Edmund Winston

Edmund Winston Sr. (b. 1745 – d. August 18, 1818) was a lawyer, politician, jurist, and patriot of the American Revolution for Virginia.[1]

The Honorable
Edmund Winston
Judge of the General Court of Virginia
In office
December 11, 1788 – February 6, 1813
Preceded byPeter Lyons
Succeeded byJohn Dabney
Member of the Virginia Senate
In office
1776–1783
ConstituencyBedford, Campbell, Henry, and Pittsylvania Counties
Personal details
Born1745
Hanover County, Virginia, British America
DiedAugust 18, 1818(1818-08-18) (aged 72–73)
Lynchburg, Virginia, U.S.
Spouse(s)Alice Taylor (m. 1771; died 1784)
Dorothea Dandridge (m. 1802)
Children6
OccupationLawyer, Politician, Judge
ProfessionLaw

Biography

Winston was born in 1745 in Hanover County, Virginia, the son of Lt. William Winston and Sarah Dabney.[2] He became a lawyer in 1767 and supported the American Revolution, furnishing supplies in support of the cause of independence.[1]

By 1781, he had earned enough prominence for Thomas Jefferson to record in his book, Notes on the State of Virginia, that lead from western Virginia was loaded on the boats at "Lynch's ferry, or Winston's, on [the] James River."[3] He was elected to represent Bedford, Campbell, Henry, and Pittsylvania Counties in the Senate of Virginia from 1776 to 1783.[4][5]

Winston served as prosecuting attorney in Campbell County during 1787-88. He was also a representative to the Virginia Ratifying Convention of 1788, which ratified the U. S. Constitution.[6]

In 1788,[7] Winston was elected by the Virginia General Assembly to the General Court of Virginia, which heard appeals from the county courts, and served in the role until 1813.[8] During his first two weeks on the bench, from December 11 to December 24 of 1788, he was also an ex officio member of the Supreme Court of Virginia until it became a separate body with five judges.[9]

Winston was a friend of Thomas Jefferson, and, according to the Jefferson Papers,[10][11] visited him at Monticello on multiple occasions.[12]

Family and Children

In October 1771, he married Alice Taylor Winston, a daughter of his uncle, Judge Anthony Winston, of Buckingham County.[13] They had six children, George Dabney, Sarah, Alice, Mary, Edmund Jr., and Elizabeth. Alice died in 1784, leaving him with six children ages 1-10.[14] Their daughter Sarah married George Cabell, prominent surgeon and builder of Point of Honor.[15]

Winston was a first cousin and long-time friend of Governor Patrick Henry, who appointed him as an executor of his will.[16] After Henry's death in 1799, Winston was active in the settlement of the Red Hill estate and various tracts of land. This process involved frequent communication with Henry’s widow, Dorothea Dandridge Henry.[2][17]

In June 1802, he married Dorothea in Charlotte County. He had no additional children with Dorothea, but helped support her children from Patrick and his children from his first wife. In total, they had 21 children in their blended family; many of whom were adults at the time of their marriage.[18] They lived at the Huntingtour Estate in Nelson County.[19]

Death

Winston died on August 18, 1818, in Lynchburg, Virginia.[20]

See also

References
  1. "DAR Genealogical Research Databases". services.dar.org. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  2. Dabney, William H. (William Henry) (1888). Sketch of the Dabneys of Virginia, with some of their family records. Boston Public Library. Chicago, Press of S. D. Childs & Co.
  3. "Notes on the State of Virginia". 2011-02-21. p. 151. Archived from the original on 2011-02-21. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  4. Genealogical and Historical Notes on Culpeper County, Virginia. R.T. Green. 1900.
  5. Assembly, Virginia General (1978). The General Assembly of Virginia, July 30, 1619-January 11, 1978: A Bicentennial Register of Members. General Assembly of Virginia. ISBN 978-0-88490-008-5.
  6. The History of the Virginia Federal Convention of 1788, by H B Grigsby, p 369
  7. Virginia; Brockenbrough, William (1826). Virginia cases; or, Decisions of the General Court of Virginia,: chiefly on the criminal law of the Commonwealth commencing June term, 1815, and ending June term, 1826. Vol. II.: With an index of the principal matters in this and the preceding volume. Virginia reports.Vol. 4. Richmond: Published by Peter Cottom, and for sale at his law and miscellaneous book store. p. 19.
  8. Hening, ed. (1821), "October Session, 1778 ch. XVII", The Statutes at Large, vol. 9, pp. 401–419.
  9. Hening, William Waller, ed. (1823), "October Session, 1788 ch. LXVIII", The Statutes at Large, vol. 12, Richmond, Virginia: George Cochran, pp. 764–766. This statute was superseded in 1791, Hening, William Waller, ed. (1823), "October Session, 1792 ch. XI", The Statutes at Large, vol. 13, Philadelphia: Thomas Desilver, p. 405, and 1818, Leigh, Benjamin Watkins, ed. (1819), "ch. 64", Revised Code of 1819, vol. 1, Richmond, Virginia: Thomas Richie, p. 184, but the material provisions were unchanged.
  10. "Volume 24 | The Papers of Thomas Jefferson". jeffersonpapers.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  11. "Founders Online: From Thomas Jefferson to Edmund Winston, 19 August 1792". founders.archives.gov. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  12. From Thomas Jefferson to Edmund Winston, 19 August 1792,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-24-02-0295 . [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 24, 1 June–31 December 1792, ed. John Catanzariti. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990, p. 311.]
  13. Mosby Family Bible Records, 1765-1896. Powhatan County
  14. Winston, Alfred Sumner (1992). The Winstons of Hanover County, Virginia and Related Families, 1666-1992. Gateway Press.
  15. "The Cabell Family Papers | Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library". small.library.virginia.edu. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  16. Hill, Patrick Henry's Red. "Henry's Will". Patrick Henry's Red Hill. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  17. Meade, Robert. Judge Edmund Winston's Memoir of Patrick Henry, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 69, No. 1, Part One (Jan. 1961), pp. 28-41
  18. "Some Winston families of Virginia and North Carolina". Geneanet. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  19. Hill, Patrick Henry's Red. "Patrick Henry's Family". Patrick Henry's Red Hill. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  20. "Edmund Winston Obituary". Richmond Enquirer. 8 Sep 1818. p. 3.
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