A large, attractive portrait of a woman thought to be Sally Louisa Tompkins’s mother is now hanging in the records room of the Mathews County Circuit Court.

The Mathews County Historical Society owns the portrait, which is believed to be of Maria Booth Patterson Tompkins (1794-1854) of Poplar Grove. It is attributed to Richmond artist William Hubard (1807-1862).

According to information compiled by Graham Hood of the historical society and Becky Barnhardt of Mathews Memorial Library, Captain Sally Tompkins ran the Robertson Hospital for the wounded in Richmond, with great charity and personal sacrifice, for the duration of the Civil War. 

Capt. Sally’s mother, Maria Tompkins, was the daughter of John Patterson, who owned Poplar Grove on the East River from about 1800 to 1824, according to Hood and Barnhardt’s research. Her mother was Elizabeth Smith Tabb. She became the second wife of Christopher Tompkins, who took over Poplar G...