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Margaret Louisa Kempe Howell (January 6, 1806 – November 24, 1867) was an American heiress, planter, and slaveowner who was the mother of Confederate First Lady Varina Davis and mother-in-law of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
Margaret Louisa Kempe Howell was the mother of Varina Howell Davis. She married William Burr Howell in Natchez in 1823, and they had settled at The Briars by the end of the decade. She helped care for the older Davis children in Canada while Jefferson Davis was imprisoned after the war.
Varina Anne Banks Howell was born in 1826 at Natchez, Mississippi, the daughter of William Burr Howell and Margaret Louisa Kempe. Her father was from a distinguished family in New Jersey: His father, Richard Howell, served several terms as governor of New Jersey and died when William was a boy.
children of William Burr Howell and Margaret Kempe Howell, Varina, the older sister to numerous younger siblings, soon learned to take responsibility for the others. She was something of a tomboy, and, according to one family tale, eight-year-old Varina rescued several of her younger brothers and sisters when the family house caught fire and ...
Dec 22, 2021 · Varina Howell was born on May 7, 1826, in rural Louisiana where her parents, William B. Howell and Margaret L. Kempe, of Natchez, Mississippi, were visiting relatives. After distinguished service in the American Revolution (1775–1783), her grandfather, Richard Howell, became governor of New Jersey in the 1790s.
She was born to William Burr Howell and Margaret Kempe. In the 1880 U.S. Federal Census for Biloxi, Mississippi, Varina Howell's place of birth was listed as Louisiana; her father's place of birth was listed as New Jersey, and her mother's as Virginia.
When First Lady of the Confederacy Varina Anne Banks Howell was born on 7 May 1826, in Natchez, Adams, Mississippi, United States, her father, William Burr Howell, was 31 and her mother, Margaret Louisa Kempe, was 20.
