Elisha Boyd

Elisha Boyd (October 6, 1769 - October 21, 1841) was an American politician, Brigadier General, and early developer of Berkeley County, Virginia.

Elisha Boyd was born on October 6, 1769, in Berkeley County, Virginia, a son of John Boyd and Sarah Griffith Boyd. His father was one of the early emigrants to the county. He entered Liberty Hall Academy, a predecessor of Washington and Lee University, in 1785, and studied law in the office of Colonel Philip Pendleton. Elisha Boyd helped to establish Martinsburg Academy.

He was married three times. His first wife was Mary Waggoner, a daughter of Major Andrew Waggoner, and they had one child. His second wife was Ann Holmes, daughter of Colonel Joseph Holmes and the sister of Governor Holmes of Virginia and Major Andrew Hunter Holmes. They four children. Their daughter Mary Boyd, married Charles J. Faulkner I (1806–1884). He built “Boydville” in 1812 and it was bequeathed to Mary and Charles Faulkner upon his death. His third wife was Elizabeth Byrd of the Westover family; she died November 16, 1839.

Military service

He served in the War of 1812 with a commission of Colonel of the 4th Regiment of Virginia Militia and was engaged in the second defense of Norfolk and Portsmouth against a British attack of land and naval force. For his services in defense of Virginia, the General Assembly elected him a Brigadier General.

Politics

In 1796, he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. He served as attorney for the State by the County Court of Berkeley County and held that position for 40 years. He was a member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-1830, elected in 1832 to a seat in the Senate of Virginia, commissioned a magistrate of Berkeley County in 1838, was an advocate of a reform of the “Old Constitution” of Virginia, and was elected chairman of the county meeting and a delegate to the State Reform Convention.

Death

General Boyd died October 21, 1841, and was buried in the family plot at Norborne Cemetery, Martinsburg, West Virginia.

Five sites in Berkeley County, West Virginia, are associated with Elisha Boyd and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They are: "Boydville" and Boydville Historic District; Edgewood Manor; and a number of buildings located in the Bunker Hill Historic District and Mill Creek Historic District.