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Benjamin W. Leigh

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Benjamin Watkins Leigh
United States Senator
from Virginia
In office
February 26, 1834 – July 4, 1836
Preceded byWilliam C. Rives
Succeeded byRichard E. Parker
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Dinwiddie County
In office
1811–1813
Personal details
Born(1781-06-18)June 18, 1781
Chesterfield County, Virginia
DiedFebruary 2, 1849(1849-02-02) (aged 67)
Richmond, Virginia
Political partyNational Republican
Spouse(s)
Mary Selden Watkins
​
​
(m. 1802; died 1813)​

Susan Colston
​
​
(m. 1813, died)​

Julia Wickham
​
​
(m. 1821; died 1849)​
Alma materCollege of William and Mary
ProfessionLawyer, politician

Benjamin Watkins Leigh (June 18, 1781 – February 2, 1849) was an American lawyer and politician from Richmond, Virginia. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates and represented Virginia in the United States Senate.

Early and family life

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Benjamin Watkins Leigh was born at "Gravel Hill", the glebe of Dale Parish in Chesterfield County on June 18, 1781, the son of the Reverend William Leigh (d. 1787) and Elizabeth (née Watkins) Leigh (d. 1799).[1] He attended the College of William and Mary, studied law, and began practicing in Petersburg in 1802, as well as helped raise his younger brother William.

Career

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After representing Dinwiddie County in the Virginia House of Delegates 1811-13, Leigh moved to Richmond, where he rose rapidly in his chosen profession. He prepared the revised Code of Virginia in 1819, was a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-1830, a reporter of the Virginia Court of Appeals 1829-41, and was again elected to the Virginia legislature, representing Henrico County in the session of 1830-31. Leigh was appointed by the state legislature as a Whig to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William Cabell Rives; he was reelected in 1835.

During Leigh's time in the Senate, the controversy over slavery reached new levels of intensity. The House of Representatives passed a "gag rule" tabling all anti-slavery petitions, and a similar measure died in the Senate, though that body approved an alternate method of ignoring such petitions. President Jackson called on the Congress to censor anti-slavery publications from the federal mails, a bill the Senate defeated 25-19. Leigh proposed a statewide boycott of pro-emancipation newspapers, writing that Virginians had the right "to suppress to the utmost of our power what we deem inflammatory, dangerous, mischievous."[2]

Every State had expressed the disapproval of South Carolina's nullification and it was Leigh who was sent to urge South Carolina to desist from carrying matters to extremities.[3] Leigh served until his resignation on July 4, 1836. Thereafter he resumed the practice of law in Richmond.

Benjamin Watkins Leigh was a founding member (1831) of the Virginia Historical Society and first chairman of its standing committee.

Personal life

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Leigh was married three times. His first marriage was on December 24, 1802, to Mary Selden Watkins (c. 1784–1813), a daughter of Thomas Watkins and Rebecca Cary (née Selden) Watkins.[4]

After Mary's death in 1813, he married Susanna "Susan" Colston (b. 1792), a daughter of merchant Rawleigh Thomas Colston and Elizabeth (née Marshall) Colston (sister of Chief Justice John Marshall), on November 30, 1813. Before her death, they were the parents of two children:[5]

After his Susan's death, he married Julia Wickham (1801–1883), a daughter of John Wickham and Elizabeth Selden (née McClurg) Wickham, on November 24, 1821.[8] Together, they were the parents of:

  • Elizabeth Wickham Leigh (1824–1895), who married Charles Meriwether Fry, the President of the Bank of New York from 1876 to 1892.[9]
  • John Wickham Leigh (1824–1904), who married Camille Bowie, a daughter of Thomas Hamilton Bowie Jr., in 1841.[10]
  • Chapman Johnson Leigh (1828–1911), who married Annie C. Carter, a daughter of Hill Carter and Mary Braxton (née Randolph) Carter, in 1860.[11]
  • Julia Wickham Leigh (1828–1916), who married Dr. Thomas Randolph Harrison in 1849.[12]
  • Benjamin Watkins Leigh Jr. (1831–1863), who married Helen Leckie Jones, a daughter of James Y. Jones, in 1855.[13]
  • Anne Carter Leigh (1832–1917), who married Charles Old Jr., a son of William Old.[14]
  • Virginia Leigh (1835–1866), who married Dr. Francis Peyre Porcher in 1855.[15][16]
  • Alice Leigh (1843–1913), who never married.[17]

Leigh died in Richmond on February 2, 1849, and is buried in Shockoe Hill Cemetery.[18]

Legacy

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His home at Richmond, the Benjamin Watkins Leigh House, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.[19][20]

References

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  1. ^ Alderman, Edwin A.; Harris, Joel C., eds. (1907). Library of Southern Literature: Volume VII. Atlanta, Ga.: The Martin and Hoyt Company. p. 3205. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  2. ^ Dunn, Susan. Dominion of Memories: Jefferson, Madison, & the Decline of Virginia, 195.
  3. ^ George Lunt (1866). The Origin of the Late War Traced from the Beginning of the Constitution to the Revolt of the Southern States. New York: D. Appleton and Company. p. 89.
  4. ^ Kennedy, Mary Selden (1911). Seldens of Virginia and Allied Families. Frank Allaben Genealogical Company. p. 125. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  5. ^ a b Bellet, Louise Pecquet du (1907). Some Prominent Virginia Families. J.P. Bell Company (Incorporated). pp. 237–238. ISBN 978-0-7222-4616-0. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
  6. ^ Virginia Genealogies & Land Patents: Series of Articles from the Richmond Critic, 1888-9 & 1890. Brookhaven Press. 2001. ISBN 978-1-4035-0096-0. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
  7. ^ Curtis, Christopher Michael (30 April 2012). Jefferson's Freeholders and the Politics of Ownership in the Old Dominion. Cambridge University Press. p. 185. ISBN 978-1-107-37935-0. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  8. ^ Clay, Henry (17 October 2014). The Papers of Henry Clay: Presidential Candidate, 1821-1824. University Press of Kentucky. p. 502. ISBN 978-0-8131-5669-9. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
  9. ^ Watson, Walter Allen (1924). Notes on Southside Virginia. D. Bottom, superintendant of public printing. pp. 153–154. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  10. ^ California State Journal of Medicine. California Medical Association. 1905. p. 135. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  11. ^ Taff, Edward Hill Carter (1961). The Carter Family Tree (1662-1962): John Carter and Elizabeth (Hill) Carter Branch. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  12. ^ Virkus, Frederick Adams; Marquis, Albert Nelson (1925). The Abridged Compendium of American Genealogy: First Families of America. A.N. Marquis. p. 27. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  13. ^ Montgomery, Lizzie Wilson (1924). Sketches of Old Warrenton, North Carolina: Traditions and Reminiscences of the Town and People who Made it. Edwards & Broughton Printing Company. p. 261. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  14. ^ Baskervill, Patrick Hamilton (1921). Andrew Meade of Ireland and Virginia: His Ancestors, and Some of His Descendants and Their Connections, Including Sketches of the Following Families: Meade, Everard, Hardaway, Segar, Pettus, and Overton ... Old Dominion Press. p. 104. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  15. ^ Porcher, Francis Peyre (1824-1895); Porcher, Virginia Leigh (1835-1866). "Letter: Frances Peyre Porcher to Virginia Leigh Porcher, March 23, 1862". dp.la. Digital Public Library of America. Retrieved 19 December 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  16. ^ Snowden, Yates; Cutler, Harry Gardner (1920). History of South Carolina. Lewis Publishing Company. p. 272. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  17. ^ Virkus, Frederick Adams (1928). The Abridged Compendium of American Genealogy: First Families of America: A Genealogical Encyclopedia of the United States. F.A. Virkus & Company. p. 397. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  18. ^ "Shockoe Hill Cemetery - Richmond, Virginia".
  19. ^ Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission Staff (March 1969). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Benjamin Watkins Leigh House" (PDF). Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
  20. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.

Sources

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  • Dictionary of American Biography
  • Dunn, Susan. Dominion of Memories: Jefferson, Madison, & the Decline of Virginia. Cambridge: Basic Books, 2007
  • Hall, Cline Edwin. “The Political Life of Benjamin Watkins Leigh.” Master’s thesis, University of Richmond, 1959
  • Macfarland, William H. An Address on the Life, Character, and Public Services of the Late Hon. Benjamin Watkins Leigh. Richmond: Macfarlane and Fergusson, 1851.
  • Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Volume II
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U.S. Senate
Preceded by U.S. senator (Class 2) from Virginia
February 26, 1834 – July 4, 1836
Served alongside: John Tyler, Jr., William C. Rives 		Succeeded by
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