Early Life and Career
Wickham was the son of William Fanning Wickham and Anne Butler (née Carter)Wickham. His paternal grandfather was John Wickham, the constitutional lawyer. On his mother's side, he descended from historic roots, as the Nelson and Carter families were each First Families of Virginia, prominent in the Virginia Colony.
Wickham's great-grandfather, Gen. Thomas Nelson, Jr., was one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence and a Governor of Virginia during the American Revolutionary War. Other ancestors include Thomas "Scotch Tom" Nelson who was one of the founders of Yorktown in the late 17th century. He was also a descendant of Robert "King" Carter (1663–1732), who served as an acting royal governor of Virginia and was one of its wealthiest landowners in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. His mother was a first cousin of Robert E. Lee, whose mother Anne Hill (née Carter) Lee, was born at Shirley Plantation.
Wickham was born in Richmond, Virginia, but spent much of his youth on his father's 3,200-acre (13 km2) plantation, Hickory Hill, which is located about 20 miles (32 km) north of Richmond and 5 miles (8.0 km) east of Ashland in Hanover County. Hickory Hill was long an outlying appendage to Shirley Plantation, much of it having come into possession of the Carter family by a deed dated March 2, 1734.
Wickham was graduated from the University of Virginia and was admitted to the bar in 1842. He was married to Lucy Penn Taylor and had several children. He became a justice and was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1849.
In 1858 he was commissioned captain of Virginia volunteer militia cavalry, and in 1861 he was elected by the people of Henrico County to the state convention as a Unionist, where he voted against the articles of secession.
Read more about this topic: Williams Carter Wickham
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