Hereford, Robert

Robert Hereford was born in Leesburg on 8 October 1769 to John and Margaret Ammon Hereford. Robert was a third-generation Virginian. His great-grandfather, James Madison Hereford, immigrated from Hertfordshire, England, and Robert’s grandfather and father grew up in Fairfax County. Robert had six siblings: three brothers and three sisters. Robert married Mary Mason Bronaugh on 7 December 1790. Robert and Mary’s first child, William Ansley Hereford, was born 27 August 1791. The Hereford family grew quickly to include four boys and one girl.

On 6 June 1792, Hereford purchased a house and land lot in Leesburg for $150 from his brother, John Hereford Jr. This Leesburg home was known as the “White House.” For the next ten years, Robert Hereford served as a community leader. He appeared as a witness in numerous court cases, was appointed commissioner of the Third Battalion of Loudoun County (an administrative district) in 1794, and served as a tax assessor in 1795. In 1797, Hereford found himself entangled as a witness in a lengthy trial over a debt between John Sutton and Barnett Hough. The case was complicated, and Hereford’s witness duties spanned over a year. Eventually, the court sided with Sutton, and Sutton was ordered to compensate Hereford for his witness duties.

Hereford started to increase his Loudoun holdings in 1796 when he leased agricultural land from George Carter. He also increased the number of enslaved workers on his land by purchasing Judah, Milley, and Abner.

In 1805, Hereford purchased a thousand-acre farm from the Mercer grant in the southwest corner of the newly formed Mason County, Virginia (present-day West Virginia). The Hereford family moved from the “White House” in Leesburg to a log cabin on their Mason County farm in 1807. Four years later, enslaved members of the Herefords’ labor force, as well as a hired mason, built the first brick home in Mason County. The Hereford family moved into this brick structure in 1811. By 1825, Hereford constructed three mills and a church in the county.

Hereford’s first wife, Mary, died in 1831 at the age of 60. Hereford married Elizabeth Adam in Cabell County (now West Virginia) on 12 September 1834. Elizabeth died eleven years later in 1845. Hereford then married Virginia Lewis in Apple Grove, in Mason County. His last two marriages did not result in any children.

In 1850, Robert Hereford held seven enslaved people in bondage. In Hereford’s 1850 will, he bequeathed one enslaved man to his eldest son and directed that the other enslaved people (along with their progeny) were to be equally divided between Hereford’s daughters. The last enslaved man mentioned in the will, Andreas, was likely elderly because he was given the option of freedom or serving the Hereford family until he died.

Robert Hereford died on 26 January 1853 in Apple Grove. He was later buried at the Robert Hereford Cemetery in Apple Grove.

 

By Rachel Birch