Mathews family (Virginia)

History

The Mathews surname originated in Llandaff, Glamorgan, Wales with Sir David Ap Mathew (1400-1484), a Welsh Knight and Lord of Llandaff, who was named Standard Bearer of England after the War of the Roses Battle of Towton in 1461 while saving the life of King Edward IV. Sir David adopted as his surname, the first name of his father, Sir Mathew Ap Evan. (Ap means 'son of').

Anthologist John Boots suggests that John Mathews (d. 1757) was a descendant of Sir David through his 3rd great-grandson Theobald Mathew (d. 1699), who lived in Thurles in County Tipperary, Ireland. Boots states that children of Theobald Mathew settled in Ulster, Northern Ireland, when the family property was passed to a senior branch of the family, and from Ulster immigrated to America during the early years of the Scotch-Irish immigration of 1717–1775. Other historians agree that Mathews was an immigrant from Ireland, though they do not speculate on his ancestry.

Colony of Virginia

John Mathews settled in Augusta County, Virginia, near Natural Bridge, in 1742. He held a variety of local offices, and served as a captain of Virginia militia in Braddock's army during the French and Indian War. He and wife Ann Archer had eleven children, including George, Sampson, Archer, and William Mathews.

Revolutionary War Era

George Mathews (1739–1812) was a Virginia Burgess and delegate to the First Virginia Convention. He rose to the rank of brevet brigadier general in the Continental Army, serving in George Washington's Philadelphia campaign. He was afterward twice Governor of Georgia and a representative to the 1st United States Congress. In 1811 he served as a secret agent for President James Madison, leading a filibuster campaign to claim parts of Spanish Florida for the United States. This campaign is now known as the Patriot War of East Florida.

Sampson Mathews (1737–1806) was a Virginia state senator and colonel of Virginia militia who led the American defense against Benedict Arnold's 1781 Raid of Richmond. He was a founding trustee of Liberty Hall (later Washington and Lee University), the ninth oldest institution for higher learning in the country.

Archer Mathews (1744–1796) was a Virginia Delegate. William Mathews (1741–1772) was a justice of the peace in Botetourt County, Virginia. Other Mathews who served as Virginia Delegates in the early years of the Republic include Sampson Mathews Jr., son of Sampson Mathews, and John Mathews and James W. Mathews, sons of William Mathews.

Civil War Era

George Mathews, Jr. (1774–1836), son of George Mathews, was a judge of the superior courts of the territories of Mississippi and Orleans, and the first presiding judge of the Louisiana Supreme Court. His 1835 decision in the Marie Louise v. Marot freedom suit, in which he ruled that a slave cannot be reduced again to slavery if transported to a territory not permitting of slavery, was cited as precedent by dissenting Justice John McLean in the Dred Scott v. Sandford U.S. Supreme Court case.

Mason Mathews (1803–1878), grandson of William Mathews, was a Virginia Delegate during the American Civil War. He was brother-in-law to Confederate States Army (CSA) general Alexander W. Reynolds (1817–1876). He was the last member of this family to be involved in Virginia politics, as Greenbrier County where he lived was taken into West Virginia on its creation in 1863. He continued to serve in the Virginia Legislature until the conclusion of the war.

Henry M. Mathews (1834–1884), son of Mason Mathews, was a CSA officer and later Attorney General of West Virginia and governor of West Virginia. His election represented the rise of the Bourbon Democrats.

Alexander F. Mathews (1838–1906), son of Mason Mathews, was a CSA officer and aide-de-camp to General Henry A. Wise, and later a West Virginia University regent. Joseph W. Mathews (1841–1897), son of Mason Mathews, was a CSA officer and assistant adjutant general to General Carter Stevenson.

Later Generations

George G. Mathews Jr. (1855–1944), great-grandson of George Mathews, was US Consul at Pará, Brazil, for President Grover Cleveland, and later a Florida state representative.

William G. Mathews (1877–1923), son of Henry M. Mathews, was a federal judge and clerk of court for Kanawha, West Virginia.

Mason M. Patrick (1863–1942), grandson of Mason Mathews, was commander of the U.S. Army Air Service during World War I and the Interwar Period. He drafted and proposed the 1926 Air Corps Act to Congress, creating the U.S. Army Air Corps from the existing Air Service. In 1947 the Air Corps was made into the United States Air Force.

Political Family Tree

Other Mathews of Virginia

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. Mathews County, Virginia, named for the family and home to their residence Mathews Manor, later known as Denbigh Plantation.

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 Augusta County by some historians, though the connection has not been noted by others.