HAWES, HON. RICHARD, Lawyer, son of Richard and Clara (Walker) Hawes, was born February 6, 1797, in Caroline County, Virginia. His father was a native of the same county ; mainly followed agricultural pursuits through life; came to Kentucky, with his family, in 1810; after residing in Fayette and Jefferson Counties for a while, finally settled in Daviess County, where he died, in 1829. He was, for several years, a member of the Virginia Legislature; and held other positions of trust in that State.
The Hawes family were among the pioneer English emigrants to Virginia ; and were somewhat conspicuous in its early history. Samuel Hawes, his uncle, was a colonel in the war of the Revolution; Albert, another uncle, was, for three terms, member of Congress, from Culpepper district. His mother, also of English origin, was a native of Spottsylvania County, in which her ancestors early settled.
Richard Hawes received a liberal education, obtained chiefly at Transylvania University, where he remained three or four years ; and in Jessamine County, at the school of Professor Samuel Wilson, a teacher of distinction in his day, to whom quite a number of gentlemen, who became prominent in Kentucky, owe their early training. In 1814, he began reading law, under Charles Humphreys, in Lexington; finished his legal studies with Robert Wicldiffe; in 1818, was admitted to the bar, and at once entered upon the practice of his profession, associated with Mr. Wickliffe. In 1824, he removed to Winchester, continuing his profession, and also engaging in the manufacture of hemp; in 1843, located in Paris, where he resided during the remainder of his life ; established a large and valuable legal practice ; became one of the noted men of the country, and took a front rank among the lawyers of the State. In 1828, he was elected to represent Clarke County in the Legislature; was re-elected, and again elected in 1836; in 1837, was elected, from the Ashland district, to the Congress of the United States; in 1839, was again elected to Congress, serving two terms. He cast his first political vote for Henry Clay; and was a Whig until 1856, when he voted for James Buchanan; and was, from that time, a Democrat, voting for John C. Breckinridge, in i860. In 1861, he was one of the Committee of Six appointed by the Legislature, with a view to harmonizing the two parties in favor of armed neutrality; in the same year, after the failure of Kentucky to assume and continue an armed neutrality, he entered the Confederate army, with the rank of major ; and served for several months as brigade commissary, in the commands of John S. Williams and Humphrey Marshall. In May, 1862, he was compelled to accept the office of Provisional Governor of Kentucky, to which he had been chosen by the Confederate Council for the State; was formally inaugurated on the fourth day of October in that year, by Gen. Bragg, at Frankfort; and, although the position at Frankfort was not long maintained, he held the office of Provisional Governor until the close of the war. In this position he became a conspicuous figure in the history of the rebellion. In 1865, he resumed the practice of his profession, in Paris; in the following year, he was elected Judge of Bourbon County; was re-elected in 1870, and again, in 1874, holding the position until his death, which occurred near Paris, May 25, 1877.
He was of a quiet and dignified demeanor, winning and retaining the confidence of all who came in contact with him. In his aspirations, his usual motto was, “honesty, candor, and independence,” never stooping to trickery of any kind; and, during his last political canvasses, he almost discontinued his usual friendliness, for fear his motives might be misconstrued. His whole life, was one of uprightness, and he passed away universally respected.
Judge Hawes was married, in November, 1818, to Hettie Morrison Nicholas, daughter of Col. George Nicholas, of Albemarle County, Virginia, who, also became one of the most distinguished lawyers and citizens of Kentucky.
