Peyton, John B.

Born: 1797-11-10 Fauquier County, Virginia

Died: 1868-06-06 Mississippi

Alternate name: Payton

Peyton was a Mississippi politician, surveyor, planter, and civic leader. He moved from his native state to Mississippi in 1819, becoming one of the first people to travel by steamboat down the Mississippi River from St. Louis to Natchez. He became one of the federal surveyors assigned to survey land ceded by the Choctaw Indians that would become Hinds County when the Mississippi State Assembly created the county in 1821. In 1824, he married Mary F. Lewis, with whom he would have eight children. The couple moved to Hinds County, and in 1828, Peyton received his first land patent. He began constructing Waverly, the family home, which he finished in 1831. Peyton became one of the more prominent settlers and promoters of central Mississippi. Recognized as "the founding father" of Raymond, he served as the town's commissioner on the Hinds County Commissioners' Court. He also served two terms in the Mississippi House of Representatives. In 1829, Peyton voted against moving the state capital from Jackson to Clinton, helping defeat the proposed move. After the failed vote, Judge Isaac Caldwell of Clinton challenged Peyton to a duel. Peyton accepted the challenge, and the judge received a flesh wound, Peyton emerging unscathed. In 1850, Peyton was a planter in Hinds County and owned real estate valued at $25,000. He also owned twenty-six enslaved people. By 1860, he owned real estate valued at $11,500 and had a personal estate of $40,000. After the Battle of Raymond in May 1863, General Ulysses S. Grant occupied Waverly and used the house as his headquarters before marching his army to burn Jackson.

Gravestone, Peyton Family Cemetery, Raymond, MS; Dunbar Rowland, ed., Encyclopedia of Mississippi History (Madison, WI: Selwyn A. Brant, 1907), 1:456, 868-71; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Hinds County, MS, 150; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Slave Schedules, Hinds County, MS, 44; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Hinds County, MS, 154; Samuel McDonough, Our Founding Fathers Homes and Churches in Virginia (Dallas, TX: Samuel McDonough, 2008), https://books.google.com/books?id=YRv6hYl3-HkC&pg=PT99&dq=john+b.+peyton+raymond+mississippi&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjF08Oqy6_iAhUMQ6wKHbhpDtIQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=john%20b.%20peyton%20raymond%20mississippi&f=false, accessed May 22, 2019.