John Love (1760 – 1834) was a nineteenth-century politician and lawyer from

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. Decades after his death, during the American Civil War, a man of the same name served in the Wheeling Convention, representing

Upshur County, West Virginia Upshur County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,816. Its county seat is Buckhannon. The county was formed in 1851 from Randolph, Barbour, and Lewis counties and named for Abel Par ...

, many miles westward.

Early life

John Love was born in 1760 in

Charles County, Maryland Charles County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 166,617. The county seat is La Plata. The county was named for Charles Calvert (1637–1715), third Baron Baltimore. T ...

to and Samuel Love. In the 1770s, his father bought a farm near the border of Prince William and Fauquier counties. Growing up, Love pursued an academic course and studied law. Love and his brother Samuel both joined Virginia militia regiments. Love joined Capt. William Payne's company of the 1st Virginia regiment as a private and also fought in the Philadelphia campaign and survived the winter at Valley Forge. He re-enlisted in 1779 and returned to Virginia when his regiment was merged with the Second Virginia regiment under Col. Charles Dabney Love would marry twice after his wartime service. His first wife, Elizabeth Watson of Alexandria, Virginia, bore no children who survived. His second wife Mary E.H. Wheeler bore a son and a daughter.

Career

He was admitted to the bar in 1801 and began his legal practice in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in Northern Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Washington, D.C., D.C. The city's population of 159,467 at the 2020 ...

and nearby counties. He lived in Alexandria for about two years. Both before and after, until his departure to Tennessee in 1820, he operated a farm near Buckland at the border of

Prince William William, Prince of Wales (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982), is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales. William was born during the reign of his p ...

and

Fauquier County Fauquier County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 72,972. The county seat is Warrenton. Fauquier County is in Northern Virginia and is a part of the Washington metropolitan area. History ...

counties, which he operated using enslaved labor. Buckland Farm, and his brother Samuel's farms in nearby

Loudoun County Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Virginia, Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. The county seat is Leesburg, Virgi ...

, became known for breeding thoroughbred racing horses, and were some of the earliest importers of stock from Arabia and Europe. He advertised his prime stud horse, 'Mahomet', in a

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, ...

newspaper in 1796. Fauquier County voters elected Love as one of their representatives in the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two houses of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...

, alongside veteran Thomas Hunton, in 1805 and re-elected the pair the following year. In 1807 John Edmunds succeeded him as delegate, because Love had been elected as a

Democratic-Republican The Democratic-Republican Party (also referred to by historians as the Republican Party or the Jeffersonian Republican Party), was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early 1790s. It championed l ...

to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

in 1806, and he was also re-elected there and served from 1807 to 1811. As congressman, Love served as chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia in his second term, from 1809 to 1811. In 1816, voters from the district that included Prince William and Fairfax counties elected Love to the

Virginia State Senate The Senate of Virginia is the upper house of the Virginia General Assembly. The Senate is composed of 40 senators representing an equal number of single-member constituent districts. The Senate is presided over by the lieutenant governor of Virg ...

(again a part-time position) and he served from 1816, but was succeeded by Redmond Foster before the end of his four-year term.Leonard pp. 288, 292, 296, 301

Death and legacy

Love died in

on August 17, 1822.

References

External links

1822 deaths Members of the Virginia House of Delegates Virginia state senators Virginia lawyers Year of birth missing Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia 19th-century American lawyers Politicians from Alexandria, Virginia Lawyers from Alexandria, Virginia 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives 19th-century members of the Virginia General Assembly {{Virginia-Representative-stub