Hugh Holmes (Virginia politician)
American politician

Hugh Holmes (November 8, 1768 – January 19, 1825) was a Virginia lawyer, politician and judge.
Early life and education
Born in York County, Pennsylvania on November 8, 1768, the eldest son of Scots-Irish immigrant and merchant Joseph Holmes (1746-1808) and his wife Rebecca Hunter. His parents moved south to Winchester, Virginia, at the northern edge of the Shenandoah Valley by 1775, and Joseph Holmes would represent surrounding Frederick County (Winchester being the county seat) in the Virginia House of Delegates beginning in 1789. The family included two more brothers: future Congressman and Mississippi Governor David Holmes (1769-1832) and Major Andrew Hunter Holmes (who died in the Battle of Mackinac Island (1814)). All five daughters married: Elizabeth Holmes (b. 1877) married Edward McGuire of Frederick County, Rebecca Holmes (b. 1779) married Dr. David Conrad, Nancy Holmes married Gen. Elisha Boyd in Martinsburg; Gertrude Holmes married William Moss of Fairfax County. In 1787, Joseph Holmes owned more than a dozen slaves in Frederick County.
The public source identifies “Hugh Holmes (Virginia politician)” as american politician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Hugh, Holmes and Virginia.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5931149. VIAF identifies the subject as 78726362. The Library of Congress control number is nr2004001725. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1768, 1825, 1746 and 1808.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hugh Holmes (Virginia politician)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.