Henry Scarsbrook Langhorne

Henry Scaisbrook "Harry" (Scarsbrook) Langhorne born Nov 3, 1790 at "Gambell", the family ancestral home built in 1675 by the original immigrant John Langhorne in Warwick County, Virginia. This John Langhorne emigrated from Bristol, England and not from Laugharne, Wales.[1] The colonial homestead strategically situated between Lake Maury and the James River was destroyed by fire in 1818, and the land is now home to the Mariners' Museum in Newport News. Henry was the youngest of five children of John Scarsbrook Langhorne and Elizabeth Langhorne, first cousins who had married in 1782 which was customary at the time to retain family wealth..

Although he was first seated on some of the Cumberland County, Virginia lands that he had inherited through his mother, he quickly resolved to move to Lynchburg with his brother Maurice. Henry married Frances Callaway Steptoe in July 1798, the highly sought after daughter of Hon. James Steptoe and Frances Callaway of "Federal Hill". An active and keen agriculturist, the planting of tobacco was no longer as profitable as it had once been, and after an early venture at the Farm Mills in Amherst was ruined by flood in 1826, brothers Henry and Maurice erected Lynchburg Milling Co. flour mill aka Langhorne Mills built in 1831.[2] He never abandoned planting though, and continued to buy numerous plantations in Bedford, Campbell and Amherst Counties. Also in 1826 Henry appraised the Poplar Forest estate of Thomas Jefferson.[3]

In 1845, he retired and relocated to "Cloverdale", the 3,500-acre Botetourt County plantation he had just purchased from his niece's husband George Plater Tayloe of "Buena Vista". He continued to purchase smaller tracts, at his death he had a total of 3,892 acres.[4]

Henry's eldest son John Scarsbrook Langhorne (born 1819) married Sarah Elizabeth Dabney of "Edgemont", a great-granddaughter of William Randolph II| of "Chatesworth". John inherited Langhorne Mills, along with the bulk of his father's estate. The second son James Steptoe Langhorne (1822–1905) was given the 13,000-acre "Langdale" plantation located near the border of North Carolina.

Beginning in 1828 Henry lived at Point of Honor, an historic mansion overlooking Blackwater Creek in Lynchburg.

Langhorne's Mill would be used by the Red Cross as a makeshift hospital to treat injured confederate soldiers during the War Between the States.

Henry Langhorne died Dec 16, 1854 in Fincastle, Roanoke Co., Virginia, and buried at the Callaway-Steptoe Cemetery, New London, Bedford Co., Virginia

Issue

Thirteen children from two wives.

Additional Reading

References

  1. ↑ Langhorne, James Callaway (2013). The Virginia Langhornes. Lynchburg, Virginia: Blackwell Press. ISBN 978-1-938205-10-1.
  2. ↑ Langhorne, James Callaway (2013). The Virginia Langhornes. Lynchburg, Virginia: Blackwell Press. ISBN 978-1-938205-10-1.
  3. ↑ Chambers, Jr., S. Allen (1993). Poplar Forest and Thomas Jefferson. Little Compton, RI: Fort Church Publishers, Inc. ISBN 978-0966716900.
  4. ↑ Langhorne, James Callaway (2013). The Virginia Langhornes. Lynchburg, Virginia: Blackwell Press. ISBN 978-1-938205-10-1.
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