Decimus et Ultimus Barziza

[Mark Mandel]

On Sun, Apr 6, 2008 at 10:45 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

>  BARZIZA, DECIMUS ET ULTIMUS (1838-1882). Decimus et Ultimus Barziza,
>  lawyer, politician, author, businessman, and officer in the
>  Confederate Army, was born on September 4, 1838, in Virginia, the
>  tenth [answers one question, but raises another] and last son [now
>  how did his parents know this at the time he was born?!  But see
>  below] of Phillip Ignatius and Cecelia Amanda (Bellett) Barziza.

**
>  He  was the great-grandson of eighteenth-century English scholar John
>  Paradise and a direct descendant of the Ludwells, who owned extensive
>  property in colonial Virginia. In 1857, after graduating from William
>  and Mary College, Barziza followed three of his brothers [Septimus
>  through Nonimus?] to Texas and studied law at Baylor University. [See
>  also Baylor site.]  He graduated in 1859, moved to Owensville,
>  Robertson County, and set up his law practice.
>
>    ...           Barziza arrived at Wilmington, North Carolina, in April
>  1864, and was allowed to return to Texas to recover from the
>  hardships of his escape.


I was interested also in the last name, which offhand looked as if it
might be Aramaic! But it's evidently Italian. "About 8,460" googits
for Barziza, many of them in Texas. Of interest for the source are at
least the following:

A letter of Thomas Jefferson:
To the Countess Barziza. Paris, July 8, 1788.
  http://tinyurl.com/6zbkzn (Google Books)

... who is evidently the same person as this one, Dec&Ult's
grandmother (see above**):
That the said Lucy Paradise, daughter of the said John and Lucy
Paradise, on 4 April, 1787, at the said City of London, married Count
Barziza, a Venetian subject, by whom she had issue, a son, named John,
born in the City of Venice on 10 August, 1796.
  http://supreme.justia.com/us/17/453/case.html


The mention of a medieval Latinist, Gasparin of Barziza, b. ca. 1370,
near Bergamo, Italy, may be a further clue if anyone wants to follow
this up.
  http://tinyurl.com/6xtbms (Google Books)

--
Mark Mandel

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