Houlder Hudgins (January 10, 1749 – December 12, 1815) (also spelled "Holder" or "Hudgens"), was a Virginia shipbuilder, merchant, planter, military officer and politician who served approximately two decades (part-time) in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly representing Mathews County (which was created in his lifetime). He may now be best known as the unsuccessful defendant in Hudgins v. Wright, a freedom suit brought by Jackey Wright and decided by Virginia Chancellor George Wythe and later the predecessor of the Virginia Supreme Court. Complicating matters, his will indicates he was survived by a son (and grandson) of the same name; Houlder Hudgins Jr. (1799-1868) also served in the Virginia House of Delegates (representing Mathews County at various times between 1824 and 1838).https://history.house.virginia.gov/members/574
Early life and education The youngest son born to the former Mary Houlder, and her Welsh merchant husband William Hudgins was born in Wales across the river from Bristol, England.Tyler states he was born across from Liverpool, but the far side of the Mersey River is not in WalesSons of the American Revolution applications list his birth date as January 10, 1749 although Tyler states he was born in 1740 and adds that his father left an estate of one hundred thousand pounds divided equally among his children. Note: the Houlder Line shipping firm dates to the mid-1850s.Clifton, Bristol is an inner suburb of modern Bristol, near a bridge across the River Avon which links to Wales, and the family biography indicates he was educated in Bristol Accounts of the family's arrival in Virginia differ. A modern source relying on family researchBy the fourth generation of men with the same name, MIT professor Houlder Hudgins, possibly relying on the research of Mary Isabel Omer, the daughter of Isabel Hudgens, and who graduated from Transylvania University and the University of Kentucky before becoming a counselor and research associate at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri (near the publisher of the Todd genealogy cited herein. She was the daughter of merchant, planter and later postmaster Thomas Jefferson Hudgins (1822-1914), this man's grandson who inherited Bellefield plantation and was later postmaster of Hudgins, Virginia. claims that this man's father, merchant and shipmaster William Hudgins and his three younger brothers (John, Lewis and Robert, all ship captains), arrived in the Virginia colony in 1743, purchased land along the Piankatank River (a tributary of the York River) in what was then Gloucester County's Kingston parish, and later purchased land claims across the York River in Elizabeth City and York Counties, as well as westward in Middlesex and Hanover Counties then being settled.Robert Hudgins became a prominent Baptist minister in what was then Gloucester County's Petworth parish (the only one of the county's historic parishes now defunct), but died before the Revolutionary War That account claims this man was born in 1739 in England, as was his younger brother William (born in 1740) before their mother joined her husband in Virginia. There she died after giving birth to Lewis Selwyn Hudgins in 1744 and (another) Robert Hudgins in 1746. The widower William Hudgins remarried to Joanna Deggs, who gave birth to sons (this man's half-brothers) Anthony (b. 1757) and William Deggs Hudgins in 1761 as well as to daughter Millie Hudgins in 1759 before William Hudgins Sr. died. That account continues that after his mother's death, Houlder was sent back to England for education overseen by Robert Hudgins Sr. in Bristol, then was commissioned a Royal Naval officer in 1756, and attained the rank of captain before resigning after nine years of service, receiving a land grant of 1200 acres adjoining his father's plantation, and returned to the Virginia colony with housebuilding materials in 1768.Todd at p. 463Tyler vol.5, pp. 1046-1049 discusses Confederate progeny of Robert King Hudgins who was the son of a Robert Hudgins who was the son of John Hudgins and who married Susan Buckner
An much earlier account by Lyon Gardiner Tyler states his elder brother Thomas and sisters Charlotte and Mary moved to Nova Scotia before this man arrived in New York circa 1766. Houlder was devoted to his maternal grandmother, Lady Charlotte Howard, who was related to noble English families, and for whom he later named a boat.
In any event, this man received a private education appropriate to his class at Christ College in Bristol (possibly Christ College Brecon) and the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth in Devonshire.Todd at 461
Military
During the American Revolutionary War, despite his prior British service, Hudgins held the rank of lieutenant in the Gloucester County militia under Captain Tabb and Colonel John Peyton.Sons of American Revolution application, citing affidavits of Anthony and Hugh Hudgens, privates under Lt. Houlder HudgensA pension application of private Hughes mentioned the applicant as serving before the war under Capt. Philip Tabb and Ensign Houlder Hudgins. McCartney p. 172 One of the earliest battles of the conflict was near his home, as colonial forces evicted Governor Dunmore after the Battle of Gwynn's Island on July 8, 1776. Hudgins's boat, the Lady Charlotte, had been commandeered by the British and tasked with preventing the rebels from accessing the island, as well as annoying them "by every means in her power." However, Continental forces captured her, and she served the patriot navy during the rest of the war.Joanne Darby Booth, The Will of Houlder Hudgins, 1815, Mathews County, Tidewater Virginia Families, Vol. 7, No. 3 (Nov/Dec. 1999), p. 170Todd pp. 462-463
Hudgins also built ships for the patriot forces. On September 26, 1776, he and five fellow residents of Kingston Parish were authorized to construct large flat-bottomed boats that could be used to transport troops, and the following month, the Navy Board ordered one of those men, Captain William Smith (who also headed a company of local minutemen) to release any of his men who were ship carpenters or apprentices.Maureen McCartney, Mathews County Virginia: Lost Landscapes, Untold Stories (Mathews County Historical Society 2015, ) p. 269 Late in the conflict (which ended after the Siege of Yorktown across Mobjack Bay), Col. Peyton reported that occasionally British ships continued to sail into the Piankatank River, come ashore on Gwynn's Island, and steal livestock, and that occasionally slaves fled toward British areas.McCartney, p. 270Todd p. 462 cites The Virginia Argus of July 10, 1812 to place the Queen Charlotte at the Battle of Gwynn's Island in 1780 After the conflict, Hudgins successfully filed claims for two weeks use of a boat, as well as for 55.5 pounds of bacon, 2 lambs and 750 pounds of beef.Virginia Revolutionary "Publick" Claims, Vol. II p. 393
Later, in 1810, as one of the "Silver Greys" (Revolutionary War veterans), Hudgins petitioned Governor Barbour for arms and artillery pieces, and by 1812 was captain of one of two companies thereby formed to defend Mathews from British raids.Todd pp. 463-464 citing The Virginia Argus (July 10, 1812) His sons also served in the Mathews militia or U.S. forces in the conflict.
Career
This elder Houlder Hudgins established two shipyards in the Colony of Virginia. One was at Milford Haven overlooking Gwynn's island, and the other at Back Bay behind Old Point Comfort on the Chesapeake Bay in Elizabeth City County. Hudgins also had a fleet of packet boats traveling between Barbados and Massachusetts Bay.Todd p. 462 By 1790, just before the creation of Mathews County, those and nearby shipyards were building a dozen ships a year each carrying over 20 tons,J. Martin Diggs et al., Mathews Panorama (Mathews county Historical Society 1983) pp. 9, 12 which led to Mathews Courthouse becoming a port of entry (1802-1844, closure being attributed to silting due to post-woodcutting erosion), and by the time of his death Mathews County shipyards were credited with building a third of all ships built in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Planter and merchant
Hudgins owned land and enslaved people in Mathews and several nearby counties by the time of his death, and also built two manor houses, one of which burned down decades after his death and the other survived until the modern era, although accounts differ as to the time of their construction. When Virginia enacted a special tax in 1815 to pay for the debts incurred in the War of 1812, although his 22-room Clifton residence was not the most opulent in the county (James Sparks' home being valued at $700), his home and that of his eldest son John L. Hudgins were among the ten valued at $500, and the homes owned by his son Thomas Hudgins and William Respess were valued at $400, and nine homes of other men valued at $300 were also subject to the special tax.McCartney pp. 256-257 According to Tyler, Hudgins' estate included 700 acres of land in Tidewater Virginia (lands in Elizabeth City, Middlesex, Mathews and Gloucester Counties), as well as 200 slaves, although as discussed below, that number is difficult to verify.
According to modern research, by the time of his death, Hudgins owned two plantations in Mathews County (which had been created from Gloucester County in his lifetime): one where he lived (on the Piankatank River near Cobbs Creek and Gwynn's Island which he named "Clifton" after his father's home in Wales), and one between Raymond Creek and Bald Eagle Creek which was originally called the Ransome plantation but which was bought by William Hayes who at some unclear time (due to the destruction of court records) was acquired by this man and which became known as the "Isle of Wight" plantation.McCartney p. 144 Hudgins also owned "Chesterville" (bought from George Wythe) and another farm across Mobjack Bay in Elizabeth City County (in what became Hampton).McCartney p. 270 There he build the manor house which he called "Lamington", importing all the bricks and tiles from England and Wales. Hudgins entertained many fellow planters of Tidewater Virginia at "Clifton", including members of the Washington family. Hudgins farmed using enslaved labor, and also brought artisans from Liverpool for his shipyard, as well as to develop the colony's resources. Ships (some built in Mathews) sailed from Westville (later "Mathews Courthouse", now Mathews) to Massachusetts Bay, Britain and the West Indies in what was later known as the Triangular Trade.
Politician
Hudgins became a justice of the peace for Gloucester County by 1789, but severed his connection with Kingston parish about the same time, as he had become affiliated with the Baptist Church (of which his brother Robert Hudgins and Caleb Hunley were ministers), and would then attend Baptist conventions.Todd p. 463 He had served on the Kingston parish vestry 1780-1787, and later was one of six men who supervised the privitization of the parish glebe.McCartney p. 273
When the Virginia legislature created Mathews County from what had been Kingston parish (the peninsular part of Gloucester County), it named the new county after the Speaker of the House who had successfully pushed for its creation. Hudgins's main residence was in the new county, and he became one of the justices of the peace of the new county, which in that era also jointly administered the county.McCartney p. 200 a