USA > Virginia > Encyclopedia of Virginia biography, Volume V > Part 49
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Mr. Slater is a son of Parke Slater, a dis- tinguished soldier of the Confederacy, and a grandson of Daniel and Mary Slater, of New Kent county, Virginia, a descendant of of an early, influential Virginia family. Dan- iel Slater owned a plantation worked by slave labor and was one of the extensive tobacco planters of New Kent county. He served in the war of 1812, inheriting the ardor of revolutionary sires and transmit- ting equal ardor to his posterity. He is re- membered as a man of nervous tempera- ment, quick in speech and action, but just and generous. Parke Slater was a large landowner of New Kent county, one of the wealthy planters of ante bellum days. He served with great distinction throughout the war between the states, then quietly ac- cepting its results, returned to Williams- burg and rebuilt his shattered fortunes. He
Robert S. Bright
zisterias
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married, in 1842, Virginia Helena Lee, and had issue : Lucullus Philip, James Lee, John C. Calhoun, Virginia Cordelia and Corylind.
Lucullus Philip Slater was born in Wil- liamsburg, Virginia, 1843, and after a course of private school instruction entered William and Mary College, then under the super- vision of Colonel Seawall. He left college in his eighteenth year to enlist in the Con- federate army, enrolling on April 17, 1861, in the Williamsburg Junior Guards, which went to the front as Company C, Thirty- seventh Regiment Virginia Infantry, Army of Northern Virginia. He served through- out the entire war and when paroled at Appomattox he ranked as lieutenant. He was wounded in the battle of Seven Pines and was once held as a prisoner of war, but only for one hour. He passed through all the vicissitudes of the Army of Northern Virginia, under its great commander, Gen- eral Lee, alternately rejoicing in victory, and suffering under reverse, but always brave, hopeful and faithful to whatever duty assigned him.
After the war he made Portsmouth his home and has there since continuously re- sided. In the early years he opened and taught a private school, but his reputation as a teacher attracted the attention of the board of education and he was offered the principalship of the city high school. He ac- cepted the offer and for a number of years was the efficient head of that school. The work there performed was of high order and resulted in a great forward movement that placed the school among the best and most useful in the state. During this period, ending in 1900, Mr. Slater was a member of the city councils several terms, was presi- dent of council, and rendered useful service in framing legislation. bringing the city in line with the best modern thought in civic government. In 1900 he was elected city clerk, an office he yet holds.
This brief review of the activities of a life honorably and usefully spent but im- perfectly indicates the true worth and value of the life and service of Mr. Slater. But his record is indelibly written in the records of the departments in which he has served and in the lives of thousands who have passed under his teaching and influence. His methodical methods in connection with the clerk's office have been valuable aids to greater efficiency and greatly facilitated the
work of that office. Although now past his seventiethi year there is no faltering in his devotion to duty, nor any indication that experienced matured judgment is not a bet- ter asset than youthful enthusiasm. His friends are legion and nowhere is he more genuinely welcomed than among his army comrades of Stonewall Camp, Confederate Veterans. In politics he is thoroughly inde- pendent.
Mr. Slater married, in 1879, Elizabeth Buckner, a relative of General Buckner of the Confederate army, and a descendant of Thomas Buckner, who came from England in 1667, settling in Gloucester county, Vir- ginia. Among his children are: Lucullus Philip (2), and Fannie Lee.
Robert Southall Bright. The name of Bright is of ancient Saxon origin and has been quite common in England from a very early period to the present time, borne by many eminent men, notably John Bright, the statesman. In Saxon it was spelled "Beorght" and was used as signifying "dis- tinguished," "excellent," "surpassing in courage," "an excellent or distinguished man." The Brights of Suffolk, England, trace to William Bright, rector of Endgate, Eccles, whose patron was the Abbott of Bury St. Edmunds. To this family arms, confirmed in 1615, are thus described in Burke's "Armory": "Sable, a fesse argent between three escallops or." Crest: "A dragon's head gule vomiting flames of fire proper, collared or." In America the name is found from the time of the earliest Eng- lish settlements, appearing as early as 1630.
Robert Southall Bright. of the Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania, bar, a twentieth cen- tury representative of the family, is a son of Captain Robert Anderson Bright, a brave officer of the Confederate army, aide-de-camp to General George E. Pickett, who especially commended him in his official reports for "Gallantry and untiring zeal." Captain Bright was appointed a member of General Pickett's staff on the latter's promotion to the rank of major-general, October 10, 1862, and thereafter followed the fortunes of his chief through the terrific struggles of the Army of Northern Virginia with her valiant foe, the Army of the Potomac, on both northern and southern soil. In his report on the operations at Newbern General Pick- ett wrote: "I sent Captain Bright across
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the Trent to communicate with General Barton, a commission accomplished by Cap- tain Bright at great risk." In his report on the battle at Sailor's Run General Pickett mentions Captain Bright among those serv- ing with "Gallantry and untiring zeal." After the war Captain Bright settled at Williams- burg, Virginia, and was engaged in agri- cultural operations until his retirement. He died in 1907. He was a son of Samuel Bright, also of Williamsburg, Virginia. Captain Bright married Nannie, daughter of Colonel John D. Munford.
Robert Southall Bright was born in Wil- liamsburg, Virginia, May 24, 1872, son of Captain Robert Anderson and Nannie (Munford) Bright. After preparation in private schools he entered William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia. whence he was graduated Bachelor of Arts, class of 1888. In 1890 he began the study of law in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was duly admitted to the bar in 1894, and has since been in the general practice of his profession in all state and Federal courts of the Philadelphia district. He is a member of the American Bar Association and of the City and State Bar associations, and in his chosen profession has attained honorable position.
Ever an interested active Democrat, Mr. Bright in 1914 was selected by the Demo- cratic state convention that met in Harris- burg, June 3-4, as one of the candidates named by the convention for Congressmen- at-large. In an eloquent speech before the convention and on many platforms through- out the campaign he forcibly enunciated the principles for which he stood, but Pennsyl- vania, rock-ribbed in her Republican loy- alty, again stood for the old order, the en- tire Democratic ticket being defeated. Mr. Bright is president of the Democratic Club of Philadelphia and one of the strong men of the party. He is a member of Grace Prot- estant Episcopal Church, which he serves as vestryman, is a trustee of Lovett Memorial Free Library, and a member and ex-secre- tary of the Pennsylvania branch of the As- sociation for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. His college fraternities are Phi Beta and Kappa Sigma. His clubs are the University, Rittenhouse, Philadelphia Cricket, Lawyers', Huntingdon Valley Country, Southern of Philadelphia, and the City, of New York.
Mr. Bright married, October 15, 1895, in Grace Church, Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, Caro- line de Beelen Lovett, daughter of George S. and Caroline (de Beelen) Lovett, who at the time of their daughter's birth were re- siding in Grand Rapids, Michigan. An only son, Douglass Southall Bright, was born in Philadelphia, August 19, 1896.
William Roane Aylett, M. D. Dr. Wil- liam Roane Aylett, of Newport News, de- scends from one of the pioneer settlers of Virginia, and from a very old family in Eng- land. The name originally appeared in the latter country as Ayloffe, and is found in Braxted Magna, in Essex. In 1612, Sir Wil- liam Ayloffe, of Braxted Magna, was knight- ed by King James I, and later created a baronet. He married Catherine Sterne, had three sons and four daughters, and was suc- ceeded by his eldest son, Sir Benjamin Ay- loffe. About this time the spelling of the name is found in many forms, including : Ayliffe, Ailett, Aylett and Ayloff. Sir Ben- jamin Ayloffe was a "high-minded, grand old English gentleman, of great nobilitie of soul, tenderness of heart in all things, and times, an unswerved Royalist to the last." He married three times and had issue only by the second wife, Margaret Fanshame, who died in 1662. They were: William, Benjamin, Henry, Captain John and Cath- erine.
The youngest son, Captain John Aylett, came to Virginia in 1656. He had a wife Anne, and had three sons: Philip, men- tioned below; Benjamin, born 1660; Wil- liam, 1662; and two daughters. Philip Ay- lett, son of Captain John and Anne Aylette, moved to King William county, Virginia, and founded the family seat at Fairfield. His only known child, Colonel William Ay- lett, of Fairfield, was clerk of the county court from 1702 to 1714, member of the house of burgesses, 1723 to 1726, and a ves- tryman of St. John's parish in 1731. He married Anne Taloe, and they had children : Philip, William, Benjamin, John, Elizabeth, Judith and Anne. The eldest son, Philip, resided at Fairfield, married Martha Dand- ridge, and had children: Unity, William, Anne and John. Colonel William Aylett, senior son of Philip and Martha (Dand- ridge) Aylett, was born 1743, and was a very prominent man of King William county, vestryman of St. John's parish ; a
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member of the house of burgesses ; member of the Virginia conventions of 1775-70, and a warm personal friend of General Wash- ington. He resigned his seat in the legis lature, May 22, 1776, to accept a commission from the American Congress as deputy commissary general of the forces in Vir- ginia. He died at Yorktown in 1781. He married, in 1766, Mary Macon, and had chil- dren : Elizabeth, Henry and Colonel Philip. Colonel Philip Aylett held a general's com- mission in the war of 1812, and possessed a very large plantation at Montville, on which multitudes of slaves were employed in the cultivation of cotton, corn and to- bacco. Like all of his family, he adhered to the Episcopal church, and was a stanch Democrat in political principle. He married Judith Page Waller, of Montville, and had children : Patrick Henry, William Roane and Alice Roane.
William Roane Aylett, junior son of Colo- nel Philip and Judith Page (Waller) Aylett, was born in 1832, on the paternal planta- tion in Montville. He was educated under private tutors and at Rumford Academy and the University of Virginia, graduating from the latter institution in both academic and law courses. He engaged in the practice of law in his native county, in which he was very busily occupied until the outbreak of the war between the states. As soon as this appeared inevitable, he organized a com- pany of men, which was attached to the Fifty-third Virginia Regiment of Volun- teers, and was elected its first captain. He was soon promoted lieutenant-colonel, and at the time of his retirement was in com- mand of the regiment as colonel, the organi- zation forming a part of Pickett's division. Armistead's brigade. At the battle of Get- tysburg he received a severe wound, and suffered minor injuries on various other oc- casions. At Sailor's Creek he was made a prisoner and was subsequently paroled after which he returned to his law practice, and made himself famous. For sixteen years he was commonwealth's attorney. For many years he was a vestryman of the Episcopal church, was a member of Pickett's Camp, Confederate Veterans, and in poli- tics a sound Democrat. He died in 1900. In 1858 he married Alice Brockenborough, born 1838, died 1895. Children: I. Sallie, married Richard T. Goodwin, and had chil- dren : Richard and Sallie. 2. Pattie Waller,
wife of Dr. George Carrington Callaway, had children : Alice, Carrington, Henry, Ed- ward, Pattie, Aylett. 3. Philip, married Christianna Fernquest, and had a daughter, Elsie. 4. Alice Page, married Dr. Moses T. Hoge, Jr., and became the mother of Alice, Bessie, William A., and Susan. 5. William Roane, of further mention below. 6. Bessie B., wife of Austin B. Mitchell, and mother of Austin and Pattie Mitchell. 7. Patrick Henry, single.
Dr. William Roane (2) Aylett, second son of William Roane (I) and Alice ( Brocken- borough) Aylett, was born November 2, 1871, on the old plantation at Montville. He was educated under private tutors, took an academic course, and graduated in the academic and medical departments of the University of Virginia, taking the degree of M. D. in 1895. Following his graduation he gained practical experience in the Orange Hospital, Orange, New Jersey, where he was two years an interne, and in 1897 set- tled at Newport News, Virginia, where he has since been engaged successfully in the practice of his profession. Today he occu- pies a leading position as physician and sur- geon in Warwick county, and is a member of the staff of St. Francis Hospital. He is a member of the American Medical Society, Virginia Medical Association, the Tide Water Medical Societies of Virginia and North Carolina, and the local medical so- ciety. Following the precepts of his for- bears he maintains connection with the Protestant Episcopal church, is a member of the great Masonic fraternity, and gives political allegiance to Democratic principles and policies. While busily engaged in car- ing for his patients, Dr. Aylett does not re- fuse to give some time to the public ser- vice, and has been for some years chairman of the board of police commissioners of Newport News. He is esteemed as a phy- sician and as a man, and worthily fulfills the traditions of a fine old family, and the duties of an American citizen. He married, June 5, 1900, Sallie Clarke, daughter of J. E. and Anna (Southall) Clarke, of Hender- son, North Carolina.
Maurice Broaddus Rowe. Across the once bullet-swept slopes of St. Mary's Heights, where death in the most horrid form came to so many of the "boys in blue" now graze the blooded herds of Captain
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Maurice B. Rowe. Attached to the army who defended the Heights was the father of Captain Broaddus and at a later period he also served with the army in the quarter- master's department, although but a boy of fifteen years. The Rowe family for many years has been prominently connected offi- cially with the city life of Fredericksburg, Absalom Peyton Rowe, father of the pres- ent generation, occupying the mayor's chair for twelve years. One of his sons, Josiah P. Rowe, is now the incumbent of that of- fice, another son, A. Prescott Rowe, city collecter of taxes and manager of the Free Lance-Star Publishing Company. Absa- iom Peyton Rowe was the son of Rev. George Rowe, a Baptist minister and large plantation owner of Stafford county, Vir- ginia, born 1789, died 1866. He married a Miss Leitch who bore him five sons, and three daughters, but one of whom is now living, Mrs. Ella Brown, of Richmond, Vir- ginia. The sons were: Absalom Peyton, of further mention; John G. and R. Semple, ministers of the Methodist Episcopal church ; George H. C. and Cephas, lawyers ; daughters: Ella, above mentioned, Mrs. Fanny King and Mrs. Mary Ann Luck.
Absalom Peyton, son of Rev. George Rowe, was born in Spottsylvania county, Virginia, and moved to Fredericksburg, Vir- ginia, when a boy. He became a produce merchant of that city, continuing for many years, finally retiring to a stock farm where he became a well-known breeder of blooded farm stock. He served in the Confederate army as quartermaster, and for twelve years was mayor of Fredericksburg, also serving two years in the Virginia house of delegates. He died in 1900, aged eighty-three years. He married Almeda Francis Gayle, born in Caroline county, Virginia, but moved with her parents in youth to Spottsylvania. She died in July, 1913, aged eighty-five years. She was the daughter of Josiah P. Gayle. of Caroline and Spottsylvania counties, died 1870, aged seventy-two years, and his wife, Fanny (Gatewood) Gayle, who died in 1874, aged seventy-three years, leaving children : Mordecai W., Almeda F., Josiah P., Ro- berta, Margaret, Betty, Thomas B., the only living son; two daughters, Roberta and Margaret, both married, are also living (1914). Four of the eight children of Ab- salom P. and Almeda F. Rowe are living : Captain Maurice B., of whom further ; Josiah
P., the present mayor of Fredericksburg ; A. Prescott, manager of the Free Lance- Star Publishing Company ; and Alvin T., a merchant of Fredericksburg.
Captain Maurice Broaddus Rowe was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, February 27, 1850. He attended the public schools until the last year of the war between the states, then joined his father in the quarter- master's department of the Confederate army. After the war was over and Absa- lom P. Rowe began his stock raising oper- ations, Maurice B. was his assistant for sev- eral years, later engaging in the same busi- ness for himself and so continues. His farm is part of the old battle field of Fred- ericksburg, then known as St. Mary's Heights, now Brompton, and over these acres consecrated by the blood of thous- ands of brave men his herds of Jersey and Guernsey cattle now graze. His home is a fine colonial mansion and here he welcomes and entertains his friends with the same genuine hospitality that has made southern homes famous. He has large business in- terests in the city, is president of the Planters' National Bank, also interested in a profitable grocery business and in other activities of importance. Captain Rowe served in the Spanish-American war as cap- tain of Company K. Third Regiment Vir- ginia Volunteers, which with his civil war experience makes him a veteran of the two wars waged during his life time. In civil affairs he has also attained prominence, hav- ing represented his district tour terms in the Virginia house of delegates and for twelve years was a member of the city council and recorder. He is a member of the Masonic order, the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, the Knights of Pythias and the Owls. In political faith he is a Democrat, and in religious belief a Baptist.
Captain Rowe married, June 15, 1876, in Caroline county, Virginia, near Sparta, Cora, daughter of John L. Motley, who died in 1888, a Confederate veteran, and his wife Maria, also deceased. Of the fourteen chil- dren of Captain Rowe six are living: Pey- ton, a member of State Dairy and Food Commission, Richmond, Virginia ; Lena, of Clifton Springs, New York; Mary D., mar- ried Edward W. Chappell, of Waverly, Vir- ginia ; Leland, of the United States Hospi- tal Corps, stationed at Boston, Massachu- setts ; Cora, residing at home ; Maurice, now
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a student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, at Blacksburg, Virginia.
A. Prescott Rowe was born in Freder- icksburg. Virginia, February 14, 1859. He was educated in the private schools and Woodstock Academy, beginning business life as clerk, later his tastes drawing him to journalism and public life. He is now manager of the Free Lance Star Publish- ing Company, a corporation publishing the Free Lance, a tri-weekly, and the Star, a daily newspaper. For several years he has been city collector of taxes, and prominent in public affairs of the city. He is a past master of Lodge, No. 4, Free and Accepted Masons, a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Junior Order of Amer- ican Mechanics and the Fraternal Order of Owls. He is a Democrat in politics, and a member of the Baptist church. He is an ardent devotee of out-of-door sports and ob- tains his recreation largely in walking, ride- ing and boating. He married, June 18. 1903, Blanche, daughter of William L. and Ade- laide I. Messick, granddaughter of L. H. and Mary Jane Irving and George P. and Julia WV. Messick, her family line tracing to the Handys and Hoopers who came to Virginia from England in the seventeenth century ; children : Adelaide and Josiah.
Smith Severn Nottingham. The founder of the Nottingham family in Virginia be- longed to that branch of the family in Eng- land that resided in the county of Kent in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They were connected with the Petts, noted for their distinguished services in the navy and called the founders of the English navy in some of the chronicles of that period.
Richard Nottingham and his wife Eliza- beth came to Virginia in 1646 and settled in Northampton county. on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. He bought a large tract of land from Captain William Stone, who was afterwards made governor of Maryland by Lord Baltimore. Dying in 1692, at the age of seventy-four years. Rich- ard Nottingham bequeathed this estate. which began just north of Eastville, the county seat, to his sons, Richard and Robert, and some of the land still remains an in- heritance in the Nottingham family. His sons became prominent in the affairs of the county. One was appointed a vestryman in 1691 by the colonial council at Williams- burg to establish the Hungars parish, and
the church now standing is one of the old- est in the state. They were officers in the colonial troops and members of the county peace commissions. One of the sons was made high sheriff of the county by Queen Anne in 1713 by special patent and for con- spicuous merit.
Philip Alexander Bruce in his "Social Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Cen- tury" says: "After two hundred and fifty years association with the social and politi- cal life of the Eastern Shore, the Notting- ham family continues today to be one of the most prominent of all those seated in that part of Virginia." And in his "History of the Eastern Shore of Virginia in the Sev- enteenth Century." Jennings C. Wise says "That while the name is practically un- known elsewhere in America, yet so nu- merous are the branches of this ancient family that it has been said that one can make no mistake by addressing an eastern shoreman, if a gentleman, by this name, for if it is not his own name it will probably be that of a near relative." Until the close of the war between the states, in 1865, it was rare to find a Nottingham a permanent resident except on the eastern shore, but with the many changes and vicissitudes growing out of that, to the Southern people, revolution- ary event, some members of the family have become well-known residents of other sec- tions of Virginia and in other states.
Among those who have established them- selves elsewhere is Smith Severn Notting- ham, of Norfolk. He was born at "West- over," Northampton county, Virginia, the son of Smith Severn Nottingham, grandson of General Smith Nottingham, of "Farming- ton," and great-grandson of the Severn Not- tingham (third in descent from the first Richard Nottingham, of Virginia) who was a prominent figure in Northampton county in the eighteenth century. Smith Severn Nottingham, of this review, was educated in the private schools of Petersburg, and be- gan his business career as business manager of the "Norfolk Virginian" in the late sev- enties. He afterwards purchased an interest in the "Norfolk Landmark," one of the lead- ing newspapers in the state, and for a quar- ter of a century was its editor and publisher. After he retired from active newspaper work, he was elected in 1914 one of the three members of the Board of Control, the ad- ministrative branch of the Norfolk city gov- ernment.
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Clarence Porter Jones, M. D. Dr. Clar- ence Porter Jones, a prominent medical prac- titioner of Newport News, descends from one of the old Virginia families, founded by Thomas Jones on Crooked Run, in Brunswick county, Virginia, about 1727. During a per- iod of thirty-three years, beginning with 1727, he received grants of land in that county and in what is now Lunenburg county, amounting in all to seven and one- half square miles. The tract is on the south side of Nottoway river, and both sides of Crooked Run, and the grants were issued by George II. The descent of the family is traced to Ednowain-Bendew, the chief of the XIII. Noble Tribe of North Wales and Powys, who died in 1079. There were nu- merous royal land grants made to people bearing this name from 1726 to 1770, who were supposed to locate in Brunswick county. Evidently all were not actual set- tlers. Five came from Cardiganshire, Wales, who were related to one another, and settled in the northern part of the county, namely : William, Reps, Richard, Robert and Thomas, the last named being the ancestor whose descendants are now under consideration. The family bore coat armor, consisting of three wild boars' heads on a plain shield, separated by a chevron, two above and one below, with a mantle and crest. The crest consisted of an upright dagger on the handle of which rested another boar's head. The motto, translated from Welsh, is: "With- out help from above the arrow flies in vain."
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