Anthony Winston
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Anthony Winston | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Buckingham County | |
| In office May 3, 1779 – December 24, 1779 Serving with Joseph Curd | |
| Preceded by | William Kennon |
| Succeeded by | John Cabell |
| Member of the House of Burgesses from Buckingham County, Colony of Virginia, | |
| In office 1775–1776 Serving with John Nicholas | |
| Preceded by | Henry Bell |
| Succeeded by | position abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 17, 1750 |
| Died | December 20, 1828 (aged 78) Colbert County, Alabama, US |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch/service | Virginia militia Continental Army |
| Years of service | 1779–1783 |
| Rank | Colonel(Continental Army) |
| Battles/wars | American Revolutionary War |
Anthony Winston (November 17, 1750 – December 20, 1828) was an American military officer, politician and planter.[1] About two decades after the death of his father of the same name, in Buckingham County, Virginia (which this man represented in the Virginia General Assembly both before and after the American Revolutionary War), he and his brothers moved to what became Mississippi Territory and later Alabama Territory, where several descendants continued the family's military, plantation and political traditions.
This Anthony Winston was born on November 25, 1750, in Hanover County, Virginia to prominent planter and judge Anthony Winston (1723–1783) and his wife, the formerly widowed Alice Thornton Taylor (1730–1764).[2] His grandfather, sea Captain Isaac Winston and his wife, the former Sarah Jennings, had settled near the falls of the James River and what became Richmond, Virginia. They also had three daughters who married into prominent Virginia planter families: Lucy Winston Dabney (1703–1791), Sarah Winston Henry (1709–1784; mother of Patrick Henry) and Mary Ann Winston Coles (1721–1758). Around 1765, the Winston family obtained a five-year old orphaned Portuguese boy, Peter Francisco, who had been found on the docks at City Point, Virginia and taken to the Prince George County Poorhouse. Capt. Winston realized that the boy spoke Portuguese and said he had been kidnapped in the Azores with his sister, who had died. Francisco became an indentured servant in Judge Winston's household, trained as a blacksmith and became known as the "American Hercules" during the American Revolutionary War for his feats of strength (as a subordinate of this man), then served many years as sergeant of the Virginia legislature. At some point well before the conflict, while a young man, the elder Anthony Winston moved his family to Buckingham County and became its sheriff and later justice of the peace and eventually judge before dying in 1783.
On March 11, 1776, this Anthony Winston married Keziah Walker Jones (1760–1826), who bore seven sons: Anthony Winston (1782–1841), John Jones Winston (1785–1850), William Winston (1789–1857), Joel Walker Winston (1792–1840), Isaac Winston (1795–1863), Edmund Winston and Thomas Jones Winston (1804–1843). The family also included two daughters, Alice Taylor Winston Pettus (1790–1871) and Mrs. Jessee Jones. Two grandsons would become governors of states which attempted to secede from the United States, prompting the American Civil War: John Anthony Winston (1812–1871) of Alabama and John Jones Pettus (1813–1867) of Mississippi. Another grandson, CSA General Edmund Winston Pettus later represented Alabama in the U.S. Senate.