More on the 19th century federal judge buried in Abingdon

Previously, I posted about Judge Robert William Hughes, a judge of the E.D. Va., who was buried in Abingdon in 1901. Here are some additional facts:

Hughes was of an old Virginia family, whose ancestors came to the area of Powhatan County before 1700, when it was still Goochland County.

He served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, then returned to his pre-war occupation as a newspaper editor in Richmond. In June, 1869, he shot and wounded a rival newspaperman in a duel.

Hughes "was an extreme secessionist, but after the war he became a moderate Republican and a favorite of President Grant, causing many of his old friends to consider him 'worse than a carpetbagger' and a 'Judas.'" He resigned as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia in 1873 for his unsuccessful campaign for governor, against James L. Kemper.

In 1881, the College of William & Mary conferred on him an honorary doctor of law degree. His son, Robert Morton Hughes, was a president of the Virginia Bar Association from 1895-96.