James Lyons Jr.
Born: October 12, 1801
Birthplace: Hanover County, Virginia
Father: James Lyons Sr.
Mother: Sarah Spotswood Waugh Unknown – 1835
1st Wife: Henningham Henrietta Watkins 1799 – 1851
(Buried: Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia)
2nd Wife: Imogen Byrd Penn 1834 – 1901
(Buried: Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia)
Children:
Josephine Lyons Standard 1822 – 1889
(Buried: Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia)
James Lyons III 1826 – 1840
(Buried: Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia)
Heningham Watkins Lyons Scott 1827 – 1886
(Buried: Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia)
Sarah Nivison "Sally" Lyons Taliaferro 1828 – 1899
(Buried: Ware Episcopal Church, Gloucester, Virginia)
John A. Lyons 1830 – 1830
(Buried: Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia)
William Henry Lyons 1831 – 1867
(Buried: Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia)
Edward C. Lyons 1835 – 1853
(Buried: Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia)
Dr. Peter Lyons 1838 – 1881
(Buried: Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia)
Mary Powers Lyon Hutter 1840 – 1900
(Buried: Spring Hill Cemetery, Lynchburg, Virginia)
Political Party: Whig Party and Democratic Party
Education:
1819: Graduated from College of William and Mary
Occupation before War:
Attorney in Richmond, Virginia
District Attorney in Richmond, Virginia for ten years
Went to New York to arrange Lafayette's visit to Virginia
Helped develop Richmond as a railroad terminal
1840: Author of Whig Address known as "The Gray Book"
Virginia State Senator and Member of Virginia House Delegates
1850: Member of Virginia State Constitutional Convention
1850: Virginia Delegate to Nashville Convention
1852: Joined the Democratic Political Party
1856: Started advising secession if a Republican President elected.
1859: President of local Southern Rights Association
Civil War Career:
1861: Ran third in a contest for Confederate States Congressman
1862: Elected to Confederate Congress after John Tyler died.
1862 – 1864: Confederate States Congressman from Virginia
1862 – 1864: Member of House Commerce Committee
1862 – 1864: Chairman of House Public Buildings Committee
1862: Chairman House Joint Buildings Committee
1862: Chairman House Joint Inauguration Committee
Known to have been a close friend to President Jefferson Davis
Support the most demanding legislation on army and finance
He resented concessions to local interests.
Introduced several bills giving President Davis and his generals emergency powers in appointments, impressment, and habeas corpus suspension.
1862: Proposed to respond to the Emancipation Proclamation by ordering officers to take no prisoners to reward negroes for killing enemy soldiers.
The House choose widely when it delegated him to ask the President to explain his ideas on peace, but Davis still declined.
1863: Unsuccessful candidate for reelection to Confederate Congress.
Occupation after War:
1865 – 1882: Attorney in Richmond, Virginia
1867: Signer of President Jefferson Davis's bond and was defense counsel at the trial.
1872: Chairman of the convention of Straight – out Democrats
Died: December 18, 1882
Place of Death: Richmond, Virginia
Age at time of Death: 81 years old
Burial Place: Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia
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