USA > Virginia > Encyclopedia of Virginia biography, Volume V > Part 98
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106
மன்' 6 4
WB. Givegey
VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
dred and ninety acres, which he sold to his son Jonathan, who also received the original tract by will dated June 12, 1691. The father undoubtedly died soon after execut- ing this will. The records of Philadelphia do not mention his wife, and it is supposed that she was dead before he came to Amer- ica.
His son, Jonathan Livezey, was undoubt- edly born in Chester county, England, and came with his father to Philadelphia, where he died September 23, 1698. He married Rachel Taylor, and record of six children is found.
The second son, Jonathan Livezey, was born June 15, 1692, in Philadelphia, where he was residing at the time of his death, June 24, 1764. He married, March 24, 1717- 18, Esther, daughter of Robert Eastburn. She survived him more than twenty-four years, dying July 18, 1788, more than nine- ty-four years of age.
Their eldest child, Jonathan Livezey, was born March 8, 1720, in Philadelphia, and resided in Lower Dublin township, Phila- delphia county. He married, January 22, 1747, Catherine Thomas, born March 18, 1722, daughter of Daniel and Catherine (Morris) Thomas. They were the parents of nine children, of whom Daniel Livezey was the third.
Daniel Livezey was born December 14, 1752, in Lower Dublin, and removed, about 1781, to Southampton, Bucks county, Penn- sylvania, where he died in 1796. In 1778 he married Margery, daughter of Robert and Margery Croasdale, born July 3. 1758, and lived to a great age.
Their eldest child, Robert Livezey, born February 20, 1780, at Fox Chase, Philadel- phia county, Pennsylvania, lived in Sole- bury, Bucks county, where he died March 14. 1864. He married, November 14, 1804, Sarah, daughter of Abraham and Elizabeth (Brown) Paxson, born July 1, 1779.
Their third son, Allen Livezey, was born January 11, 1814, in Bucks county, Pennsyl- vania, and about 1855 removed to Philadel- phia, where he was an active member of the Society of Friends. He married, November 28, 1839, Mary Ann, daughter of John and Sarah Gordon. She died July 11, 1876.
Their eldest child, Theodore Livezey, was born August 20, 1840, in Lumberville, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and lived many years in Newport News, Virginia, where he died
April 11, 1912. He was among the promi- nent citizens of Newport News, one of the trusted agents of the late Collis P. Hunt- ington, and active in various business af- fairs of the city. Mr. Livezey was educated in the public schools, and when a youth re- moved with his parents to Philadelphia. Early in the Civil war, in spite of his tenets as a member of the Society of Friends, he responded to the call of his country for vol- unteers, and became a member of the One Hundred and Nineteenth Pennsylvania Vol- unteer Regiment, with which he served un- til the close of the war, receiving a severe wound at the battle of Spottsylvania Court House. After peace came he engaged in business at Philadelphia as a building con- tractor, and his business ability and well- known integrity became known to Collis P. Huntington, who was interested in great enterprises on Virginia tide water. He be- came superintendent of construction of the Old Dominion Land Company, and in this capacity arrived at Newport News, August I, 1881. Four years later he was made su- perintendent of the company, in charge of its local properties and operations. In 1894 he resigned his position to engage in pri- vate business, and was later offered and accepted the position of superintendent of buildings and grounds of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company. While superintendent of the land company he had been active in establishing the Ches- apeake Dry Dock & Construction Company, now the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, and the same was true of the initial work of organization and con- struction of the Newport Light & Water Company. Nearly all the early buildings in the shipyard and many of the first buildings in the city were erected under Mr. Livezey's superintendence. He was also president of the first bank of Newport News, which was then the Bank of Newport, now the First National Bank, of which he was president. One of the most progressive citizens of the new city, he was identified with all its prin- cipal developments, and was widely esteem- ed as a man of efficiency and high character. He married. November 15, 1865, Elizabeth M. Baker, of Philadelphia, daughter of John George and Elizabeth Baker, of that city. Children : Henry Clay, born October 4. 1867. died in New Orleans, Louisiana, December 18, 1904; Walter Baker Livezey, mentioned
1092
VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
below; Herbert Stanley, August 15, 1873, now living in Brooklyn, New York.
Walter Baker Livezey, second son of Theodore and Elizabeth M. (Baker) Live- zey, was born July 1, 1869, in Yardleyville, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and was twelve years of age when he went with his parents to Newport News. He was educated in the public shools of Pennsylvania and then in the Central School under the Society of Friends in Philadelphia. He grew up in Newport News and became identified with many of the most important business affairs of the young city. Beginning in a subordi- nate capacity with the Old Dominion Land Company, he advanced to the position of president, and is also president of the New- port News Light & Water Company, and a director of the First National Bank, and International Tool Company. He is a Dem- ocrat in politics, member of city council and chairman of the finance committee. He is a member of Blue Lodge, Free and Accept- ed Masons, and Westmoreland Club of Rich- mond, Virginia.
He married (first) November 8, 1893, Kate Walker Poe, daughter of George W. and Hattie Poe. She died in Newport News, July 7, 1895, and Mr. Livezey married (sec- ond) February 7, 1899, Ellen Allard John- son, daughter of Samuel W. and Rebecca T. Johnson. There is one child of the first marriage: Elizabeth Baker Livezey, born June 27, 1895.
George Moffett Cochran. The first of this family to settle in Augusta county, Virginia, was John Cochran, who came from Ireland in 1735, settling in Pennsylvania, thence to Virginia in 1745. He was a man of great spirit and enterprise, and though his life was a comparatively short one, he left a handsome inheritance to his children. He was a merchant of Staunton, a planter, and was a worshipper at the old Stone Church. He and his wife, Susanna Donnelly, were both of Covenanter blood, their progenitors going from Scotland to the North of Ire- land. John Cochran died on his estate near the old Stone Church.
James Cochran, the elder son of John and Susanna (Donnelly) Cochran, was distin- guished for the soundness of his judgment, the acuteness of his intellect, and the per- sistency with which he pursued his plans. He accumulated a large estate, was long a
magistrate of Augusta county, and died be- loved and respected by all. He died in Staunton, where he had long lived, in 1836. He married Magdalen, a daughter of Colo- nel George Moffett, of Revolutionary fame, son of John Moffett, one of the first settlers of Augusta county, and Mary Christian, his wife. Colonel George was not only promi- nent in the Indian wars and in the Revolu- tion, but also in civil affairs. He was one of the first trustees of Washington College, Lexington, Virginia, a justice of the peace, and an elder in the Presbyterian church. He was a man of commanding presence and deeply religious in nature. He died in 18II and was buried in Augusta Churchyard. Colonel George Moffett, married Sarah Mc- Dowell, daughter of John McDowell and Magdalene Woods, his wife, and sister of Colonel Samuel McDowell, of Scotch-Irish descent, the American ancestor settling in Virginia between 1735 and 1740. John Mc- Dowell, his son, married in Pennsylvania. where the family first settled, Magdalene Woods, and came to Virginia, first living in the home of his relative, John Lewis, the founder.
George Moffett Cochran, son of James and Magdalene (Moffett) Cochran, was a man of generous means, a large landowner in Augusta county, and a general business man. He held several public offices and was noted for his strict integrity and up- right character. He married Maria T. Boys, daughter of Dr. William Boys, an eminent physician. Educated in Paris and Edin- burgh, son of Major Elias Boys, a merchant of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, extensively engaged in foreign trade, the first member of the Pennsylvania legislature from Phila- delphia after the Revolution. Dr. William Boys located in Staunton, Virginia, about the year 1880, was the first physician of the Western Lunatic Asylum and a man of high social as well as professional eminence. He married a daughter of Alexander St. Clair, one of the men of official prominence in early Augusta history.
George Moffett Cochran, son of George Moffett and Maria T. (Boys) Cochran, was born in Augusta county, Virginia. He mar- ried Margaret Lynn Peyton, born in 1835, daughter of Hon. John Howe Peyton by his second wife, Ann Montgomery Lewis, born March 2, 1802, died July 15, 1850, daugh- ter of Major John and Mary (Preston)
1093
VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
Lewis, of Sweet Springs, Monroe county, Virginia. Major John Lewis was a descend- ant of John Lewis, "Esquire," the founder, "the first white settler of Augusta County." John Lewis was a native of the North of Ireland, of Huguenot descent. He was for some time in Pennsylvania, living in Phila- delphia and Lancaster, moving in the sum- mer of 1732 to Augusta county, Virginia, near Staunton, now called "Bellefonte," where he settled (the county not then formed), conquered the country from the Indians, amassed a large fortune, and reared his family. He married Margaret Lynn, daughter of the Laird of Loch Lynn, who was a descendant of a chieftain of a once powerful clan of the Scottish Highlands.
Hon. John Howe Peyton, of "Montgom- ery Hall," Augusta county, Virginia, was born in Stafford county, Virginia, April 29, 1778, died at Staunton, Virginia, April 27, 1847. son of John Rowzee Peyton, the son of John Peyton (both of Stony Hill, Staf- ford county), the son of Henry (3) Peyton, of Aquia Creek, Stafford county, son of Henry (2) Peyton, who styled himself in his will "Henry Peyton of Aquia in the county of Westmoreland, Gentleman," born in London, England, 1630-31, died in West- moreland county, Virginia, in May, 1659, son of Henry (1) Peyton, of "Lincoln Inn, Middlesex county, England." John Howe (originally Howison) Peyton was a gradu- ate of the College of New Jersey (Prince- ton University), Bachelor of Arts, 1797, Master of Arts, 1800, a member of the Vir- ginia Bar, prominent as a lawyer, pleader, scholar, member of the Virginia legislature from Stafford county, 1806 until 1810, com- monwealth's attorney in 1810, major in the War of 1812, mayor of Staunton, deputy United States attorney, commonwealth's attorney thirty years until 1844, one of the founders of the Protestant Episcopal church of Staunton in 1811, vestryman for years, deputy to the diocesan council many times, state senator, 1836, reelected in 1840, visitor to the United States Military Academy at West Point, 1840, and wrote the report for that year, trustee of Washington College from 1832 until 1846, president of the board of directors of the Western Lunatic Asylum for ten years, and magistrate for many years, declining a congressional nomination i11 1820 and a judgeship in 1824. Major Pey- ton was a tall, large and erect man, always
neatly dressed. He was of handsome face and figure, with large piercing blue eyes, most benevolent of countenance. His man- sion at "Montgomery Hall." near Staunton, was a roomy structure, and there he dis- pensed generous hospitality. As a prose- cuting attorney he had no rival, was com- plete in mental and educational equipment and won a brilliant reputation at the bar. In 1830 he freed fifty of his slaves from his "Wilderness" plantation, Bath county, Vir- ginia, on condition that they should move to Liberia, Africa, furnishing them clothing and food, with sufficient money to meet their needs for twelve months in Liberia. He accompanied them to Norfolk and saw them all on shipboard. For two years he heard from them regularly by letter. At the end of that time thirty-four had died from dissipation or climatic effects, the other six- teen scattering, some of them relapsing into barbarism. He died at "Montgomery Hall," in 1847. Margaret Lynn was the eighth child of his second marriage. Children of George M. Cochran: Susan, Maria, George M .. Ann, John, Margaret and Peyton.
George Moffett Cochran, son of George Moffett and Margaret L. (Peyton) Cochran, was born in Augusta county, Virginia, at "Elk Meadows," his ancestral home, Febru- ary 26, 1832, and died in Staunton, Vir- ginia, April 7, 1900, all of his life having been passed in his native county, and the greater part of it in the city of Staunton. After attendance at the best schools of his home during the period of his primary edu- cation, he entered the University of Vir- ginia, where his academic education was completed and where he studied law. Like so many of his contemporaries at the bar he was a pupil of John B. Minor, from 1849 to 1852. Locating in Staunton after he left the university, he devoted himself to the prac- tice of his profession until the outbreak of the war between the states, and during the four years of that conflict served the Con- federate cause with fidelity and efficiency. He held the rank of captain in the quarter- master's department for several years, being all the time on duty in the field, serving with the fifty-second Virginia Regiment, having previously held a position in the ordnance department under the state organization. His nearsightedness disqualified him for service at the front.
After the war he resumed the practice of
1094
VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
his profession, pursuing it independently as he had done before his military service, until 1870, when he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Colonel John B. Bald- win, who had attained great eminence at the bar and with whom he continued in practice until Colonel Baldwin's death. Mr. Cochran continued to practice many years afterwards, always alone, and during his active professional life he enjoyed a full and remunerative practice, being so popular with his clientele that it was several years after he announced his intention of retiring be- fore he could make his retirement an accom- plished fact. That he was a lawyer of un- usual ability and attainments was recog- nized by all who knew him, and especially by those in the profession who came into contact with him. Had he consented to fill public positions, which he might have ac- quired by merely indicating his willingness to accept them, there were no limits to his possibilities in official life, but a seat in the general assembly of Virginia for one term was the only place he was ever prevailed upon to accept. Neither fame nor pub- licity attracted him, and other than his pro- fession his great passion was his home, where were blended the sweetest and truest influences that make for perfect happiness. His political affiliations were with the Dem- ocratic party, and his religious membership was in the Episcopal church. He was one of the organizers, and president, of the Franklin National Bank, of Washington, District of Columbia, and of the Planters' Bank, Incorporated, of Staunton, Virginia. He was a member of the Metropolitan Club, of Washington, District of Columbia, and of the Beverly Club, of Staunton, Virginia. He married and had a son, Peyton Cochran.
George Goode Finch. George Goode Finch, secretary and treasurer of the American Cigar Company, of New York City, is a rep- resentative of several Virginia families, in- cluding the Goode and Boyd, and many other families. His ancestor, Adam Finch, came from England to Virginia about the middle of the eighteenth century, bringing with him distilling apparatus valued at ninety pounds. He received from George 11I., King of England, a grant of land em- bracing nearly one-half of the present Char- lotte county in Virginia, and died there in
1798. He had sons, James, Thomas and Zachariah.
Zachariah Finch had sons, Zachariah, Langston, and one other, whose name can- not now be learned.
Zachariah (2) Finch, eldest son of Zach- ariah (1) Finch, resided near Wyliesburg, in Charlotte county, Virginia. He married Mary A. Bacon, daughter of Langston Bacon, and had children : Adam, mentioned below ; William, Langston, Mary Allen, mar- ried W. H. Pettus.
Adam Finch, eldest child of Zachariah (2) and Mary A. (Bacon) Finch, was born June 23, 1800, in Charlotte county, Virginia, where he made his home, and died October 4. 1874. He married, December 24, 1824, Lucy Sampson Goode, born about 1800, died June 12, 1859, daughter of William and Mary (Tabb) Goode. They had children: Lang- ston Easley, mentioned below; Richard Henry, born April 24, 1827; William Ed- ward, December 21, 1828; John Bacon, Oc- tober I. 1830; Thomas Zachariah, August 27, 1833 ; Adam Thomas, February 14, 1835; George Beverly, February 22, 1837; Tyree Goode, April 27, 1840, and an unnamed son, who died August 12, 1844.
Langston Easley Finch, eldest child of Adam and Lucy S. (Goode) Finch, was born October 28, 1825, in Charlotte county, Virginia, and resided in Mecklenburg coun- ty, Virginia. Early in life he was a farmer and merchant at Boydton, Virginia, produc- ing largely of wheat, corn and tobacco. He was a prominent citizen of the county and president of the Railroad of Virginia. He. served in the commissary department of the Confederate army during the Civil war, and was active in promoting the interests of the Democratic party. He was a local preacher of the Methodist church, and gave much of his later years to the work of the church, removing to Durham, Virginia. He mar- ried (first) Martha Emily Boyd, daughter of Richard and Lucy A. (Goode) Boyd. He married (second) Tabitha Walker Boyd, a sister of his first wife. The Boyd family is of Scotch origin, and has been traced to Alexander Boyd, born 1747-48, in Scotland, who emigrated at an early age to Virginia, and served many years as a judge in Meck- lenburg county, dying while on the bench at Mecklenburg Court House, August II, 1801. He was a director of business enter-
1095
VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
prises in America and Europe, and his will made December 25, 1800, was probated in the following year. His body rests in the cemetery at Boydton. He married Ann, daughter of David Simpson, and had seven sons : William, Robert, Richard, Alexander, James, David and John, and daughters : Jean Anderson, Nancy, and Mary Frances Boyd, as shown by his will. Robert Boyd, probably second son of Alexander and Ann (Simpson) Boyd, born about 1767, married, in April, 1789, Sarah Anderson Jones, who left an only son, Richard Boyd. The last named married Lucy A. Goode, daughter of John B. and Pamela B. (Hendrick) Goode. They were the parents of the two wives of Langston Easley Finch, as above noted. Children of the first wife were: I. William Henry, who died in 1883, in Alamance coun- ty, North Carolina. 2. Charles Langston, died July 12, 1890. 3. Lucy Ann, died young. 4. Belle, died young. 5. and 6. Richard and Pattie E. (twins, the former died young ; Pattie is the wife of C. T. Baskerville). 7. Hunter Woodis, married Laura Jeffries. Children of the second wife : 8. Pearl Mary, wife of Haynie H. Jackson, residing in Charles City, Virginia. 9. George G., men- tioned below. 10. Rubie, married, in 1894. James D. Brent, and lives in Keyesville, Vir- ginia. II. Garnet Pamelia, unmarried, re- sides in Clarksville. 12. Morton Easley, of Memphis, Tennessee. 13. Adam Tyree, died in 1903, as the result of an accidental shoot- ing. 14. James Love, a Methodist Episcopal clergyman, resides in Lynchburg. Virginia. 15. John Frederick, died in young manhood. 16. Pansy Allen, died in infancy.
The Goode family, with which the Finches are allied through the Boyd blood, descends from John Goode, who is mentioned at length elsewhere in this work. He was of the eleventh generation of English ancestry. His third son, John Goode, resided at Falls Plantation, Chesterfield county, Virginia. He was born 1670-80, at Whitby, England. and killed by Indians, 1720-30. His wife was probably a Bennett. After his death, she removed with her four children and set- tled in Mecklenburg county, Virginia, on the Roanoke river. The third son, Bennett Goode, born 1700-20 in Chesterfield, resided at Fine Creek, in Powhatan county, where he was a prosperous planter, and married. about 1740, Martha Jefferson, an aunt of Thomas Jefferson, third president of the
United States. Their second son, Bennett Goode, born 1741-46, died 1812-16, was a wealthy planter of Mecklenburg county, which he represented in the house of bur- gesses. He was a member of the conven- tions at Richmond and Williamsburg in 1775, and of the convention which framed the state constitution. He married, about 1770, Miss Lewis, of North Carolina. Their eldest child, John Bennett Goode, born about 1770, was educated at William and Mary College, and resided in Mecklenburg county, which he represented in the house of dele- gates of the state legislature. He married Pamela B. Hendrick, and their eldest daugh- ter Lucy became the wife of Richard Boyd. as previously mentioned.
George Goode Finch was born March 13, 1869, in Mecklenburg county, and was under the care of a governess while a small boy, later being a student of the local public school. His business career began at the age of sixteen years, when he became clerk in a shoe store, continuing in this capacity for a period of six years, thus gaining an excellent business training. For a short time he was employed as an accountant, and then entered the general office of the Amer- ican Tobacco Company in Richmond, Vir- ginia. In 1894 he removed with this estab- lishment to New York City, and in 1901 be- came associated with the American Cigar Company, a subsidiary corporation of the American Tobacco Company. In 1903 he was made treasurer of the American Cigar Company, and later its secretary. He is also a director of the company, and secre- tary, treasurer and director of the Havana American Company, of Seidenberg & Com- pany, and other corporations. Mr. Finch is a conservative and successful business man, and his long connection with the various organizations named is the evidence of dem- onstrated ability and efficiency. His home is at Palisades Park, New Jersey, where he is a vestryman of All Saints' Episcopal Church. He has served as a member of the town council, and is now a school trustee of the village. Politically he has always affili- ated with the Democratic party. He is a member of the Virginia Society, an origina- tion of the sons of the Old Dominion, having a large membership in Greater New York. Mr. Finch married, April 18, 1901, Elida Wold, born near Christiana, Norway, daugh- of Ole S. and Louise (Valborg) Wold. Mr.
1096
VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
and Mrs. Finch are the parents of three chil- dren: Thora Woodis, Helen Goode and George Boyd.
Clarence Welmore Robinson. Clarence Welmore Robinson, circuit judge of New- port News, descends from a very ancient Virginia family, which came originally from England. The first of the name of whom knowledge is now obtainable was a Robin- son who resided at Crostwick, in the parish of Rumbald Kirk, England, whose wife was a Miss Savage. Their son, John Robinson, resided at the same place, and married Ann Dent, also of Crostwick. Their second son, George Robinson, lived at Cleasby, where he was born before 1634. He married Fran- ces Layton, of Cleasby, who died in Lon- don, and was buried in St. Peter's church- yard, April 13, 1648. Their son, John Rob- inson, of Cleasby, died there in 1661, and was buried there. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Christopher Potter. She died in 1688. Their second son, John Robinson, born 1650, was bishop of Bristol, and for some years British envoy to Sweden. Dur- ing this service there he wrote a history of Sweden. Later he was plenipotentiary at the congress of Utrecht, in 1712, the last cleric to be thus engaged. Following this he became bishop of London, which position he occupied at his death, April 11, 1723. Their third son, Christopher Robinson, re- moved to Virginia in 1666, and died there in 1693. He came from Hewick, near Ripon, Yorkshire, and settled on the Rappahannock river, in Virginia, where he called his estate "Hewick." He was secretary of the colony in 1692, and died in that office early the fol- lowing year. In 1691 he was a member of the house of burgesses, and in the same year was appointed a member of the privy council. He was one of the first vestrymen of the parish embracing Middlesex county, Virginia. He married (first) Agatha, daugh- ter of Bertram Obert. She died January 25, 1686, and he married (second) Catherine, widow of Major Robert Beverly. His son, Christopher Robinson, born 1681, inherited the paternal plantation, and was also the heir of his uncle, the bishop of London. He was educated at William and Mary College. was a member of the house of burgesses in 1710 and 1714, and was a naval officer of the Rappahannock river. He died February 20, 1727, at Hewick, in Middlesex county, and
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.