CLICK HERE to read an annotated article by John E. Norvell concerning Mary Norvell Walker.

Mary Norvell Walker (born 1802 in Kentucky) married James Walker of Nashville on August 7, 1823. James had immigrated from Scotland to Nashville, where he founded an insurance company. He married Mary Norvell and the couple built a massive brick house in the city’s most upscale neighborhood. There young William Walker,two brothers, and a sister were raised. The family belonged to the Disciples of Christ Church and the fundamentalist faith followed strict interpretations of the Bible. James Walker’s religious convictions prevented him from owning slaves. He did, however, hire numerous free blacks to work for him. Mary was described by a contemporary as interesting and intelligent, but was an invalid most of her life. Her father Lipscomb Norvell, buried in the City Cemetery, called her health “delicate.” Mary died on January 6, 1852 in Nashville,and James on June 28,1874 in Louisville, Kentucky, at the home of his daughter Alice Walker Richardson.

Their son, William Walker, the so-called Grey-Eyed Man of Destiny (born Nashville May 8, 1824 – died by firing squad in Honduras September 12,1860) was the only native of Nashville to head a foreign county, becoming President of Nicaragua in 1857. For more information on William Walker see Wikipedia: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_(filibuster)

John Norvell,
January 19, 2013

William Walker
Tennesse Portrait Website

Walker’s grave in the Cementerio Viejo,
in Trujillo, Honduras
enlarge image

Middle Tennessee Journal of Genealogy & History
Volume XXV, Number 4

CLICK HERE for complete article in PDF