Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/405

 PROMINENT PERSONS

357

Moffett, William Walter, born July 19, 1854, son of John Moffett, descended from Henry Moffett, an Englishman, born in 1705, who settled in Virginia. He attended an "old field"' school, and later Rappahan- nock Academy. He read law under the pre- ceptorship of his uncle, Horatio G. Moffett. He engaged in practice in Rappahannock county in 1877, and in 1878 established the "Blue Ridge Echo," in association with his cousin, Horatio G. Moffett, Jr., and remain- ed its editor until 1885. For a number of year he was a member of the Democratic state central committee, beginning in 1883, and in that year was also elected to the house of delegates. In 1891 he removed to Salem, Roanoke county, and associated him- self in partnership with Hon. A. B. Pugh. He was made judge of Roanoke county court in June, 1893, and occupied the office almost eleven years. In January, 1906, he was elected circuit judge. His religious affiliation is with the Baptist denomination ; he was president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia 1903-05, and for a number of years served as moderator of the Valley Association. He was connected with a number of educational and charitable insti- tutions. He married. February 22, 1883, Jessie Mary Dudley.

Hughes, Robert Morton, horn in Abing- don. \'irginia, September 10, 1855, son of tlie late Judge Robert W. Hughes, for twenty-four years United States district judge for the eastern district of Virginia, and Eliza M. Johnston, his wife. His pa- ternal ancestors came to Virginia with the Huguenot emigration about 1700, and set- tled near Manakintown. above Richmond Seven members of his familv were in one

company in the revolutionary war. He was educated at private schools near Abingdon, Virginia, and at William and Mary College, which he entered in 1870, being graduated therefrom in 1873 with the degree of Bach- elor of Arts. The same year he entered the University of Virginia, where he remained for four years, and graduated with the de- gree of Master of Arts. During the last year of his university course he took the law course as well as the academic courses neces- sary to complete his master's degree ; and took the summer law course under Pro- fessor John B. Minor, the ensuing summer. In the fall of 1877 he located at Norfolk, and began the practice of his profession. He was in 1895 elected president of the Vir- ginia State Bar Association. He is presi- dent of the Virginia Alpha chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and is a member of the Norfolk and Portsmouth Bar Asso- ciation, the Virginia State Bar Association, the Maritime Law Association, the Ameri- can Bar Association, and the International Law Association. He is also rector of the board of visitors of William and Mary Col- lege, and member of the state board for ex- amining applicants to practice law. He is the author of a "Biography of General Joseph E. Johnston," published by Appleton &: Company, in 1893, and also of a work on "Admiralty," published by the West Pub- lishing Company in 1901. He is a Repub- lican in politics. On February 19, 1879, he married ]\Iattie L. Smith, of Williamsburg, Virginia, daughter of Sydney Smith, Esq., and has two children. His address is Nor- folk, \'irginia.

Thom, Alfred Pembroke, born in North- ampton county, Virginia, December 15,