The Honorable William Capers Clopton of Mississippi, New York, and Maryland

Born March 16, 1853 near Holly Springs, Mississippi, Judge William Capers Clopton was the son of John Hoggatt Clopton and Mathilda Caroline Drake. A direct descendant of William Clopton, Gentleman, and his wife Ann (Booth) Dennett Clopton, Judge Clopton married his first wife, Mary Frances Garth. Mary Frances was the daughter of David Johnson Garth of Doylestown, Pennsylvania and Susan Chapman Garth. Before her death on June 9, 1895, they had two children, William Garth Clopton and Waldegrave Wythe Clopton. He next married Louise (Espenscheid) Lucas, the daughter of Louis Espenscheid of St. Louis, Missouri, and Catherine von Paul Espenscheid. Louise brought to the marriage one son, Henry Lucas. Judge Clopton died in 1926 in Baltimore, Maryland, in the Hotel Stafford, where he had lived the last ten years of his life, with his wife, Louise, and step-son, Henry, at his side.

After serving in the Confederate Army, he became a lawyer in Virginia following attendance at the Universities of Tennessee, Berlin (Germany), and Virginia. At the age of 40, he was nominated to be a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, but declined the honor. He was described in a letter to President Wilson, recommending him as the Ambassador to Japan, from Judge Sam Littlepage as "one of the ablest constitutional lawyers in the United States and one of the soundest and most widely educated men I ever knew." He was by this time living in Atlantic City, New Jersey and practicing law in New York, where he also lived for a time.

He was as well known for his collections of art and violins as for his legal abilities. Judge Clopton amassed one of the finest violin collects in the world. A death notice appearing in the Post Dispatch stated the collection was worth $500,000. He lent instruments from his collection to renowned artists, and when he lived in New York, his home was a "rendezvous for famous violinists, including Ysaye, Ondericek, Marteau, and Rivardi." On one occasion a talented young man was allowed to see the collection and to play one of the violins. When he expressed an interest in owning the violin, Judge Clopton presented it to him. At one time he promised J. P. Morgan to donate his collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, but, according to a September 22, 1918 article appearing in Memphis' Commercial Appeal, he decided he would rather have it go to a museum in Tennessee, probably in Memphis or Nashville. Unfortunately, no one has come forward with records showing what museums finally received his collections.

In papers located at Duke University's library, a paper can be found advice he wrote to his sons:

All you need is an honorable and sincere, nay, a contrite heart, filled with love and leniency and respect for your fellow man, doing unto him as you would have him do unto you.

Be diligent in your studies and seek the truth.

Be sure to keep your minds free from prejudice and envy, for they are expensive guests to entertain.

Man's sweetest and most prolific communion is with a good wife, who understands him, and who shares with him his ambitions and labors. A man can claim little respect who is not absolutely faithful, loving, and attentive to a good wife.

Based on:

An Article Originally Appearing in the August 1990 Issue of the of The Clopton Family Newsletter
from Information Submitted by
Helen Clopton Mosby & Ruth McKee

Compiled by James M McMillen mcmillen@arlington.net