William Hunter Cavendish

William Hunter Cavendish (c. 1740-1818)

Rumoured to be sired out of wedlock by William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire, he was a colonial pioneer born in Ireland from English stock in 1740, and journeyed to America in 1756 accompanied by his mother and half-sisters. Settling on the James River near Lexington, Virginia, he embarked on a career in the American colonies that included service in the Continental Army as a Quartermaster General, appointment to the Board of Visitors of Washington College, later Washington and Lee University, and election as Sheriff of Greenbrier County and to the Virginia Assembly (1802–1805). He raised three daughters, Mary (m. 1792, Isaac C. Callison (abt. 1766-1835)), Jane (m. 1804, Joseph McClung (1775-1850)), and Rebecca, and two sons, William, a lawyer and the first clerk of the court of Kanawha County, and Andrew, a farmer. Info from THE CAVENDISH HISTORY printed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1961:

• William Henderson CAVENDISH was born in Ireland about 1740 and came to America between 1756 and 1760 with his mother and two sisters. The story is that he was eligible for the House of Lords in Parliament and that his mother had been sent to Ireland before his birth so that in case the child was a boy that he could become a member of Parliament direct from Ireland. However, on growing up his sympathies were so pro-Irish that is was thought advisable to get him out of the country. They settled in Virginia on the James River not far from Lexington. The place where they settled is still known as the Cavendish Farm. William Henderson Cavendish's sisters married and from one of them descended George W. McClintic, recently Judge of the United States District Court of Southern West Virginia and the Arbuckles of Lewisburg and Glenville.

William Henderson Cavendish was a quarter-master general during the Revolutionary War 1778-82. He was appointed on the first board of visitors of Washington College, Lexington, Virginia in 1796. The proof of this is contained in Laws of Virginia, page 44, chapter 41 - "An act for erecting Liberty Hall academy into a College". This act was passed December 21, 1796 and names the board of visitors among whom is William H. Cavendish of Greenbrier. The duties of the board of visitors were to appoint the president and professors, remove and suspend the same for a good cause, fix their salaries, make inspections, and have control of all property belonging to the college. William Henderson Cavendish served in the Assembly of Virginia 1802-1805 with the exception of two years when he was the sheriff of Greenbrier County at which time he lived in Lewisburg. The Cavendish vs. Fleming case on record at Lewisburg decided in settlement of an estate of which he was administrator. He lived for some time in or near Lewisburg, but returned to Virginia where he died. He was twice married. His first marriage was to Alice Mann. His family came with him west of the mountains and most of them remained there. He left five children of whom we have a record: two sons and three daughters. One daughter, Mary Cavendish, married Isaac Callison, August 25, 1792. Another daughter, Jane Cavendish, married Joseph McClung, May 1804. The third daughter, Rebecca Cavendish, married Alex McClung, January 25, 1816. One son, Willim Cavendish, a lawyer, was the first clerk of Kanawha county and practiced law in what is now West Virginia. One instance on court record is of his pleading a case in Point Pleasant. He married Jane McCoy, Feb. 6, 1794 but left no children. The other son of William Henderson Cavendish was Andrew Cavendish. From him descended those who bear the name of Cavendish of whom we have any knowledge.*

Info from "Greenbrier Co. Family History," p. 43, sub. by Gradon Smales Love (SAR National No. 142549):

• William Cavendish was connected to the aristocratic House of Cavendish in England was a fact that was freely discussed among people in early Greenbrier Co. He served several terms in the Virginia Assembly after the Revolution of 1776 and ran the Greenbrier Commissary during the War for American Independence from The British Empire.

Tradition has it that this Lord Cavendish came to the colony of Virginia with his mother and two sisters from England. A thorough search of shipboard records by this researcher could only find one Cavendish before the mid-eighteen hundreds. That was Margaret Cavendish who was probably the mother. Early shipboard records did not record the names of children or women, unless they were unaccompanied by a husband. If this was his mother, she came on the convict ship -Litchfield- in 1752. The fact that she came on a ship with felons does not indicate that she was a bad person, indeed the beaches of history are strewn with the victims of political massacres. Also, in those days of totally disenfranchised females, a man could charge his wife with a crime, send her away, and take on a new lady. The records of the Old Bailey Courthouse in London, particularly the Sessions of Gaol, need to be searched to solve this mystery. One can only speculate as to the horrors this aristocratic young mother experienced as she made her way across the Atlantic Ocean on a ship filled with cutthroats, thieves, and her three children. Sufficient to say that young William Hunter Cavendish reflected the education and breeding of his royal background at an early age. He desposed in court documents that he was in Greenbrier County as early as 1769 before the formation of the county. In a frontier characterized by illiteracy and crude survival, Lord Cavendish was busy dictating the deeds and wills of his countrymen to a court clerk. He witnessed the "X" marks made by pioneer men and women on courthouse documents and decided to start a school to combat the ubiquitous illiteracy of early Greenbrier residents. His compassion for others and lawyering skills made him a most respected and successful gentleman. He accumulated a sizable plantation. The question of Lord Cavendish's wives is still debated by his descendants. Only Church of England marriages were recognized until after The Revolution. What is well documented is his marriage to my great-great-great-grandmother, Jane Murphy, on 13 June 1780. Subsequent to her death in 1800, he married the widow, Alice (Mann) McClintic/McClintock, widow of William Alexander McClintick II (1759-1786). William Cavendish's will was probated in Bath Co., VA, in 1818.*

Pg. 228 - Will of William H. Cavendish, dated Aug. 8, 1818

Wit: Alexander McClintic and Nancy Lovejoy

Probated November 1818 Court

Exec: wife Alice

Beq: to beloved wife Alice all household furniture "that I brought her since I was married to her", revoking any claim to any property to hers

Executors to sell plantation of 1,000 acres on Meadow Mountain in Greenbrier County

to daughter Nancy $100 and his riding horse

everything else equally to all children except Nancy

.

(Note: the above submitter does not list Moses Cavendish as a child. Other researches list him as a son.)