[1] His paternal ancestors had emigrated more than a century earlier, and his grandfather Col. Levin Joyce (1753-1794) had led the county militia to serve under General George Washington.
After a private education suitable to his class, William Joynes traveled to Pennsylvania and received a degree from Washington College.
[12] As Federal troops approached Petersburg in May 1862, Confederate authorities twice specifically directed Joynes that military needs had higher priority for rolling stock than those of wealthy citizens who sought to flee the city with their furniture and other goods.
His brother Dr. Levin Joynes served as a Confederate surgeon and his youngest brother Edward with the local defense force back in Accomack County, which Union forces soon occupied (although his pardon application mentioned only his teaching job at the College of William and Mary, which closed during the war, and a clerical position in Richmond).
Joynes managed to secure funding to rebuild the railroad within a year, perhaps helped by his brother in law, George R. Dennis who had served as a Union Army Colonel before beginning his political career on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
When the Virginia General Assembly elected all three to 12-year terms (although Thompson died before taking office), Rives ended his legislative service.
However, during Congressional Reconstruction, General John Schofield deposed all the Virginia appellate judges and replaced them with dedicated Union men, to some consternation.
Judge Joynes resumed his appellate duties as Congressional Reconstruction ended (with the adoption in 1869 of a new state constitution formally abolishing slavery and re-admission to the Union), but only for about two years.
Ragland tied to secure convicts to repair the tracks, but was replaced by COl. Isaac H. Carrington and Richmonders who had access to New York financiers in 1875.
[18] His youngest brother Edward Southey Joynes continued his academic career at several Southern universities, including writing a paper honoring Robert E. Lee in 1901.