Isham Keith

Isham Keith N M V B K Y name notes: (pronounced “EYE shum”) [find & insert inverted e; none in symbols] Photo: Have one of him with his brother and son in the Photos Binder; not scanned. Born: September 1833 in Fauquier County.[2250] 5 September 1833.[2251] Married: “He married Sarah Agnes [Blackwell].”[2252] She “was born in Fauquier County, … February 14, 1837, and died November 3, 1912.”[2253] She is buried in the Warrenton Cemetery: Sarah A., wife of Isham Keith, Feb. 14, 1837–Nov. 9, 1912.[2254] “Isham Keith … (1833—1902) [married] Sarah Agnes Blackwell [in] 1854 and had [ten] children.”[2255] Her parents were Anne Sparke (Gordon) and William Blackwell.[2256] Died: 19 September 1902.[2257] Buried Warrenton Cemetery.[2258] Obituary: Check Richmond Obituaries, 9/19/02.[2259] Children: Isham and Sarah had “[…] ten children: William Steptoe, born November 17, 1855, a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, died October 23, 1879; Julian Chilton, a farmer, married (first) Mary Lapsley, (second) Margaret Berry; Lucien, an attorney of Warrenton, Virginia, and state senator, married Elizabeth Sharpless; Margaret married Robert W. Neilson; Ann Gordon married Edward married Spilman; Katherine Isham; Isham, farmer, married Jessie Lee Hall; James, born November 21, 1868, a banker of Anniston, Alabama, in 1915 was made president of the Alabama Bankers’ Association, married Josephine Noble, and died July 23, 1918; John Augustine Chilton, born June 7, 1870, died April 8, 1915, having for many years been commonwealth’s attorney of Fauquier County, Virginia, and one of the leaders of the bar there. He married Mary Welby Scott, daughter of Jaor [# Correct?] R. Taylor Scott, former attorney-general of Virginia. “The youngest of this large family of children is Thomas Randolph Keith, who was born in Fauquier County, September 19, 1872…[more on this son.][2260] Parents and Siblings: Juliet Chilton (1800–1887) and Isham Keith ( –6 August 1863) of “Woodbourne,” Fauquier, who wed on 13 February 1823. A brother was James Keith (BH).[2261] “Isham and Juliet (Chilton) Keith…”[2262] “Correspondence of Isham Keith (1801–1863), his wife, Juliet (Chilton) Keith (1800–1887), and her sister, Ann Smith (Chilton) Johnston (1810–1893), is included herein. Isham Keith was an influential Warrenton, Virginia, businessman. Among his correspondence is a letter to Judge John Scott [father of John Scott, Jr. [BH]] and several letters from a brother in Georgia, John Marshall Keith (1788–1841), discussing the sale of a slave and state and national politics.”[2263] [NOTE:NB, ea. fn for diff pph of source] “The Keith papers contain some correspondence of Isham Keith (1833-1902), son of Isham Keith and Juliet (Chilton) Keith, and his wife Sarah Agnes (Blackwell) Keith (1837-1912), as well as a scrapbook belonging to her. A letter to Mrs. Keith from Armistead Churchill Gordon (1855-1931) discusses family history. James Keith, Circuit Judge and President of the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals from 1895 to 1916, was another son of Isham Keith and Juliet (Chilton) Keith. His letters are largely with family members and deal with family history. There is also an autograph album belonging to Judge Keith from the 1859-1860 session at the University of Virginia.”[2264] “N.B. A related collection among the holdings of the Virginia Historical Society is Mss1K2694a, Keith Family Papers, 1710-1865, included, in part, in the present edition. Another related collection is the Isham Keith Papers, 1807-1858, Number 455, among the holdings of the Georgia Historical Society Library, Savannah, Georgia.”[2265] Other Family: Isham’s wife, Sarah, was a daughter of Anne Sparke (Gordon) and William Blackwell.[2266] William was born in 1800; Anne’s parents were Ann (Sparke) and Churchill Gordon of Culpeper County; Anne and William wed in 1819. Sarah was the youngest of seven siblings. Her sister Lucy wed John Daniel Payne [BH]. Lucy and Sarah’s first cousin, Agnes Eustace Blackwell, wed Isaac Eustace Smith [BH], also their first cousin. See his entry. Also see Anderson Doniphan Smith [BH] for more on Sarah’s paternal genealogy.[2267] His wife’s family, “the Blackwells [were] one of the old English families which came to this country in the early Colonial days, and have been in Fauquier County for two centuries or more. Joseph Blackwell, the great- grandfather of Mrs. Keith, was the first sheriff of Fauquier County after it was taken from Prince William County in 1759, in the days when the courts were opened in the name of His Majesty, King George the Second. His son, Joseph Blackwell, grandfather of Mrs. Keith, served in the Fauquier Company in the Revolutionary war.[2268] Isham’s paternal grandfather’s parents were Rev. James Keith and Mary Isham Randolph. He was “Rector of Henrico Parish and (later) of Hamilton Parish,” Fauquier County. She was daughter “of Thomas Randolph of Tuckahoe.” Isham’s paternal grandmother’s parents were “Joseph and Lucy (Steptoe) Blackwell.” Isham’s paternal grandparents were “Thomas Randolph Keith of lower [Fauquier County], Captain in the Revolution, [and] … Judith Blackwell (1759—1856)”; they married on 25 May 1775. Thomas and Judith’s children were James, Mary Isham Randolph, Susan, and Isham (the father of the subject of this sketch).[2269] Another brother, John Marshall Keith (1788–1841), lived in Georgia.[2270] James’s daughter Ritchie Rowena Keith married Severe F. G. Beale (BH). She was Isham [BH]’s first cousin (their fathers being brothers). Her mother was Mary Morris. She was one of eleven children; two of her siblings (Isham’s first cousins, also], were Marshall and Harriet Keith; they married sister and brother Mary and Joseph Stewart.[2271] The latter two were siblings of Lucy Stewart, wife of Strother Jones [BH].[2272] Isham’s son, Isham, who married Miss Hall, had a son whom he also named Isham. “Mr. and Mrs Isham Keith and son, Isham, Jr., left Wednesday [December 24, 1919] to spend the holidays with Mrs. Keith’s mother, Mrs. Hall, at Lebanon, Pa.”[2273] If the Black Horse Isham’s father was the first Isham in the family, then the Black Horse Isham was Isham II, his son was Isham III, and the “Isham, Jr.” in the above article was Isham IV. The same microfilm reel is also peppered with mention of his sons Julian and Lucien.[2274] [2275] Stories, Letters & Biographies: “When Torbert returned from his raid upon Charlottesville, in November 1864 …”[2276] See Letters Chapter. “My father Julian C. Keith used to tell us he remembered his father (Isham) galloping through the yard …” [2277] “…James and Isham Keith instituted suit to reclaim the land…”[2278] See Stories Chapter. “An Interesting War Incident During the ’60s.”[2279] See Stories Chapter under William Henry Fitzhugh Payne, “But what will we do for arms?”. CSR: Company H. Additional Information: Private.[2280] Agriculturalist. Warrenton.[2281] “He attended the University of Virginia and in later life followed agricultural pursuits. In the war between the states he was a member of the Black Horse Cavalry, later serving under Mosby.”[2282] More might be found at reference.[2283]