Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/407

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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a student at \'irtjinia Polytechnic Institute. at Blacksburg. X'irginia.

A. Prescott Rowe was born in Freder- icksburg. \'irginia. February 14, 1859. He was educated in the private schools and Woodstock Academy, beginning business life as clerk, later his tastes drawing him to journalism and public life. He is now manager of the Free Lance Star Publish- ing Company, a corporation jniliilishing the Free Lance, a tri-weekly, and the Star, a daily newspaper. For several years he has been city collector of taxes, and prominent in public affairs of the city. He is a past master of Lodge. Ko. 4. Free and Accepted Masons, a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Junior Order of Amer- ican Mechanics and the Fraternal Order of Owls. He is a Democrat in politics, and a member of the Baptist church. He is an ardent devotee of out-of-door sports and ob- tains his recreation largely in walking, ride- ing and boating. He married. June 18, 1903, Blanche, daughter of William L. and Ade- laide I. Messick. granddaughter of L. H. and Mary Jane Irving and George P. and Julia W. I\Iessick. her family line tracing to the Handys and Hoopers who came to \'irginia from England in the seventeenth century ; children : Adelaide and Josiah.

Smith Severn Nottingham. The founder of the Nottingham family in Virginia be- longed to that branch of the family in Eng- land that resided in the county of Kent in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They were connected with the Petts, noted for their distinguished services in the navy and called the founders of the English navy in some of the chronicles of that period.

Richard Nottingham and his wife Eliza- beth came to \'irginia in 1646 and settled in Northampton county, on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. He bought a large tract of land from Captain William Stone, who was afterwards made governor of Maryland by Lord Baltimore. IJying m 1692, at the age of seventy-four years, Rich- ard Nottingham bequeathed this estate, which began just north of Eastville, the county seat, to his sons. Richard and Robert, and some of the land still remains an in- heritance in the Nottingham family. His sons became prominent in the affairs of the county. One was appointed a vestrvman in 1691 by the colonial council at Williams- burg to establish the Hungars parish, and

the church now standing is one of the old- est in the state. They were officers in the colonial troops and members of the county peace commissions. One of the sons was made high sheriff of the county by Queen Anne in 1713 by special patent and for con- spicuous merit.

Philip Alexander Bruce in his "Social Life of Virgmia in the Seventeenth Cen- tury" says: "After two hundred and fifty years association with the social and politi- cal life of the Eastern Shore, the Notting- ham family continues today to be one of the most prominent of all those seated in that part of Virginia." And in his "History of the Eastern Shore of Virginia in the Sev- enteenth Century," Jennings C. Wise says "That while the name is practically un- known elsewhere in America, yet so nu- merous are the branches of this ancient family that it has been said that one can make no mistake by addressing an eastern shoreman, if a gentleman, by this name, for if it is not his own name it will probably be that of a near relative." Until the close of the war between the states, in 1865, it was rare to find a Nottingham a permanent resident except on the eastern shore, but with the many changes and vicissitudes growing out of that, to the Southern people, revolution- ary event, some members of the family have Ijecome well-known residents of other sec- tions of Virginia and in other states.

Among those who have established them- selves elsewhere is Smith Severn Notting- ham, of Norfolk. He was born at "West- over," Northampton county, Virginia, the son of Smith Severn Nottingham, grandson of General Smith Nottingham, of "Farming- ton." and great-grandson of the Severn Not- tingham (third in descent from the first Richard Nottingham, of Virginia) who was a prominent figure in Northampton county in the eighteenth century. Smith Severn Nottingham, of this review, was educated in the private schools of Petersburg, and be- gan his business career as business manager of the "Norfolk Virginian" in the late sev- enties. He afterwards purchased an interest in the "Norfolk Landmark." one of the lead- ing newspapers in the state, and for a quar- ter of a century was its editor and publisher. After he retired from active newspaper work, he was elected in 1914 one of the three members of the Board of Control, the ad- ministrative branch of the Norfolk city gov- ernment.