Gaston-Lincoln County NcArchives Biographies.....Babington, Robert Benjamin 1869 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 March 2, 2008, 8:08 pm Author: Leonard Wilson (1916) ROBERT BENJAMIN BABINGTON BABINGTON is one of the rarest names in America. It has never been common in Great Britain, and has a unique distinction in that all bearing the name descend from one common ancestor of record at the time of the Norman Conquest of England. This man, whose given name is unknown, was the ancestor of John de Babington, who, in the reign of Henry III, was the owner of the district around Micklo and Little Babington (or Bavington) in Northumberland. This John Babington was the progenitor of all the Babingtons of whom any records have ever been made. Thomas Babington, fifth in descent from John, in the fifteenth century married the heiress of Robert Dethick, of Dethick, and by this marriage the main branch of the family became identified with Derbyshire. By a series of intermarriages they acquired additional property, and branches of the family became settled in Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Oxfordshire. The famous Thomas Babington Macaulay, whom we know as Lord Macaulay, was named for his father's brother-in-law Thomas Babington, of the Leicestershire branch, in whose house at Rothley Temple he was born. The English family, considering that it has never been numerous, has contributed to Great Britain many prominent men to whom reference will be made later. The American record of the family of Babington is very scant. The first reference to the name in America is that of John Babington, who came to Virginia on the ship "Globe," August 7, 1635; that is, lie came on the ship that sailed on that date. It is not known if he survived the voyage, nor is there any further record of him or of any of his descendants. If he lived to reach Virginia, it is quite evident that he left no descendants. William Babington was a freeman in Massachusetts in 1678. Of him there is the same absence of information as of John who started to Virginia. In 1685 Randall Patterson Babington, who participated in the ill-fated Monmouth Rebellion, which was undertaken because of the persecution of the Nonconformists, was, after the collapse of that struggle, among the unfortunates, transported to Barbados by James II. Of him, we have no further record. This brings us down to the subject of this sketch, a present-day representative of the Babington family. Robert Benjamin Babington was born in Lincoln County, North Carolina, August 24, 1869, and is a son of Elisha Johnson and Margaret Isabella (Haynes) Babington. Mr. Babington's father was by occupation a foundryman and builder, and was a son of Benjamin Boyer Babington, who was born in New Jersey in 1808 and died in 1876. Benjamin Boyer married Catherine Sweet, of Kentucky, who had the distinction of being the only woman Blue Lodge Mason. A biography of her life by her only living son, Joseph Peck Babington, of Taylorsville, North Carolina, will be touched upon later. Benjamin Boyer Babington was a son of Thomas Babington, who was born about 1775 and died about 1815. He is probably buried at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Thomas Babington's father, whose given name we do not know, was, according to the family tradition, born in England about 1751, and disinherited for marrying against the wishes of his family, and emigrated to America. He was said to have been a foundryman, and at one time associated with five other men in a foundry in New Jersey, their specialty being the casting of bells. Four of these men are said to have been, McLaughlin, Brown, McShane, and Robert Fulton, of steamboat fame. This is evidently an error as to Fulton, because his life has been very fully written, and there is no evidence of his ever having been in the foundry business. It is probably true as to McShane, for that family has furnished the most noted bell founders of America. Robert B. Babington was educated in the Macon High School, at Charlotte, North Carolina; Winston Graded School, Winston, and Boys' Academy, Salem. At the age of seventeen he was a railroad agent and a telegraph operator. He remained in that service for thirteen years, and was several times promoted. In 1895 he became interested in the telephone and built the first independent line in his section of the State. The first line was completed between the depot of the Seaboard Air Line Railway, the postoffice, and Mr. Babington's residence, at Mount Holly, North Carolina. His account of his experiences in this connection has an amusing touch to it. He says that the telephones and other apparatus used were very crude, different parts being bought from different manufacturers and assembled in some shape, so that when the user raised his voice he might be heard from two to ten miles. In 1895 he built the first telephone exchange at Mount Holly, North Carolina, with twenty subscribers, and connected up all the cotton mills, from four to six miles apart, with the railway station, post-office, drug store, etc. He became so interested in telephone work that in May, 1899, he resigned from his railroad position, moved to Gastonia, North Carolina, and made it his main occupation. He began with sixty-four subscribers. The development has been an interesting one. Steadily from year to year the lines have grown until, at the present time (1915), they radiate from Gastonia into seven counties in North Carolina and South Carolina. The latest improvement in materials and the best methods known are used. Forty-five hundred satisfied subscribers patronize these lines, who, by connection with the long-distance exchanges, from their homes and places of business speak to friends fifteen hundred miles away. Parenthetically, Mr. Babington says that it entails almost Herculean effort to bring about this state of affairs, and one can readily believe it. However, he had found his vocation, and, like every man who follows his proper career of usefulness, has achieved substantial success. His business interests have extended into other lines, though he still makes the telephone his chief work. He is Assistant Treasurer and General Manager and Director of the Piedmont Telephone and Telegraph Company, Vice-President and Director of the Armstrong Cotton Mills Company, Director of the First National Bank, Director of the Gaston Loan and Trust Company, Alderman of Gastonia, President, Treasurer and Director of the Armington Hotel Company. This hotel is a beautiful $75,000 building, erected in 1914 and 1915, and of which Mr. Babington was the moving spirit, the last two syllables of the name being taken from the last two syllables of his name. In matters relating to the moral welfare of the community, Mr. Babington is quite as active as he is in those things which bear upon its material growth. He has been a steward of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for twenty-six years, having served in every position on the Board of Stewards. He is affiliated with all the Masonic bodies, including Blue Lodge, Chapter and Temple. He is a Past High Priest of the Royal Arch, member of the "Oasis" Temple of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, a member of the Grand Council Masonic Order of Anointed High Priests, Past Chancellor of Knights of Pythias, District Deputy Grand Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, member of the Dramatic Order of Knights of Khorassan, member of the Red Men, of the Heptasophs, and of the Royal Arcanum. His interest in civic matters has caused him to become an officer of the Gastonia Chamber of Commerce and of the Gastonia Commercial Club. Last, but not least, he is President of the North Carolina Orthopaedic Hospital, for crippled, deformed and diseased orphan and indigent children of sound mind. This institution and the work in which it is engaged is very near to his heart. Mr. Babington has been twice married; first, on February, 22, 1888, to Buena Vista Biggerstaff, of Rutherford County, North Carolina, born September 30, 1869, daughter of John Wesley and Mildred Haynes Biggerstaff. Subsequently, after the death of his first wife, he married, on October 12, 1898, Hattie Adeline McLurd, born in Gaston County, July 9, 1875, daughter of Robinson Lee and Adeline Elizabeth Summerow McLurd. His two children by his first wife are: Robert Kenneth, who graduated at the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Raleigh, in 1910, is an electrical engineer, married Elizabeth Anne Bass, and has one child Elizabeth Anne; Mildred, who married J. Clifford Spence (deceased), and has one child, Mary Wilson Spence. The following are children by his second wife: Mary Love, Robin Benjamin, Isabel Macaulay, Harriet Maupin, and Ruth McLurd Babington, all—except the last-named, who is too young—in the Gastonia Graded School. R. B. Babington is one of those men who never stop growing—mentally. He is a reader of scientific and financial works as a matter of business, and of poetical and rhetorical works as a matter of recreation and information. He is a real community builder, who has contributed as much to his town in the way of useful work as any other man. Mr. Babington is well-to-do in a material way, but that is an incident rather than an end, for these busy builders of communities as a rule put the work first, and find their pleasure in leaving behind them a record of good work well done, rather than in the mere accumulation of money. Being a tender-hearted man and a lover of his fellows, Mr. Babington very easily was attracted by the neglected condition of crippled children of sound mind in North Carolina. He determined that this should be remedied, and threw himself into the work, notwithstanding pressure from the various business enterprises demanding his attention. This part of the story cannot be told in any better way than in his own words, which follow: "For about five years I have had a vision that the crippled, deformed and diseased orphan and indigent children of sound mind of the nation, have been, and are now, sadly neglected and discriminated against in the distribution of our benevolence. There are only seven States in the Union at present that even attempt to care for, even in part, this class of the most worthy of dependents. There are hundreds of asylums and homes for the orphan of sound body and mind and for the orphan of feeble mind—but scarcely a place anywhere in the Southland where the orphan boy or girl with a sound, bright mind, and intellect, who is crippled or diseased, can enter; they are refused admittance to our hundreds of orphanages, and rightly so, because they cannot be taken into homes with our well orphans. However, they should not be allowed to grow up in sin and vice; thousands of them do, and the criminal records show that a large per cent. of criminals are cripples. We, of course, know that the crippled, deformed child of the family is usually the brightest one of the lot; if he or she is an indigent child, they are let alone to grow up in the slums and back alleys, as best they can. Isn't it a worthy cause? Had you ever thought of it? As stated, I have been working for about five years to get plans on foot to build a $50,000.00 hospital and school for this class of children in North Carolina. The North Carolina Orthopaedic Hospital was chartered April 9, 1914. If God gives me health and favors the movement, I expect to see this institution in operation in two years. If the war cloud had not settled over us this year, I believe it could have been started already." It will be seen from this record that R. B. Babington has lived up to the most exacting standard of good citizenship, and is contributing, to the extent of his ability and strength, to the welfare of the community in which his lot has been cast. The Masonic record of Mr. Babington's grandmother has been mentioned. It is an interesting story, which can be referred to only in a brief way. It is told in detail by her son, J. P. Babington, in a little pamphlet which has had a wide circulation, and of which three editions have been printed. Briefly stated, she was born in Kentucky, was living with her uncles, who were Masons and attended lodge in a hall over the schoolroom where she, a girl of sixteen, went to school. The lodge met in the afternoon. Led by her curiosity, the bright girl concealed herself behind an old disused pulpit in a corner of the lodge room on numerous occasions for a year and a half, and became proficient in the secret work. When the facts came out, after a long and anxious discussion she was permitted to take the obligation of secrecy, and though never made a full member, her retentive memory enabled her to remember the work through life. Her son, himself a Mason, gives many well authenticated incidents which show that she was the only woman ever to come to a full knowledge of Blue Lodge Masonry in the United States. She greatly esteemed the Order and was always faithful to its obligations. Let us consider now briefly some of the men of this family who have lived during the last five hundred years. Sir William Babington, judge, who died in 1455, and who was then the principal member of this ancient Northumberland family, married Margery, daughter of Sir Peter Martell, by whom he became possessed of estates in Nottingham. He had five sons and five daughters. In 1415 he was appointed to the rank of Sergeant-at-Law, a barren honor he declined to accept, but was forced to take, by an order of Parliament. However, this led to real preferment. He became Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1419, Justice of the Common Bench in 1420, and Chief Justice of the Common Bench in 1423, which last position he held until his retirement in 1436. He endowed the Babington Chantry at Flaforth, in Nottinghamshire. Gervase Babington, born about 1550 and died in 1610, was a clergyman, and rose to be Bishop in succession of Llandaff, Exeter, and Worcester. He was a hard student, and was credited with having much to do with the production of a metrical version of the Psalms, of which the Countess of Pembroke was the nominal author. He ranked high as a preacher and as a master of literature. Mention has been made of the Babington who was transported to Barbados because of his fidelity to the Nonconformists. We come upon one now who was executed because of his adhesion to the Eoman Catholic Church. Anthony Babington, born in 1561, became very much concerned because of the Protestantism of Queen Elizabeth. He organized a conspiracy against her, which was exposed, and he, together with six of his companions, was put to death in a most cruel manner in 1586. Another Bishop was Brute Babington, Bishop of Derry, who died in 1610. He was as strenuous a Protestant as poor Anthony had been a Catholic. Francis, who died in 1569, became a Doctor of Divinity at Oxford, was rector of Lincoln, and a trusted adviser of the Earl of Leicester, who was charged with the murder of Amy Robsart. It is believed that Francis lost the good-will of the Earl because of his comments upon that infamous transaction. John Babington (about 1635) was a mathematician and gunner. In our day he would have been called an inventor of ordnance. Of him we know but little except that he was a capable mathematician, and his logarithmic tables were the first to be published in England. Doctor William Babington, born in 1756 and died in 1833, was a distinguished physician and mineralogist. He was a very successful physician, of whom Dr. Munk said: "History does not supply us with a physician more loved or more respected than was Dr. Babington." His contributions to mineralogy, in which science his attainments were very great, were so valuable as to attract considerable attention in Europe. Four years after his death a monument was erected to him in St. Paul's Cathedral by public subscription. His bust is in the College of Physicians and his portrait was painted by Medley and engraved by Bran-white. He left a son, Benjamin Guy Babington, and one of his daughters married the eminent physician, Dr. Richard Bright. Benjamin Guy Babington, born in Guy's Hospital while his father was one of the resident physicians, in 1794, died in 1866. He was a son of Dr. William and became eminent both as a physician and a linguist, leaving a long and distinguished record. He was a man of versatile attainments and of remarkable intellectual power; proficient in a number of sciences, of all of which he was a master. His literary work is evidence of the extent and the exactness of his knowledge. Among the great English financiers of the present day is Sir H. Babington Smith, whose name indicates a strain of Babington blood. It will be noted in this mention of these distinguished men, that, notwithstanding they came from a notable fighting stock, the Norman French, their tastes ran to the law, the ministry, medicine and the sciences. Every one of them had some part in making the greatness of England, and each of them enjoyed the esteem of the generation which he served, and was honored after he had passed away. The common origin of the Babington family is demonstrated very strongly by the fact that every branch of the family used the same Coat of Arms. It is one of the very few cases on record where that is true. There must have been an unusually strong family bond, for though the different branches scattered, they retained at least the old family flag. This Coat of Arms is described as follows: "Argent ten torteaux, four, three, two, and one, in chief a label of three points azure. "Crest: A demi bat displayed gules. "Motto: Foy est tout." Additional Comments: Extracted from: MAKERS OF AMERICA BIOGRAPHIES OF LEADING MEN OF THOUGHT AND ACTION THE MEN WHO CONSTITUTE THE BONE AND SINEW OF AMERICAN PROSPERITY AND LIFE VOLUME II By LEONARD WILSON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ASSISTED BY PROMINENT HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WRITERS Illustrated with many full page engravings B. F. JOHNSON, INC. CITY OF WASHINGTON, U. S. A. 1916 Copyright, 1916 by B. F. Johnson, Inc. Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/gaston/photos/bios/babingto67gbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/gaston/bios/babingto67gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ncfiles/ File size: 18.6 Kb