THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 10, 1996 TAG: 9607100002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 34 lines
Your June 30 report about signers of the Declaration of Independence from Virginia contained some errors.
Benjamin Harrison was also related to Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee, all descendants of Lucy Higginson Burwell Bernard Ludwell, married three times.
The Lee brothers' mother was Hannah Harrison Ludwell, and Benjamin Harrison's grandmother was Elizabeth Burwell (Adventures of Purse and Person, Page 146, footnote 26). Lucy Higginson married Phillip Ludwell (Adventures of Purse and Person, Pages 145-6, 118, 273).
My late grandmother, Lucy Lane Edwards, from Gwynn's Island, Va., was named after her ancestors, including Lucy Higginson Bernard, and she was the descendant of William Houlder Hudgins and Frances Gwynn, and cousin to the children of William Houlder Hudgins and Mary Augustine Braxton, Carter Braxton's grandchild (Tombstones of Mathews County, Virginia 1711-1986, Page 94; Happy Valley History and Genealogy, Page 29).
The fact that Carter Braxton loaned the federal government 25,000 pounds sterling following the Revolutionary War, which was never repaid, is also documented in a book written by Alonz Thomas dill, Carter Braxton, Virginia Signer A Conservative in Revolt (University Press of America, 1983). The signers did risk their lives and fortunes.
The fortune loaned to the federal government by Carter Braxton and never repaid is far more interesting than innuendos about traitors. Carter Braxton's family could have afforded a tombstone if the government had paid its bills.
TOM ALDRED JR.
Sunbury, N.C., July 1, 1996 by CNB