GOVERNORS (FOR VIRGINIA). Beverley Randolph, Cumberland County; W. H. Cabell, Cumberland County; Wm. B. Giles, Amelia County; L. W. Tazewell, Norfolk County; P. W. McKinney, Prince Edward County; W. H. Mann, Nottoway County; Wyndham Robertson, Chesterfield County ("on the site of Manchester opposite Richmond"). GOVERNORS (OTHER STATES). Wm. C. C. Claiborne, Sussex County, Va., Mississippi and Louisiana; T. W. Ligon, Prince Edward County, Va., Maryland; Wilson Lumpkin, Pittsylvania County, Va., Georgia; Abner Nash, Prince Edward County, Va., North Carolina; Sterling Price, Prince Edward County, Va., Missouri; James Turner, Southampton County, Va., North Carolina. JUDGES.5 Among the judges of the superior courts were: Dabney Carr (about 1810), Peter Randolph (about 1812-1821), Thomas Tyler Bouldin (1821-1825), John Y. Mason, James H. Gholson, John W. Nash, Thomas S. Gholson, E. C. Chambers. 1820. Peter Randolph probably removed from Nottoway about 1843. Circuit judge, James H. Gholson (Brunswick). 1848. 1854. 1856. John W. Nash (Powhatan) circuit judge, second cir- 1861. Thomas S. Gholson, circuit judge. The Gholsons were brothers and lived in Brunswick; Thomas was a member of the Confederate Congress. John W. Nash lived in Powhatan. 5Judge Watson had compiled names of Virginians in Congress and in the higher State offices for various years of the nineteenth century. These names do not relate particularly to Southside men, are easily obtainable, and therefore are not given here. He had also listed a great many names of Southside members of the Virginia Legislature. These names are omitted here, being easily and more completely available in "A Register of the General Assembly of Virginia, 1776-1918," comp. by E. G. Swem and J. W. Williams. (Supplement to Annual Report, 1917, Virginia State Library.) 6In 1812, Dabney Carr was judge in the fifth circuit, which embraced the counties of Dinwiddie, Brunswick, Lunenburg, Nottoway, Amelia, Powhatan and Chesterfield. Judge Peter Randolph lived at Nottoway Court House, at a place now owned by Herman Jackson. Randolph was elected judge of the circuit court in 1812 by the Legislature to succeed Judge William H. Cabell. Dabney Carr ran against him. Richmond Enquirer, January 23, 1812: Peter Randolph, Esq., delegate from Nottoway, James Allen and Daniel Smith, Esq., judges of the circuit courts appointed by the Legislature yesterday-the first to supply place of Judge Cabell, the second of Judge John Coalter, the 3rd of Hugh Nelson, Esq. Dabney Carr was brought forward in opposition to the 1st, Allen Taylor to the 2nd, John G. Jackson, Esq., to the 3rd. Messrs. Randolph, Allen & Smith have been appointed by the Executive. Petersburg Republican, April 3, 1821: Peter Randolph, Esq., having resigned the office of the judge of the general court for the 5th (Petersburg) district, the Governor appointed Samuel Taylor, Esq., of Chesterfield, but Mr. Taylor having declined, T. T. Bouldin, Esq., was appointed to succeed Colonel Randolph. General Joseph Jones appointed collector of the port of Petersburg, vice Dr. Shore, deceased.-Richmond Enquirer, December 7, 1811. Petersburg Republican, and Richmond Enquirer of May 4, 1821: Major General John Pegram has been appointed by the President U. S. marshal for eastern Virginia in room of General Andrew Moore, resigned. In 1786, Patrick Henry moved to Prince Edward County, buying 1700 acres of land of Colonel John Holcombe. This place was near Venable's Ford on the Appomattox River. In 1792, he sold this land and bought of General Henry Lee a fine estate, "Long Island," in Campbell County, and moved there, December, 1792. In 1794, he bought "Red Hill" in Charlotte County and, living there in part, settled there permanently in 1796. Richmond Enquirer, April 6, 1824: price John Randolph got for his tobacco that year." In Richmond Enquirer, December 7, 1811, an editorial under the title of "Gratitude to the Dead," in defense of Tom Paine against sneer of John Randolph contained in speech in Congress, Nov. 19, in which Randolph speaks of Paine as an "English staymaker." George W. Crump, M. D., Powhatan; graduated Princeton College; member of Congress, 1826-27; chief clerk, Pension Bureau, 1832-50; died 1850. Dixon H. Lewis, born Dinwiddie County, Virginia, 1802; eminent lawyer; member of Congress from Alabama, 1829-44; United States Senate, 1844-48. Miss Martha Cocke saw Peter Francisco and remembered seeing him hold a grown man out in one hand. 7Refers to loss on tobacco sustained by John Randolph by the swamping of an old gunboat which was employed in transporting the tobacco from Petersburg to Richmond. 751400 CABANISS. Copy of a circular issued by P. W. Harper, of Dinwiddie, against Dr. John Cabaniss, of Nottoway, found among the papers of the late Judge Jas. Boisseau, of Dinwiddie, and sent to me by his son, Sterling. Boisseau: Departed this Life Form of A Circular Letter, On the 13th inst., at his seat in Nottoway County, In the fourth year of his degree in Medicine. This man, for more than twelve months, has been actively engaged in writing against me, during which time he has used every exertion in his power to exculpate himself from the charge of having made illiberal, ungenerous, and ungentlemanly remarks about me. His letters have been published in the form of a pamphlet and are now circulating among his friends and acquaintances. In the loss of this accomplished son of Hippocrates cowardice, falsehood and illiberality have lost one of their favorite sons, and they have now in common with each other to lament their irreparable loss. He was a coward; for his writing proves it-He was a violator of truth; for I have proven him soHe was illiberal; for he practiced illiberality. "On paper wings he takes his flight; with wax the father bound them fast; the wax is melted by the height, and down the towering boy is cast.". (Signed) P. W. HARPER. Dinwiddie County, Jan. 25th, 1820. NOTTOWAY PEOPLE. Abraham Hatchett lived at old Mrs. Cochran's place on Jeffress' Store road. Very much respected and beloved. Father of John Archer Hatchett; high sheriff, 1820-1. Richard Ligon lived back of John Watson's. Father of Mrs. Rather, who left her property to Dick Rather (Colonel), a member of the jury which tried Dr. Bacon. Daniel Verser lived at Jesse Vaughan's place; father of Col. Buck and Dan. Verser and a member of the jury which tried Dr. Bacon, 1818. A soldier of the Revolution. Sam Dunnavant lived at Dr. Royall's; tried Dr. Bacon. Billy Dunnavant lived between Mrs. Jeter's and Burkeville. On jury of Dr. Bacon. Wm. Fowlkes lived near Dr. Cabaniss's somewhere. Killed accidentally while crow-shooting. William Anthony tried for his murder but cleared. On jury of Dr. Bacon. John Overstreet and Micajah Jennings lived in the Rocky Ford vicinity; Overstreet beyond the river and to the right of the road; Jennings on the Ray place (Rev. Geo. Ray). Jurors of Dr. Bacon. Sanney Baldwin lived at what we call "Baldwin's." Wash. Baldwin (same family) lived at John Harding's. Williamson Dickinson, son of Noten Dickinson, lived at old John or Ben Overton's place; high sheriff in 1844. William Yates, who was commonwealth's attorney from about 1812 to 1818, lived about or at Wortham's place (now Goodwyn's); and Judge Peter Randolph, his kinsman, lived near the mill site (Fitzgerald's) which he first established, building a dam somewhat below the present one, with the statement that it was so strong and so secure that God Almighty himself could not break it. The rains are said to have taken it away very soon afterwards. (Statement of Mr. Freeman Epes.) Major Anderson died in the woods near Abner Robertson's place. Mr. Cousins's boy, going down for the cows, found him lying in a dying condition after falling from his horse. No cause of death was ascertained. He then lived at Dr. Royall's place with a son-in-law, Owen, who moved to North Carolina. He won old Colonel Verser's last negro at cards. Survivors of Nottoway County made out by R. W. Oliver and myself, July 23, 1915: George Irby, Walter Irby, J. R. Foster ("Slab"), T. W. Epes ("Horse Shoe Tom"), P. H. Allen ("Rack"), George Hawkes, R. T. Jeter ("Turkey Tom"), G. T. Crawley, W. Macon Ingram, Peter Epes ("Peter Rusty"), Freeman Epes, L. H. Hayes. GEORGE C. DROMGOOLE. George C. Dromgoole was one of the most brilliant and original men ever produced by the Southside. He was born in Brunswick County, Virginia, May 15, 1797. Of his probable ancestry an article on the Dromgooles in Ireland in the Richmond Enquirer of May 24, 1847, states that they were originally Scandinavians and had acquired great estates about Dublin. His own account of his family in Virginia is found in the Richmond Enquirer of May 22, 1847, in a letter written by George C. Dromgoole to William L. McKenzie, and sent by him to the New York Tribune, from which it was copied. This letter is as follows: "My parents were not both natives of the Emerald Isle. My father, Edward Dromgoole, was born in Sligo. When a youth he came to America, a poor boy with religious impressions and a strong desire for religious freedom. He landed in Philadelphia in 1772; came to Baltimore and resided in that city, or its vicinity, with a Mr. John Haggerty, a tailor by trade and a man 8 Hon. Louis S. Epes, of Blackstone, Va., states that this list refers to survivors of Nottoway cavalry in the Civil War. of most exemplary piety. Edward Dromgoole had been brought up in Ireland to the trade of linen weaver. At Baltimore he assisted Haggerty at tailoring that he might not eat the bread. of idleness. They both became disciples of John Wesley. In 1774 he commenced preaching and travelled extensively in Virginia and North Carolina as an itinerant Methodist preacher. He held the first Methodist class meeting in America. He settled in Brunswick County in the State of Virginia, where he resided until his death in 1835, in the 84th year of his age, having been a minister of the Gospel for more than sixty years. He intermarried with Rebecca Walton in said county, whose ancestors had early emigrated from England to America. Whether they descended from the family of the bishop, the author of the Polyglot Bible, or from old Isaac the fisherman, is not known, nor is it material. They lived happily together, raised and educated a family of children and left them a competency acquired neither by speculation nor extortion; it was the result of economy and honest industry. I am their youngest child." George C. Dromgoole was rather below the average height and was inclined to stoutness. His picture exhibits most striking features, strong in expression and in outline. The mouth is of prodigious size, the forehead proportionately huge, like Mr. Webster's; his eye was most engaging and his hair was worn long after the Southern fashion of that day; altogether he must have been a man of prepossessing appearance, as we know him to have been of most prepossessing address. He dressed plainly, but well; a blue dress coat with grey trousers and slouch hat constituted his usual costume. He was a man of simple tastes and while a slave-holder of competent means never aspired to the ostentations of social life. His home was no doubt very quiet, as he never married, a choice to which, possibly, he was influenced by Lord Bacon's declaration that "the best works and of greatest merit to the public have proceeded from unmarried or childless men." At one period he gave some attention to military affairs and became brigadier-general of the State militia.9 He was educated at the University of North Carolina and at William and Mary College, and had as contemporaries at William and Mary William O. Goode, of Mecklenburg County, Judge Clopton, of New Kent County, and Alexander Brodnax, of Brunswick County. He left Williamsburg in 1818, and retired to his native county. I am not aware that he ever practiced law to any extent and assume that at this period he lived a retired and studious life upon his estate. In 1823, however, he was called to public life by an election to the Virginia House of Delegates and three years later to a seat in the State Senate from the district of Brunswick, "Of the Fifteenth Brigade; he resigned in 1838 and was succeeded by James W. Pegram. |