Hugh Caperton (17 April 1781–9 February 1847), member of the House of Representatives, was born in Greenbrier County and was the son of Elizabeth Miller Caperton and her first husband, Adam Caperton, who was killed on 22 March 1782 in an Indian skirmish in the Kentucky District. Little is known of Caperton's childhood or education. He established his home, Elmwood, near Union in the part of Greenbrier County that in 1799 became Monroe County. Early in his political career, he was at times called Hugh Caperton Jr. to distinguish him from an uncle of the same name. On 11 February 1806 Caperton married Jane Erskine. Among their four daughters and six sons was Allen Taylor Caperton, a member of the constitutional convention of 1850–1851, the secession convention of 1861, and the Confederate States Senate. After the death of his first wife on 20 May 1831, Hugh Caperton married the widow Delilah B. Alexander Beirne on 16 January 1834. There were no children from the second marriage, and Delilah Caperton died on 8 August 1845.

While representing Monroe County in the House of Delegates from 1810 to 1813, Caperton served on the Committee for Courts of Justice during his first two terms and on the Committee of Claims during his third. In 1813 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives from the Seventh Congressional District comprising Cabell, Greenbrier, Kanawha, Mason, Monroe, Randolph, and Wood Counties. Caperton, a Federalist, rarely spoke but tended to vote on issues and bills in Congress with the younger members of his party who embraced partisan politics and adapted the Jeffersonian party apparatus for their own use. He did not serve on any standing committees but was a member of the Joint Committee for Enrolled Bills. After his term expired Caperton chose not to run for reelection.

From 1826 to 1830 Caperton once again represented Monroe County in the House of Delegates. He served on the Committee of Privileges and Elections during each of his four terms. During the 1827–1828 session he sat on the Committee of Roads and Internal Navigation, and during the 1828–1829 session he was appointed to the Joint Committee to Examine the Expenditures of the Treasury and to the Committee to Examine the Expenditures of the Second Auditor.

When not serving in the House of Delegates or in Congress, Caperton returned to Monroe County to oversee Elmwood and his business interests. He was involved in at least four mercantile enterprises, held stock in the White and Sulphur Springs Turnpike and in the James River and Kanawha Company, and in 1835 was elected a director of the latter company. By the time of his death, Caperton owned more than one hundred enslaved workers and numerous properties, including at least five plantations; a house, tavern, and storehouse in Union; and another house in Lewisburg. He left to his heirs more than $35,000 in cash, bonds, and enslaved workers, as well as land, furniture, stocks, and other property. Hugh Caperton died on 9 February 1847 in Monroe County and was buried in Green Hill Cemetery, in Union.

Sources Consulted:
Biography in David Hackett Fischer, The Revolution of American Conservatism: The Federalist Party in the Era of Jeffersonian Democracy (1965), 383–384; birth, marriage, and death dates in Caperton family Bible records (1781–1877), at Library of Virginia and Virginia Museum of History and Culture (VMHC); Caperton correspondence in Caperton Family Papers, Hugh Blair Grigsby Papers, and Preston Family Papers, VMHC; Richmond Enquirer, 11 May 1813, 18 May 1813, 26 Apr. 1815; Journal of the House of Representatives, 13th Cong., 3d sess., 582; will (with birth date) and estate inventory in Monroe Co. Will Book, 4:242–248, 361–362, printed in John Hays Caperton and William Alexander Gordon, The Killing of Adam Caperton by Indians … (1918), 33–42 (portrait between 6 and 7).

Written for the Dictionary of Virginia Biography by Trenton E. Hizer.

How to cite this page:
Trenton E. Hizer, "Hugh Caperton (1781–1847)," Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia (1998– ), published 2025 (http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Caperton_Hugh, accessed [today's date]).

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