WIlliam Letcher Comes To Laurel Hill

J. E. B. Stuart’s Great-Grandfather, William Letcher Comes To Laurel Hill

The story of the first people of European descent from J. E. B. Stuart’s maternal family at Laurel Hill begins in Great Britain. Giles Letcher was born in Northern Ireland, but like so many people, he came to Virginia and settled near Petersburg. He married Hannah Hughes of Welsh descent and started a family. Letcher began a “successful mercantile business,” but family tradition holds Giles Letcher lost it to fire. In 1741, he purchased 135 acres north of the James River in Henrico County and began a slow migration up the river to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. By 1747, Giles Letcher owned land, and the following year witnessed a deed transfer in Goochland County. In 1781, he bought 265 acres on Raccoon Creek, a tributary of the Rivanna River, in Fluvanna County.

The Letcher family connected the Stuarts to many important personages. Giles Letcher's first son, Stephen, was the father of Governor Robert Letcher of Kentucky. Robert Letcher served in the U. S. Congress as Minister to Mexico and on January 1, 1825, acted as a go between with Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams in the “corrupt bargain” that led to Adam’s election as President in 1826. Robert Houston married Margaret Davidson and their son Samuel Houston, brother of Mary Houston Letcher, and his wife Elizabeth Paxton were the parents of General Sam Houston (1793-1863) of Texas. Sam Houston served as Congressman and Governor of Tennessee, then moved to Texas and became a leader of the independence from Mexico. He served as President of the Republic of Texas, Senator, and Governor from the State of Texas. In 1861, Houston opposed secession from the United States.

The third son of Giles Letcher, John, married Mary Houston, an aunt of Sam Houston, of Texas fame. John and Mary’s son, William Houston Letcher, married Elizabeth Davidson and produced Virginia’s first Civil War Governor John Letcher. Giles and Hannah Letcher had another son, James, and a daughter, Sarah.

William Letcher was born to Giles and Hannah Letcher around 1750, this author believes, in Goochland County. William, the second son, was described as a man of fine appearance and much beloved and esteemed.

On November 20, 1778, William Letcher married Elizabeth Perkins and moved to Henry County, present-day Patrick County. Elizabeth, born on May 13, 1759, to Nicholas and Bethenia Hardin Perkins, grew up at Perkins Ferry in Halifax, now Pittsylvania County.

The first Nicholas Perkins came to Virginia in 1641 and settled in Charles City County. His son, also Nicholas, married Sarah Childress, lived in Henrico County, and produced a son Constantine. He married Ann Pollard, lived in Goochland County, and they were the great-grandparents of General Stuart. William and Elizabeth were both descended from Nicholas Perkins and Sarah Childress. Sarah Perkins married Thomas Hughes, and their daughter Hannah married Giles Letcher.

Elizabeth’s brother Peter Perkins married Agnes Wilson and built the historic home Berry Hill near Danville on land willed to him by his father. The name of the property comes from a large number of soldiers from both sides of the American Revolution believed buried on the property. Today, a large cemetery holds many prominent members of the family, including J. E. B. Stuart’s sister, Columbia, who married into the Hairston clan.

On August 2, 1856, John Letcher, future Governor of Virginia, wrote of William Letcher, “He chose for his residence a spot in the southwest corner of Patrick County, Virginia, called The Hollow. It derives its name from the circular bend, which the mountains make around it. The Blue Ridge makes a semi-circular sweep halfway around it on the west and the Slate Mountain and Little Mountain on the east and south. The Ararat with its waters, as clear as crystal, and as swift as the arrow shot from the bow, traverse this whole valley from north to south and then empties into the Yadkin. On one of the gentle swelling hills, that lifts its head on the banks of this stream Mr. Letcher established his home.”

          On July 25, 1779, Letcher appeared on the payroll list of Captain David Carlin’s Henry County Militia. In telling the story of William Letcher, each generation and biographer of General Stuart promotes him one grade in rank. He begins as Captain in J. E. B. Stuart’s first biography and is a colonel by the last one in 1986. The highest rank found in official papers from Carlin’s Militia lists him as a corporal.

Others listed include James and William Steward along with John and Edward Stewart. These other Stuarts lived west of the Ararat River on a tributary appropriately named Stewart’s Creek near the present-day welcome centers along Interstate 77. In 1786, Surry County, North Carolina records showed Charles and Edward Stewart living close to their parents John and Susannah Fulkerson Stewart. John came from Delaware via Augusta County, Virginia, after certainly crossing from Scotland via Northern Ireland. Other Stewarts listed in Surry County records are as follows: James, William, John, Hamilton Stewart living in Captain Hugh Armstrong’s District, Nathaniel Stewart is listed as the head of household including Charles, Nathaniel, Jacob, James, and Joshua in 1786. Interestingly, Daniel Carlin lived on the waters of Stewart’s Creek.

It is possible there is a distant relationship between these Stewarts and General Stuart’s family through Thomas, the son of Archibald Stuart “The Immigrant” or his brother John, who settled in Halifax County, but the author has been unable to make the direct connection.

            In August 1779, Henry County recommended William Letcher to the Governor of Virginia as a Commissioner of the Peace along with other prominent persons including Abram Penn, Patrick Henry, Archaelous Hughes, and John Marr. On November 25, Letcher took the oath of office as Justice of the Peace and attended a counterfeiting trial.

No evidence exists that the Letchers owned land along both sides of the Ararat River. In April 1749, John Dawson, Joseph Cloud, and James Terry received a land grant of 12,000 acres from Virginia. In June 1753, David Bell took possession of 2,816 acres that included present-day Laurel Hill.

It is through the Perkins family that William and Elizabeth Letcher came to present day Patrick County. John Marr married Susannah Perkins, sister of Elizabeth Perkins Letcher. Constantine Perkins married John’s sister Agatha Marr. Marr’s sons had a business relationship with the Perkins Family. John Marr died in Henry County before 1797. Marr, a land speculator, got the land that is the Laurel Hill Farm in 1790 from John Dawson. Two years later, he owned over 3,000 acres in the county.

           The Perkins family connection stayed active in the area. In 1801, Thomas Perkins bought a plantation in adjoining Surry County and named it Mount Airy. In 1819, Thomas’ son Constantine inherited Mount Airy along with land on present-day Main Street, where he built the first of many lodging establishments (most named Blue Ridge). The Perkins home, Mount Airy, was found on high ground above the Ararat River between Hamburg Street and Quaker Road in Mount Airy, North Carolina. In 1780, Thomas Smith bought 400 acres nearby for fifty shillings. The property had a large granite outcropping. Today it is the largest open-faced granite quarry in the world run by the North Carolina Granite Corporation in Mount Airy, North Carolina.

            Elizabeth and William Letcher left little documentation except for a list of possessions and the noteworthy events in their lives. They grew corn and tobacco in the bottomland along the river. They held livestock, including twenty head of cattle, ten hogs, and five horses. There were nine slaves named David, Ben, Witt, Abraham, Dick, Look, Nunn, Randolph, and Craft. William Letcher’s estate inventory located in the Henry County courthouse includes many of the household and farm items that you would expect. Among these items were saddlebags, rifles, three feather beds, and a looking glass.

On March 21, 1780, Elizabeth gave birth to her first child, Bethenia. This small child became the connection that led to her famous grandson's birth at Laurel Hill over fifty years later. That same year the American Revolution would come to Laurel Hill with tragic consequences.