Hammet family
Biographical Note
Colonel Edward Hammet was the father of Sue Hammet Tyler. Arriving in the area of what is now Radford, Virginia in the 1830s, Hammet married Clementina Craig, who had inherited the Norwood property, near (or on) what is now Radford University, from her father, James Craig. Edward and Clementina had several children, including James Preston, Isabella (married Stockton Heth), John Radford, and Susan (married James Hoge Tyler). The Hammets maintained ownership of lands in Washington and Issaquena counties, Mississippi.
William Henry Hammet / Hammett (1799-1865), brother of Edward Hammet, was born in County Cork, Ireland. He served as chaplain of the University of Virginia (1832-1834) and the Virginia House of Delegates before moving to Princeton, Mississippi. In 1837, he married the widow of Dr. James Metcalfe and became owner of the Lammermoor plantation. A Democrat, Hammet served in Congress from 1843-1845. Evidence within the collection suggests that Hammet was a physician. He died in Washington County, Mississippi and was buried on Lammermoor Plantation.
James Preston Hammet (1832-1829), son of Edward Hammet and a graduate of Virginia Military Institute (class of 1853) studied medicine at the University of Virginia and in Philadelphia. He married Katherine Markham Spiller in 1856; their daughter would marry Judge G. E. Cassel of Radford, Virginia. At the commencement of the Civil War, Hammet organized the "New River Grays," which became Company H, 24th Virginia Infantry, but resigned early in the war. By 1864, he was a Montgomery County, Virginia surgeon, serving on the county's committee of public safety.
Isabella Hammet ("Belle") Heth, daughter of Edward and Clementina Craig Hammet, was born in 1842. She married Captain Stockton Heth, who had served in the 18th Virginia Infantry. Heth, president of the Exchange Bank of Radford, also owned Whitethorne Plantation in Montgomery County, Virginia. The couple's children included Virginia C., Stockton Jr., Sally P., and Sue H. Isabella died in 1910 and is buried in Radford, Virginia.