[1] Born in York County, Pennsylvania on November 8, 1768, the eldest son of Scots-Irish immigrant and merchant Joseph Holmes (1746-1808) and his wife Rebecca Hunter.
His parents moved south to Winchester, Virginia, at the northern edge of the Shenandoah Valley by 1775, and Joseph Holmes would represent surrounding Frederick County (Winchester being the county seat) in the Virginia House of Delegates beginning in 1789.
[3] In 1795, Hugh Holmes began his political career by winning election as mayor of Winchester, the Frederick County seat.
[8][9] His brother David Holmes, who had become Commonwealth attorney for Rockingham County (further south in the Shenandoah Valley) early in his legal career, became a U.S.
Virginia legislators selected Philip P. Barbour as Holmes' successor on the western Virginia bench, although he would only serve two years before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives (and later served as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court).