Mathews family

The Mathews family is an American political family descended from John Mathews (d. 1757) and Ann Archer, originating in colonial Virginia and prominent 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
  • Mathew
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. The family rose to prominence in the second generation, with several members playing a role in the American Revolution. 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] The family gained wider recognition in the second generation, which took part in patriot efforts during the American Revolutionary War. His sons Sampson Mathews (c. 1737–1807) and George Mathews (1739–1812) were members of the Augusta County Committee of Safety, which drafted the Augusta Resolves, a precursor to the Declaration of Independence,[12] and the Augusta Declaration, a precursor to both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation.[13] 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.[14]

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.[15][16][17][18] Additionally, Sampson Mathews lead militia forces in defense against British General Benedict Arnold’s 1781 invasion of Virginia,[19][20] and George Mathews fought in the Philadelphia campaign, after which he was brevetted brigadier general in the Continental Army.[21] He served as a U.S. House Representative to the First Congress and as a governor of Georgia.[22]

George Mathews' son George Mathews Jr. (1774–1836) served as a judge of the Superior Courts of the territories of Mississippi and Orleans and as the presiding judge of the Louisiana Supreme Court.[23] His ruling in Marie Louise v. Marot was cited as precedent by dissenting U.S. Supreme Court Justice John McLean in the 1856 landmark Dred Scott v. Sandford case.[24] George Mathews Jr.'s brother, John Mathews (c.1762–1806), served as federal Supervisor of Revenue from Georgia.[25] 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.[26][27]

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.[28][29][30] His son Henry M. Mathews (1834–1884) later served as an attorney general and governor of West Virginia. He was the first ex-Confederate elected to a governorship in the country.[31] 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.[32] 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.[33][29] He authored the 1926 congressional bill that created the U.S. Army Air Corps from the Air Service, and served as the first chief of the Air Corps.[34]

Other relations include Thomas Posey (1750–1818), U.S. Senator from Louisiana;[35] Peter J. Otey (1840–1902), U.S. House Representative from Virginia;[36] and George Mathews Edgar (1837–1913), President of University of Arkansas.[37]

Offices held

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

Historic Houses

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.[73]

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,[74][59][75] though the connection has not been noted by others.[74][26][73]

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. Waddell, p. 148
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. Kromkowski, http://vavh.electionstats.com/php/bio.php?pid=4813
  16. Herndon, p. 314
  17. Kromkowski, http://vavh.electionstats.com/php/bio.php?pid=4805
  18. Kromkowski, http://vavh.electionstats.com/php/bio.php?pid=4797
  19. "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]
  20. Bryan, Charles (October 25, 2014). "Richmond's Benedict Arnold". Richmond Times Dispatch. Richmond, Virginia. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
  21. Harrell, Laura (1923). "Brevet Brigadier General George Mathews". Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. XLIV (3): 307–328. JSTOR 4247487.
  22. Ebel
  23. "Louisiana Supreme Court Justices 1813-Present: George Mathews (1774-1836)". Louisiana Supreme Court. Louisiana Supreme Court.
  24. Finkelman, Paul (2000). An Imperfect Union: Slavery, Federalism, and Comity. Rosslyn, Virginia: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. p. 210. ISBN 9781584770923. OCLC 5894082.
  25. Gilmer, p. 82
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  27. Rice, p. 222
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  29. 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.
  30. Rice, Otis K. 1986. A History of Greenbrier County. Greenbrier Historical Society, p. 264
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Bibliography

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