John Love (1760 – 1834) was a nineteenth-century politician and lawyer from Virginia.[1] Decades after his death, during the American Civil War, a man of the same name served in the Wheeling Convention, representing Upshur County, West Virginia, many miles westward.
John Love | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Virginia Senate | |
| In office 1816–1820 | |
| Preceded by | John Gibson |
| Succeeded by | Redmond Foster |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 9th district | |
| In office March 4, 1807 – March 3, 1811 | |
| Preceded by | Philip R. Thompson |
| Succeeded by | Aylett Hawes |
| Member of the Virginia House of Delegates for Fauquier County, Virginia | |
| In office 1805–1807 Serving with Thomas Hunton | |
| Preceded by | Augustine Jennings |
| Succeeded by | John Edmunds |
| Personal details | |
| Died | August 18, 1822 Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic-Republican |
| Profession | Politician, lawyer |
Early life
editJohn Love was born in 1760 in Charles County, Maryland to née Sarah Garner and Samuel Love.[2] In the 1770s, his father bought a farm near the border of Prince William and Fauquier counties. Growing up, Love pursued an academic course and studied law. Love and his brother Samuel both joined Virginia militia regiments.[3] Love joined Capt. William Payne's company of the 1st Virginia regiment as a private and also fought in the Philadelphia campaign and survived the winter at Valley Forge. He re-enlisted in 1779 and returned to Virginia when his regiment was merged with the Second Virginia regiment under Col. Charles Dabney[4][5]
Love would marry twice after his wartime service. His first wife, Elizabeth Watson of Alexandria, Virginia, bore no children who survived. His second wife Mary E.H. Wheeler bore a son and a daughter.
Career
editHe was admitted to the bar in 1801 and began his legal practice in Alexandria, Virginia and nearby counties. He lived in Alexandria for about two years. Both before and after, until his departure to Tennessee in 1820, he operated a farm near Buckland at the border of Prince William and Fauquier County counties, which he operated using enslaved labor.[6][7] Buckland Farm, and his brother Samuel's farms in nearby Loudoun County, became known for breeding thoroughbred racing horses, and were some of the earliest importers of stock from Arabia and Europe. He advertised his prime stud horse, 'Mahomet', in a Dumfries newspaper in 1796.[8]
Fauquier County voters elected Love as one of their representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates, alongside veteran Thomas Hunton, in 1805 and re-elected the pair the following year.[9] In 1807 John Edmunds succeeded him as delegate, because Love had been elected as a Democratic-Republican to the United States House of Representatives in 1806, and he was also re-elected there and served from 1807 to 1811. As congressman, Love served as chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia in his second term, from 1809 to 1811. In 1816, voters from the district that included Prince William and Fairfax counties elected Love to the Virginia State Senate (again a part-time position) and he served from 1816, but was succeeded by Redmond Foster before the end of his four-year term.[10]
Death and legacy
editLove died in Alexandria, Virginia on August 17, 1822.
References
edit- ^ John Browne, Helping Build America (2022 ISBN=9798351778792) pp. xvi, 9-10, 17-
- ^ Browne p. xvi
- ^ Browne p. 9
- ^ Brown pp. 9-10,
- ^ complicating matters, a John Love enlisted in the 3rd Maryland regiment during the revolutionary war. See Maryland 3rd Regiment, 1778 foldr 36 on ancestry.com U.S. Revolutionary War records
- ^ J. Michael Miller, Portrait of a town: Alexandria: District of Columbia, Virginia 1820-1820 (Bowie Maryland: Heritage Books 1995)) p. 342.
- ^ 1810 U.S. Federal census for Prince William Virginia p. 10 of 14
- ^ https://bucklandva.net/history/18th-century/buckland-farm/
- ^ Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library 1978) pp. 240-243
- ^ Leonard pp. 288, 292, 296, 301
External links
edit- United States Congress. "John Love (id: L000456)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
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