WILLIAM WALTER MOFFETT.

Judge William W. Moffett, of Roanoke, was born in Culpeper County June 19, 1854. He was descended from Henry Moffett, of the Northern Neck, who married two daughters of Colonel Walter Anderson, "the immigrant." The family moved to the foothills of the Blue Ridge and settled in what is now Fauquier County. The Rev. Anderson Moffett was a Baptist minister mentioned in the history of the Baptists by Robert B. Semple. Some members of the family moved to Missouri, but Daniel Moffett came from Fauquier to Culpeper. He was the grandfather of Judge Moffett. John Moffett, his father, married Sarah Brown, daughter of William Brown, and thus became related to the Ficklins, Fants, and other mid-Virginia families. Judge Moffett's father was an educated gentleman, and that education had its due influence on the son, who served as president of the board of trustees of Hollins Institute, the famous school of that name, now known as Hollins College.

Educated at the Rappahannock Academy, then headed by C. A. Barksdale, Master of Arts of the University of Virginia, young Moffett taught school and studied law under his uncle Horatio, an eminent lawyer, and began the practice in 1877 in Rappahannock County.

Walter Moffett early began to take an interest in politics. and at one time edited the newspaper known as the Blue Ridge Echo. In 1883, at the time of the Mahone Coalition, Mr. Moffett was elected a member of the General Assembly.

In 1891 he moved to Roanoke County and formed a partnership with Hon. A. B. Pugh, In 1893 he was elected judge of the County Court of Roanoke County and continued to serve until the county courts were abolished by the present Constitution.

In 1906 he was elected to fill the unexpired term as judge of the Twentieth Judicial Circuit. He was re-elected in 1908 and again in 1916 without opposition. In 1923 he resigned to

accept the judgeship of the Law and Chancery Court of Roanoke city, to which place he had moved in 1916.

He filled many positions of trust. Besides those mentioned he served as president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia and for twelve years was Moderator of the Valley Baptist Association. He was also on the board of the Baptist Orphanage of Virginia and president of the Florence Crittenden Home, of Roanoke.

Of him it was said that "it was characteristic of Judge Moffett to identify himself with every cause in which the welfare of the people was involved."

In the new courthouse at Salem Judge Moffett had portraits secured of the county's notable citizens and had sketches prepared and entered in what he called "The Historical Order Book of Roanoke County."

In Rappahannock February 22, 1883, Judge Moffett married Jessie Mary Dudley and has a large family who have all had the advantages of the education which he so highly valued for both men and women.

His death removed from the bench an eminent judge and from the community a public-spirited, high-minded citizen.

JOSEPH C. TAYLOR.

Judge Taylor died young but highly esteemed. The Taylors of Virginia are a notable family and wherever the name is known it has been distinguished for good sense and character.

The first John Taylor married Catharine Pendleton and had ten children. A son of his, George Edmond, married Anne Lewis. Their son, Edmond, married Ann Day, daughter of a Revolutionary officer. Their son, William Day Taylor, who was born in Hanover County, Va., in 1781, married Eliza Adams Marshall, daughter of William Marshall and niece of Chief Justice John Marshall.

James Marshall Taylor, grandfather of Judge Joseph C. Taylor, was born in Hanover County April 27, 1822. Mr. Taylor married Isabel de Leon Jacobs, a celebrated beauty of Richmond, on the 14th of February, 1844. Of their ten children, Charles Alexander Taylor, traffic manager of the R., F. & P. R. R., was Judge Taylor's father. Not to mention any other members of his family, few railroad men have been better known in Virginia than his father, whose name used to appear upon the tickets of the R., F. & P. Railroad, as did the name of his uncle, Warren, who, upon Judge Taylor's father's death in August, 1898, succeeded to the same position.

After the loss of his father, Joseph C. Taylor became a diligent and faithful student. The ambition to become a great lawyer was natural in one who had John Marshall for a great, very great uncle. And so Joe Taylor studied law and had at an early age reached a fine position in his profession. He formed a partnership with B. Randolph Wellford and achieved the reputation for prudence, learning and industry. To the firm came those who wanted wise counsel and learned counsel.

When it became known that a new court would be created in Richmond, to be known as the Law and Equity Court, Part II, Joseph C. Taylor was brought out by his friends as a candidate,