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{{Short description|American politician and lawyer}}
{{For|people with the same name|William Gordon (disambiguation)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = William Fitzhugh Gordon
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| state1 = [[Virginia]]
| district1 = [[Virginia's 12th congressional district|12th]]
| term_start1 = March 4, 1833
| term_end1 = March 3, 1835
| predecessor1 = [[John J. Roane]]
| successor1 = [[James Garland (Virginia politician)|James Garland]]
| state2 = [[Virginia]]
| district2 = [[Virginia's 10th congressional district|10th]]
| term_start2 = January 25, 1830
| term_end2 = March 3, 1833
| predecessor2 = [[William Cabell Rives|William C. Rives]]
| successor2 = [[Joseph Chinn]]
| office3 = Member of the [[Virginia Senate]] from [[Albemarle County, Virginia|Albemarle]]
| term_start3 = December 7, 1829
| term_end3 = January 24, 1830
| preceded3 = Charles Cocke
| succeeded3 = [[Thomas Walker Gilmer|Thomas W. Gilmer]]
| office4 = Member of the [[Virginia House of Delegates]] from [[Albemarle County, Virginia|Albemarle County]]
| term_start4 = December 3, 1822
| term_end4 = December 6, 1829
| preceded4 = Charles Cocke
| succeeded4 = [[Thomas Walker Gilmer|Thomas W. Gilmer]]
| alongside4 = [[William C. Rives]], [[Thomas Mann Randolph]], Rice W. Wood, Charles Cocke, Hugh Nelson
| term_start5 = December 7, 1818
| term_end5 = December 2, 1821
| preceded5 = Jesse W. Garth
| succeeded5 = Charles Cocker
| alongside5 = Samuel Carr, [[Thomas Mann Randolph]]
| party = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1787|1|13}}
| birth_place = [[Fredericksburg, Virginia|Fredericksburg]], [[Virginia]], U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1858|7|21|1787|1|13}}
| death_place = [[Albemarle County, Virginia]], U.S.
| nationality =
| other_names =
| occupation =
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| education =
| spouse = Mary Robinson Rootes<br />Elizabeth Lindsay
| children = [[James Lindsay Gordon]]
| relatives = [[Armistead C. Gordon]] (grandson)
| allegiance = {{flag|United States}}
| branch = [[Virginia Militia]]
| rank = [[Major general]]
| battles = [[War of 1812]]
}}
'''William Fitzhugh Gordon''' (January 13, 1787 – July 21, 1858) was a nineteenth-century, lawyer, military officer, politician and planter from the piedmont region of [[Virginia]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Bioguide Search|url=https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/G000319|access-date=2022-01-29|website=bioguide.congress.gov}}</ref>
==Early life and education==
William Fitzhugh Gordon was born at "Germanna", a plantation near [[Fredericksburg, Virginia]] to Elizabeth Gordon and her husband (and cousin) James Gordon, Jr. (1759-1799). His grandfather John Gordon had emigrated to the Virginia colony in 1738 from County Down in northern Ireland, as did his elder brother James Gordon (1711-1768), and they both became successful tobacco merchants and planters in Virginia's Tidewater region. John Gordon had initially joined his brother's business in [[Lancaster County, Virginia|Lancaster County]], but moved across the [[Rappahannock River]] to [[Urbanna, Virginia|Urbanna]] in [[Middlesex County, Virginia|Middlesex County]] and married Lucy Churchill, who bore a dozen children, including this man's father, who served in the [[Virginia House of Delegates]] alongside his cousin and father-in-law [[James Gordon Sr.]] (son of the immigrant James Gordon, and who inherited [[Verville (Merry Point, Virginia)|Verville plantation]] in Lancaster County).<ref>Colonial Families of the U.S.A. 1677-1775 available on ancestry.com</ref> Although the immigrant John Gordon ultimately settled in [[Richmond County, Virginia|Richmond County]], James Gordon Jr. moved westward to near [[Germanna, Virginia|Germanna]] in what became [[Spotsylvania County, Virginia|Spotsylvania County]] and then [[Orange County, Virginia|Orange County]], where he established a plantation near an iron furnace established at the beginning of the century by former Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood. In 1787, James Gordon owned 21 enslaved adults and 34 enslaved Blacks younger than 16, along with 17 horses, a stud horse, 51 cattle and a 4-wheeled chaise carriage in Orange County.<ref>Netty Schreiner Yantis and Florene Speakman, The 1787 census of Virginia, (Genealogical Books in Print 1987) vol. 2 p. 834</ref> His maternal grandmother was a cousin of [[Benjamin Harrison]], signer of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] and governor of Virginia. Thus linked to the [[First Families of Virginia]], William Gordon attended private schools appropriate to his class, including Spring Hill Academy. After completing those studies, he read law.<ref>Tyler, Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company 1915), Vol. 2, p. 110</ref>
==Career==
Admitted to the bar in 1808, Gordon began his legal career at [[Orange, Virginia|Orange Court House]]. He moved to [[Charlottesville, Virginia|Charlottesville]] in Albemarle County in 1809. There he continued his practice and in 1812 won election as the city's [[Commonwealth's Attorney|commonwealth attorney]].
===Military officer===
Gordon served in the [[War of 1812]], then continued to serve in the [[Virginia Militia]], in 1829 accepting a commission as brigadier general from then-governor William B. Giles, and becoming [[major general]] of the Second Brigade in 1840.<ref>Tyler Vol.2 p. 110</ref><ref name="Tyler vol 5 p. 796">Tyler vol 5 p. 796</ref>
===Politician===
Following the war, Albemarle County voters elected Gordon as one of their representatives in the [[Virginia House of Delegates]], and re-elected him annually to that part-time position basically for a decade except for the 1821-1822 session.<ref>Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond, Virginia State Library 1978) pp. 293, 298, 303, 313, 318, 232, 328, 333, 338, 343</ref> Thus, Gordon served from 1818 to 1821 alongside first Samuel Carr, then [[Thomas Mann Randolph]] until legislators elected him governor, then Charles Everett, and during those sessions helped established the [[University of Virginia]] in his district. After the hiatus in which Everett and Charles Cocke represented Albemarle County, Gordon again won re-election several times until 1829, serving first alongside [[William C. Rives]] as well as again with Thomas Mann Randolph, then Rice W. Wood, Charles Cocke and Hugh Nelson. In 1829, Gordon won election to the Virginia Senate, where he represented Albemarle County, as well as nearby [[Amherst County, Virginia|Amherst]], [[Nelson County, Virginia|Nelson]], [[Fluvanna County, Virginia|Fluvanna]] and [[Goochland County, Virginia|Goochland Counties]].<ref>Leonard p, 352</ref> Gordon also represented Albemarle, Amherst, Nelson, Fluvanna and Goochland counties in the [[Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-1830]] alongside James Pleasants, Lucas P. Thompson and Thomas Massie Jr.<ref>Leonard p. 354</ref> He proposed the "mixed basis" compromise ultimately adopted when western representatives complained about the overrepresentation of Tidewater planters in the Virginia General Assembly.<ref>Tyler vol. 5 p. 797</ref>
In 1830, Gordon resigned from the Virginia Senate to succeed William Cabell Rives in the [[United States House of Representatives]], and won re-election as a [[Jacksonian democracy|Jacksonian]], serving until 1835.<ref name="bio">{{Cite web |url=https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/G000319 |title=Gordon, William Fitzhugh |publisher=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress |access-date=2021-12-08}}</ref> He earned the nickname "Sub-Treasury Gordon" for helping to devise the [[Sub-Treasury Act]] in 1844, an act that separated the federal government from banks.<ref name="times">{{cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1910/02/12/104920933.pdf |title=GEN. W.H GORDON AND HIS TIMES; An Interesting Biography of a Virginian of the Old School |work=[[New York Times]] |access-date=2021-12-04 |date=1910-02-12}}</ref>
Gordon attended the Southern Convention in [[Nashville, Tennessee]] in 1850 as a delegate.<ref name="bio"/> He served as a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]].<ref name="obit">{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/90037546/death-of-gen-wm-f-gordon-27-jul-1858/ |title=Death of Gen. Wm. F. Gordon |date=1858-07-27 |page=1 |newspaper=[[Richmond Examiner|Richmond Enquirer]] |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |access-date=2021-12-04}}{{Open access}}</ref>
=== Planter ===
After failing to win reelection in 1835, Gordon returned to farming and his legal practice. Gordon lived in a planter economy largely dependent upon slavery, and as a landholder, his plantation operated with enslaved labor.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Weil |first1=Julie Zauzmer |last2=Blanco |first2=Adrian |last3=Dominguez |first3=Leo |title=More than 1,700 congressmen once enslaved Black people. This is who they were, and how they shaped the nation. |language=en |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/interactive/2022/congress-slaveowners-names-list/ |access-date=2022-01-29}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Congress slaveowners |date=2022-01-27 |url=https://github.com/washingtonpost/data-congress-slaveowners |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=2022-01-29}}</ref> He owned 29 slaves in Albemarle County in 1820,<ref>1820 U.S. Federal Census for Albemarle County, Virginia, p. 5 of 27</ref> 44 slaves in the 1830 federal census.<ref>1830 U.S. Federal Census for Albemarle County, Virginia, p. 53 of 150</ref> In both the 1840 federal census.<ref>1840 U.S. Federal Census for Frederickville, Albemarle County, Virginia, pp. 41-42 of 84</ref> and the 1850 federal census, Gordon owned 54 slaves.<ref>1850 U.S. Federal Census for Albemarle County, Virginia, p. 31 of 149</ref>
==Personal life==
Gordon married twice. His first wife, Mary Robinson Rootes, daughter of Thomas Reade Rootes of Fredericksburg died without bearing any children who survived. He remarried, to Elizabeth Lindsay, daughter of Col. Reuben Lindsay of Albemarle County, who had fought in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.<ref>Tyler p. 111</ref> They had eight sons (six of whom became soldiers in the Confederate Army) and three daughters who reached maturity.<ref>Tyler vol. 5, p. 797</ref>
* [[James Lindsay Gordon]] (1813-1877) became an attorney and served many years as the Commonwealth attorney for [[Louisa County, Virginia|Louisa County]]
* Twin brothers [[George Loyall Gordon]] (1829-1862) and Charles Henry Gordon (1829-1897) also became Confederate officers, with George Loyall Gordon dying at the [[Battle of Malvern Hill]]
* [[Reuben Lindsay Gordon]] (1820–1887) also became a lawyer and planter, as well as served one term representing Orange County in the Virginia House of Delegates
* Dr. John Churchill Gordon (1831–1919)
* Dr. Alexander Tazewell Gordon (1833–1903)
* Sgt. Mason Gordon (1840–1914) likewise survived the conflict
* Maria Lindsay Gordon (1815-1848), never married but took care of family members before dying of typhoid fever
* Hannah Elizabeth Gordon Robertson (1817-1861) married William Robertson and bore nine children before her death.
==Death and legacy==
Gordon died at his Edgeworth plantation in [[Albemarle County, Virginia]] on July 21, 1858. He was interred at the family cemetery in [[Springfield, Virginia]].<ref name="bio"/><ref name="obit"/> His eldest son [[James Lindsay Gordon]] (1813-1877) became a lawyer and served two terms in the Virginia House of Delegates, but did not have any children. His brother George Loyall Gordon (1829-1862) followed a similar career path as a lawyer in Alexandria and Charlottesville but became a newspaper editor instead of a politician and married the eldest daughter of North Carolina judge Joseph J. Daniel. As the Civil War started, he joined the 15th North Carolina regiment (Edgecombe Guards) and died at the [[Battle of Malvern Hill]]. His son [[Armistead C. Gordon]] (W.F. Gordon's grandson), born at his grandfather's Edgeworth plantation and raised at Longwood plantation in North Carolina, became a lawyer and writer as well as mayor of [[Staunton, Virginia]], and his brother [[James Lindsay Gordon (attorney)|James L. Gordon]] (1858-1904) also became lawyer, then followed his grandfather's and uncle's path into the Virginia state senate before moving to New York where he became an assistant district attorney and noted for his oratory.<ref name="Tyler vol 5 p. 796"/>
==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
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[[Category:1787 births]]
[[Category:1858 deaths]]
[[Category:Politicians from Fredericksburg, Virginia]]
[[Category:Politicians from Charlottesville, Virginia]]
[[Category:Members of the Virginia House of Delegates]]
[[Category:Virginia lawyers]]
[[Category:American
[[Category:Fitzhugh family of Virginia]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Jacksonian members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia]]
[[Category:19th-century American lawyers]]
[[Category:19th-century American
[[Category:
[[Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives who owned slaves]]
[[Category:19th-century Virginia politicians]]
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