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Certain similarities but also dissimilarities—ancestry, religion, edu cation, vocation, spouse—helped to mold the character and outlook of Bingham and Vallandigham. Each harkened back to ancestral origins in France—Bingham to Normandy and Vallandigham to Flanders, knighthood being in each family. A Bingham accompanied William the Conqueror to England; one of his descendants moved to Ireland; persons of this line fought for William III; in 1736, Hugh Bingham, Sr., left Ireland for Pennsylvania; his namesake was a Revolutionary War veteran; the latter's son, Hugh III, a veteran of the War of 1812, served as a prothonotary and commissioner of Mercer County, Penn sylvania; Hugh III became the father of John Armor Bingham whose maternal ancestry contained Scottish blood. Michael Van Landeghem came to Virginia in 1690; his namesake changed the family name to Vallandigham; this Michael's son, George, was a Revolutionary War veteran and justice of the peace; George's son Clement, a Presbyterian minister, became the father of Clement Laird Vallandigham, whose maternal side possessed Scottish blood. Calvinism permeated the Binghams and Vallandighams. The for mer adhered enthusiastically to the Associate Presbyterian Church, "the Seceders Church," a small, uncompromising sect. The Reverend