John Randolph Grymes (December 14, 1786 – December 3, 1854) was a

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

state legislature, U.S. attorney for Louisiana district, and '' aide-de-camp'' to General

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

during the

Battle of New Orleans The Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815 between the British Army under Major General Sir Edward Pakenham and the United States Army under Brevet Major General Andrew Jackson, roughly 5 miles (8 km) southeast of the Frenc ...

.Hemard

Early life

Grymes was born on December 14, 1786, in

Orange County, Virginia Orange County is a county located in the Central Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 36,254. Its county seat is Orange. Orange County includes Montpelier, the estate of James Madison, the ...

into several of the

First Families of Virginia First Families of Virginia (FFV) were those families in Colonial Virginia who were socially prominent and wealthy, but not necessarily the earliest settlers. They descended from English colonists who primarily settled at Jamestown, Williamsbur ...

. He was a son of Benjamin Grymes (–1805) and Sarah Robinson (1755–1831). Among his siblings were Philip Grymes, Thomas Grymes, Elizabeth Pope ( née Grymes) Braxton and Peyton Grymes. His paternal grandparents were Mary (née Randolph) Grymes and Col. Philip Ludwell Grymes, a

member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of the

Virginia House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been established ...

. Like

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

and Robert E. Lee, Grymes was a descendant of

William Randolph William Randolph I (bapt. 7 November 1650 – 11 April 1711) was a planter, merchant and politician in colonial Virginia who played an important role in the development of the colony. Born in Moreton Morrell, Warwickshire, Randolph moved to th ...

and Mary Isham, through his maternal grandmother's father,

Sir John Randolph Sir John Randolph (1693 – March 7, 1737) was an American politician. He was a Speaker of the House of Burgesses, an Attorney General for the Colony of Virginia, and the youngest son of William Randolph and Mary Isham. Early life Randolph ...

, the youngest son of William and Mary. His uncle and namesake, John Randolph Grymes, was a loyalist during the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

who joined the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

under the former

Royal Governor of Virginia This is a list of colonial governors of Virginia. Some of those who held the lead role as governor of Virginia never visited the New World and governed through deputies resident in the colony. Others, such as Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, hel ...

Lord Dunmore Earl of Dunmore is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. History The title was created in 1686 for Lord Charles Murray, second son of John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl. He was made Lord Murray of Blair, Moulin and Tillimet (or Tullimet) and V ...

. His maternal grandparents were Sarah (née Lister) Robinson and Peter Robinson, who was educated at Oriel College, Oxford and was a member of the Virginia House Burgesses between 1758 and 1761. His uncle, Christopher Robinson, was a

United Empire Loyalist United Empire Loyalists (or simply Loyalists) is an honorific title which was first given by the 1st Lord Dorchester, the Governor of Quebec, and Governor General of The Canadas, to American Loyalists who resettled in British North America du ...

and the father of Sir John Robinson, 1st Baronet, the

Chief Justice of Upper Canada The Court of Appeal for Ontario (frequently referred to as the Ontario Court of Appeal or ONCA) is the appellate court for the province of Ontario, Canada. The seat of the court is Osgoode Hall in downtown Toronto, also the seat of the Law Societ ...

. Their ancestor, also named Christopher Robinson, came to Virginia about 1666 as secretary to Sir William Berkeley,

Governor of Virginia The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia serves as the head of government of Virginia for a four-year term. The incumbent, Glenn Youngkin, was sworn in on January 15, 2022. Oath of office On inauguration day, the Governor-elect takes th ...

. His grandfather was a brother of John Robinson, Speaker of the House of Burgesses, and

Beverley Robinson Beverley Robinson (11 January 1721 – 9 April 1792), was a Virginia-born soldier who became a wealthy colonist of the Province of New York and is best known as a Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War. Robinson married Susanna Philips ...

, also a loyalist leader.

Career

In 1808, Grymes arrived in New Orleans. On May 4, 1811, Grymes was appointed to replace his deceased brother Philip as the U.S. attorney for Louisiana district, serving until December 1814, when he resigned his post to represent the pirate

Jean Lafitte Jean Lafitte ( – ) was a French pirate and privateer who operated in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 19th century. He and his older brother Pierre spelled their last name Laffite, but English language documents of the time used "Lafitte". Th ...

. During the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

, Grymes served as '' aide-de-camp'' to General

during the

. As an attorney, he was law partners with

Edward Livingston Edward Livingston (May 28, 1764May 23, 1836) was an American jurist and statesman. He was an influential figure in the drafting of the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825, a civil code based largely on the Napoleonic Code. Livingston represented both ...

and was one of Jackson's lawyers in the case over the

Second Bank of the United States The Second Bank of the United States was the second federally authorized Hamiltonian national bank in the United States. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the bank was chartered from February 1816 to January 1836.. The Bank's formal name, ...

, he opposed

Daniel Webster Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents William Henry Harrison ...

in court against Myra Clark Gaines, and, reportedly, he earned $100,000 in the batture (or alluvial) land case against Edward Livingston. Grymes was a member of the "New Orleans Association" which included attorneys Edward Livingston and Abner L. Duncan, merchant John K. West, smuggler Pierre Laffite, and pirate

Jean Laffite Jean Lafitte ( – ) was a French pirate and privateer who operated in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 19th century. He and his older brother Pierre spelled their last name Laffite, but English language documents of the time used "Lafitte". Thi ...

. Grymes was also a founding member of

The Boston Club The Boston Club is a private gentlemen's club in New Orleans, Louisiana, US, founded in 1841 as a place for its members to congregate and partake in the fashionable card game of Boston. It is the oldest remaining social club in the city, after ...

, a private gentlemen's club in New Orleans.

Personal life

On December 1, 1822, Grymes married Cayetana Susana "Suzette" (née Bosque) Claiborne, widow of the first

Louisiana Governor The governor of Louisiana (french: Gouverneur de la Louisiane) is the head of state and head of government of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The governor is the head of the executive branch of Louisiana's state government and is charged with enfor ...

William C. C. Claiborne, and daughter of Felicidad Fangui and Bartolomé Bosque, a wealthy Spanish merchant and ship owner. From her first marriage, she was the mother of two: Sophronia Louise Claiborne (the wife of Antoine James de Marigny, the son of Bernard de Marigny) and Charles W. W. Claiborne, the Clerk of the U.S. Court in New Orleans. Together, they lived at 612 Royal Street in the

French Quarter The French Quarter, also known as the , is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans (french: La Nouvelle-Orléans) was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old Sq ...

of New Orleans, and were the parents of four children, including: * Marie Angeline "Medora" Grymes (1824–1867), who married Samuel Ward in 1843. He was widowed from Emily Astor, eldest daughter of William Backhouse Astor Sr. Both of their sons died in the 1860s. * John Randolph Grymes III (b. 1826) * Charles Alfred Grymes (1829–1905), a physician who married Emma Stebbins (1837–1865), a daughter of

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

Henry George Stebbins, in 1858. After her death, he married Mary Helen James (1840–1881), a daughter of John Barber James and Mary Helen (née Vanderburgh) James (a daughter of Federal Vanderburgh), in 1868. Mary, a niece of Henry James Sr., was a cousin of psychologist

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...

, author

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

, and diarist

Alice James Alice James (August 7, 1848 – March 6, 1892) was an American diarist, sister of novelist Henry James and philosopher and psychologist William James. Her relationship with William was unusually close, and she seems to have been badly affec ...

. * Athenais Grymes (1832–1897), who married New York banker, Louis A. von Hoffman, one of the founders of the

Knickerbocker Club The Knickerbocker Club (known informally as The Knick) is a gentlemen's club in New York City that was founded in 1871. It is considered to be the most exclusive club in the United States and one of the most aristocratic gentlemen's clubs in th ...

. Grymes died in New Orleans on December 3, 1854. His widow survived him by over a quarter century before her death in Paris August 6, 1881.

Descendants

Through his son Alfred, he was a grandfather of John Randolph Grymes (1859–1929), who married his half first cousin once removed, Sophronie Coale Thomas, and Mabel Grymes Heneberger (1861–1883), who married Lucien Guy Heneberger, a U.S. Naval Surgeon who served as head of the Naval Hospital at Annapolis. Mabel died after giving birth to their first child, and Heneberger built the Mabel Memorial Chapel and Mabel Memorial Schoolhouse in Harrisonburg, Virginia in her honor. Through his daughter Athenais, he was a grandfather of Medora von Hoffmann (1856–1921), who married Marquis de Mores, a French-born nobleman who was a frontier ranchman in the

Badlands Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded."Badlands" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 47. They are characterized by steep slopes, m ...

Dakota Territory The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of N ...

; he was assassinated in Algeria in 1896. and He was also the grandfather of Pauline Grymes (1858–1950), who married the wealthy German industrialist Baron Ferdinand von Stumm whose family owned the Neunkirchen Iron and Steelworks in

St. Petersburg, Russia Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

in 1878.

Legacy

Grymes Hill, Staten Island Grymes Hill is a tall hill formed of serpentine rock on Staten Island, New York. It is the second highest natural point on the island and in the five boroughs of New York City. The neighborhood of the same name encompasses an area of and has a ...

, is named after Suzette Grymes, who settled there in 1836 with her children. She built a mansion on the hill there known as "Capo di Monte" ("Top of the Mountain").

Ancestry

References

Notes Sources