Hudgins and Vaughan Connection
Climbing the Family Tree
The Daily Press New Dominion
Newport News, Virginia
Sunday, April 20, 1975
Hudgins Family of Mathews, Glouchester, York, and Elizabeth City Counties, Virginia.
This data continues from previous issues of this feature and should be kept
for future reference on the family and its connections with other families.
One Mr. Edward A. Hudgins of 9417 Orleans Street, Norfolk, Va. 23503
has so helpfully given this data to be published requesting that any persons
have early family Bibles and related data be sent to him. Since this gentleman
does expect to accumulate the data for culminating into a book at a much
later date, everyone having data should see that he has the assistance he
requests.
We continue with the Descendants of Houlder I and Elizabeth Anderson
Hudgins.
Elizabeth Anderson (1774-1804), third wife of 'Houlder Hudgins 1, was one
of three Captain Mathew and Mary (Dabney) Anderson of "Exchange
Plantation" which adjoined Bellefield. As previously stated, her two sisters,
Susan and Mary Anderson, both married John Lewis Hudgins, son of Houlder
Hudgins I by his second wife, Mary Gwyn. Houlder Hudgins I and Elizabeth
(Anderson) were married November 5, 1794 and had three children:
Ariadne Elizabeth Hudgins(1795-1856)
Robert Hudgins (1797-1859)
Houlder Hudgins II (1799-1868)
The named Ariadne Elizabeth Hudgins (1795-1~~6), named for her father’s
Aunt Ariadne, sister of Robert Hudgins of Liverpool, England, with whom he lived
while attending Christ College at Bristol, England, was born at Clifton, October
10, 1795. She married James Moody Vaughan, a prominent citizen of Mathews
and a close friend of Houlder Hudgins I.
James Vaughan was a witness to the will of Houlder Hudgins I. The Vaughan
family is written up in the William Mary College Quarterly of July 1935.
They had children:
Robert Vaughan, who married Leavinia Smith.
Anna Vaughan, who became Mrs. Booker Jones.
Henrietta Vaughan, who married Dr. John Hendon of Baltimore, Maryland.
Dr. William Ryland Vaughan, who married Mary Anita Smythe and had six
children (Robert H. Vaughan, Walter R. Vaughan, George Vaughan, Bernard Cassidy Vaughan,
Ariadne Elizabeth who married John Latham of Staunton, and Virginia Hudgins Vaughan of Warrenton.)
Betty Vaughan, who never married.
Robert Hudgins was born July 7, 1797 at Clifton, died in 1859 at
his own magnificent manor known as "Leamington" situated on the Back River
area of Hampton adjacent to Old Point Comfort. (Note: This writer questions the area
of "Leamington" being adjacent to Old Point Comfort, since it is quite a distance from Old Point
Comfort. -Ed.)
In 1829 he married Harriet Jones, daughter of Thomas Jones of "Kennington"
King William County and they lived at "Leamington". In 1831 they had their first
child, a boy, and it occurred Benjamin Franklin and his wife were visiting "Clifton"
at the time and Mrs. Franklin gave birth to a son during this visit. Robert named
his first child Benjamin Franklin Hudgins. The land at "Leamington" which
Robert Hudgins was extremely fertile, he prospered greatly, was one of the largest
slave owners in the area. The plantation is now owned by the United States
Government and is part of Langley Air Force Base. Robert Hudgins and Harriet
(Jones) Hudgins had six children:
Benjamin Franklin Hudgins(1831-1894)
Ella Hudgins (1834-?)
John Hudgins (1835-1836)
Selena Hudgins (1838-?)
Ann Elizabeth Hudgins (1840-)
Robert Hudgins, Jr. (1842 -?)
Benjamin Franklin Hudgins (1831- 1894) was born November 12th, 1831, at
"Clifton", and died 1894 at Hampton, Virginia. He attended Hampton Military
Academy and was graduated from the Virginia Military Institute. He was a
Captain in the Hampton Grays in the Civil War, a unit composed of Hampton
residents and commanded by graduates of Col. Cary’s Academy. After the war
he became a planter and merchant. He married November 14, 1855, Rebecca
Bland Worsham (1831-1885), daughter of Dr. Henry and Frances (Bland)
Worsham of Dinwiddie Co., Va. They had nine children, four of whom lived to
maturity:
Maria Bland Hudgins (1859 -?)
Benjamin Franklin Hudgins, Jr.(1861)
Kenneth Worsham Hudgins (1866-)
Ashley Cooper Hudgins (1871-)
The above named Maria Bland Hudgins (b. 1859) married Henry Clay Marrow
in 1984 and they had a son, Henry Clay Marrow, Jr., born 1886.
The above named Benjamin Franklin Hudgins, Jr., born May 9, 1861 at
Leamington. In 1890 he married Louisa LaMar Holladay, daughter of LaMar
Holladay of Baltimore, Maryland. They moved to West Palm Beach, Florida,
and had eleven children:
Rebecca Bland Hudgins;
Georgia Louisa Hudgins;
Selina Hudgins;
Maud Eloise Hudgins;
Fannie Worsham Hudgins;
Maria Hudgins;
LaMar Hudgins;
Thelin Hudgins;
Benjamin Franklin Hudgins III;
Virginia Hudgins;
Lelia Hudgins.
Kenneth Worsham Hudgins was born September 29, 1866 in Dinwiddie Co., Va.
He attended Washington & Lee University, subsequently moved to Norfolk, Va.
where he went into the lumber and building materials business with his brother,
Ashley Cooper Hudgins. In 1895 he married Mary Holmes Love, daughter of Dr.
William Love of Winchester, Va. by whom he had three children:
Elizabeth Faulkner Hudgins;
William Love Hudgins;
Roderic Malcolm Hudgins.
The named Ashley Cooper Hudgins was born March 25, 187,1 at "Leamington".
He attended Virginia Military Institute and William & Mary College. He joined
his brother Kenneth Worsham Hudgins in business in Norfolk. He was married
in 1808 to Ann Whiting Watkins, daughter of James and Mary Bassett Whiting,
and they had one daughter, Mary Worsham Hudgins, who married Bruce Wagner.
(Note: The information on the family of Robert Hudgins of "Leamington" was supplied in 1943 by
Mrs. Henry Clay Marrow, his daughter, who at that time was living in Richmond, Va. It is interesting
to note that the family manor is repeatedly referred to as "Lamington" by members of the family but
the official records of Mathews County Virginia spells it "Leamington", which is logical since that is
the proper English spelling.)
Ella Hudgins was born at Leamington, married wealthy merchant, James Downey,
of Salem, North Carolina.
Selina was born in 1838, married Sidney Nicholas, son of Judge John Nicholas
of Richmond, Va.
Ann Elizabeth Hudgins, born 1840, married Robert Drury of Richmond, Va.
Robert Hudgins, Jr., was born at "Leamington" in 1842, served in the Old
Dominion Dragoons during the Civil War. After the War he built a plantation and
manor house known as "Bloomfield" next to "Leamington" (now a part of Langley
Air Force Base). He married a widow, Mrs. William Cansey, who owned "Chesterville"
in Mathews. They had one son, Major Robert Hudgins, who lives in Washington,
D. C. (I know Maj. Hudgins quite well, as a matter of fact he was for a short time
on my staff during World War II, as representative of the Department of the Interior
to the War Plants Location Board, of which I was Chairman. He has a son Houlder
Hudgins, at whose wedding I acted as best man in the Spring of 1942. (NOTE: This
added note was from the material of the Mr. Hudgins who originally compiled the material.Ed.)
Houlder Hudgins II (1799-1868) was born at "Clifton" on October 2, 1799, the third
and last child of Houlder Hudgins I and Elizabeth (Anderson) Hudgins. He died at
"Clifton", which he inherited from his father, on July 23, 1868. He was the namesake
favorite of his father, who endeavored to make him follow in his footsteps. He was
educated at the University of Virginia, traveled extensively as a young man, worked
in his father's business, built his own manor house, "Freewelcome", on his father's
lands, became a pillar of the Baptist Church, was active in politics, and was a patriot
in the true sense of the word.
At the age of 13, while attending Colonel Carter's Hampton Military Academy, he
enlisted as a private in the 61st Regiment of Virginia Militia. This service entities all
lineal descendants to membership in the Society of Daughters of the War of 1812.
Upon his father's death in 1815, he (Houlder Hudgins, II) inherited the vast
pretentious "Clifton" Manor, and, in addition, the plantation known as "Bushy
Forest" in Hanover and "Ceeley" in Newport News, a large number of slaves and
the full business assets of his father's shipping and shipbuilding enterprises.
In 1828 he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates from Mathews County (Va.) defeating Carter M. Braxton. He was elected without opposition from Mathews from
1829 to 1834, ran from Middlesex, defeating Montague and thereafter running
alternately without opposition from Mathews and Middlesex through 1840. He was
elected Sheriff of Mathews in 1840, County Magistrate from 1842 to 1850, Chief
Magistrate thereafter to his death.
Any questions, suggestions, corrections, or additional information, contact me,
Linda CONAWAY Welden at:Linda_Welden@vaughan-vaughn.org
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