Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/266

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

ard Fletcher, was born at Warrenton, Vir- ginia, December 24. 1873: is now a pros- perous merchant, engaging in the insurance business at Warrenton. He married Emily N. Forbes, and has: Albert (3), Murray Forbes and North Fletcher.

William Samuel Goodwyn. Judge Good- wyn, of the Greenville county courts, de- scends from professional forbears, his father having been an honored judge of the county court and his grandfather a physician of Southampton county, Virginia. In each gen- eration the Goodwyn men have been men of unusual prominence in their professions, and in their private lives have held the entire confidence of their communities.

William Boswell Goodwyn, of Southamp- ton, was a graduate of the medical depart- ment of the University of Virginia, class of 1809. He practiced his profession in South- ampton county and was highly regarded as an honorable and skillful physician. He married Elizabeth Norfleet Blunt.

Judge William Stephen Goodwyn, son of Dr. William Boswell and Elizabeth Nor- fleet (Blunt) Goodwyn, was born in South- ampton county, Virginia, in 1819, died in 1883. He was a graduate of the law school of the University of Virginia and rose to prominence in his profession. He was for twelve years judge of the county court of Sussex and Greenville counties and for many years commonwealth attorney of Green- ville county. He married Mary Ann Drury. Her brother was a private of the fourth Vir- ginia Cavalry of the Confederate army. Chil- dren : Watkins Blunt, Stephen Douglass, Joseph Norfleet, William Samuel, of fur- ther mention; Betty, married J. W. Riddle.

Judge William Samuel Goodwyn. son of Judge William Stephen and Mary Ann (Drury) Goodwyn, was born in Greenville, a southeastern county of Virginia border- ing on North Carolina, November 16, 1854. He prepared in Captain W. H. Bishop's school and that kept by Dr. Worshanis in Dinwiddle county, Virginia, being a contem- porary of Dr. Lyon Gardiner Tyler, now president of William and Mary College. He was graduated Bachelor of Laws, class of 1876, was admitted to the bar and at once began practice with his honored father at Hicks Ford, now Emporia, the capital of Greenville county. Father and son con- tinued to practice as W. S. and W. S. Good-

wyn, until the son was elected common- wealth attorney of Greenville county, an office held for many years by William S., the father; the son served in that position until 1892, then was elevated to the bench by vote of the Virginia legislature, continu- ing judge of Greenville county ten years, until 1902. He then returned to private practice and in all Virginia there is no mem- ber of the bar more strongly intrenched in public confidence than he. In fact for half a century the Goodwyns, father and son, as lawyers and journalists have been at the head of the local bar and honored wherever known. Judge Goodwyn has been admitted to all state and Federal courts of the district and has a large practice in all. He is learned in the law, held the unusual respect of the bar as a jurist and dispersed justice with an impartial hand. His decisions were care- fully considered in the light of the law and were rarely reversed through improper pro- cedure or faulty rulings on his part. As a lawyer, his cases are carefully prepared, sub- mitted with vigor and fairness, never rely- ing on trickery or deception to help secure a favorable verdict. He is a member of various bar associations of the district and many societies and associations, profes- sional, social and fraternal, among them, the Greenville County Agricultural Society.

In 1897 Judge Goodwyn assisted in organ- izing the Greenville Bank of Emporia, was chosen the first president and in that office, and as director and attorney, yet serves that excellent institution. In political faith he is a Democrat, and in religious belief is an Episcopalian, his wife a Presbyterian.

Judge Goodwyn married, December 10, 1884, Dora Lee Hedges, born in Berkeley county, West Virginia, September 3, 1863, daughter of De Costa and Mary Hugh (Bell) Hedges, granddaughter of Dr. John Rollings and Elizabeth (Turner) Hedges, and great-granddaughter of John Turner, a lieutenant in the revolutionary war, a stu- dent and later surveyor of William and Mary College, an office he resigned in 1790, was treasurer and sheriff of his county, where he was a large landowner, having ob- tained a grant from Lord Fairfax in 1753. He died in 1811. Mrs. Goodwyn traces her ancestry to Isaac Chapline, an ensign in the English navy, a member of the King's coun- cil, 1610, and member of the Virginia house of burgesses in 1621. Her colonial and rev-