Stafford-Fairfax County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Biographies.....Chichester, Richard Henry Lee 
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Joy Fisher http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000031 February 23, 2008, 1:09 am

Author: Leonard Wilson  (1916)

RICHARD HENRY LEE CHICHESTER

VIRGINIA offers a peculiarly fruitful field to the genealogist, and of the
numerous families in that State which have a complete or partial record of their
ancestral lines, there is perhaps not one which could show more features of
interest than the ancient English family to which belongs Judge Richard Henry
Lee Chichester, of Falmouth, at present Judge of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit
of Virginia.

    To the student of history, genealogy possesses special interest, because it
explains to the thoughtful-minded man things which would be otherwise
unexplainable. For example, it explains the supremacy of Virginians in the
public life of our country during its entire Colonial period and the first
seventy-five years of its life as an independent Republic. It explains the wide
influence of these Virginians in things other than political for these men were,
and are, the descendants of men who have been making English history since the
Norman Conquest. The original Colonists brought with them to this country the
same qualities which have made the English the great colonizing and governing
people of the world, and these qualities have been handed down undiminished to
their descendants. It may be said, indeed, that the new problems presented by
the pioneer life of the Colonial period added, if not to the inherent ability of
these men, a larger measure of adaptability to circumstances than was possessed
by their English forbears.

    Judge Chichester is a worthy scion of one of the most ancient of these
families. He was born in Fairfax County, son of Judge Daniel McCarty and Agnes
Robinson (Moncure) Chichester. His father was a lawyer by profession, a
Confederate soldier by his own choice, and a Judge on the Bench by the choice of
the people. His maternal grandfather, Judge R. C. L. Moncure, was one of the
most distinguished Judges in Virginia history, having been for more than forty
years a Judge of the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, and for much of that
time President of the Court.

    Judge Chichester had liberal educational advantages in his youth—first, in
the public and private schools of Fairfax County; then in St. John's Academy at
Alexandria, Virginia, from which he was graduated; and lastly, in the Academic
and Law Departments of the University of Virginia. He began his active career as
a lawyer in connection with his father in Fairfax County, but after one year, he
moved to Stafford County and opened a law office in Fredericksburg. Judge
Chichester's growth as a lawyer was steady and continuous. Successful in his
private practice, he was elected Commonwealth Attorney for Stafford County in
1895. In 1898 he was promoted to the Bench, being elected County Judge of King
George and Stafford Counties. He served until 1904, when a law was passed
abolishing County Courts. He then resumed active practice, in which he was
engaged until 1910, when he was elected to his present position as Judge of the
Fifteenth Circuit.

    He has not allowed himself to become narrowed by his profession, as so many
men do who concentrate too closely on a profession or business, but has retained
a lively interest and activity in those things which, from his standpoint, are
conducive to the public good. Thus, he is a member of the Board of Trustees of
the Fredericksburg State Normal School, and Treasurer of that Board. From 1900
to 1910, notwithstanding the demands of his profession, he found time to edit
the Fredericksburg "Free Lance and Daily Star," which is an ordinary man's work
in itself. Elected to the Circuit Bench, he felt that it was hardly proper for a
Judge to be editing a newspaper in his judicial circuit, so retired from the
editorial chair, though he still retains the Presidency of the publishing
company which operates the newspaper. He is an active vestryman of the famous
old St. George's Episcopal Church of Fredericksburg and a member of the
Westmoreland Club of Richmond, Virginia. Recognized as an able lawyer and an
upright Judge, he adds to that the character of a public-spirited citizen of the
highest type.

    Judge Chichester was married in Stafford County on June 11, 1895, to
Virginia Belle Wallace, who was born in Stafford County on May 23, 1871,
daughter of Samuel Gordon and Mary (Hansford) Wallace. They have three children:
Daniel McCarty Chichester, Mary Wallace Chichester and Richard Henry Lee
Chichester, Jr.

    Judge Chichester comes from an ancient English family, which has been
settled at Widworthy, County Devon, since the latter half of the fourteenth
century. He is in possession of a chart of the direct line, which shows him to
be the sixteenth in descent from John Chichester, who married Thomasia, daughter
of John de Raleigh, of Raleigh, in the Parish of Pilton, County Devon. This
chart, brought down from father to son, through the intervening generations, is
remarkable for two things—the first being a very strong attachment to the given
names of John and Richard, which are repeated with almost monotonous regularity
; and the second for the number of great families with which this family became
connected by marriage. For example, one comes upon the names of Watton, Dymoke
(hereditary Champions of England), Beaumont, Bourcher (Earls of Bath), Daubeney,
Duke, Court and Symes—all these in England. In 1702, Col. Richard Chichester,
born in 1G57, came to Virginia with his son John, born in 1681, and founded the
Virginia family. This Col. Richard Chichester was a very important man in his
section of Virginia, and casual references to him in various Virginia works.
Bishop Meade's and others, show that he and his descendants were active both in
the work of Church and State. The Virginia marriages show even a more remarkable
record than the English. We find in the list of names with whom the Chichesters
intermarried the Peytons, Masons, McCartys, Pendletons, Campbells, Elliotts,
Bowies, DuPonts, Beverleys, Corses, Moncures, Amblers and Wallaces. The list of
these names covers some of the most distinguished families in Virginia history,
embracing strains of English, Scotch-Irish and Huguenot blood.

    An English publication dealing with family history makes the statement that
Sir Roger Chichester, who was knighted at Calais in France, and who died in
1370, was the father of John Chichester, who was the founder of the family
located at Widworthy, County Devon. And yet another English publication states
that this John Chichester was in the eighth generation from the first holder of
the name, who was living in the time of William the Conqueror. Upon this
last-named point there is possibly some doubt. "The Ancestor," an English work
of most conservative character, which usually never made any statement as a
definite fact unless it had the proof, speaks decisively. In connection with the
death of the Marques of Donegall, who was descended from Arthur Chichester, of
the Devonshire family, who went to Ireland about 1G00 and founded the great
Irish family of the name which has been or is holder of some of the greatest
titles in Ireland, it says:

    "How far back the Chichesters go is a problem which has never been quite
definitely settled, but there was a John de Chichester in 1433, who was eighth
in descent from William de Chichester, and whose son married the daughter of the
first Earl of Bath; and there was a Chichester in the first William's time who
was doubtless a progenitor."

    We know for a certainty that the Widworthy family can trace back
seventy-five years prior to the time spoken of by "The Ancestor;" and we also
know that the Edward Chichester, who married the daughter of the first Earl of
Bath, lived seventy years after the time spoken of there, instead of preceding
it, as indicated by "The Ancestor." From which it may be seen that even the most
careful publications do not always contain the exact truth. Of one thing we may
be sure—the family existed under the present name as early at 1155, for in that
year Robert Chichester, Bishop of Exeter, died; and as Exeter is in Devonshire,
it proves the existence of the family in that section prior to 1155.

    The Irish branch of the family referred to was founded by Arthur Chichester
(1563-1625), a soldier by profession, who was sent to Ireland and succeeded so
well in his work there that he rose to be Lord Deputy of Ireland, in which
office he served for a number of years and was raised to the peerage as Lord
Chichester of Belfast. To him, more than to any other one man, was due the
settlement of Ulster by the Scotch-Irish. He died without a son, and was
succeeded by his brother, Edward, who was created Viscount Chichester. Edward
was succeeded by his son, Arthur, who became the first Earl of Donegall. Arthur,
fourth Earl, was succeeded by his nephew, who became the first Marquis. In
addition to this great title which is still in the family, there have been quite
a number of Knights and Barons, some in the English and some in the Irish branch
of the family. The family has contributed, for generations, capable men to the
military and naval forces of Great Britain, but does not appear to have been
active to any great extent in a political way.

    The original Coat of Arms, brought to Virginia by Richard Chichester, is
described as follows:

    Chequy or and gules, a chief vair.

    Crest: A heron with wings expanded holding in the beak a snake.

    Motto: Ferme En Foy.

    In the Colonial period, two branches of this family came to America. In this
sketch we touch only upon the descendants of Richard, who settled in Virginia in
1702. But, in 1708, Robert Chichester, of Devonshire, England, settled in
Boston, Mass.; and as he brought with him the same Coat of Arms brought by
Richard, it is evident that these men were kinsmen in some degree.

    In all the history of the world, there is no other record like that of this
English stock which, in the beginning of a composite character, became fused
into what we know as English, and which for nearly a thousand years has shown no
decay in its virility nor in its governing capacity. The Virginians of this
generation, descended from that stock, show that they possess a full share of
the virtues of their forbears. Among these Virginians the subject of this sketch
stands to the front, whether measured by his personal capacity or his public
usefulness.


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.

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