The collection is open for research.
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Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], John Howe Peyton Letter, Ms1977-001, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
The John Howe Peyton Letter was donated to Special Collection in 1977.
The processing, arrangement, and description of the John Howe Peyton Letter was completed prior to 2010. Additional description was completed in November 2010.
John Howe Peyton was born in Stony Hill, Stafford County, Virginia, on April 3, 1778. He attended the College of New Jersey at Princeton (now Princeton University), graduated in 1797. He passed the bar and became a lawyer in 1799, focusing on criminal law. He worked as deputy U. S. Attorney for the western district of Virginia. He turned down several nominations, one to congress in 1820 and a judgeship in 1824. He later became a state senator (1839-45) and founder of the Virginia Female Institute at Staunton. In 1840, he was appointed a visitor to the United States military academy, and he wrote the report of that year. For ten years he was president of the board of directors of the Western Virginia lunatic asylum. He was a member of the Whig party. He died in 1847.
He married Susanna Smith Madison (1780-1820) in 1802, and after her death married Ann Elizabeth Lewis (1802-1850).
He had a son, John Lewis, born in Staunton, Virginia, 15 September 1824, who graduated from the law department of the University of Virginia in 1845.
The collecton consists of a letter from John Howe Peyton in Staunton, Virginia, to his first wife's mother, Elizabeth Preston Madison (1762-1837) at Fotheringay, Montgomery County, Virginia, and contains information about the family and personal concerns.
See also the 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 by J. Lewis Peyton in the Rare Book Collection, call no. F230 .P49, which can be requested via the online library catalog. A transcription of the book is available online from Project Gutenberg.
The guide to the John Howe Peyton Letter by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/).