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Mathews-Williams Family Genealogy
Notes
Joseph William Chinn was a lawyer and Justice of Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, studied and practiced law in Warsaw, VA. He and Sarah Fairfax Douglas were married in St. John's Church in Warsaw, VA.
The Honorable Joseph William Chinn, 12th Judicial District, Va.
He studied law at the University of Virginia, and set up practice in Warsaw, Va., 1890. The following year he was elected Commonwealth Attorney of Richmond Co., VA, an office he held until 1915, when he resigned to become Judge of the Twelfth Virginia Circuit, in Richmond Co. In 1931, he was appointed by Governor Pollard to the bench of the Supreme Court.
Walter Neal Chinn was a physician in Hague, Westmoreland, VA. He was a graduate of the Medical College of Virginia in 1902. He lived at "Wilna", Richmond Co., VA, and at "Lee Hall", Westmoreland Co., VA.
He purchased "Lee Hall" about 1900. "Lee Hall" had been the home of Henry Lee, and his son "Squire" Richard Henry Lee. (Note: "Lee Hall" was subsequently owned by John Willis Chinn (son of Walter Neal Chinn), and his second wife, Maguerite Unruh Chinn).WILL OF DR. WALTER NEAL CHINN - 1944
I, W. N. CHINN of Hague, Westmoreland Co., Va. being of sound and disposing mind, do hereby make, publish and declare this to be my last will and testament, hereby revoking all other will by me at any time made.
Item 1, I desire all my just debts be paid, if I shall owe any at my death.
Item 2, I give and devise all my real estate whatsoever situate and being in Westmoreland Co., Va, with appurtenances thereto belonging and all my personal property of whatsoever kind undo my dear wife EMILY BASKERVILLE for and during her life.
Item 3, From and after the decease of my said wife, I give my real estate, live stock, farming implements and all household and kithcen furniture, except the furniture in my bedroom and that in the bedroom occupied by my daughter GERTRUDE, and the silve pitcher, formerly belonging to my father, the late JOS. W. CHINN, and the portrait of my grandmother, FRANCES BROCKENBROUGH, to my son JOHN WILLIS CHINN. the said real estate and personal property I value at ten thousand dollars ($10,000).
Item 4, From and after the decease of my said wife, I give the sum of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) in cash to my daughter GERTRUDE GRIFFIN CHINN and all the furniture in the bedroom occupied by her and all the furniture in my bedroom, known as the master bedroom at my home, "Lee Hall".
Item 5, To my son WALTER NEALE CHINN, I give the silver pitcher which I inherited from my father.
Item 6, To my daughter VIRGINIA WILKENS, I give the portrait of my grandmother FRANCES BROCKENBROUGH.
Item 7, To my son, JOS. WM. CHINN, I give all medical supplies and instruments in my office.
Item 8, To my son, GEORGE BASKERVILLE, I give two marble top twin tables that came from my aunt GERTRUDE GRIFFIN'S estate.
Item 9, After the payment of the above bequests, I desire the residue of my property converted into cash and distributed equally among my six children.
The property which I leave to my son JOHN WILLIS mentioned in Item 3 of this will, I value at ten thousand dollars ($10,000). I, therefore, have provided in Item 4 of this will that my daughter GERTRUDE GRIFFIN receive in cash the sum of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) because it is my wish that they share equally in my estate for the reason that they have lived with me and rendered assistance and comfort in my declining years. I wish to make it clear that if at the time of the demise of my dear wife, there would not be sufficient money and other personal property to amount to the ten thousand dollars ($10,000) mentioned in Item 4 then I desire that whatever the amount shall be it be added to the value of the property mentioned in Item 2 and divided equally between my son JOHN WILLIS CHINN and my daughter GERTRUDE GRIFFIN CHINN, my daughter GERTRUDE receiving her one half in cash.
Item 10, I hereby name and constitute as Executors of this my last will and testament the following: my wife EMILY BASKERVILLE CHINN and my son JOHN WILLIS CHINN to act jointly and having full confidence in their intergrity I desire that they do not give bond.
In witness wherof I hereunto subscribe my name and affic my seal to this my last Will and Testament, at Hague, Va. this 24th day of October 1944.
W.N. CHINN
The above signature of the testator, W.N. CHINN was made and ther foregoing will was acknowledged by the said W.N. CHINN in the presence of us, two competent witnesses the 24th day of October 1944.
W.H. BERKELEY
John Yates Chinn, MD, was from "Edge Hill", Richmond Co., VA. They were married in the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, MD. He graduated (M.D.), St. George and St.Thomas Hospital, London England in 1792. He was a Justice of Richmond County, VA in 1799.
1. Sarah fairfax Carter was the 13th child of Robert Carter.
During the Civil War, Benjamin Tasker Chinn was the owner of THE CHINN HOUSE in Manassas, VA., located on the Bull Run Battlefield. In 1853 he purchased the property, known as HAZEL PLAIN from William Y. Downman. In 1871, however, the property returned to the Downman family. As of this date (1998), all that remains of the house is the foundation. Visitors touring the battlefield can view the foundation of the house that figured in both battles. Shortly after three in the afternoon of July 21, 1861, during First Manassas, General Jubal A. Early's brigade reached the hill above the house, where-with Stuart's two companies of cavalry and Beckham's battery of artillery-it protected the left of General Kirby Smith's brigade. The finishing touch to the defeat of the Federal army was here effected.
Around the CHINN HOUSE and on Bald Hill, adjoining, three Federal brigades under General R.C. Schenck attempted to stay the waves of onrushing Confederates on the afternoon of August 30, 1862. Here the Confederates, with Hood's two brigades leading, were momentarily halted; but, quickly followed by succeeding waves, the sea of Confederates swept on, engulfing this unprotected extreme left of the Federal army. Beyond Bald Hill, General McDowell, on Henry Hill, succeeded in staying the tide as darkness closed in. Here, Richardson's Battery of the Washington Artillery of New Orleans, which claimed to have fired the first gun at Manassas in 1861 and the last at Appomattox in 1865, took position; and here its gunners manned and turned a captured battery of Napoleans on its former owners. After the battle the Seventeenth Virginia bivouacked here for the night. - source: "Prince William: The Story of Its People and Its Places", pub. 1941, pages 128-129.
Benjamin Tasker Chinn also owned BEN LOMOND manor house and estate in Manassas. "Ben Lomond" is Scottish with roughly the translation "grand view". (It is not the name of a person). As taken from the book "Prince William: The Story of Its People and Its Places" published in 194, p. 123-124, the history of the house and estate is as follows: "BEN LOMOND is a stone house stuccoed yellowish gray and separated from the highway by a quarter of a mile of field and orchard. The gabled roof sopes down to an informal portico-veranda stretching across the front of its two stories. A large red barn and numerous other outbuildings are set nearby. The farm-comprising two parts-was included in the 6,730-acre Lower Bull Run Tract, which was patented in 1724 by Robert "King" Carter, in the name of his son Robert. This whole-5,025 acres of which lay in present Prince William (county)-descended to the second Robert Carter's son, "Councillor" Robert Carter (1724-1804) of Nomini Hall in Westmoreland County, who divided it among his daughters, Priscilla and Sarah, and his son George. Priscilla came into possession of the southern part of the Prince William area and, as Priscilla Mitchell, gave to her son Richard Tasker Mitchell 1,200 acres-Cancer Farm-and to her daughter Harriet Bladen Mitchell the rest-the Liberia estate (see Tour 3). George received the northern acres that later made up four plantations-The Commons, Portici, the Conrad House, and the Henry House estates. Sarah was given Ben Lomond proper-730 acres-together with that part of the large tract that lay in Fairfax County. She married Dr. John Yates Chinn and lived at Edge Hill in Richmond County. His son, Benjamin Tasker Chinn (1807-1886), inherited the 730 acres, and here in 1837 he built the house. Later, he purchased from his cousin, Richard Tasker Mitchell, the adjoining Cancer Farm and, after selling a portion, annexed the rest to his other tract, thereby completing the composition of the BEN LOMOND estate. This Benjamin Tasker Chinn married Edmonia R. Carter (1813-1895), a great-granddaughter of Landon Carter (1710-1779) of Sabine Hall. The Chinns sold Ben Lomond in 1870 to William H. Campbell." - source: "Prince William: The Story of Its People and Its Places", pub. 1941, pages 123-124.
Right, from Woolsey, Prince William Co., VA, 1 mile on County Road 601 is a long narrow lane (left) that leads to THE SHELTER, a white frame house of three sections-two, one-and-a-half, and one storied beneath gabled roofs- in a grove below the hill. Three stone chimneys add to the irregularity of the roof line. Benjamin Tasker Chinn and Edmonia R. Chinn, parents of Robert Tyler's wife, Sallie Sophia Chinn, lie in the burying ground near THE SHELTER. Here also are buried Julia Anne Peake Tyler (1802-1849), the wife of George Gray Tyler (1797-1856); William Bailey Tyler (1799-1851) and his wife Mary Emily Bronaugh Tyler (1799-1869), and their sons-Robert H. (1838-1902), John Bronaugh (1826-1845), and George B. Tyler (1830-1900).
THE SHELTER is another of the many Prince William houses that cherish their ghosts. A butler, long dead, is known upon occasion to open a heavy door that leads to the dining room. Another spectral visitor is accompanied by strange noises and moving lights. This is the ghost of a very old woman, a member of a disagreeable family whom the neighbors called the "Rattlesnake Grahams". Her body was borne to the burying ground by relatives because neither horses nor oxen would perform the service. Her unhappy spirit for many years dwelt in a large tree, upon which even tenacious ivy would not cling. -source"Prince William: The Story of Its People and Its Places, pub. 1941, p. 181.
Note to file: In May, 2002, I (Bruce Mathews) visited the site of "The Shelter". The home is gone, having been replaced with Shelter Lakes, a subdivision of very expensive homes. One of the home sits directly on the site of the old home. The cemetery is just beyond the backyard of the home of Jim Qualls, at 13960 Shelter Manor Drive. I found only parts of three gravestones: one for Robert H. Tyoler who was the son of William B. and Mary E. Tyler; one for John Bronaugh which was broken in four pieces; and one fairly good sized stone leaning against a tree for William Bailey Tyler.
Courtney (Norton-Lewis) Carter Chinn was of "Woodland", Loudon Co., VA.
Landon Carter, of Prince William Co., VA. He also resided at "Woodlands", Loudoun Co. VA.
Spencer Ball graduated A.B., College of New Jersey, 1782. He was Justice of Prince William Co., 1793. He was Justice of Northumberland Co., VA, 1801.
In 1790, after marrying Elizabeth Landon Carter, one of Robert "Councillor" Carter's daughters, Spencer Ball moved with his new wife to "Pohoke", part of the Bull Run estate belonging to George Carter and named after a local Indian village. In 1812, Spencer Ball purchased the 762 acre estate where he was living with his brother-in-law George. After "Pohoke" was destroyed by fire, a new manor house was built. Spencer Ball, having returned from a tour of Europe, named the new manor house "Portici", after an Italian village that had greatly impressed him. The estate passed to his wife upon his death in 1832 and later to his son Alfred Ball. When Alfred Ball died in 1853, the land where the house stood was the portion given to Fannie Tasker Ball, (1792-1853), who had married the Reverund John Taliaferro Lewis (1785-1862), and was happily living at Stepney. (Stepney is a village in England, the home of John Carter's second wife Ann. John and his third wife, Sarah Ludlow, were the parents of Robert "King" Carter). The "Portici" estate was immediately given to their son, Franis Ware Lewis, (1822-1913). "Portici" was used as a field hospital during the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run), and was burned to the ground after the second Battle of Manassas in 1862. (Source: www.benlomondmanorhouse.org).
Dr. Spencer Mottrom Ball, USA, never married.