Robert Green

Robert Green was born in Antrim County, North Ireland, in 1695 and died before 28 July 1748 in Brandy Station, Culpeper County, Virginia.  He married Eleanor Dunn about 1722 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.  Eleanor was born in Scotland about 1703.  Robert came to Virginia about 1710 with his uncle William Duff.  In 1736 Robert became a member of the House of Burgesses in Virginia.  And was one of the first vestrymen of St. Mark’s parish in Essex/Orange County, Virginia.

               Robert and Eleanor had eleven children.  A son Duff Green married Sarah Anne Willis and their son Willis Green eventually came to settle in the Danville area of Kentucky.   Willis is listed as a member of the Constitutional Convention held in Danville on 23 May 1785.  He is also listed on the roster of the Political Club that met in Grayson’s Tavern on 29 April 1787.  At first he was blackballed from the Political Club, but later was accepted as a member.  In December 1787 the Political Club met to form “The Kentucky Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge”.  Willis had served in the Revolutionary War and was a clerk of the District Court which met in Danville, KY until the court was abolished in 1802. 

               Willis married Sarah Reed, daughter of John Reed and Lettice/Elizabeth Wilcox, on 23 December 1783.  He built a beautiful home on his land called Waveland, still standing but in terrible disrepair, on Erskine Drive in Danville.  Willis and Sarah had seven children:

(1) Doctor Duff Green, Served as a Major in War of 1812

(2) Judge John Green, “A profound lawyer and conscientious judge”.  His reading was extensive, but the Bible was his favorite study.  His large household was regularly gathered for prayer. [The Marshall Family by William M. Paxton, 1885 ed. Section 180].  John Green married Sarah Adams Fry, the daughter of Joshua Fry, Danville’s early teacher and his wife Peachy Walker, daughter of Thomas Walker.  John Green was an early emancipator in Kentucky.  He placed on record a paper liberating all of his slaves, some forty in number, as they became of age.  His views were sharply criticized and caused him many problems.  He fought at the Battle of the Thames during the War of 1812 and represented Lincoln County in the State Legislature for seven terms.  He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church.  One of his children became a missionary to India; a daughter married a minister; another son became a Presbyterian minister in Arkansas and another a minister in Kansas

(3) Lewis Warner Green became the minister of the Danville Presbyterian Church on Third Street and later became President of Centre College in 1857.  He studied law and medicine both, studying with Dr. Ephraim McDowell to become a doctor.  After his wife’s death, he determined to become a minister and went to Princeton.  He became a professor of Greek and Political Economy at Centre and at Transylvania.  He resigned at Transylvania to become President of Centre College in 1857. During the Civil War Dr. Green fell from the strain of taking care of soldiers and died on 26 May 1863, the only civilian casualty of the Battle of Perryville.  Leticia, a daughter of Lewis Warner Green, married Adlai Ewing Stephenson who attended Centre College and became Vice-President of the United States.

(4) Sarah Green

(5) Leticia Green was married to Major James Barbour.  Major Barbour was a subscriber to the Trustee’s Fund for Centre College in 1819.  He was also a member of the Building Committee for Centre College when the college applied for incorporation in 1818. [Early Days in Danville, Calvin Fackler, p. 134, 136].  He was one of the supervising committee members for the School for the Deaf in 1825.  James and Leticia bought the home of Joshua Fry where the Methodist Church now stands.  Their descendants are Ambrose Barbour, a famous writer for his day; Colonel James Barbour, a banker in the Maysville area; Dr/Rev. Lewis Green Barbour, head of the Caldwell Institute in Danville,

(6) Elizabeth Green married Doctor Benjamin Edwards, whose brother was the governor of Illinois.

(7) Martha “Patsy” Green married Doctor William Craig and lived at Waveland in Danville.  One of their sons Willis Craig was a professor in the Theological Seminary of the North West at Chicago.  He is described as an eloquent pulpit orator.

Another of Robert Green descendants was General Duff Green, who became a lawyer, statesman, journalist and editor of the Washington “Telegraph”.  He was a member of President Andrew Jackson’s Cabinet.  Another named Doctor N. Green was President of the Western Union Telegraph Company.  Three others were judges in Virginia.