John Lewis Peyton

John Lewis Peyton
John Lewis Peyton (1895)
Born	September 15, 1824 near Staunton, Virginia, U.S.
Died	May 21, 1896 near Staunton, Virginia, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Lawyer, diplomat, state agent, author
Spouse	Henrietta Eliza Clark Washington
Children	2

John Lewis Peyton (September 15, 1824 – May 21, 1896)[1] was an American lawyer, diplomat, state agent for the Confederate States Army, and an author from Virginia.[2] During the beginning of the American Civil War he moved to Europe, and in 1861 became a state agent for North Carolina for the southern Confederate States Army cause.[3]

Early life, family, and education

He was born on September 15, 1824, near Staunton, Virginia.[4] His mother was Anne Montgomery Lewis, and his father was John Howe Peyton, a Virginia lawyer, politician, and planter.[3][5] His great-grandfather was Colonel William Preston, a colonel in the Virginia militia during the American Revolutionary War.[2] His great-great-grandfather was John Lewis, one of the first European settlers in Augusta County.[6]

Peyton studied at Virginia Military Institute (class of 1843); and University of Virginia (bachelor of laws degree 1844).[7] He served as a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia militia.[5]

In 1855, he married North Carolina heiress Henrietta Eliza "Betty" Clark Washington,[8] the daughter of Colonel John C. Washington from of Lenoir County, North Carolina.[2][9] He had a son, Lawrence Washington Howe Peyton;[9][8][10] and a daughter, Simone Marie Peyton.[11] They lived on an estate named Steephill (c. 1878) in Staunton.[12]

Career

Peyton practiced law until 1851, when he was sent by the U.S. Secretary of State Daniel Weber on special mission to England, France and Austria for the Millard Fillmore administration.[5][1]

Starting in 1861, he worked as a Confederate States Army commissioner, seeking support in Europe where he was living.[5] He purchased arms and purchased supplies in England for the North Carolina troops in the Confederate Army.[13] He was a fellow of the British Royal Geographical Society.[14]

Peyton wrote about various historical subjects, including his own travels and his family history. He wrote about his grandfather John Rowzée Peyton.[14][15] Peyton also propagated misconceptions about the pre-Columbian culture of mound builders.[14] After the war ended, the family remained in England for awhile after.[13]

He died of "apoplexy" on May 21, 1896, in Stauton.[1] In 1964, his heir's sold the Steephill family estate to Staunton Military Academy.[12]

Publications

• Peyton, J. Lewis (1867). The Adventures of my Grandfather. With Extracts from His Letters, and Other Family Documents. London, UK: J. Wilson.
• Peyton, J. Lewis (1867). The American Crisis, or, Pages from the Note-book of a State Agent during the Civil War. London, UK: Saunders, Otley and Co.
• Peyton, J. Lewis (1870). Over the Alleghanies and across the Prairies—Personal Recollections of the Far West, One and Twenty Years Ago. London, UK: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., a memoir
• Peyton, John Lewis; Washington, John; Brown, Orlando (1873). Memoir of William Madison Peyton. John Wilson, Bloomsbury.[16]
• Peyton, J. Lewis (1876). Biographical Sketch of Anne Montgomery Peyton, by her son J.L. Peyton. Guernsey, UK: F. Clark.
• Peyton, J. Lewis (1882). History of Augusta County, Virginia. Staunton, VA: Samuel M. Yost & Son.
• Peyton, J. Lewis (1893). Tom Swindel, or the Adventures of a Boomer. Staunton, VA.: G.L. Bolen.
• Peyton, J. Lewis. Memoir of John Howe Peyton, in Sketches by his Contemporaries, Together With Some of his Public and Private Letters, etc., also a sketch of Ann M. Peyton.

References

1. "Col. John Lewis Peyton". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. May 25, 1896. Retrieved 2023-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
2. Powell, William S. (1994). "Peyton, John Lewis". NCpedia.
3. Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John (1898). Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography. D. Appleton. pp. 748–749.
4. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. New York Public Library. New York, J. T. White company. 1893. p. 89.
5. Cooper, Kelly; Romig, Brett. "John Lewis Peyton: A Confederate Abroad". Virginia Center for Civil War Studies, Virginia Tech.
6. John Lewis Memorial in Staunton, Virginia
7. "John Lewis Peyton". VMI Archives.
8. "L. W. H. Peyton, Stauton Head, Is Dead and 77". Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. June 12, 1949. Retrieved 2023-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
9. Lewis, Virgil Anson (1892). Southern Historical Magazine: Devoted to History, Genealogy, Biography, Archæology and Kindred Subjects. V.A. Lewis. p. 244.
10. "Lawrence Washington Howe Peyton". VMI Archives.
11. "J.G. Valentine Marries Simone Marie Peyton". The New York Times. November 6, 1983. ISSN 0362-4331.
12. "Staunton Purchases Old Estate, Peyton's Place Sold by Heirs". Richmond Times-Dispatch. April 26, 1964. Retrieved 2023-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
13. "Obituary: Col. John Lewis Peyton". The Southern Standard. May 29, 1896. Retrieved 2023-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
14. Yelton, Jeffrey K. (1989). "A Comment on John Rowzee Peyton and the Mound Builders: The Elevation of a Nineteenth-Century Fraud to a Twentieth-Century Myth". American Antiquity. 54 (1): 161–165. doi:10.2307/281337. JSTOR 281337. S2CID 163169080 – via JSTOR.
15. Blundell, Bezer (November 16, 1868). "The Contributions of John Lewis Peyton to the History of Virginia and of the Civil War in America, 1861-65". J. Wilson – via Google Books.
16. "Review: Memoir of William Madison Peyton By Colonel John Lewis Peyton. London: John Wilson". The Star (Saint Peter Port, England newspaper). July 17, 1873. Retrieved 2023-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.