Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/56

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\'IRGIXIA BIOGRAPHY

parish. Morayshire, Scotland, was born April 22, i8oS, was educated at the Univer- sity of X'irginia, 1825-1827, studied law and was admitted to the bar of Warrenton, Vir- ginia, 1829. He was elected commonwealth's attorney and for years served in the legis- lature ; member of the constitutional con- vention of 1850 and of the convention of 1861, in which body he supported the Union until the proclamation of Lincoln for troops to coerce South Carolina. He was a member of the provisional congress of the Confederate States, July, i86t. In Septem- ber, 1861, he was a candidate for the Con- federate house of representatives. He died May 3, 1862, killed by two marauders from the United States army in Fauquier county, while trying to arrest them. He had been offered by Mr. Seward the position of Sec- retary of Navy of the United States. He married (first) March 10. 1831, Elizabeth laylor, born 1815, died March 11, 1834, daughter of Robert Johnston Taylor, of Alexandria ; (second) Anne Morson, daugh- ter of Alexander and Anne (Carson) Mor- son, of Staflford county, and (third) Hening- ham Watkins Lyons, sister of Hon. James Lyons, of Richmond (q. v.).

Seddon, James Alexander, born in Fal- mouth, \'ir,ninia, July 13, 1815, son of Thomas Seddon, a merchant and subse- quently a banker, who was descended from John Seddon, of Lancashire, England, who was one of the early settlers of Staftord county, Virginia; his mother, Susan (Alex- ander) Seddon, was a lineal descendant of John Alexander. James A. Seddon enter- ed the law department of the University of Virginia and was graduated in 1835; after graduation began practice in Rich-

mond, where his abilities attracted imme- diate attention, and he became one of the foremost members of his profession in the state; elected as a Democrat to the twenty- ninth congress (March 4, 1845-March 3, 1847), receiving a handsome majority, al- though the district was usually uncertain ; he declined a renomination in 1847, because his views were not in accord with the plat- form of the nominating convention ; re- elected to the thirty-first congress (March 4, i849-]March 3, 1851), but his delicate health obliged him to decline another nomination, and he retired to Sabot Hill, his home on the James river, above Richmond; he took an active part in the debates during his serv- ice in congress, and was acknowledged to be the leader of his party : his debates upon the reform revenue bill, in which he advocated free trade, were models of strength and eru- dition, and commanded wide attention ; in i860 was appointed, with John Tyler and others, a commissioner to the peace con- gress which, at the instance of the state of Virginia, was held in \\'ashington ; he was placed upon the committee of rules, and by the instruction of his state made the minor- ity report, recommending the amending of the constitution according to the resolution which had been introduced into the senate by John J. Crittenden. He was a delegate to the Confederate provisional congress, and upon the establishment of the Confederate government was given the portfolio of sec- retary of war in the first cabinet of Jeffer- son Davis, November 20, 1862. In his con- tention with Governor Brown, of Georgia, upon the subject of conscription, he showed the strength of his personality ; the prin- ciple of state sovereignty, according to Gov- ernor Brown, did not permit the general