Nottingham, Elizabeth Parker Upshur, 1801-1879

Elizabeth Parker Upshur was born on March 11, 1801, in Northampton, Virginia, to Littleton Upshur, Sr. and Ann “Nancy” Parker. She married John E. Nottingham on December 30, 1820, and together they had three children. She was the younger sister of Abel P. Upshur, the Secretary of State, who negotiated the treaty that led to the annexation of Texas in 1845. After her husband’s death in 1827, she petitioned the Virginia Assembly to change the last name of her sons to “Upshur” at the insistence of her brothers, as they felt the Vaucluse branch of the Upshur Family was dying out. Her younger son was Admiral John Henry Nottingham Upshur. She died on September 15, 1879, in Richmond, Virginia, and is buried at the Elmwood Cemetery in Norfolk, Virginia.