History of Essex County Virginia United States of America

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James Allen Latane, R.E. bishop, was born in Essex county, Va., Jan. 15, 1831; son of Henry Waring and Susan (Allen) Latan?, and a descendant of Rev. Louis Latent, a Huguenot, who left France in 1685, studied at Oxford, was ordained by the Bishop of London, came to Essex county, Va., in April, 1700, and died in 1732. James received an academic education, studied law at the University of Virginia, 1848-53, and was graduated from the Virginia Theological seminary at Alexandria in 1856. He was married, Nov. 7, 1855, to Mary Minor Holladay of Charlottesville, Va. He was made a deacon at Millwood, Va., 1856, and priest at Staunton, Va., 1857, by Bishop Meade, and was rector of Trinity church, Staunton, Va., 1857-71, and of St. Matthew's church, Wheeling, W. Va., 1871-74. Shortly after the establishment of the Reformed Episcopal church, he joined that denomination and founded churches in Essex and King William counties, Va. He was elected bishop at Chicago, Ill., in 1876, and declined, but accepted when re-elected in 1879, and was assigned to the missionary jurisdiction of the south. He removed in 1880 to Baltimore, Md., where he took charge of the Bishop Cureming Memorial church, and later of the Church of the Redeemer. He was unanimously elected presiding bishop of the Reformed Episcopal church of the United States in 1883, and again in 1900. The honorary degree of D.D. was conferred on him by Hampden-Sidney college. His brother, Capt. William Latan?, 9th Virginia cavalry, C.S.A., born, Jan. 16, 1833, killed in Stuart's raid around McClellan's army, June 13, 1862, is the subject of John R. Thompson's poem, "The Burial of Latan?." James died in Baltimore, Md., Feb. 22, 1902.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett, representative, was born at Elmwood, Essex county, Va., July 25, 1821; son of James Mercer and Maria (Hunter) Garnett; grandson of James Mercer Garnett; and a descendant of Muscoe Garnett and of James Hunter. He was graduated from the University of Virginia in academic studies in 1839 and in law in 1841, and was admitted to the bar in 1841, practising at Lloyd's, Va. He was a member of the convention that met in 1850 to revise the state constitution; was a member of the state legislature, 1853-56; and was elected in 1856 a Democratic representative in the 34th congress to fill a vacancy. He was re-elected to the 35th and 36th congresses, serving until the outbreak of the civil war. He was a member of the Virginia secession convention of 1861, and was also a representative in the 1st Confederate congress. He was married in 1860 to Mary Pictou, daughter of Edwin A. Stevens of Hoboken, N.J. Besides his speeches in congress and in the state legislature and conventions, he wrote in 1850 a pamphlet entitled The Union, Past and Future; how it works and how to save it. By a Citizen of Virginia, which discussed the political issues of the day, and created great interest throughout the South. He died at Elmwood, Essex county, Va., Feb. 14, 1864.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter, statesman, was born at Hunter's Hill, Essex county, Va., April 21, 1809; son of James and Maria (Garnett) Hunter; grandson of William and Sarah (Garnett) Hunter, and of Muscoe and Grace Fenton (Mercer) Garnett, and a direct descendant of James Hunter, who (or his son William) immigrated from Dunse, Scotland, and settled in or near Fredericksburg, Va. He was the uncle of the Hon. Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett. He was graduated at the University of Virginia in 1829 and at the Winchester Law school in 1830. He practised law in Lloyd's, Essex county, and was a representative in the state legislature, 1834-36. He represented his district in the 25th, 26th, 27th and 29th congresses, 1837-43 and 1845-47, and served as speaker of the house in the 26th congress, when only thirty years of age. He was chosen U.S. senator in 1846 as successor to W.S. Archer; took his seat, Dec. 6, 1847, and was re-elected in 1852 and again in 1858. In the senate be advocated the annexation of Texas, the compromise of the Oregon question, the tariff bill of 1846, and opposed the Wilmot proviso. He advocated the retrocession to Virginia of the portion of the District of Columbia west of the Potomac river, and voted to extend the line established by the Missouri compromise to the Pacific ocean. He opposed the admission of California and the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and took his political stand as a state-rights Democrat, on the question of slavery. He became chairman of the finance committee in 1850, held that position until 1861, and framed the tariff act of 1857 which lowered duties and reduced the revenue. In the Kansas troubles he advocated the bill of 1855 forbidding the use of the U.S. army to enforce the acts of the pro-slavery Kansas legislature; also favored the repeal of the Missouri pro-slavery law, which declared the death penalty for nearly fifty offences possible against the rights of slave-holders, and in 1857-58 he advocated the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton constitution. In the Democratic national convention of 1860 at Charleston he was a prominent candidate for the nomination for President of She United States and received, next to Stephen A. Douglas, the largest number of votes on the first six ballots. He took an active part in the campaign of 1856, speaking through the North and foretelling the dissolution of the Union if the rights of the southern states were abrogated in the territories. In a sketch of Mr. Hunter Mr. L. Q. Washington says: "When the great and regrettable contest between the North and the South arose, Mr. Hunter held that the South was simply standing on her constitutional rights. He held that it was her right and duty to resist aggression. He stated his position in temperate, thoughtful, conciliatory, but firm, language. At no time of his life did he for one moment doubt the perfect justice and truth of the Southern cause. Gladly would he have welcomed a settlement between the contending states on the firm basis of constitutional rights for both sections, safety for his own people, malice and injury to none, and an enduring peace with honor." He took an active part in the secession convention at Richmond, Va., and on the secession of Virginia, in 1861, he left the U.S. senate. He became a member of the provisional Confederate congress at Montgomery, Ala., and was suggested as the President of the new government, with Jefferson Davis as commander-in-chief of the army. On July 21, 1861, Mr. Davis made him his secretary of state, on the resignation of Secretary Toombs to enter the Confederate army. Mr. Hunter resigned this position when unanimously elected to the Confederate States senate by the legislature of Virginia and he was made president pro tempore of the senate. In February, 1865, with Alexander H. Stephens and John A. Campbell be was a peace commissioner and met Mr. Lincoln and Secretary Seward on board the River Queen in Hampton Roads. On his return to Richmond from the fruitless conference he presided over the war meeting that resolved, without opposition, to carry on the war till the South bad achieved its independence. He opposed the bill allowing freedom to such slaves as should serve in the Confederate army, and when the question came to a vote, he acted under instructions from his constituents and voted for the measure under an emphatic protest. He was arrested at the close of the war, and after imprisonment in Fort Pulaski for several months. was released on parole, and in 1867 was pardoned by President Johnson. He was an unsuccessful candidate for U.S. senator from Virginia in 1874, was elected treasurer of the state in 1877, and at the close of his term, in 1880, retired to his farm in Essex county, Va. He was appointed by President Cleveland, U.S. collector of customs at the port of Rappahannock, Va., in June, 1886. Sketches of his life by Col. L. Q. Washington will be found in Our Living Representative Men, from Official and Original Sources, by John Savage (1860), and an address published in the Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. XXV., pp. 193-205 (1897). He died at his home, Fonthill, near Lloyd's, Essex county, Va., July 18, 1887.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

James Mercer Garnett, representative, was born at Elmwood, Essex county, Va., June 8, 1770; son of Muscoe and Grace Fenton (Mercer) Garnett; and grandson of James Garnett of Essex county, Va., and of John Mercer of Stafford county, Va., who emigrated to Virginia from Dublin, Ireland, early in the 18th century. His uncle, James Mercer, was a judge of the court of appeals of Virginia, a member of the committee of safety of 1775-76, and of the state conventions of 1774, 1775 and 1776. He was married in 1793 to Mary Eleanor Dick, daughter of James and Eleanor (Dick) Mercer. He served in 1799-1800 and again in 1825-26, as a member of the Virginia legislature, and was a representative from Virginia in the 9th and 10th congresses, 1805-09. While in congress he was, with John Randolph of Roanoke, Nathaniel Macon of Worth Carolina and others, a member of that "Mixed Party," which opposed some of the measures of Mr. Jefferson's second administration. Mr. Randolph in the pamphlet edition of his speech on "Retrenchment and Reform," delivered in the house of representatives in February, 1828, in reply to Mr. Everett of Massachusetts, makes reference to Mr. Garnett and appends a note, saying: "I take pride in naming this gentleman among my steady, uniform and unwavering friends. In congress he never said an unwise thing or gave a bad vote. He has kept the faith from 1799, when he supported the doctrines of Madison's famous report made at the session of the Virginia assembly of which he was a member." He was a member of the convention assembled at Richmond in 1829 to revise the state constitution. He was well known as an educator and conducted in his home a school for girls, 1821-29, and later a school for boys. He was also devoted to agriculture, writing extensively on the subject; presiding over the Agricultural society of Fredericksburg, Va., for more than twenty years, and was the founder and first president of the National agricultural society. He was a member of the grand jury that indicted Aaron Burr in 1807, of which jury John Randolph of Roanoke was foreman. He was an intimate friend of John Randolph, and an interesting correspondence of the two, from 1805 to 1833, the year of Mr. Randolph's death, has been preserved. He has been characterized by his nephew, the Hon. Robert M. T. Hunter, U.S. and C.S. senator, as "a Virginia gentleman, a Christian philosopher, a cultivated scholar." He contributed to the Spirit of Seventy-Six, the Argus, the Richmond Enquirer, the Southern Literary Messenger. Ruffin's Farmer's Register, the Albany Cultivator, and Skinner's American Farmer. He published lectures on female education (1824-25-26), and on male education entitled Token of Regard Presented to the Pupils of the Elmwood School (1830); Constitutional Charts (1829); and other lectures and addresses on education and agriculture. He died at Elmwood, Va., April 23, 1843.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Essex County Virginia

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