Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/686

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

be found. Calling upon a vast fund of gen- eral knowledge, a personal experience wide and at times thrilling, and a manner of nar- ration as inimitable as it is delightful, he is always pleasantly entertaining.

John T. Griffin married, October 7, 1865, Julia Armistead. daughter of Thomas and Xancy lienn, of Xansemond county, Vir- ginia, her. father a captain in the American army in the war of 1812. Children of John T. and Julia Armistead (Benn) (iriffin: Thomas Benn. married Rachel Williams, and has Mortimer W., John Nathaniel, Sarah. Thomas Benn Jr., John Thomas Jr., and Rachel ; Virginia, married Judge Charles Woolfolk Coleman (q. v.), and has one daughter, Julia ; Gazena, married J. Vernon Carney, and is the mother of Vir- ginia, Emily, and Ann.

John Newton Williams. This branch of the Williams family of Virginia was long seated in Fairfax, that historic county of Xortheastern \'irginia, famous as the home of Washington. ]\Iount Vernon, being situ- ated in the eastern part of the county. Walter \\illiams and his wife, Henrietta W'allace (Wheeler) W'illiams, grandparents of John Newton \\'illiams, owned a planta- tion in Fairfax, but left their estate there and located in the state of Missouri.

(II) John A\'illiams, son of Weaker and Flenrietta Wallace (Wheeler) Williams, was born in Fairfax county, Virginia, in 1805, died in 1875. his birthplace having been the old Todd mansion once owned by Luke Wheeler. John Williams was for forty years clerk of courts for the count}', a ves- tryman of Christ's Episcopal Church, and a man of the highest standing. He was noted for his charities and hospitality as well as for his courtly manners and upright char- acter. He married Martha Armistead, of Norfolk, also of a leading Virginia family. Children: i. Elizabeth D.. married Wil- liam Sharp. 2. Rev. Walter Wheeler, rector of St. -George's Episcopal Church, New York City, afterwards rector of Christ's Church, Baltimore. Maryland ; he married Alice Bradley, daughter of Joseph P>radley. a prominent attorney of Washington, D. C. ; Rev. W. W. Williams died in 1892. 3. Theodorick Armistead. died in Norfolk in 1890; was president of the National Bank of Commerce ; married Gertrude Smart, of

\irginia, and had five children. 4. John Newton, of further mention.

(Ill) John Newton Williams, son of John and Martha (Armistead) Williams, was born in Xorfolk. Virginia, June 25, 1842. He completed his preparatory education at Norfolk Academy, then entered William and Mary College, leaving that institution in 1861 to enter the Confederate army. He served four years in the artillery, saw hard service and came out of the conflict disabled, the result of typhoid fever. After the war he became his father's assistant in the office of clerk of courts, later forming a partner- ship with his brother, Theodorick A., and engaging in the grocery business. In 1870 he became a member of the drug firm, Walke & Williams, later Williams, Martin & Grey. He was one of the prominent, suc- cessful business men of his day, and until his retirement was foremost in all that tended to improve conditions in his native city. His name appears as one of the founders and charter members of St. Luke's Protestant Episcopal Church and for many years he was a vestryman of that parish. He fra- ternizes with the few remaining comrades of Pickett Buchanan Post, United Confed- erate Veterans, and in political faith he is a supporter of Democratic principles.

He married, September 27, 1870, Virginia Adelaide Bland, born in 1847, one of the nine children of Richard Edward and Hen- rietta Wallace (Williams) Bland, the latter a daughter of Walter Williams and his wife Henrietta Wallace (Wheeler) Williams. Richard Edward Bland was a son of Peter and Martha (Nash) Bland, families promi- nent in early and subsequent Virginia his- tory. Children of John Newton and Vir- ginia Adelaide (Bland) Williams: i. Rich- ard Bland. 2. John Newton (2), born in 1882 ; attended the University of Virginia ; now a merchant of Norfolk. 3. Alice Bland, married William H. C. Ellis, of Philadelphia, now in auditor's office in Richmond, and has a daughter. \'irginia liland.

Edmund Townes Wimbish. The record of the line of \\'imbish in Virginia, begin- ning with Abram Wimbish, grandfather of Edmund Townes Wimbish. of this chron- icle, a wealthy landowner and planter, con- tinuing throui^h Samuel Pannill Wimbish, contains a story of lives well-lived, duty