Mathews family

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]

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]

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

• John Mathews (d.1757), Justice of Augusta County, Virginia, 1747–1757; Virginia Colonial Militia Captain. Father of Joshua, Sampson, George, Archer, and William Mathews.[36]
  • Joshua Mathews (d.1763), son of John Mathews.
    • Martha Mathews (1754–1778), ∞ Thomas Posey (1750–1818), U.S. Senator from Louisiana, 1812–1813; 2nd Governor of Indiana Territory, 1813–1816; Lt. Governor of Kentucky, 1806–1808; Kentucky State Senator, 1804–1806. Daughter of Joshua Mathews.[33]
  • Sampson Mathews (c. 1737–1807), Virginia State Senator from Augusta County and surrounding counties, 1776–1781, 1791–1792; Virginia State Militia Lieutenant Colonel; Virginia Colonial Militia Captain. Son of John Mathews.[24]
    • Sampson Mathews II, Virginia House Delegate from Bath County, 1809–1810. Son of Sampson Mathews[24]
      • Sampson L. Mathews. Surveyor of Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Son of Sampson Mathews II.[37]
        • Mary A. Mathews, ∞ William H. McClintic (1825–1892). Daughter of Sampson L. Mathews.
          • George W. McClintic (1866–1942), Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia 1921–1942; West Virginia House Delegate 1919–1921. Son of Mary A. Mathews.[38][39]
          • Lockart Mathews McClintic (1860–1928) West Virginia House Delegate, dates unknown [40]
  • George Mathews (1739–1812), 17th & 21st Governor of Georgia, 1787–1788 & 1793–1796; U.S. House Representative from Georgia's 3rd congressional district, 1789–1791; Georgia Assemblyman from Wilkes County, 1786; Virginia Burgess from Augusta County, 1775; Continental Army Brigadier General. Son of John Mathews.[41]
    • John Mathews (c.1762–1806), Supervisor of Revenue for Georgia, 1794–1796. Son of George Mathews.[42]
    • Ann Mathews (±1767–1840), ∞ Samuel Blackburn (1759–1835), Virginia House Delegate from Bath County, 1799–1801, 1809–1813; Georgia Assemblyman, 1795. Daughter of George Mathews.[43][44]
    • George Mathews Jr. (1774–1836), Presiding Judge of the Louisiana Supreme Court, 1813–1836; Judge of the Superior courts of the Territory of Orleans, 1806–1813; Judge of the Superior Courts of the Territory of Mississippi 1805–1806. Son of George Mathews.[45][46]
    • Charles L. Mathews (1776–1842), ∞ Lucy Early, sister of Peter Early (1773–1818), 28th Governor of Georgia.[47]
  • William Mathews (1741–1772), Justice of Botetourt County, 1770–1772. Son of John Mathews[48]
    • Elizabeth Mathews (±1766–1853), ∞ Isaac Otey (1766–1850), Virginia House Delegate from Bedford County, 1798–1813. Daughter of William Mathews[49][50]
      • Isaac Otey Jr., Virginia State Senator from Bedford and surrounding counties, 1821–1825; Virginia House Delegate, 1820–1821. Son of Elizabeth Mathews.[50]
      • John M. Otey (1792–1859), President of Lynchburg, Virginia City Council, 1841–1859. Son of Elizabeth Mathews.[51][52]
        • Peter J. Otey (1840–1902), U.S. House Representative from Virginia's 6th congressional district, 1895–1902; delegate to the 1896 Democratic National Convention. Son of John M. Otey.[53]
      • James H. Otey (1800–1863), first Episcopal Bishop of Tennessee. Son of Elizabeth Mathews.[54]
    • John Mathews (1768–1849), Virginia House Delegate from Greenbrier County, 1798–1801, 1803–1804, 1813–1814, 1816, 1829; Federalist candidate for U.S. House of Representatives, 1815; Clerk of Greenbrier County, Virginia 1831–1849. Son of William Mathews.[55][56]
    • James W. Mathews (d. 1825), Virginia House Delegate from Greenbrier County, 1802-1803; United States Army Major. Son of William Mathews.[57][58]
    • Joseph Mathews (1770–1834), Son of William Mathews.
      • Mason Mathews (1803–1878), Virginia House Delegate from Greenbrier County, 1859–1865; ∞ Eliza Shore Reynolds (1808–1872), sister of Alexander W. Reynolds (1817–1876), Confederate States Army Brigadier General. Son of Joseph Mathews.[59][60]
        • Henry M. Mathews (1834–1884), 5th Governor of West Virginia, 1877–1881; 7th Attorney General of West Virginia; West Virginia State Senator 1865; Confederate States Army Major. Son of Mason Mathews.[34]
          • William G. Mathews (1877–1923), Referee in Bankruptcy for Kanawha, West Virginia, 1898–1908, Clerk of Kanawha, West Virginia, 1903–1904. Democratic Candidate for the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, 1908; alternate delegate to the 1904 Democratic National Convention from West Virginia. Son of Henry M. Mathews.[61][62]
        • Alexander F. Mathews (1838–1906), Delegate to 1888 Democratic National Convention from West Virginia; Presidential Elector for West Virginia, 1904; West Virginia University Regent, 1871–1881; Confederate States Army Captain. Son of Mason Mathews.[63][64][27][65][66]
          • Mason Mathews (1867–1928), Alternate delegate to 1912 Democratic National Convention from West Virginia. Son of Alexander F. Mathews.[67][68]
        • Virginia A. Mathews (d. 1923). Daughter of Mason Mathews.[27]
          • Mason M. Patrick (1863–1942), Chief of U.S. Army Air Service, American Expeditionary Force, 1917–1918; Chief of U.S. Army Air Service, 1921–1926; Chief of U.S. Army Air Corps, 1926–1927; U.S. Army Major General; Public Utilities Commissioner for the District of Columbia, 1929–1933. Son of Virginia A. Mathews.[31][27]
  • Archer Mathews (1744–c. 1796), Virginia House Delegate from Greenbrier County, 1780–1782. Son of John Mathews.[69]
    • Ann Mathews (1765–1852), ∞ Thomas Edgar (1754–1822), Justice of Greenbrier County and Rockbridge County, Virginia; son of Thomas Edgar, Virginia House Delegate from Greenbrier County. Daughter of Archer Mathews.[70]
      • George M. Edgar (1837–1913), President of University of Arkansas, 1884–1887; President of Florida State University, 1887-1892.[70]

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
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5. Waddell, p. 309
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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]
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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
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• Waddell, Joseph A. (1902). Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871. Staunton, Virginia: C. R. Caldwell. OCLC 3880311.
• Herndon, G. Melvin (1969). "George Mathews, Frontier Patriot". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 77 (3): 307–328. JSTOR 4247487.
• DuPre, Flint. "U.S. Air Force Biographical Dictionary". United States Air Force. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
• Gilmer, George (1855). Sketches of some of the first settlers of upper Georgia, of the Cherokees, and the author. New York: D. Appleton and company. OCLC 762195338. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
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• Atkinson, George Wesley; Gibbens, Alvaro Franklin (1890). Prominent Men of West Virginia: Biographical Sketches of Representative Men in Every Honorable Vocation, Including Politics, the Law, Theology, Medicine, Education, Finance, Journalism, Trade, Commerce and Agriculture. Wheeling, West Virginia: W. L. Callin. OCLC 3886825.
• Otis, Rice (1986). A History of Greenbrier County. Lewisburg, West Virginia: Greenbrier Historical Society.