Excerpt from the obituary of Henry Adolphus London, from The Chatham Record, November 30, 1882. Written by his son, Henry Armand London, founder and editor of The Chatham Record. Presented by DigitalNC.
Henry Adolphus London, merchant, was born in Wilmington, the son of John and Ann Mauger London. He obtained his early education in the schools of Brooklyn, N. Y., where his mother had moved following the death of her husband in 1816. After attending The University of North Carolina in 1825, London entered the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy in Middletown, Conn. (later Norwich University). On his graduation in 1828, he returned to his native state and went into the mercantile business in Wilmington. In 1836 he moved to Pittsboro to become a member of the firm of Evans, Horn and Company. When this company dissolved, he operated a mercantile business of his own until a few years before his death. In 1853 London became treasurer of the Cape Fear and Deep River Navigation Company, which had been organized to open a water route on the Cape Fear River between Fayetteville and Gulf in Chatham County. He served in that capacity until the company disbanded in 1868.
Active in the public and religious life of Pittsboro, London was chairman of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions for thirty years. In 1870 he was elected to a two-year term as treasurer of Chatham County. For more than forty years he was a vestryman and senior warden of St. Bartholemew's Parish. From 1839 until his death, he attended almost every annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. London died in Pittsboro and was buried in St. Bartholemew's churchyard.
On 29 Feb. 1832 he married Sally Margaret Lord, the daughter of William Campbell and Eliza Hill Lord of Wilmington, and they had ten children: John Rutherford, Ann Mauger (m. Lawrence J. Haughton), William Lord, Eliza Catherine (m. Dr. P. G. Snowden), Rufus Marsden, Henry Armand, Mary Cowan (m. Joshua T. James), Fanny Thurston (m. John W. Taylor), Frederick Hill, and Frank Olmstead. After the death of his first wife, London married Catherine S. Moore of Pittsboro in 1860. There were no children from his second marriage.
References:
Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. 1 (1907).
Henry Adolphus London Papers, 1770-1885 (collection no. 02011). The Southern Historical Collection. Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. http://www2.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/l/London,Henry_Adolphus.html (accessed January 13, 2014).
Henry Armand London Papers, 1862-1887 (collection no. 00868-z). The Southern Historical Collection. Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. http://www2.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/l/London,Henry_Armand.html (accessed January 13, 2014).
