
same occasion at Charlotte Court House as a candidate for Congress, and
undaunted replied to Mr. Henry with cutting satire and caustic crimination
of the Federal party. His effort was received with loud huzzas.
This was a new experience to Mr. Henry, unaccustomed to rivalry, to
be confronted by a beardless boy, for such was the youthful appearance
of Mr. Randolph. Mr. Henry returned to the rostrum, and in a
second address soared above his wonted passionate and majestic eloquence.
He unstintingly complimented the rare talents of his competitor,
whilst he deprecated the youthful errors of his political zeal, and by his
pathos wrought himself and audience to tears. In these efforts of Mr.
Henry, as attested by two of his audience, Colonels Robert Morton and
Clement Carrington, of Charlotte county, in 1837, in statements published
by the late Charles Campbell in 1867, Mr. Henry did not approve
the Alien and Sedition Laws (which he apprehended tended to civil war),
and patriotically endeavored to quiet the minds of the people and to
avert the apparent impending dissolution of the Union. He said: "Let
us all go together, right or wrong. If we go into civil war, your Washington
will lead the Governmental armies; and who, I ask, is willing to
point a bayonet against his breast?"

Mr. Henry and Mr. Randolph were each elected severally to the
stations for which they offered, but Mr. Henry, whose health had been
visibly declining for several years, died on the 6th of June, 1799, a few
months before Washington, and before the meeting of the body to which
he had been elected. His remains and those of his second wife rest
side by side beneath massive and ornate marble tablets in the family
cemetery at "Red Hill," which seat is now owned by his grandson,
William Wirt Henry.

The following obituary of Patrick Henry, which appeared contemporaneously
in the Virginia newspapers, and was written by General
Henry Lee, is a touching plaint and merits perpetuation here:

The affectionate reverence in which Patrick Henry was held is evidenced

in the commitment to memory of this lament by numerous admirers and
its oral transmission in some instances to the present day.

The distinguished orator and theologian, Rev. Archibald Alexander,
D. D., a repeated personal witness, thus lucidly and satisfactorily analyzes
the springs of the oratorical genius of Patrick Henry:

"The power of Henry's eloquence was due, first, to the greatness
of his emotion and passion, accompanied with a versatility which enabled
him to assume at once any emotion or passion which was suited
to his ends. Not less indispensable, secondly, was a matchless perfection
of the organs of expression, including the entire apparatus of voice, intonation,
pause, gesture, attitude, and indescribable play of countenance.
In no instance did he ever indulge in an expression that was
not instantly recognized as nature itself; yet some of his penetrating
and subduing tones were absolutely peculiar, and as inimitable as they
were indescribable. These were felt by every hearer, in all their force.
His mightiest feelings were sometimes indicated and communicated by
a long pause, aided by an eloquent aspect, and some significant use of
the finger. The sympathy between mind and mind is inexplicable.
Where the channels of communication are open, the faculty of revealing
inward passion great, and the expression of it sudden and visible,
the effects are extraordinary. Let these shocks of influence be repeated
again and again, and all other opinions and ideas are for the moment
absorbed or excluded; the whole mind is brought into unison with that
of the speaker; and the spell-bound listener, till the cause ceases, is
under an entire fascination. Then perhaps the charm ceases, upon reflection,
and the infatuated hearer resumes his ordinary state. Patrick
Henry, of course, owed much to his singular insight into the feelings of
the common mind. In great cases, he scanned his jury, and formed his
mental estimate; on this basis he founded his appeals to their predilections
and character. It is what other advocates do, in a lesser degree.
When he knew there were conscientious or religious men among the
jury, he would most solemnly address himself to their sense of right,
and would adroitly bring in scriptural citations. If this handle was
not offered, he would lay bare the sensibility of patriotism. * * *
A learned and intelligent gentleman stated to me that he once heard
Mr. Henry's defense of a man arraigned for a capital crime. So clear
and abundant was the evidence that my informant was unable to conceive
any grounds of defense, especially after the law had been ably
placed before the jury by the attorney for the Commonwealth. For a
long time after Mr. Henry began, he never once adverted to the merits
of the case or the arguments of the prosecution, but went off into a most
captivating and discursive oration on general topics, expressing opinions
in perfect accordance with those of his hearers, until having fully succeeded
in obliterating every impression of his opponent's speech, he obliquely

approached the subject, and as occasion was offered, dealt forth
strokes which seemed to tell upon the minds of the jury. In this case,
it should be added, the force of truth prevailed over the art of the consummate
orator."

The descendants of Colonel John Henry and of his eminent son Patrick
Henry, comprise the distinguished family names of Meredith, Madison,
Lewis, Bowyer, Christian, Pope, Bullitt, Campbell, Russell, Wood, Preston,
Armistead, Garland, Carrington, McDowell, Breckenridge, Floyd,
Hampton, Johnston, Southall, Venable, Hughes, Michel, Fontaine,
Roane, Lyons, Dandridge, Crenshaw, Granberry, Bailey, Scott, and
others, and embrace authors, divines, educators, governors, generals,
jurists, scientists, statesmen, etc.

A portrait of Patrick Henry, painted by Thomas Sully, and pronounced
by his contemporaries an admirable likeness, is in the possession
of his grandson, William Wirt Henry, a distinguished practitioner of
the law, and the Vice-President of the Virginia Historical Society.
From this portrait has been engraved the illustration in our work.

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Upon the resignation of Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, by election
of the General Assembly, succeeded him as Governor of Virginia,
June 1st, 1779. During his administration, in January, 1781, the
traitor Arnold invaded Virginia, leaving ravage in his wake. At
Richmond, the public stores fell a prey; private property was plundered,
and several houses were burned. Many of the public archives were also
destroyed. Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe, of his command, commanding
the Queen's Rangers, proceeded to Westham, six miles above Richmond,
and destroyed the foundry, magazine, arms, and military supplies there.
Arnold now retired to Portsmouth, where he rested until April, when
General William Phillips, succeeding to the command, paid another
visit of desolation to Manchester. In May came Lord Cornwallis with
his victorious army from the South, driving every thing before him.
The 7th of May was the day appointed by law for the meeting of the
Assembly at Richmond. A quorum not being in attendance, the house
adjourned from day to day until the 10th, when, upon the approach of
the enemy, they adjourned to the 24th, to meet at Charlottesville. The
house did not proceed to business until the 28th. Eight days after,
they again fled before the rapid approach of the rapacious Tarleton.
All the machinery of government for a time was in confusion, the
Governor, Assembly, and the Council, save a single member, Colonel
William Fleming, as it appears, being in flight before the enemy. Governor
Jefferson resigned June 1st, and was succeeded by General
Thomas Nelson, Jr., on the 12th of the month. An extended sketch

THOMAS LORD CULPEPER,

Governor of Virginia,

From a portrait in oil in the possession of the Virginia
Historical Society.

of the life of Thomas Jefferson will be found in the second volume of
Virginia and Virginians.

WILLIAM FLEMING.

William Fleming emigrated from Scotland to Virginia in early manhood.
By tradition he was of noble extraction, and he had received a
liberal education. He is believed to have had a knowledge of medicine,
and to have served in a medical and military capacity in the French
and Indian war, with the rank of Lieutenant, in 1755 and 1756, and
perhaps longer. He was of a bold and adventurous spirit, and was
among the earliest settlers in the portion of Augusta County which now
forms Botetourt County, taking up large tracts of land, which, enhancing
in value, made him a man of wealth. In 1774 he raised a regiment,
which he gallantly and effectively commanded in the sanguinary battle
of Point Pleasant, in which he received a wound from which he never
fully recovered. He was a member of the Council of Virginia in 1781,
and for a time in the month of June was the executive of the Colony,
as is evidenced by the following resolution of the Virginia Assembly
(Hening's Statutes, Vol. X, p. 567):

Colonel Fleming, in 1788, represented the county of Botetourt in the
Virginia Convention which ratified the Federal Constitution—an eminent
body.

Colonel Fleming married and left a family. One of his daughters,
Anne, became the wife of Rev. George A. Baxter, D. D., Rector in
1798 of Liberty Hall Academy (the beginning of the present Washington
and Lee University). He was also Professor of Mathematics,
Natural Philosophy, and Astronomy in that institution, and Minister of
the New Monmouth and Lexington Presbyterian Churches.

THOMAS NELSON.

Thomas Nelson, the eldest son of President William Nelson, of the
Virginia Council, and his wife Elizabeth Burwell (granddaughter of
Robert "King" Carter), was born at Yorktown, December 26th, 1738.
After having been under the tuition of Rev. William Yates, of Gloucester,
afterward President of William and Mary College, he was sent,
at the age of fourteen, to England, to finish his education, remaining
seven years. He enjoyed there the superintending care of the celebrated
Dr. Beilby Porteus, afterward Bishop of London, who subsequently sent to
his former ward in Virginia a volume of his sermons in token of remembrance.
Thomas was first at the school of Dr. Newcombe, at Hackney;
then at Eton. Graduated with distinction from Trinity College, Cambridge,
he returned to Virginia in his twenty-second year. Whilst on
his voyage, from respect to his father, he was elected a member of the
House of Burgesses. He married, in 1762, Lucy Grymes, of Middlesex
County, the eldest daughter of Philip and Mary (Randolph) Grymes,
the elder, of "Brandon." He was associated as a merchant with his
father, from whom, at the death of the latter, he received a portion of
£40,000 sterling (the equivalent of $200,000 in our present currency,
and when, too, the relative value in purchasing capacity was several
times greater than now).

Thomas Nelson was a member of the Virginia Conventions of 1774
and 1775, and displayed extraordinary boldness in resisting British
tyranny. He was elected by the Convention, in July, 1775, Colonel of
the Second Virginia regiment, which post he resigned on being elected
to the Continental Congress the same year. He was a conspicuous
member of the Virginia Convention of 1776, which framed the Constitution
of Virginia. He was a member of the Committee on Articles of
Confederation, and July 5th, 1776, signed the Declaration of Independence.
Restless for active service in the field, he resigned his seat in
Congress in May, 1777, and in August following was appointed Commander-in-chief
of the State forces of Virginia. He soon after raised
a troop of cavalry, with which he repaired to Philadelphia. Resuming
his duties in the Virginia Legislature, he strongly opposed the proposition
to sequestrate British property, on the ground that it would be an
unjust retaliation of public wrongs on private individuals. He was
again elected to Congress, in February, 1779, but was obliged, by
indisposition, to resign his seat. In May he was called upon to organize
the State militia, and repel an invading expedition of the enemy.
A loan of $2,000,000 being called for by Virginia in June, 1780,
which, in that period of despondency and distrust, being difficult to
obtain, General Nelson, by strenuous endeavors, and on his own personal
security, raised a large portion of the amount. He also advanced
money to pay two Virginia regiments ordered to the South, which
refused to march until arrearages due them were paid. In the then
critical aspect of affairs, upon the resignation of Governor Jefferson, a

military executive being deemed a necessity, General Nelson was, June
12th, 1781, elected to succeed him, opposing in person, with what militia
he could command, with sleepless vigilance and untiring energy, the
enemy who were ravaging the State, anticipating the wants of the
service with remarkable comprehensive forecast, and a provision wonderful
in view of the difficulties which beset him. His gallantry and
nobility of soul, as evinced at the siege of Yorktown, have already
been noted in the sketch of his father, President William Nelson.

General Nelson died at his seat, "Offley," in Hanover County, January
4th, 1789, leaving as a legacy to his family naught but an imperishable
record—sublime in its lofty aims and disinterested patriotism; for
his advances to Virginia had impoverished him, and the claims of his
remaining creditors literally beggared them. An effort was made in
1822, by the late Hon. St. George Tucker, before the Virginia Assembly,
for indemnity to the heirs of General Nelson for advances made by
the latter during the Revolution, which, after various contemptuous
delays, was at last referred to a select committee, who rendered "an
eloquent report, setting forth in glowing language" the merits, etc., of
General Nelson, and concluding with the words, "That a just regard
for the character of the State requires that some compensation should
be made to his representatives for the losses sustained." The report
was adopted by the House of Delegates, and, on motion, the committee
was discharged from the duty of bringing in a bill in conformity
thereto. The matter remained dormant until 1831, when, being again
brought up, it was referred to the First and Second Auditors of the
State, who reported against the claim.

The heirs finally petitioned Congress on the 10th of December, 1833,
when, after vexatious delays, it was finally reported on, and unfavorably.
Never before in the history of nations have patriotic services so eminent
and so essentially vital, and sacrifices personally so absolute, been more
ungratefully requited. The disease which carried off General Nelson
was asthma, occasioned by exposure incident to his military services.
His remains were conveyed to Yorktown, and buried at the foot of the
grave of his father. No stone marks the spot. His grandson, Philip
Nelson, presented, December 7th, 1839, a petition to the General Assembly
of Virginia for the payment of the claims of General Nelson,
which, after various delays, in sheer hopelessness of success, was withdrawn
in September, 1840. A fort built at Louisville, Kentucky, in
1782, was named Fort Nelson in honor of General Nelson, as was also
Nelson County, Virginia, formed in 1807 from Amherst County. His
statue in bronze is one of the six which adorn the Washington monument
in the public square at Richmond, Virginia. A representation of this
grand and much admired work of art, in connection with the Capitol
building, is given in this work. The only portrait of General Nelson,
for which he ever sat, is preserved in the State Library of Virginia.

It was painted by Chamberlain, in London, in 1754, whilst the subject
was a student at Eton. It represents him as a handsome, ruddy-cheeked,
brown-haired youth, with oval contour of face and a most
engaging expression of countenance.

BENJAMIN HARRISON.

Benjamin Harrison succeeded Thomas Nelson as Governor of Virginia,
upon the resignation of the latter, from ill-health, November 30th,
1781. He served for three years, when he was succeeded, November
29th, 1784, by Patrick Henry. An extended sketch of the life of
Benjamin Harrison will be found under the head of "The Declaration
of Independence and its Signers," in another portion of this work.

EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Edmund Randolph was born in Williamsburg, the capital of the Colony
of Virginia, August 10, 1753. He was of distinguished lineage. His
father, John Randolph, was Attorney-General of the Colony, and the son
of Sir John Randolph, who had filled the same office and received the
honor of Knighthood for eminent services to the Crown, and was the
fifth son of the emigrant ancestor of the family in Virginia, William
Randolph, born in Yorkshire, England; died at his seat, "Turkey Island,"
James River, April 11, 1711. The mother of Edmund Randolph was
Ariana, daughter of Edmund Jenings, Attorney-General of Maryland
and of Virginia, and at one time the Acting Governor of the last. Peyton
Randolph, the first President of the Continental Congress, was his
uncle.

Educated at William and Mary College, Edmund Randolph early determined
on the profession of law, which his ancestors, paternal and
maternal, had so eminently adorned. But his career was temporarily
interrupted by the exciting occurrences of 1775, when ardently enlisting
in the cause of the "rebellious" colonists, he was disinherited by his
father, who remained "loyal" to the Crown, and sailing with Lord Dunmore
for England, subsequently died there. Upon the appointment of
Washington as Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, then investing
Boston, Edmund Randolph became a member of his staff and secretary,
remaining in such capacity during the greater part of the siege. But
having been adopted by his uncle, Peyton Randolph, who owned several
large plantations in Virginia, whose public duties precluded his attention
to them, and who died in October, 1775, he was compelled by his extended
interests to return to Virginia, to civil life. He combined with
the management of his estates the practice of law, in which he was
eminently successful.

On the 29th of August, 1776, he married Elizabeth, daughter of
Robert Carter Nicholas, Treasurer and Speaker of the House of Burgesses
of Virginia, and granddaughter of Robert "King" Carter. In
the same year he was a delegate from Williamsburg to the Convention
which adopted the first constitution of the State, and before the close of the
year was elected Mayor of the same city. He was appointed by the
Convention Attorney-General under the new constitution, with an annual
salary of £200, and at a subsequent session of the General Assembly he
was elected its clerk, an office which has been filled by such men as
George Wythe and William Wirt. In 1779 he was a delegate to the
Continental Congress, of which he remained a member until 1782. Upon
the resignation of Patrick Henry as Governor of Virginia, he succeeded
him in the office by the election of the General Assembly, December 1,
1786, and was chosen by the same body one of the seven delegates to
the Convention at Annapolis, and in the following year, in 1787, a
member of the convention that formed the Federal Constitution, and
introduced what was called the "Virginia plan." In 1788, he was returned by the county of Henrico, being then a resident of Richmond, to the convention
which was called to decide upon the Federal Constitution. December
1, 1788, Edmund Randolph was succeeded as Governor of Virginia
by his kinsman, Beverley Randolph. In 1784 he was appointed Deputy
Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons
of Virginia, and in 1786 was elected Grand Master of the same body,
"when he was pleased to appoint the Honorable John Marshall as his
Deputy." They served in their respective positions until 1788. It is of
interest to note that the Masons' Hall in Richmond, a large wooden structure
on the south side of Franklin, near Eighteenth Street, the oldest
building for Masonic purposes in America, was erected in 1785, during
the term as Grand Master of James Mercer and whilst Edmund Randolph
was Deputy Grand Master. The name of Edmund Randolph is masonically
perpetuated in that of the Richmond Randolph Lodge, No. 19, chartered
October 19, 1787. In 1790 he was appointed by Washington the first
Attorney-General of the United States, and on the 2d of August, 1794, he
succeeded Jefferson as Secretary of State, which office he held until the
19th of August, 1795, when he withdrew to private life and resumed the
practice of law. His person and his eloquence are vividly embalmed by
Wirt in the pages of his British Spy Hugh Blair Grigsby, another
masterful delineator, in his Virginia Convention of 1776, says of Edmund
Randolph's service in the Federal Convention of 1787, "His career in
that body was surpassingly brilliant and effective, * * * nor was his course
in the Virginia Convention of Ratification less imposing." The withdrawal
of Edmund Randolph from the Cabinet of Washington, in 1795,
was made the occasion, and the causes of it, of misrepresentations and
calumnies by his political enemies, which he ably refuted and effectively
silenced by the "Vindication," then published by him, and which was

republished with a preface by his grandson, Peter V. Daniel, Jr., in 1855.
Edmund Randolph died in Frederick County, Va., September 12, 1813.
His daughter Lucy married Peter Vivian Daniel, born in Stafford
county, Va., 1785; appointed, March 3, 1841, Justice of the United States
Supreme Court, died at Richmond, May 31, 1860. His son, Peter V.
Daniel, Jr., long President of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac
Railroad, is a prominent member of the Richmond Bar. A MS.
history of Virginia, by Edmund Randolph, which is several times quoted
from in these sketches, is in the collections of the Virginia Historical
Society.

BEVERLEY RANDOLPH.

Beverley Randolph, the son of Colonel Peter and Lucy (Bolling) Randolph
of "Chatsworth," Henrico County, James River, Va. ("Surveyor
of Customs of North America" in 1749, and long a member of the
House of Burgesses), and third in descent from William Randolph, of
"Turkey Island," was born at his father's seat in 1754. He graduated
from William and Mary College in 1771, and was, during the Revolution,
a member of the Virginia Assembly. He succeeded Edmund Randolph
as Governor of Virginia, December 1, 1788, and served until
December 1, 1791, when he was succeeded by Henry Lee. He married
Martha Cocke, and their descendants are represented also in the names
of Randolph, Fitzhugh, and others equally worthy. Governor Randolph
died at his seat, "Green Creek," in February, 1797.

HENRY LEE.

Henry Lee, popularly known as "Light-Horse Harry Lee" from his
gallant and efficient service during the Revolutionary War, was born,
January 29th, 1756, at "Leesylvania," which is situated on a point of
land jutting into the Potomac River, three miles above Dumfries, then
the county seat of Prince William. He was the son of Henry and
Lucy (Grymes) Lee, and fifth in descent from Richard Lee, of
Shropshire, England, the emigrant ancestor of the family in Virginia,
and combined also in his descent the blood of the historic Corbin, Ludwell,
and Bland families. He was the second cousin of the distinguished
brothers- Philip Ludwell, Thomas Ludwell, Richard Henry,
Francis Lightfoot, William, and Arthur Lee. His youngest brother,
Charles Lee, was Attorney-General in the second cabinet of Washington
Henry Lee was educated at Princeton College, New Jersey,
graduating thence in 1773. Intending the profession of law, he was
about to embark for England to pursue his studies under the direction
of his relative, Bishop Porteus, of London, when the commencement of
hostilities with the mother country changed his destiny. In May, 1776,

he was appointed by the Virginia Convention a captain in the cavalry
regiment of Colonel Theodrick Bland, Jr., and in September, 1777,
joined the main army. By the stern discipline which he introduced,
he was enabled to move with celerity and effect, and his rapid and daring
system of tactics made "Lee's Legion" highly efficient. Besides being
present at other important actions in the Northern Department, he was
at the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Springfield. He early
became a favorite of Washington, who selected his company as a bodyguard
at Germantown. In the difficult and critical operations in Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, and New York, 1777-1780, Lee was always placed
near the enemy, intrusted with the command of outposts, the superintendence
of scouts, and such like service, for which his skill, daring,
and self-possession pre-eminently fitted him. In January, 1778, Lee,
with only ten men, was attacked in a stone house by two hundred
British troopers, whom he repulsed. He was soon after promoted to the
rank of major, with the command of an independent corps of two companies
of horse, afterward increased to three, and a body of infantry.
He co-operated, as far as cavalry could act, in General Wayne's attack
upon Stony Point, and procured the intelligence upon which it was projected.
July 19, 1779, he surprised the garrison of Paulus Hook, and
took one hundred and sixty prisoners. For his "prudence, address, and
bravery" in this affair Congress voted him a gold medal.

Promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, November 6th, 1780,
Lee joined the Southern Army under General Nathaniel Greene, in
January, 1781. He was at once detached toward the Santee River, in
South Carolina, to co-operate with the famous "Swamp-fox" Marion,
and these officers were speedily engaged in the successful surprise of
Georgetown. During the retreat of Greene before Cornwallis, Lee's
Legion formed the rear guard. Whilst watching the movements of
Cornwallis in North Carolina, he fell upon the Tory Colonel Pyle (who
was leading four hundred men to Cornwallis), and killed and captured
most of his command. At the battle of Guilford Court House, Lee
encountered the boastful and truculent Tarleton and drove him back
with loss, afterward held his ground obstinately on Greene's left wing,
and finally covered the retreat. It was by the advice of Lee that
Greene adopted the daring policy of not following Cornwallis into
Virginia, but of leaving that province to its fate, and marching south to
end the conflict in South Carolina and Georgia. The result fully
vindicated the expediency of this policy. Lee with his Legion joining
the partisan forces of Marion, by a series of vigorous operations reduced
Forts Watson, Motte, and Granby. While on his way to join Colonel
Pickens he surprised and took Fort Galphin. Augusta was taken after
a siege of sixteen days. He was also at the unsuccessful siege of Fort
Ninety-six. At the battle of Eutaw his gallantry contributed greatly
to the successful result. Lee's impetuous charge, causing the retreat of

EDMUND RANDOLPH,

Governor of Virginia, 1786-8.

the British left wing, probably saved the army from defeat. In the
extensive sweep which Lee's Legion made from the Santee to Augusta,
embracing from the 15th of April to the 5th of June, this corps, acting
in conjunction first with Marion, afterward with Pickens, and sometimes
alone, had constituted the principal force which carried the British posts,
and made upward of 1,100 prisoners—about four times its own
number.

The health of Colonel Lee under his incessant and arduous service
gave way, and from the effects of disease his spirits, too, became depressed,
and led to his retirement from a most brilliant and effective
career in the army, in January, 1782. His commander, General Greene,
in a letter dated January 27th, 1782, expresses the deepest concern at
this determination of Colonel Lee, and acknowledges to him "the greatest
obligations—obligations which I can never cancel," for "substantial
service" of "lasting reputation," which are "the best panegyric that
can be given of your actions." He continues: "I have the highest
opinion of you as an officer, and you know I love you as a friend."

Very soon after the return of Colonel Lee to Virginia, he visited
"Stratford," the seat of his kinsman, Colonel Philip Ludwell Lee, in
Westmoreland County, on the bluffs of the Potomac, and in a short
time was happily married to Matilda, the eldest daughter of his host.
In the midst of his happiness he did not forget the brave men he had
left in Carolina. His correspondence with General Greene, continued
to the end of the war, is filled with evidences of the solicitude he felt
for his soldiers. In 1786, Colonel Lee was elected to represent Westmoreland
County in the House of Delegates of Virginia, and was a
representative in the Continental Congress, 1786-1788, and in the latter
year was a member of the Virginia Convention to decide upon the
Federal Constitution, of which compact he was a prominent advocate.
He succeeded Beverley Randolph as Governor of Virginia, December
1st, 1791, serving until December 1st, 1794. After the disastrous
defeat of General St. Clair in the Northwest, in 1791, which moved
Washington to a profane outburst of passion, Lee is said to have been
the preference of the President to succeed St. Clair; but a question of
policy and of precedency in rank prevailed, and General Anthony Wayne
was appointed instead. General Lee, however, in 1794, was commissioned
a Major-General, to command the forces raised to quell the
"Whisky Insurrection" in Western Pennsylvania, and, advancing at
the head of 15,000 men, speedily silenced all tumult. In 1799, General
Lee was again in Congress, in which body he voiced the grief of the
American Nation upon the death of Washington, in the appealing
eulogy in which occurs the enduring sentiment, "First in war, first in
peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen." In 1809, General Lee wrote
his "Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United

States," which was republished in 1827, with additions by his son, Major
Henry Lee, and again in 1869, with revisions and a biography of the
author, by his son, General Robert E. Lee. In 1811, General Lee
removed with his family to Alexandria, for the purpose of educating
his children. In the second war with England, after the first disastrous
campaigns in Canada, he was offered and accepted a Major-General's
commission in the army. Whilst making his arrangements to enter the
service, business called him to Baltimore, and, being an inmate of the
house of Mr. Hanson when the riot connected with the Federal Republican
newspaper occurred, he received injuries at the hands of the mob,
from which he never recovered. The results of that night were fatal to
General Lingan. The injuries of General Lee nearly deprived him of
sight, and were otherwise so severe as to prevent his taking any part in
the war of 1812, and eventually terminated his life. It was thought
that a voyage to the West Indies and the influence of the mild climate
there might restore him. Here he remained until 1818, when, despairing
of recovery, he prepared to return home. He intended first to land
at Savannah, Georgia, but only reached Cumberland Island on the
coast, where he was received at the home of Mrs. Shaw, the daughter
of General Greene. Here he died, March 25th, 1818, and was buried
on the island. In person, General Lee was about five feet nine inches
in height, well proportioned, of an open, noble, and benignant countenance,
and a dark complexion. His manners were frank and engaging,
and his disposition generous and hospitable. He was twice married.
By his first wife, as stated, he had issue a son, Major Henry Lee,
diplomatist and author of ability, and a daughter, Lucy, who married
Bernard Carter. By his second wife, Anne Hill, daughter of Charles
Carter, of "Shirley," James River, whom he married June 18th, 1794,
General Lee had issue: Charles Carter, author and poet; Commodore
Sidney Smith, of the United States and Confederate States navies;
and General Robert Edward Lee, the peerless hero; and two daughters,
Anne Carter and Mildred, who married respectively William L. Marshall
and Edward Childe—the latter of Boston, Massachusetts.

Of the military talents of General Henry Lee, General Greene said,
"No man in the progress of the Southern campaign had equal merits
with Lee;" and the "love and thanks" expressed to Lee in Washington's
letter, in 1789, show the affection which his generous qualities had
inspired. In these sketches of the eminent men of Virginia it will be
observed that the connection of many of them with the philanthropic
and beneficent fraternity of Free Masons, of the period of the Revolution
and subsequent thereto, is noted. It has been asserted that nearly
every general officer in the Continental army, from Washington down,
was a Mason. From a report submitted to the Grand Lodge of Virginia
in 1867, by a venerable brother, Peyton Johnston, Esq., of Richmond,
it is evidenced that General Lee was an earnest Mason, and that

on the red field of war he practiced "Relief and Brotherly Love" in
saving the life of Colonel Broun, a British officer, whom he recognized
masonically as a brother of the "Mystic Tie." Lee County, formed in
1792 from Russell, was named in honor of General Lee.

ROBERT BROOKE.

Robert Brooke, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, a native
of England, of gentle descent and of classic education, accompanied
Robert Beverley, the historian, and Governor Spotswood, to Virginia in
1710. He was a skilled and probably a professional surveyor. He must
have been appointed surveyor of the Colony immediately upon or very
soon after his arrival. He accompanied Governor Spotswood in his
famous expedition across the Blue Ridge Mountains, which set out from
Williamsburg, August 20, 1716, and on the 5th of September following,
drank the health of King George I. on the summit of the Appalachian
range, and returning, the party reached "Germanna," the seat of the
Governor, on the Rappahannock River, on the 10th instant following.
Robert Brooke was decorated with one of the horseshoe badges described
in the preceding sketch of Governor Spotswood. In 1736, Robert
Brooke was one of the surveyors in behalf of His Majesty, George II.,
to determine the disputed boundaries of the Northern Neck Proprietary
of Lord Fairfax.

The commissioners in behalf the Crown were William Byrd, John
Robinson and John Grymes; Lord Fairfax being represented by William
Fairfax, William Beverley and Charles Carter. Robert Brooke had
several sons, the youngest of whom, Richard, married a Miss Taliaferro,
who brought him as a dowry the seat and estate "Smithfield," on the
Rappahannock, about four miles below Fredericksburg. By tradition,
the estate was so called after Captain John Smith, the pioneer settler of
Virginia. As mythical as this may appear, it is yet recorded that Smith
ascended the Rappahannock with an exploring party in July, 1608, and
that Richard Featherstone, a "gentleman" of the party, dying, he was
buried on the banks of the river near where Fredericksburg now stands.
Richard Brooke left four sons and a daughter by his wife as stated, and
a fifth son by a second marriage. He died in 1792, aged sixty years.
The two eldest sons, Laurence and Robert (under notice), were sent to
the University of Edinburg to be educated for the two learned professions,
Medicine and Law, and did not return until the American Revolution
was in progress.

Going over first to France, Dr. Laurence Brooke was appointed, through
the influence of Benjamin Franklin, surgeon of the American privateer,
the "Bonhomie Richard," commanded by the celebrated John Paul Jones,
and was in the engagement with the "Serapis" and all other actions of that

memorable cruise. Robert Brooke was captured on his voyage to America
and carried to New York, from whence he was sent back to England
by Lord Howe, the British Admiral. From England, Robert Brooke
went into Scotland and from thence again got over to France, and returned
to Virginia in a French frigate that brought the arms supplied
the continentals by the French government. Burning with patriotic
ardor, he joined at once a volunteer troop of cavalry commanded by
Captain Larkin Smith, was captured in January, 1781, in a charge of
dragoons by a Captain Loller, of Simcoe's Queen's Rangers at Westham,
six miles above Richmond (which raid is mentioned in the preceding
sketch of Governor Jefferson); but was soon exchanged, returning to
the service. After the war he entered upon the practice of his
profession, in which he soon acquired distinction. In 1794 he
represented the county of Spotsylvania in the House of Delegates
of Virginia, and in the same year was elected Governor of the
State by the Legislature, entering upon his duties December 1st and
serving until December 1, 1796, when he was succeeded by James Wood.
In 1795 he was elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ancient
Free and Accepted Masons of Virginia (having previously served as
Deputy Grand Master), and served until 1797. In 1798 he was elected
Attorney-General of Virginia over Bushrod Washington, the nephew of
George Washington, and who was afterward a Justice of the Supreme
Court of the United States. Robert Brooke died in the office of Attorney-General
in 1799, aged thirty-eight years. His grandson, Robert T.
Brooke, Esq., an estimable citizen of Richmond, is the Treasurer of the
Virginia Historical Society. The county of Brooke, formed in 1797 from
Ohio county, commemorates the name of the Governor. The third son
of Richard Brooke, John, was a Lieutenant in the Revolution and a
pensioner of the State for gallant service. The fourth son, Francis T.
(born August 27, 1763), at the age of sixteen was appointed a first
Lieutenant in Colonel (afterward General) Charles Harrison's Regiment
of Artillery, serving first in the campaign of General Lafayette during the
invasion of Lord Cornwallis. He was soon after placed in command of
the Magazine and Laboratory at Westham, six miles above Richmond,
with a force of seventy-five men. Although so young an officer, Captain
Brooke acquitted himself with skill and gallantry throughout the war, winning
encomiums uniformly from his several Generals, Harrison, Lafayette
and Greene. In 1788 he commenced the practice of Law in the counties
of Monongalia and Harrison, and was soon appointed Attorney for the
Commonwealth of the District Court of Morgantown. In 1790 he removed
to Essex county, which county he represented subsequently in
the House of Delegates, and in 1791 married Mary Randolph, the
daughter of General Alexander Spotswood and a grand niece of General
Washington. Mrs. Brooke died in 1803, leaving four children, and
Captain Brooke married secondly Mary Champe Carter, by whom he had
two children. Captain Brooke was a member of the State Senate in
1800, and in 1804 Speaker of that body, and in the latter year was elected
a member of the General Court of Virginia. In 1811 he was elected
Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals, of which he was long President.
By successive promotions he was appointed General of the first Brigade
of the State forces in 1802. He was the last Vice-President and presiding
executive of the Virginia Branch of the Order of Cincinnati, the
funds of which, some $20,000, ultimately went, by the vote of the few surviving
members of the Order, about the year 1820, to the endowment of
Washington College, now Washington and Lee University, Lexington,
Va. Judge Brooke died March 3, 1851, widely revered for his sterling
worth, and deeply lamented. A scarce little memorial, "A Narrative
of my Life; For my Family, by Francis T. Brooke," privately printed
in 1849, has furnished many of the facts in this sketch. The name
Brooke is of much earlier dating in Virginia than as above stated.
Nicholas Brooke, "the younger, merchant," being a patentee of 500 acres
in Middle Plantations, York county, August 13, 1646.

The names of Henry, Humphrey, Paulin and George Brooke subsequently
appear as grantees of land, and the name has been frequently
represented in the Legislative bodies of Virginia and in the army and
navy of America. It has been asserted that all of the name of Brooke
as severally represented in Virginia, and by Roger Brooke in Maryland,
the ancestor of the eminent jurist, Roger Brooke Taney, are of the same
lineage from the parent stock in England.

JAMES WOOD.

James Wood, the son of Colonel James Wood, the founder of Winchester,
Virginia, was born about the year 1750, in Frederick County,
which he represented in the Virginia Convention of 1776, which framed
the State Constitution. He was appointed by that body, Nov. 15,
1776, a Colonel in the Virginia line, and rendered gallant service in the
cause of Freedom, as well as in the defence of the frontiers of Virginia
from the Indians. He was long a member of the State Council, and
by seniority in that body, Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia. He was
elected Governor of the State, December 1, 1796, serving until December
1, 1799, when he was succeeded by Governor James Monroe.
Governor Wood was subsequently commissioned a Brigadier-General of
State troops. He was also, for a time, President of the Virginia branch
of the Order of Cincinnati. He died at Richmond, June 16, 1813.
The county of Wood, formed in 1799 from Harrison county, was named
in commemoration of his patriotic services. The wife of General Wood,
who was Jean, daughter of Rev. John Moncure, a Huguenot refugee,
who fled from religious persecution to Virginia, early in the eighteenth

century, and was long the rector of Overwharton parish, Stafford county,
survived her husband several years. Mrs. Wood was a lady of great
benevolence of character, and was gifted with both poetic and musical
talents. Of her poetry, examples are preserved in the Southern Literary
Messenger. She also frequently contributed to the newspaper press, and
left in MS. a volume of unpublished poetry and sketches. Mrs. Wood
spent the close of her life in pious works of charity and usefulness.
A noble monument to her philanthropy, is a society for the assistance
of indigent widows and children, which she founded with the assistance
of Mrs. Samuel Pleasants, and a Mrs. Chapman. It was styled the
"Female Humane Association of Richmond," and was incorporated by
the Legislature of Virginia, in 1811. Mrs. Wood was the first President
of the Society, and untiringly performed the somewhat arduous duties
of that responsible station until her death, in 1825, at the age of
sixty-eight years. Her grave is in the cemetery of the Robinson family,
a little beyond the western limits of Richmond, near the banks of James
river. Soon after the death of Mrs. Wood, the Rev. John H. Rice,
President of Hampden-Sydney College, instituted an association of ladies
for the purpose of working for the benefit of poor theological students
of the College, and which, in compliment to Mrs. Wood, he called the
Jean Wood Society.

JAMES MONROE.

James Monroe succeeded James Wood as Governor of Virginia, December
1, 1799, and served until December 1, 1802, when he was succeeded
by John Page. He was again governor from January 4, 1811,
to December 5th following, when he was succeeded by George William
Smith, Lieutenant-Governor of the State. An extended account of the
career of James Monroe will be found in Volume II. of this work, in
the serial of biographical sketches of presidents of the United States.

The period of the first service of James Monroe as Governor of Virginia
was, however, marked by an event, tragical in its sequence, which
though frequently referred to as "Gabriel's Insurrection," but few of the
present generation have any definite knowledge of, as there has been no
circumstantial account of it published, since that which contemporaneously
appeared in the newspapers, of which but few files have been preserved,
and they are practically inaccessible to the public. Some notice
of it, therefore, in these pages, can not but prove interesting.

In a message of Governor Monroe to the General Assembly of Virginia,
dated December 5, 1800, he states that on the 30th of August
preceding, about two o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Mosby Shepherd, a
reputable citizen of Henrico county, who resided about three miles north
of the city of Richmond, beyond a small stream known as the Brook,
called upon him and informed him that he had just received advice
from two of his slaves that the negroes in the neighborhood mentioned
intended to rise that night, kill their masters and their families, and

proceed to Richmond, where they would be joined by the negroes there,
and would seize all the public arms and ammunition, murder the white
inhabitants and take possession of the city. Thereupon Governor Monroe
took immediate measures to avert the threatened fell design by
stationing guards at the state penitentiary, where the public arms were
deposited; at the magazine, and at the state capitol, and by disposing
the city troop of cavalry (commanded by Captain Moses Austin, then
conducting a shot tower in the city of Richmond, and who was subsequently
noted as a Texan pioneer) in detachments to patrol the several
routes leading to the city from the suspected neighborhood. "The close
of the day, however, was marked by one of the most extraordinary falls
of rain ever known in our country. Every animal sought shelter from
it." The brook was in consequence so swollen in its volume as to be
impassable, thus interposing a bar to the execution of the plan of the
negroes. Nothing occurred during the night of the alarming character
suspected, to disturb the tranquillity of the city, and the only unusual
circumstance reported by the patrolling troopers in the morning following,
was, that all negroes passed on the road, in the interval of the storm,
were going from the city, whereas it was their usual custom to visit it
on that night of the week (Saturday), which circumstance was not unimportant,
as it had been reported that the first rendezvous of the negroes
was to be in the country. The same precautions being again observed
the succeeding night without developments of the alleged design,
Governor Monroe was on the point of concluding that the alarm was
groundless, when from further information from Major William Mosby
and other gentlemen, residents of the suspected neighborhood, he was
fully satisfied that the insurrection had been planned by the negroes, and
that they still intended to carry it into effect. He therefore convened
the Executive Council of the State, on Monday, September 1, who took
such measures that in the afternoon of the same day twenty of the
negro conspirators were apprehended on the estate of Colonel Thomas
H. Prosser, a prominent and influential gentleman, and from those of
others in the suspected neighborhood, and brought to Richmond. "As
the jail could not contain them, they were lodged in the penitentiary."
The ringleaders, or chiefs, had fled and were not then to be found.

Every day now threw light on the diabolical plot and gave it additional
importance. In the progress of the trials of the conspirators, it
was satisfactorily demonstrated that a general insurrection of the slaves
in the State was contemplated by the originators of the plot. A species
of organization had taken place among them, and at a meeting held for
the purpose, they had elected a commander, one Gabriel, the slave of
Colonel Prosser, and to whom they had given the title of General.
They had also appointed subordinate officers, captains, sergeants, etc.

SCENE IN WEST VIRGINIA.

They contemplated a force of cavalry, as well as of infantry, and had
formed a plan of attack on the city, which was to commence by setting
fire to the wooden buildings in the lower portion of it, called Rocketts,
with the expectation of attracting the inhabitants thither whilst they
assailed the penitentiary, magazine and capitol; intending, after capturing
these and getting possession of arms and ammunition, to meet the
people on their return and slaughter them. The accounts varied as to
the number who were to inaugurate the movement. According to the
testimony adduced in the trials of the conspiring wretches, it was
variously stated at from five hundred to ten thousand. It was manifest,
however, that it embraced a majority of the slaves in the city of Richmond
and its neighborhood, and that the combination extended to the
adjacent counties of Hanover, Caroline, Louisa, Chesterfield, and to the
neighborhood of Point of Fork in Fluvanna County, and there was good
cause to believe that the knowledge of the project pervaded other portions,
if not the whole of the State. It was suspected "that the design
was prompted by others who were invisible, but whose agency might be
powerful." To meet such contingency, Governor Monroe called into
service the 9th, 19th and 23d, and a portion of the 33d regiments of
the State Militia, which were chiefly stationed in Richmond and the
adjacent town of Manchester. The military force was gradually diminished,
until, on the 18th of October following, the residue was discharged.

The judicial disposition of the ring-leaders of the plot was summary,
five of them were executed on the 12th of September, and five more on
the 15th thereafter. "General" Gabriel, the sable chief, was apprehended
on the 27th of the same month, in the city of Norfolk, and suffered
death in January following. The savage disposition of Gabriel,
according to the records of Henrico County Court, had, a year previous
to his final heinous conception, subjected him to punishment and lengthy
imprisonment for biting off the ear of a fellow slave. In the testimony
given by the witnesses (who were all negroes), in the trials of the conspirators,
there were some curious as well as characteristic communications
made. The whole plot was stupidly conceived, with a provision
ludicrously trifling. The entire armament captured, consisted of twelve
rude swords which had been manufactured from scythe blades by one
of the conspirators, Solomon, the brother of "General" Gabriel, a blacksmith,
and the slave, also, of Colonel Prosser. A broken pistol was
also owned by one of the conspirators, and it was stated by some of the
witnesses at the trial, that "General" Gabriel had provided also six
guns, ten pounds of gunpowder, and five hundred bullets, which he had
moulded. It was evidently the expectancy of the bloody-minded
wretches to secure, primarily, arms from the residences of their masters,
whose households were to be the unsuspecting victims of midnight
assassination. As in the case of Nat. Turner, the leader in the subsequent

and more serious insurrection which occurred in Southampton
County, in August, 1831, religious fanaticism seems also to have been
a factor in Gabriel's insurrection, as it was urged by Martin, one of the
prime instigators, that God had said in the Bible, "If we will worship
him, we should have peace in all our land, five of you shall conquer an
hundred, and a hundred, a thousand of our enemies." A piece of silk,
for a flag, was to be provided, with the motto "Death or Liberty" inscribed
upon it. "None of the whites were to be spared except
Quakers, Methodists and French people, unless they agreed to the freedom
of the blacks, in which case they would at least cut off one of their
arms." It was also designed to send a messenger to the nation of
Catawba Indians in North Carolina, and to request their co-operation.
The immunity stated as having been designed the Quakers, might have
been actuated by a consciousness of the active philanthropy of that
society towards the negroes, but why Methodists should be spared is
less satisfactorily comprehended. Perhaps there were many followers
of that church among the negroes. The coincidence of the mercy to the
French, and the proposed mission to the Catawba Indians is strikingly
curious, and affords grounds for the supposition that a tradition had
lingered in the minds of the benighted negroes of the dread French and
Indian War of some fifty years previous. The Indians of North Carolina,
it may be added, had given the colonists much trouble some forty
years earlier, even in the administration of Governor Spotswood. The
matter is one to engage interest and speculative thought. An exemplification
of the characteristic superstition of the negro is afforded in the
desire of the conspirators to "enlist the outlandish (i. e., foreigners)
people, because they were supposed to deal with witches and wizards,
and of course useful in armies, to tell when any calamity was to befall
them." Monroe County, now in West Virginia, formed in 1799 from
Greenbrier County, was named in honor of Governor, afterwards
President, Monroe.

JOHN PAGE.

No patriot among the worthies who have illumined the annals of the
Old Dominion could boast a more widely honored lineage and more influential
family connections than the distinguished subject of this sketch,
John Page, of "Rosewell," Gloucester county, Virginia. John Page,
the first of the family in the Colony, a relative of Sir Gregory Page,
baronet of Greenwich, County Kent, England, was born in England,
about the year 1627; emigrated to Virginia in 1650; married in 1656,
Alice Luckin, of County Essex, England; became a member of the
Colonial Council; died January 23, 1692, in the county of York, and
was buried in Bruton parish churchyard, Williamsburg, Virginia. A
chaste and substantial monument was erected over his remains in 1878,

by Dr. R. C. M. Page, of New York City, a descendant. A MS. legacy
of pious instructions from Hon. John Page, to his children, was published
in 1856, under the title of a "Deed of Gift," by the late Bishop
Wm. Meade, of Virginia. Matthew, the second son of Hon. John Page,
was born in 1659, and died January 9, 1703, at his seat, "Rosewell,"
in Gloucester county. He was also a member of the Council, and one
of the members of the original board of trustees of William and Mary
College. He married, in 1689, Mary, only child and heiress of John
and Mary Mann, of "Timberneck," Gloucester county. Of their children,
Mann was the only survivor, born in 1691; member of the Council;
died January 24, 1730, at "Rosewell," the imposing mansion at
which seat, still standing, he completed the year of his death; his tomb
is also there. He was twice married; first, in 1712, to Judith, daughter
of Hon. Ralph Wormeley, secretary of the Colony, and secondly, in
1718, to Judith, second daughter of Hon. Robert ("King") Carter.
Mann, the eldest child of the second marriage, born about 1718; married
first in 1743, Alice, daughter of Hon. John Grymes, of Middlesex
county, a member of the Council; married secondly, about 1748, Anne
Corbin, daughter of Hon. John Tayloe, of "Mount Airy," Spotsylvania
county, a member of the Council. John Page, the eldest child of the
first marriage, and the subject under notice, was born at "Rosewell,"
April 17, 1743 (old style). After private tuition under the Rev. William
Yates, and one learned and worthy William Price, he entered the
grammar school of William and Mary College in 1760, and graduated
from that institution in 1763, with distinction. His classical attainments
brought him under the favorable notice successively of the Colonial
Governors Dinwiddie, Fauquier, Lord Botetourt, and the Earl of
Dunmore. He was appointed a Visitor of William and Mary College
in 1768, and in 1773 represented it in the House of Burgesses, and was
also a member of the Council, and by his opposition in that body, in
1775, to the measures of Lord Dunmore, incurred his displeasure, particularly
in boldly advising him to give up the gunpowder which the
Governor had seized. Continuing in the Virginia Assembly, he was
distinguished by his talents and patriotism, and as a member of the
Committee of Safety, in 1775, and of the First Council under the Constitution,
in 1776, and as Lieutenant-Governor of the Commonwealth,
he rendered important services in the Revolutionary struggle. He also
contributed freely from his private fortune to the public cause, and
served as colonel of militia from Gloucester county in 1781. In the
midst of exacting public service, and the exciting events of the period
of the incipiency of the American Revolution, John Page yet found time
for investigations in natural and in physical science, of which evidences
in his MS. of Meteorological Observations have been preserved, one of
them being in the possession of the present writer. In testimony of his
attainments, John Page was, June 16, 1774, elected the first president
of the "Society for the Advancement of Useful Knowledge," in Virginia.
In 1784 he served with Bishop James Madison and Robert
Andrews, of Virginia, and Andrew Ellicott, of Pennsylvania, in ascertaining
and fixing the boundary line between the two states. In 1785
he was a lay deputy from the convention of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in Virginia, with Rev. Dr. David Griffith and Rev. Samuel S.
McCroskey, D.D., in the National Convention held in New York City.
In 1789 he was elected one of the earliest representatives in Congress
from Virginia, upon the adoption of the Federal Constitution—the seat
of government being at that time in the city of New York—and continued
to act in that capacity until 1797. In 1794 he served as lieutenant-colonel
commandant of a regiment from Gloucester county in the
suppression of the "Whiskey Insurrection" in western Pennsylvania.
In 1796 and 1799 he published Addresses to the People, and in 1800
was a Presidential elector. December 1, 1802, he succeeded James
Monroe as Governor, filling the office most acceptably, and by two successive
annual re-elections, under the provisions of the state constitution,
serving until December 1, 1805, when, not being eligible again
until after an interval of four years, he was succeeded by William H.
Cabell. In 1806 Governor Page was appointed by Jefferson United
States Commissioner of Loans for Virginia, and acted in that capacity
until his death at Richmond, October 11, 1808. He was buried in the
churchyard of the venerable sanctuary of St. John, at Richmond, and
his grave, in the eastern portion of the grounds, was unmarked until
1881, when Dr. R. C. M. Page, of New York, reverently placed
over his remains a handsome tomb of Carrara marble. Governor
Page was twice married, first, about 1765, to Frances, daughter of Colonel
Robin and Sarah (daughter of "Scotch Tom" Nelson) Burwell, who
dying in 1784, aged thirty-seven years, Governor Page married secondly
in 1789, in New York City, Margaret, daughter of William Lowther,
of Scotland. By the first marriage he had twelve children, nine of
whom survived; of these nine, five married sons and daughters of their
illustrious kinsman, General Thomas Nelson. Of eight children, the
issue of the second marriage, only two married. The descendants of
Governor Page comprise the worthy names of Nelson, Smith, Digges,
Pendleton, Meade, Berkeley, Blair, Anderson, Saunders, and others.

The county of Page, formed from those of Rockingham and Shenandoah,
in 1831, was named in honor of Governor Page. The following
is a just tribute to his worth: "Hon. John Page was, from his youth, a
man of pure and unblemished life. He was a patriot, a statesman, a
philosopher, and a Christian. From the commencement of the American
Revolution to the last hour of his life he exhibited a firm, inflexible,
unremitting, and ardent attachment to his country, and rendered her
very important services. His conduct was marked by uprightness in all

the vicissitudes of life—in the prosperous and calamitous times through
which he passed—in seasons of gladness and affliction. He was not only
the patriot, soldier, and politician, the well-read theologian and zealous
churchman—so that some wished him to take orders, with a view to
being the first bishop of Virginia—but he was a most affectionate
domestic character."

There are two original portraits of Governor Page in existence.
One representing him as a handsome youth, at the age of fourteen
years, said to have been painted by the celebrated Benjamin West,
and now in the possession of his descendant, Dr. R. C. M. Page, of
New York City, who generously presented the State of Virginia, in
October, 1880, with a copy by G. P. A. Healey, of New York City,
and which copy is in the State Library at Richmond, Virginia. The
other, by Charles Wilson Peale, is in the Museum of the Independence
Hall building, Philadelphia.

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

grandfather, Colonel George Carrington, whose wife was Anne, daughter
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
Baltimore in 1829, and died at Annapolis, Maryland, January 24, 1857.
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:

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

Colonel Henry Coalter Cabell, a gallant officer of artillery in the Confederate
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.

JOHN TYLER.

To the golden worth of the subject of the present sketch the great
statesman, Henry Clay, publicly bore the following ardent testimony:
"I knew the father of the President, Judge Tyler, of the Supreme
Court of Virginia, and a purer patriot or a more honest man never
breathed the breath of life. I am one of those who hold to the safety
which flows from honest ancestors and the purity of blood" (Congressional
Globe, Vol. VIII, p. 345). Some interesting communications regarding
early representatives of the name Tyler in England, and its
curious etymological changes, are presented in a correspondence, held
in 1852, between President John Tyler and Rev. William Tyler, of
Massachusetts, as to their common lineage. It is conjectured there
that the first of the name who settled in England was of Norman origin,
and accompanied thither William the Conqueror, and assisted him to
throw off the Saxon power which went down with Harold, and who was
a beneficiary in the parceling out of lands in 1202, under the name of
Gilbert de Tiler; which, in 1233, was rendered de Tyler, then le Tyler
when the race became more numerous—being represented in Parliament
by Thomas le Tyler in 1311—and finally Tyler, a numerous family, including
Knights, Baronets, Admirals in the Navy, Members of Parliament
and distinguished Divines; but the subject of our sketch, regardless
of titles, was prouder of the tradition which declared him a veritable
descendant of Wat Tyler, the great blacksmith of English history, who
in the reign of Richard II., led the glorious rebellion which forced the
reconfirmation of Magna Charta; bearing testimony to his sincerity in
the name of his first born son, Wat Henry, called after the two greatest
rebels in English history, Wat Tyler and Patrick Henry. The
received tradition is that the ancestor of the family in Virginia, Henry
Tyler, was one of three brothers from Shropshire, England, the other two
settling severally in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Henry Tyler first
appears in the records of Virginia, January 7, 1652, as a patentee of lands
in James City County, at "The Middle Plantations," where Williamsburg
now stands. He was a man of station and influence. When,
after the destruction of the State House at Jamestown by fire, Governor
Nicholson, in 1699, removed the seat of government to Middle Plantations,
the General Assembly by act laid off the city of Williamsburg, as

the new capital, on the lands of Henry Tyler, "Gentleman." He was
named with the Governor, Edmund Jenings, Philip Ludwell, Thomas
Ballard, Lewis Burwell, Philip Ludwell, Jr., John Page, James Whaley
and Benjamin Harrison, Jr., trustees and directors to carry the same
into effect. He retained lands for the site of a residence for himself, adjoining
the Governor's "palace," and was on terms of friendship with
Governor Nicholson. Henry Tyler served as sheriff of York County,
and died in 1710, leaving with other issue two sons, Francis and John.
The latter settled in James City County; was a vestryman of Bruton
parish; married Elizabeth Tyler, and died about 1737, leaving issue a
daughter, Joanna, who married Dr. William McKenzie, of an ancient
Scotch family; and three sons, John, Henry and William. John Tyler,
the eldest son, married Anne, daughter of Dr. Louis Contesse, a Huguenot
refugee from religious persecution, and a distinguished physician;
he was marshal of the Vice Admiralty Court, and died August 26,
1773, at his ancestral home in James City County, leaving issue:
Elizabeth, who married John Greenhow; Rachel, who married, first,
William Drummond, and secondly, Colonel Stith Hardyman, of Charles
City County; Louis Contesse; Anne Contesse, who married Dr.
Anthony Tucker Dixon, and Joanna, who married Major Wood Bouldin,
of Charlotte County. Of the above, John Tyler, the subject of
this sketch, was born February 28, 1747. He entered the grammar
school of William and Mary College, in the eighth year of his age, and
graduated from the college in due course. He then studied law for five
years in the office of Robert Carter Nicholas, in Williamsburg. Jefferson,
four years his senior in age, was a student there, also, at the same time,
with George Wythe. Alike devoted to popular right, and both lovers
of the fiddle, as many other eminent Virginians have been, there was
early cemented between these ardent youths a friendship which endured
with their lives. Together they tested their musical skill, to the discomfiture
of the future author of the Declaration of Independence, who
so envied the bow arm of young Tyler, that he declared were that arm
his own he would yield to no man living in the excellence of his performance.
Together they listened to Patrick Henry, the "forest born
Demosthenes," in his famous philippic against George III., with like enkindling
emotions. So earnestly were the sympathies of young Tyler
enlisted in the cause of colonial rights, and so outspoken were his sentiments,
that they led him into contentions with his father, to whose
loyal sensibilities such utterances were all but impious. His remonstrances
being futile, he would dubiously shake his head and depreciatingly
say to his rebellious son: "Ah, John! they will hang you yet!
They will hang you yet!" Mr. Tyler, having been duly licensed, for a
time practiced his profession in James City, but in 1772 removed to
Charles City, probably as offering a less crowded field to a young aspirant,
but there was another reason amply alluring. In a MS. volume
of poetical essays by him, still extant, there are some lines, dated 1774,
in which the charms of a daughter of the "County of Presidents," are
glowingly portrayed. This lady, Mary, the daughter of Robert Armistead
(a descendant from William D'Armstadt of Hesse, who settled in
Virginia about 1650), at the age of sixteen became the wife of John
Tyler, in 1776, at "Weyanoke," the seat of Colonel Samuel Harwood,
on James River. The mother of Mrs. Tyler was the daughter of
Colonel Samuel Shield, a worthy representative of a family of sterling
virtues.

At a meeting of the freeholders of Charles City County, held
December 17, 1774, Benjamin Harrison was appointed chairman of a
committee consisting of John Tyler, William Acrill, Francis Eppes,
Samuel Harwood, David Minge, John Edloe and some others, who were
charged with the duty of looking to the observance of the regulations
of an association lately recommended to Congress, to prevent the use of
merchandise shipped from Great Britain and Ireland. The march in
April, 1775, of Patrick Henry, to recover the powder removed by Dunmore
from the magazine at Williamsburg, kindled the martial spirit of
the colonists to fiercest heat. They were everywhere eager to rush to
the standard of Henry. Tyler, at the head of a company from Charles
City County, was among the first to thus organize, but the ready indemnity
offered by the terrified Dunmore, gave him no opportunity for
immediate service. On September 11th following, deputies from the
district of which Charles City was a county, assembled at Williamsburg,
to take into consideration the military aspect of affairs. A battalion
was resolved on with the following officers: Colonel, Champion Travis;
Lieutenant-Colonel, Hugh Nelson; Major, Samuel Harwood; and of one
of two companies from Charles City, John Tyler was made captain.
But the abilities of Mr. Tyler were needed in another sphere. He was
appointed by the Virginia Convention, July 5, 1776, one of the judges
of the High Court of Admiralty. In the spring of 1778, he was called
by the voice of Charles City, to represent it in the House of Delegates,
of which body he was Speaker from 1781 to 1786. In this body also he
moved, and secured the passage of the bill which convened the famous
Assembly at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1786, and which, not having a
quorum from the several States, adjourned to meet at Philadelphia the
year following, and there framed the new Federal Constitution.

In the year 1780 he was appointed a member of the Council
of State. A reminiscence of his experience in this station, which
would have aptly illustrated the preceding sketch of Patrick Henry,
still deserves preservation here. In May, 1781, Mr. Tyler was in attendance
upon the Assembly, which, as already narrated in the sketch
of Thomas Jefferson, had adjourned before British pursuit to Charlottesville.
Thither the noted Colonel Tarleton followed them with his regiment,

with the intention of capturing the leading members. Receiving
through one Jewett, by dint of hard riding, the appalling intelligence,
the fugitive legislators betook themselves again to their saddles. Late
in the day Patrick Henry, John Tyler, Benjamin Harrison, and Colonel
William Christian, who had fled together, fatigued and hungry, stopped
their horses at the door of a small hut in a gorge of the Blue Ridge,
and asked for refreshments. A woman, the sole occupant of the hut,
inquired of them who they were, and where from. "We are members
of the Legislature," said Mr. Henry, "and have just been compelled
to leave Charlottesville on account of the approach of the enemy."
"Ride on, then, ye cowardly knaves," replied the old woman, violently
indignant; "here my husband and sons have just gone to Charlottesville
to fight for ye, and you are running away with all your might.
Clear out; ye shall have nothing here." "But," Mr. Henry rejoined,
in an expostulating tone, "we were obliged to fly. It would not do for
the Legislature to be broken up by the enemy. Here is Mr. Speaker
Harrison; you don't think he would have fled had it not been necessary?"
"I always thought a great deal of Mr. Harrison till now,"
the old woman answered; "but he'd no business to run from the
enemy," and she was about to shut the door in their faces. "Wait a
moment, my good woman," again interposed Mr. Henry; "you would
hardly believe that Mr. Tyler or Colonel Christian would take to flight
if there were not good cause for so doing?" "No, indeed, that I
wouldn't," she replied. "But Mr. Tyler and Colonel Christian are
here," said he. "They here! Well, I never could have thought it,"
and she stood a moment as if in doubt, but finally added, "No matter;
we love those gentlemen, and I didn't suppose they would ever run
from the British; but since they have, they shall have nothing to eat
in my house. You may ride along." As a last resort, Mr. Tyler then
stepped forward and said: "What would you say, my good woman, if
I would tell you that Patrick Henry fled with the rest of us?" "Patrick
Henry! I would tell ye that there wasn't a word of truth in it," she
answered, angrily; "Patrick Henry would never do such a cowardly
thing." "But this is Mr. Henry," rejoined Mr. Tyler, pointing him
out. The old woman was manifestly astounded. After a moment's
consideration, and a convulsive twitch or two at her apron string, by
way of recovering her scattered thoughts, she said: "Well, then, if
that's Patrick Henry, it must be all right. Come in, and ye shall have
the best I have in the house."

Perhaps, says Abeel, in his life of President Tyler, from which the
above is extracted, no higher compliment was ever paid to the patriotism
of Patrick Henry than this simple tribute, expressive of the sentiment
with which he was regarded by the people of Virginia. Throughout
the Revolution Mr. Tyler devoted himself unceasingly and untiringly

to its success. A bold, free, and elegant speaker, his voice was never
silent when it could avail aught for the great cause in which he was
enlisted. In 1786 Mr. Tyler was again appointed a Judge of the Court
of Admiralty, and was consequently a member of the first Court of
Appeals of the State. He was appointed a Judge of the General Court
in 1788, and served in this capacity until December 1, 1808, when he
was elected Governor of Virginia. From the last station he was called,
by the appointment of Mr. Madison, to the judgeship of the District
Court of the United States for Virginia; which office he held until his
death at his seat, "Greenway," in Charles City County, January 6, 1813
—the period of the second war with Great Britain. As a judge, the
first prize case—the capture of the privateer Globe—was passed upon by
him, and so ardent was his individuality as a Republican, that his repeated
utterance on the fatal bed of sickness is memorable: "My only
regret," he would feebly say, "is, that I can not live long enough to
see that proud English nation once more humbled by American arms."
The eminent Daniel Call, in his Reports (Vol. IV, p. 23), says of Mr.
Tyler: "In all his public situations he maintained an independence
of character which was highly honorable to him. * * * He was
very attentive to young lawyers upon their first coming to the bar; and
did every thing in his power to put them at ease and inspire them with
confidence. His conversation was familiar, his heart benevolent, and
his friendship sincere."

Mr. Tyler left three sons, Wat Henry, a skilled and popular physician
of Hanover County, Virginia; John, 10th President of the United
States; and William; and five daughters, Anne Contesse, married the
learned James Semple, long the Judge of the General Court of Virginia,
and Professor of Law at William and Mary College, Elizabeth,
married John Clayton Pryor, of Gloucester county; Maria Henry,
married John Boswell Seawell, of Gloucester county; Martha Jefferson,
married Thomas Gunols Waggaman, of Maryland, a brother of United
States Senator Waggaman, of Louisiana, and Christiana, who became
the wife of Dr. Henry Curtis, an accomplished and highly successful
physician and surgeon of "Puccoon," Hanover County, Virginia, who
was of the same lineage as the distinguished New England family of
that name, both deriving from Sir Henry Curtis of England.

Of the person of Governor Tyler the writer has been furnished the
following description by a grandson, Lyon G. Tyler, Esq., of Richmond,
Va., who has recently prepared for publication a meritorious account of
his progenitors—the President and the Governor—The Life and Letters
of the Tylers: "Governor Tyler did not exceed five feet ten inches in
stature. He was lightly built and somewhat round-shouldered. His
complexion was fair, nose aquiline, hair brown, inclining to auburn,
and eyes light blue."

There is an expressive portrait of Governor Tyler in the State
Library at Richmond, which seemingly denotes the virtues and characteristics
which so adorned his life.

The County of Tyler, formed, in 1814, from Ohio County, commemorates
the name of Governor Tyler.

GEORGE WILLIAM SMITH.

The familiar patronymic Smith has been most worthily represented
in Virginia from its settlement. The capital figure in the line, doughty
Captain John Smith, "the father of the Colony," however, returned a
bachelor to England. The next prominent representative of the name
in the annals of "ye Ancient Dominion," is Major Lawrence Smith,
who was designated by the Assembly, in 1674, as the "chiefe commander"
of a "ffort" to be built near the falls of Rappahannock River,
and to be garrisoned by "one hundred and eleven men out of Gloucester
County." This fort was built in 1676, and in April, 1679, Major
Lawrence Smith and Captain William Byrd were allowed to seat lands
at the head of Rappahannock and James Rivers. Major Larkin Smith
was a gallant officer of the Revolution, and the same name was meritoriously
represented in the war of 1812, and also in the recent great
internecine strife. John Augustine Smith, M. D., distinguished author
and president of William and Mary College, 1814-26, and subsequently,
for a lengthy period, lecturer on anatomy in the College of Physicians,
New York, was a native of Virginia, and a graduate of William and
Mary College in 1800. Governor William Smith, statesmen, and
Major-General of the Confederate States Army, of whom due notice
anon, should not be forgotten here. Major Lawrence Smith, as above,
it is thought due investigation will establish as the original ancestor in
Virginia of the subject of our sketch. His immediate progenitor was
Merewether Smith, born about the year 1730, at the family seat,
"Bathurst," in Essex County, Virginia, and whose Christian name is
indicative of descent from another worthy line. The mother of Merewether
Smith was a daughter of Launcelot Bathurst, a patentee of
nearly 8,000 acres of land in New Kent County, Virginia, in 1683,
and who is said to have been of the family of the Earl of Bathurst,
whose arms are: Sa. two bars ermine in chief, three crosses pattie or.
Crest, a dexter arm embowed; habited in mail, holding in the hand all
ppr. a spiked club or. Launcelot Bathurst was "learned in the law,"
and the records of Henrico evidence that he was appointed August 1,
1684, by Edmund Jenings, the Attorney-General for the Colony, his
deputy for the said county. The name Bathurst appears as a continuously
favored Christian name in the Stith, Buckner, Jones, Skelton,
Smith, Randolph, Hinton and other families. Merewether Smith married
twice: first, about 1760, Alice, daughter of Philip Lee, third in descent

THE CHAIR OF THE SPEAKER

of the House of Burgesses of the Colony of Va.

from the emigrant Richard Lee, and widow of Thomas Clarke;
and, secondly, September 29, 1769, Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel
William Dangerfield, of Essex County, member of the House of Burgesses
in 1758. Merewether Smith served Virginia with zeal and distinction
through a long series of years and in important stations. He
appears as a signer to the articles of the Westmoreland Association, of
February 27, 1766, which, in opposition to the odious Stamp Act, was
pledged to use no articles of British importation, and on May 18, 1769,
was a signer also of the resolutions of the Williamsburg Association,
which met at the old Raleigh Tavern, in that city, and who bound themselves
to abstain from the use of the proscribed British merchandise,
and to "promote and encourage industry and frugality, and discourage
all luxury and extravagance." In 1770 he represented Essex County
in the House of Burgesses. He was a member of the Conventions of
1775 and 1776, and family tradition affirms that in the latter body he
prepared the first drafts of both of the noble instruments, the Bill of
Rights and the Constitution, which were offered by George Mason. It
is stated that the late President John Tyler was in possession of documentary
evidence, derived from his father, Governor John Tyler, substantiating
the claim, but which Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Esq., the son of
the President, thinks was destroyed by a casualty during the late war.
The original drafts, it is said, were in the possession of the grandson of
Merewether Smith, the late John Adams Smith, cashier of the Farmers'
Bank, at Richmond, and having been deposited by him for safe keeping
in the vault of the bank, were destroyed in its burning, April 3, 1865,
incident upon the evacuation of Richmond. Merewether Smith was a
representative of Virginia in the Continental Congress, from 1778 to
1782. He represented Essex County in the House of Delegates, in
1786 and 1787, and in 1788 was a member of the Convention which ratified
the Federal Constitution. He died January 25, 1790; his wife,
Mrs. Elizabeth Smith, surviving him, died January 24, 1794. They
were both buried at "Bathurst." George William Smith, the issue of
the first marriage of his father, was born at "Bathurst" about 1762.
He married February 7, 1793, Sarah, fourth daughter of Colonel Richard
Adams, the elder, a member of the Convention of 1776, an ardent
patriot throughout the Revolution, and one of the most enterprising,
public spirited, wealthy and influential citizens of Richmond. Colonel
Adams was a large property holder, and the Assembly seriously considered
for a time the erection of the State capitol upon a site on Richmond
Hill owned by him and proffered as a gift to the State.

In 1794 George William Smith represented the county of Essex in
the House of Delegates. Soon thereafter he made Richmond his residence,
and in the practice of his profession of the law speedily took high
rank and enjoyed a lucrative practice. He represented the city in the
legislature from 1802 to 1808 inclusive, and in 1810 was appointed a
member of the State Council, and as senior member of that body, or

Lieutenant-Governor, upon the resignation of Governor James Monroe
to accept the position of Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President
Madison, succeeded him, December 5, 1811, as the Executive of the
State. His term was lamentably brief, he being one of the victims of
the memorable calamity, the burning of the Richmond Theater, on Thursday
night, December 26th following. The winter had opened with unusual
gaiety in Richmond; brilliant assemblies followed each other in
quick succession; the theater was sustained by high histrionic talent;
the fascinations of the metropolis had drawn thither the young, the
beautiful, the gay, and the distinguished from every portion of the
state. On the lamentable occasion of the catastrophe the theater was
crowded. Six hundred persons, embracing many of the élite, the wealthy,
the honored, and the influential of the State, had assembled within the
frail wooden building. A new drama was to be presented for the benefit
of Henry Placide, a favorite actor; and it was to be followed by the
pantomime of "The Bleeding Nun," by Monk Lewis, founded on
the wild legend of that name. The regular piece had been played; the
pantomime had commenced; the curtain had risen upon its second act,
when sparks of fire were seen to fall from the scenery on the back part
of the stage, and supposed to have been communicated by one of the
chandeliers improperly raised. A moment after, Mr. Robertson, one
of the actors, ran forward, and waving his hand towards the ceiling,
called aloud, "The house is on fire!" His voice carried a thrill of
horror through the assembly. All rose and pressed wildly to the doors
of the building. The spectators in the pit escaped without difficulty;
the passage leading from it to the outer exit was broad, and had those
in the boxes descended by the pillars many would have been saved.
Some who were thrown down by violence were thus preserved. But
the crowd from the boxes pressed into the lobbies, and it was here, among
the refined and the lovely, that the scene became the most appalling.
The building was soon wrapped in flames; volumes of dense vapor penetrated
every part and produced suffocation; the fire leaping with awful
rapidity encircled with flame those nearest to it, and piercing shrieks rose
above the sound of the mass of frantic human beings struggling for life.
The weak were trampled under foot, and strong men in the desperation
of fear passed over the heads of all before them, in their way towards
the doors or windows of the theater. The windows even of the upper
lobby were sought; many who sprang from them perished by the fall;
many were seen with garments on fire as they descended, and died soon
afterwards from their injuries; few who were saved by this means
escaped entirely unhurt. But in the midst of terrors which roused the
selfishness of human nature to its utmost strength, there were displays
of love in death which invoke profound sensibility. Fathers were seen
rushing back into the flames to save their children, mothers were calling
in frenzied tones for their daughters, and were with difficulty dragged
from the building; husbands and wives and lovers refused to leave each
other, and met death together; even friends sacrificed their lives in endeavoring
to save those under their care. The fate of Lieutenant James
Gibbon, of the United States Navy, a son of the hero of the "forlorn
hope" at Stony Point, and his betrothed bride, the lovely Miss Conyers,
who died interlocked in the embrace of each other, was most touching.
Governor Smith had reached a place of safety without the burning
building, but returning to the rescue of his little son, John Adams,
already mentioned, and who had been separated from him by the
throng, he became a victim. Benjamin Botts, an eminent lawyer and
the father of the late statesman John Minor Botts, had gained the door,
but his wife was left behind. Hastily returning to save her, they both
perished. Seventy persons are known to have perished in this horrible
holocaust, but it was thought that the victims were much more numerous
from among the many strangers present. Richmond was shrouded
in mourning; hardly a family had escaped affliction from among its
members, connections, or friends. And the stroke was not felt alone
at home, but fell upon hearts far from the immediate scene of the catastrophe.
Indeed, the horror quite sped the globe, and the clergy of
varying creeds alike vented it as a thunderbolt of God's manifest
displeasure at such and like exhibitions and exemplifications of the
sinfulness of worldly and pleasure-loving flesh—to a whilom damning of
the noble drama. On the 30th of December, intelligence of the calamity
was communicated to the Senate of the United States, and a resolution
adopted that the Senators would wear crape on the left arm for
a month. A similar resolution was adopted in the House of Representatives,
having been introduced in a feeling address by the Hon. William
Dawson, of Virginia. The Monumental Church (Episcopal), a handsome
octagonal edifice, was erected in 1812 upon the site of the ill-fated
theater. The remains of the unfortunate victims are buried in the portico
of the church, beneath a marble monument inscribed with their
names. A son of the late John Adams and Lucy (Williams) Smith,
and grandson of Governor Smith, Bathurst L. Smith, Esq., is a prominent
merchant of Memphis, Tennessee.

PEYTON RANDOLPH.

Upon the lamentable death of Governor George William Smith, in the
burning of the Richmond Theater, December 26, 1811, Peyton Randolph,
the senior member of the Council of State, was the acting executive of
Virginia until January 3d, following, when, by election of the Assembly,
then in session, James Barbour, of Orange County, was inaugurated as
Governor.

Peyton Randolph, the son of Governor Edmund Randolph, graduated
from William and Mary College in 1798. Inheriting the genius of his
progenitors in successive generations, he became early distinguished in
the practice of his chosen profession of law. In 1821 he became the
reporter of the Supreme Court of Virginia, but in the midst of his increasing
usefulness, with the most brilliant prospects before him, he fell
in the prime of manhood, a victim to pulmonary disease, dying at Richmond,
December 26, 1828, widely lamented by numerous friends to
whom his virtues and worth had endeared him. His successor as
reporter was the eminent Benjamin Watkins Leigh. The result of Mr.
Randolph's labors—"Report of Cases argued and determined in the
Court of Appeals of Virginia, 1821-1828," were published in 6 volumes,
8vo, Richmond, 1823-1832. A son of Mr. Randolph, Edmund Randolph,
died in California during our late war.

JAMES BARBOUR.

The Barbour family of Virginia, it is claimed, is of Scottish origin,
and to be of the lineage of John Barbour,[2] one of the earliest Scotch
poets and historians; archdeacon of Aberdeen as early as 1357, and who
died in 1396. A national work of his, still extant, called The Bruce, is
a metrical chronicle of the warlike deeds of Robert the First (13061329)
in his efforts for the independence of his beloved country. Barbour
also composed another book, setting forth the genealogical history
of the kings of Scotland, and deducing their origin from the Trojan
colony of Brutus. He was a favorite author with Sir Walter Scott,
who frequently quotes his lines, which are remarkable, also, for their
intelligibility to the modern reader. In the Land Records of Virginia
the name of William Barber appears as a patentee of lands in Hampton
parish, York County, May 6, 1651. William Barber speedily became
a man of mark and influence, since in 1656 he is found again as a
patentee with the title of Lieutenant-Colonel or County-Lieutenant of
York. In October, 1660, the Governor, Sir William Berkeley, with
Colonel William Barber,[3] Colonel Gerard Fowke, Colonel Kendall,
Thomas Warren, Rawleigh Traverse, and Thomas Lucas were the superintendents
for the erection of the State House at Jamestown. There
are subsequent grants of land in Rappahannock County to William and
to Richard Barber. Thomas Barbar appears as a patentee in New
Kent County in 1714. William Barber was a Burgess from York
County in 1718, and Charles Barber from Richmond County in 1723.

But the definite ancestor of the subject of our sketch was James

Barbour,[4] who appears as a grantee of lands in St. George's parish,
Spottsylvania County, June 26, 1731, and again, in 1733, of lands in
St. Mark's parish in the same county. He was one of the first vestrymen
of this latter parish, at its organization at Germanna, in 1731, and
served in that office until the division of the parish in 1740, which threw
him into the new parish of St. Thomas, in Orange County, in which
division he lived. Among his children was James Barbour, who represented
the county of Culpeper in the House of Burgesses in 1764, was
colonel and commander-in-chief of the militia of the county in 1775,
and was the father of Mordecai, Thomas, Richard, and Gabriel Barbour,
the last three of whom emigrated to Kentucky. Mordecai Barbour
married a daughter of John Strode, of "Fleetwood," Culpeper County,
and was the father of the late Hon. John Strode Barbour, statesman
and lawyer, and grandfather of Hon. John Strode Barbour, a present
representative of Virginia in the National House of Representatives,
and whose material and political services to the State have gained him
enduring regard. Thomas Barbour, another son of James Barbour, the
settler in what is now Orange County, was a member of the House of
Burgesses in 1769, when it issued the first protest against the Stamp
Act. He was again a Burgess in 1775, and was a member of the
"Committee of Public Safety," of Orange County, in the same year. He
married Isabella Thomas, granddaughter of Philip Pendleton.[5] Their
third son was the Hon. Philip Pendleton Barbour, Speaker of Congress
and of the Virginia Convention of 1829-30, and a Justice of the United
States Supreme Court. He married Frances Todd, daughter of Benjamin
Johnson, Burgess, of Orange County, and had issue: Philippa, married
Judge Richard H. Field; Elizabeth, married John J. Ambler, of "Jacqueline
Hall," Madison County; Thomas, M. D., married Catharine
Strother; Edmund Pendleton, married Harriet, daughter of Colonel
John Stuart, of King George County; Quintus, married Mary, daughter
of James Somerville, of Culpeper County; Sextus, and Septimus.
Justice Barbour died in 1841, and his wife, aged eighty-five, in April,
1872. James Barbour, the subject of this sketch, the fourth son of
Thomas Barbour, was born in Orange County, June 10, 1775. His
education was limited, and chiefly obtained while he was acting as a
deputy sheriff, but his tutor for a time was the celebrated James Waddell,
commemorated as the "Blind Preacher," by William Wirt, in his
British Spy. James Barbour entered the service of the State at the
age of twenty-four years, as a member of the memorable Assembly of
1799. His colleague from the county of Orange was James Madison
(afterwards President of the United States), and he looked forward with
eager expectancy to a conflict in debate of that able intellect with
Patrick Henry, also a member elect of the Assembly. But he was disappointed
in the death of the great orator of the Revolution, in June,
1799, before the body convened. James Barbour participated in every
debate, ably vindicated the famous resolutions of Mr. Madison, and was
the proposer of the anti-duelling law—one of the most stringent and
effective legislative acts ever passed. While still a member of the
Assembly, he was elected by it, January 3, 1811, Governor of Virginia,
to succeed George William Smith, who was one of the victims
of the awful burning of the Richmond Theater, on the 26th of December
preceding. The administration of James Barbour, covering the important
period of the second conflict with Great Britain, was signally
able, vigilant, and patriotic. He was emphatically the "War Governor,"
and in pledging his personal means to sustain the credit of Virginia,
takes honorable rank with Governor Thomas Nelson, of the Revolution.

Virginia nobly demeaned herself in the War of 1812. Many of her
sons highly distinguished themselves in the combats by sea and land,
and she suffered from the invasion of the enemy. In May, 1813, Admiral
Cockburn with a British fleet entered Chesapeake Bay, and commenced
a series of depredations on private property, which far eclipsed
those which had made the name of Dunmore infamous in the War of
Independence. An English fleet of four line-of-battle ships with twelve
frigates was collected in the bay, near the capes and Lynhaven Bay.
They carried a large land force under Sir Sydney Beckwith, the naval
commander being Admiral Warren. They were closely watched from
Norfolk and Hampton. The harbor of Norfolk was chiefly defended
by the armament of Mr. Jefferson's famous "Gunboat System," but for
the threatened emergency, large bodies of militia, from the upper counties
of the State, had been ordered to the seaboard. Unused to the malaria
of the summer season in lower Virginia, a large number of them
were prostrated with sickness and many of them died. General Robert
Barraud Taylor, of the State line, commanded the military district, and
Commodore Cassin, of the United States Navy, directed the sea defences.
On the 20th of June, the advance of the English frigate "Junon," upon
Norfolk, was gallantly checked by our immature American Navy.
Some movements on the following day among the British shipping,
which had moved near Newports News, seemed to indicate an early

attack upon Craney Island, near the mouth of Elizabeth River, and
which commands the approach from Hampton Roads to Norfolk. Its
defence was therefore all-important. The forces on the island consisted
of about 400 infantry of the line, 50 riflemen from Winchester, under
Captain Roberts, 91 artillery in two companies, one from Portsmouth,
Captain Arthur Emerson, and the other from one of the upper counties,
commanded by Captain Richardson; the whole force being under the
command of Lieutenant-Colonel H. Beatty, assisted by Major Wagner
of the infantry, and Major Faulkner of the artillery service. Of this
force 43 were on the sick-list. On the evening of the 21st, they were
reinforced by order of General Taylor, by Captain Pollard of the United
States Army, with 30 of his company from Fort Norfolk; Lieutenant
Atkinson from Culpeper County, with 30 volunteers of the militia of
Isle of Wight County, and by 150 seamen and marines, under Lieutenants
Neale, Shubrick and Saunders, from the frigate "Constellation,"
Captain Tarbell. On the morning of the 22d, the enemy landed about
2,500 troops, under Sir Sydney Beckwith, with the view to approach
from the west side of the island, across the water in that direction,
which at low water was passable by infantry. Soon after they landed,
there approached about 50 boats filled with men, which directed their
course to the north side of the island. Here two twenty-four-pounders and
four six-pounders had been advantageously posted by Major Faulkner.
These were gallantly and effectively served by Captain Emerson and
Lieutenants Parke G. Howle and Godwin, aided by Lieutenant Neale
and his command. A galling fire was opened upon the approaching
foe, and the guns were trained with such fatal precision that five of
their barges were sunk, and one of them literally cut in twain. The
other boats hauled off in discomfiture and the valorous Virginians had
to speedily succor the drowning wretches thus left struggling in the
water. Admiral Warren's own barge, the "Centipede," 52 feet long,
and working 24 oars, stranded and was taken with 22 men, a brass
pounder and numbers of small arms. In the meanwhile the landed detachments
were attempting to cross the narrow inlet in front of the battery,
but were grievously harassed at long shot, and when they came
nearer the havoc was so fearful that they precipitately retreated. So
eager were the Virginians for the fray, that the Winchester riflemen
pursued the foe into the water, hoping to reach them with their bullets.
The loss of the enemy was fully 200, besides the prisoners named, and
50 deserters, whilst on the American side not a man was lost. In transmitting
the report of Colonel Beatty to the Secretary of War, General
Taylor justly remarks of this brilliant feat. "The courage and constancy
with which this inferior force, in the face of a formidable naval
armament, not only sustained a position in which nothing was complete,
but repelled the enemy with considerable loss, can not fail to command

ALEXANDER SPOTSWOOD,

Governor of Virginia

From a copy in oil, in the State Library of Virginia.

the approbation of their government and the applause of their country,"
and adds: "It has infused into the residue of the army a general
spirit of competition, the beneficial effects of which will, I trust, be displayed
in our future conflicts." The heroic defence of Craney Island
filled the enemy with rage and shame. They abandoned their designs
upon Norfolk, and Hampton was the next point of attack, led by Cockburn
in person, on the 25th of June. Invested with the small force of
400 artillery and infantry, under Major Stapleton Crutchfield, he was
unable to withstand the furious assault of a foe, by sea and land, ten
times his number. The enemy took possession of Hampton and committed
the most revolting deeds. A wanton destruction of private
property took place, and the degraded soldiery and the negro slaves,
who had been enticed from their owners, were allowed to riot in every
species of brutality. The militia of the country, however, collecting in
formidable numbers for an attack, the British evacuated the town on
the 27th of June, and soon after the invading fleet left the Chesapeake,
and prepared for a descent upon North Carolina. It is noteworthy that
the patriotic ladies of the city of Richmond, early in 1812, contributed,
by the sale of their jewels, towards the building and equipping of a vessel
of war called the "First Attempt," the command of which was given
to Captain Isbon Benedict.

In 1815, Mr. Barbour was elected by the Virginia Assembly to the
United States Senate, and served continuously for ten years, until
1825. In this body he took an important part in the discussion on
the Missouri question, and his speeches on the abolition of imprisonment
for debt elicited great applause and commendation throughout
the Union. He was chairman of the committee on foreign affairs, the
District of Columbia and other important committees, and frequently
President pro tem. of the Senate. In 1825, upon the invitation of President
John Quincy Adams, he became a member of his cabinet, as
Secretary of War, and served in that capacity until May 26, 1828, when
he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
to Great Britain. His brief sojourn in England was a season of unalloyed
pleasure to him. The bitterness of the (then) recent conflict
between the two countries had measurably passed away, and Great
Britain was beginning to cherish a sentiment of pride in the lusty Republic,
which she had long regarded as a rebellious child of her own.
James Barbour was everywhere received with the utmost cordiality. A
commanding physique and noble mien (in which he was, in the estimation
of many, the peer of the majestic statesman, Daniel Webster),
added to wondrous colloquial powers, in which pathos, humor and eloquence
were charmingly blended with a sunny geniality of manner,
united in a personal magnetism which claimed the regard of all in
every circle which he entered. His ready wit and patriotic impulse
were happily exhibited in his reply to the good old Bishop of Bath and

Wells. They were chance companions at a large dinner party, and
after some brilliant manifestation of the rare colloquial powers of Mr.
Barbour, the good old Bishop naively inquired, "How long, sir, have
you been in this country?" "About two months," was the reply. "You
astonish me," said the Bishop, "for you speak the English language remarkably
well, considering your brief sojourn here." "Why, sir," said
Mr. Barbour, "I represent a country where we flatter ourselves that
we have preserved the English language in greater purity than you
have in England." A visit to Mr. Coke of Holkham (subsequently
created Earl of Leicester), is referred to in a brief diary kept by Mr.
Barbour, as one of rare enjoyment to him. Holkham was a striking
manifestation of what agriculture, under the combined influence of
skill, capital and perseverance, can accomplish, for these had rendered
fertile and bounteously productive, thousands of acres of the sandy lands
of Norfolk County, which the merry monarch, Charles the Second,
had sarcastically said, was only fit to be cut up into roads for the remainder
of his kingdom. Mr. Coke recited to Mr. Barbour many interesting
anecdotes relating to the revolt of the American Colonies, at
which period he was a Member of Parliament, and was wont, he said,
in the greatest throes of the struggle, with Edmund Burke and others,
in the luncheon room (with hand over the mouth) to drink "Success to
America!" Another reminiscence, recorded by Mr. Barbour, is so remarkable
that it is deemed worthy of preservation here. He narrates
with manifest satisfaction, that Mr. Coke had the rare privilege and
exquisite delight of seeing a vessel launched at Woolwich, which was
composed in large part from the timber of trees which he had himself
planted when a youth.

Mr. Barbour was recalled by President Jackson, in September, 1829.
He now retired to the enjoyments of private life, from which he only
again emerged in obedience to the impulses of duty and the claims of
friendship. In the Convention for the nomination of President, held at
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in December, 1839, Mr. Barbour presided.
He was brilliantly conspicuous in his advocacy of the claims of General
William Henry Harrison, and prominent and effective in the campaign
which resulted in his election as President. Soon after this the disease
which was ultimately fatal manifested itself. He died at his seat,
Barboursville, June 7, 1842, within three days of the anniversary of
his birth. Within half an hour of his decease he said to his son,
present at his bed-side, "If any thing is put over me, let it be of the
plainest granite, with no other claim than this:

The following reminiscence, with which the present writer has been
kindly furnished by the venerable statesman, the Hon. Alexander H.
H. Stuart, Staunton, Virginia, evidences the just esteem in which Mr.
Barbour was held by those who were favored in the opportunity to
know his worth. Mr. Stuart writes: "In the greater part of my service
in Congress, from 1841 to 1843, I was a member of the Committee on
Foreign Affairs, of which John Quincy Adams was chairman. During
the warm season of the year, Mr. Adams was in the habit of going,
immediately after breakfast, to the committee room, which was a spacious
and airy apartment in the upper story of the southern wing of the Capitol,
where he occupied himself in writing until the committee assembled.
As my family were with me, I also found it convenient to go at an
early hour to the committee room, to examine my morning mail and to
reply to such letters as required prompt attention. In this way it happened
that Mr. Adams and I met in the committee room almost every
day, an hour or two before the time appointed for the meeting of the
committee. And, as it not unfrequently occurred that the other members
of the committee failed to attend, Mr. Adams and I were the only
occupants of the room from eight to twelve o'clock. This close association
often led to very interesting conversation between us in regard to
the early political history of our country, and the statesmen who bore a
prominent part in it. In these interviews I always found Mr. Adams
exceedingly affable, and I need hardly add, interesting and instructive.
On one occasion, on entering the room, with my newspapers and letters
in my hand, I found Mr. Adams sitting at the table engaged in writing.
Not wishing to interrupt him, after exchanging salutations with him, I
withdrew to a window to look over my morning mail. I was shocked to
see, in the Richmond papers, the announcement of the death of my
venerable and honored friend Governor James Barbour. With some
strong ejaculation expressive of surprise and grief, I announced the
fact to Mr. Adams, who seemed as painfully impressed by the news as
I had been. Without uttering a word, he pushed back the papers
which were before him, and folding his arms on the table, rested his
head on them for some time, as if lost in thought. Then slowly raising
his head, he turned his face toward me, and in a voice tremulous with
emotion, said: `Mr. Stuart, I have been connected with this government,
in one way or another, almost from its foundation to the present
hour. I have known personally nearly all the great men who have
been connected with its administration, and I can safely say that I have
rarely known a wiser, and never a better man than James Barbour.'
Such a noble tribute, coming fresh and spontaneously from the heart
of its illustrious author, made an impression on my mind which can
never be erased, especially as my own relations to Governor Barbour

enabled me to recognize and appreciate its justice. On other occasions
I have heard Mr. Adams speak in the most cordial terms of Mr. Barbour,
and refer to incidents which occurred while he was Secretary of
War in Mr. Adams' administration, which illustrated his integrity and
manly independence of character." In an "Eulogium upon the Life and
Character of James Madison," by Mr. Barbour, 8vo, Washington, 1836,
the paternal affection in which the illustrious subject ever held the
reverential eulogist is touchingly manifested. A like dutiful tribute
was rendered to the exalted worth of Mr. Barbour by his warm personal
friend, Hon. Jeremiah Morton, but the writer has been unable to obtain
a copy of it.

Mr. Barbour married, October 29, 1792, Lucy, daughter of Benjamin
Johnson, of Orange County, a member of the House of Burgesses.
The surviving issue of this congenial marriage are: Hon. Benjamin
Johnson Barbour, of Barboursville, Virginia, born June 14, 1821, and
married, November 17, 1844, Caroline Homoesel, daughter of Dr.
George Watson, a distinguished physician of Richmond, Virginia. Mr.
Barbour inherits the rare gifts of his eminent father in a marked degree,
and is a gentleman of profound culture. His addresses, historical, literary,
political, and agricultural, on various occasions, are alike chaste
and felicitous. In 1865 he was elected to the United States Congress,
but the representatives of unreconstructed Virginia were not allowed in
that year to take their seats.

Lucy, daughter of Governor Barbour, married, in 1822, John Seymour
Taliaferro, who was, unhappily, drowned in 1830. Another daughter,
Frances Cornelia Barbour, is the wife of William Hardy Collins,
a distinguished lawyer of Baltimore, Maryland.

A portrait of Governor Barbour is in the attractive gallery of the
governors and distinguished men of Virginia in the State Library at
Richmond. Barbour County, now in West Virginia, formed in 1843
from the counties of Harrison, Lewis, and Randolph, perpetuates the
name of the distinguished Barbour family.

WILSON CARY NICHOLAS.

The ancestry of Wilson Cary Nicholas embraces several of the most
worthily represented families in the Old Dominion. The founder of the
distinguished Nicholas family of Virginia was Dr. George Nicholas,[6]

of County Lancaster, England, a surgeon in the British Navy, who
settled in the Colony about the beginning of the eighteenth century,
and married, about 1722, Elizabeth, widow of Major Nathaniel Burwell,
and daughter of Robert "King" Carter. Their issue was: Robert
Carter, born about 1723; John, married Martha, daughter of Colonel
Joshua Fry; and George Nicholas. Robert Carter Nicholas, statesman,
jurist, and patriot, familiarly known as Treasurer Nicholas in colonial
annals, from having long and honorably filled that important office,
married, in 1754, Anne, daughter of Colonel Wilson and Sarah (Blair
—grandniece of the Commissary) Cary (second in descent from Colonel
Myles Cary, the emigrant ancestor of the family in Virginia, who was
born in Bristol, England, in 1620; died in Virginia, June 10, 1667, and
was fourth in descent from William Cary, Mayor of Bristol in 1546, and
who lineally descended from Adam de Kari, Lord of Castle Cary, in
Somerset, in 1198).[7] Robert Carter and Anne (Cary) Nicholas had
issue five sons and three daughters: John, married Anne Lawson;
member of Congress 1793-1801, removed to Geneva, New York, where
he has numerous descendants; George, married the daughter of the
Hon. John Smith, of Baltimore, Maryland, and was the father of
Judge Samuel Smith Nicholas, who published a masterly plea for the
Habeas Corpus when it was suspended by President Lincoln, during our
late war; Wilson Cary, Lewis; and Philip Norborne Nicholas, many
years Attorney-General of Virginia, President of the Farmers' Bank of
Richmond, Member of the Virginia Convention of 1829-30, and a
Judge of the General Court of Virginia. He was associated with
William Wirt and George Hay in an able defence of James Thompson
Callender, who was tried in Richmond in May, 1800, before Judge
Samuel Chase, of the United States Supreme Court, for publishing a
pamphlet entitled "The Prospect before Us," in which the character of
President John Adams was infamously libelled. The prosecuting attorney
was Thomas Nelson, son of General Thomas Nelson, Jr., of the
Revolution. The zeal of Judge Chase in directing the prosecution subjected
him to the charge of having transcended his powers, and occasioned
his famous trial for impeachment before the United States Senate.
Judge Philip Norborne Nicholas was twice married; first, to Mary Spear,
of Baltimore, Maryland (and had issue three sons, of whom only one—
John Spear Nicholas, of Baltimore, survives); and, secondly, to Maria
Carter, daughter of Thomas Taylor and Mary Anne (daughter of
William Armistead) Byrd, of Clarke County, Virginia, and granddaughter
of the third Colonel William Byrd, of Westover, James River.
The issue of the second marriage of Judge Nicholas was Philip Cary
(a well known member of the bar of Richmond, and long the efficient
librarian of the State Law Library of Virginia), Sydney Smith, and
Miss Elizabeth Byrd Nicholas, an accomplished lady, foremost in the
art and literary circles of Richmond, and who was a leading originator
in the Colonial Court Ball, mentioned in the preceding sketch of Lord
Botetourt as having been held in Richmond, February 22, 1876, the
pecuniary proceeds of which were patriotically devoted to the furnishing
of the Virginia Room in the Mount Vernon mansion. Of the three
daughters of Robert Carter and Anne (Cary) Nicholas, Sarah, married
John Hatley Norton; Elizabeth, married Governor Edmund Randolph;
and Mary, died unmarried. Wilson Cary Nicholas, the subject of this
sketch, the third son of Robert Carter and Anne (Cary) Nicholas, was
born January 31, 1761, in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, which
continued to be the residence of his father until the opening of the
Revolutionary War in 1775, when he removed his family to a country
seat, called "The Retreat," in Hanover County, and at which he died
in 1780. The year following, Cornwallis, in the route of his invasion of
Virginia, stopped at "The Retreat." Mrs. Nicholas, being apprised of
the approach of the British troops, had taken the precaution to conceal
her plate and jewels in the chimney. One of her children betraying
the place of deposit, Lord Cornwallis begged, with a bland smile, that
she would give herself no uneasiness as to their fate, and indeed demeaned
himself with courtly consideration throughout his brief visit.
The visible apprehension of Mrs. Nicholas had a more serious cause of
excitement. Her maternal instincts were keenly upon the rack for the
fate of her eldest born, John, whose flight under hot chase by the
British dragoons, she witnessed through the open door with eager eyes
and tumultuous heart. Happily the superior fleetness of his horse enabled
him to escape his pursuers. After this intrusion, Mrs. Nicholas,
in her unprotected situation, deemed it prudent to remove her residence
to Albemarle County, where her husband had purchased an extensive
estate on James River. Wilson Cary Nicholas was a student at
William and Mary College, which he left in 1779, at the age of
eighteen, to enter the army. His gallantry met with deserved promotion,
and he was the commander of Washington's Life Guard until its
disbandment in 1783, when he returned to Albemarle County and
took possession of his estate there, called "Warren." In the same year
also he married Margaret, daughter of John Smith, of Baltimore, and
the sister of the wife of his brother George. It was a happy union, and
Mr. Nicholas was fortunate in the possession of a companion and helpmate
who united the gentle graces of womanhood with rare judgment and
fine intellectual powers. Sent from Baltimore in early girlhood to avoid
the dangers to which a seaport was necessarily subjected in time of war,
she was yet cognizant of many of the stirring events of the Revolution.
In her place of refuge in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, she was apprised of
the dangers daily incurred by her father as the active chairman of the
Committee of Ways and Means of the State of Maryland. She saw her
three brothers arm in defence of their beloved country, one of them to
return home to die from the effects of a severe winter campaign, and
another as the laurelled defender of Fort Mifflin—and whose subsequent
long, useful, and honored career is instantaneously identified in the historic
name of General Samuel Smith, defender of Baltimore in 1812, and
statesman. At Carlisle, too, in her father's family, was the accomplished
and hapless Major André domesticated, whilst a prisoner on
parole, and who engaged her childish affections by his many genial
graces, yet she was the patriot even to recognize the necessity of his stern
fate. In her, it is said, "love of country was no mere sentiment. It
was a principle inculcated in early childhood, and fixed by the study
and reflection of riper years. When at the age of eighty she was erroneously
informed that her son, Colonel Robert Carter Nicholas, of
Louisiana, had changed his politics, she rose from her chair, and raising
her hand, with her eyes brilliant as in youth, and her voice tremulous
with emotion, said, `Tell my son, as he values the blessing of his old
mother, never to forsake the faith of his Fathers!' " With such a mother,
such a wife, it is not to be wondered that the distinguishing trait in the
character of Mr. Nicholas was an intense devotion to his country. His
public services commenced in 1784, as the representative of Albemarle
County in the House of Delegates of Virginia. In first offering for their
suffrages he made the acquaintance of every freeholder in the county.
This was done by domiciliary visits which were never repeated, and he
rarely attended the county courts, the ordinary propitiatory hustings
of the aspiring politician. During the legislative sessions of 1784 and
1785 Mr. Nicholas, though so youthful and inexperienced, was zealous
and prominent in the advocacy of the bill securing religious freedom,
and in the suppression of parish vestries, and for the remandment of
the property of the Episcopal Church in glebes, to support of the poor
in the several counties. Drawn by domestic ties, Mr. Nicholas, at the
close of the session of 1785, returned to private life, from which he was
recalled by the strenuous opposition made to the adoption by Virginia
of the Federal Constitution. After a warm contest, he and his brother
George were returned to represent the county of Albemarle in the
Convention of 1788. Mr. Nicholas was conspicuous in his advocacy of
the adoption of the Constitution. He served in the House of Delegates
in 1789 and 1790, and again from 1794 to the autumn of 1799,
when he was elected by the Assembly to the United States Senate, in
which body he at once became a leader of the Republican party. In
1801, upon the accession of Mr. Jefferson as President, Mr. Nicholas,
who was his warm personal and confidential friend, zealously and ably
supported his administration. The questions brought before the Senate
at this period were highly important. The new organization of the

LADY SPOTSWOOD,

Wife of Governor Spotswood.

From the original in oil in the State Library of Virginia.

courts and of the financial system, the repeal of the bankrupt law, the
amendment of the Constitution as to the election of President and Vice-President,
the attempt to make war on Spain, together with many other
questions, all highly exciting, were not to be decided in a body where
parties were so nearly equally divided, without engendering intemperate
discussion and bitterness of feeling. Mr. Nicholas, however, passed
through the ordeal of this political cauldron most creditably, in the full
confidence of those with whom he acted, and winning the esteem and
respect of his opponents. All the measures projected by the Republican
party having been accomplished, and the dispute about the right of the
deposits at New Orleans adjusted without a war with Spain, by the acquisition
of Louisiana, Mr. Nicholas deemed that he might, without any
dereliction of duty, resign his seat in the Senate, which he did in 1804.
It was a step which the state of his private affairs imperatively demanded,
as he had become seriously embarrassed. To the reparation
of his fortunes he now devoted himself with great assiduity, his success
in agriculture bearing witness to the skill and energy with which his
operations were conducted. In 1806 he declined a special mission to
France, to ratify, under the auspices of Napoleon, the treaty with Spain.
But, in 1807, the necessity of a champion "whose talents and standing
taken together would have weight enough to give him the lead" in the
National Council, brought on him such urgent appeals to his political
convictions and patriotism, that he was forced to yield. He became a
candidate for Congress and was elected without opposition. "The
period was momentous and highly critical. The aggressions of England
in the attack on the `Chesapeake,' and the extension of the orders of the
King in council, and afterwards the application by France of the Berlin
and Milan decrees to our commerce, imposed upon us the necessity of
resistance. But pursuant to the pacific policy which had governed our
councils during a period of most unparalleled aggression on the part
of Great Britain, a period extending as far back as 1793, our government
proposed an embargo. The government was at that time in a
wholly defenceless state. We had but the skeleton of an army, few or
no ships in commission, no military stores, with an immense value of
property afloat, and our whole seaboard from north to south open to
attack." Under these circumstances, Mr. Nicholas united cordially in the
support of the embargo, being willing to try its efficacy for awhile as
a coercive measure, but relying on it more as giving us time to prepare
for other measures. In 1807 he assured his constituents that in the
event of the failure of the embargo to produce some speedy change in
the policy of France and Great Britain, the only alternative offered was
a base and abject submission or a determined resistance. In his printed
circular to them, as well as from his seat in Congress, he urged the necessity
of raising men and money, and the immediate provision of every
requisite of war. In the autumn of 1808 he wrote to Mr. Jefferson,
urging him, unless there was a certainty of a favorable change in the
affairs of the nation, before the meeting of Congress, to announce to
the body in his message, that the great object in laying the embargo
had been effected. That nothing more was to be expected from it, and
that it should be raised, and other measures which the vindication of
the national honor demanded, resorted to; that our people would not
much longer submit to the burdensome restrictions of the embargo, and
that we could not and ought not to think of abandoning the resistance
which we so solemnly pledged to make. In 1809 Mr. Nicholas was reelected
to Congress, and served in the spring session, during which the
agreement of our government with Mr. Erskine produced for a time a
delusive calm. In the autumn of the same year, on his way to Washington,
he experienced so violent an attack of rheumatism, that he was
compelled to resign his seat, and was closely confined to his room for a
period of four months. He was now so thoroughly convinced of the
impracticability of enforcing any commercial restrictions; of their demoralizing
influence on the people, and exhausting effect on the finances
of the country, that he frequently avowed his intention never again to
vote for any similar measure, except as preparatory to war, and for the
briefest duration. In the month of December, 1814, the gloomiest
period of the war, and when Virginia especially, but the remaining
States as well, were chiefly left to their own resources, Mr. Nicholas
was elected Governor of the State, an unthankful office, which yet his
patriotism would not allow him to decline. The happy announcement
of peace in the spring of the following year, gave but little opportunity
for the exhibition of administrative capacity, which emergency, with his
attested characteristics, would have enlisted. The defence of the State
depending chiefly upon the militia, who could not be kept constantly in
the field, an appropriation was made by the Assembly to enable him to
erect telegraphic stations, and to raise a corps of videttes to be so distributed
at his discretion, as to transmit his orders throughout the State
with the utmost dispatch possible. But peace rendered needless the
carrying into execution this well digested provision.

The great confidence reposed in Governor Nicholas by the State
Legislature, was evinced in their enactment, in great haste, at the close
of the spring session of 1815, of a statute for the raising of forces for
the defence of the State, the execution of which, in almost every particular,
was dependent on such instructions as the discretion of the
Governor might deem advisable. Loans, which were necessary to equip
and pay this force, were provided by the Governor, under terms the
most reasonable, with a just condition not originally specified by the
Legislature, but which that body, to its honor, duly authorized at its
next session. Peace having been declared, every duly audited claim
against the State was promptly paid. The militia were discharged in a

manner the most gratifying to them. They were fully paid for their
term of service, provision was made for their return home, and for the
care of the sick until they could be safely removed. All military stores
of a perishable nature were sold. The remaining supplies, including
tents and other camp equipages, sufficient for an army of ten thousand
men, were deposited in the State Arsenals. The closing of the accounts
for the expenses of the war, was pushed with all dispatch consistent
with the interest of the State, in their after adjustment at Washington
with the National Government. It had been the determination of the
Governor, in the event of the continuance of the war, to urge all men
of talent and ability with whom he might take the liberty, to offer for
election to the ensuing Assembly, that the State might have the benefit
of their counsel in her time of need. The return of peace did not prevent
this application, but the motive was different. Foreseeing that
the State would have command of considerable funds, he deemed it to
be important that an early effort should be made to induce the Assembly
to apply the proceeds to the great purposes of internal improvement
and education. This application, it is believed, was not without effect,
as in the two succeeding Assemblies there appeared many gentlemen of
conspicuous ability, who had not served in the body for some years
before. At the commencement of the autumn session of 1815, Governor
Nicholas zealously pressed these subjects upon their attention. They
were acted upon, and means severally placed at the disposal of the
Board of Public Works, and of the President and Directors of the Literary
Fund, to be devoted to the respective objects. The foundation was
thus laid of systems which have fostered and infused education, as well
as expanded the wealth and fructified the material prosperity of the
State. Upon a review of the messages of Governor Nicholas, it will be
found that most of the objects recommended by him were acted upon by
the Legislature, and that they are all strongly marked by an intimate
knowledge of the needs and capacity of Virginia. The first act of the
second term of the Governor, was an effort to adjust the claims of the
Commonwealth against the United States, all previous attempts having
proved abortive. After reflection, he devised a plan, which was finally
adopted by the Council, and an additional agent being appointed, a
speedy adjustment ensued. As the President of the Board of Public
Works and of the Literary Fund, Governor Nicholas displayed the industry
and wise foresight which uniformly characterized his administration
in every department of the Government. In every contract made
by him for the State, the utmost economy was observed, and every
caution used to protect and conserve the public interest. A remarkable
proof of this was given in the execution of a law providing for a complete
survey of the State within justifiable limits. This desirable accomplishment
he hesitated to authorize in a general contract, fearing
that the expense would exceed the provision contemplated. Finally,
under specific instructions to the several county courts of the State, the
survey was accomplished in districts at an aggregate cost by which
fully $100,000 was saved to the State. After the expiration of his
second term as Governor, Mr. Nicholas served for a few months as
President of the branch of the United States Bank at Richmond. In
the spring of 1819 he returned to "Warren," his country-seat.

His constitution had always been delicate, and the physical fatigue
and mental anxiety which he had undergone in his later years of public
service had seriously impaired his health. A journey on horseback was
advised as salutary by his physician. He accordingly thus set out
from home, but upon reaching "Montpelier," the residence of ex-President
Madison, in Orange County, he found himself too feeble to proceed,
and returned to "Tufton," the residence of his son-in-law, Thomas Jefferson
Randolph, the grandson of Thomas Jefferson. Here he lingered,
each day hoping to be well enough to return to his own home. Mr.
Jefferson and Mr. Madison (the latter being then on a visit at "Monticello"),
with both of whom his relations had always been of the warmest
personal friendship and confidence, visited him frequently, and all
was done which affection could suggest for his recovery, but without
avail. On the 10th of October, 1820, he suddenly expired whilst in
the act of dressing.

The popularity and success of Governor Nicholas were the just results
of intrinsic worth and of conscientious purpose. His style in conversation,
as well as on the hustings or in debate, was deliberate, sententious,
and impressive. It was effective through the justness of his conclusions
and the cogency of his reasoning, and borrowed nothing from the meretricious
arts of the popular orator, whose devices, indeed, he held in contempt.
Though ever ready, at the sacrifice of his private interests, to
serve his country, he was singularly modest in his personal claims, and
shunned instead of seeking political preferment. The successive positions
occupied by Mr. Monroe, previous to his election as President,
and which proved the stepping-stones to that exalted station, were all
declined by Mr. Nicholas before they were offered to Mr. Monroe. Mr.
Jefferson, his life-long friend, saw in the pecuniary embarassments in
which he became unfortunately involved, the only obstacle to his election
to the highest post in the gift of the country, and which, he maintained,
the wisdom, purity of purpose, and varied talents of Wilson
Cary Nicholas would have eminently adorned.

JAMES PATTON PRESTON.

Scarce another American family has numbered as many prominent
and honored representatives as that of the yeoman founded Preston
descent, with its collateral lines and alliances.

John Preston, its propositus, a ship-carpenter, was born in Londonderry,
Ireland, where he married Elizabeth Patton, a sister of Colonel
James Patton, of Donegal, with whom he removed to Virginia, and
settled in the summer of 1735 in that portion of Orange County from
which Augusta County was erected in 1738. Colonel Patton had for
some years commanded a merchant ship trading to Virginia, and was a
man of property, enterprise and influence. He obtained an order from
the Council of Virginia under which patents were issued to him and
his associates for 120,000 acres of the best lands lying beyond the Blue
Ridge. He was killed by the Indians at Smithfield, Virginia, in 1753.
He left as issue two daughters, one of whom married Captain William
Thompson, and the other Colonel John Buchanan. From the last were
descended John Floyd and John B. Floyd, Governors of Virginia, Hon.
James D. Breckinridge, of Louisville, Ky., and Colonel William P.
Anderson, of the United States Army. John Preston settled first at
Spring Hill, but in 1743 he purchased a tract of land, adjoining
Staunton, on the north side of the town. He died soon after, and was
buried at the Tinkling Spring Meeting-House. His widow died in
1776, aged seventy-six years. They had issue five children: Letitia,
who married Colonel Robert Breckinridge; Margaret, who married Rev.
John Brown; William, who married Susanna, daughter of Francis
Smith, of Hanover County, Virginia, and who was a member of the
House of Burgesses and a prominent patriot in the American Revolution;
Ann, who married Francis Smith; and Mary, who married John
Howard.

Colonel William and Susanna (Smith) Preston had issue twelve
children: i. Elizabeth, married William S. Madison, the second son of
John Madison, and the brother of Rev. James Madison (President of
William and Mary College), of Thomas Madison, who married the
youngest sister of Patrick Henry, and of George Madison, Governor of
Kentucky, who married Jane Smith, the niece of Colonel Preston's wife;
ii. General John, member of the Assembly, and long treasurer of Virginia;
married twice, first to Mary, daughter of William Radford, and
secondly, to Mrs. Elizabeth Mayo, née Carrington; iii. Francis, lawyer;
member of Virginia Senate, and of Congress, and brigadier-general in
the war of 1812; married Sarah B. Campbell, a niece of Patrick Henry
and daughter of General William Campbell, the hero of King's Mountain;
iv. Sarah, married Colonel James McDowell, of Rockbridge
County, an officer of the war of 1812, and had issue Governor James
McDowell and two daughters: Susan S., who married Hon. William
Taylor, of Virginia, and Elizabeth, who married Hon. Thomas H.
Benton, of Missouri; v. Anne, died at the age of thirteen years; vi.
William, Captain in the United States Army under Wayne; married
Caroline, daughter of Colonel George Hancock; of their issue, Henrietta,
married General Albert Sydney Johnston, of the United States and

Confederate States Armies; and William, statesman, diplomate and
soldier, was a Major-General in the Confederate States Army; vii.
Susanna, married Nathaniel Hart, of Woodford County, Kentucky;
viii. James Patton; ix. Mary, married John Lewis, of Sweet Springs,
Virginia; x. Letitia, married John Floyd, Governor of Virginia; xi.
Thomas Lewis, lawyer, member of the Virginia Assembly and Major in
the war of 1812; married Edmonia, daughter of Governor Edmund
Randolph, and had issue: Elizabeth R., who married William A. Cocke,
of Cumberland County, Virginia; and John Thomas Lewis, Colonel in
the Confederate States Army, and Professor in the Virginia Military
Institute, who married Margaret Junkin, Virginia's sweet poetess; xii.
Margaret Brown, married Colonel John Preston, of Walnut Grove,
Virginia, a distant relative. James Patton Preston, the subject of the
present sketch, and the eighth of the children of Colonel William and
Susanna (Smith) Preston, as enumerated, was born at Smithfield, June
21, 1774. He enjoyed early advantages of education, under one Palfrenan,
a poet and scholar, who having, in a drunken frolic, been inveigled
into a disreputable marriage in London, shipped himself to Virginia,
under articles of service for his passage. Upon his arrival at
Williamsburg he was purchased by Colonel William Preston, and employed
by him as a tutor in his family. Palfrenan was the friend and
correspondent of the poetess Elizabeth Carter, an English lady of great
learning and acquirements. Colonel Preston also possessed a fine library
which had been selected for him in London by Gabriel Jones, a learned
and able lawyer, who is said to have been an early partner in the practice
with Thomas Jefferson. James Patton Preston appears from the
catalogue of William and Mary College to have been a student in that
institution for some time during the period 1790-1795. He probably
graduated thence about the year last stated. Tradition affirms him to
have been a merry youth; and a distinguished jurist, in a recent letter
to the writer, accredits him with the perpetration, whilst a student, of
a feat of equivocal distinction. In the preceding sketch of Lord Botetourt,
it will be recollected that it is stated that the statue of him
erected by order of the House of Burgesses, had been much mutilated
by the college students. Its graceless decapitation is stated to have
been a frolicsome freak of the embryo legislator and chief executive of
the Commonwealth of Virginia.

James Patton Preston was elected to the State Senate of Virginia in
1802; was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the 12th Infantry, United
States Army, March 19, 1812, and for gallantry was promoted, August
15, 1813, to the rank of Colonel, and assigned to the command of the
23d Regiment of Infantry. He participated in the battle of Chrystler's
Field, November 11, 1813, and was so severely wounded in the thigh
that he was crippled for life. Peace having been declared, his command

was disbanded, and he was honorably discharged from service,
August 18, 1815. In recognition of his patriotic service he was elected,
by the General Assembly, Governor of Virginia, to succeed Wilson
Cary Nicholas, December 1, 1816, and served in that capacity by
annual re-election until December 1, 1819. It is noteworthy that in
the last year of his incumbency, on the 25th of January, the law was
passed establishing the University of Virginia, in Albemarle County,
upon a site near Charlottesville which had previously belonged to Central
College, which was purchased. Fifteen thousand dollars per annum
were appropriated from the Literary Fund to meet expenses of
building and of subsequent endowment. The institution was to be
under the direction of seven visitors, appointed by the Governor and
Council, and from their number these visitors were to elect a rector to
preside and give general superintendence. Thomas Jefferson was elected
the first rector and retained the office until his death. He drew all the
plans for the buildings, which were so nearly completed in 1824 that
preparations were made for opening the schools the following year.
This was done with professors chiefly obtained from Europe. Only
the chairs of law, chemistry and ethics were filled from the United
States. In the year 1819, also, a revision of the Code of Virginia was
made.

Subsequent to his gubernatorial service, Mr. Preston was for several
years postmaster of the city of Richmond. He finally retired to his
patrimonial inheritance, the homestead "Smithfield," in Montgomery
County, where he died May 4, 1843. The county of Preston, now in
West Virginia, formed in 1818, from Monongalia County, was named
in his honor.

He married Ann Taylor, the second daughter of Robert Taylor, a
prominent merchant of Norfolk, Virginia, and the sister of General
Robert Barraud Taylor, of Virginia, and left issue three sons and
three daughters: i. William Ballard Preston, a member of the Virginia
Conventions of 1850-1 and 1861, Secretary of the Navy in the Cabinet
of President Taylor and Confederate States Senator; married Lucy
Redd, and left issue; ii. Robert Taylor Preston, Colonel Confederate
States Army, married Mary Hart, of South Carolina, and left issue; iii.
James Patton Preston, Jr., Colonel Confederate States Army, married
Sarah Caperton, and left issue; iv. Susan Preston, died unmarried;
v. Virginia Preston, died unmarried; and vi. Jane Grace Preston,
married Judge George Gilmer.

In support of the claim made in the opening paragraph of this
sketch, it may be said of "the Preston family" that it has furnished
the National Government a Vice-President (the Hon. John Cabell
Breckinridge), has been represented in several of the Executive Departments,
and in both branches of Congress. It has given Virginia
five Governors—McDowell, Campbell, Preston, and the two Floyds—

ARMORIAL BOOK-PLATE OF JOHN MURRAY
EARL OF DUNMORE,

Last Royal Governor of Virginia.

and to Kentucky, Missouri, and California, one each—severally in Governors
Jacobs, B. Gratz Brown, and Miller; Thomas Hart Benton,
John J. Crittenden, William C. and William Ballard Preston, leading
moulders of public sentiment; the Breckinridges, Dr. Robert J. and
William L., distinguished theologians of Kentucky; Professors Holmes,
Venable, and Cabell of the University of Virginia, besides other distinguished
educators. Nor is their battle-roll less glorious. It is
claimed that more than a thousand of this family and its connections
served in the contending armies in our late civil war. Among the
leaders were Generals Wade Hampton, Albert Sydney Johnston,
Joseph Eggleston Johnston, John Buchanan Floyd, John Cabell
Breckinridge, and John S. and William Preston. When it is stated
that besides the names enumerated, the family is connected with those
of Baldwin, Blair, Bowyer, Brown, Buchanan, Bruce, Cabell, Carrington,
Christian, Cocke, Flournoy, Gamble, Garland, Gilmer, Gibson,
Grattan, Hart, Henry, Hughes, Howard, Lee, Lewis, Madison, Marshall,
Mason, Massie, Mayo, Parker, Payne, Peyton, Pleasants, Pope,
Radford, Randolph, Read, Redd, Rives, Siddon, Sheffey, Taylor, Thompson,
Trigg, Venable, Watkins, Ward, Watts, Winston, Wickliffe,
among many others as well esteemed, some idea may be formed of its
mental characteristics and social influence.

THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH.

Thomas Mann Randolph, the eldest son of Thomas Mann and Anne
(Cary) Randolph, was born at "Tuckahoe," the family seat, in Goochland
County, Virginia, in the year 1768. His father, a member of the
Virginia Convention and of the Committee of Safety of 1775, and
frequently afterwards of the State Assembly, was the son of Thomas
and Anne (daughter of Tarleton Fleming) Randolph, and the grandson
of the emigrant William Randolph, of "Turkey Island." His
mother was Anne, daughter of Colonel Archibald Cary, of "Ampthill,"
Chesterfield County, an ardent patriot of the Revolution, whose uncompromising
resistance to British rule gained him the sobriquet of
"Old Iron." The wife of Colonel Cary was Mary, daughter of Richard
Randolph, of "Carles," and his wife Jane, daughter of John Bolling,
of "Cobbs," who was fourth in descent from Pocahontas and John
Rolfe.

Thomas Mann Randolph, the subject of this sketch, after a preliminary
course at William and Mary College, completed his education
at the University of Edinburgh, and visited Paris in 1788, where
Thomas Jefferson was then residing as the Minister from the United
States, having with him his daughter Martha. The young people were
second cousins, and had been attached to each other from childhood.

Young Randolph in person and mind exhibited marked traces of both
lines of his descent. "He was tall, lean, with dark expressive features
and a flashing eye, commanding in carriage, elastic as steel, and had
that sudden sinewy strength which it would not be difficult to fancy he
inherited from the forest monarchs of Virginia." His education was a
finished one. His reading was extensive and varied. His fortune was
ample, and would have been immense but for the change effected in
the Virginia statutes of descent. Few young men had attracted more
attention abroad. He received marked attentions in the Scottish capital,
and made friends, too, among the grave and learned. Thomas
Mann Randolph and Martha Jefferson were married at "Monticello,"
February 23, 1790. The young couple for a time lived at "Varina,"
a few miles below Richmond, in Henrico County, noted as having been
the county seat, the residence of Rev. William Stith, the historian, and
as the point of exchange of Confederate and Federal prisoners during
the late war. Thomas Mann Randolph served as a member of the Virginia
Senate in 1793 and 1794. He removed soon after this period to
"Edge Hill," Albemarle County, where he continued to reside until
1808, when his family was domesticated with Mr. Jefferson, at "Monticello."
He was a representative from Virginia in the United States
Congress from 1803 to 1807. On the last day of the session of 1806,
misapprehending an expression in a speech made by his brilliant and
eccentric kinsman, John Randolph "of Roanoke," he rose and passionately
resented the supposed reflection in bitter denunciation. The
calmer counsels of friends, however, convinced him of his error, which
he with due manliness admitted in the House, regretting his expressions,
and disclaiming any "disposition to wound the feelings of any
gentleman who did not intend to wound his." A duel, however, for a
time seemed imminent, and Mr. Randolph repaired to Richmond with
the expectancy of a hostile meeting, but reason prevailed and the matter
was ended. The sentiments of two eminent men, elicited by this affair,
are worthy of transmission. They are extracted from the original
letters, before the writer. Mr. Jefferson writes from Washington,
June 23, 1806. "I had fondly hoped that the unfortunate matter between
yourself and John Randolph, the last evening of Congress, had
been stifled almost in the moment of its birth;" and, in reference to the
wife and children of Mr. Randolph "is it possible that your duties to
those dear objects can weigh more lightly than those to a gladiator?
Be assured this is not the opinion of the mass of mankind, of the
thinking part of society, of that discreet part whose esteem we value.
If malice and levity find sport in mischief, rational men are not therefore
to exhibit themselves for their amusement. But even the striplings
of fashion are sensible that the laws of dueling are made for them alone,
for lives of no consequence to others; not for the fathers of families or
for those charged with other great moral concerns. The valuable part
of society condemns in their hearts that knight-errantry which, following
the ignis fatuus of an imaginary honour, bursts asunder all the ligaments
of duty and affection." Mr. Jefferson, writing again, July 13th,
says: "I find but one sentiment prevailing (and I have that from very
many)—that the thing may stop where it is with entire honour to yourself,
and with no other diminution of it to the other party, than showing
that he has not that ravenous appetite for unnecessary risk which
some had ascribed to him; and which indeed is the falsest of honour, as
a mere compound of crime and folly. I hope, therefore, that the
matter is at an end, and that great care will be taken not to revive it.
I believe that will be the case on his side, for I think you have been
mistaken in supposing he meant to try any experiment on your sensibility.
Of this he is acquitted, I find, by all who had opportunities of
observing his selection of characters to be the subjects of his sarcasms."
The celebrated John Taylor, "of Caroline," writing from Fredericksburg,
June 26, 1806, to Wilson Cary Nicholas, says: "The two Randolphs
are preparing, I see, to cut each other's throats—the devil having
made such men mischievous in society as would imbibe vice, could
only rob it of those who would not be wicked by a stratagem. Therefore
he invented a delusion called `honour,' concealing the epithet of
`false,' which ought to belong to the inscription upon all his manufactures.
* * * Nothing can, in my view, be more ridiculous than the
controversy which may eventually rob the State of one or of two of her
most valuable citizens. * * * And pray, for be assured it will be a
good action, stop where it is, the progress of this `affair of his majesty's
honour.' "

Mr. Randolph now, in deference to the desire of his wife, withdrew
from public life, and devoted himself to agricultural pursuits at "Edge
Hill," riding thither daily from "Monticello." He possessed a restless
and vehement energy—but it was not sufficiently accompanied with that
degree of perseverance which is the basis of important and continued
success. He corresponded widely with leading agriculturists in the
United States and England—in the latter with Sir John Sinclair, who
was also a correspondent of Washington. The claims of his beloved
State, invaded by the enemy in the war with Great Britain in 1812,
met with instantaneous response in the ardent patriotism of Mr. Randolph.
He was among the first to raise a command and rush to her
defence. He gallantly participated in the engagements of the sea-board,
and was soon promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and placed
in command of the 1st Light Corps. On the 20th of March, 1813, he
became the Colonel commandant of the 20th United States Infantry, and
performed efficient service on the Canada line. December 1, 1819, by
election of the Assembly, he succeeded James P. Preston as Governor
of Virginia, and thus served by annual re-election until December 1,

1822. Returning to his farm he resumed his private pursuits, but becoming
pecuniarily involved, he resigned his affairs to the charge of his
eldest son, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, and applied for a commission
from the Government to run the boundary line between Georgia and
Florida. But the precarious condition of his health necessitated the
relinquishment of the proposed employment and his return home. He
died at "Monticello," June 20, 1828, aged sixty years. His characteristics
are thus recited by Randall, in his Life of Jefferson (Vol. I, p.
558): "He was brilliant, versatile, eloquent in conversation, impetuous
and imperious in temper, chivalric in generosity, a knight errant in
courage, in calm moments a just, and at all times a high toned man."
His son, the late Thomas Jefferson Randolph, was wont to apply to him
the lines of Scott, in the Lay of the Last Minstrel, describing William
of Deloraine:

The range of scientific attainment of Governor Randolph has been
alluded to. His only surviving child, Mrs. Meikleham, of Washington,
D. C., has kindly communicated the following in relation thereto:
"The Abbe Corria, who was sent by the Portuguese government to
study the flora of America, who was called in Paris `the learned Portuguese,'
and who was ranked by De Candolle with, if not above Cuvier
and Humboldt, spent the summers and autumns during his visit, at
`Monticello.' He and my father spent hours every day wandering, in
company with each other, through the woods and fields, and he was
thus fully able to pronounce judgment upon the proficiency of one
branch at least of the scientific attainments of my father, whom he
affirmed to be the best botanist with whom he had met in America."

Of the issue of Governor Randolph his son, Thomas Jefferson Randolph,
who married Jane, the daughter of Governor Wilson Cary
Nicholas, served frequently in the Virginia Assembly, and edited the
papers of his grandfather, Thomas Jefferson, published in four volumes,
8vo, in 1828. Another son, George Wythe Randolph, a lawyer of distinction—a
conspicuous member of the Virginia Convention of 1860-1,
which passed the ordinance of secession—entered the Confederate service
as Major of the Howitzer Battalion, of Richmond, and for gallantry at
the battle of Bethel was made a brigadier-general. He was Secretary of
War of the Confederate States from March 17 to November 17, 1862.
Resuming the practice of law, he in December, 1863, went to France as
the agent of the Confederate Treasury Department, and returned home
in September, 1865, with shattered health. He died at Richmond,

Virginia, April 4, 1867, in the forty-ninth year of his age. Of the
daughters of Governor Randolph, Anne Cary, married Charles Bankhead;
Eleanora, married Joseph Coolidge, of Boston, Mass.; Virginia,
married Nicholas P. Trist; and Septimia, married David Meikleham.
Congress has recently granted Mrs. Meikleham a pension. A daughter
of Thomas Jefferson Randolph, Miss Sarah Nicholas Randolph, is favorably
known as the authoress of Home Reminiscences of Thomas Jefferson,
and other works of merit. She has been associated for some years with
her sisters in the conduction of an admirable female school at "Edge
Hill." Among his daughters, Margaret, married William Randolph,
Martha Jefferson, married J. C. R. Taylor; Cary Anne, married Colonel
Frank G. Ruffin, a vigorous writer, and favorably known in the agricultural
and political annals of Virginia; Maria Jefferson, married Charles
R. Mason; Jane H., married Major R. G. H. Kean, a prominent member
of the Lynchburg bar; Ellen W., married William B. Harrison.
Of his two sons, Dr. Wilson Cary Nicholas Randolph, a successful physician,
married Miss Holladay, and Lewis Meriwether Randolph, Major
Confederate States Army, married Miss Daniel. The last died a few
years since.

JAMES PLEASANTS.

The founder of the excellent Pleasants family of Virginia, John
Pleasants, was a member of the pacific, prudent and upright Society of
Friends, and many of his descendants have consistently held the same
tenets to the present day. He was a native of Norwich, England,
from whence, in 1665, in the twenty-fifth year of his age, he emigrated
to the colony of Virginia, settling in Henrico County, on James River,
in 1668. During the period 1679-1690 he received grants of nearly
five thousand acres of land. He married Jane, widow of Samuel
Tucker, and died at his seat, "Curles," May 12, 1698. He had issue:
i. John, who married Dorothea Cary, was a patentee of nearly ten
thousand acres of land, and February 17, 1752, was appointed one of
the trustees of the town of Richmond, Virginia; ii. Elizabeth, married
James Cocke, and their numerous descendants number the names of
Harrison, Poythress, and many others equally estimable; iii. Joseph,
patented nearly two thousand acres of land, married Martha Cocke.

Of the issue of four sons and three daughters of Joseph and Martha
(Cocke) Pleasants, the second son, John, of "Pickanockie," married
Susanna, the sixth child of Tarleton[8] and Ursula (Fleming[9] ) Woodson,

of the fourth generation in descent from John Woodson, of Dorsetshire,
England, who accompanied Sir John Harvey to the colony of Virginia
in 1624, according to tradition, "in the capacity of surgeon to a company
of soldiers." Of the issue of six sons and two daughters of John
and Susanna (Woodson) Pleasants, the third son, James, of "Contention,"
married Anne, widow of John P. Pleasants and Isham Randolph,
of "Dungenness," Goochland County, who was the son of the emigrant
William Randolph, of "Turkey Island," James River, Virginia. Of
the issue of two sons and four daughters of James and Anne (PleasantsRandolph)
Pleasants, James, the subject of this sketch, was the first
child. He was born in 1769, and after a well grounded common school
education, studied law with the distinguished Judge William Fleming,
and entered on the practice with considerable success. In 1796 he was
elected to represent Goochland County in the House of Delegates of
Virginia, and in 1803 was chosen the clerk of the body, which latter
position he filled most acceptably until some time during the year 1810,
when he was elected a member of the United States House of Representatives,
in which body he faithfully and efficiently served from 1811
to 1819. December 1, 1822, by election of the General Assembly of
Virginia, he succeeded Thomas Mann Randolph as Governor of Virginia,
and thus served by annual re-election, with great acceptability,
until December 1, 1825, when, being by the constitution no longer
eligible, he was succeeded by John Tyler. Mr. Pleasants subsequently
served as a member of the distinguished and important State Constitutional
Convention of 1829-1830. This was his last public service, for
though twice appointed to judicial position, such was his rare modesty that
he declined acceptance from a distrust of his qualifications. He died
November 9, 1836, in Goochland County, universally esteemed for his
public and private virtues. Governor Pleasants married Susanna Lawson,
second daughter of Colonel Hugh Rose,[10] of "Geddes," and his
wife, who was Caroline Matilda Jordan, of "Seven Islands," Buckingham
County, Virginia.

The issue of Governor James and Susanna (Rose) Pleasants was:
i. Marianna, married Granville Smith; ii. Caroline, married Thomas
Curd, M. D.; iii. John Hampden, a journalist of conspicuous talents,
who founded the Richmond Whig, and was its chief editor for twenty-two
years. He was a poignant thorn in the side of the Democracy, and
a fearless antagonist of the Richmond Enquirer, its organ, which was
founded and conducted by the famous Thomas Ritchie, "the father of
the Democratic party." His trenchant pen led to a duel between himself
and Thomas Ritchie, Jr., in which he was fatally wounded, dying
February 25, 1846, in the prime of manhood, in the midst of usefulness
and the full assurance of the most brilliant career. His death
was profoundly deplored, and his friends have never ceased to deprecate
the agencies instrumental to it. It was regarded, as was the death
of Alexander Hamilton at the hands of Aaron Burr, as an immolation
upon the altar of partisan spirit; iv. Marella, married Marcellus Smith;
v. Susanna Lawson, married John Morris, M. D., of "Green Springs,"
Louisa County, Virginia; vi. Hugh Rose, a distinguished journalist,
long connected with the press of Richmond, died April 27, 1870; vii.
Charles James; and viii. Anne Matilda, married Dr. Ealam, of Chesterfield
County, Virginia. John Hampden Pleasants was twice married;
first to Ann Irving, and secondly to Mary Massie. He had issue:
James Pleasants, a prominent lawyer of Richmond, and Ann Eliza, who
married Douglas H. Gordon. The descendants of John Pleasants, the
founder of the family in Virginia, are so numerous and so widely connected
with the prominent families of the State and Union as to render
any enumeration of names injudicious here.

JOHN TYLER.

John Tyler (whose descent has been deduced in a preceding sketch),
the second son of Governor John and Mary (Armistead) Tyler, was
born at "Greenway," his father's seat in Charles City County, Virginia,
March 29, 1790. As a mere child he was of an unusually studious
habit, and early exhibited a passion for books, particularly for works
of history. Entering William and Mary College as a student at the
age of twelve years, he soon attracted the notice of Bishop James
Madison, the venerable president of that institution; and during his
entire collegiate course young John Tyler was, in an especial degree,

YORKTOWN MONUMENT.

the favorite of that distinguished man. Generous in his disposition,
with pleasing and conciliating manners, and an open, frank and hearty
spirit—these characteristics, by which he was distinguished through life,
and which were so largely conducive to his public success, then endeared
him to his fellow-students, and he was not less their favorite
than that of his teacher. Having completed the courses, he graduated
at the age of seventeen, and delivered on the occasion, an address on
the subject of "Female Education," which was pronounced by the
college faculty as singularly creditable. He now devoted himself to the
study of the law, which he had already commenced during his collegiate
course, and passed the next two years in reading, first with his
father, and latterly with Edmund Randolph, a former Governor of Virginia
and one of the most eminent lawyers in the State. Aided by the
counsels of two such preceptors, his progress in this, as in his previous
studies, was most rapid. At the age of nineteen he appeared at the
bar of his native county as a practicing lawyer, a certificate having been
given him without inquiry as to his having attained the prerequisite
years of manhood. Such was his speedy success, that it is said that ere
three months had elapsed there was scarcely a disputable case on the
docket of the court in which he was not retained. At the age of twenty
he was offered a nomination as the delegate from Charles City County
in the State Assembly, but he declined the proffered honor until the
following year, when, having attained his majority a short time before
the election was held, he was chosen almost unanimously a member of
the House of Delegates. He took his seat in that body in December,
1811. The breaking out of the war with Great Britain, with its incidental
exciting measures, and the public solicitude involved, afforded a
fine scope for the improvement of his powers of oratory. Like the
brilliant Charles James Fox, he spoke often with the view of increasing
them, and was encouraged by the attention which his speeches commanded.
About this period, Messrs. Giles and Brent, then Senators
from Virginia, disobeying an instruction from the State Assembly to
vote against the chartering of a United States Bank, Mr. Tyler introduced
a resolution of censure in the House of Delegates, animadverting
severely upon the course of the Senators, and laying it down as a principle
to be adhered to undeviatingly thereafter, that any person accepting
the office of United States Senator from Virginia tacitly bound himself
to obey, during the period of his service, the instructions he might
receive from its Legislature. Later in his public life he consistently
exhibited his adherence to a principle thus early inculcated, in resigning
his seat in the United States Senate rather than record a vote alike repugnant
to his judgment and his sense of conscientious duty. Mr.
Tyler continued a member of the Legislature by re-election for five
years successively. His popularity in his native county is instanced in
the fact that on one occasion, during this period, when seven candidates
offered themselves, Mr. Tyler received all the votes polled in the county
but five. Some years later, when a candidate for Congress, of the two
hundred votes given in the same county, he received, with a strong
and distinguished competitor, all but one. He zealously supported the
administration during the war, and raised a volunteer company when
Richmond was threatened, but they were not brought into action.
During the session of 1815-1816, whilst still a member of the House of
Delegates, Mr. Tyler was elected a member of the Executive Council,
and acted in this capacity until November, 1816, when he was elected
to fill a vacancy in the representation in Congress, from the Richmond
district, occasioned by the death of Hon. John Clopton, and took his
seat in the month following. In the debate in this body on the rate
of compensation to be allowed its members, and in which Calhoun, John
Randolph, Grosvenor, Henry Clay, Southard and other prominent
statesmen participated, Mr. Tyler eloquently replied to Mr. Calhoun,
advocating a return to the former per diem rate of six dollars, and consistently
maintaining his early enunciated principles of the rights of constituents
and the duty of their representatives. Said he: "You have
no robes of office here to bestow, no stars or garter to confer, but the
proudest title which we can boast, and the only one worthy of being
boasted of, is that which is to be read in the applause of our contemporaries
and the gratitude of posterity. * * * If a member of this
body is not a representative of the people, what is he? and if he is, how
can he be regarded as representing the people when he speaks, not their
language, but his own? He ceases to be their representative when he
does so, and represents himself alone. Is the creature to set himself in
opposition to his creator? Is the servant to disobey the wishes of his
master? From the very meaning of the word representative, the obligation
to obey instructions results. The Federal Constitution was submitted
to conventions of the different States for adoption. Suppose the
people had instructed their representatives in convention to have rejected
the Constitution, and their instructions had been disobeyed, would this
be called a government of the people adopted by their choice? * * *
The gentleman from South Carolina mentioned the name of Edmund
Burke. I venerate the talents of that distinguished orator as highly as
any man; and I hold in high respect the memory and virtues of the
illustrious Chatham; but, highly as I esteem the memories of those great
statesmen, they will suffer no disparagement by a comparison with the
immortal Sidney. I prefer to draw my principles from the father of the
Church, from the man who fell a martyr in the cause of freedom, who
consecrated his principles by his blood, from the fountain from which
has flowed the principles of the very Constitution under which we act."
Mr. Tyler also in the same session ably opposed the resolution, introduced
by Mr. Pickens, of South Carolina, proposing an amendment to
the Constitution, which provided for the establishment of a uniform mode
of electing representatives in Congress and electors of President and Vice-President
throughout the United States, by the division of the several
States into districts for those purposes. After much discussion, the
proposition was laid on the table near the close of the session, not again
to be revived. In the fifteenth Congress Mr. Tyler voted against the
provision offered by Mr. Clay for a minister to the provinces of the Rio
la Plata, holding that it would be a virtual acknowledgment by the
United States of their independence. He also opposed all internal improvements
by the General Government, and the recharter of the
United States Bank, which he held to be unconstitutional. In the
lengthy debate on the resolutions censuring General Jackson for his
arbitrary course in the Seminole War, in the execution of the prisoners
Arbuthnot and Ambrister, Mr. Tyler warmly participated, urging the adoption
of the resolutions, but they were finally negatived. In the sixteenth
Congress he opposed the prominent measures of a revision of the tariff
for protection, and the Missouri Compromise, the latter upon the ground
that it restricted the diffusion of slaves, which he held to be the surest
means towards their ultimate emancipation. Mr. Tyler, by re-election,
continued to serve in Congress until near the close of the term of 1821,
when ill-health necessitated his resignation, and he retired to his farm,
"Sherwood Forest," in Charles City County, possessing the respect of
each of the great political parties. He did not long remain in private
life. In 1823 he was again elected a member of the Virginia Legislature,
and took the lead in all matters of public utility which occupied
that body; many of the most beneficial of the internal improvements of
the State being the result of his zealous and untiring labors. In 1825
he was elected by the Assembly Governor of Virginia, succeeding
James Pleasants, December 1st. He was re-elected the following year
by a unanimous vote, but being elected January 18, 1827, to succeed
John Randolph in the United States Senate, he resigned the office of
Governor on the 4th of March, and was succeeded by William Branch
Giles. The claims of the soldiers of the Revolution had ever been
warmly maintained by Mr. Tyler, and during his service in Congress he
had strenuously resisted every effort to reduce the pittances which had
been provided for them by the nation. In a communication to the
General Assembly, whilst Governor, he insisted that the claims of the
Revolutionary patriots of the Virginia State Line, which had with
flagrant injustice, been discriminated against, should be pressed upon the
attention of the General Government. He urges that: "The claims of
our soldiers have ever been listened to with an attentive ear by the constituted
authorities of this State, and would long since have been fulfilled
to the very letter of promise but for the magnificent donation
made by Virginia to the Federal Government of all her northern lands.
It may be confidently asserted that in making that cession this Commonwealth
never intended that the claims of any part of her hardy veterans
should in any manner have remained unprovided for. The fact of the omission
of all mention of her troops on State establishment in the compacts
entered into by her with the Government of the United States must have
been an omission resulting purely from accident. * * * The fact is,
that the Virginia troops on State establishment are as much entitled to
the liberality of Congress as those who served on Continental establishment.
Those of the State Line who were entitled to land bounty, enlisted
for a period not less than three years, and were found fighting by
the side of the Continental troops, from one extremity of the Confederacy
to the other. Their services in the achievement of our independence
equally entitle them to the nation's gratitude. Why, then, should
not Congress interfere in their behalf? While we present to the
National Government an occasion for the exercise of its liberality, we
present also a claim sanctioned by every principle of justice; and we
might reasonably indulge the anticipation that our application would be
listened to with attention and crowned with success." Mr. Tyler also
strenuously recommended to the Assembly the organization of a system
for the general instruction of the masses of the people. The year 1826
was marked by an event which threw the whole American nation into
mourning—the deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. That
two of three only survivors of the signers of the Declaration of Independence
should breathe their last upon the same day, and that day the
anniversary of the promulgation of that grand instrument, was a coincidence
the most remarkable. Mr. Jefferson died at "Monticello," just
fifty years after the Declaration, at the very recurrent hour of the day,
it is said, at which the immortal work of his hands was read in the
Congress of the United States. On the receipt of the intelligence at
Richmond, Governor Tyler was requested to deliver a commemorative
address, and accordingly on the 11th instant, after scarce three days of
preparation, pronounced at the Capitol square, in Richmond, a funeral
oration, profoundly touching in its beauty and impressive eloquence.
Mr. Tyler took his seat in the United States Senate in December, 1827.
In that body he voted against the tariff bill of 1828, and was a firm
supporter of General Jackson on his accession to the Presidency, but
ever maintained an independence of action. He was frank in the
avowal of his opinions, which were sometimes at variance with those
of the President. Whilst thus efficiently representing Virginia in the
Supreme Council of the nation, Mr. Tyler also rendered service in
her important and illustriously composed Constitutional Convention
of 1829-30. During the session of 1831-1832 he opposed the recharter
of the United States Bank, maintaining, as on a previous
occasion, that it was an unconstitutional measure. He also voted
against the tariff bill of 1832; but in the course of a speech in the
Senate, he enunciated the principles of concession upon which, and at
his instance, Mr. Clay, in 1833, predicated his famous compromise act.
Mr. Tyler in a speech of much eloquence avowed his sympathy with
the nullification movement in South Carolina, in 1832, and in consequence
of the proclamation of President Jackson, withdrew his support
from him. When the movement was made in the Virginia Assembly,
in 1832, for the emancipation of slaves, William H. Brodnax, John
Randolph "of Roanoke," John Marshall, Philip A. Bolling, Thomas
Jefferson Randolph, James McDowell, and William H. Roane, being
among its prominent supporters, Mr. Tyler, then a member of the
Senate Committee on the District of Columbia, drew with his own
hands, and inserted in the code prepared for the District, but which
was not acted on, a bill providing for the abolition of slavery in the
District, thus anticipating by eighteen years a similar provision inserted
in the Compromise of 1850. In 1833 he was re-elected to the Senate
for six years, and opposed the removal of the Government deposits from
the United States Bank. His independent course separated him from
the President's friends in Virginia, who subsequently supported Mr.
Van Buren.

In 1836 the Legislature of Virginia instructed its Senators, Mr. Tyler
and Benjamin Watkins Leigh, to vote for expunging from the journals
of the Senate the resolution of Mr. Clay censuring the President for his
assumption of unjustifiable authority in removing the bank deposits.
As Mr. Tyler approved of the resolution, and believed the proposition
to expunge to be in violation of the Constitution, he could not conscientiously
obey instructions, and, true to his avowed principles, he
resigned his seat February 10th, and was succeeded by William Cabell
Rives. His colleague, Mr. Leigh, however, refused to obey the will of
the Legislature, and held his seat; and though locally lauded and complimented,
with Mr. Tyler, by the Whigs of Richmond (his residence),
with a public dinner, yet his course, in the sequel, was proved to be an
injudicious one, as weighed in the scale of his public interests, for, notwithstanding
his pure character and great intellect, his error was irredeemable.
He was henceforth barred from political preferment. In
the spring of 1838 Mr. Tyler was elected by the Whigs of James City
County to the Virginia Assembly, and in 1839 he was elected a member
of the Whig Convention that met at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to
nominate a candidate for President of the United States. He was
chosen Vice-President of the Convention, and warmly supported Mr.
Clay for the nomination. The choice of the Convention, however, was
General William H. Harrison for President, with Mr. Tyler for Vice-President,
and in 1840 they were both elected, and were inaugurated
on the 4th of March, 1841; but the former dying April 4th, after an
administration of only one month, Mr. Tyler, in accordance with the
provisions of the Constitution, became President of the United States.

He retained the Cabinet appointed by his predecessor, and proceeded to
check, so far as he could consistently with the previous commitments
of Harrison, the removal of the supporters of Van Buren's administration.
In the canvass of 1840 no decision had been made relative to a
fiscal agent for the receipt and disbursement of the public moneys. The
issue of a bank was repeatedly pressed as a desideratum by prominent
Whigs and the newspaper organs of their party. President Tyler, in
his first message, while reserving to himself in express terms the power
to veto any measure which would contravene the Constitution, recommended
the repeal of the sub-treasury law, and the substitution of a new
fiscal agent. He had always denied the power in Congress of national
incorporation operating per se over the Union. In private conversations
with Clay and other prominent Whigs, before the meeting of Congress,
he had urged a scheme which would not involve his Constitutional objections.
This they rejected, and Mr. Clay again proposed, essentially,
instead, the re-establishment of the old United States Bank. The
President vetoed the bill, as he did another, in alleged accordance with
his suggestion for a fiscal agent, which was offered for his approval.
The sub-treasury law in the meantime had been repealed; great excitement
prevailed, and all of Mr. Tyler's Cabinet, with the exception of
Daniel Webster, resigned, and a simultaneous assault was made upon
him by the press and orators of the Whig party throughout the country.
He, however, remained firm, and immediately filled his Cabinet with
eminent State's rights Whigs and Conservatives.

The most important acts of the long session (two hundred and sixty-nine
days) of 1841-1842 were a new tariff law with incidental protection, an
act establishing a uniform bankrupt law, and an apportionment of representatives
according to the census of 1840. The momentous treaty with
Great Britain, settling the northeastern boundary of the United States,
was ratified at Washington on the 28th of August, 1842. The provision
in its eighth article concerning the African squadron for the protection
of American commerce, and the prevention of the slave trade
on the coast of Africa, was the suggestion of Mr. Tyler. In May, 1843,
the President appointed Caleb Cushing, of Massachusetts, a commissioner
to the Chinese government. On the 12th of April, 1844, a
treaty was concluded at Washington, providing for the annexation of
Texas to the United States, but on the 8th of June it was rejected by
the Senate. On the 25th of January, 1845, a joint resolution for annexing
Texas was adopted in the House of Representatives by a vote
of 120 to 98; and the same was adopted in the Senate, on the 1st of
March, by a vote of 27 to 25, and the same day it was approved by the
President. Thus, two days before the expiration of his term of office,
Mr. Tyler had the satisfaction of witnessing the consummation of an
act which he had long earnestly desired and persistently striven for.

The terms proposed were ratified on the 4th of July following by a
Constitutional Convention assembled at Austin, Texas, and that State
became one of our great Union. Upon the expiration of his Presidential
term Mr. Tyler returned to private life, upon his farm in Virginia.

In the Democratic Convention which assembled at Baltimore, Maryland,
on the 13th of May, 1844, to nominate candidates for President
and Vice-President, Mr. Tyler was the first choice of a large following
for the Presidency, and it was thought that his friends held the
balance of power in several States. Mr. Van Buren, also a candidate,
was so objectionable to many of the Democratic party that it was urged
that, between him and the candidate of the Whig party, they would
prefer Mr. Clay. The friends of Mr. Tyler, to secure the defeat of
Mr. Van Buren, and the nomination of a candidate in sympathy with
the policy and measures of the administration of Mr. Tyler, notably the
annexation of Texas, resolved upon the two-thirds rule, and under its
application, Mr. Van Buren was discarded, and Mr. Tyler withdrawing,
James K. Polk was nominated, and subsequently elected as the
successor of Mr. Tyler.

During the long period of relief from the strife and anxieties of political
life, which was now enjoyed by Mr. Tyler in the blessings of a
competence and of domestic bliss, there was an episode not the least
creditable in his honorable career, and highly characteristic in its
marked exemplification of his sense of duty as a citizen. In 1847 he
was designated by the justices of Charles City County for an essential
but humbly named duty, and to which, in common with other citizens,
he was liable. It was at the instance, it was said, of those who wished
to inflict a mortification by conferring, in derision, upon an ex-President
of the United States the humble position of an overseer of the
public road. Mr. Tyler promptly accepted the appointment, and was
no less decided in the execution of the trust—the emphatic meed,
without dissenting voice, accorded, being that "he was the best overseer
of the roads that Charles City ever had."

Mr. Tyler was twice most happily married; first, March 29, 1813, to
Letitia, the third daughter of Robert Christian, of "Cedar Grove,"
New Kent County, long a member of the Virginia Assembly, and a
member of a family[11] which has for quite two hundred years been

GEORGE SANDYS,

Treasurer of the Colony of Virginia in 1621.

Contemporaneously the author of the first book written in
what is now the United States of America, "Ovid's
Metamorphosis," printed at Oxford in 1632.

honorably and usefully represented in the judiciary, and in varied local
trusts in Virginia. She died at Washington, September 10, 1842.
Her virtues are gracefully recorded by Miss Holloway, in The Ladies
of the White House. The second marriage of Mr. Tyler is invested
with touching interest, and was the romantic sequel of a tragic occurrence
which profoundly moved the sympathies of the American nation.
The powerful armament of the United States steamship "Princeton"
claimed the attention of the Secretary of the Navy, and by the invitation
of her builder and commander, Captain Stockton, on the 28th of
February, 1844, a large party of distinguished persons, accompanied
with ladies, were present on board during an excursion on the Potomac
to witness the trial of her powers. The day was charmingly bright and
pleasant, and the occasion one of rare social gratification, when, with
the closing scene and the setting sun, a terrible accident spread disaster
around. One of the largest guns, on being fired for the third time,
whilst the frigate was opposite Mount Vernon, burst, and the explosion
killed instantly the Secretary of the Navy, Thomas W. Gilmer; the
Secretary of State, Abel P. Upshur; Commodore Beverley Kennon,
chief of one of the Naval Bureaus; Virgil Maxcy, recently Charge
d'Affaires to The Hague; Hon. David Gardiner, of New York (who was
accompanied by his lovely and accomplished daughter), and three
domestics, besides wounding twelve of the crew. The tender and soothing
attentions of the President (who was present) to Miss Gardiner in
her terrible bereavement sensibly touched her heart. A sympathetic
bond was established, and the happy sequence was the marital union of
John Tyler and Julia Gardiner[12] on the 26th of June following. The
issue of President Tyler, by his first marriage, was seven children, four
daughters and three sons: i. Mary, married Henry L. Jones; ii. Robert,
Signer of Patents, Prothonotary of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania,
President of the Repeal Association, of which William H. Seward was
Vice-President, Register of the Treasury of the Confederate States, the
able editor of the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, and a Centennial
Commissioner in 1876; married Priscilla, daughter of the distinguished
tragedian, Thomas A. Cooper. Their accomplished daughter, Mrs.
Priscilla Goodwyn, inherits the histrionic genius of her maternal grandfather;
iii. John, private secretary of his father, Major in the Confederate
States Army, and a brilliant and vigorous writer; iv. Letitia, married
James Semple, of the United States Navy, and Chief of Parole of
the Confederate States Army; v. Elizabeth, married William Waller,
and had issue, among others, John Tyler, a gallant but rash young
officer, successively of the Confederate Navy and Army, who sealed his
devotion to the South with his life; and William Griffin, assistant editor of
the Savannah (Ga.) News, married, first, Jeannie Howell, the sister of
the second wife of Jefferson Davis, and, secondly, Bessie Austin; vi.
Alice, married Rev. Mr. Dennison. Their daughter Bessie is an artist
of ability, which is meritoriously instanced in the portrait of her ancestor,
Governor Tyler, in the State Library at Richmond; vii. Tazewell, Surgeon
Confederate States Army, lately deceased in California, married
Anne Bridges, of New Kent County, Virginia.

The issue of the second marriage of President Tyler was also seven
children, five sons and two daughters (making a total by the two marriages
of fourteen children): viii. David Gardiner, a lawyer, residing at
the paternal seat, "Sherwood Forest," Charles City County; ix. John
Alexander, civil engineer, a gallant soldier in the Prussian Army in the
Franco-Prussian War, and in the Confederate Army. For merit in the
first service he was invested by the hands of Kaiser William himself
with a medal and ribbon; died September 2, 1883, at Sante Fe, New
Mexico; x. Julia, married William H. Spencer, of New York, and died
in 1871; xi. Lachlan, an accomplished and successful physician in
Washington, D. C.; xii. Lyon Gardiner, a talented lawyer of the Richmond
bar, late a Professor in William and Mary College, and an accomplished
writer, married Anne Baker, daughter of the gallant Colonel
St. George Tucker, of the Confederate States Cavalry, poet, and author
of the historical novel, Hansford: A Tale of Bacon's Rebellion, the son of
Hon. Henry St. George Tucker, and grandson of Hon. St. George Tucker
(jurisconsult), and his wife Frances, daughter of Richard Bland,
and who was the widow of John Randolph, and the mother of the
brilliant and erratic John Randolph "of Roanoke." The maternal
grandfather of Mrs. Tyler was Hon. Thomas Walker Gilmer; xiii.
Fitz Walter; xiv. Pearl. President Tyler, surrounded by his interesting
family, enjoyed the peaceful quiet of private life for a long series
of years, broken alone by generous and inspiring services as an orator
on special occasions, and to which his powers of eloquence subjected
him, until the stirring events of 1861 appealed to his patriotism, and
again enlisted his willing energies in the cause of his beloved State. He
was a member of and presided with great dignity over the earnest and
momentous deliberations of the Peace Conference which was proposed
by the Virginia Assembly at his suggestion, and which met in Willard's
Hall, at Washington, D. C., February 4, 1861. He was also a member of
the first Confederate States Congress, and while in attendance on that body
died at Richmond, Virginia, January 17, 1862, and was buried in the
adjacent beautiful and picturesque Hollywood Cemetery. Glowing
eulogiums upon his worth were delivered in both houses of the Confederate
Congress by Honorables R. M. T. Hunter, William C. Rives,
Louis T. Wigfall, William H. Macfarland, A. M. Venable and others.
In person President Tyler was tall and slender, with a fair complexion,
blue eyes, brown hair, an aquiline nose, and impressive and engaging
countenance. An excellent portrait of him is exhibited in the State
Library at Richmond, Virginia. His literary efforts evince mental
endowments of a high order, as well as the devotion and enthusiasm
of the scholar. "To purity of taste, elegance of diction, and strength
of reasoning he superadds the ornaments of a lively fancy and a copious
command of impressive and striking images." His "Life" (published
in 8vo, New York, 1843) presents the principal events of his life and

literary and political efforts to that period. His quite numerous addresses
thereafter, exist chiefly in the columns of the contemporary
press and in fugitive publications. The most important have been
collected by his grandson, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, in the Letters and
Times of the Tylers, now in press. The great secret of the popularity of
Mr. Tyler was doubtless in the earnestness of purpose, the innate generosity
and simplicity of nature, the winning sympathy, and the inspiring
cordiality which was manifest in his entire presence. His
ready adaptation to circumstances, and assimilation with the tastes of
every circle or auditory, united in a persuasive sway which we are wont
to term personal magnetism.

WILLIAM BRANCH GILES.

The ancestors of William Branch Giles were early seated in the
colony of Virginia. Christopher Branch, "ancient planter," appears as
a patentee of lands in 1624, and George Giles in 1630, both located in
Henrico County. William Giles conveyed lands in the same county to
Colonel William Byrd in 1681. Another of the name is mentioned, in
an humorous connection, by Colonel William Fontaine, an eye-witness
of the memorable surrender of York, October 19, 1781, who, in a letter
of graphic detail, dated October 26, 1781, and which is preserved in
the autographic collection of the Virginia Historical Society, narrates
the incidental embarrassing personal experience of the erst truculent and
redoubtable British trooper, Colonel Banastre Tarleton: "The hero was
prancing through the streets of York on a very fine, elegant horse, and
was met by a spirited young fellow of the country, who stopped him,
challenged the horse, and ordered him instantly to dismount. Tarleton
halted and paused awhile through confusion; then told the lad if it was
his horse, he supposed he must be given up, but insisted to ride him
some distance out of town to dine with a French officer. This was
more, however, than Mr. Giles was disposed to indulge him in; having
been forced, when he and his horse were taken, to travel a good part of
a night on foot at the point of a bayonet, he therefore refused to trust
him out of sight, and made him dismount in the midst of the street
crowded with spectators."

William Branch Giles was born in Amelia County, Virginia, August
12, 1762. After a preliminary course of instruction at the venerable
William and Mary College, he matriculated at Princeton College, New
Jersey, from whence he graduated with distinction in 1781. Adopting
the profession of the law, he was admitted to the bar, and in the courts
of Petersburg, Virginia, soon attained a lucrative practice. In August,
1790, he entered the arena of politics, first as a Federalist, and was
elected a delegate from Virginia to the United States House of Representatives.

In December of the same year, however, he separated himself
from the Federalists upon the question of establishing a United
States Bank, and entered the ranks of the Republican, or Democratic,
party, and was thereafter a bitter antagonist of his former party associates.
January 23, 1793, he charged Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary
of the Treasury, with corruption and peculation in office. In 1796
he opposed the creation of a National Navy, and the ratification of
Jay's treaty, and the proposed war with France in 1798. In that year
he declined a seat in Congress that he might aid James Madison in the
Virginia Assembly (to which body he was elected from Amelia County)
in passing the celebrated resolutions of 1798. In 1800 he was again
elected to Congress, and was one of the most zealous supporters of
President Jefferson, who is said to have conferred with him almost
nightly during the sessions of Congress, to assure himself that no untoward
conviviality of Mr. Giles might deprive him of efficient support
on the following day. In 1803 Mr. Giles declined a re-election to Congress,
and was succeeded in that body by John W. Eppes, the son-in-law
of Mr. Jefferson. In August, 1804, Mr. Giles was elected by the
Executive Council of Virginia to the United States Senate, to fill the
vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Wilson Cary Nicholas, for
whose unexpired term he was first elected by the State Assembly early
in December following, and on the 4th of the month by the same body,
for the ensuing Senatorial term, commencing March 4, 1805, and ending
March 4, 1811. Mr. Giles was re-elected for another term by the
Assembly, January 2, 1811, but resigned his seat November 23, 1815,
before the completion of his term, which did not expire until March 4,
1817. He zealously and with conspicuous ability supported the administration
during the war with Great Britain, 1812-1815. He re-entered
public life in 1816 as the delegate from Amelia County, in the Virginia
Assembly, but ill-health demanded his retirement to his farm in Amelia
County. Some political essays from Mr. Giles which were published in
the Richmond Enquirer in 1824, attracting the attention of Henry Clay,
he sent to Mr. Giles, in the month of April of that year, a speech on
the Tariff which he had recently delivered in Congress, accompanying
the speech with an ironical epistle, in which after adroitly complimenting
Mr. Giles on his ability and statesmanship, of the exercise of which the
government had been so long and unfortunately deprived because of his
ill-health, he amusingly congratulates Mr. Giles upon his finding time to
withdraw himself from the disputes with his miller and overseer, in
which he had been contentedly engaged, and to again give the public
the benefit of his fine talents in such brilliant contributions to the press.
Mr. Giles, singularly enough, failed to discern the biting humor of this
effusion, and made a cordial response to Mr. Clay, who made merry
with his friends over the matter. This being reported to Mr. Giles,
he, in an irate mood, addressed, February 19, 1826, a communication
to Mr. Clay which was tantamount to a challenge to a deadly encounter.
The son of Mr. Giles, Thomas T. Giles, was the bearer of the communication,
which he tendered Mr. Clay in the presence of Hon.
William S. Archer. Mr. Clay declined to receive it upon the ground
that he could not "recognize Mr. Thomas T. Giles as an organ free
from objection." The whole correspondence was subsequently published
by Mr. Giles. In 1826 Mr. Giles again entered the Virginia
Assembly as a delegate from Amelia County, and in the spring of the
following year presented in that body certain resolutions calling for an
inquiry into the relative rights of the general and State governments.
In the same year he was elected by the Assembly Governor of Virginia,
which office he held by annual re-election until 1830. He was a
member also of that brilliant constellation of genius, the State Constitutional
Convention of 1829-30, and engaged prominently in the important
debates in that body. He died December 4, 1830, at his seat,
"The Wigwam," in Amelia County, in the sixty-ninth year of his age.
In an obituary, which appeared in the Richmond Enquirer, he is recorded
as having been: "In his public life he was distinguished as a zealous
patriot, an honest politician and an able statesman, adoring liberty and
hating despotism—devoted to his country, but unprejudiced in his devotions—loving
the Constitution and jealous of its violation—attached
to the Federal Government, but despising its usurpations—he executed
to the last the best energies of his mind in endeavoring to maintain the
rights of the State and the liberties of the people. * * * The
most spotless integrity and liberality was conspicuous in all his intercourse
with his fellow-man, an unreserved candor in his communications
which disdained everything like concealment. A charm of conversation
and a courtesy of manner which passes all description, won for him
the love and admiration of all who could feel and estimate such qualities.
Having spent a life of usefulness and distinction, after sixteen
years of disease he gradually sunk into the arms of death with the
serenity and calmness of philosophy and the peace and quiet of an easy
conscience."

The success in public life of Mr. Giles, it is generally conceded, was
due scarce less to his proficiency in parliamentary tactics than to his
ability in debate. It is true that he was a man of chivalric impulse,
and his championship, in 1815, of the unfortunate cousin of John Randolph
of Roanoke (Miss Ann Cary Randolph, then Mrs. Gouverneur
Morris), in the inhuman assault of Randolph upon her, made John Randolph
his bitter enemy. Mr. Giles published a "Speech on the Embargo,"
in 1808; "A Political Letter to the People of Virginia," in 1813; a series
of letters, signed "A Constituent," in the Richmond Enquirer, in January,
1818, against the plan for a general education; letters of invective against
James Monroe and Henry Clay, arraigning them for their "hobbies," the
South American cause, the Greek cause, internal improvements and the

Tariff. He addressed a letter to Chief Justice John Marshall disdaining
the expressions, not the general sentiments, in regard to Washington,
ascribed to him in the Life of Washington. He also appeared before the
public as a correspondent of John Quincy Adams. His writings were
collected and published in 1827, under the general title of Miscellanies.
Giles County, Virginia, formed in 1806 from the counties of Monroe
and Tazewell, was named in his honor. He married, March 3, 1810,
Miss Frances Anne Gwynn. Of the issue of this happy marriage, a son,
Thomas T. Giles, a member of the Richmond bar, and long the zealous
chairman of the Executive Committee of the Virginia Historical
Society, died January 18, 1883, in the eightieth year of his age. Two
daughters married respectively the late A. D. Townes, and the late
Gustavus A. Myers, a distinguished lawyer. The son of the last, the
late Major William Branch Myers, was an artist of merit, and several
portraits executed by him are preserved in the collections of the Virginia
Historical Society, where also is an excellent full length portrait
of Governor Giles. He is represented seated before a table with writing
materials, and with a crutch, rendered necessary from rheumatic
affliction, resting against his chair. His countenance bears a shrewd
expression. His dress is that of his day—the striking ruffled shirt, blue
coat with brass buttons, etc. The tout ensemble impresses one as that of a
quondam fox-hunting English squire, who enjoyed the good things of this
world with keen zest.

JOHN FLOYD.

The received tradition in the distinguished Floyd family of Virginia
is that its progenitor, a native of Wales, was a very early settler in
that portion of the Colony known as the Eastern Shore. The name is
indeed of early record. Walter Floyd appears, with associates, as a patentee
of four hundred acres of land in "Martin's Hundred," on "Skiffe
Creek," April 24, 1632. Nathaniel Floyd patented eight hundred and
fifty acres in Isle of Wight County November 20, 1637; and John Floyd,
Thomas Hunt, Edward Bibby, and George Clarke were the grantees,
September 28, 1681, of Hog Island, containing twenty-two hundred acres,
upon the Atlantic coast, opposite the counties of Northampton and
Accomac. Walter Floyd was in all probability the father or grandfather
of the John Floyd last named, and the lineal progenitor of the subject
of the present sketch, but the connecting links have not been preserved.
The family account commences with three brothers (whom it is fair to
presume were the sons of John Floyd, as above): William, John ("who
went North"), and Charles Floyd, who migrated to Georgia, and was
the ancestor of General John Floyd, of Darien, in that State. William
Floyd removed to the county of Amherst, then a wild region, and
married there Abidiah, the fifth child of Robert and — (Hughes)

Best beloved of the Royal Governors of Virginia.

Davis.[13] Their eldest son, John Floyd, was born in 1751. He married,
in 1769, a Miss Barfoot, who died within a year, leaving an infant
daughter, who was taken charge of by the mother of Mrs. Floyd.
Soon afterwards John Floyd removed to the county of Botetourt, where
he engaged in teaching school, and writing in the office of the county
surveyor, Colonel William Preston, in whose family he lived. His
duties were unremitting; when his services were not demanded in the
surveyor's office, he was in the saddle as the deputy of the county
sheriff, Colonel William Christian. In 1774 he went to Kentucky,
where he located and surveyed for himself and others many rich tracts
of land on Elkhorn Creek, and within the present counties of Clarke,
Woodford, Shelby, and Jefferson. The service was attended with many
hardships and much danger from savage hostility. Colonel Floyd returned
to Virginia in 1776, soon after the Declaration of Independence,
and took command of a schooner—the "Phœnix"—which had been fitted
as a privateer by Dr. Thomas Walker, Edmund Pendleton, Colonel
William Preston, and one or two others. Sailing to the West Indies,
he took a valuable prize; but on his return, when nearly in sight of
the capes of Virginia, he was overtaken by a British vessel of war,
captured, and taken to England, where he remained in irons, a prisoner,
for nearly a year. He obtained his liberty through the sympathy
of the jailer's daughter, who stealthily left his cell unlocked. He
begged his way to Dover, where he was first concealed and then secured
a passage to France by a clergyman who was thus in the habit
of assisting American fugitives. Making his way to Paris, he was there
furnished by Benjamin Franklin with means to return to America. In
November, 1778, he married his second wife, Jane, daughter of Colonel
John and Margaret (daughter of Colonel James Patton) Buchanan.
Colonel Floyd remained in Virginia until October, 1779, when he removed
to his fine estate in Kentucky,[14] on Bear Grass Creek, six miles
from Louisville, where he built a stockade fort, which was known as
Floyd's Station. In 1783 he was a member of the first court of Kentucky,
which held its first session at Harrodsburg, and, in addressing
the body, ardently said that he felt that he had set his foot on the
threshold of an empire. He was a conspicuous actor in the stirring
scenes of the period. Alternately a surveyor, a legislator, and a soldier,
his services were essentially important to the infant settlement.
He was the principal surveyor of the Transylvania Company, and was
chosen a delegate, from the town of St. Asaph, to the Assembly that
met at Boonesborough on the 24th of May, 1775, to make laws for
the colony. Honorably acquitting himself in all stations to which he
was called, he finally met a violent death at the hands of the savages,
on the 13th of April, 1783. The county of Floyd, Kentucky, commemorates
his name. His third son,[15] John, the subject of this sketch,
was born in Jefferson County, on the 24th of April, eleven days after
the death of his father. Mrs. Floyd, after the death of her husband,
married, secondly, Captain Alexander Breckinridge, his successor as surveyor
of Jefferson County.[16] In 1796 young John Floyd entered Dickinson
College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, as a student, but through the failure of
his guardian to meet his expenses he had to return home. He was fortunately
enabled to resume his studies in 1801. Returning home in his
twenty-first year, he married, May 13, 1804, in Franklin County, Kentucky,
his second cousin, Lætitia (born September 29, 1799), the tenth
child of Colonel William and Susannah (Smith) Preston. In October
following he entered the University of Pennsylvania as a student of
medicine, and graduated thence M. D. in April, 1806, and settled in
Montgomery County, Virginia. He was appointed a justice of the
peace in June, 1807; commissioned as major of militia in 1808; served
as surgeon in the Virginia Line, in 1812, in the second war with Great
Britain, and in the same year was elected a member of the House of
Delegates of Virginia. In 1817 he was elected to the United States
House of Representatives, and served ably in that body until 1829.
"He was," it has been claimed, "the efficient head of the Virginia
delegation. Others harangued more lengthily and learnedly, but his
opinions were most deferred to, and his moral influence the greatest.
`We laugh,' said a facetious partisan member, `at your Barbour's [P. P.]
hair-splitting, but we indulge in no such merriment when we feel the
glance of Floyd's savage eye.' " Mr. Floyd's influence in Congress was
not the result of his superior eloquence or learning, for in both he was
surpassed; it was a concession to a sound and practical judgment united
with a high and haughty courage, and, above all, an honesty that never
entertained the first thought of barter or compromise. Mr. Floyd was
elected Governor of Virginia by the Assembly, to succeed William B.
Giles, in 1830; and in 1831 was unanimously re-elected by the same
body, under the amended constitution of the State. The second year
of his administration is memorable as that of the tragic occurrence
known as the "Southampton Insurrection." On Saturday night the
20th of August, 1831, a body of sixty or seventy slaves arose upon
the white inhabitants of Southampton County and massacred fifty-five
unsuspecting men, women, and children in their beds. The leader of
this inhuman massacre was a negro slave named Nat Turner, about
thirty-one years of age, born the slave of Benjamin Turner, of Southampton
County. From childhood Nat was the victim of superstition
and fanaticism. He stimulated his fellow-slaves to join him in the massacre
by declaring to them that he had been commissioned by Jesus
Christ, and that he was acting under inspired direction in atrocious designs.
In the confession which he voluntarily made while in prison,
he said: "That in his childhood a circumstance occurred which made
an indelible impression on his mind and laid the groundwork of the
enthusiasm which was so fatal in its termination. Being at play with
other children, when three or four years old, I told them something,
which my mother overhearing, said it happened before I was born. I
stuck to my story, however, and related some things which went, in
her opinion, to confirm it. Others being called upon, were greatly
astonished, knowing these things had happened, and caused them to
say, in my hearing, I surely would be a prophet, as the Lord had
showed me things which happened before my birth." His parents
strengthened him in this belief, and said in his presence that he was
intended for some great purpose, which they had always thought from
certain marks on his head and breast. Nat, as he grew up, was fully
persuaded he was destined for some grand accomplishment. His powers
of mind being much superior to his fellow-slaves, they looked up to
him as one guided by divine inspiration. This belief he was assiduous
to impress by exercises of apparently religious devotion and by the
austerity of his life and manners. After a variety of alleged revelations
from the spiritual world, Nat claimed that on the 12th of May, 1828:—
"I heard a loud noise in the heavens, and the spirit instantly appeared
to me and said that the serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid
down the yoke he had borne for the sins of man, and that I should
take it on and fight the serpent, for the time was fast approaching when
the first should be last and the last should be first; and by signs in
the heavens that it would make known to me when I should commence
the great work; and, until the first sign appeared, I should conceal it
from the knowledge of men. And on the appearance of the sign (the
eclipse of the sun in February, 1831) I should arise and prepare myself,
and slay my enemies with their own weapons. And immediately
upon the sign appearing in the heavens the seal was removed from my
lips, and I communicated the great work laid out for me to do to four
in whom I had the greatest confidence." The massacre was laid for
the 4th of July, but Nat fell sick, and the design was postponed until
the "sign appeared again." Nat commenced the massacre by the murder
of his master and family—Mr. Joseph Travis—with whom he had
been living since the commencement of 1830; who was, Nat said, "a
kind master, and placed the greatest confidence in me." Their first
victims they slaughtered in their beds with axes. The wretches procured
here "four guns that would shoot and several old muskets, with
a pound or two of powder." Nat then paraded his force at the barn,
"formed them in line as soldiers, and, after carrying them through all
the manœuvres he was capable of, marched them" on to further diabolism.

They proceeded from house to house, murdering all the whites they
could find, their force augmenting as they proceeded, till they numbered
between fifty and sixty men, all mounted, and armed with guns,
axes, swords, and clubs. They then started to Jerusalem, the county
seat, and proceeded a few miles, when they were met by a party of
the white inhabitants, who fired upon them and forced them to retreat.
Their force of forty strong stopped for the night, putting out sentinels,
but, being suddenly attacked by the whites, were thrown into great
confusion. Nat, however, escaped with a portion of his adherents; but
they were all hunted down save Nat, who supplied himself with provisions,
and, scratching a hole under a pile of fence rails in a field,
concealed himself for six weeks, leaving his hiding-place only for a few
minutes at a time, in the dead of night, to obtain water, which was
near. Finally he grew bolder, and ventured to the houses in the neighborhood
to gather intelligence by eavesdropping. He was at last discovered
by an accident. A dog, passing his cave one night when he
was out, was attracted by some meat in the cave, crawled in, and was
just emerging with it when Nat returned. A few nights after, two
negroes were hunting with the dog, and passed the cave just as Nat
came out of it. The dog, seeing him, barked, when Nat (thinking himself
discovered) spoke to the negroes and begged them not to betray
him; but, on making himself known, they fled from him. Knowing
that he would be betrayed, Nat left his hiding-place, and was pursued
incessantly until he was taken, about two weeks afterwards. Nat was
executed at Jerusalem, November 11, 1831.

Governor Floyd served most acceptably in that office until March 31,
1834, when he was succeeded by Governor Littleton Waller Tazewell.
He subsequently served for some time as Brigadier-General of the 17th
Brigade of Virginia Militia. Governor Floyd had been in feeble health
previous to his gubernatorial term, and his disease finally exhibited itself
in paralysis. But he rallied after the first attack, and hopes were entertained
that he would live for many years; but excitement, produced
by the unexpected arrival, on a visit, of his son, Dr. William Preston

Floyd, caused a return of the paralysis on the 15th of August, 1837,
which terminated his life, at the Sweet Springs, Montgomery County,
Virginia, the following morning. The gifted John Hampden Pleasants,
in an obituary which appeared in the Richmond Whig, August 24, 1837,
glowingly eulogizes the worth and services of Governor Floyd, whom he
characterizes as "a man gifted with the noblest qualities of our nature;
* * * scrupulously just, and even obstinately honest; one of the
very few public men of our country who died the same man he started
in the beginning of his career, and who ran his course without the imputation
or suspicion of tergiversation which springs from the fear of
consequences, moral or personal cowardice. He entered life a States-rights
man of the strict school of '98, and he battled for the cause
to the end, and died in the faith. An ardent supporter of General
Jackson, he renounced him the instant he conceived him to have deviated
from those principles to which he was not merely affectionately,
but passionately attached. His courage and honesty led him to scorn
to palter with his own principles and understanding; and thus, when
Nullification came on the stage, he adopted it as the doctrine of '98,
which Mr. Jefferson, with the concurrence of the old Republicans, had
pronounced the `rightful remedy,' and which they had actually carried
into practice at that era. He knew the unpopularity of the doctrine,
but his honesty was made of sterner stuff than to barter his opinions
for convenience or profit; and to his courage it was a matter of indifference
what were the odds he encountered.[17] None who knew Governor
Floyd well, could have failed to receive the impression that nature had
endued him with the qualities of the hero, and that the stage and the
opportunity only were wanting to have enabled him to shine among
those who dazzled mankind with deeds of chivalry and prowess. The
day has not long passed when some deemed the dark form of civil conflict
not remote; and it is within our knowledge that many who then
thought and feared had turned their eyes to him as the man worthy
of leading the rebels against Federal tyranny and usurpation to the
field. This brave and noble spirit is no more, and he deserves to be
mourned in sincerity by every good man and patriot—himself inflexibly
upright and a devoted patriot."

Governor Floyd was of a singularly handsome and commanding physique.
"In height and erectness of person, gait, color and straightness
of hair, swarthy skin, and, above all, his keen and dark rolling eye, he
was the personification of an Indian chief—characteristics accounted for,

perhaps superstitiously, in a popular legend which ascribes them to the
fact of his mother, before his birth, having been alarmed by a threatened
savage attack upon her residence." It will be recollected that he
was born a few days after his father had been slain by the Indians.
Mrs. Floyd survived her husband several years, dying at "Cavan," her
home, in Burke's Garden, Tazewell County, December 12, 1852. She
was a mate worthy of so chivalric a husband, and possessed mental
traits of a high order. They had issue twelve children, as follows:

• i. Susannah Smith, born March 4, 1805; died August 29, 1806.

• ii. John Buchanan, born June 1, 1806; died August 26, 1863; married
  his cousin, Sarah B., daughter of General Francis Preston;
  no issue; Governor of Virginia; Secretary of War of the United
  States under Buchanan; Major-General C. S. A., etc.

• iii. George Rogers Clarke, born November 25, 1807; died August 15,
  1808.

• iv. William Preston, M. D., born January 16, 1809.

• v. George Rogers Clarke, born September 13, 1810.

• vi. Benjamin Rush, lawyer, born December 10, 1811; married Nancy
  Matthews, of Wytheville, Va. (issue: i. Malvina, married Major
  Peter Otey, C. S. A.; ii. John; iii. Benjamin Rush).

• vii. Lætitia Preston, born March 13, 1814; married her cousin, Colonel
  William L. Lewis, of Sweet Springs, Va. (issue: i. Susan M.,
  married Alfred Frederick, of South Carolina; ii. Lætitia, married
  Thomas L. P. Cocke; iii. William J., married Miss Dooley,
  of Richmond, Va.; iv. John Floyd; v. Charles).

• viii. Eliza Lavalette Madison, born December 16, 1816; married Prof.
  George F. Holmes, LL.D., University of Virginia (issue: Mary
  Ann, Lætitia P., Henry H., Isabella, and Frederick L.).

• ix. Neickettie, born June 6, 1819; married Hon. John W. Johnston,
  United States Senator (issue: i. Lætitia F.; ii. Louisa B.; iii.
  Sarah B., married Henry Carter Lee; iv. Lavalette; v. William
  F.; vi. George Ben., a popular physician of Richmond, Va.;
  vii. Miriam; viii. Joseph; ix. Coralie).

• x. Coralie Patton, born June 26, 1822; died July 14, 1833.

• xi. Thomas Lewis Preston, born August 16, 1824; died Sept. 4, 1824.

• xii. Mary Lewis Mourning, born March 10, 1827; died July 26, 1833.

There is an excellent portrait of Governor Floyd in the State Library
at Richmond, Virginia. Floyd County, formed in 1831 from Montgomery
County, was named in his honor.

At the organization of the Virginia Historical Society, December 29,
1831, Chief Justice John Marshall was elected President and Governor
John Floyd First Vice-President. The last presided at several meetings
of the Society, and took the deepest interest in its foundation and mission.

LITTLETON WALLER TAZEWELL.

The ancestor of the Tazewell[18] family, in Virginia, was William Tazewell,
a lawyer by profession, who settled in Accomac County in 1715.
He was the son of James Tazewell, of Somersetshire, England, was born
at Lymington, in that county, July 17, 1690, and was therefore twenty-five
years old at the time of his arrival in the colony. He speedily
found employment in his profession, and, as the records of Accomac
County attest, attained an extensive and lucrative practice. Soon after
settling in Virginia he married Sophia, daughter of Henry and Gertrude
(daughter of Colonel Southey Littleton) Harmanson. The issue of this
marriage was: i. John, Clerk of the Virginia Convention of June, 1776,
and an eminent lawyer; died in 1781; ii. Littleton, brought up in the
office of the Secretary of the Colony, Thomas Nelson, and married Mary,
daughter of Colonel Joseph Gray, of Southampton County, who was a
member of the House of Burgesses; iii. Anne, and iv. Gertrude. With the
view of being near the relations of his wife, Littleton Tazewell sold his estate
in Accomac County (which long afterwards became the property of his
distinguished grandson, the subject of this sketch) and purchased land in
Brunswick, became the clerk of the court of that county, and died at
the early age of thirty-three years. He left issue, a son, Henry Tazewell,
who was born in 1753; was a student at William and Mary College,
and of law, in the office of his uncle, John Tazewell, and was soon
admitted to the bar. In 1775, in the twenty-second year of his age,
he was returned by his native county of Brunswick a member of the
House of Burgesses, which was convoked to receive the conciliatory
propositions of Lord North; and with an alacrity that was most honorable,
he prepared an answer in detail, which was read and approved by
Robert Carter Nicholas and Edmund Pendleton, but which, from accident,
he was prevented from presenting, and it was anticipated by the
answer of Thomas Jefferson, which was ultimately adopted. In the
Convention of June, 1776, he was placed on the committee which reported

Curious Old Valentine of cut paper of 1753,

From the original in possession of R. A. Brock,
Secretary Virginia Historical Society

the Declaration of Rights, and the Constitution. He was continuously
returned a member of the House of Delegates, under the new
Constitution, until his elevation to the bench, serving with conspicuous
ability and wielding much influence in the councils of that body. He
was the zealous friend of religious freedom, and advocated the abolition
of primogeniture and entails, and the separation of the Church from the
State. In 1785 he was made a judge of the General Court of the State,
and as such was a member of its first Court of Appeals. In 1793,
when the Court of Appeals was established, he was appointed one of
its five judges. In 1794 he was elected over James Madison to succeed
John Taylor "of Caroline," in the United States Senate, over which he
presided in 1795, and bore in that body a distinguished part in the discussions
on the British Treaty, sustaining with unqualified applause the
leadership of the Republican party. In person he was singularly handsome,
with a graceful and dignified mien. He died at Philadelphia, January
24, 1799, and his remains rest in that city near those of the eloquent
James Innes. The county of Tazewell, formed in 1799 from Russell and
Wythe, was named in his honor. The wife of Henry Tazewell was Dorothea
Elizabeth, daughter of Judge Benjamin Waller,[19] at whose residence
in Williamsburg, Virginia, a long low wooden building, the subject of this
sketch, Littleton Waller Tazewell, was born December 17, 1774. His
mother, who died three years after his birth, was a lovely woman, and
her name, which, from the distasteful abbreviation of Dolly, has gone
out of vogue, was a popular one in the last century. It was borne by
a daughter of Governor Alexander Spotswood, and by the wives of
Patrick Henry and James Madison also. It has been oft honored in
verse and prose, and symbolizes what a true woman is—the gift of God.
Until 1786, young Tazewell lived with his grandfather, Benjamin Waller,
who taught him the rudiments of English and Latin, and superintended
his studies until his death in 1786, Judge Waller having committed
him on his death-bed to the care of his life-long friend George Wythe.
Young Tazewell lived with the latter until he removed to Richmond,
when he became an inmate of the family of Bishop James Madison,
President of William and Mary College. His first regular tutor was Walker
Murray, with whom he prosecuted the study of Latin, and in whose
school he was a classmate of John Randolph—cementing a friendship
which continued without abatement until the death of that brilliant orator
and eccentric being. Young Tazewell at an early age entered William
and Mary College, and took the degree of Bachelor of Arts July
31, 1792. Having finished his college course he commenced the study
of law in Richmond in the office of the eminent John Wickham, (whose
wife was the half-sister of his father,) and lived with him as a member
of his family. While engaged in the study he regularly attended the
courts of Richmond, in which Judge Wythe presided as sole Chancellor
and Edmund Pendleton as the President of the Court of Appeals.
The bar of the State metropolis at this period comprised many men
of eminence and vied in distinguished ability with that of any court
in the United States. It was a potent school for the young lawyer.
Tazewell received his license to practice law on the 14th of May, 1796.
It was signed by Judges Peter Lyons, Edmund Winston, and Joseph
Jones. The ability of Tazewell was at once discovered by John Marshall,
who pronounced him an extraordinary young man. Tazewell surely made
his way at the bar in the courts of James City and its neighboring
counties. In the spring of 1796, when he had attained his twenty-first
year, he was returned to the House of Delegates from the county of
James City, and continued a member of that body until the close of
the century—including the memorable sessions of 1798-99, and of 17991800.
To the important papers from the pen of James Madison, the
famous resolutions offered by John Taylor of Caroline, and the "Virginia
Report," Tazewell gave a cordial support. John Marshall, having
vacated his seat in the House of Representatives to accept the appointment
of Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President John Adams,
Tazewell, in his twenty-sixth year, was elected to succeed him, and took his
seat on the 26th of November, 1800. At the close of his Congressional
term in 1801, Mr. Tazewell returned home and withdrew from public
life. On the 26th of June he qualified as an attorney in the Hustings
Court of Norfolk, and, in the following year, made that city his residence.
Its bar, at this period, was an able one, comprising such members as
the venerable James Nimmo, General Thomas Matthews, Colonel John
Nivison, Robert Barraud Taylor, Alexander Campbell, and William
Wirt; yet, amidst such an array of learning, the ability of Tazewell was
at once recognized, and his practice speedily became extensive and lucrative.
The flagrant outrage upon the American flag in 1807, which has
been alluded to in preceding sketches as one of the prime instigations to
the second war with Great Britain, was a humiliation which touched the
local sensibilities of Norfolk to the quick. On the 22d of June, the
frigate "Chesapeake," built by its native mechanics, launched in
the waters of the Elizabeth River, in view of the city, put out to
sea from Hampton Roads, under command of Captain James Barron.
On the following day, unsuspecting of danger, she was attacked by the
British frigate "Leopard," and became her prize after three men had
been killed, and sixteen wounded. The British commander, after taking
from the "Chesapeake" certain seamen, whom he alleged were deserters
from the British flag, declined to take possession of the captured
frigate, which returned to the Roads. The wounded men were taken
to the Marine Hospital, in Norfolk, where one of them died. Intense
indignation prevailed in the city. It was believed that the outrage
was deliberately designed, and the cry for vengeance burst from the
whole people. In full assembly, with the venerable General Matthews
presiding, they appointed, as in the days of '76, a Committee of Safety.
A preamble, duly setting forth the outrage on the "Chesapeake," was
adopted, and it was resolved that there should be no intercourse with
the British frigates in the Norfolk waters, or with their agents, until
the decision of the United States Government was known, under the
penalty of being deemed infamous; and the Committee of Safety—
Thomas Matthews, Thomas Newton, Jr., Luke Wheeler, Theodric
Armistead, Richard E. Lee, Moses Myers, William Pennock, William
Newsum, Thomas Blanchard, Daniel Bedinger, Seth Foster, J. W.
Murdaugh, Richard Blow, and Francis S. Taylor—were authorized to
take such measures as the emergency demanded. As soon as the British
commander—Commodore Douglas—read the resolves, he addressed,
on the 3d of July, an insolent letter to the Mayor of the Borough, in
which he declared if the resolutions were not instantly annulled, he would
prohibit every vessel bound in or out of Norfolk from proceeding to
her place of destination. He closed his communication by saying that
he had proceeded with his squadron of four fifty-gun frigates to Hampton
Roads to await the answer of the Mayor, which he hoped would be
forwarded without delay. It is thought that Mr. Tazewell had regulated
the popular proceedings from their initiation. In the delicate dilemma,
which was ominous of vengeful deeds and of so much menace to the
commercial interests of Norfolk, he came to the assistance of the Mayor
and dictated a reply to the audacious Briton which elicited the admiration
of the whole American Nation. The letter, written on the 4th of
July, thus began: "Sir, I have received your menacing letter of yesterday.
The day on which this answer is written ought of itself to prove to
the subjects of your sovereign that the American people are not to be
imtimidated by menace; or induced to adopt any measures except by
a sense of their perfect propriety. Seduced by the false show of security,
they may be sometimes surprised and slaughtered while unprepared to resist
a supposed friend. That delusive security is now passed forever. The
late occurrence has taught us to confide our safety no longer to any thing
than to our own force. We do not seek hostility, nor shall we avoid it.
We are prepared for the worst you may attempt, and will do whatever
shall be judged proper to repel force whensoever your efforts shall render
any acts of ours necessary. Thus much for the threats in your letter."
The letter was delivered by Mr. Tazewell (who was accompanied by Tazewell
Taylor), to Commodore Douglas, in presence of the Captains of the
Fleet (among whom was Sir Thomas Hardy, whom Lord Nelson so
affectionately addressed in his dying moments). It had a due effect.
The threats were all recanted, and a letter of the 5th of July breathed
nothing but amity and peace—an amusing somersault, like unto which is
scarcely to be recalled in the annals of diplomacy.

In 1816, during an absence from home, and without his knowledge,
Mr. Tazewell was elected by the people of Norfolk to the House of Delegates.
His speech in that body against the Convention bill, and in
reply to General Alexander Smyth, is memorable for its ability and eloquence.
The bill passed in the House but was lost in the Senate. In
1820 Mr. Tazewell was one of the Commissioners under the Florida
treaty. In 1824 he was elected to the United States Senate. He was
elected to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of John Taylor of
Caroline. It is a coincidence that his father, thirty years before, was
chosen to fill the vacancy in the Senate caused by the resignation of the
same individual. L. W. Tazewell took his seat in January, 1825. His
first efforts in the debates was on the bankrupt bill of that session—
a searching examination of its details, which annihilated the hopes of its
friends. His speech, on the 21st of January, in behalf of his motion
to strike out the third section of the bill for the suppression of piracy
in the West India seas, which had been reported from the Committee
of Foreign Affairs, and had been introduced by its chairman, James
Barbour, was lauded throughout the country. The section proposed to
be stricken out authorized the President of the United States in time of
profound peace to declare, on the representations of a naval officer,
any of the ports of Spain in the West Indies in a state of blockade.
It was stricken out by the decisive vote of 37 to 10. Had it remained
in the bill, a war with Spain in all probability would have resulted
in less than ninety days. On the election of John Quincy Adams to
the Presidency, Mr. Tazewell became hostile to his administration and

opposed its prominent measures. His speech on the exclusive constitutional
competency of the executive to originate foreign missions without
the advice and consent of the Senate, as a constitutional thesis, it
is claimed, "stands pre-eminent in our political literature as a model of
profound research, of thorough argumentation, and of overwhelming
strength." Mr. Tazewell was re-elected to the Senate on the 1st day
of January, 1829. Whilst in attendance on that body he was elected
by the Norfolk district a member of the Convention which assembled in
Richmond, October 5th, 1829, to revise the first Constitution of Virginia.
In that illustrious body Mr. Tazewell made the opening speech
in support of a resolution which he offered, and which marked out the
course of the campaign which he believed to be best adapted to attain
the general end in view. He engaged with conspicuous ability in the
important discussions of the convention. His speech on the tenure of
the judicial office is claimed to have been one of the most able efforts in
that body of intellectual giants. Mr. Tazewell was also, in 1829,
tendered the mission to Great Britain, but declined the honor. He
continued in the Senate until 1833, serving as Chairman of the Committee
on Foreign Relations, and as President pro tem. of the body during
a portion of the twenty-second Congress. In January, 1834, he
was elected Governor of Virginia to succeed John Floyd, and entered
upon the duties of his office March 31st. He resigned March 31, 1836,
before the expiration of the term, upon a disagreement with the State
Legislature. That body had passed resolutions instructing the Senators
from Virginia to vote for the resolutions to expunge from the journal of
the Senate the resolutions censuring General Jackson. These instructions
Governor Tazewell declined to approve. He was succeeded in the office of
Governor by Lieutenant-Governor Wyndham Robertson. Mr. Tazewell
was never afterwards in public service. Though so effective with
juries as an advocate, his style of address is said to have been singularly
simple and free from artifice. His arguments were conversational and
his gestures not more striking than those of animated converse. His
postures were negligent. His voice was pleasant and of ample compass.
He was never vociferous. His logic was consummate, and in putting
his arguments before a jury he exhibited great adroitness. He acquainted
himself with the calling or prejudices of every juryman—and
was thus guided in his appeals to them.

When the passions were to be assailed he indulged in a style of fervid
appeal, which was the more effective as it was rare. Of the person of
Mr. Tazewell, his friend and eulogist, Hugh Blair Grigsby, LL.D.,
says: "As soon as the visitor fixed his eyes on Mr. Tazewell, all else
was forgotten. He was, without exception, in middle life, the most imposing,
and in old age, the most venerable person I ever beheld. His
height exceeded six feet. * * * His head and chest were on a large
scale, and his vast blue eye, which always seemed to gaze afar, was aptly

termed by Wirt an `eye of ocean.' In early youth he was uncommonly
handsome. In middle life he was very thin, though lithe and strong,"
but in his latter days he was large of stature, with massive features,
and hair of silvery whiteness, which fell in ringlets about his neck.
He died at Norfolk, May 6, 1860. He was the author of a "Review
of the Negotiations between the United States and Great Britain respecting
the Commerce between the Two Countries," etc. London, 8vo,
1829, and which first appeared under the signature "Sinex," in the Norfolk
Herald," in 1827. A portrait of Governor Tazewell is in the State
Library at Richmond, Virginia. He married, in 1802, Anne Stratton,
daughter of Colonel John Nivison, of Norfolk, Virginia.

WYNDHAM ROBERTSON.

The clan Donnachie, or Duncan, or Robertson, trace descent from
Duncan, King of Scotland, eldest son of Malcolm III., their immediate
ancestor being a son of the "ancient and last Celtic Earl of Atole" who,
in the reign of Alexander II., received the lands of Strowan. A great
grandson of this founder was named Andrew, and was styled of Athole
or "de Atholia," which was the uniform designation of the family; and
from Duncan, a son of Andrew, they derive their distinctive appellation
of the clan Donnachie, or "children of Duncan." This Duncan was twice
married, and acquired by both marriages considerable territory in the
district of Rannoch. By his first wife he had a son Robert "de Atholia,"
who also had a grandson named Robert; and from him the clan Duncan
or Donnachie derive the name of Robertson from their lowland
neighbors. This Robert is famous in history, and known as the chief
who arrested and delivered to the vengeance of the government Robert
Graham and the master of Athole, two of the murderers of James I.,
for which he was rewarded with a crown charter, dated 1451. He was
mortally wounded in a conflict with Robert Forrester, of Solwood, with
whom he had a dispute regarding the lands of Little Dunkeld. Binding
his head in a white cloth, he rode to Perth and obtained from the
king a new grant of the lands of Strowan. Returning home he died
of his wounds. His eldest son was twice married; his son, again, becoming
progenitor of various families of Robertsons. Towards the close
of the century an heiress of the clan married "Thomas of Loudoun,"
while another married "David of Hastings," and an heiress of the Leeds
branch married a Stewart of Invermeath. The clan were valiant and
powerful supporters of the House of Stewart, and devoted to the cause
of Charles I. It furnished, during the past two centuries, many warriors
and learned men, famous in Scottish annals. Alexander Robertson,
the celebrated Jacobite chief and poet, was born about 1670. After
a warlike and eventful life he died, in the eighty-first year of his age, in
his own house. Carr of Rannoch's poems were published after his death,

with a history of the Robertsons of Strowan. He was Sir Walter Scott's
prototype of the Baron "Bradwardine," in Waverley.

The ancestor of the Robertsons of Virginia was William Robertson,
son of the Bailie of Edinburgh, Scotland, and a relative of Alexander
Robertson, of Strowan, Baron Bradwardine, who emigrated to the colony
in the early part of the eighteenth century, and settled in Bristol
parish, near the location of Petersburg. His son, William Robertson,
born in the year 1750, was a vestryman, warden, and deputy of Bristol
parish from 1779 to 1789, a member of the council of Virginia, and
for a series of years its secretary. He married Elizabeth, daughter
of Thomas and Elizabeth (Gay) Bolling, of "Cobbs" (fourth in descent
from John Rolfe and the Indian Princess Pocahontas), and had issue
twelve children, those who survived being as follows: i. Archibald,
born 1776; died 1861; married Elizabeth M. Bolling, ii. Thomas Bolling,
born February 27, 1778; married, April, 1821, Lelia, daughter of
Fulwar Skipwith; studied law with the distinguished John Thompson;
member of the House of Delegates from Dinwiddie County 1805-6;
appointed, in the summer of 1807, by President Jefferson, Secretary of
the then territory of Orleans; continued in this station until Louisiana
was erected into a State; member of Congress 1812-18, when he resigned,
resuming the practice of law; appointed, in 1819, Attorney-General
of Louisiana; elected Governor of the State in 1820, appointed,
in 1825, United States Judge for the district of Louisiana. During
the recess of Congress, 1815, he visited England and France, and being
in Paris at the time of the return of Bonaparte from the campaign
which ended in his overthrow at Waterloo, he wrote a concise and animated
account of the interesting scenes which were passing before him,
in letters to his friends in Virginia, which were published in the Richmond
Enquirer, and in book form. He died October 5, 1828, at the
White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier County, Virginia, where a monument
marks his remains; iii. William, born 1786; member of the Virginia
Assembly; married Christiana, daughter of Frederick Williams,
and had issue; iv. John, born 1788; died 1873; Attorney-General of
Virginia; member of State Assembly, and Chancellor of Virginia;
member of Congress, representing Richmond for more than half a
century; a quaint, vigorous, and accomplished writer, publishing many
brochures; married, in 1814, Anne Trent, and left issue; v. Anne, born
1790; died 1842; married Henry Skipwith, M. D., and left issue;
vi. Jane Gay, born 1796; died 1840; married, 1818, John H. Bernard,
of "Gaymont," Caroline County, Virginia, member of the State Senate;
left issue; vii. Wyndham, the subject of this sketch, born January 26,
1803. He first attended the private schools in his native city—Richmond—and
completed his education at William and Mary College under
the presidency of the brilliant John Augustine Smith, graduating

REV. JOHN BUCHANAN D.D.

Rector of St. Johns Church Richmond Va. from 1785 to his death in 1820.

thence in 1821. Entering upon the study of law, he was admitted to
the bar in 1824. In 1827 he went to Europe for recreation, visiting
the cities of London and Paris. Returning home he resumed the practice
of his profession. The French Revolution of 1830 enkindled the
patriotism of the citizens of Richmond to highly enthusiastic demonstrations
in civic procession, with flags and banners flying, the parade of
the military with salute of musketry and cannon, and a mass meeting.
Mr. Robertson was the chosen orator on the occasion, to voice the public
sentiment, an office which he discharged so eloquently and acceptably
that the common sympathy then established carried with it a regard and
confidence which was enduring and found expression in many positions
of honorable trust conferred on him. In 1833 Mr. Robertson was
elected a member of the Council of State. In 1834, at the first meeting
of the James River and Kanawha Company, the successors to the
franchises of the old James River Company, Mr. Robertson proposed,
in lieu of the projected canal, a measure that looked to a railroad connection
with Lynchburg, to progress alternately westward, on the one
hand, to the Mississippi, and on the other to the Kanawha. Although
his proposition was defeated, it had the favor of sagacious and able
minds, Dr. John Brockenbrough, Judge Philip Norborne Nicholas,
Moncure Robinson, and Hon. John Robertson being among its supporters.
After nearly half a century the wisdom of the measure proposed
has been vindicated in the displacing of the canal by the Richmond
& Alleghany Railroad erected on its banks, and which we may
hope, may yet grasp the consummations so long ago ardently outlined
by Mr. Robertson. On the 31st of March, 1836, Mr. Robertson became
senior member of the Council, and as such, Lieutenant-Governor, and
on the same day, by the resignation of Governor Tazewell, succeeded
him for the remaining year of his term as Governor of Virginia. The
period is somewhat memorable. Then began the initiatory movements
of the undisguised and fateful crusade by the Northern section of our
Union against slavery. We can now calmly survey its turbulent course
in thankful acceptation of an issue which is destined to progressively redound
in blessings to the South. A different sentiment then prevailed
in Virginia. In his first message to the Legislature, Governor Robertson
called attention to the abolition movement, designating it as "a mad
fanaticism, the march of which, if unchecked, could well be over violated
faith, the rights of the slave-holding States, chartered liberty, and
the cause of humanity itself," and recommended that measures should
be taken for a convention of all the States to take measures to avert
such dire consequences. The Democracy being largely in the majority
in the Legislature of 1836-7, one of that party—David Campbell—was
chosen to succeed Governor Robertson on the expiration of his term,
March 31, 1837, and he retired to private life. In 1841, his health being
impaired, he removed to the country and engaged in agricultural
pursuits. In 1858 he returned to Richmond, and in 1860 acquiesced
in the wishes of his old constituents to serve them in the House of Delegates.
A friend to peace and the Union, Mr. Robertson actively opposed
secession, and the overtures of South Carolina for a Southern
Convention as endangering both, and hastening the loss of what they
were designed to save. After South Carolina and other Southern States
had seceded, he still urged a refusal on the part of Virginia to follow
them, and brought, as the organ of a committee, into the House of
Delegates, January 7, 1861, the resolution known as the Anti-Coercion
Resolution, denying the existence of present cause for secession, but
declaring her purpose, if a war of coercion was undertaken by the
Federal Government on the seceded States, to fight with the South.
The resolution was adopted. The State now addressed itself to measures
of reconciliation, some of which were proposed, and all were advocated
by Mr. Robertson. They were, however, all futile, and the
proclamation of President Lincoln calling for troops from Virginia,
speedily determined her lot with her Southern sisters, peopled by her
own offspring, and Mr. Robertson, ever a dutiful son, was henceforth
zealously active in all measures of sustenance and defense, in the lamentable
fraticidal strife which ensued. The painful struggle over, he
removed to the native place of his wife (Mary T., daughter of Francis
Smith, Esq.), Abingdon, Virginia, where he has since resided. Mr.
Robertson has been an ardent student of history for many years, naturally
with a special regard for that of his native State. He has frequently
contributed the results of his research to periodicals, and at the annual
meeting of the Virginia Historical Society, December 15, 1859, he read
an exhaustive paper on the "Marriage of Pocahontas with John Rolfe,"
which was published by the Society. He has had in preparation for a
number of years past, a genealogical account of his kindred, "The Descendants
of Pocahontas," which, it is believed, is now ready for publication.
There is an excellent portrait of Governor Robertson in the
State Library at Richmond, Virginia.

DAVID CAMPBELL.

Of all the family names of Scotland, there is hardly another so invested
with lustre in the varied manifestations of human greatness, so
renowned for valorous deeds, or so proudly enshrined in the national
affection, as that of Campbell: and the race transplanted in America
has flourished alike, and in its distinguished representatives, by numerously
attested examples, has lost naught of that which constitutes true
nobility; for in every department of learning and of useful service, and
in heroism by sea and land, has the name lent honor to our national
annals.

It is believed that a majority of those in this country, of the name,
who claim Scottish origin, are descended from Duncan Campbell, of
the noble branch of Breadalbane.[20] Duncan Campbell, born in Inverary,
Scotland, accompanied, it is thought, the English army sent by
Queen Elizabeth, in March, 1579, under the Earl of Essex (who was
succeeded by Mountjoy), to suppress the rebellion in Ireland, headed
by Hugh O'Neale, Earl of Tyrone. After the forfeiture of lands in
Ulster was declared in the reign of James I., in 1612, Duncan Campbell,
who had married Mary McCoy, bought a lease from one of the
English officers, and remained there. His son Patrick bought the lease
and the estate in remainder, thus acquiring the estate in fee simple.
Another son, John Campbell, born in 1621; married, in 1655, Grace,
daughter of Peter Hay,[21] and had issue:

i. Dugald, whose descendants settled in Rockbridge County, Virginia.

ii. Robert, born in 1665; married in 1696. His descendants settled
in Orange (now Augusta) County, Virginia, in 1740.

iii. John, born in 1666; died in 1734; emigrated to America in 1726,
and settled in Donegal, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, but soon removed
with several of his family to that part of Orange County, Virginia,
which in 1738 was formed into Augusta County. Had issue:
i. Patrick, born in 1690; "a strong churchman;" removed to Virginia
in 1738, and was the father of General William Campbell, the hero of
King's Mountain (after whom the county of Campbell, formed in 1784
from Bedford, was named), born in 1745, and was killed in September,
1781; married Elizabeth, the sister of the orator Patrick Henry, and
she married, secondly, General William Russell, of the Revolution,
born in Culpeper County, Virginia, in 1758, and died in Fayette
County, Kentucky, July 3, 1825. ii. John, born in 1692; a minister
of the Protestant Episcopal Church at York, Pennsylvania; died in
1764; married, and had issue: James, born in 1731; removed to Virginia

in 1760; Ellen Frances, and John, born in 1740; died in 1797;
one of the most eminent lawyers of Pennsylvania; married Ellen Parker,
and their descendants in the names of Lyon, Chambers, and others,
are quite numerous. The late Parker Campbell, banker of Richmond,
Virginia, was a son. iii. Robert, migrated to Virginia; had issue five
children, of whom four daughters survived. iv. William, died in youth.
v. James, died in England. vi. David, married, in 1735, Mary Hamilton
(who came to America in the same ship with him), and, about
the year 1772, settled at the "Royal Oak," in the Valley of the Holstein
(now rendered Holston), about one mile west of Marion, the
county seat of Smyth County. He left issue seven sons: i. John, born
April 20, 1741. ii. Colonel Arthur, born in 1742; hero of Indian wars;
married a sister of General William Campbell; removed in 1804 to Yellow
Creek, Knox County, Kentucky, where he died in 1815. He had two
sons, who died in the war of 1812—Colonel James Campbell, at Mobile,
and Colonel John B. Campbell, who fell at Chippewa, where he commanded
the right wing of the army under General Winfield Scott.
iii. James; iv. William; v. David, first clerk of Washington County,
which office he held until March 17, 1779, when he was succeeded by
his brother John. Removing to Tennessee, he became distinguished in
its annals. vi. Robert, Colonel, and Indian fighter, born in 1755; displayed
great bravery in many conflicts with the Cherokees, and subsequently
at the battle of King's Mountain; nearly forty years a magistrate
of Washington County, and in 1825 removed to Tennessee; died
near Knoxville in February, 1832. vii. Patrick.

Of the above sons of David Campbell, the eldest-born, John, was
one of the justices (commissioned by Governor Patrick Henry) who,
after the county of Washington (embracing portions of Wythe, Tazewell
and Grayson, and all of Smyth, Russell, Buchanan, Dickinson,
Wise, Scott and Lee, and its own present limits) had been formed in
1776, met at Abingdon and organized and held the first county court,
January 28, 1777. He succeeded, March 17, 1779, his brother David
Campbell as clerk of the county, and continued to hold the office by
successive re-election until 1814. In 1778 he married Elizabeth, daughter
of Edward and Mary (Robinson) McDonald,[22] of the section of what is
now Botetourt County, Virginia, and, it is said, built the first dwelling in
Abingdon (a log-house), on the lot on which the Arlington Hotel now stands.
In 1788 he purchased of Thomas Madison, attorney of James Buchanan,
a farm of eleven hundred acres in the south-western portion of Washington
County, to which he gave the name of "Hall's Bottom," and shortly

after removed to and continued to reside there until his death, on the
20th of April, 1825. David Campbell, his eldest son, and the subject
of this sketch, was born August 2d, 1779, at "Royal Oak," and was
about eight years of age when his father removed to "Hall's Bottom."
There he grew up, receiving such education as the frontier settlements
could provide. In the way of books it was necessarily limited, but this
great disadvantage was largely compensated for by the character of the
people among whom he was reared; by their recitals of the scenes and
deeds of the Revolution, in which they bore so conspicuous and important
a part, and which were then but as the acts of yesterday; and
by the lessons of self-reliance which were taught by all his surroundings.
In 1794, being then in his fifteenth year, David Campbell was
appointed an Ensign in "old" Captain John Davis' company of militia
in the 2d Battalion of the 70th Regiment, which position he held until
he removed to Abingdon as an assistant in the clerk's office there. In
the spring of 1799 the 70th Regiment was divided and the 105th Regiment
formed. In the 2d Battalion of this regiment David Campbell
was commissioned as Captain of a company of Light Infantry assigned
to it, and which he raised and organized In the fall of the same year
Captain Campbell married his cousin Mary Hamilton, by whom he had
no issue. He now studied law, and obtained a license, but never practiced
his profession. He was fond of reading (history and the English
classics being his special favorites), and thus enriched his mind and
acquired his style of written composition. In 1802 he was appointed
deputy clerk of the county court of Washington County, and chiefly
discharged the duties of the office to the year 1812, on the 6th of
July of which he was commissioned a Major in the 12th Infantry,
United States Army. He assisted Colonel Parker in collecting recruits,
organizing and drilling them at Winchester, and marched with his command
for the Lakes of Canada on the 29th of August, and efficiently
served there under the command successively of Generals Smyth and
Van Rensellaer. On the 12th of March, 1813, he was promoted to the
rank of Lieutenant-Colonel of the 20th United States Regiment and
participated in the arduous campaigns of that regiment on the St. Lawrence
and towards Lake Champlain. The troops on the Northern
frontier were greatly exposed during the campaigns of 1812 and 1813,
and the constitution of Colonel Campbell, naturally delicate, gave way
under the hardships to which he was exposed. He was so severely attacked
with rheumatism as to incapacitate him for duty, and in consequence
applied to the Secretary of War for a transfer to the Southern
Division of the Army. His application was recommended by his superior
officers, Colonel Randolph and General Parker, but from some
cause was disapproved by the Secretary of War, and Colonel Campbell
was necessitated to resign his commission January 28th, 1814. Upon
returning home, he in a short time entered the service of Virginia as
Aide-de-Camp to Governor Barbour, and gave valuable assistance in organizing
the large militia force called into service in the neighborhood
of Richmond and below it and about Petersburg in the summer of 1814.
These services Colonel Campbell performed without pay. In the session
of the Assembly of 1814-15 a law was passed for raising 10,000 troops
and under it Colonel Campbell was elected General of the 3d Brigade.
On the 25th of January he was appointed Colonel of the 3d Virginia
Cavalry, and by the formation of the 5th Division of militia was afterwards
transferred to the 5th Regiment of cavalry. Upon his return to Abingdon,
Virginia, he re-entered the clerk's office, where he continued until
1820, when he was elected to the Senate of Virginia for four years.
He actively participated in public affairs both before and after his election
to the Senate. He was remarkable for his ready and correct judgment
of men, and this, coupled with the opportunity which his position
gave him, enabled him to exercise a wide-spread influence in his resident
section of the State. In 1824 he was elected clerk of the county court
of Washington, and continued to hold the office until he was elected
Governor of Virginia, in 1836, and entered upon the office March 31,
1837.

Virginia at this period was preponderantly Democratic in politics;
so decided was the sentiment of Washington County, in the Presidential
election of 1828, that only thirteen votes against General Andrew Jackson
were cast. David Campbell was a Jackson Democrat, as was also each of
his four brothers. In his first message to the General Assembly, among
other matters of public utility he proposed the establishment of the
common school system, of which he was one of the earliest advocates.
This was, no doubt, greatly stimulated by the fact that his own section
of the State was, by its remoteness from the institutions of learning of
high grade, deprived of their advantages, and was due, also, largely to
his attachment to Republican institutions; and his decided conviction
was potential, if not essential, in their preservation. Whilst Governor,
and during the administration of President Van Buren, the Sub-Treasury
scheme and the Standing Army bill, as they were commonly
called, were made party measures; being opposed to them, he warmly
supported General Harrison in the canvass of 1840, and ever after acted
with the Whig party. He was alike opposed to centralization on the
hand, and nullification and secession on the other. Governor Campbell
was succeeded in the office, March 31, 1840, by Thomas Walker
Gilmer, and retired to his home in Abingdon. Soon afterwards the
office of Justice of the Peace being tendered him, he accepted it, and
was diligent in the discharge of its entire duties to the year 1852, when
he retired to private life after having spent nearly a half century in
the public service. In person Governor Campbell was about five feet
eleven inches in height, spare, and erect in carriage, with dark hair

and eyes, an intellectual countenance, and pleasing manners. He was
not gifted as a public speaker. As a writer, his style was simple, terse,
and vigorous.

He was not a member of any religious denomination, but, profoundly
convinced of the truth of the Bible, he believed that the highest and
best manifestation of religion was a life in accordance with its teachings.

For the last two years of his life he was confined by declining health
to his chamber, but gave no evidence of that mental decay which sometimes
attends old age, and his interest in public affairs seemed unabated.
He died, calmly and peacefully, March 19, 1859, in the eightieth year
of his age. A portrait of Governor Campbell is exhibited in the State
Library at Richmond. A nephew, Hon. John A. Campbell, of Abingdon,
Virginia, a distinguished jurist, late Colonel Confederate States
Army, gallantly commanded during our late war the 48th Virginia
Regiment, which he raised and organized. It was incorporated in the
2d Brigade of the Division of General "Stonewall" Jackson, which was
composed of the 21st, 42d, and 48th Virginia Regiments, the Irish
Battalion, and the Battery of Lawrence S. Marge, afterwards Colonel
Marge. The Brigade was for a time commanded by Colonel William
Gilham of the 21st Virginia, then by Colonel Jesse S. Burks of the 42d
Virginia, who, receiving a disabling wound at the battle of Kernstown
in March, 1862, was succeeded by Colonel Campbell, who remained in
command until the month of May, when he also was severely wounded
in front of Winchester, Virginia. Before recovering sufficiently to return
to the army Colonel Campbell was elected Judge of the Sixteenth
Judicial Circuit of Virginia, and at the request of his constituents resigned
his commission in the army. The Campbell family of the common
ancestry of Governor Campbell has been numerously and distinguishedly
represented in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia,
Kentucky, Tennessee, and other States.

THOMAS WALKER GILMER.

The ancestry of Thomas Walker Gilmer was highly worthy. His
paternal great-grandfather, Dr. George Gilmer, a native of Scotland,[23]
and a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, migrated to Virginia
early in the eighteenth century, and settled in Williamsburg, where he

Exterior View, before alteration, of
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA,
Built in 1740.

Interior View, before alteration, of
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA,
Built in 1740.

successfully combined the vocations of physician, surgeon, and druggist
for quite fifty years, dying January 15, 1757, widely loved and
esteemed in the colony. He was three times married: first, to a
daughter of Dr. Ridgway (a medical partner in early life), by whom
he had no issue; secondly, May 13, 1732, to Mary Peachy (died October
1, 1745), daughter of Thomas and Susan (Peachy) Walker, of
King and Queen County, Virginia, and sister of Dr. Thomas Walker,
the patriot and early explorer of Kentucky; thirdly, December 11,
1745, to Harrison (died November 1, 1755), daughter of Dr. Archibald
Blair, of Williamsburg, Virginia, a sister of Hon. John Blair, President
of Virginia Council and Acting Governor of Virginia, and a niece
of Commissary James Blair, President of William and Mary College.
By his second marriage, Dr. George Gilmer had issue four sons:
i. Peachy Ridgway, born March 6, 1737-8, married Mary Meriwether,
settled at "Lethe," Rockingham County (and had issue: 1. Thomas Meriwether,
married Elizabeth Lewis, and removed to Georgia, settling on
Broad River. He was the father of a large family, among them Hon.
George Rockingham Gilmer, member of Congress, Governor of Georgia,
and author of "The Georgians;" ii. George; iii. Mary Peachy;
iv. Elizabeth Thornton, married Major Robert Grattan; v. Lucy;
vi. Frances Walker, married Richard Taliaferro); ii. George, born
January 19, 1742-3, studied medicine with his uncle, Dr. Thomas
Walker, and graduated at Edinburgh, Scotland. The issue of Dr.
George Gilmer by his third marriage was iii. John, born April 26,
1748; an officer under Lafayette in the Revolution, married Mildred
Meriwether, and died, in 1790, at his seat on Broad River, in the
State of Georgia; iv. William, born May 22, 1753, died May 30, 1753.

Dr. George Gilmer, the second of the name, returning to Virginia
after graduating, succeeded to the practice of his father in Williamsburg,
but after a time removed to Albemarle County, where he married
his first cousin Lucy (born May 5, 1751), daughter of Dr. Thomas
Walker by his first marriage with Mildred (nee Thornton), widow of
Nicholas Meriwether. He settled at "Pen Park," and soon attained
a lucrative practice in his profession. The friend and intimate associate
of Thomas Jefferson, he was an ardent patriot from the beginning
to the end of the struggle for Independence. He served Albemarle in
the House of Burgesses, and, as early as 1774, offered a resolution in
that body on the subject of the Crown Lands, which was seconded by
William Henry. He was gifted as an orator, and, when Lord Dunmore
seized the powder of the colony, Dr. Gilmer harangued the
citizens of Albemarle with such eloquence, that a company was immediately
formed to march to Williamsburg to demand redress. Of
this company Charles Lewis was chosen captain, and Dr. George
Gilmer lieutenant. The company marched to Williamsburg, but their
patriotic mission was anticipated by Patrick Henry. In the Convention
of 1775, which met at Williamsburg, Dr. Gilmer was returned

by Albemarle County as the alternate of Thomas Jefferson. His wife
was a worthy mate to such a patriot. During the early days of the
struggle for Independence, the patriots in different sections of the
country found great difficulty in corresponding with each other, and
it became necessary to establish a secret means of intercommunication
by private letter-carriers. Mr. Jefferson, during a visit to his friend
Dr. Gilmer at this period, in conversation with him, deplored the want
of funds to defray the expense of such correspondence. Mrs. Gilmer,
who was present, immediately left the room, and speedily returning
with her personal jewels, of much value, handed them to Mr. Jefferson,
and, with tearful eyes, asked him to use them in the cause of her
country. Nor was she less a heroine than a patriot. When the British
troops, under the command of Tarleton, entered Charlottesville in pursuit
of the Assembly, as has been detailed in a preceding sketch, Mr.
A., a friend of Dr. Gilmer, was a guest of Mrs. Gilmer, her husband
being absent professionally. Mr. A., mounting his horse, attempted to
escape, but was shot down, and carried off by the enemy. Mrs. Gilmer,
learning that he was still alive, determined to succor him; and, accompanied
by a maiden sister only, made her way perilously through the
village, filled with drunken and disorderly troopers, to the presence of
Tarleton himself, on her errand of mercy. He was so filled with admiration
at the courage displayed by Mrs. Gilmer, that he not only delivered
to her the helpless and insensible form of her friend, but sent
his own surgeon to attend him until Dr. Gilmer returned. Mr. A.
happily recovered, to gallantly serve his country, and to bequeath to
his descendants a debt of gratitude to the worthy couple of "Pen Park."

The issue of Dr. George and Lucy (Walker) Gilmer was: i. Francis
Walker, an accomplished scholar and writer, the first professor of
law of the University of Virginia, and who selected in Europe the
remaining six professors with which that institution[24] was organized in
1825; ii. Peachy R.; iii. Mildred, the first wife of the eminent William
Wirt; iv. George, married Eliza, daughter of Captain Christopher Hudson,
a gallant patriot of the Revolution. Of their issue, Thomas Walker,
the subject of this sketch, was born at "Gilmerton," his father's seat,
in Albemarle County, April 6, 1802. He early exhibited studious
habits, and, at the age of fourteen, was sent to live with his uncle,
Mr. Peter Minor, at "Ridgway," for private tuition in his family. The
tutor, a meek and quiet young man, was but a few years older than
young Walker Gilmer, and occupied the same room with him and a
cousin of the same age, William Gilmer. The mischievous boys often
made the mild teacher the victim of their pranks, one of which was to

crawl under his bed after he was asleep and to slowly raise themselves
under him until he would roll out upon the floor. Before he would
recover from his surprise, they would be snoring in their pallet.

The beset pedagogue was at a loss to what to ascribe his nocturnal
visitations, and quite believed himself haunted by evil spirits. He reported
his troubles to Mr. Minor, who immediately suspected the true
offenders, and soon detected them. The following morning the lads
were aroused from their slumbers by an unusual tread upon the stairway,
and soon had reason to tremble at the stern presence of their
uncle Peter, accompanied by a negro man, "Pudding," bearing a plentiful
supply of birchen rods. The order was given to "horse Walker,"
and, in a twinkle, he was hoisted upon "Pudding's" back, and the birch
uplifted over him. Walker begged a parley, and forthwith commenced
an extemporaneous plea of apologies, entreaties, and promises of amendment,
which arrested the impending rod, and finally prevailed upon his
uncle to pardon him. To William, too, who stood by in quaking suspense,
mercy was also extended; and long after, in mature years, when
the reputation of his fellow delinquent was established as an orator, he
would often jocularly recall this early occasion of peril, and say to Gov.
Gilmer that he had heard all his great speeches, but never one so powerful
and impressive as the pathetic effort from the back of "Pudding."

From "Ridgway," young Walker Gilmer was sent to school to Dr.
Frank Carr, an excellent classical scholar, and a gentleman of extensive
learning and much literary taste. The friend and companion of William
Wirt, he is reported to have assisted him in the preparation of
"The Old Bachelor." Here young Gilmer's talents were fitly nurtured.
He was thoroughly grounded in classic lore, and acquired a thirst
for letters which was invaluable to him in his subsequent career. He
remained two years under the care of Dr. Carr, and then continued his
scholastic course under Mr. John Robertson, a Scotchman, of whom it
is said that he "taught more clever men than any other single teacher
ever did in Virginia, and whose classical knowledge was such that he
would often hear a recitation in Homer without reference to the book."
From the school of Mr. Robertson, young Gilmer was sent to that of
a Mr. Stack, in Charlottesville. Whilst here, as a member of a Thespian
Society, he exhibited fine histrionic talents. Young Gilmer completed
his studies in Staunton, the pecuniary embarrassment of his father
bringing them to an abrupt termination. He now entered the office of
his uncle, Peachy R. Gilmer, at Liberty, Bedford County, Virginia, as
a student of law. This gentleman was an eminent lawyer, a fine classical
scholar, and possessed extraordinary conversational powers. Some
of his letters were pronounced, by his friend and brother-in-law, William
Wirt, as "inimitable specimens of epistolary style." Whilst at
Liberty, and, indeed, for some years previously, young Walker Gilmer

was much aided and stimulated in his studies by correspondence with his
uncle, Francis W. Gilmer, then a member of the bar of Winchester,
Virginia. He was a close and assiduous student, and in less than a year
applied for and obtained a license to practice law, and located himself
in Scottsville, Albemarle County, within a few miles of "Mt. Air," the
residence of Captain Hudson, his maternal grandfather; but, tempted
by the wide field offered in the new western country, he removed in a
short time to St. Louis, Missouri. Very flattering prospects of success
dawned upon him in that thriving city, but he was induced to abandon
them and return to Virginia from a desire to aid his father in the management
of his affairs and in the care of a large family. A striking
instance of his magnanimity and generosity at this period is given.
Always a favorite with his grandfather, Mr. Hudson, the latter had
made a will constituting him his sole heir. When Walker Gilmer
heard this, he insisted successfully that Mr. Hudson should alter the
provisions of the will, and divide the estate equally among his brothers
and sisters, after having first secured a competent provision for his
father. In his new field of practice in Charlottesville, and the bar of
Albemarle and the adjacent counties, Mr. Gilmer met with formidable
competition in a host of legal and forensic talent, headed by Philip Pendleton
Barbour, subsequently a Judge of the Supreme Court of the
United States, but competition only inspired greater exertion, and six
years of unflagging devotion to his profession placed him in the front
rank of the Albemarle bar. "As a lawyer, he was distinguished for
acuteness of mind, adroitness in debate, clear perception of the true
issue, skill in the examination of testimony, a fine grasp of the strong
points of his cause, and intuitive detection of the weak ones of his opponents."
He was rather an able and skillful advocate than a profound
jurist; and wielded more power over the sympathies and instincts of the
jury than over the learning of the judge. In the year 1825, the disposition
to amend the Constitution of Virginia began to manifest itself
among the friends of reform in notable signs of a desire for concerted
action. Notices were published for holding a Convention in Staunton,
on the 25th of July, of that year, to consider the best means of effecting
the common object, and meetings were held in many counties to appoint
delegates to this Convention. A meeting of the citizens of Albemarle
in favor of a Convention assembled in Charlottesville, in response to a
call in the Central Gazette. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, the grandson
of Thomas Jefferson, presided; and Thomas W. Gilmer offered a series
of resolutions asserting the right of the people to change the existing
defective Constitution, and recommending the appointment of delegates
from the county to the Convention to be held in Staunton. The resolutions
were adopted, and Thomas Mann Randolph, Valentine Wood
Southall, and Thomas Walker Gilmer appointed delegates. The Convention
met as appointed, and Mr. Gilmer attended. Thirty-eight
counties were represented. Among the delegates were some of the
most prominent men of Virginia, among whom were Charles Fenton
Mercer, Judge John Scott, John R. Cooke, Callohill Minns, Daniel
Sheffey, Lucas P. Thompson, Philip Doddridge, and others of like
reputation and influence. The Convention remained in session for
several days, and finally recommended, by a very large majority:
1. The white basis of representation; 2. The extension of the right
of suffrage; 3. The abolition of the Council of State—a lingering relic
of the earliest form of government of Virginia as a colony; 4. The
adoption of some practical provision for future amendments, and,
5. The adoption of a memorial to the Legislature to submit the question
of a Convention to the vote of the people. Mr. Gilmer took an
active part in the debates, and offered an important amendment to the
resolution of the committee on the extension of suffrage, which was
adopted. The speeches in the body were characterized by the Richmond
Enquirer as being able and eloquent. It is noteworthy that the
third and fourth measures of reform recommended were both rejected
by the State Convention of 1829-30. Benjamin Watkins Leigh, by an
effective speech, killed the former; and, when the Convention were
about to adopt the latter, John Randolph of Roanoke gave it a summary
quietus with a senseless sneer and a demonstration with his skinny
forefinger. While in attendance upon the Staunton Convention, Mr.
Gilmer met with Miss Ann E. Baker, the daughter of Hon. John
Baker, a member of Congress from Virginia. She became his wife in
the month of May following. During the political canvass which resulted
in the election of General Andrew Jackson to his first term as President,
Mr. Gilmer became one of the editors of the Virginia Advocate, a newspaper
published in Charlottesville, and devoted to the success of the
party of General Jackson. He had for several years been a constant
contributor to the Central Gazette, also published in Charlottesville, by C.
P. McKennie, and had acquired some reputation as a writer. His coeditor
of the Advocate was John A. G. Davis, professor of law in the
University of Virginia, a man of rare modesty, brilliant talents, and
profound learning. The Advocate was ably edited, and did good campaign
service. During the editorial career of Mr. Gilmer a controversy
arose between the Virginia Advocate and the Lynchburg Virginian about
the opinion of James Madison on the Bank question, which was carried
on for some time with acrimony, and ended in a personal difficulty
between Mr. Gilmer and Richard H. Toler, the editor of the Virginian.
Mr. Gilmer went to Lynchburg and demanded an apology from Mr.
Toler for some offensive language he had used towards him, and, not
feeling satisfied with the result of the interview, assaulted Mr. Toler.
The parties afterwards became friends, and frequently met in the State
Legislature on the most amicable terms. In the spring of 1829, Mr.
Gilmer was returned by the county of Albemarle to the State House
of Delegates. This period, which witnessed the birth of the great Whig
and Democratic parties, was one of convulsive throe to the Nation;
the political cauldron seethed with mad passions of party spirit. Mr.
Gilmer was placed on the important committee of Courts of Justice, and,
at the end of two weeks, he is recorded as moving to add to the standing
committees one on Revolutionary Claims. It was formed with himself
as chairman. He studied the subject fully, and by active research
established, in his exhaustive report, unsatisfied claims of Virginia on
the Federal Government which had been overlooked or neglected in
former settlements. He moved resolutions of instruction to the Virginia
Senators in Congress in relation to the bounty lands for the Virginia State
and Continental Lines, which drew attention to the matter, and resulted
in an advantageous change of the former provisions in favor of the officers
and men of the Virginia State Line. During the Legislative session an
effort was made to renew the charters of the State banks, though it would
be three years before they expired. This measure was ably and successfully
opposed by Mr. Gilmer. At the spring election of 1830, Mr. Gilmer
received the verdict of approval of his course in a re-election to the House
of Delegates with an increased majority; and when, after the adoption
of the amended constitution, new elections were held, his popularity was
further vindicated by a vote nearly double of that of any other candidate
for local suffrage of his county. When the General Assembly met in
December, 1830, Mr. Gilmer was nominated for Speaker of the House
of Delegates by William M. Rives, of Campbell County, who said in his
nominating speech: "Mr. Gilmer has left the traces of his genius upon
the memory of the members of the last session, and the proofs of his
ability on the journal." The former Speaker, Linn Banks, was, however,
elected. This session of the Legislature was one of the most important
ever convened in Richmond. Upon it devolved the task of remodeling
the Statute Laws in accordance with the amended constitution.
The ablest men in the State had been summoned to this duty in the
House of Delegates. Among them may be named: Benjamin Watkins
Leigh, James Barbour, Richard Morris, Archibald Bryce, Vincent
Witcher, Thomas S. Gholson, William H. Brodnax, George W. Summers,
George C. Dromgoole, and John Thompson Brown. The debates
were marked by great ability, learning, and eloquence. Mr. Gilmer
took an active part in all of the leading questions of the session, and won
laurels from the ablest champions in this brilliant arena. In the winter
of 1830-1, Mr. Gilmer was induced, by the solicitations of his friends, to
undertake the editorial conduction of a political newspaper to be published
at Richmond. He accordingly published a prospectus in the
Enquirer of April 12, 1831, proposing to issue, on the 1st of July, a
newspaper to be called the Times, but the scheme was abandoned in
consequence of his being appointed, by Governor John Floyd, Commissioner
of the State to prosecute the Revolutionary Claims of Virginia
on the United States. Governor Floyd, in his annual message, in speaking
of this appointment, says of Mr. Gilmer: "If zeal, talent, and
assiduity furnish any augury of success, we may confidently indulge
the most pleasing anticipations of it." Mr. Gilmer spent the greater
part of the summer, autumn, and winter of the year 1831 in Washington
City, collecting the materials and preparing the evidence for asserting
the claims of Virginia before Congress, and thus escaped the
excitement, during the legislative session of 1831-2, on the slavery
question. In the spring of 1832 he was again elected a member of the
House of Delegates. Mr. Gilmer was also a delegate from Albemarle
County to the Convention held in Charlottesville, June 12, 1832, to
nominate a candidate for Vice-President on the ticket with General
Jackson, and of which James Barbour was the choice, but the previous
nomination, by the Baltimore Convention, of Martin Van Buren, negatived
their action.

In 1832, Littleton Waller Tazewell having resigned his seat in the
United States Senate, William Cabell Rives, who had just returned
from his mission to France, was nominated by Mr. Gilmer, in the Virginia
Legislature, to fill the vacancy, and was elected without opposition.
Though Mr. Gilmer, by his absence as Commissioner at Washington,
had fortunately escaped the excitement of the discussion of the
slavery question, he had now to bear his part in the fury of the storm
which rose about nullification and appalled the hearts of the stoutest
patriots with the menacing thunders of civil war. On the 10th of December,
1832, General Jackson issued his proclamation, which, together
with the ordinance of nullification and the other proceedings of the Convention
of South Carolina, was made the subject of a special message
to the General Assembly by Governor Floyd. It was referred to a
special committee, of which Mr. Gilmer was a member. General W.
H. Brodnax, the chairman of the committee, reported a series of resolutions
disapproving the ordinance of nullification as passed by South
Carolina, and requesting that State to suspend it until after the adjournment
of Congress; but also condemning in strong terms the heresies of
the proclamation of General Jackson, and reiterating the right of secession
as the proper remedy when all peaceful opposition to unconstitutional
legislation by the Federal Government had failed. An interesting
debate occurred on this report, in which Mr. Gilmer participated in a
speech of great ability. He announced the essence of State Rights to
be the right of a State to judge for itself of infractions of the Constitution,
and of the modes and measures of redress. The crisis was a fearful
one, and Virginia met it nobly. She stood upon the troubled waters
and lulled them into peace—sternly rebuking, on the one hand, the evil
and mad spirit of arbitrary power which produced the proclamation,

REV. MILES SELDEN,

Last Colonial Rector of St. John's Church, in 1773.

From a miniature in the possession of the family.

and, on the other, calming and soothing the excited feelings of her too
intemperate sister. Mr. Leigh was sent to bear a message of counsel
and peace to South Carolina. Henry Clay, on the 12th of February,
offered in the United States Senate his Compromise Bill, which was
adopted; and when the Convention of South Carolina reassembled in
March the ordinance of nullification was repealed.

In the spring of 1833 Mr. Gilmer was again re-elected to the House
of Delegates. When the Assembly met in December the subject of the
removal of the public deposits from the Bank of the United States was
warmly discussed, and resolutions were adopted in the House of Delegates
condemning the course of General Jackson as an arbitrary assumption
of power, and instructing the Virginia Senators to vote for restoring
the deposits to the United States Bank. Senator William C. Rives resigned
his seat rather than obey the instructions, and Benjamin Watkins
Leigh was elected in his place. In the spring of 1835 Mr. Gilmer was
again elected to the House of Delegates. The session of 1835-6 was
perhaps the stormiest ever held in the State. The recently amalgamated
political parties of heterogeneous and diverse elements were in an
embryo state, and every man distrustful of his next neighbor in politics.
The discussions on the recently developed designs of the abolition
party, which was rearing its hydra head, were fierce in the extreme.
The question of the Presidential succession, with all the issues of the
preceding administration involved, was a prolific factor of ferment. A
fire-brand was thrown into the House by the Expunging Resolutions
introduced by Colonel Joseph S. Watkins, of Goochland County. This
measure of party servility was adopted, and Senator John Tyler, as has
been narrated in a preceding sketch, refused to obey the instructions,
and resigned his seat, which was filled by the election of William C.
Rives.

In the Presidential election of 1836 Mr. Gilmer voted for Hugh Lawson
White, of Tennessee, in opposition to Mr. Van Buren. Both Judge
White and General Harrison were voted for by the Whigs of Virginia.
The shattered condition of the health of Mr. Gilmer induced him to
spend the latter part of the winter of 1837-8 in the South, and at the
solicitation of capitalists in Virginia he extended his journey as far as
Texas, as agent for them in the selection of lands. This trip made Mr.
Gilmer cognizant of the resources of the infant republic of Texas, and
enabled him to form a just estimate of its value to the United States,
and he was henceforth an ardent and fast friend of its annexation to
our Union. Whilst in Texas he was appointed by the government as
joint commissioner with Mr. A. G. Burnley, to negotiate a loan of ten
millions of dollars for the State. On receiving the appointment he hastened
by home, on his way to the Northern cities, to effect the loan;
but his negotiations were broken off by the unfavorable turn of the

money affairs of the country, which soon resulted in the suspension of
specie payments by the banks. He was compensated, however, by the
government of Texas, with $5000 in the bonds of the republic, for his
services. Mr. Gilmer was again elected to the House of Delegates of
Virginia in 1838. Whilst engaged in legislative service Mr. Gilmer was
a frequent contributor to the newspaper press, and in 1834 he published
in the Richmond Whig a series of articles on the "Right of Instruction"
and other subjects; and whilst in the North, endeavoring to effect a loan
for Texas, he contributed to the Pennsylvanian some very interesting
articles on the history of the Texan Revolution, which were extensively
copied by the press. In the summer of 1835 he wrote letters weekly
from the watering-places of Virginia to the Whig, in which he graphically
described the scenery of the country and portrayed the characters
and manners of those with whom he was thrown. February 22, 1837,
he delivered an address before the Virginia Historical Society, at its
annual meeting, which was published in the current number of the
Southern Literary Messenger.

When the Legislature met in 1838, Mr. Gilmer was elected Speaker
of the House of Delegates by acclaim, his being the only nomination.
He was re-elected Speaker when the House of Delegates met again, in
December, 1839. February 14, 1840, he was elected Governor of Virginia,
to succeed David Campbell on the expiration of his term on the
31st of March. He entered zealously upon his duties. He was ex offficio
President of the Board of Public Works, and, not being satisfied
with the means of information at the command of the Board, he made
a careful personal examination of nearly all the important public works
of the State. This tour, in the summer of 1840, was at his own private
expense. The information thus obtained enabled him to prepare
a very able and valuable message to the Assembly, lucidly presenting
the public and material interests of the State. He also reopened with
Governor Seward, of New York, a controversy for the surrender of
Peter Johnson, Edward Smith, and Isaac Gransey, charged with slave-stealing
in Virginia, and who were fugitives from justice. Their rendition
was ably demanded. Seward, after a delay of six months, replied,
refusing to surrender the fugitives. The exasperated Assemby of Virginia,
on the 13th of March, 1841, enacted in retaliation a law which
subjected all vessels trading from any port in New York to Virginia to
a search for stolen slaves. It was, however, made prospective, to allow
New York another opportunity to redress the grievance complained of;
and the Governor was authorized to suspend the operation of the law
when the demand of the State should be complied with, and the law
of New York extending the right of trial by jury should be repealed.
On the 16th of March, three days after the passage of the retaliatory
law, a demand was made by Governor Seward on the Executive of
Virginia for the surrender of R. F. Emry, charged with felony in New

York, and arrested in Virginia. Governor Gilmer refused to comply
with the demand until the demand of Virginia for the surrender of the
slave stealers, as above, should have been complied with. Thus was the
issue joined between North and South, but the Legislature of Virginia
receded from its bold position, and failed to sustain Governor Gilmer.
Debate ensued, and modified resolutions were passed and communicated
to the Governor on the 18th instant. On the same day he sent to the
Assembly a message in which he ably vindicated his course, and resigned
his office. The resignation of Governor Gilmer was a complete
surprise to the Legislature. Much heated discussion ensued, and party
spirit ran high. The passions of his opponents led them to extreme
measures. It was proposed to supply his place by a new election, and
the commencement of the gubernatorial term was changed by enactment
to the 1st of January; but the Legislature were unable to agree
to elect a successor, and adjourned, leaving the office of Governor to
be filled successively by the senior Councillor of State for the yearly
term of such precedence, as provided by law. He was thus succeeded
until the 31st of March following by John Mercer Patton.

As soon as the resignation of Governor Gilmer became known he was
solicited to declare himself a candidate for Congress from the Albemarle
district. He accordingly did so, and was elected by a handsome majority,
and took his seat, on the 31st of May, in the Congress which had
been convened by the proclamation of President Harrison, dated the
17th of March.

In the meanwhile, the death of President Harrison, which occurred
on the 4th of April, just one month after his inauguration, had devolved
the Executive office on John Tyler, the Vice-President. There was a
Whig majority in both branches of Congress. John White, of Kentucky,
was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. Mr.
Gilmer entered actively on the work of reform in Congress. He proposed
the entire separation of the political press from the patronage of
the Government, and that the Executive should be required to report
to the Senate his reasons for all removals from office. These were
capital reforms, but failed. Mr. Gilmer labored, too, through the
medium of a special committee, of which he was chairman, for retrenchment.
He served also as a member of the important Standing
Committee of Ways and Means. On the 17th of June he offered a
resolution for the appointment of a committee to examine into the number
of the officers or agents of the Government, modes of transacting
business, and expenditures, to report at the next session if any reduction
in the expenses of the civil list, or in the number of persons employed,
might be effected. The resolution was adopted, and Mr. Gilmer
placed at the head of the committee.

President Harrison, in removing to Washington to assume his office,
had incurred much expense, which had considerably embarrassed his

estate. A proposition to give to his family $25,000, the Presidential
salary for one year, so enlisted the feelings and sympathies of all, that
few men could be found of the opposite party, much less of those who
had voted for him, bold enough to oppose it. Every impulse of Mr.
Gilmer led him to vote for the bill, but they were controlled by his
sense of duty as a Representative. In a brief speech he insisted that
Congress ought not to vote it in their representative capacity out of the
public funds, but privately from their own personal resources. They
had no right to be generous with the money of the people. He also
ably opposed the distribution among the States of the proceeds of the
sales of the public lands. He voted against the United States Bank in
every form in which it was presented. The extra session of Congress
adjourned on the 13th of September, after a session of about one hundred
days. At the regular session, which began on the first Monday
of December, 1841, Mr. Gilmer was transferred from the Committee of
Ways and Means to that of Foreign Relations, of which John Quincy
Adams was chairman. The action of Mr. Adams in presenting, January
24, 1842, a petition from Haverhill, Massachusetts, for an immediate
dissolution of the Union, the debate which resulted from a resolution
to censure him therefor, and the singular conduct of Mr. Adams in the
committee, so disgusted Mr. Gilmer and four other members of it that
they refused to serve any longer on it with Mr. Adams, and they were
excused by the House. In the debate on the general appropriation bill,
Mr. Gilmer, in a speech of great ability, advocated striking out all the
contingent expenses. He zealously supported President Tyler in the
independent course which the latter pursued. Mr. Gilmer was re-elected
to Congress, in 1843, over William L. Goggin, after a warm canvass.
When Congress assembled December 2, 1843, the majority in the House
of Representatives was changed, and was now largely Democratic. John
Winston Jones, of Virginia, was elected Speaker. The Cabinet of President
Tyler having resigned, as detailed in the preceding sketch of his
career, on the 15th of February, 1844, he nominated Mr. Gilmer to the
Senate to be Secretary of the Navy. The nomination was at once unanimously
confirmed. Mr. Gilmer immediately entered upon the discharge
of the duties of his post with the avowed determination to carry into execution
the reforms which he had advocated in Congress, but an All-wise
Providence intervened, and by a most afflicting dispensation removed him
from his sphere of human usefulness. He was, as has been narrated, one
of the victims of the awful catastrophe on the steamer "Princeton" on
the 28th of February, 1844. Thus died Thomas Walker Gilmer, in the
forty-second year of his age, stricken down on the very harvest-field of
his faithful labors, and with the sheaves of gathered honors standing thick
around him. He left issue four sons and two daughters: i. John, died
unmarried; ii. Elizabeth, married Colonel St. George Tucker, Confederate
States Cavalry, soldier, poet, and novelist; iii. Rev. George Hudson,
a minister of the Presbyterian Church; iv. Rev. Thomas Walker,
of the faith of his brother, married Miss Minor; v. James B., a member
of the bar of Texas, married Mrs. Elizabeth Ford; vi. Juliet. An
excellent portrait of Governor Gilmer is in the State Library at Richmond.
A marble slab marks his remains at "Mt. Air," Albemarle
County, Virginia.

JOHN MERCER PATTON.

John Mercer Patton was worthily descended. His father, Robert
Patton, a native of Scotland, emigrated thence to America[25] some time
before the Revolution, landing at Charleston, South Carolina, where he
lived for awhile, but soon removed to Fredericksburg, Virginia, where
he established himself as a merchant. He was very successful, and
acquired a competent fortune. He was a high-spirited man, and in
full sympathy with the struggle of his adopted countrymen for freedom,
as a well-authenticated incident, which has been transmitted, emphatically
evidenced:

Being a non-combatant, he was on terms of social intercourse with the
invading Britons. On one occasion, whilst dining with some officers of
Tarleton's legion, one of them took upon himself to denounce in unmeasured
terms the people he had come to subdue. He was very free in
the use of the terms "rebels," "rebellion," etc., which he finally coupled
with abusive terms with the names of certain officers of the patriot
army. This, Robert Patton (who had been an indignant listener, but
had curbed his feelings) could not allow to go unrebuked. He calmly
but decidedly told the officer that he felt it to be right to inform him
that some of those whom he had just named were his friends. This
warning being disregarded by the officer, Patton threw a glass of wine
in his face. This produced a storm of fury from the insulted officer,
when Patton said the affair must be then and there settled; and going
to the door, locked it and put the key in his pocket. They fought with
pistols across the table, and the officer was killed.

Robert Patton married, October 16, 1792, Ann Gordon, daughter
of the gallant General Hugh Mercer, who fell, mortally wounded, at
the battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777, and who died nine days afterwards,
and is buried in Christ Church, Philadelphia. Robert Patton
died November 3, 1828, and his wife May 12, 1832. They had issue:

• i. Hugh Mercer, born November 22, 1793; died in the autumn of 1844.

• ii. Robert, born September 11, 1795; member of the House of Delegates,
  1821; died September 13, 1830.

• iii. John Mercer, born August 10, 1797; died October 28, 1858; married,
  

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  January 8, 1824, Peggy French (born 1804; died September
  14, 1873), daughter of John Williams,[26] of Culpeper County,
  Virginia.

• iv. Isabella Gordon, born October 21, 1799; died November 3, 1804.

• v. William Fairlie, M. D., Surgeon United States and Confederate
  States Navies, born June 15, 1802; resides with his son-in-law,
  General John R. Cooke,[27] late Confederate States Army, at Richmond,
  Virginia.

• vi. George Weedon, born March 8, 1804; died October 29, 1804.

• vii. Eleanor Ann, born September 13, 1805; married John Chew, of
  Fredericksburg, Virginia, and has issue.

• viii. Margaretta Patton, born November 1, 1807; died July 2, 1852;
  married Hon. John M. Herndon, sometime Secretary of the Commonwealth
  of Virginia, son of Dabney and Elizabeth Herndon,
  and a brother of the gallant Lieutenant William Lewis Herndon,
  United States Navy, who went down with the ill-fated "Central
  America" off the South Atlantic coast; of the late Hon. Charles
  Herndon; of Dr. Dabney Herndon, who died a few years ago at
  his post of duty, during the yellow fever visitation of Mobile, Alabama;
  of Dr. Brodie Herndon, of Savannah, Georgia; of the
  widow of the late Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury; and of
  Miss Mary Herndon, of Fredericksburg, Virginia.

John Mercer Patton, the third son of Robert and Anna Gordon (Mercer)
Patton, as above, was liberally educated, and, adopting the profession of
the law, commenced practice in his native city, Fredericksburg. He
soon attained honorable distinction at the bar, and, embarking in politics,
he was elected to Congress in 1830, and continued to serve in that
body with conspicuous ability until 1838, when he removed to Richmond,
and was elected a member of the Council of State; and as the
senior Councillor, on the resignation, March 18, 1841, of Governor
Thomas Walker Gilmer, succeeded him as Acting Governor of Virginia,
serving as such until the expiration of his yearly term as senior
Councillor, on the 31st of March, when he was succeeded by senior
Councillor John Rutherfoord. In learning and ability the rank of

Mr. Patton was acknowledged as second to none practicing in the
higher courts of Virginia in his day, and which included an array of
legal talent which has been scarcely surpassed at any period or in any
section of the United States. In 1849 he was associated with the late
eminent jurisconsult Conway Robinson in a revision of the Code of
Virginia. Mr. Patton died at Richmond, October 28, 1858, and is
buried in Shockoe Hill Cemetery there. A handsome fluted column of
white marble, emblematically capped with several volumes, marks his
resting-place. The tomb of his wife is near by. They had issue:

i. Robert W., who died in 1877; Hugh, Philip, Lucy Ann, all died
in infancy; ii. John Mercer, a distinguished practitioner of law;
Captain of the Richmond Light Infantry Blues (organized in 1793—
the oldest company in the State), 1852-55 and in 1859-60; Reporter,
with Roscoe B. Heath, of "Cases decided in a Special Court of Appeals,"
and General Index to Gratton's Reports (volumes 2 to 11
inclusive; published at Richmond in two volumes, 8vo, 1856, '57);
Colonel, 1861-2, of the 21st Regiment Virginia Volunteers, and for a
time in command of the 2d Brigade (composed of the 21st, 42d and
48th Virginia Infantry, and the Irish Battalion), Stonewall Jackson's
division; author of several theological works, among them The Death
of Deaths; married Sarah, daughter of Alexander and Mildred C.
(Lindsay) Taylor,[28] and has issue; now resides at Ashland, Virginia;
iii. Isaac W., married Miss Merritt; Colonel of Louisiana Infantry,
severely wounded and made prisoner at the fall of Vicksburg, and
afterwards commanded one of the forts in Mobile Bay to the end of
the late war; iv. George S., married Susan S., daughter of Andrew
and Susan (Thornton) Glassell;[29] Colonel of 22d Virginia Infantry;
wounded twice in previous battles; and then at 2d Manassas; killed
by a shell while commanding a brigade at the battle of Winchester,
in 1864; v. W. Tazewell, Colonel of 7th Virginia Infantry; killed
whilst leading his regiment in the memorable charge of Pickett's
division on the heights of Gettysburg, in 1863; vi. Hugh Mercer,
Lieutenant Confederate States Army; wounded at the second battle
of Manassas; married Miss Bull, of Orange County, Virginia; vii.
James F., Lieutenant Confederate States Army; wounded at the
battle of Cold Harbor; made Judge of Court of Appeals of West Virginia;
married a daughter of Hon. Allen T. Caperton, United States
Senator; died in March, 1882; viii. William M., married Miss Jordan,
of Rockbridge County, Virginia, ix. Eliza W., married John Gilmer,
of Pittsylvania County, Virginia.

RICHARD CHANNING MOORE,

Beloved Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Virginia.

Silhouette cut by Brown of Philadelphia, in 1830

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.

JOHN MUNFORD GREGORY.

The ancestors of John Munford[35] Gregory were early seated in the
Colony of Virginia. The family of Munford is interlinked with many
others of prominence, and that of Gregory has always been held in
esteem. Joseph Gregory received a patent of five hundred acres of
land on Ware Creek (probably in James City County), December 6,
1652 (Virginia Land Records, Book No. 3, p. 136). Early grants are
also of record to Thomas, Roger, and Richard Gregory, severally. The
two last Christian names are favored ones in the family to the present
day. The present deduction, however, commences definitely with John
Gregory, a resident of Charles City County. He was the father of two
gallant patriots of the Revolution, whose names are recorded on the
pension list of Virginia.[36] They were John Gregory, Jr., a man of
family, and William Gregory, Jr., who, in 1776, were commissioned
severally First and Second Lieutenant of a volunteer company raised in
their native county, and which was assigned to the Sixth Virginia Infantry
on Continental establishment. The brothers served gallantly in
the campaigns in the North, both being promoted to the rank of Captain—William
in the staff department, to which he was transferred, and
John as the commandant of his company, at the head of which "he was
killed in action on the Jersey line at a place called Quibbletown."
He left an infant son, John Munford Gregory, who, at maturity, married

Letitia Power, daughter of Ralph Graves, a veteran of the Revolution,
who served in the cavalry corps of Major William Nelson.
Their son, the subject of this sketch, John Munford Gregory, was born
in Charles City County, July 8, 1804. He attended the "old field"
schools until he attained the age of sixteen, after which he alternately
taught school himself and was employed in farm labor. Removing to
James City County, he for a time taught there; and having commenced
the study of law, entered William and Mary College, from which he
was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Law in 1830. He was,
in the same year, elected the delegate from James City County in the
State Assembly, to which body he was continuously returned until 1841,
when he was elected a member of the Council of State, and, as Senior
Councillor by rotation, succeeded John Rutherfoord as Acting Governor
of Virginia, March 31, 1842. He continued the State Executive until
January 1, 1843, when he was succeeded by Governor James McDowell.
In 1853 Governor Gregory was appointed United States Attorney for
the Eastern District of Virginia, which position he held until the year
1860, when he was elected Judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Virginia,
and continued to serve in this capacity until displaced by the Federal
authorities in 1866. He then resumed the practice of his profession,
but was soon elected Commonwealth's Attorney for Charles City County,
in which position he served until the year 1880, when feeble health compelled
his retirement. In 1881 Governor Gregory removed to Williamsburg,
Virginia, where he at present resides, supported, in his declining
years, by the soothing ministrations of an affectionate daughter. Steadfast
in purpose and of sterling integrity, the dignities enjoyed by Governor
Gregory have been the just meed of unostentatious worth. He
instanced his simplicity of character by refusing to occupy the gubernatorial
mansion whilst the Executive of the State upon the ground of
temporary tenure of office. Governor Gregory married Miss Amanda
Wallace, of Petersburg, Virginia. Their issue was: i. William Thomas,
M. D., a popular physician, married Miss Apperson, of New Kent
County; ii. Mary Elizabeth, widow of the lamented and lately deceased
James P. Purcell, a highly esteemed citizen of Richmond, and a member
of the well-known firm of Purcell, Ladd & Co., of that city, wholesale
druggists; iii. John Munford, Judge of the Supreme Court of the
State of California, married a daughter of Rear Admiral Craven, United
States Navy; iv. Letitia Alice, resides with her father in Williamsburg,
Virginia, v. Margaret Carroll, married Richard E. Waddill, a member of
an estimable family of Charles City County; vi. Amanda Wallace, married
Colonel Robert A. Caskie, lately a gallant officer of Confederate
States Cavalry, son of the late John Caskie, Esq., of Richmond, and
now residing in Missouri; vii. Martha Hill, married Robert Galbraith,
of South Carolina.

JAMES McDOWELL.

The honored names of McDowell and Preston, so closely interlinked,
were both represented in the memorable siege of Londonderry, in 1688.
The founder of the distinguished McDowell family of Virginia and
Kentucky. Ephraim McDowell, there battled for the Protestant cause,
with an elder brother, who sealed his devotion with his life. Ephraim
McDowell, who was, it is said, a relative and near neighbor of John
Lewis, the founder of the famous Lewis family of Virginia, emigrated
from Ireland and settled in the province of Pennsylvania some time
prior to the year 1735; but, after a brief residence there, migrated to
Virginia, to the home of his relative John Lewis. His son John
McDowell and wife, who was Magdalene Woods, and whom he married
in Pennsylvania, accompanied him. Father and son settled on the
noted grant of Benjamin Burden, John McDowell becoming the surveyor
of Burden, and securing from him a tract of one thousand acres of land
in what is now Rockbridge County, and upon which he settled, calling
his home "Cherry Grove." He was killed by the Indians, with eight
companions, near Balcony Falls, December 25, 1742. He left issue:

• i. Samuel; Judge; father of the celebrated surgeon Ephraim McDowell,
  M. D., born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, November 11,
  1771; completed his medical studies at Edinburgh, Scotland, settled
  in practice at Danville, Kentucky, in 1795, and for years was
  the leading practitioner in the West; married, in 1802, a daughter
  of General Evan Shelby; successfully performed, in 1809,
  the operation for the extirpation of the ovary—the first on record—and
  acquired a world-wide celebrity; died at Danville, June
  25, 1830. He was recently honored with a statue at Frankfort,
  Kentucky. The descendants of Samuel McDowell are represented
  in the worthy names of Reid, Moore, and others.

• ii. James, married Elizabeth McClung, and, dying in 1770, a posthumous
  son was born the same year—James, Colonel and the
  commandant of a brigade in the war of 1812; married Sarah,
  daughter of William Preston (and granddaughter of the founder
  of the Preston family, John Preston). Their issue was: i. Susan
  S., married William Taylor, of Alexandria, lawyer, and member
  of Congress, and had issue; ii. Elizabeth, married Hon. Thomas
  H. Benton, of Missouri, and had, with other issue, Jessie, married
  General John C. Fremont; iii. James, the subject of this sketch.

• iii. Sarah, married Colonel George Moffett, of Augusta County, distinguished
  in Indian warfare, and in the Revolution, in which he
  fought from the beginning to the close. Their descendants are represented
  in the names of McDowell, Bell, McCue, Hedges, Carson,
  Cochran, Crawford, Kirk, Miller, and others equally estimable.

SCENE IN VIRGINIA.

James McDowell, the subject of this sketch, was born at the family
seat, "Cherry Grove," Rockbridge County, October 11, 1795. He received
elementary tuition successively from the Rev. Wm. McPheeters,
D. D., and Rev. Samuel Brown. The wife of the latter, who was Mary
Moore, was the heroine of a thrilling story of Indian captivity, which
is presented in a little book entitled The Captives of Abb's Valley. James
McDowell later entered Washington College, then attended Yale College
for a year, and completed his education at Princeton College, New
Jersey, from which he was graduated Master of Arts in 1816. He
spoke the Latin salutatory oration on the occasion of his graduation.
Of the class of 1816, Mrs. Miller, the daughter of Governor McDowell,
narrates that the Rev. John Maclean, D. D., so long the able and honored
President of the College, thus pleasantly collocated some of its
members: "There were three Macs in that class, and I tell you, madam,
they were not the meanest fellows in it either. They were McIlvaine
[the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Ohio], McDowell, and [with a significant
smile] Johnny Maclean."

So pleased was Colonel McDowell with the success of his son James
at college that upon his return home he presented him with a valuable
tract of land, some 2,500 acres, in Bourbon County, Kentucky. Young
McDowell now commenced the study of law in the office of the eminent
Chapman Johnson, at Staunton, Virginia, but after having so perfected
his knowledge therein as to be awarded a license to practice, suddenly
relinquished the profession through peculiar conscientious scruples, which
he thus enunciated: "Others may be, but I don't know how I can be
an honest man and a lawyer." In September, 1818, he married his
cousin Susan, daughter of General Francis and Sarah B. (daughter of
General William Campbell, the hero of King's Mountain, who married
the sister of Patrick Henry the orator) Preston. James McDowell now
removed to his plantation in Kentucky, but, after a residence there of
a year or two, returned to Virginia to overlook the interests of his
father, who had been stricken with paralysis, and near whom he took
a farm, in the neighborhood of Lexington. This he made his permanent
home, and here he raised his large family of children. He first
entered public life in 1831, as a member of the House of Delegates
from Rockbridge County.

The summer of that year is memorable in the annals of Virginia as
the period of the negro insurrection in Southampton County, which has
been circumstantially detailed in the preceding sketch of Governor John
Floyd. This tragic outbreak created a panic which pervaded the State
even to its borders. The utmost terror prevailed, and so supplanted
reason that people stood in dread suspense, awaiting supernatural visitations
and terrible calamities. They watched the sun, and from the
spots upon it drew portents of evil; and when night came the darkness

was full of spectres. Labor was interrupted and all occupation disordered
by the measures for safety adopted, which called men from every
occupation by day and night for weeks as patrols. The wide-spread
consternation gradually settled into a belief in the necessity of legislation
regarding the slave population of the State. This subject largely
occupied the deliberations of the session of the Legislature of 1832-3,
and engaged the ablest minds in the body. Mr. McDowell, who had
been again returned to the House of Delegates from Rockbridge County,
took a deep interest in the prolonged discussion, and, in common with
a number of leading Virginians, advocated progressive emancipation.
From this time onward Mr. McDowell was continuously in public life,
in the service of his State and in the National Council. An exalted
patriotism governed all of his actions, for though decided and conscientious
in his party sentiments and adherences, he had no sympathy with
the popular catch-word "Our party, right or wrong." Our country, not
our party, was the paramount consideration with him. He belonged to
the Democratic school of politics—an affiliation which, it appears, some
of his compatriots of the period could not appreciate. One of them, the
late Henry A. Wise, then an uncompromising Whig, expressed his "wonder
that such a gentleman as Mr. McDowell should be a Democrat." Yet
Mr. Wise soon solved the paradox satisfactorily to himself, it may be inferred,
since his asseverations as a Democrat, a few years later, were as
enthusiastic as they had been as a Whig.

In 1838 Mr. McDowell delivered before the Alumni Association of
Princeton College an earnest and eloquent address which for years was
spoken of in the strongest terms of admiration. So enduring was the
impression made by this address that the committee of trustees of the
College having in charge the arrangements for the one hundredth anniversary
of the foundation of the College—celebrated in June, 1847—
selected James McDowell for the orator on that occasion. But his engagements,
public and private, debarred his acceptance of the invitation.

In December, 1842, Mr. McDowell was elected, by the Legislature,
Governor of Virginia, and on the 1st of January following entered upon
the duties of the office, succeeding Acting Governor John Munford Gregory.
Governor McDowell was an earnest Christian and a consistent
member of the Presbyterian Church. He was also a steadfast advocate
of the cause of temperance, and, in accordance with his convictions of
duty, excluded both wine and dancing from his private and official entertainments.
Old School Presbyterianism and total abstinence held
sway at the gubernatorial mansion during his term. An expressive bon-mot
of the late and lamented Colonel Thomas P. August, a prominent
lawyer of Richmond, of infinite wit, who attended one of the entertainments
of Governor McDowell, has been treasured by his friends. Taking
a glass of lemonade, Colonel August, with a significant application of
his hand to his chest, offered as a toast: "Governor McDowell's two

Aids—lemon-ade and promen-ade." Before the close of his term of
three years as the Executive of Virginia, Governor McDowell was
elected to a seat in the United States House of Representatives, made
vacant by the death of his brother-in-law, William Taylor. He served
in Congress with conspicuous ability until 1851, and would doubtless
have been returned again but that death intervened before the day
of election. He died at Lexington, August 24, 1851, in the fifty-sixth
year of his age. His wife had preceded him to the grave. They left
issue nine children—two sons and seven daughters—as follows:

• i. James, a physician, married Miss Elizabeth Brant, of St. Louis,
  Missouri, and has issue.

• ii. Sally C. P., married, first, Hon. Francis Thomas, Governor of
  Maryland, and secondly, Rev. John Miller, now of Princeton,
  New Jersey. She has issue by the second marriage.

• iii. Mary B., married Rev. Mr. Ross, of Bladensburg, Maryland.

• iv. Frances Elizabeth, died unmarried.

• v. Sophonisba, married Professor James W. Massie, of the Virginia
  Military Institute, late Colonel Confederate States Army (now
  deceased), and has issue.

• vi. Susan P., married Major Charles S. Carrington, a prominent
  lawyer of Richmond, Virginia.

• vii. Margaret Canty, married Professor Charles S. Venable, LL.D.,
  of Virginia, and late Colonel Confederate States Army, on the
  staff of General R. E. Lee. Has issue.

• viii. Thomas L., married Miss Constance Warwick, of Powhatan
  County, Virginia. He died in the Confederate States Army
  service, leaving issue one child.

• ix. Eliza, married Bernard L. Wolfe, Major Confederate States
  Army, and has issue.

As a speaker, Governor McDowell was eloquent and effective. In
Congress he acquired influence and reputation by the gravity of his
demeanor and the moderation of his course, and particularly by his wise
and cordial support of all measures tending to strengthen the bonds of
National Union. His most memorable effort in Congress was his speech
on the admission of California as one of the United States, which is said
to have produced an impression equal to any other ever delivered in that
body.

WILLIAM SMITH.

To the distinguished representation of the name of Smith in the annals
of Virginia some reference has been made in a preceding sketch
in this serial. Doubtless the paternal ancestor of the subject of this
biography was seated in the colony early in the seventeenth century,
but it is proposed to deduce first his descent maternally, which is more

definitely preserved. Alexander Doniphan,[37] a native of Spain, whose
name was thus Anglicized, a Protestant, migrated to England for religious
freedom, and thence to Virginia, where he married, some time
before the year 1662, an heiress, Margaret, daughter of George Mott,
a native of Scotland, and thus came into possession of a large landed
estate, of nearly 18,000 acres, located in the Northern Neck. He settled
in that part which was subsequently erected into King George
County, and died in 1716, leaving issue three sons and three daughters,
as follows Alexander (the ancestor of the distinguished and venerable
General A. W. Doniphan, United States Army), Mott, Margaret,
Elizabeth, Anne, and Robert. The second son, Alexander Doniphan,
married twice—first, Mary Waugh, and, secondly, Catharine Dobbins.
Of his issue by the first marriage was a daughter, Elizabeth, born April
12, 1744; died January 15, 1809; married, in 1773, William Smith, son
of Joseph and Kitty (Anderson) Smith,[38] born February 5, 1741;
died January 22, 1803. Of their issue of four daughters and three sons,
the eldest, Mary Waugh, born January 1, 1775; died September 15,
1811; married, December 18, 1794, Caleb, (son of Thomas) Smith,
born in 1761, and died in November, 1814. They had issue:

• i. Eliza, born September 25, 1795; died August 14, 1797.

• ii. William, the subject of this sketch, born September 6, 1797.

• iii. Thomas, born November 15, 1799; married Ann Maria Goodwin,
  of Caroline County, died April 4, 1847. He studied law with
  his brother William, and practiced for a time, but later entered
  the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church. By his unwearying
  exertions he caused the erection of the handsome Gothic
  church in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Had issue six sons and
  four daughters. Of the former, Thomas G., who is married,
  resides with his family in Parkersburg. Another son, Caleb,
  was reading law when the war with Mexico broke out. He enlisted,
  served with distinction, and was made a Lieutenant of
  the United States Artillery. In 1861 he joined the 49th Virginia
  Regiment, was made Major, and wounded and permanently
  disabled in the first battle of Manassas; died December 22, 1874.

• iv. Mary Frances, born January 9, 1802, married, December 14, 1820,
  Professor Alexander Keech, President of Potomac Academy,
  Virginia, who was offered by Mr. Jefferson a professorship in
  the University of Virginia.

---

210





• v. Catharine Elizabeth, born April 10, 1804; married, December 7,
  1826, John A Blackford, and died December 4, 1844.

• vi. Martha, born July 24, 1806; married William Bell (died July 1,
  1879), brother of the wife of Governor Smith.

• vii. James Madison, born March 15, 1808; married, first, Mary Bell;
  secondly, May 22, 1845, his cousin, Martha Smith Boutwell;
  died December 15, 1853, at Donna Anna, New Mexico, on his
  way to take charge of an Indian Agency, to which he had been
  appointed by President Pierce.

• viii. Anna Maria, born December 3, 1809; married, January 17, 1833,
  Rev. Richard Johnson of South Carolina, of the Episcopal
  Church, who was attached to Hampton's Legion during the
  late civil war, and gained by his gallantry the sobriquet of
  "The Fighting Parson." He died February 7, 1872. Two
  sons only, living respectively in South Carolina and Georgia,
  survive of their issue.

William Smith, the subject of this sketch, entered, at the age of seven
years, the old field schools of his native county, King George, and some
years later received tuition in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he resided
in the family of Judge John Williams Green. In 1811 he was sent to
Plainfield, Connecticut, to continue his studies at the academy of Jabez
W. Huntington, subsequently United States Senator. Here he made
considerable progress in the study of Latin and Greek; but the war
with Great Britain breaking out in June, 1812, young William caught
the patriotic fire of the period, and wished to enter the naval service.
Having written his father to procure him a midshipman's appointment,
the latter deemed it prudent to recall his ardent son home. He now for
a time enjoyed private tuition; but, upon the death of his father in
November, 1814, he was sent to the classical school of Rev. Thomas
Nelson, at "Wingfield," Hanover County. Mr. Nelson was a highly
successful teacher for a long series of years, and many of his pupils distinguished
themselves in science and in legislation. Young Smith continued
with Mr. Nelson until the age of eighteen, when he entered upon
the study of law, first with Green and Williams at Fredericksburg, then
with T. L. Moore in Warrenton, and finally for a brief period in the
office of General William H. Winder, in Baltimore, Maryland. Having

passed an examination by Judges Hugh Holmes, Robert White, and
John W. Green, he was licensed to practice law, and qualified in the
Court of Culpeper County, in August, 1819. His talents, energy, and
fidelity speedily gained him success in his profession. An ardent Democrat
in politics, the ability of Mr. Smith was soon extendedly in request by
his party. He responded cheerfully to its calls, though at personal sacrifice,
and persistently declined all political preferment for a long period.
In 1836, when in his thirty-ninth year, he consented to become a candidate
for the State Senate, to which he was elected, and served through
the term of four years. He was re-elected to this body, but resigned
after serving one session. In the Presidential campaign of 1840 Mr.
Smith effectively canvassed the State in the interest of his party, and
greatly enhanced his reputation as a public speaker.

Early in the career of Mr. Smith as a lawyer he had been impressed
with the illy-provided mail service of Culpeper County, and determined
to improve such facilities. In 1827 he obtained a contract for carrying
the mails twice a week from Fairfax Court House to Warrenton, and
thence to Culpeper Court House. He renewed this contract in 1831.
With this small beginning he in four years built up a daily four-horse
post-coach line from Washington City to Milledgeville, Georgia. In
1834 a violent attack was made upon the administration of the Post-office
Department, W. T. Barry being then Postmaster-General. In
the rapid development of the postal facilities of the Southern country
the expenditures of the Department were largely increased. In the
Blue Book, or official register of the United States Government, the
salaries or compensation of its officers or contractors appear in connection
with the names; and, in the case of the contractors, compensation
for instances of additional service ordered to be performed is indicated
by an asterisk. Every extra allowance beyond the stipulations of
the original contract was thus designated. As the route of Mr. Smith
was one of rapid development his entries of service were abundantly
thus marked. The circumstance was noted in debate by Senator Benjamin
Watkins Leigh, from Virginia, who, without calling the name of
Mr. Smith, yet affixed upon him the life-long sobriquet of "Extra
Billy." Mr. Smith obtained, January 1, 1835, the mail contract by
steamboat and coach-line between Washington and Richmond. The
previous contractors, Messrs. Edmond, Davenport & Co., of the latter
place, started a passenger line in opposition, and for a few months there
was a lively competition, which is transmitted in traditions of free passage,
and finally of the additional gratuitous inducement of a bottle of
wine. It was ended by the transfer, for a consideration, of the contract
to the former contractors. During this contest, in the month of
March, Mr. Smith was seized, in Fredericksburg, Virginia, with a
violent attack of inflammatory rheumatism, which confined him to his
bed, incapable of movement without assistance. Early in March, whilst
still prostrated, and at a time when the ground was covered with snow,

intelligence was brought him that three of his coaches had been overturned
in Potomac Run, which was very much swollen in volume.
Under the stimulant of strong excitement he demanded that he should
be taken from bed, dressed, and placed upon his riding horse, and would
take no denial. This was, with difficulty and much pain to himself, accomplished.
Urging his horse to full speed he speedily reached the
run, plunged into the foaming flood, and ordered the drivers to his
assistance. Reaching the coaches, singularly enough, he found that the
excitement had freed him from the rheumatism. Dismounting into the
water, his active example soon righted the trouble, and the coaches resumed
their route. The rheumatism was dispelled, not to return again.
The resolution of Mr. Smith was strikingly exhibited on another occasion.
Being deprived unexpectedly of the services of the captain and
pilot of a steamboat which he ran between Baltimore and Norfolk, he
undauntedly took command of the boat and charge of the wheel himself,
and successfully made the hazardous trip. Such energetic purpose
merited the fullest pecuniary success, but it was unfortunately otherwise.
The attention of Mr. Smith being divided between politics, his
profession, and his contracts, subjected him to the peculation of his
agents, and financial disaster was the result. In 1841 Mr. Smith was
elected to Congress over the Hon. Linn Banks, and served in that body
until 1843. In December, 1845, he was elected Governor of Virginia
for the term of three years, succeeding James McDowell, January 1,
1846. During his term he was an unsuccessful candidate for the United
States Senate. In 1850 Governor Smith determined to go to California,
where two of his sons were residing. He arrived in San Francisco in
May, and engaged in the practice of his profession with much success.
His first considerable fee was $3,000 for the examination into the celebrated
Suter title. California was admitted into the Union September 9,
1850.

Governor Smith was returned by San Francisco as its delegate to the
Constitutional Convention which met at Benicia in the autumn of 1850,
and was unanimously elected the permanent President of the body. In
the State Assembly, which convened soon after, Governor Smith was
nominated for United States Senator, but was not elected. When, on
the 1st of December, 1852, Governor Smith determined to return to
Virginia, such had been his success from his practice that he left in San
Francisco property acquired therefrom which yielded him an annual
rental of $18,000. Upon reaching Virginia, Governor Smith found the
people of the State much agitated about a redivision into Congressional
Districts, rendered necessary by the Census of 1850. Upon the Legislature,
then in session, devolved this duty. Under the new apportionment
Governor Smith was elected to Congress in May, 1853, and served
in this body by successive re-election until March 4, 1861. Returning
home, he was prostrated by sickness, and confined to his room for two

BLANDFORD CHURCH.

months. In the meanwhile the initial movement of our recent lamentable
civil war had been instituted. Governor Smith, feeling that the
struggle on the part of the South "would need the employment of every
element of its strength" in the contest, was impelled by a sense of duty
to enter the army, though in the sixty-fourth year of his age, and "wholly
ignorant of drill and tactics." He therefore offered his services to Governor
Letcher, and was promptly commissioned as Colonel and assigned
to the command of the 49th Regiment of Virginia Infantry, then being
organized, and containing only three companies, with which it inaugurated
its subsequent long and brilliant career by a gallant participation
in the first battle of Manassas. Its first commander thus warmly testifies
to its valorous worth: "I will say that, in the numerous bloody
fights in which it was engaged, it never broke in battle or gave me the
slightest uneasiness or concern as to its conduct." During the summer
and autumn it remained in camp at Manassas, completing its organization
and being perfected in drill. During this period Colonel Smith, at
the solicitations of his friends, announced himself as a candidate for the
Confederate States Congress, and was elected. He attended this body
when it convened at Richmond in February, 1862, leaving his regiment
in the command of the Lieutenant-Colonel. Upon the adjournment of
Congress, on April 16th, he rejoined his command. At the reorganization
of the regiment, May 1st, he was elected its Colonel, upon which
he resigned his seat in Congress. He participated with his command in
the operations on the Peninsula, about Yorktown, and in those later
near Richmond. In the battle of the Seven Pines the loss of the regiment
was fifty-five per cent. of its number. Of its service here Colonel
Smith narrates: "Anderson's brigade, of which my regiment was a part,
was ordered to keep on the left of the Williamsburg road, and `To the
front, forward march' was the only order I received during the fight of
some hours. In obeying this order we had to encounter a formidable
abattis, consisting of heavy felled timber, in which was also a
row of rifle pits, and also, on the Williamsburg road, a formidable
earth-work—the whole occupied by an enemy whom we could
not see until we came into the closest proximity. It was on this occasion,
upon the complaint of my men that they could not see the foe, that
I gave the order to `flush the game,' which excited so much humorous
newspaper comment." Colonel Smith effectively participated in the battle
of Sharpsburg, Maryland, on the 17th of September, 1862, the 49th
Virginia constituting the right of the line in that memorable engagement.
Colonel Smith was here severely wounded. One of his wounds,
through the shoulder, it was feared would prove fatal. Before his wounds
were healed he returned to the field, in April, 1863, having been promoted
to the rank of Brigadier-General, and took command of the 4th
Brigade, then lying at Hamilton's Crossing, near Fredericksburg, Va.

He now announced himself as a candidate for Governor of Virginia,
and was elected to this office by a large majority in May. Early in August,
1863, he was promoted to the rank of Major-General. He entered upon
his duties as Governor, January 1, 1864. He found that local defence
was greatly needed, from the frequent raids with which the capital was
menaced by the enemy. He accordingly organized two regiments for this
purpose from those who by reason of disability, as foreigners or contractors,
or by age or non-age, were exempt from duty in the regular service.
To each of these regiments was attached a company of cavalry. When
called to the defence of the city lines, Governor Smith always assumed
command of them, and the service thus rendered was in several exigencies
highly important. Another great want in the State was supplies
of every description—food for man and beast. Towards this provision
Governor Smith assumed the authority to employ as a purchasing fund
the sum of $110,000, which he drew in part from the State contingent
fund, and borrowed the remainder from the State banks. He commissioned
agents, some of whom were supplied with cotton with which to
secure through the blockade such supplies as could only be obtained
from abroad; others procured from the South corn, rice, and other needful
supplies. The measure was signally successful, and profitable to the
State, as an advance of ten per cent. upon the cost was charged to cover
transportation and contingent expenses, whilst the public was protected
from speculative extortion. It greatly assisted the Confederate Commissariat
in times of need, and upon the conclusion of the war the Confederacy
was indebted to the State in the sum of $300,000 for such
supplies.

Upon the evacuation of Richmond, April 3, 1865, Governor Smith
determined to remove the seat of government to Lynchburg. General
Lee surrendering to General Grant three days after his arrival in that
city, he determined to remove the State Government to Danville,
Virginia, but here, again, rapidly maturing events frustrated
his hopes. Returning home, he surrendered himself to the
dominant Federal authorities, and received his parole. In the meantime,
however, a reward of $25,000 had been offered for his apprehension,
and it is a gratifying commentary upon the Virginia people that
no one had thought of securing it by discovering him.

Governor Smith, since the war, has resided in Warrenton, Virginia,
devoted to agricultural pursuits. He married, in 1811, Miss Bell,
with whom he blissfully lived for the long period of fifty-eight years, being
bereaved of his excellent companion January 7, 1879. They had issue:

• i. William Henry, born 1822; entered the United States Navy as a
  midshipman; obtaining leave of absence, in 1850, entered into
  a private maritime enterprise, and was lost at sea in that year
  somewhere off the Sandwich Islands.

---

216





• ii. James Caleb, was licensed a lawyer, and, removing to California,
  was appointed a Judge of the Superior Court of San Francisco;
  member of the California Assembly; became a member of a
  great land company in Central America, was elected its president,
  and died at New Grenada of fever.

• iii. Mary Amelia, born in 1827; unmarried, and resides with her
  father.

• iv. Austin E., born 1829; in February, 1853, removed to San Francisco,
  California; appointed by President Buchanan naval officer
  of that port; resigned in 1861, and, going to Washington to settle
  his accounts, was held as a prisoner of war; finally exchanged,
  he entered the Confederate States Army as an Aid on the staff
  of General Whiting; died from the effects of a wound received
  at the battle of Gaines' Mill.

• v. Ellen, vi. Catherine, and vii. John, all died in infancy.

• viii. Thomas, born 1838; graduated A. M. from William and Mary College;
  after attending a law course of two years at the University
  of Virginia, settled in Charlestown, West Virginia; served as a
  volunteer in the suppression of the John Brown raid; appointed,
  in 1861, Major of the 36th Virginia Regiment; commanded it at
  Fort Donelson; captured a battery of the enemy under special
  orders, armed his regiment with superior arms from the field,
  and successfully retreated; promoted to the rank of Colonel, and
  gallantly commanded his brigade to the close of the war. Since
  has served as Judge of Fauquier County, and at present efficiently
  represents it in the State House of Delegates.

• ix. P. Bell, born 1839; graduated A. M., William and Mary College,
  and A. B., University of Virginia. In 1859 commenced the practice
  of law at Warrenton, Virginia. Having lost an arm by accident
  in youth, he was disabled from service in the Confederate
  Army; served in 1864 as Governor's Aid to his father. Accidentally
  killed himself October 13, 1865.

• x. Littleton Moore, born 1840; died March 10, 1849.

• xi. Frederick Waugh, born 1843; volunteer in the 49th Virginia Regiment;
  wounded at the battle of Fredericksburg; appointed
  Sergeant-Major; later served on the staff of his father, and subsequently
  joined the command of Colonel John S. Mosby, in
  which he continued to the close of the late war. Is married,
  and now living in Arizona Territory.

Governor Smith retains in a remarkable degree his entire faculties,
mental and physical. His erect and alert carriage misleads one as to
his age. He is still a most effective speaker, as his present earnest
advocacy in public of the cause of temperance fully evidences. There
is a fine portrait of him in the State Library at Richmond.

JOHN BUCHANAN FLOYD.

The worthy descent of the subject of the present sketch has been quite
fully presented in preceding biographies in this serial. John Buchanan
Floyd, the eldest son of Governor John and Lætitia (Preston) Floyd,
was born at Smithfield, Montgomery (now Pulaski) County, June 1,
1806. After a course of private tuition, he entered the College of South
Carolina, from which he was graduated in 1826. Having studied law,
he was admitted to the bar in 1828, and commenced practice in his
native county. In 1836 he removed to Helena, Arkansas, where he
continued to reside for three years in the successful practice of his
profession. In 1839 he returned to Virginia, settling in Washington
County. He had from the outset of his career taken a deep interest
in politics, and rendered efficient service to the party of which he was
an enthusiastic follower—the Democratic—as a public speaker. In
1847 he was returned by Washington County to the State House of
Delegates, and, whilst still a member of the Assembly, was elected by
it Governor of Virginia, succeeding Governor William Smith, January
1, 1849. It is of interest to note that the noble work of art, the Washington
Monument, which graces the public square at Richmond, was
authorized and commenced during the term of Governor Floyd. It
was erected in accordance with the act of Assembly passed February
22, 1849. A premium of $500, offered for the best design, was awarded
Thomas Crawford, of Rome, for the model submitted by him, and which
was selected. The ceremony of laying the corner-stone took place on
the 22d of February, 1850, in the presence of a large concourse of
people. Zachary Taylor, President of the United States, and many
prominent dignitaries were in attendance by the invitation of the General
Assembly. On the 27th of June articles of agreement were entered
into with Crawford, stipulating that the equestrian group (in
bronze) should be fifteen English feet from the upper surface of the
platform to the top of the chapeau, and that the surrounding six statues
should be ten feet in height. On the 10th of October, 1857, Crawford
died in London, after completing models of all the statuary, except
Lewis and Mason, and the "trophies." A contract was then made
with Randolph Rogers, of New York, for the completion of the work,
and the statues were cast at the Royal Foundry at Munich. The equestrian
statue arrived in Richmond in November, 1857, and was drawn
through the streets of the city, from the river landing to the square,
by the citizens themselves on the 24th of the month. It was erected
with the statues of Henry and Jefferson, and unveiled on the 22d of
February, 1858, with appropriate ceremonies, General Winfield Scott
and others of distinction being present. The statue of Mason was received
and erected early in 1860, and, the civil war coming on soon

after, the monument remained in statu quo until 1867, when the statues
of Marshall, Lewis, and Nelson were received. The allegorical figures
were all received in 1868, and with their erection the monument was
completed. The following indicates the disposition of the statuary and
the inscriptions on the shields of the allegorical figures:

                       

Finance, opposite Thomas Nelson, Jr.,	Yorktown,
	Saratoga.
Colonial Times, opposite Andrew Lewis,	Point Pleasant,
	Valley Forge.
Justice, opposite John Marshall,	Great Bridge,
	Stony Point.
Revolution, opposite Patrick Henry,	Eutaw Springs,
	Trenton.
Independence, opposite Thomas Jefferson,	King's Mountain,
	Princeton.
Bill of Rights, opposite George Mason,	Guilford C. H.,
	Bunker Hill.

The total cost of the monument was $259,913.26, of which, from donations
and the interest thereon, was realized $47,212.67. A faithful
representation of the monument and its interesting surroundings, from
a special photograph, is presented in this work.

Upon the expiration of the term of Governor Floyd he was succeeded,
January 1, 1853, by Governor Joseph Johnson. In 1855 Governor
Floyd was again returned to the House of Delegates by Washington
County. In 1856 he served as Presidential Elector, and voted for James
Buchanan, for whose nomination he had warmly exerted himself in the
Democratic National Convention, and in whose favor, during the Presidential
canvass, he had made many effective speeches in different parts
of the country. In March, 1857, Governor Floyd was appointed by
President Buchanan Secretary of War. His administration of the War
Department was energetic, and it is claimed by his friends that his
measures were actuated by a desire for its greater efficiency. The hostility
of the Indian tribes in the West requiring the presence of troops,
they were ordered thither by Governor Floyd. This measure and the
distribution of arms among the fortifications of the Southern ports, subjected
him to sectional animadversion when the great civil war was
unhappily inaugurated. When Major Robert Anderson moved his garrison
from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, December 20, 1860, and
President Buchanan refused to withdraw the United States troops from
Charleston harbor, Floyd resigned, and retired from Washington to
Virginia, and was an earnest advocate for secession by the Southern
States. He was appointed, May 23, 1861, a Brigadier-General in the
Confederate States Army, and commanded with Generals Henningsen
and Wise in Western Virginia. The operations of General Floyd for
a time were marked with considerable success, but on the 10th of September,
from an unfortunate want of concert between himself and General

Wise, the forces under their respective commands were divided by
the Gauley River, a deep and rapid stream. The force of General
Floyd lay near Carnifax Ferry. Here General Rosecrans, by a rapid
march of sixteen miles, threw a largely superior force upon Floyd, attacking
him vigorously. Night put an end to the struggle, when Floyd
withdrew in the darkness. The Federal loss was 225, whilst the casualty
of the Confederates was only twenty men wounded. New differences
developing themselves between Generals Wise and Floyd, disturbed their
unity of action and rendered their commands ineffective. Floyd lingered
for awhile in the mountains, had some desultory engagements with the
enemy, subsequently retired to Southwestern Virginia, and from there
was transferred by the Confederate Government to the department of
Tennessee and Kentucky. He was in chief command of Fort Donelson
when it was besieged by General Grant. The Confederate authorities
being dilatory in measures of sustenance recommended by General
Floyd, and further defence of the post being impossible, Generals Floyd
and Pillow, declining to surrender themselves as prisoners, turned the
command over to General Buckner, and with about 3,000 men of the
garrison retreated on the night of the 15th of February into Tennessee.
The fort was surrendered by General Buckner the next day, February
16, 1862. Its fall was a serious blow to the Confederacy, and the retreat
of General Floyd was severely criticised. He never again held
a command in the Southern army, but the Legislature of Virginia,
indignant at the treatment he had received, conferred on him the
commission of Major-General, and directed him to recruit and organize
a division of troops from among the classes not embraced in the
Conscription of the Southern Confederacy. These classes were so restricted
that the task was not easily performed. By the autumn of
1862, however, General Floyd had succeeded in raising a force of nearly
2000 men, with which he moved into the country embracing the headwaters
of the Big Sandy River, where he several times surprised the troops
of the enemy in that section, and captured and destroyed their depots
of supplies. The exposure to which he was subjected in this incessantly
active service seriously affected his health, and he was ultimately obliged
to return home, to be prostrated upon what was destined to be his deathbed.
His disease finally assumed the form of cancer, or, more definitely,
schirrhus of the stomach,—which, it will be recollected, caused the death
of Napoleon I. He died August 26, 1863, at Abingdon, Virginia.

General Floyd married in early life his cousin Sarah Buchanan,
daughter of General Francis Preston, but had no issue. He was of
commanding physique, and possessed oratorical powers of a high order.
There is an excellent portrait of Governor Floyd in the State Library
at Richmond.

JOSEPH JOHNSON.

The honored career of Joseph Johnson was the just result of intrinsic
merit and resolution of character. No factitious advantages of birth or
education attended him. He was born December 19, 1785, in Orange
County, New York, and was the second son of Joseph and Abigail
(Wright) Johnson. His parents were poor, but their virtues commanded
esteem. His father had been a soldier in the war for Independence.
Joseph was but five years of age when his father died, leaving
a widow with five children. The family moved to Sussex County,
New Jersey, in 1791, Joseph then being six years old. They resided
there until 1801, when the mother, with a married daughter and son-in-law,
and her two little sons, moved to Harrison County, Virginia.
Joseph was then fifteen years of age, and was the chief stay and protection
of his mother and younger brother. He, of his own volition, soon
formed an engagement to live with a respectable farmer in the neighborhood
named Smith, and whose health was delicate. This proved to be
an auspicious business contract. Joseph soon won the regard of Mr.
Smith, became his chief manager, and lived with him until his death.
He subsequently, before attaining his majority, married the daughter of
his late friend and employer. This was a mutually fortunate and happy
union. Mrs. Johnson was noted for her gentle and amiable character.
She lived and died an earnest Christian, without an enemy, and beloved
by all who knew her. Four years after his marriage Joseph Johnson purchased
the interests of the remaining heirs in the farm of his wife's father,
and it continued his home through life. It adjoins the village of Bridgeport,
a depot on the Parkersburg branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
Harrison County is now in the new State of West Virginia, carved
from the old mother. At the time of Mr. Johnson's marriage, that portion
of Virginia was almost covered with primeval forest, educational
facilities were limited, and, as the time of Joseph Johnson by day was
fully occupied, the simple rudimental knowledge which he acquired was
the result of study by night, and later in odd moments. His application
was continuous, extending into manhood, and he was thus truly, so far
as his knowledge extended, a self-educated man. The demand upon his
time as a farmer continued exacting. As a means of improvement he
originated a debating society, which met at night in the village near him,
and subsequently became famed for the ability of its members, many of
whom were honored with public station. Here the talents of young
Johnson attracted attention. His analytical and logical powers of mind,
and skill as an orator were rapidly developed and acknowledged. In
the discussions pending the last war with England, Johnson at once
took position with the Republican party, as the advocates of war were
then called. As the Captain of a rifle company of militia he was first
brought into public view. When the Atlantic sea-board was threatened,
in 1814, he called them together, and by a stirring speech influenced

ARMORIAL BOOK-PLATE

Of the eccentric "John Randolph of Roanoke."

them to a unanimous tender of their services to the General Government.
They were promptly accepted, and the company marched to
Norfolk. There, in the front, Captain Johnson continued in the service
until peace was announced in the following year, when with a small
remnant of his company he returned home.

Now commenced the long and useful political career for which his
talents, decision of character, and unsullied integrity so eminently fitted
him. In 1818 he was elected to the House of Delegates, defeating the
noted old public servant, John Prunty. In 1822 Mr. Johnson was
again elected to the House of Delegates, but declined a re-election on
the expiration of his term. In 1823 the Hon. Edward B. Jackson, of
Harrison County, declined a re-election to Congress, and persuaded Mr.
Johnson to offer himself as a candidate for that body. He did so. The
opposing candidates were Edwin S. Duncan, afterwards a Judge of the
General Court of Virginia, Colonel Thomas S. Haymond, and the celebrated
Philip Doddridge. After a meeting of the candidates in the city
of Wheeling, the first two withdrew from the canvass, leaving as competitors
Doddridge and Johnson. Doddridge was the senior of Johnson,
an eminent lawyer, a forcible and eloquent speaker, and in ability compared
favorably with any public man of the period. Yet, after a
heated and exciting contest, Johnson triumphed. He took his seat in
the eighteenth Congress in December, 1823. Henry Clay was made
Speaker of the House, and there was then convened in the two branches
of Congress the most imposing array of intellect that has ever graced
the National halls. It was during this session that the election of President
of the United States devolved on Congress. In this memorable
contest Mr. Johnson voted alone for Andrew Jackson from first to last.
In 1825 he was re-elected to Congress over Philip Doddridge in a
spirited contest. In the spring of 1827 Mr. Johnson returned to
private pursuits, and was succeeded in Congress by Isaac Lefler, and
he in turn, after a single term, by Philip Doddridge, who served until
his death, November 19, 1832, when Mr. Johnson was elected to fill the
vacancy, and served during the last session of the twenty-second Congress.
He declined re-election in the spring of 1833, and recommended
and supported John J. Allen, subsequently a distinguished Judge, who
was elected. In 1835 Mr. Johnson again offered himself for Congress,
was elected over Mr. Allen, and served continuously until 1841, when
he declined re-election, and supported Samuel L. Hays, who, however,
was defeated by the Whig candidate, George W. Summers. In 1845
Mr. Johnson was again elected to Congress, over Colonel G. D. Camden.
This was the seventh time he had been elected to Congress. At the
close of the twenty-ninth Congress, in 1847, Mr. Johnson issued an address
to his constituents, thanking them for their past confidence, declining
re-election, and expressing his wish and purpose to retire permanently
from public life; but his constituents demanded his service in

the House of Delegates, in which he served in the session of 1847-48.
In 1850 he was elected a member of the State Constitutional Convention,
and served in that body as chairman of the committee on suffrage.
Whilst a member of the Convention he was elected Governor of the
State by the Legislature, under the provisions of the then existing
constitution. In the autumn of 1851 the constitution which he had
helped to frame was adopted, and under its provisions Mr. Johnson,
who had been nominated by the Democratic party, was elected Governor
over George W. Summers, by the popular vote, for the term of
four years from January 1, 1852. This was the first election of a
Governor of Virginia by the votes of the people, and Johnson was the
first and only State Executive from the section now comprised in West
Virginia. In his first message to the General Assembly, in 1851,
Governor Johnson recommended the completion of the James River
and Kanawha Canal to Clifton Forge as its western terminus for the
time, and the extension of the Central Railroad (now Chesapeake and
Ohio) from Staunton, by Clifton Forge, westward to the Ohio River,
at or near Guyandotte; together with a general system of railroads for
the residue of the State. His recommendations were adopted by the
Legislature, and the work on the different lines began and rapidly
pushed forward until the breaking out of the civil war in 1861. In
the same message he called attention to the importance and critical
tenure of the relations of the State with the Union, and foreshadowed
the culmination which was so unhappily realized.

In addition to the stations enumerated, Governor Johnson had several
times served as Presidential Elector; and now, upon the expiration
of his term, December 31, 1855, having attained the allotted age of
the Psalmist, three-score and ten years, he finally retired to private
life. His mental and physical powers were happily but little impaired.
In his home of more than fifty years, surrounded by life-long friends,
he dispensed a generous and joyous hospitality. In all the relations
of private life he was a model of excellence. Proverbially punctual,
his morals were pure and lofty.

In person he was below the medium height, but with robust physique.
He was dark in complexion, with brilliant black eyes that were singularly
expressive in debate. He was permitted to remain in peaceful
quietude for but a few years. In 1860 he discerned the pending fratricidal
conflict, and was sorely grieved. A strict constructionist of the
Federal Constitution, regarding it as a written compact between the
States composing the Union, he held that the Union was the creature
of the States. He was never a secessionist per se. He loved the Union
of our fathers, and always advised moderation and patience. He earnestly
hoped for a peaceful solution of the sectional differences until
President Lincoln called upon Virginia and other States for troops to

subjugate those of their own blood. At this critical period he was
called upon by his old constituents to address them publicly at their
court house on their duty in the trying exigency. Though in the seventy-sixth
year of his age, he promptly acceded to their request, and
urged them to side with their near kindred and to protect their friends.
During the war the section in which Governor Johnson lived was overrun
by the Federal troops, and for personal safety he was forced to
leave his home in the charge of a daughter and retire across the mountains
with the Confederate army. Soon after the close of the war
Governor Johnson returned to his home, where he lived peacefully until
his death, February 27, 1877, in the ninety-second year of his age.
The next day a public meeting of the citizens of Clarksburg was held
to give expression to their sense of loss and appreciation of his worth.
An excellent portrait of Governor Johnson is in the State Library at
Richmond. Of the surviving children of Governor Johnson, a daughter,
Mrs. John A. English, resides in Baltimore, Maryland; another
daughter, Mrs. C. S. Minor, resides in Bridgeport; Henry G. Johnson
is a farmer in Harrison County, J. S. Johnson a successful lawyer in
Grafton, West Virginia, and Dr. G. W. Johnson is a practicing physician
in Missouri. A granddaughter, the daughter of Mrs. John A.
English, is the wife of Dr. George H. Eyster, New York City.

HENRY ALEXANDER WISE.

The ancient family of Wise deduces definitely from William Gwiss, or
Wise de Gaston, who located in County Devon, England, about A. D.
1100.[39] From Sir William Wise, of this lineage, knighted by Henry
VIII., sprang John Wise, who migrated to Virginia about the year 1650.
He was granted, March 24, 1655, 200 acres of land in Northampton
County, on "Nondrice's Creek," in consideration of the transportation
of four persons, one of whom was Hannah Wise, presumably his wife.
(State Land Records, Book No. 4, p. 52.) He also received, September
24, 1668, a grant of 1,060 acres in Accomac County (formed from
Northampton), "between Skiskanessok and Annancock Creeks." (No.
6, p. 176.) The tradition is that he also secured an Indian title and the
friendship of his aboriginal neighbors by the payment of "six Dutch
blankets," and from this circumstance his extensive plantation was
known as the "Dutch Blanket Tract." He was a Justice of the Peace

and a man of consideration and influence in the colony. He died in
1695, leaving issue three sons and two daughters: John, William, Richard,
Barbara (married Robins), and Hannah (married Scarburgh). The
eldest son, John Wise, married Matilda, daughter of Colonel Edmund
Scarburgh, a member of the Council. He died in 1717, leaving issue
three sons and three daughters: John, Thomas, Samuel, Mary Cave,
Eliza, and Hannah, of whom John Wise, the eldest son, married Scarburgh,
daughter of Colonel Tully Robinson, of Welsh descent; was a
Justice of the Peace, and died in 1767, leaving issue: John, Tully Robinson,
Cassey, and Mary, of whom John Wise, the eldest son, Colonel
and County Lieutenant of Accomac and Justice of the Peace (died
1770), married Margaret, daughter of Colonel George Douglas, lawyer—a
native of Scotland, and of the family of ("Black Douglas") the
Earl of Angus—and had issue: John, Tully,[40] Cassey, Elizabeth, and
Mary, of whom Major John Wise, the eldest, educated a lawyer, Clerk
of Accomac County, served two terms in Virginia Senate as Speaker
(died 1812), married twice—first, Mary (died August 9, 1796), daughter
of Judge James Henry, and, secondly, Sarah Corbin (died 1813),
daughter of Colonel John Cropper,[41] of "Bowman's Folly," a gallant
officer of the Revolution, and President of the Virginia branch of the
Order of Cincinnati. Had issue by the first marriage five children, and
by the second five: Margaret Douglas Pettit, married her cousin Tully
Robinson Wise;[42] James Henry; Henry Alexander; John Cropper;
Tully Robinson Scarburgh, of whom Henry Alexander Wise, the subject
of this sketch, was born at Drummondtown, Accomac County, December
3, 1806. Left an orphan at the age of seven years, he was educated
by his father's relatives, and, in 1822, was sent to Washington
College, Pennsylvania, where he was distinguished as a debater, and
whence he graduated in 1825. Attended the law school of Hon. Henry
St. George Tucker, at Winchester, from the autumn of 1825 to that of
1828, when he returned home, and cast his first vote for Andrew Jackson
as President. He was married the same year, on the 8th of October,
to Ann Eliza, daughter of Rev. Obadiah Jennings, D. D., of Washington
College, who was subsequently pastor of a Presbyterian Church in
Nashville, Tennessee. Mr. Wise moved to Nashville, soon after his
marriage, to reside, and formed a law copartnership with Thomas Duncan,
Esq. In 1831 he returned to Accomac County. In 1832 he was
a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore, Maryland,
where he advocated the nomination of Jackson as President, but
refused to acquiesce in the nomination of Van Buren as Vice-President.
During the Nullification excitement he published an address to the
electors of York district, in which he declared himself opposed, on the
one hand, to the measures adopted by South Carolina, and, on the
other, to the Force bill and the President's proclamation maintaining
the doctrines of the Virginia Resolutions of 1798, "that each State for
itself is the judge of the infraction of the Constitution and of the mode
and manner of redress." In 1833 he was nominated by the Jackson
party of the Eastern Shore of Virginia for Congress, in opposition to
the Nullification candidate, and was elected by 400 majority. His
opponent, Richard Coke, of Williamsburg, challenged him after the
election, and, in the duel resulting, the right arm of Mr. Coke was
fractured. On the removal of the Government deposits from the Bank
of the United States by President Jackson in 1833, Mr. Wise, together
with sixteen other Democrats in the House of Representatives, went
over to the opposition. He was re-elected to Congress in 1835, and
again in 1837, as a supporter of the principles of Hugh Lawson White
and John Tyler, who, in 1836, had been candidates for President and
Vice-President, in opposition to the regular Democratic candidates—
Van Buren and Johnson. He was at this time opposed to the President's
pet bank scheme to the Sub-Treasury, to the reference of abolition
petitions to any committee, and to a protective tariff; and he was a zealous
advocate for the admission of Texas to the American Union. His wife
dying in 1837, he married secondly, in November, 1840, Sarah, daughter
of Hon. John Sergeant, of Philadelphia. In 1837 he acted as the second
of Wm. J. Graves, of Kentucky, in a duel with Jonathan Cilley, of
Maine—both members of Congress—in which the latter was killed: an
occurrence that created a deep feeling in the country, and led to much
denunciation of Mr. Wise, on whom for a time the chief opprobium of
the affair rested. The nomination of John Tyler in 1840, by the Whigs,
as a candidate for Vice-President, in conjunction with General Harrison
as President, was largely due to the management of Mr. Wise; and on
the accession of Mr. Tyler to the Presidency, after the death of General
Harrison, his influence on the policy of the administration was very great,
especially with reference to the Bank question and the annexation of
Texas. In 1842 Mr. Tyler appointed him Minister to France, but the
nomination was rejected by the Senate. He was subsequently appointed
Minister to Brazil, and in that capacity resided at Rio Janeiro from
May, 1844, till October, 1847. In the Presidential canvass of 1848
he supported the Democratic candidate, General Lewis Cass, and was
chosen an Elector. He was a member of the Convention of 1850, which
revised the Constitution of Virginia, and in 1852 was again chosen a
Presidential Elector, and cast his vote for Franklin Pierce.

In December, 1854, he was nominated by the Democrats as their
candidate for Governor, and immediately entered into a most animated
canvass against the "Know-Nothing" party, which had just been organized
in Virginia. Mr. Wise conducted the contest untiringly, and
was brilliantly successful. From January to May he traversed the State
in all directions, travelling more than 3000 miles, and making fifty
speeches, and such was the enthusiasm he created that persons would
travel fifty miles to hear him. He was elected Governor by upwards
of 10,000 majority. In 1850 his second wife died, and in November,
1853, he was married (a third time) to Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Dr.
James Lyons, a sister of the late Hon. James Lyons, and a granddaughter
of Hon. Peter Lyons, a native of Ireland, the opponent of Patrick
Henry in the famous "Parson's Cause," and a Judge of the Court of
Appeals of Virginia. During the administration of Governor Wise the
Lecompton controversy of 1857-8 occurred, and though personally attached
to President Buchanan, whose election he had advocated in 1856,
he warmly joined with Senator Douglas in opposing that "schedule of
legerdemain," as he termed the Lecompton Constitution. In 1859, Governor
Wise published an elaborate historical and constitutional treatise
on Territorial Government, and the admission of new States into the
Union, in which he upheld the doctrine of Congressional protection of
slavery in all the Territories.

Near the close of Governor Wise's term occurred the seizure of Harper's
Ferry by John Brown and his followers, and the execution of Brown
at Charlestown, December 2, 1859, was one of the last acts of his administration.
Governor Wise was a member of the State Convention which
met at Richmond, February 13, 1861, to consider the relations of Virginia
to the Federal Government, and was one of the Committee on
Federal Relations, to whom the principal business of the Convention
was referred. The Committee made three reports March 10th. The
majority report affirmed the doctrine of States Rights, demanded a fair
partition of the Territories and equal rights therein, expressed the hope of
a restoration of the Union, recommended amendments to the Constitution,
recognized the right of secession, and advised a conference of the
border States. Mr. Wise presented another report, giving the list of
demands, requiring both the General Government and the seceded
States to abstain from hostilities in the hope of a peaceable adjustment
of difficulties, and insisting that the President should only maintain a
sufficient number of men in the forts, arsenals, etc., to preserve the

public property therein. A third report advised the immediate secession
of the State. Upon the passage of the Ordinance of Secession, he
entered heartily into the war. He was appointed a Brigadier-General
in the Confederate Army, June 5th, 1861, and ordered to Western
Virginia. There he served in conjunction with General John B. Floyd
until September, when he was ordered to report at Richmond. Thence
he was sent to Roanoke Island, North Carolina, with instructions to
defend it. At the time of the attack upon the island by General Burnside
and Commodore Goldsborough, February 7th, 1862, he was sick at
Nag's Head, but the greater part of his brigade (known as Wise's
Legion) took part in the action, and his son, Captain O. Jennings Wise,
commanding the Richmond Light Infantry Blues, was killed. During
the remainder of the winter, General Wise remained in Richmond,
being in feeble health. Upon his restoration, he was placed with his
brigade in 1863 in command of the district between the Mattaponi
and James rivers. His brigade consisted of the 24th, 34th, and 46th
Virginia Regiments of infantry, one battalion of artillery, and a few
companies of cavalry, with head-quarters at Chaffins Farm. During
the period of his command over this district there were some gallant
attacks upon the enemy, including a highly successful reconnoissance
behind Williamsburg, where the enemy were in force, and the final recapture
of that city from the Federals under the command of General
Dix. He was relieved at Chaffins Farm by General Eppa Hunton, and
sent with his brigade to Charleston, South Carolina, under the command
of General Beauregard. While in Carolina his command drove
the enemy from John's Island, in the rear of Charleston, and served
gallantly and efficiently in Florida in two severely contested battles.

From Carolina General Wise returned to Virginia, and was put in
command of the defences of Petersburg. He participated in the battle
of Drewry's Bluff, his brigade driving the enemy before them, and pursuing
them until withdrawn by his superior commander, General Whiting,
who feared to uncover Petersburg. At this point too, on the 15th
of June, his brigade alone kept at bay for a whole day the corps of
General A. J. Smith, until Lee had crossed with his army to the south
side of the James. From that time onward its history was that of
General Lee's army at Petersburg, with its horrible monotony of rags,
starvation and blood, ended at last by the surrender at Appomattox.
After the war, General Wise made Richmond his residence, engaging
in the practice of law, his son John S. Wise being associated with him.
He published in 1860 several disquisitions on slavery, and in 1873 the
"Seven Decades of Union," which is still a highly popular work. He
served also as one of the State Commissioners on the Boundary Line
between Virginia and Maryland, the final report on which was submitted
to the General Assembly and published in 1874. General Wise died at

VIEW IN WEST VIRGINIA.

Richmond, September 14th, 1876, and is interred in Hollywood
Cemetery. He had issue by his first marriage:

• i. Mary Elizabeth, married Dr. A. Y. P. Garnett, a highly successful
  physician of Washington, D. C., and lately a surgeon in the
  Confederate States Army.

• ii. Obadiah Jennings, lawyer and editor of the Richmond Enquirer;
  Captain Richmond Light Infantry Blues; died February 8th,
  1862, from effects of wounds received at Roanoke Island.

• iii. Henry Alexander, Clergyman Protestant Episcopal Church; died
  August, 1868; married Harriet, daughter of Richard Barton
  Haxall, merchant miller of Richmond, and has issue: Barton.

• iv. Ann Jennings, married Frederick Plumer Hobson (now deceased),
  and has issue: John Cannon, Henry Wise.

Issue by the second marriage:

• v. Richard Alsop, M. D., Professor of Chemistry, William and Mary
  College; married a daughter of William F. Peachy; now Superintendent
  of the Eastern Lunatic Asylum at Williamsburg, Va.

• vi. Margaret Ellen, married Wm. C. Mayo, of Richmond, son of Edward
  C., and grandson of Col. John Mayo, who built Mayo's bridge across
  James River, connecting the cities of Richmond and Manchester.

• vii. John Sergeant, born at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, December 25th, 1845;
  was educated at the Virginia Military Institute and the University
  of Virginia; lawyer; Lieutenant of Infantry of Confederate
  States Army; Captain Richmond Light Infantry Blues; late
  United States District Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia,
  from May, 1882, to March, 1883, and now Congressman
  at large from Virginia; married Eva Douglas, of Nashville.

• viii. Spencer Sergeant, died in infancy.

General Wise had no issue by his third marriage.

A county of Virginia was named in honor of Governor Wise. There
is a portrait of him in the State Library at Richmond.

JOHN LETCHER.

"Honest John Letcher," whose crest was his immaculate integrity,
and whose talisman, duty, shamed in his honored and useful career
mere heraldic boast. As nearly as man may of himself alone be the arbiter
of his life's own destiny, was he the exemplification of the hackneyed
term "self-made." His success is an enduring beacon to aspiring
youth, and an assurance of what integrity, industry, and lofty purpose
may accomplish in the race of life. His life-springs yield to no personal
disparagement in comparison with any class, however favored, and in
him they united, it is believed, the several races of justly termed Great
Britain. His father, William Letcher, was a scion of a hardy Welshman

early seated in the colony. His mother was of that staunch and
sterling Scotch-Irish yeoman stock of the Valley of Virginia, which
has supplied the armies and filled the councils of our nation and extended
its Western empire. She was a Houston, and a near relative
of the unflinching hero of San Jacinto. John Letcher was born in
Lexington, Rockbridge County, Virginia, March 29th, 1813. His
parents possessed scarce more of this world's goods than the "cotter's
content" as sung by their national poet. Young Letcher commenced
life with the necessity of toil staring him in the face, but with a resistless
craving of the intellect. His home was within the shadow of one
of our most beneficent seats of learning—now the hallowed Washington
and Lee University—and his earliest associations were with students.
Yet that which circumstance gave them could only be his by incessant
toil. But the lofty goal of education was ever before him, and with a
strong heart and unflagging purpose he grappled with and overcame all
obstacles. At the age of fifteen we find him working at the trade of a
tailor—whence, it must not be forgotten, also issued a recent Executive
of our nation—but devoting every leisure moment to study. Unceasing
labor brought him limited means, and soon after his majority he
entered Washington College, now Washington and Lee University,
where he acquired the foundation of a classical education. He subsequently
attended Randolph Macon College. His penchant was, however,
for law, and upon leaving college in 1836, he commenced its
study in the office of the late Hon. William Taylor. Here he remained
for three years, and in 1839 was licensed to practice. Whilst diligent
in acquiring professional lore, he had not been neglectful of other
branches of learning, but had applied himself also to classic and general
attainment as well, always keeping in view the aphorism, "Knowledge
is power." He commenced his professional career in his native town,
and was for years intimately associated with his late legal instructor, Mr.
Taylor, and with Governor James McDowell, whose encouragement,
sympathy and friendship in his early years of struggle he ever gratefully
cherished. The ability and fidelity of the young practitioner immediately
insured him success even amid competition with eminent talents,
among whom may be named Briscoe G. Baldwin, Thomas J. Michie,
John W. Brockenbrough, A. H. H. Stuart, and others whose names
are household words in Virginia. Whilst pursuing his legal studies,
he was a frequent contributor to the old Richmond Enquirer, the Fincastle
Democrat, and other newspapers the exponents of the Democratic
party, with which he affiliated. In 1839 Mr. Letcher established at
Lexington the Valley Star, and edited it with ability until 1840, in the
advocacy of Democratic principles and the cause of education. At the
bar he rose rapidly; a retentive memory, clear mental powers of analysis,
and a habit of observation enabling him to comprehensively grasp
the relations of his profession to real life as well as the issues of the
day. It is easily to be apprehended that he soon became prominent in
the political area as a public debater and canvasser. In the contest
of 1840 he was present in the most heated encounters, traversing the
entire Valley of Virginia, meeting the strongest intellects of the period,
and meriting and receiving the warmest recognition alike from friend
or foe. It was during this tour, whilst speaking in New Market, Augusta
County, that an attractive face in a coquettish blue bonnet, among
his auditors, so held him captive that a few years later witnessed the
consummation of a life union of unalloyed marital content with its
fair possessor—Miss Susan Holt. Plain, practical and frank of speech
on the stump, as in private life, John Letcher seldom failed to carry
conviction to his auditors, and he always commanded the respect even
of his political opponents. In 1844 he resumed editorial control of
the Valley Star, and was conspicuous for his zeal in the advocacy of the
interests of Virginia and of the South, with voice as well as with pen.
Among the measures which he earnestly pressed was the annexation of
Texas, of which Republic his cousin, General Samuel Houston, was
the President. In 1848 Mr. Letcher served as Presidential elector on
the Democratic ticket, and when the Convention of 1850 was called to
remodel the State Constitution, he was returned to that body by a
majority of over 1,200, although his district was strongly Whig. His
labors in the Convention were alike satisfactory to his constituents of
both political parties, and strengthened his reputation for integrity and
ability. In 1851 he was elected, without opposition, to Congress, and
continued to serve in that body for four successive terms. Here he
made a National reputation—one than which no more enviable could
public servant possess.

Though others may have been accorded the origination of great
measures, his was a moral influence of which few politicians may
boast. His political creed was "Strict construction, frugality in public
expenditure, honesty in the public servant;" and in very truth he
was a jealous guardian of the Constitution—the citadel of American
liberty—and an uncompromising sentinel, challenging every infraction
of the invested rights of the nation. By his rigid adherence to sterling
principles and his unswerving fidelity to the interest of the people, he
justly earned the proud sobriquet, "Honest John Letcher—the watch-dog
of the Treasury," which distinction he righteously maintained throughout
life. In 1859, after a spirited contest, John Letcher was elected Governor
of Virginia over William L. Goggin, and took his seat January
1st, 1860, at one of the most trying periods in the history of the
Commonwealth. Soon the fires of secession were lighted throughout
the length and breadth of the Southern land, and popular clamor
within and without her borders demanded that Virginia should be
hurled into the vortex of disunion. Governor Letcher was inherently

attached to the Union. Calmly, sorrowfully, amid the tempestuous
waves of passion and under bitter vituperation, he surveyed the
situation, looking into the future with almost prophetic ken, and counselled
moderation, forbearance, and conciliation. He loved the Union
sincerely and absorbingly. An incident attendant upon the deliberations
of the Convention is characteristically noteworthy. Many hot-blooded
politicians, followers of the school of Calhoun, were untiring in their
efforts to influence the action of the Convention and control that of
Governor Letcher, who by them was regarded with great suspicion. Some
of the most intemperate and daring among them threatened to haul
down the American flag, which, with that of Virginia, floated over the
State Capitol. Against this the will of Letcher interposed, and not
until Virginia had severed her bonds with the Union by solemn act of
Convention would he suffer the Stars and Stripes to be removed. Then,
the issue having come between honor and dishonor; after Virginia had
sued for peace and compromise almost on bended knee; when she
had thrown herself into the breach and had been insultingly rebuffed—
then it was that the lamb became a lion's whelp, and John Letcher raised
the rallying cry that echoed and re-echoed throughout the Sunny South.
Then it was that his executive ability was pre-eminent and became all-sustaining
to the people. During nearly three years of the conflict, Governor
Letcher controlled the war policy of the State, and was a tower
of strength to the Southern Confederacy. His every energy, physical
and mental, was devoted to the cause. Never despairing, ever fruitful
of resource, quick to determine and equally quick to act. When he
spoke, the highest in authority gave respectful ear. His foresight anticipated
many an issue that might otherwise have proved disastrous.
It was his habit to meet difficulty on the threshold and overcome it there
and then, and this served him and the Confederacy in many a critical
moment. During the bread riot in Richmond, when the fate of the
city trembled in the balance and the Confederate authorities were
powerless, it was his decision that averted the impending catastrophe.
The threats and entreaties of President Davis and the Secretary of
War were whistled down the wind by the overwrought mob, but when
the War Governor came to the front, watch in hand, and surrounded by
the faithful Public Guard[43] of the State, commanded by the late Captain
Edward S. Gay, and gave the rioters three minutes in which to disperse,
they knew that his resolve was fixed and brooked no disobedience. It was
Governor Letcher who hurried troops to the front as soon as the State
seceded, and saw that they were drilled by the State Cadets of the Virginia
Military Institute; and it was he who virtually placed Lee in
command of the Virginia troops, and who first recognized the military
genius of Jackson, and whose influence later retained in the service
that chieftain when, upon a conflict of authority between himself and
General Loring, and his complaints were disregarded by the Confederate
War Department, he tendered his resignation through his personal
friend, Governor Letcher. But the record of Governor Letcher is
historical, and naught of detail may now add to its lustre. He knew
no policy inconsistent with his duty to his State, and while his relations to
the Confederacy challenge a breath of suspicion, his motto was Virginia,
first, last, and always. He passed from the gubernatorial chair with
the affection and enduring gratitude of the entire people of his beloved
State. Immediately after the war he was arrested by the United States
authorities, without specific charge, and for some months was confined
in the Old Capitol prison at Washington. During the war his home
was burned by the vandal raider, General Hunter, at the time of the
destruction of the Virginia Military Institute, in June, 1864, and upon
Governor Letcher's release from prison he returned to Lexington and
applied himself to building up his shattered fortunes in the practice of
his profession. He remained in private life until 1875, when he was
elected to the House of Delegates, and there originated the well-known "dog
law" for the protection of sheep husbandry. In 1876, whilst in attendance
upon the Assembly, he was suddenly and without premonition,
after a busy day of legislative service, stricken with paralysis. Whilst
thus prostrate the State Senate, to show their appreciation of his public
services, passed a joint resolution providing for the payment of all expenses
incident upon his illness, but with lofty patriotism he gratefully
but firmly declined the provision. He said, "The precedent is an unsafe
one at all times, and especially so now in the distressed condition of
our people, whose lot I claim to be my lot." Governor Letcher peacefully
passed to the final reward of a well-spent life, at Lexington, in
the midst of his family, January 26th, 1884. A joint resolution of respect
to his memory was passed by the General Assembly then in session,
and eloquent and touching eulogies to his worth were delivered in both of
its branches. In the preamble to the resolutions the eminent services of
Governor Letcher are thus recited: "Through a life-time covering the
most eventful period in the history of Virginia, the great powers of his
mind and the warm affections of his heart were devoted with constant
faithfulness and energy to the service of his State and country. As a
representative of Virginia in the Congress of the United States, as her
Governor in the most trying epoch of her history, he won the love and
admiration of her people, and a place in that history, where his name
will live as long as unswerving honesty in the administration of public
trust and great ability, wisdom and patriotism in the discharge of
official duty shall be honored among men." His venerable wife and
seven children survive Governor Letcher: Samuel Houston, a prominent
lawyer of Lexington, who gallantly served as the Colonel of the
58th Virginia Infantry during the late war; John Davidson, a
civil engineer; Greenlee Davidson, now a cadet at the Virginia Military
Institute; Elizabeth Stuart; Margaret Kinney, married, February 26th,
1884, Robert J. Showell, of Maryland; Virginia Lee, and Fannie W.
Letcher. There is an excellent portrait of Governor Letcher in the
State Library at Richmond, Virginia.

FRANCIS H. PIERPONT.

Another example is now presented of an honorable and successful
career attendant upon probity and persistent purpose.

Francis H. Pierpont, third son of Francis and Catharine (Weaver)
Pierpont, was born January 25th, 1814, in Monongalia County, Virginia,
four miles east of Morgantown, on the farm settled by his grandfather,
John Pierpont, a native of New York, in 1770, then in West
Augusta County, who erected a dwelling and a block-house, also, for
protection against the Indians. In the last was opened the first land
office in that section of the State. John Pierpont married a daughter
of Colonel Z. Morgan, the proprietor of Morgantown, and who migrated
thither from Eastern Virginia. Joseph Weaver, the maternal
grandfather of the subject of this sketch, a native of Central Pennsylvania,
settled on a farm near Morgantown about 1785. In 1814
Francis Pierpont moved from the homestead to land purchased by him
in Harrison County, about two miles from the present Fairmont,
Marion County, West Virginia. In 1827 he made his residence in
Fairmont and conducted a tannery in connection with his farm. His
son, young Francis, assisted his father in his several occupations until
manhood. His educational opportunities were in the meanwhile
limited. In June, 1835, he entered Allegheny College, at Meadville,
Pa., from whence he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of
Arts in September, 1839. He now taught school until 1841, when he
removed to the State of Mississippi, where he continued teaching, but
the following year he was recalled to Virginia by the failing health of
his father. Having studied law in the leisure intervals of his career as
a teacher, he was now admitted to the bar. From 1848 for a period of
eight years, he served as the local counsel of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad Company for the counties of Marion and Taylor. In 1853 he
engaged in mining and shipping coal by rail, and a little later in the
manufacture of fire bricks. In December, 1854, he married Julia A.,

daughter of Rev. Samuel Robinson, a Presbyterian minister of New
York. In religious faith Mr. Pierpont was himself a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, with which he connected himself at the
age of seventeen. Reared in a section in which there were but few slaves,
and deeply impressed in his youth by several instances of emancipation
of which he was cognizant, his prejudices against the institution of
slavery strengthened with his years. His observation of the plantation
system in Mississippi confirmed him as an uncompromising
opponent of slavery. He early took an interest in politics, and though
not an aspirant for office, he actively participated in the campaigns of
the Whig party, with which he affiliated from 1844 to 1860. In 1848
he was a Presidential elector on the Taylor ticket. In the momentous
Presidential campaign of 1860, Mr. Pierpont charged the Democratic
party with a predetermined design to dismember the Union, and asserted
that the split in the party at Baltimore was with the expectancy that it
would secure the election of a Republican President and precipitate
secession. Whilst the Ordinance of Secession, passed April 17th, 1861,
by the State Convention at Richmond, was ratified by the people of
Eastern Virginia, the vote in Western Virginia was largely against it.
In this dilemma, Mr. Pierpont conceived the idea of a "restored government,"
and at his instigation a Convention en masse was held at
Wheeling on the 11th of May, 1861, which was attended by the leading
men of Northwestern Virginia. After a session of two days spent in
fruitless discussion, Mr. Pierpont proposed a Convention to be held at
Wheeling on the 11th of June following, to be composed of delegates
favorable to the Union, from among those who might be elected on the
23d of May to the General Assembly, and of twice the number of citizen
delegates from each county as it was entitled to as representatives in the
General Assembly. He also proposed the appointment of a "Committee
of Safety," to consist of nine members, whose duty it would be to
supervise the election of delegates and to call the Convention. The
resolutions were adopted, and Mr. Pierpont was appointed on the
"Committee of Safety," which met the next day after the adjournment
of the Convention. To the committee Mr. Pierpont stated his
views regarding the relation of the seceded State to the Union, and
held that "its officers being in rebellion had abdicated the government
of the State," and that "the loyal citizens of the State were entitled to
the government of the State during such insurrection." He suggested
the passage by the ensuing Convention of an ordinance embodying this
enunciation, and that the body should make provision for the establishment
of a State government, fill its offices with "loyal" men, and
secure the occupancy of the Monongahela Valley by Federal troops.
He further suggested that upon the recognition of the State by the
Federal Government, it might be erected into a separate State. The
plan was favorably received and became the basis of future action. In

SOUTH VIEW OF THE CAPITOL, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA,

Where the Confederate Congress held its sessions.

the Convention held at Wheeling on the 11th of June, forty counties
of the mountain region were represented. It met in the Custom
House; and each delegate, as his credentials were read, took an oath to
the National Constitution and its Government. The Convention was
organized by the appointment of Arthur I. Boreman, of Wood County,
as permanent President, and G. L. Cranmer, Secretary.

The Convention went earnestly to work. A committee was appointed
to draw up a Bill of Rights, and on the following day it reported
through its chairman, John S. Carlile. All allegiance to the Southern
Confederacy was denied in that report, and it recommended a declaration
that the functions of all officers in the State of Virginia who adhered
to it were suspended, and the offices vacated. Resolutions were
adopted declaring the intention of the "people of Virginia" never to
submit to the Ordinance of Secession, but to maintain the rights of
the Commonwealth in the Union. On the third day of the session,
June 13th, an ordinance was reported for vacating all the offices in the
State held by State officers acting in hostility to the General Government,
and also providing for a Provisional Government by the election
of officers for a period of six months. A Declaration of Independence
of the old government was adopted on the 17th, which was signed by
all the members present, fifty-six in number, and on the 19th the ordinance
for the establishment of a Provisional Government was adopted.
On the 20th there was a unanimous vote in favor of the ultimate separation
of Western Virginia from Eastern Virginia. On that day the
new or "restored Government" was organized. Francis H. Pierpont,
of Marion County, was chosen Provisional Governor, with Daniel
Polsley, of Mason County, as Lieutenant-Governor, and an Executive
Council of five members. Governor Pierpont was prompt and energetic.
His first official act, the next day after his accession, was to notify the
President of the United States that the existing insurrection in Virginia
was too formidable to be suppressed by any means at the Governor's
command, and to ask the aid of the General Government. It was
promised, and thus the action of the Convention was sanctioned by the
Government. Governor Pierpont was authorized to raise volunteer regiments
and officer them for the United States service. He speedily organized
twelve regiments of militia. He procured a greater and lesser
seal of State.

Money was needed. There was no treasury, and Governor Pierpont
borrowed on the pledge of his own private means $10,000 for the public
service. He also secured by military seizure $28,000 which had
been transmitted from Richmond to Weston, Lewis County, to pay for
work on the lunatic asylum there; and collected from the United
States Government $50,000, the share of the State of Virginia in the
proceeds of the sale of public lands appropriated by Congress in 1836.
A legislature was elected, met on the 1st of July and immediately

elected John S. Carlile and Waitman T. Willie to represent the "restored
Government" in the Senate of the United States as successors of
Messrs Hunter and Mason, from Virginia, who had resigned. Representatives
were also elected by the people, and both were admitted to
seats in Congress, which met in extra session on the 4th of July. The
Convention re-assembled on the 20th of August and passed an ordinance
for the erection of a new State, in which slavery was prohibited, to be
called Kanawha. This ordinance was ratified by the people on the 24th
of October following. At a subsequent session of the Convention, on
the 27th of November, the name was changed to West Virginia, and a
State Constitution framed, which was ratified by the people on the 3d of
May, 1862, when, also, Governor Pierpont was elected Governor to fill the
remaining portion of the term of Governor Letcher. The Legislature, at a
called session, also approved of the division of the State and the establishment
of a new Commonwealth. Governor Pierpont was tireless in his
official duties. His daily office duties for several of the earlier months
of his administration, it is stated, occupied from thirteen to sixteen
hours. The State Auditor refusing at this period to issue warrants for
an appropriation of $50,000 made by the Legislature for the public service,
Governor Pierpont, by an arrangement with the bank, disbursed
this sum in recruiting by personal check. West Virginia was admitted
as a State into the Union on the 20th of June, 1863, by an Act of
Congress, approved by the President, on the 31st of December, 1862.
Governor Pierpont, who had been elected in the month of May Governor
for the term of three years, commencing January 1, 1864, now removed
the seat of Government to Alexandria, Virginia. Upon the issuing by
President Lincoln of his proclamation emancipating the slaves, Governor
Pierpont apprehending a conflict between State and Federal authority
regarding the freedmen, recommended to the Legislature, which assembled
in December, to call a Convention to pass an ordinance of
general emancipation, and accordingly, on the 22d of February, 1864,
an ordinance was passed in Convention abolishing slavery in the State
forever. Another ordinance also made it the duty of the Governor to
nominate all the judges of the State for confirmation by the Legislature.
Governor Pierpont about this time conducted quite a spicy correspondence
with General B. F. Butler, (sometimes designated as "Beast,")
whose lawless acts he complained of to President Lincoln, and urged his
removal. The President is said to have expressed himself as being satisfied
of the truth of the complaints, and said to Governor Pierpont that
he would remove Butler if the Governor would tell him how to silence
the press, which Butler seemed to control, and through its medium appeared
to the Northern populace as the embodiment of all that was potent
in subduing the "rebellion." On the 25th of May, 1865, Governor
Pierpont removed his seat of Government to Richmond, the capital of
the late Confederate Government. He was immediately waited upon
by citizens from all portions of the State, and generally took counsel
with them in their misfortune.

In response to his inquiries he learned that but few in any county, and in
some none, could vote or hold office because of the disqualification imposed
by the Alexandria constitution for participancy in the rebellion.
He at once sent his Adjutant-General personally to all the counties
that had elected delegates to the Alexandria Legislature, summoning
the members to Richmond whose legal term expired on the 1st of
July. They attended in June and met in the gubernatorial reception
room. The Governor explained to them that without the removal of
the disfranchisement he could not reconstruct the State, as there was
nobody to vote; that they had the power to remove the disability, and
that if they would agree to do so, he would call them in extra session
at once. They assented. The extra session was called, the disability
to vote was removed, and a resolution was passed giving the next
legislature conventional authority to remove the disqualification to hold
office. He also found, upon his arrival in Richmond, the United States
Marshals busy libelling the property of the late Confederates for confiscation.
A few days afterward President Johnson issued a proclamation
confiscating the estates of certain classes unless pardoned. It was stipulated
that all petitions should be recommended by the Governor. He
soon perceived that the President was temporizing, and was led to apprehend
that the "pardon mill" was a farce at least, if no worse. He
accordingly determined to recommend all petitions offered him. He
next protested to the Attorney-General against the further iniquity of
libelling property which it was never designed to confiscate, and which
only entailed grievous expense on the owners. His protest was effective.
He next interposed for the suppression of the class of pardon-broker
harpies, who obstructed the due course of the Executive clemency
as provided. He refused to recommend any petition which
would pass into the hands of a broker, and thus disarmed these rapacious
thieves. He next interposed for the relief of citizens who were
under civil indictment for offences which were within the province of
military authority, and recommended leniency and conciliation to the
courts. With a contingent fund supplied by the Alexandria Legislature,
he rehabilitated the Western Lunatic Asylum and the Institution
for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind, at Staunton, which was destitute of suplies
and necessary equipments. He also appointed, upon the recommendation
of those duly interested, efficient regents for the University of
Virginia and the Virginia Military Institute, without reference to party
affiliation. Governor Pierpont continued in office beyond the period of
his term, which expired January 1, 1868, and held until April 16, 1868,
when he was succeeded by General Henry H. Wells, appointed Provisional

Governor by General John M. Schofield, commanding the Military
Department of Virginia. Governor Pierpont then retired to
private life. He was subsequently elected Clerk of Marion County
Court, and now resides in Fairmont.

HENRY H. WELLS.

Henry H. Wells was born in Rochester, New York, September 17,
1823. He was educated at the Romeo Academy in Michigan, and,
studying law, was admitted to the bar in Detroit, where he successfully
practiced his profession from 1846 to 1861. He served as a member of
the Michigan Legislature from 1854 to 1856. Upon the breaking
out of the late civil war, he entered the volunteer service of the Union
army, in which he served with distinction, attaining the brevet rank of
Brigadier-General. Having resigned from the army, he located in 1865
in Richmond, Virginia, and resumed the practice of law. He was appointed
April 16, 1868, by General John M. Schofield, United States
Army, commanding the First Military District of Virginia, Provisional
Governor of Virginia, superseding Governor Francis H. Pierpont. He
held this station until April 21, 1869, when he resigned, and Gilbert Carleton
Walker, Governor-elect of the State by popular vote, was appointed
in his stead by General E. R. S. Canby, United States Army, then commanding
the First Military District of Virginia. General Wells was
soon after appointed United States Attorney for the Eastern District of
Virginia, which position he held until 1872, when he resigned, and resumed
the practice of law. In 1875 he removed to Washington City,
and in September of that year was appointed and entered upon the
duties of United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. His
son, H. H. Wells, Jr., received the appointment of Assistant Attorney
for the District. They held office until 1879, when they were succeeded
respectively by George B. Corkhill and R. Ross Perry. General Wells
now resides in Washington, engaged in the practice of his profession.

GILBERT CARLETON WALKER.

Gilbert Carleton Walker was born in Binghamton, New York,
August 1, 1832. After a preliminary course of tuition in Binghamton
Academy, he entered Williams College, Massachusetts, and
subsequently Hamilton College, New York, graduating from the latter
institution in July, 1854. Having studied law, he was admitted to the
bar in September, 1855, and commenced practice in Oswego, New York.
Entering politics, in 1858 he served as a member of the State Democratic
Convention. In 1859 he removed to Chicago, Illinois, continuing the
practice of his profession there and participating in politics. In 1864
he located in Norfolk, Virginia, and soon became the President of a

bank, the Exchange National, and also held other positions of honor
and trust. He subsequently settled in the city of Richmond, and in
January, 1869, was elected, on the Liberal Republican ticket, Governor
of Virginia over Henry H. Wells by a majority of over 18,000 votes.
On the 21st of April following he was appointed, by General Canby,
Provisional Governor, to succeed General Henry H. Wells, the State
then not having been readmitted to the Union. He thus acted until
January 1, 1870, when he entered upon the regular gubernatorial
term, under the State Constitution of 1869, of four years, to which he
had been elected. He was succeeded, January 1, 1874, by General
James Lawson Kemper as Governor. In 1875 he was elected to the
Forty-fourth Congress from the Third District of Virginia, as a Conservative,
over Rush Burgess, Republican, and served as Chairman of the
Committee on Education and Labor. In 1877 Governor Walker was reelected
to the Forty-fifth Congress, as a Democrat, over Dr. Charles S.
Mills, Republican, and served on the Committee on the Revision of the
Laws of the United States. He was, in 1876, an aspirant for the
Democratic nomination of Vice-President of the United States, and it
was thought at one time that he had enlisted much support in the South.
He was for several years associated in the practice of law in Richmond
with General George J. Hundley, and was also the President of the
Granite Insurance Company, which he organized. In 1881, Governor
Walker removed to his native place, Binghamton, New York, and for
a time practiced his profession there. He is now located in New York
City, and enjoys there an extensive and lucrative law practice. In person
Governor Walker is highly prepossessing. His imposing stature, graceful
mien, finely chiselled features, and silvered head, render him
marked in a multitude. He is a pleasing speaker, and his personal advantages
enhance his powers over an audience. As a public speaker he
is effective and never fails to enchain attention and command applause.
He has also frequently proven himself an acceptable lecturer on literary
and scientific topics before educational institutions and other bodies.
There is a strikingly faithful portrait of Gov. Walker in the State Library
at Richmond.

JAMES LAWSON KEMPER.

The Kemper family of Virginia is of German extraction. Its
founder, John Kemper, was a member of one of the twelve families
from Oldensburg which, accompanied by a Government agent of Great
Britain, arrived in Virginia in April, 1714, and constituted the Palatinate
Colony, seated by Governor Alexander Spotswood upon his lands at
Germanna, which, according to Colonel William Byrd in the "Westover
MSS.," was "located in a horse-shoe peninsula formed by the Rapidan
River, containing about 400 acres." There is a locality corresponding
to this in Madison County, upon which the ruins of a settlement are

said to have been identified. The settlers soon becoming restless and
dissatisfied under the management of Governor Spotswood, determined
to secure lands of their own, and succeeded in obtaining a grant on the
Licking River, some twenty miles distant, to which they removed in
1719. They called the new settlement Germantown, which is eight
miles from the Warrenton of the present day. They erected a church and
applied themselves earnestly to industrial pursuits. Their religious
worship and all business was transacted in their native tongue, which
was long the only language spoken. Their religion, for the free exercise
of which they left home and crossed the ocean for the American wilderness,
was the "Reformed Calvinistic Church." This colony, augmented
in number by another band of emigrants, were the progenitors of
many of the most worthy of the present families of Madison and other
counties contiguous thereto. John Kemper married, in 1717, Alice
Utterback, and their son, John Peter Kemper, married, in 1738, Elizabeth,
daughter of John and Agnes (daughter of Dr. Haeger, the
pastor of the settlement) Fishback. From this worthy pair was descended
in the fourth generation James Lawson Kemper, the subject
of this sketch, born in Madison County in 1824. After a preliminary
tuition in the schools of his native county, he entered Washington College
(now Washington and Lee University), and was graduated thence
with the degree of Master of Arts. He then studied law in the office
of Hon. George W. Summers, in Charleston, Kanawha County.

In 1847 he was commissioned a Captain in the volunteer service of
the United States by President James K. Polk, and joined General
Zachary Taylor's army of occupation in Mexico, just after the battle of
Buena Vista, and thus failed of the desired honor of active service in
the Mexican war. Returning home and entering political life, Captain
Kemper was soon honored with the suffrage of his native county, and
for ten years represented it in the House of Delegates, of which body
he served two years as Speaker, and was for a number of years Chairman
of the Committee on Military Affairs. He served also as President
of the Board of Visitors of the Virginia Military Institute. On the 2d
of May, 1861, he was commissioned by the Virginia Convention, on
the nomination of Governor Letcher, Colonel of Virginia volunteers,
and assigned to the command of the 7th Regiment of infantry, which
command he assumed at Manassas. Colonel Kemper was first engaged
with his regiment in the battle of Bull Run, July 18, 1861,
and thereafter at the first battle of Manassas, July 21, 1861, where
his regiment was temporarily incorporated in a brigade commanded
by Colonel Jubal A. Early, and aided in striking the final blow
on the extreme left of the Federal line, which immediately preceded the
retreat and final rout of that army. Three days after the battle of
Manassas his regiment was assigned to a brigade commanded by General

Longstreet. This brigade was subsequently commanded by General
A. P. Hill, and under him Colonel Kemper with his 7th Regiment was
in the hottest of the fight at the battle of Williamsburg, May 5, 1862,
and engaged with the enemy for nine successive hours, capturing several
pieces of artillery and four hundred prisoners. Immediately after
the battle Colonel Kemper was promoted to the command of the old
brigade, which had been successively commanded by Generals Longstreet,
Ewell, and A. P. Hill, and at its head participated in the first
day's fight at Seven Pines, May 31, 1862, and in the seven days' sanguinary
encounters around Richmond, commencing June 26th following.

In the second battle of Manassas, Brigadier-General Kemper commanded
temporarily a division composed of several of the brigades
afterwards composing Pickett's division. Here, with these same
"Pickett's Men," subsequently so celebrated for valor, he was posted
to oppose the extreme left of the enemy, but acting upon the momentary
dictation of his own judgment, he changed front so as to strike
the right flank of the enemy, and soon after this accomplishment received
orders from General Lee to make the same movement which
he had already so successfully effected with the infliction of a terrible
loss on the enemy. General Kemper commanded his own brigade in
the battles of South Mountain and Sharpsburg. Soon after the return
of the invading army from the Maryland campaign, Kemper's brigade
was incorporated in Pickett's division. At the battle of Fredericksburg,
in December, 1862, General Kemper with his brigade was temporarily
detached from the division, and joined the troops on Maryes
Heights on the afternoon of that day under a hot fire. He was again
detached from the division early in 1863, and sent with his brigade
to North Carolina, where he commanded the forces at Kingston
opposed to the Federal force under General Foster, who then held
Newbern. He rejoined Pickett's division in front of Suffolk, Virginia,
participated in the operations at that place, and marched with the
division into Pennsylvania, his troops participating in the ever memorable
charge at Gettysburg, and meeting their full share of its terrible
massacre. General Kemper was desperately (it was supposed mortally)
wounded whilst gallantly leading his brigade, and was being
carried in a bloody blanket to the rear when he was met by General
Lee, and the following colloquy ensued: Said General Kemper—
"General Lee, they say I am dying, and you see the last of me.
Before I go, I have one thing to demand: I have seen in the fight
what you have not seen—I have seen the splendid heroism of my
boys; when you make up your reports do them justice and cover them
with glory; they have won it." General Lee replied with deep emotion:
"I will. I will do all you ask, but I trust God will spare your
life and yet restore you. I hope you will live, General Kemper, for
Virginia to honor and reward you, as she will." Upon the examination

IVY-GROWN GRANITE LODGE.

Entrance to Hollywood Cemetery, the beautiful "City of the Dead," at Richmond.

of his wound, it was thought that it would be impossible for him
to live. This fact was reported to the officers and men of his brigade,
and they waited in a drenching rain near the hospital for several
hours, expecting to hear momentarily of his death. In fact, a coffin
was obtained and placed in an ambulance, so that as soon as breath
had fled, they might take his body and retreat with it. He was held
a prisoner in the hospital for three months, but upon the written certificates
of several United States surgeons that he must soon die, he
was finally exchanged. After his exchange and return to Virginia,
General Kemper was for a long time too much disabled to perform any
duty in the field. He attempted to return to the command of his brigade,
but was totally unable to do so. To this day he carries a ball near
the base of his spine, the effects of which have finally caused partial
paralysis. Although unable to perform field duty, he was assigned
to the important command of the local forces in and around Richmond,
the frequently beleaguered capital of the Southern Confederacy.
March 1, 1864, he was commissioned a Major-General. General Kemper
continued in command of the forces protecting Richmond until its
evacuation. At all times his position was delicate and peculiarly
embarrassing, yet his duties were performed with such manifest fidelity
and regard for the feelings of all with whom he held relation, that he
won alike the affections of the people and the commendation of his
superior officers. After the close of the war, General Kemper retired
to his home in Madison county, and resumed the practice of law. His
voice was highly effective in the Walker gubernatorial campaign, which
triumphantly redeemed Virginia from military bondage; and in the
Presidential canvass of 1872, as one of the Greeley and Brown electors
for the State at large, he stumped every section of the State, and, by
his earnest and potent appeals, was most influential in reconciling the
people of Virginia to that ticket. In 1873 he was elected Governor
of Virginia, and took his seat January 1, 1874, as the successor of
Governor Walker. His administration was highly satisfactory.[44]
Upon the expiration of his term January 1, 1878, he was succeeded by
Governor F. W. M. Holliday, and retiring to his home in Madison
county, has not since re-entered public life. Governor Kemper married
Miss Cave, of Orange county, descended in the fourth generation
from Benjamin Cave, the joint patentee with Abraham Bledsoe, on the
28th of September, 1728, of 1,000 acres of land on the Rapidan river,
and a member of the House of Burgesses. She died some years ago,
leaving issue several children, of whom the eldest, Meade C. Kemper,
M. D., is a practicing physician in West Virginia. An excellent portrait
of Governor Kemper is in the State Library at Richmond.

FREDERICK WILLIAM MACKEY HOLLIDAY.

William Holliday, the paternal grandfather of the subject of this
sketch, of staunch Scotch-Irish lineage, was born in the north of
Ireland, and accompanied his parents to America, a youth of fourteen
years. They settled in Pennsylvania, and he subsequently located
permanently in Winchester, Virginia, having married, in Baltimore,
Maryland, Mrs. Blair, nee Duncan, who had previously resided in
Philadelphia. William Holliday became a successful and prominent
merchant. His son, Richard J. McKim Holliday, M. D., a skilled and
prominent physician of Winchester, uniformly beloved for his noble and
generous traits, married Mary C. Taylor. Her father, Samuel Taylor,[45]
M. D., born near Dover, Delaware, after a preliminary reading under
Dr. James Craik, the personal friend and family physician of General
Washington, completed his medical studies in Philadelphia, and located
in Berryville, then in Frederick, but now Clarke county, Virginia, where
he married a daughter of Dr. Robert Mackey, who efficiently served
as a surgeon in the Revolution, and at its close settled in Winchester,
where his professional ability and social worth were warmly and
justly esteemed. Several prominent families in that city and in other
portions of the State are descended from him. Dr. Samuel Taylor
also rendered the nation service as a surgeon in the war of 1812.

Frederick William Mackey Holliday, the son of Dr. Richard J.
McKim and Mary C. (Taylor) Holliday, was born in Winchester,
February 22, 1828. After preparatory tuition in the academy of his
native place, he entered the junior class at Yale College, from which
he was graduated with distinguished honors in 1847. On his return
to Winchester, he read law for a year with Barton and Williams,
eminent practitioners there, and then entering the University of Virginia,
in one session he graduated in Law, Political Economy, and
Moral and Mental Philosophy, and was selected as the "Final Orator"
of the Jefferson Society of that Institution. Returning to his home,
he entered diligently upon the practice of his profession, devoting his
leisure moments to literary pursuits. His fidelity and ability speedily
secured him reputation in his profession, whilst his scholarship
entailed frequent service by request as a lecturer. These early
efforts exhibit a remarkable maturity and depth of thought and

accuracy of expression for one so youthful, and the prognostications
which they make with regard to the working of our institutions
have been most curiously verified in both our State and
National Government. He found time withal to serve his party efficiently
as a canvasser in several Presidential campaigns, though he
persistently declined all political office. Within a year after coming
to the bar he was elected Commonwealth's Attorney for all the courts
of the city of Winchester and county of Frederick, and continued to
hold this position by successive re-election until the breaking out of
our late civil war, when at the first sound of conflict he abandoned all
else and went with the first troops to Harpers Ferry, and was appointed
aide to General Carson, who was then in command there.
Returning to Winchester for a short time to arrange his official business,
he was tendered the command of a choice company of infantry,
of which organization, or its desire, he had no knowledge until they
marched in a body to his door. He promptly accepted the proffered
command, and assiduously devoted himself to its thorough discipline
and drill. It for a time was employed in detached service, during
which period Captain Holliday was offered a position upon the staff
of General "Stonewall" Jackson, but declined to surrender his company,
which was soon assigned to the 33d Virginia Infantry, Colonel
A. C. Cummings, "Stonewall" Brigade, and he by successive promotion
attained the command of the regiment. As a field officer, Colonel
Holliday exhibited fine military perception and judgment, and was
conspicuous for his gallantry, participating in all the encounters in
which his command was engaged, including the sanguinary battles of
Kernstown, McDowells, Winchester, Port Republic, and those around
Richmond, without being absent from duty for a single day until August
9, 1862, when at the battle of Cedar Run, or Slaughters Mountain,
he lost his right arm. This injury entailed prolonged suffering and unfitted
him for service in the field. He was then elected to the Confederate
Congress, of which body he continued a member until the close of
the war. Returning to his home, he resumed the practice of his profession,
taking position in the front rank of a bar long and justly
celebrated for its learning and ability. Upon the death of General
Robert E. Lee, Colonel Holliday, at the request of the authorities and
citizens of Winchester, delivered an address on his life and character,
which was a chaste and eloquent utterance replete with noble conceptions.
In 1875, by invitation he delivered an address before the
Alumni of the University of Virginia on "Higher Education," which
from the bold presentment and searching analysis of the subject, the
breadth of its range and the beauty and purity of its diction, enlisted
the attention and excited the admiration of his audience, and, in published
form, widely of scholars and statesmen.

Colonel Holliday was the Commissioner for Virginia at the United

States Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia, and was appointed
elector at large for the State in the Presidential canvass of 1876. From
the conclusion of the war until then he had taken but little active part
in politics, though ever a close and critical observer of the drift of public
affairs, and he had been repeatedly urged to enter public life. The
judicious and effective manner in which he conducted that canvass
directed attention to his varied gifts and abilities as a statesman and
speaker. Though, in harmony with his tastes his preference was for
private life, in deference to his duty as a citizen he accepted the nomination
for Governor of the State the following year, was elected for the
term of four years without opposition, and entered upon the duties of
the office January 1, 1878. His public acts during his term were chiefly
expressed through his inaugural and annual messages, and vetoes,
which, in the discussion of the relations of the State debt, and their cogent
arguments for maintenance of the public credit, are regarded as
State papers of the highest order. By invitation of the authorities, also
during his term of office, he attended the commencements of nearly all
the colleges and institutions of learning in the State, and delivered
addresses to the students, as he did at different times to conventions
of the teachers of the Public Schools, and to National organizations
the guests of the city of Richmond or the commonwealth, which were
published in the papers of the day. His "Address of Welcome," at
Yorktown in 1881, is an able and glowing conception. Governor
Holliday has not resumed the practice of his profession since his retirement
from office, devoting his time mainly to study and the cultivation
of his farm near Winchester. He has spent much of his time in
travel in both hemispheres, having visited Mexico, the West Indies,
the Sandwich Islands, the western slope of the Pacific and the interior
States and Territories in the Western, and Great Britain and Ireland,
and a large portion of the north of the continent of Europe in the
Eastern—most of it on foot. In these tours he keenly enjoyed the
study afforded by critical observation of the grandeur and beauty of
nature and of art, the material development and the social life of the
countries through which he wandered. He was everywhere the recipient
of marked attention, private and official. Governor Holliday
has been twice married, first in 1868 to Hannah Taylor, daughter of
Thomas McCormick of Clarke county, Virginia. She lived but a
short time. In 1871 he married secondly, Caroline Calvert, daughter
of Dr. Richard H. Stuart, of King George county, who also died within
a year. No issue survives by either marriage.

The following are among the published addresses of Gov. Holliday:

"Oration before the Library Company and Citizens of Winchester,
Virginia, July 4, 1850."

"Principle and Practice, an Address before the Winchester Library
Company, April 14, 1851."

"Oration before the United Fire Department and Citizens of Winchester,
July 4, 1851."

"In Memoriam—General Robert E. Lee—Ceremonies at Winchester,
January 19, 1871."

"The Higher Education, the Hope of American Republicanism, an
Address before the Society of the Alumni of the University of
Virginia, June 29, 1876."

"Welcome Address, Yorktown, Virginia, October 19, 1881, by appointment
of the Commission of the Congress of the United States for
the Centennial Celebration."

In person Governor Holliday is of commanding stature, being fully
six feet in height and finely proportioned. Markedly intellectual in
feature, genial and prepossessing in manner, his presence inspires
confidence and respect. Himself the synonym of honor, jealous of the
slightest infraction of that of Virginia, a pure executive and a faithful
citizen, his administration reflects enduring lustre upon himself and
those whom he represented. Time will yet vindicate the justness of
his actions and of his recent affirmation: "As Governor in a prominent
light before the people of my own State and before the world, I rejoice
in all my efforts then to keep alive in the hearts of Virginia the honor
and glory of a famous commonwealth, and, from subsequent events,
am only the more confirmed in the correctness of my course. I would
not for my life blot one word I then spoke or wrote."

WILLIAM EWAN CAMERON.

The descent of William Ewan Cameron, representative as it has
been of valor, genius and worth, may justly excite regard. According
to family tradition, he was paternally descended from the Scotish
chieftain of the clan Cameron, Sir Ewan Lochiel, who during the civil
wars adhered to the Stuarts until their cause was hopeless, and whose
prowess is celebrated in song as well as preserved in history. Rev.
John Cameron was educated at King's College, Aberdeen, and being
ordained by the Bishop of Chester in 1770, came to America. His first
charge was St. James' Church in Mecklenburg county, Virginia. In
1784 he removed to Petersburg, Virginia. In 1793 he served as rector
of Bristol parish. He was an excellent scholar, and for a time conducted
a classical school. His learning was recognized in the degree
of Doctor of Divinity, conferred by William and Mary College. Of the
issue of Dr. Cameron, a daughter became the wife of Rev. Andrew Syme,
of Petersburg, Virginia; another the wife of Walker Anderson, whose
son was Judge Walker Anderson, of Florida. Judge Duncan Cameron,
of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, was his son. Another
son, William Cameron, married Anna, daughter of Daniel Call, an
eminent lawyer, Reporter of the Virginia Court of Appeals, and brother-in-law

of Chief Justice John Marshall, and of his issue was Walker
Anderson Cameron, who married in 1841, Elizabeth Harrison Walker,
a granddaughter of Benjamin Harrison, of "Berkeley," and a great-granddaughter
of William Byrd, of "Westover," James River, Virginia.
Of their issue was the subject of this sketch, who was born in
Petersburg, Virginia, November 29, 1842. His advantages of education
were limited, and he was early thrown upon his own resources by
the death of his parents. At the age of sixteen he went to the West
in pursuit of fortune. Upon the breaking out of our late civil war in
1861, he was in St. Louis, Missouri. He promptly returned to his native
State and enlisted as a private in Company A, 12th Regiment
Virginia Volunteers. His soldierly merit speedily secured his promotion
successively through the non-commissioned grades to the rank
of Lieutenant of his company, and subsequently to the posts of Regimental
Adjutant and Brigade Inspector. He served with uniform
gallantry throughout the war, was several times severely wounded,
and surrendered finally at Appomattox Court House with the rank of
Captain. Upon the conclusion of the war he was led by Hon. Anthony
M. Keiley, who was then conducting the Daily News of Petersburg,
to employ his pen in journalism, and first contributed to the News a
serial of sketches of the war. The News soon fell under the ban of
Federal authority, and was suppressed, but was renewed by its proprietors
as the Index, which is still conducted as the Index and Appeal.
William Ewan Cameron was first employed on the Index as local editor,
but in a few months was sent to Norfolk, Virginia, to edit the
Norfolk Virginian, in the publication of which the proprietors of the
Index were interested. From Norfolk he was recalled to Petersburg
to take editorial charge of the Index, which he conducted until 1870,
when he became the editor of the Richmond Whig. In 1868, Captain
Cameron fought a duel, growing out of political differences, with
Robert W. Hughes (now United States Judge for the Eastern District
of Virginia), and was severely wounded. In 1872 he assumed control
of the Richmond Enquirer, which he conducted until October, 1873.
Returning to Petersburg, he for a time served on the editorial staff of
the Index. In 1876 he was elected the Mayor of Petersburg, and thus
served by four successive elections until nominated as Governor of
Virginia. In 1877 Captain Cameron resumed editorial control of the
Whig, and continued that connection with some interruption until
December, 1879. In 1881 Captain Cameron was elected Governor of
Virginia over the Conservative candidate, Major John Warwick Daniel,
and entered upon the duties of the office January 1, 1882, for the
term of four years. Governor Cameron exhibited much talent as a
journalist. He is a vigorous writer and an effective speaker. He is
of medium stature and prepossessing in person. He is married and
has issue.[46]

AMBROSE POWELL HILL,
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL CONFEDERATE STATES ARMY.

The name Hill is of early prominence in the annals of Virginia.
The primary ancestor of the subject of this sketch in Virginia it is believed
was Edward Hill, who received a grant of 450 acres of land in
Charles City county, July 25, 1638.[47] (Virginia Land Registry, book
No. 1, p. 579.) In 1644 he appeared with the rank of Captain as Speaker
of the House of Burgesses. In March, 1645, he was sent with Captain
Thomas Willoughby as commissioners to Maryland "to demand the return
of persons who had left the colony." He served as a member of
the House of Burgesses from Charles City county from 1645 to 1654,
the last year as Speaker of the body. In 1656, as commandant with the
rank of Colonel of the Colonial Rangers and the friendly Indians under
Totopotomoi, the Pamunkey Chief, he was disastrously defeated in an
encounter with the Richahecrian Indians from mountains at a point
in the present eastern limits of Richmond, known as Bloody run,
which has its source in a bold spring. The slain were so numerous
(Totopotomoi being among them) that the tradition is that the streamlet
ran with blood, and hence its designation. Such was the indignation
against Hill that he was disfranchised by the Assembly. His
son, Edward Hill, Jr., however, became a man of station in the colony,
serving as County Lieutenant of Charles City county with the
rank of Colonel, and as a member of the council, but he, too, fell under
the ban of the General Assembly, and in May, 1676, was "disabled
from holding office for participating in the patriotic uprising known as
`Bacon's Rebellion.' " Ambrose Powell Hill, a lineal descendant of
Captain Ambrose Powell,[48] a vestryman of Bromfield parish in 1752,
and the son of Major Thomas Hill,[49] was born in Culpeper county
November 9, 1825. He entered West Point Academy July 1, 1842,
and graduated thence July 1, 1847, the fifteenth in merit in a class of

thirty-six, among whom were Generals John S. Mason, O. B. Wilcox,
H. G. Gibson, A. E. Burnside, John Gibbon, R. B. Ayers, Charles
Griffin, Thomas H. Neill, W. W. Barnes, E. L. Viele and L. C. Hunt,
of the United States Army, and General Harry Heth, of the Confederate
Army. Entering the First Artillery as Brevet Second Lieutenant,
Hill became First Lieutenant September 4, 1851. He was engaged
during the Mexican war at Huamantla the 9th of October, and at Atlixas
the 12th of October, 1847, and in Florida against the Seminole
Indians in 1849-50, and from 1852 to 1855. He was an assistant on
the coast survey from November, 1855, until March 1, 1861, when
he resigned his commission. Upon the breaking out of hostilities between
the North and South, he was chosen Colonel of the Thirteenth
Virginia Regiment, which, at the first battle of Manassas, with
the remainder of the command of General Joseph E. Johnston, arrived
on the field just in time to secure and complete the victory of
that memorable day. Colonel Hill was promoted February 26, 1862,
to the rank of Brigadier-General, and by his signal gallantry at the
battle of Williamsburg, in May, drew the eyes of the public upon him.
He greatly distinguished himself in the sanguinary seven days battles
around Richmond, commencing on the 26th of June, in command of
one of the largest divisions of the Army of Richmond, and which was
composed of the brigades of Anderson, Branch, Pender, Gregg, Field
and Archer. At Meadow Bridge, with only a portion of his command,
he made the first attack upon McClellan, and in a terrible conflict
encouraged his troops by a fearless intrepidity which constantly
exposed him to the fiercest fire of the enemy. Successful at this point,
General Hill was placed first in the line of advance and bore the brunt
of the action at Fraziers Farm, where, with his own division and one
brigade of that of Longstreet, he fought and overcame a largely
superior force which broke the spirit of the enemy and achieved
final victory.

In this series of battles the division of Hill lost 3870 men killed and
wounded. Immediately after this battle General Hill was promoted,
July 14, 1862, to the rank of Major-General. In the campaign of Northern
Virginia the division of A. P. Hill was sent to reinforce Stonewall
Jackson, who had been despatched to check the advance of Pope.
At the battle of Cedar Run, Hill gallantly sustained the prestige he
had won. He also bore a conspicuous part in subsequent operations,
marching with Jackson in his flank movement towards the Rappahannock
and Manassas. At the second battle of Manassas he repeated
a similar exhibition of valor to that of Fraziers Farm, and with dauntless
abandon met and repulsed at the point of the bayonet six distinct
and separate assaults of the enemy, a majority of the men a portion of
the time being without cartridges. The next day (August 30, 1862),
his division was again engaged, and late in the evening drove the enemy

before them, capturing two batteries, many prisoners, and resting
at night on Bull Run. At Sharpsburg the accomplishment of
A. P. Hill was in brilliancy not surpassed by any other recorded
during the war. With three brigades, numbering scarce 2,000 men,
he drove back Burnside's Corps, 15,000 strong.

After the battle of Sharpsburg, when General Lee determined to
withdraw from Maryland, Hill was directed with his division to cover
the retreat of the army, and in the performance of this duty at Botlers
Ford, on the 20th of September, 1862, was enacted one of the most
terrible episodes of the war. Lee's army was well across the Potomac
when it was found that some brigades of the enemy had ventured to
cross during the preceding night and were making preparations to
hold their position. General Jackson at once ordered A. P. Hill to
drive the enemy back. After some preliminary movements, a simultaneous
charge was made by Hill, and the enemy forced in a confused
mass into the river. "Then," writes General Hill, describing the
action with graphic horror, "commenced the most terrible slaughter
this war has yet witnessed. The broad surface of the Potomac was
blue with the floating corpses of our foe. But few escaped to tell the
tale. By their own account they lost 3,000 men killed and drowned
from one brigade alone." In this battle Hill did not use a piece of
artillery; but relying upon the musket and bayonet, he punished the
enemy beyond precedent. At the battle of Fredericksburg, Hill's Division
formed the right of Jackson's force, at Chancellorsville the center,
and participated in the flank movement that crushed Hooker.
The death of the illustrious Jackson devolved the command upon
Hill, and he was soon after wounded. Upon the reorganization of
Lee's army he was made, May 24, 1863, a Lieutenant-General, and
placed in command of the third of the three corps into which it was
divided. His was the first corps in action at Gettysburg. In Lee's
flank movement of the same to get between Meade and Washington
City, A. P. Hill sustained the only reverse of his career. Having
fallen upon a superior force of the enemy at Bristoe Station, concealed
by a railroad embankment, in a vain effort to dislodge it he lost
several hundred in killed and wounded, and five pieces of artillery.
In the momentous campaign of 1864 General Hill was again conspicuous,
his corps, with that of Ewell, opening the action in the Wilderness.
A few days thereafter his feeble health so gave way that he
was unable to remain on duty, when General Jubal A. Early was assigned
to the command of his corps. After the scenes of Spotsylvania
Court House, General Hill reported for duty, resumed command of his
corps, and fought with it to the last day in front of Petersburg. August
25, 1864, at Reames Station, he attacked the enemy in his intrenchments
and carried his entire lines, capturing seven stand of colors,
2,000 prisoners and nine pieces of artillery.

At the final attack on the Southside Railroad and the defense of
Petersburg, he was restlessly active in his exertions to repel the Federal
attack. On the morning of April 2, 1865, desiring to obtain a
nearer view of a portion of the line of the enemy, he left his staff behind
him in a place of safety, rode forward accompanied by a single
orderly, and soon came upon a squad of Federals who had advanced
along a ravine far beyond their lines. He immediately ordered
them to surrender, which they were on the point of doing, under
the supposition that a column of troops was just behind him.
But soon discovering that he was so slightly attended, they fired
upon him, and he fell, pierced through the heart by a rifle ball. The
following night his body was hastily buried in the cemetery at
Petersburg, but was subsequently reinterred in Hollywood Cemetery,
Richmond, where his remains are marked by the words, "Lt.-Gen.
A. P. Hill," cut into the granite curbing in front of the grave. The
trust reposed in A. P. Hill by the illustrious chieftains Lee and
Jackson found solemnly impressive exemplification in the dying
ejaculation of each, which, too, are remarkable for their semblance.
"Tell A. P. Hill to prepare for action," were amongst the words of
Stonewall Jackson. "Tell Hill he must come up," were the last words
of the peerless Lee. What more honorable tribute?

ROBERT EDWARD LEE,
GENERAL-IN-CHIEF OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES ARMY.

The record of all time with its mighty roll of heroes and patriots
presents no more lustrous name than that of the immortal subject of
this sketch. His lineage, which has been already traced in this serial,
was illustrative of the excellencies which marked his own resplendent
career. Robert Edward Lee, the third son of "LightHorse
Harry" and Anne Hill (Carter) Lee, was born at "Stratford,"
Westmoreland county, Virginia, January 19, 1807. Entering the
United States Military Academy July 1, 1825, he was graduated
thence second in grade of a class of forty-six, July 1, 1829, and commissioned
Brevet Second Lieutenant, Corps of Engineers. Among
his classmates were Generals Joseph Eggleston Johnston, Albert G.
Blanchard and Theophilus H. Holmes, of the Confederate States
Army, and Generals B. W. Brice, T. A. Davies, A. Cady, T. Swords,
Seth Eastman, W. Hoffman, Sidney Burbank, O. M. Mitchell, C. P.
Buckingham and James Barnes, of the United States Army. Lieutenant
Lee served as Assistant Engineer in the construction of Forts
Monroe and Calhoun for the defense of Hampton Roads, Virginia,
1829-'34; as Assistant to the Chief Engineer at Washington, D. C.,

GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE,

In Confederate uniform, from life during the war,
never before engraved.

1834-'37, as Assistant Astronomer for establishing the boundary between
the States of Ohio and Michigan, 1835; as Superintending Engineer
of the improvement of St. Louis harbor, Missouri, and of the
Missouri and Upper Mississippi rivers, 1837-'41, having general
charge of the improvement of the Lower Mississippi and of the Ohio
river below Louisville, Kentucky, 1840-'41. He was promoted to
First Lieutenant September 21, 1836, and to Captain of the Corps of
Engineers July 7, 1838. Had charge of the construction and repairs
of the defenses at the Narrows entrance to the New York harbor,
1841-'44, 1844-'46; was Member of the Board of Visitors to the Military
Academy, 1844, Assistant to the Chief Engineer at Washington,
D. C., 1844; Member of the Board of Engineers for Atlantic Coast defenses
from September 8, 1845, to March 13, 1848; served in the war
with Mexico, 1846-'48, being engaged on the march as Chief Engineer
of the column commanded by Brigadier-General John E. Wool,
and earned the brevets of Major, Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel for
gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras,
and Churubusco, and at Chapultepec, where he was wounded.
His services as an engineer at Vera Cruz and the subsequent operations
in Mexico were highly eulogized by General Winfield Scott.
Colonel Lee was on special duty in the Engineer Bureau at Washington,
D. C., in 1848; Superintending Engineer of the construction of
Fort Carroll, Patapsco river, Maryland, 1848-'52, member of the
Board of Engineers for Atlantic Coast defenses from July 21, 1848, to
April 11, 1853; Superintendent of the United States Military Academy
from September 1, 1852, to March 31, 1855, in command at
Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, 1855, appointed Lieutenant-Colonel
Second Cavalry March 3, 1855, on frontier duty at Camp Cooper,
Texas, 1856, with expedition against the Comanche Indians, 1856; at
Camp Cooper, Texas, 1856-'57, at San Antonio, Texas (commanding
the Second Regiment), 1857, on leave of absence, 1857-'59; in command
of the forces at Harpers Ferry for suppressing the John Brown
raid, October 17-25, 1859; in command of the Department of Texas
from February 6 to December 12, 1860, and on leave of absence,
1860-'61, promoted Colonel of the First Cavalry March 16, 1861.
Ordered to Washington from his regiment in Texas, Colonel Lee arrived
at the Federal capital April 1, 1861, three days before the inauguration
of President Lincoln. The political horizon was even then
overcast with the portents of the mighty civil war which was soon to
convulse the nation. South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia and Louisiana had already seceded from the Union, and the
Provincial Government of the Confederate States had been formed at
Montgomery. The Virginia Convention, loth to assent to the dissolution
of the Union, was still in solemn deliberation. But all counsels and
peaceful overtures failed, and the proclamation of President Lincoln
calling for 75,000 men to subdue the seceded States forced Virginia
with her sisters of the South. The ordinance of secession, which she
passed on the 17th of April, determined Colonel Lee. To the Hon.
F. P. Blair, who brought him the tender of the supreme command of
the United States Army, he replied: "I look upon secession as anarchy.
If I owned the four millions of slaves in the South, I would sacrifice
them all for the Union. But how can I draw my sword against
Virginia?" On the 20th he resigned his commission and repaired to
Richmond. Governor Letcher immediately appointed him to the
Command-in-Chief of the Virginia force, and the convention unanimously
confirmed the nomination. Upon the appearance of General
Lee before that body, on the 25th of April, its venerable President
John Janney glowingly addressed him, thus concluding:

"Sir, we have by this unanimous vote expressed our conviction
that you are at this day among the living citizens of Virginia, `first
in war.' We pray to God most fervently, that you may so conduct
the operations committed to your charge that it will soon be said of
you, that you are first in peace,' and when that time comes you will
have earned the still prouder distinction of being `first in the hearts
of your countrymen.' "

General Lee thus replied: "Mr. President and Gentlemen of the
Convention: Profoundly impressed with the solemnity of the occasion,
for which, I must say, I was not prepared, I accept the position
assigned me by your partiality. I would have much preferred your
choice had fallen upon an abler man. Trusting in Almighty God, an
approving conscience and the aid of my fellow-citizens, I devote myself
to the service of my native State, in whose behalf alone will I ever
again draw my sword." Transferred from the State service to that
of the Confederacy, with the rank of General, his first service was in
the mountains of Northwest Virginia, where with inadequate forces
he held the invading column of the enemy in check and restored the
confidence which had been shaken by reverses in that department.
In the fall of 1861 he was transferred to the command of the South
Atlantic States. In March, 1862, he was recalled to Virginia and
charged "with the conduct of military operations in the armies of the
Confederacy." In the battles before Richmond, General Joseph E.
Johnston being disabled by a wound on the 31st of May at the battle
of Seven Pines, on the 3d of June, 1862, General Lee was assigned to
command in person the Army of Northern Virginia, and thenceforward,
as has been recorded in preceding pages, to the memorable 9th
day of April, 1865, when it finally laid down its arms at Appomattox
Court House, he remained at its head. Then, when all was lost save
honor, he unmurmuringly took his place as a modest citizen of his
scarred and harrowed State, to "abide her fortunes and share her
fate." Refusing numerously proffered gratuities and sinecure stations

which were pressed upon him by loving admirers, he found his meet
field of beneficence in the Presidency of a time-honored seat of learning,
Washington College, which had its origin in "The Augusta
Academy," the first classical school in the valley of Virginia, founded
in 1749 by Robert Alexander, a Scotch-Irish immigrant, and a Master
of Arts of Trinity College, Dublin. Under his successor, Rev. John
Brown, the Academy was first removed to "Old Providence," and
again to "New Providence Church," and just before the Revolution,
for the third time, to Mount Pleasant, near Fairfield, in the now
county of Rockbridge. In 1776 Rev. William Graham (whose remains
rest in the church-yard of the venerable St. John's at Richmond)
baptized it as "Liberty Hall Academy." It was now removed,
in 1777, to near the old Timber Ridge Church; and finally, in 1785,
to Lexington. In 1796 it was endowed by General Washington with
one hundred shares of the Old James River Company, which had
been donated him by the Virginia Assembly, and the trustees of the
academy, in honor of the illustrious benefactor, rechristened it Washington
Academy. The Assembly soon after gave the institution,
which it had already incorporated, the name of "The College of Washington
in Virginia." "The Cincinnati Society," of Virginia, on dissolving
in 1813, donated their fund, amounting to nearly $25,000, to
the college, and, thus endowed, its career onward for quite seventy
years was one of usefulness and honor. The civil war, however,
brought grievous disaster. The college was dismantled, its scientific
apparatus destroyed, its library sacked, its every apartment pillaged,
and with the close of the weary struggle, four professors, a handful of
students and the bare buildings, were all that remained.

Accepting the Presidency of the College October 2, 1865, he zealously
entered upon its duties, winning the meed of being "the best
College President this country has ever produced," and magnifying
the college into a university among the first in honor and influence
in the nation. In the fulness of his noble mission, General Lee was
stricken with a fatal malady, and sank to rest October 12, 1870.
General Lee married June 30, 1831, Mary Anne Randolph, born October
1, 1808, died November 5, 1873, daughter of George Washington
Parke and Mary Lee (Fitzhugh) Custis,[50] of "Arlington," Virginia
The issue of this blissful union was three sons and four daughters:

• i. George Washington Custis, Major-General Confederate States
  Army, succeeded his father in the Presidency of Washington-Lee
  University.

• ii. William Henry Fitzhugh, Major-General Confederate States Army;
  has been twice married, first to Charlotte, daughter of
  William Fanning Wickham, secondly, November 28, 1867, to
  Mary Tabb, daughter of George W. Bolling, of Petersburg,
  Virginia. Issue by both marriages.

• iii. Robert Edward, Captain Confederate States Army; married
  Charlotte (died September 22, 1872), daughter of R. Barton
  Haxall.

• iv. Mary, v. Anna (died 1870), vi. Mildred, and vii, Eleanor Agnes—
  died October 15, 1873.

The remains of General and Mrs. Lee, and of their youngest
daughter, rest in a mausoleum annex to the Memorial Chapel erected in
the College grounds by the Lee Memorial Association. In a chamber
directly over the crypt is the sarcophagus and famed recumbent
statue of the great chieftain, executed by the sculptor Valentine.

THOMAS JONATHAN JACKSON,
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL CONFEDERATE STATES ARMY.

Thomas Jonathan (known during the recent great civil war by the
sobriquet of "Stonewall") Jackson was born January 21, 1824, in
Clarksburg, Harrison county, Virginia. His great-grandfather, a native

of England, was an early settler of the western wilds of Virginia,
and Edward Jackson, his grandfather, was surveyor of Lewis county,
and for some years represented it in the State Assembly. The son of
the last, Jonathan Jackson, removed to Clarksburg, where he studied
and commenced the practice of law with his cousin, John G. Jackson,
and acquired considerable reputation. He married Julia, daughter of
Thomas Neal, of Wood county, and these were the parents of the subject
of the present sketch. Jonathan became pecuniarily embarrassed,
and dying in 1827, left his family penniless. His children were four in
number—two sons and two daughters—Thomas, the youngest, being
only three years old. The widow remarried in 1830, but died the following
year of a pulmonary affection. Thomas was thus doubly orphaned
at the early age of seven. After living for a time with some
of his relatives in the vicinity of his birth, becoming dissatisfied, he
determined to seek the residence of an uncle, Cummins Jackson, the
half-brother of his father, distant eighteen miles, which he journeyed
alone and afoot. He was kindly received by his uncle and two
maiden aunts who lived with him. His elder brother Warren was
also an inmate of the family. Cummins Jackson was a man of vigorous
mind, resolute and of vehement passions. He was a farmer,
lumber-getter and miller, and slave owner. He gave his orphaned
nephews the advantages of schooling whilst with him, but the eldest,
Warren, who was of a restless disposition, persuaded Thomas to
accompany him to the home of a relative on Blennerhasset Island.
The two lads proceeded down the Ohio river to its mouth and finally
located on a lonely island of the Mississippi near the southwestern
corner of Kentucky. Here they spent the summer alone in a cabin,
earning their living by cutting fire-wood for the river steamers. Our
future hero, thus early, at the age of nine years, learned the life lesson
of self-reliance. But the malaria of their field of action overcame the
adventurous lads, and becoming enfeebled with the ague, they had
fain to return home by the charity of a steamboat captain. Thomas
again made his residence with his uncle Cummins Jackson, and by
his kindness received a plain English education. In arithmetic he
surpassed his schoolmates, but in other branches he made his way
slowly, and only by dint of persistent application. When not at
school he assisted his uncle in the several occupations of the last, a
frequent task being the transportation, with an oxen team, of logs
from the forest to the saw-mill. While thus early and arduously
engaged, his constitution gave signs of weakness, and a year or two
later he suffered a slight attack of paralysis, the effects of which
gradually wore away, but he was troubled through life with weak
digestive organs.

At the age of sixteen he was elected constable of the extensive
county of Lewis. The duties of this office gave him opportunity for
the study of men and cultivated his will power and self-possession.

He became a daring and skillful rider (though he continued through
life an exceedingly ungraceful one) and became very fond of horse
racing, a sport to which his uncle was addicted. Thomas was his favorite
jockey, and it was proverbial among the people of the section
that if a horse had any winning qualities in him Tom Jackson
was the rider to bring them out. Thomas, indeed, is traditionally
transmitted as being at this period an ardent frequenter of races,
house-raisings, and country dances. Nevertheless, he was truthful,
laborious, modest and self-reliant, scorning everything base. Moreover
he was ambitious of preferment and insatiably thirsted for knowledge.
In 1842, hearing of a vacancy in the United States Military Academy
at West Point, Thomas Jackson, with his accustomed decision and
energy, made application for the appointment, and being cordially
supported by his friends, waited upon the Secretary of War, dressed
in a suit of homespun, his remaining wardrobe being contained in a
pair of saddle-bags. The Secretary of War, Hon. John C. Spencer,
was so much pleased with Jackson's resolute bearing that although
hardly prepared to enter the Academy a warrant for his appointment
was ordered to be immediately made out. Young Jackson's zeal and
purpose found striking exhibition on this occasion. Being pressed by
a friend to remain in Washington for a few days to see the objects of
chief interest in that city, he declined, urging that as the studies of
the Military Academy were in progress, it was best that he should repair
there forthwith. He accordingly contented himself with a hasty
panoramic view of the city from the top of the dome of the capitol.
He entered the Military Academy July 1, 1842. In his studies Cadet
Jackson made steady progress. In drawing he never became an
adept; his greatest success being in natural philosophy and ethics.
He was graduated with the usual rank of brevet Second Lieutenant,
July 1, 1846, the seventeenth in grade in a class of fifty-nine members.
Among his classmates were Generals George B. McClellan, John G.
Foster, Jesse L. Reno, D. N. Couch, Truman Seymour, M. D. L.
Simpson, S. D. Sturgis, George Stoneman, Innis N. Palmer, Alfred
Gibbs, George H. Gordon, Frederick Myers, Joseph N. G. Whistler,
and Nelson H. Davis of the United States Army, and Generals John
A. Brown, John Adams, Dabney H. Maury, D. R. Jones, Cadmus M.
Wilcox, Samuel B. Maxey and George E. Pickett of the Confederate
States Army, besides others distinguished in civil life and the walks
of literature. The war with Mexico being then in progress, Lieutenant
Jackson had an opportunity for immediate service, and was ordered
to report himself to the First Regiment of the Artillery, then at
New Orleans. Proceeding thither, he soon moved with the troops for
Mexico, serving under General Zachary Taylor, until General Winfield
Scott took the field, when he was transferred to the command of
the latter. His military career was distinguished and his promotion
rapid. He was engaged in the siege of Vera Cruz, March 9-29, 1847;
the battle of Cerro Gordo, April 17-18; skirmish of La Hoya, June
20; skirmish of Oka Laka, August 16, 1847. Shortly after the battle
of Cerro Gordo, Jackson was assigned to the light field battery of
Captain John B. Magruder. He participated in the battle of Contreras,
August 19-20, 1847 and was promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant,
and brevetted Captain August 20 for "gallant and meritorious
conduct in the battles of Contreras and Churubusco." In the last
named engagement Magruder's First Lieutenant, Johnstone, was
killed and Jackson thus became second in command, and took charge
of a section of the battery. He was engaged in the battle of Molino
del Rey, September 7; the storming of Chapultepec, September 13,
1847, where for his conspicuous gallantry he was brevetted Major, a
promotion, it is said, then unprecedently rapid. In the battle of Chapultepee
Jackson with his section found himself placed unexpectedly
in the presence of a strong Mexican battery, at so short a range that
in a few moments a majority of his horses were killed and his pieces
nearly unmanned by the terrific storm of grape-shot to which they
were subjected, whilst seventy men out of two regiments of infantry
with difficulty maintained their position in his rear. General Worth
perceiving the desperate position of Jackson's guns, sent him word to
retire. He replied that it was more dangerous to withdraw his pieces
than to hold his position. Magruder, who moved rapidly to the support,
having his horse killed under him as he did so, found that Jackson
had lifted by hand a single gun across a deep ditch to a position
from which it could be effective, and this gun he was rapidly loading
and firing with the assistance of a Sergeant alone, the remainder of
his command being either killed, wounded or crouching in the ditch.
Another gun was now quickly put in position, and in a few moments
the Mexicans were driven from their battery, which was turned upon
the flying enemy. Years afterwards, whilst a quiet professor, with
the sobriquet of "Old Jack," accorded because of his grave and serious
demeanor—when asked by his pupils why he did not run when
his command was so disabled, he placidly replied: "I was not ordered
to do so," and to the query if he was not alarmed when he saw so
many of his men falling around him, answered, "No;" that his
only fear was lest the danger would not be great enough for him
to distinguish himself as he desired. Major Jackson participated
in the closing scene of the war, the assault and capture of the City of
Mexico, September 13-14, 1847. He served in garrison at Fort Columbus,
New York, in 1848, in Fort Hamilton, New York, 1849-51,
and in the Florida hostilities against the Seminole Indians in 1851.
The arduous service he had undergone impaired his naturally delicate
constitution, and in consequence he resigned his commission in the

"STONEWALL" JACKSON,

From a portrait said by his widow to be the best likeness of him in existence

army February 29, 1852, and returning to Virginia, was elected
Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Instructor of
Artillery Tactics in the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington,
which position he usefully filled until the breaking out of our late unhappy
civil war. Immediately after the secession of Virginia, April
17, 1861, the Corps of Cadets was ordered to Richmond by Governor
Letcher. They were marched thither under the command of Major
Jackson, and stationed for some time at the State Agricultural Fair
Grounds (converted into a camp of instruction, and called "Camp
Lee"), as drill masters to the troops arriving there. Jackson was
now commissioned by Governor Letcher, Colonel, and on the 3d of
May, 1861, took command of the small "Army of Observation" stationed
near Harpers Ferry. The prescribed limits of this sketch
prevent a detailed account of the glorious career of Colonel Jackson,
and a brief recapitulation must suffice here. Promoted to the rank
of Brigadier-General June 17, he encountered the advance of the
Federals under General Patterson at Falling Waters July 2, checked
him and brought off without loss forty-five prisoners. He bore a distinguished
part in the battle of Bull Run August 21, where in the
language of the gallant and lamented General Barnard E. Bee he
"stood like a stone-wall." October 7th following he was promoted
to the rank of Major-General and assigned to the command of the
forces in and around Winchester. In January, 1862, he conducted an
expedition against Bath and Romney, which in the suffering and exposure
to cold which it entailed surpassed the privations of Valley
Forge of the Revolution. It resulted in the capture of a large quantity
of supplies. March 23, 1862, the battle at Kernstown, with the Federals
under Shields, was fought, which was so far successful as to recall to Winchester
large bodies of Federal troops which had been sent from thence.

Early in May, 1862, Jackson again assumed the offensive, and by a
rapid march cut off a detached body at Front Royal and compelled
the Federals under Banks to retreat hastily to the Potomac. From
the quantity of stores massed at Winchester by Banks and captured
by General Jackson, the former has been derisively termed "Jackson's
Commissary General." Fremont and McDowell attempted to
cut Jackson off, but he succeeded in eluding them by a display of
energy, decision, and fertility of resource, which gained for him the
distinction of one of the great commanders in the world's history.
Hastening his forces to Richmond, his timely arrival at Gaines Mill
gave the victory to the Confederate arms, on the 29th he engaged
McClellan's rear guard at Fraziers Farm; and July 1st was engaged
at Malvern Hill. He next moved his corps against General Pope, and
on the 9th of August fought the sanguinary battle of Cedar Run
with the force of General Banks. General Lee having joined Jackson,
the latter was dispatched, August 24th, to gain the rear of General

Pope, which he did, capturing at Manassas prisoners, cannon and
stores. Lee came to his support, and on the 30th was fought the
second battle of Manassas. Jackson took part in the invasion of
Maryland. September 15th, captured Harpers Ferry with 11,000 prisoners,
and rejoined Lee at Antietam in time to do the severest fighting
at that battle. October 11, 1862, Jackson was promoted to the rank
of Lieutenant-General, and December 13th following witnessed the
important battle of Fredericksburg. By Jackson's flank movement
at Chancellorsville, May 2, 1863, the Eleventh Corps of Hooker's army
was routed and compelled to fall back, but in the darkness as he returned
with his staff to the rear he was fired upon by his own men
and received wounds from which he died on Sunday, May 10, 1863.
He died as became a Christian and a soldier. Shortly before he expired,
on being told of his hastening dissolution, he responded feebly
but firmly. "Very good; it is all right." A few moments before he
died he cried out in his delirium. "Order A. P. Hill to prepare for
action! pass the infantry to the front rapidly! tell Major Hawks—"
then stopped, leaving the sentence unfinished. Presently a smile of
ineffable sweetness spread itself over his pale face, and he said quietly
and with an expression as if of relief: "Let us cross over the river
and rest under the shade of the trees," and then, without pain or the
least struggle, his spirit passed from earth to the God who gave it.

The remains of "Stonewall" Jackson he in an unpretentious grave
at Lexington, Virginia. It may be of interest to note that the favorite
war steed of General Jackson, "Old Sorrel," lived many years and
was affectionately cared for, an honored pensioner of the Virginia
Military Institute. General Jackson was twice married, first to a
daughter of Rev. George Junkin, D. D., and secondly to a daughter
of Rev. Dr. Morrison, of North Carolina. A sister of Mrs. Jackson
is the wife of General Daniel H. Hill, late Confederate States Army.
Only one child of General Jackson, by his second marriage, survives
— Miss Julia Jackson — who, with her mother, has been the object
of the most respectful attentions throughout this country. The
graciousness of their reception during a visit to Massachusetts is
noteworthy, as a generous expression of the people of that State,
and it is held in connection therewith as a somewhat curious exemplification
that the most marked attentions were at the hands of the then
Chief Magistrate of the State, General Benjamin Franklin Butler.

A bronze statue of General Jackson, executed by J. H. Foley, R. A.,
and presented to the State of Virginia by English admirers of the
great soldier, stands in the Capitol grounds at Richmond, Virginia.
It is shown in Vol. II. from a special photograph taken for this
work. It was unveiled with appropriate ceremonies, October 26,
1875, Gov. Kemper and Rev. M. D. Hoge, D. D., delivering addresses.

MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY—PHILOSOPHER OF THE SEAS.

In the lineage of Matthew Fontaine Maury there was commingled
a double strain of the conscientious Huguenot blood with meritorious
Virginia springs. He was seventh in descent from John de la Fontaine,
born about 1500 in the province of Maine, near the borders of
Normandy; commissioned in the household of Francis I., of France;
served continuously during the reigns of Henry II., Francis II., and
until the second year of Charles IX., when he resigned; martyred as
a Protestant in 1563. His grandson, Rev. James Fontaine, pastor of
the United Churches of Vaux and Royan; born in 1658, married A. E.
Boursiquot; fled to Great Britain from religious persecution. His
daughter, Mary Anne, born in Taunton, England, 1690, married in
Dublin, Ireland, in 1716, Matthew Maury, a Huguenot refugee (died
in 1752), and they emigrated to Virginia in 1718. Their son, Rev.
James Maury, born 1717, died 1767, a learned and beloved minister
of the Protestant Episcopal Church, married Elizabeth Walker, of estimable
Virginia lineage. Their son, Richard Maury, married Diana
Minor, of worthy descent. They had issue nine children, of whom the
seventh, and the third son, was the subject of this sketch, Matthew
Fontaine, born 16th of January, 1806, in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.
His father removed to Tennessee in young Matthew's fourth
year, and established himself near Nashville. In his sixteenth year
young Maury entered Harpeth Academy. In 1825 he was appointed
Midshipman in the United States Navy, making his first cruise in the
frigate Brandywine, on the coast of Europe and in the Mediterranean.
The voyage across the Atlantic was rendered memorable by tempestuous
weather and the presence of General Lafayette, a return passenger
to France. In 1826 Maury was transferred to the sloop of war
Vincennes, for a cruise around the world. Having passed with credit
the usual examination, he was appointed, in 1831, Master of the sloop
of war Falmouth, then fitting out for the Pacific, but was soon transferred
to the schooner Dolphin, serving as acting First Lieutenant,
until again transferred to the frigate Potomac, in which he returned
to the United States in 1834. He then published his first work,
Maury's Navigation, which was adopted as a text-book in the navy.
He was now selected as astronomer, and offered the appointment of
hydrographer to the exploring expedition to the South Seas, under
the command of Lieutenant Wilkes, but declined these positions. In
1837 he was promoted to the grade of Lieutenant, and not long afterwards
met with the painful accident by which he was lamed for
life. For several years, unable to perform the active duties of his
profession, he devoted his time to mental culture, to the improvement
of the navy, and to other matters of national concern. His views,
forcibly stated, were published first and mainly in the Southern Literary
Messenger, over the nom de plume of Harry Bluff, and under the
general caption of "Scraps from the Lucky Bag." To the influence of

these essays has been justly ascribed the great reforms then made in
the navy, as well as the establishment of a naval academy. He also
advocated the establishment of a navy yard at Memphis, Tennessee,
which was done by act of Congress. Under his directions were made,
at that point, by Lieutenant Marr, the first series of observations upon
the flow of the Mississippi. He proposed a system of observations
which would enable the observers to give information, by telegraph,
as to the state of the river and its tributaries. He advocated the enlargement
of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, that vessels of war
might pass between the gulf and the lakes. He suggested to Congress
efficacious plans for the disposition of the drowned government lands
along the Mississippi. In the interest of commerce, he brought forward
and successfully advocated the "warehousing system."

In 1842 he was appointed Superintendent of the Depot of Charts and
Instruments, at Washington. Up to this time the field in which
Maury labored was limited to his own country. Placed in a position
which afforded the means necessary to the full employment of his
powers, he speedily developed the plans which he had previously
cherished and so earnestly advocated. The simple Depot for Charts
and Instruments was transformed into an Observatory. Surrounded
by such men as Fergusson, Walker, Hubbard, Coffin, Keith, and other
faithful workers, whom he inspired with his own enthusiasm, he made
the Naval Observatory national in its importance and relations to the
astronomical world. This accomplished, he added to those labors of
the astronomer, fruitful of results for future years, the task of unraveling
the winds and currents of the ocean, and collected from the logbooks
of ships of war long stored in the government offices, and from
all other accessible sources, the material suited to his purpose. By
numerous assistants, it was tabulated, and by him discussed, thus
yielding for the guidance of the mariner on a single route, the combined
experience of thousands. Yet Maury's first chart to navigators,
with his new route, which he was wont to afterwards delightedly call
his "Fair Way to Rio," was as first doubted and declined as being
opposite to all previous tending, but its accuracy being triumphantly
demonstrated by Captain Jackson, commanding the W. H. D. C.
Wright, of Baltimore, the maratime world hastened to acknowledge
the beneficence conferred, and to contribute aid to the speedy and
complete application of Maury's system to all seas.

Maury also instituted the system of deep-sea sounding, rendering
easy of accomplishment all operations of that character since undertaken,
and leading directly to the establishment of telegraphic communication
between the continents by cable, on the bed of the ocean.
In these labors he was effectively assisted by Colonel John M. Brooke
(now a professor in the Virginia Military Institute), then on duty in
the Naval Observatory, and whose deep-sea sounding apparatus first
brought up specimens, whilst it fathomed the depths of the ocean.

But to these immediately practical and beneficial results there was
something to be added. The investigations, of which they were the
first fruits, presented materials for a work to make clear to landsmen
as well as mariners, the wonderful mechanism of the sea, with its currents
and its atmosphere, "The Physical Geography of the Sea,"
which, translated into various languages, is an enduring monument
to the genius and usefulness of its author. By Humboldt, Maury was
declared to be the founder of a new and important science. The
principal powers of Europe recognized the value of his services to
mankind. France, Austria, Russia, Prussia, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal,
Sweden, Sardinia, Holland, Bremen, and the Papal States, bestowed
orders of knighthood and other honors. The Academies of
Science of Paris, Berlin, Brussels, St. Petersburg and Mexico conferred
the honor of membership.

When Virginia, seceding from the Union, called upon her sons, he
promptly resigned from the Federal Navy to take part in the defense
of his native State, declining, from a sense of duty, highly honorable
positions, which he was invited to fill in Russia and France severally.
He was selected as one of the Council of Three appointed by the Governor
of Virginia in the important crisis, and so served until its army
and navy were incorporated with those of the Confederacy, when he
was sent abroad by the Southern Government, invested with suitable
powers of provision for its material naval wants. This trust he duly
filled until the close of the war.

Then, in anticipation of a large emigration from the Southern States
to Mexico, with the view of aiding his countrymen there, he went
thither. He was cordially received by the Emperor Maximilian, who
appointed him to a place in his Cabinet. Thence he was sent on a
special mission to Europe. The revolution terminating his relations with
Mexico, he was left in straitened circumstances, when he resumed,
as a means of support, his scientific and literary labors. He made experimental
researches in new application of electricity, in which he
was eminently successful, and prepared his Manual of Geography,
subsequently published in America. During this period the University
of Cambridge conferred on him the degree of LL.D.; and the
Emperor of the French invited him to the superintendency of the
Imperial Observatory at Paris. He patriotically preferred to accept
the chair of Physics in the Virginia Military Institute. Whilst serving
here, he prepared his latest work, the Physical Survey of Virginia.

Stricken with a gastric complaint in October, 1872, he died at Lexington,
Virginia, February 1, 1873. His remains rest beneath a
monument of native James river granite in Hollywood Cemetery, near
Richmond. Commodore Maury married in early life, Anne, daughter
of Dabney and Elizabeth Herndon, of Fredericksburg, Virginia (the
sister of a devotedly heroic brotherhood). Their issue was five
daughters and three sons.