John Lewis Peyton
John Lewis Peyton | |
---|---|
Born | September 15, 1824 near Staunton, Virginia, U.S. |
Died | May 21, 1896 near Staunton, Virginia, U.S. |
Occupation(s) | Lawyer, diplomat, state agent, author |
Spouse | Henrietta Eliza Clark Washington |
Children | 2 |
John Lewis Peyton (September 15, 1824 – May 21, 1896)[1] was an American lawyer, diplomat, state agent for the Confederate States Army, and an author from Virginia.[2] During the beginning of the American Civil War he moved to Europe, and in 1861 became a state agent for North Carolina for the southern Confederate States Army cause.[3]
Early life, family, and education
[edit]He was born on September 15, 1824, near Staunton, Virginia.[4] His mother was Anne Montgomery Lewis, and his father was John Howe Peyton, a Virginia lawyer, politician, and planter.[3][5] His great-grandfather was Colonel William Preston, a colonel in the Virginia militia during the American Revolutionary War.[2] His great-great-grandfather was John Lewis, one of the first European settlers in Augusta County.[6]
Peyton studied at Virginia Military Institute (class of 1843); and University of Virginia (bachelor of laws degree 1844).[7] He served as a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia militia.[5]
In 1855, he married North Carolina heiress Henrietta Eliza "Betty" Clark Washington,[8] the daughter of Colonel John C. Washington from of Lenoir County, North Carolina.[2][9] He had a son, Lawrence Washington Howe Peyton;[9][8][10] and a daughter, Simone Marie Peyton.[11] They lived on an estate named Steephill (c. 1878) in Staunton.[12]
Career
[edit]Peyton practiced law until 1851, when he was sent by the U.S. Secretary of State Daniel Weber on special mission to England, France and Austria for the Millard Fillmore administration.[5][1]
Starting in 1861, he worked as a Confederate States Army commissioner, seeking support in Europe where he was living.[5] He purchased arms and purchased supplies in England for the North Carolina troops in the Confederate Army.[13] He was a fellow of the British Royal Geographical Society.[14]
Peyton wrote about various historical subjects, including his own travels and his family history. He wrote about his grandfather John Rowzée Peyton.[14][15] Peyton also propagated misconceptions about the pre-Columbian culture of mound builders.[14] After the war ended, the family remained in England for awhile after.[13]
He died of "apoplexy" on May 21, 1896, in Stauton.[1] In 1964, his heir's sold the Steephill family estate to Staunton Military Academy.[12]
Publications
[edit]- Peyton, J. Lewis (1867). The Adventures of my Grandfather. With Extracts from His Letters, and Other Family Documents. London, UK: J. Wilson.
- Peyton, J. Lewis (1867). The American Crisis, or, Pages from the Note-book of a State Agent during the Civil War. London, UK: Saunders, Otley and Co.
- Peyton, J. Lewis (1870). Over the Alleghanies and across the Prairies—Personal Recollections of the Far West, One and Twenty Years Ago. London, UK: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., a memoir
- Peyton, John Lewis; Washington, John; Brown, Orlando (1873). Memoir of William Madison Peyton. John Wilson, Bloomsbury.[16]
- Peyton, J. Lewis (1876). Biographical Sketch of Anne Montgomery Peyton, by her son J.L. Peyton. Guernsey, UK: F. Clark.
- Peyton, J. Lewis (1882). History of Augusta County, Virginia. Staunton, VA: Samuel M. Yost & Son.
- Peyton, J. Lewis (1893). Tom Swindel, or the Adventures of a Boomer. Staunton, VA.: G.L. Bolen.
- Peyton, J. Lewis. Memoir of John Howe Peyton, in Sketches by his Contemporaries, Together With Some of his Public and Private Letters, etc., also a sketch of Ann M. Peyton.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Col. John Lewis Peyton". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. May 25, 1896. Retrieved 2023-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c Powell, William S. (1994). "Peyton, John Lewis". NCpedia.
- ^ a b Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John (1898). Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography. D. Appleton. pp. 748–749.
- ^ The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. New York Public Library. New York, J. T. White company. 1893. p. 89.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ a b c d Cooper, Kelly; Romig, Brett. "John Lewis Peyton: A Confederate Abroad". Virginia Center for Civil War Studies, Virginia Tech.
- ^ John Lewis Memorial in Staunton, Virginia
- ^ "John Lewis Peyton". VMI Archives.
- ^ a b "L. W. H. Peyton, Stauton Head, Is Dead and 77". Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. June 12, 1949. Retrieved 2023-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Lewis, Virgil Anson (1892). Southern Historical Magazine: Devoted to History, Genealogy, Biography, Archæology and Kindred Subjects. V.A. Lewis. p. 244.
- ^ "Lawrence Washington Howe Peyton". VMI Archives.
- ^ "J.G. Valentine Marries Simone Marie Peyton". The New York Times. November 6, 1983. ISSN 0362-4331.
- ^ a b "Staunton Purchases Old Estate, Peyton's Place Sold by Heirs". Richmond Times-Dispatch. April 26, 1964. Retrieved 2023-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "Obituary: Col. John Lewis Peyton". The Southern Standard. May 29, 1896. Retrieved 2023-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c Yelton, Jeffrey K. (1989). "A Comment on John Rowzee Peyton and the Mound Builders: The Elevation of a Nineteenth-Century Fraud to a Twentieth-Century Myth". American Antiquity. 54 (1): 161–165. doi:10.2307/281337. JSTOR 281337. S2CID 163169080 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Blundell, Bezer (November 16, 1868). "The Contributions of John Lewis Peyton to the History of Virginia and of the Civil War in America, 1861-65". J. Wilson – via Google Books.
- ^ "Review: Memoir of William Madison Peyton By Colonel John Lewis Peyton. London: John Wilson". The Star (Saint Peter Port, England newspaper). July 17, 1873. Retrieved 2023-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.