Mathews family

The Mathews family was an American political family descended from John Mathews (d. 1757) and Ann Archer, originating in colonial Virginia and active in Virginia and the American South in the 18th–20th centuries.

Mathews
Arms of the Mathews of Virginia and West Virginia[1]
Current regionUnited States
Earlier spellings
Members
Connected families

The family origins are unclear, though most research suggests that the family founders were of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and immigrated to America around 1730, settling in Augusta County (present-day Rockbridge County), Virginia. Several members played a role in the American Revolution, and numerous members were elected to the Virginia General Assembly over successive generations, while additionally members have been involved in the politics of West Virginia, Georgia, and other U.S. states in roles including state governor and state legislator, among others. Members have served in the U.S. military as generals, colonels, and other officers. Notable members include George Mathews, Sampson Mathews, Henry M. Mathews, and Mason Mathews Patrick.

British origin
See also: John Mathews (American pioneer) § Origin

The Mathews family is believed to be of Scotch-Irish and/or Welsh ethnicity.[2][3][4] The male progenitor of the family, John Mathews (d. 1757), likely immigrated to America during early years of the Scotch-Irish immigration of 1718–1775.[5] His parentage and ethnicity is currently unknown, with a variety of sources offering conflicting accounts.[6][7][8] The female progenitor of the family, Ann Archer, immigrated to America with her father Sampson Archer in the early years of the Scotch-Irish immigration of 1718-1775, and was of Scotch-Irish ethnicity.[9]

Overview

John Mathews settled in Augusta County, Virginia around 1737 and held several local offices in the community.[10][11] Several of his sons took part in patriot efforts during the American Revolutionary War; Sampson Mathews (c. 1737–1807) and George Mathews (1739–1812) were members of the Augusta County Committee of Safety, which drafted the Augusta Resolves and the Augusta Declaration.[12] Virginia scholar Hugh Blair Grigsby has called the Augusta Declaration “the Magna Charta of the West” for its precedence in calling for a permanent and independent separation from Britain and formal union of the colonies.[13] In total, three of Mathews’ sons served as wartime Virginia legislators: Sampson Mathews and George Mathews from Augusta County and Archer Mathews (1744–c. 1790) from Greenbrier County.[14][15][16][17] Additionally, Sampson Mathews was a lieutenant colonel of Virginia militia,[18][19] and George Mathews was a brevet brigadier general in the Continental Army.[20] George Mathews was later a U.S. House Representative to the First Congress and a governor of Georgia.[21]

George Mathews' son George Mathews Jr. (1774–1836) was a judge of the Superior Courts of the territories of Mississippi and Orleans and as the presiding judge of the Louisiana Supreme Court.[22] George Mathews Jr.'s brother, John Mathews (c.1762–1806), was a federal Supervisor of Revenue from Georgia.[23] In Virginia, three more members of the family from the third generation served in the state legislature: Sampson Mathews' son Sampson Mathews Jr. from Bath County, and John Mathews (1768–1849) and James W. Mathews (d. 1825), grandsons of John Mathews through his son William Mathews (1741–1772), from Greenbrier County.[24][25]

From the fourth generation, Mason Mathews (1803–1878), a grandson of William Mathews, served in the Virginia legislature from Greenbrier County. During the American Civil War, three of his sons served as Confederate States Army officers.[26][27][28] His son Henry M. Mathews (1834–1884) later served as an attorney general and governor of West Virginia.[29] Henry M. Mathews' son, William G. Mathews (1877–1923), was a federal judge in Kanawha, West Virginia and a candidate for the West Virginia Supreme Court.[30] Mason M. Patrick (1863–1942), grandson of Mason Mathews, served as Chief of the U.S. Army Air Service, American Expeditionary Force during World War I and the Interwar Period.[31][27] He authored the 1926 congressional bill that created the U.S. Army Air Corps from the Air Service, and served as its first chief.[32]

Other relations include Thomas Posey (1750–1818), U.S. Senator from Louisiana;[33] Peter J. Otey (1840–1902), U.S. House Representative from Virginia;[34] and George Mathews Edgar (1837–1913), President of University of Arkansas.[35]

Offices held

A list of offices held by members of the Mathews family.

Other Mathews of Virginia

Thomas Mathews (1742–1812), 7th Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates

There have been other Mathews who have played a role in the public life of Virginia. These include: Lt. Col. Samuel Mathews (1630–1660), a commonwealth governor of Virginia, who died while in office (1656-1660), was a member of the first branch of the Mathews family to settle in the New World when his father, Captain Samuel Matthews arrived in Jamestown from England around 1622.[71]

Thomas Mathews (1742–1812), a Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, was born in Saint Kitts, an island of the West Indies, and came to the Piedmont region of Virginia in the years before the American Revolution. Both Samuel and Thomas Mathews have been connected to the Mathews of Virginia by some historians,[72][57][73] though the connection has not been noted by others.[72][24][71]

References

  1. Cole, p. 67
  2. Herndon, p. 307
  3. Ebel
  4. Atkinson1, p.229
  5. Waddell, p. 309
  6. Callahan, p. 8
  7. Atkinson1
  8. Otey, James Hervey (1994). Otey's journal : being the account by James Hervey Otey, A.B., M.A., D.D., L.L.D., first bishop of the Tennessee Diocese of the Protestant Episcopal Church, of his travels in the summer of 1851 in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Unknown: Overmountain Press. ISBN 1570720096. OCLC 30797045.
  9. Waddell, p. 309
  10. Waddell, p. 309
  11. Herndon, p. 307-308
  12. Van Schreeven, William; Scribner, Robert; Tarter, Brent (1973). Revolutionary Virginia, the road to independence, vol. 7. Independence and the Fifth convention. Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia. p. 90. OCLC 802770.
  13. Grigsby, Hugh Blair (1890). Washington and Lee University (1890). Historical Papers, Volumes 1-2. Lexington, Virginia: The New York Public Library. p. 66. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
  14. Kromkowski, http://vavh.electionstats.com/php/bio.php?pid=4813
  15. Herndon, p. 314
  16. Kromkowski, http://vavh.electionstats.com/php/bio.php?pid=4805
  17. Kromkowski, http://vavh.electionstats.com/php/bio.php?pid=4797
  18. "From Thomas Jefferson to Sampson Mathews, 12 January 1781 Founders Online, National Archives," last modified July 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-04-02-0417. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 4, 1 October 1780 – 24 February 1781, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951, p. 343]
  19. Bryan, Charles (October 25, 2014). "Richmond's Benedict Arnold". Richmond Times Dispatch. Richmond, Virginia. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
  20. Harrell, Laura (1923). "Brevet Brigadier General George Mathews". Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. XLIV (3): 307–328. JSTOR 4247487.
  21. Ebel
  22. "Louisiana Supreme Court Justices 1813-Present: George Mathews (1774-1836)". Louisiana Supreme Court. Louisiana Supreme Court.
  23. Gilmer, p. 82
  24. Washington & Lee University (1890). Washington and Lee University (1890). Historical Papers, Volumes 1-2. Lexington, Virginia: The New York Public Library. p. 88.
  25. Rice, p. 222
  26. Callahan, p. 8
  27. Combs, James Thurl (1987). "Greenbrier, C.S.A. Wartime Letters of Mason Mathews to his son Captain Joseph William Mathews, C.S.A." The Journal of the Greenbrier Historical Society (Parsons, West Virginia: Greenbrier Historical Society) V (1): 5–44.
  28. Rice, Otis K. 1986. A History of Greenbrier County. Greenbrier Historical Society, p. 264
  29. Addkison-Simmons, Donna (2010). Henry Mason Mathews. e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia.
  30. Atkinson, George W. (1919). Bench and Bar of West Virginia. Lexington, Virginia: Virginia law book company. p. 279. william gordon mathews.
  31. DuPre, Flint. "U.S. Air Force Biographical Dictionary". United States Air Force. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
  32. Maurer (1987)Aviation in the U.S. Army, 1919–1939 (Appendix 5) p. 74
  33. Posey, John Thornton. General Thomas Posey: Son of the American Revolution. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 1992. Pages 17-18 ISBN 0-87013-316-0
  34. White, J. T. (1967). National Cyclopedia of American Biography. p. 246.
  35. Grose, S.E. (1997). "Greenbrier County, West Virginia Heritage." Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Pg 59. https://books.google.com/books?id=GPsJ1b3sJ6MC&q=edgar#v=onepage&q=george%20mathews%20edgar&f=false Retrieved December 2, 2018
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  37. Price, William Thomas (1923). Historical Sketches of Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Marlinton, West Virginia: Price Brothers, Publishers. p. 497. OCLC 42346040.
  38. "George Warwick McClinic". Federal Judicial Center. United States Government.
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  45. Gilmer, p. 84
  46. Louisiana Supreme Court
  47. Gilmer, p. 85-86
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  51. Public Administration Service (1939). City Manager Government in Lynchburg, Va. Lynchburg, Va. Retrieved December 9, 2018 from https://books.google.com/books?id=FmtDAAAAIAAJ&q=%22john+m.+otey%22+%22city+council%22&dq=%22john+m.+otey%22+%22city+council%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi96a6uo5TfAhWprFkKHQyaC_oQ6AEIWjAJ
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  53. White, J.T. (1967). National Cyclopedia of American Biography p. 246 Retrieved December 9, 2018 from https://books.google.com/books?id=gCHYAAAAMAAJ&q=peter+j.+otey+%22elizabeth+mathews%22&dq=peter+j.+otey+%22elizabeth+mathews%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjIsrScgJTfAhUxuVkKHZpmBoEQ6AEISjAG
  54. Otey, James Hervey (1994). Otey's journal : being the account by James Hervey Otey, A.B., M.A., D.D., L.L.D., first bishop of the Tennessee Diocese of the Protestant Episcopal Church, of his travels in the summer of 1851 in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Unknown: Overmountain Press. p. 161, 117. ISBN 1570720096. OCLC 30797045.
  55. Cole, p. 70
  56. Virginia Elections and State Elected Officials Database Project, 1776-2007. Retrieved December 11, 2018 from http://vavh.electionstats.com/php/bio.php?pid=4803
  57. Lexington Gazette (1938). "Capt. John Mathews and his Descendants." 1738–1938. Bi-centennial Issue: Commemorating the Settlement of the Rockbridge Section of Virginia by the White Men. A Tribute to the Scotch-Irish Pioneers. Lexington Gazette (Virginia)
  58. Rice, p. 224
  59. Atkinson1, p.229
  60. Callahan, p. 8
  61. West Virginia Bar Association (April 1963). The Bar: West Virginia - Volume 15: 1908. Buffalo, New York: Dennis & Co, Inc. Retrieved December 9, 2012.
  62. Laidley, W.S. (1911). "History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia, and representative citizens. Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co. Inc. p. 910. Retrieved December 9, 2012.
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  64. "The Fairmont West Virginian". The Fairmont West Virginian newspaper. Fairmont, West Virginia. November 4, 1904. Retrieved August 4, 2020.
  65. Greenbrier Historical Society (1938) Greenbrier Historical Society Historical Booklet, Greenbrier Co., 1938. http://www.lewisburg.org/history/mathewsbio.htm Retrieved 2012-10-19
  66. West Virginia University. Undergraduate catalog, Volume 1867–1869. Morgantown, WV : The University. https://archive.org/stream/undergrad6769west/undergrad6769west_djvu.txt Retrieved April 28, 2013.
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  69. Dayton, Ruth (2009). Greenbrier Pioneers and Their Homes. Greenbrier County, West Virginia: Genealogical Publishing Company. p. 215. ISBN 9780806346687. OCLC 416281810.
  70. Grose, S.E. (1997). Greenbrier County, West Virginia Heritage. Greenbrier County, West Virginia: Greenbrier Heritage Book Committee. p. 59. ISBN 9780806346687. OCLC 367713986.
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  72. Boots, John R. (1970). The Mat(t)hews family: an anthology of Mathews lineages. The University of Wisconsin - Madison
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Bibliography

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