Surveyor. Legislator. Patriot. Builder of Union Hill.

William Cabell, Sr. was a steady hand in Virginia’s public life for more than forty years: a planter, surveyor, militia officer, and legislator whose work helped shape the upper James River region from the colonial era through the early Republic.

At a glance

  • Born: March 13, 1730 (near Licking Hole Creek, Virginia)
  • Married: 1756, to Margaret Jordan (1742-1812), daughter of Col. Samuel Jordan by his first wife, Ruth Meredith.
  • Died: March 23, 1798; buried at Union Hill Cemetery in Wingina (Nelson County)

A life rooted in land—and public service

Cabell’s early training and career reflected the practical leadership needed on Virginia’s frontier: he worked as a surveyor and county officer, and he served Amherst County in multiple roles (including burgess, magistrate, county lieutenant, surveyor, coroner). Tradition holds that he studied at the College of William & Mary, and records emphasize that surveying was central to his work from an early age.

In 1763, Cabell received 1,785 acres from his father and developed what became his principal homeplace and working plantation: Union Hill. He lived at Colleton until the Union Hill house was completed.

Revolutionary-era leadership

During the Revolution, William Cabell participated in Virginia’s shift from colony to commonwealth in ways that were both local and statewide. He attended four of the five Virginia Conventions and served on the Amherst County Committee of Safety, and is described as the only Piedmont-area representative on the state Committee of Safety.

After independence, voters elected him to the Virginia Senate (beginning in October 1776) and later to the House of Delegates, reflecting a long record of public trust through the 1790s.

Family and legacy

William and Margaret Jordan Cabell raised a large family whose marriages and migrations connected Union Hill to other Cabell homes across Virginia and beyond.

William and Margaret Cabell’s children, spouses, and homeplace

  1. Samuel Jordan Cabell (1756-1818) and Sarah Syme lived at Soldier’s Joy
  2. William Cabell, Jr. (1759-1822) and Anne Carrington (1760-1838) lived at Union Hill
  3. Paulina Cabell (1763-1845) and Edmund Read lived in Charlotte County, Va.
  4. Landon Cabell (1765-1834) and Judith Scott Rose lived at Rose Hill
  5. Hector Cabell (1768-1807) and Paulina Jordan Cabell lived at Spring Hill
  6. Margaret Jordan Cabell (1770-1815) and Robert Rives lived at Edgewood and Oak Ridge
  7. Elizabeth Cabell (1774-1801) and William H. Cabell (1772-1853) lived at Midway.

Notable Descendants of Col. William Cabell

18th century

  • Samuel Jordan Cabell (1756-1818)
  • William Holland Wilmer (1782-1827) – Episcopal priest, 11th President of The College of William and Mary
  • Benjamin William Sheridan Cabell (1793-1862) – Prominent soldier of the War of 1812, and member of the famous Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-30.
  • William Cabell Rives (1793-1868) – Minister to France from the United States (1829-1853). United States Senator, member of the Peace Congress in 1861. Member of the Confederate House of Representatives. and biographer of James Madison.

19th century

  • Thomas Stanhope Flournoy (1811-1883) – Member or the House of Representatives from Virginia, and member of the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861
  • Edward Alfred Pollard (1832-1972) – Associate editor of the Richmond Examiner during the Civil War. and author of a history of the Civil War and other works
  • Alexander Brown (1843-1906) – Historian and author
  • Cabell Clement Dickinson (1848-1939) – Democratic Representative from Missouri (1910-1921)
  • George Lockhart Rives (1849-1917) – American author, The United States and Mexico (1821-1848). Politician, and lawyer. Served as United States Assistant Secretary of State (1887-1889)
  • Maria Rives Longworth (1849-1932) – Founder of Rockwood Pottery (1880-1867) in Cincinatti, Ohio
  • James Alexander Seddon (1850-1880) – Representative in the U.S. Congress
  • Margaret Greenway McClelland (1853-1895) – Author. A Self Made Man,1897
  • Charles Morelle Bruce (1853-1938) – Senator for Virginia and Secretary of Arizona Territory from 1893 – 1897
  • Philip Alexander Bruce (1856-1933) – Historian and author specializing in Virginia history
  • William Cabell Bruce (1860-1946) – Maryland State Senator for United States Senate (1923-1929) and Pulitzer-prize winning author for his book John Randolph of Roanoke, 1773-1833
  • William Cabell Brown (1861-1927) – Episcopal missionary in Brazil and seventh Bishop of Virginia
  • Amelie Louis Rives Troubetzkoy (1863-1945) – American author
  • William Holland Wilmer (1863-1936) – Ophthalmologist and founder of the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University
  • Fanny Kemble Johnson (1868-1950) – Author and poet. The Strange-Looking Man was selected as one of the American short stories of 1917
  • Nicholas Longworth III (1869-1931) – Lawyer and politician from Cincinnati, Ohio. Speaker of the House of Representatives (1925-1931). Married Alice Lee Roosevelt, daughter of Theodore Roosevelt
  • Clara Eleanor Longworth de Chambrun (1873-1954) – Earned her doctorate from the Sorbonne in 1921. Scholar of Shakespeare and received the Bordin Prize of the Académie française for a book on Shakespeare which she wrote in French
  • Addis Manson Meade (1878-1956) – Completed the exam in mathematics at The University of Virginia in 1894 but was unable to receive a degree. Taught at a private school in Clarke County, Virginia
  • Patrick Henry Bruce (1881-1936) – Artist.
  • Virginia Lafayette Nelson, Ph.D. (1887-1979) – Received her doctorate in 1931 in Psychology from Johns Hopkins University and was on the faculty at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Daughter of Elvira Ann Clark and Robert William Nelson, Jr.
  • Ellie Clark Nelson (1889-1981) – Received her nursing degree in 1911 from the Medical College of Virginia and served in World War I as a nurse at Base Hospital 45 (Medical College of Virginia Unit) commanded by Dr. Stuart McGuire. Daughter of Elvira Ann Clark and Robert William Nelson, Jr.
  • Thomas Henry Malone (1889-1941)- Second Dean of Vanderbilt Law School (1875-1904)
  • Randolph McGuire Cabell (1896-1972) – Brigadier General in the Virginia National Guard and founder of the Cabell Family Society with his cousins, Mary Groesbeck Cabell and Mayo Cabell.

20th century

Works Consulted

  • Brown, Alexander. The Cabells and their Kin: A Memorial Volume of History, Biography, and Genealogy. Richmond, Va.: Garrett and Massie, Inc., 1939. First published 1895.
  • Cabell, Randolph W. 20th Century Cabells and their Kin. Franklin, N.C.: Genealogy Pub. Service, 1993
  • Cabell Family Papers, 1727-1875, Accession # 5084, Albert H. and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.
  • Cabell, William, Sr. Commonplace Books, 1769–1795. MSS5:5 C1117:1–9. Manuscripts Collection. Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Richmond, VA.
  • Virginia. General Assembly. House of Delegates. Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Richmond: Commonwealth of Virginia, 1776. Internet Archive.
  • Virginia. General Assembly. House of Delegates. Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1777–1780. Richmond: Commonwealth of Virginia, 1780. Internet Archive.