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[Page 215]
      Beckwourth, James P., was born at Fredericksburg, Virginia, April 26, 1798. His father was a major in the revolutionary army, and his mother a negro slave. about the year 1805 he removed to St. Louis, Missouri, and settled on the spot afterwards known as "Beckwourth's Settlement." When young Beckwourth was about ten years old he was sent to St. Louis, where he attended school for four years, and was then apprenticed to a blacksmith in that city. At the age of nineteen he joined an expedition of about one hundred men to go up the Fever river and negotiate a treaty with the Sac Indians; and that being done, he remained in the vicinity for more than a year. He next became connected with General Ashley's Rocky Mountain Fur Company. In 1823 he carried important despatches to the mountains for Gen. Ashley. After terrible sufferings and many years spent among the Indians during which time he was made a chief of the Crows, he returned to his family at St. Louis and later went to Florida, where he carried despatches for the United States, and was engaged in fighting the Indians. He went to Mexico, and in 1844 accompanied a trading expedition to California. At the breaking out of the California revolution against Gov. Micheltorena, in 1845, he took an active part. He was engaged by the United States government to convey despatches to Chihuahua, and afterwards from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to California. Some time after 1849 he discovered a pass through the Sierra Nevada mountains, which was named "Beckwourth's Pass," and in 1852 he became a trader in Beckwourth's Valley. He died in 1867.

[Pages 215-216]
      Greenhow, Robert, was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1800, died in San Francisco, California, in 1854. His father, Robert, was at one time mayor of Richmond. His mother, Mary Ann Wills, perished at the burning of the Richmond theatre in 1811, and the son barely escaped with his life. He was graduated form William and Mary College in 1816, and finished his education in New York, studying medicine with Dr. David Hosack and Dr. John W. Francis, and taking his degree at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1821. He then visited Europe where he met Byron and other distinguished men, and on his return delivered lectures on chemistry before the New York Literary and Philosophical Society. He became translator to the department of state in Washington in 1828, and in 1850 removed to California, where in 1853 he was associate law-agent to the United States land commission. He published "A History of Tripoli" (1835), and a "Report on the Discovery of the Northwest Coast of North America," prepared by order of congress in 1837 (New York, 1840), and after war enlarged into a "History of Oregon and California," a work of high authority (1846). Dr. Greenhow also read before the New York Historical Society, in 1848, a paper in relation to the supposed missionary labors of Archbishop Fénelon, since found to have been those of a brother, among the Iroquois of New York. His grandfather, John Greenhow, a prominent merchant of Williamsburg, was born in Stanton, near Kendall, county Westmoreland, England, November 12, 1724, and died March 29, 1787. He married three time (first) Judith Davenport, (second) Elizabeth Tyler, sister of Gov. John Tyler, and (third) Rebecca Harman, daughter of Benskin Harman. Robert Greenhow was descended from the first marriage.

[Page 216]
      Alexander, James Waddell, was born in Louisa county, Virginia, March 13, 1804, son of Archibald and Janetta Waddell Alexander, and maternal grandson of James Waddell, the blind preacher, made famous by William Wirt. He was educated in the academy at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, entered Princeton College, and was graduated in 1820, following with a four years' course at the theological seminary. In 1824 he was a tutor in that institution, and was licensed to preach by the presbytery of New Brunswick, New Jersey. For three years following he was pastor in Charlotte county, Virginia. From 1828 to 1832 he had charge of the First Presbyterian Church in Trenton, New Jersey. He gave up preaching on account of failing health, and took charge of the "Presbyterian," of Philadelphia, as editor. From 1834 to 1844 he was professor of belles lettres and rhetoric at Princeton College, and for the next five years he served the congregation of the Duane Street Presbyterian Church of New York City. At the end of his pastorate he returned to Princeton to take the chair of ecclesiastical history and church government in the theological seminary. In 1851 he returned to New York to accept a call to the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, where he exerted a great power in the pulpit and with his pen. In preaching and writing he aimed at being practical rather than scholarly, and in the pulpit was intensely spiritual. He wrote many translations of popular German hymns, one of which found its way into many hymn books — Gerhardt's passion hymn, "O, Sacred Head now Wounded." His published works include: "Consolation," "Family Worship," "Plain Words to a Young Communicant," "Discourses on Christian Faith and Practice," "Gift to the Afflicted," "A Biography of Dr. Archibald Alexander," and over thirty volumes prepared for the American Sunday School Union. He contributed to the "Princeton Review" and the "Biblical Repertory." Rev. Dr. John Hall published in 1880, in two volumes "Forty Years' Familiar Letters of James W. Alexander." He died at Red Sweet Springs, Virginia, July 31, 1859.

[Page 217]
      Saunders, Robert, born in Williamsburg, Virginia, January 25, 1805, son of Robert Saunders, entered the University of Virginia in its first year, and took the law course of lectures. In 1833 he was made professor of mathematics in William and Mary College, Williamsburg, and continued as such after his appointment as president pro tem. in 1847. Dissensions arose in the faculty, and all resigned in 1848. Mr. Saunders then traveled in Europe, and was a guest of Lafayette. For a long time he was at the head of the Eastern Lunatic Asylum, and just before the civil war was president of the York River railroad. Throughout his life, until disfranchised in reconstruction times, he was a member of the legislature; mayor, magistrate and councilman of Williamsburg, and a vestryman of Bruton parish. In the civil war he was offered the colonelcy of a regiment, but feeling himself unfitted for field service, took a position in the Confederate quartermaster's department, where he proved himself an efficient officer. He married Lucy, a daughter of Governor John Page. He died September 11, 1868.

[Page 217]
      Holladay, Albert Lewis, born in Spotsylvania county, Virginia, April 16, 1805. He was educated at the University of Virginia, and taught for a time there and in Richmond. He then took the presidency of Hampden-Sidney College, relinquishing it in 1833, when he took up the study of theology. For eleven years he was a missionary in Persia, and achieved eminence as a scholar in Oriental literature; among his works was a Syriac grammar. Returning home he became pastor at Charlottesville, Virginia. He was in ill health, when he was informed of his election (the second) to the presidency of Hampden-Sidney College, and was never well again, and did not reach the place. He died a month later, October 18, 1856.

[Page 217]
      Burk, John D., born in Ireland, died near Campbell's Bridge, Virginia, April 11, 1808. He was expelled from Trinity College, Dublin, for writing and printing deistical and republican sentiments, also became obnoxious to the government, and came to America in 1796. In Boston he edited the "Polar Star," which did not long exist. Coming to New York, he edited a paper and was arrested for perpetrating a libel under the alien and sedition law. He removed to Petersburg, Virginia, where he gave himself to the law and literature. He wrote "History of Virginia from its first settlement to 1740," (3 vols.), printed in Petersburg, 1804. He engaged in a political dispute with Felix Coquebert, which resulted in a duel, in which he met his death.

[Pages 217-218]
      Dew, Thomas R., was born in King and Queen county, December 5, 1802, son of Thomas R. Dew and Lucy Gatewood, his wife. His father served a short time in the war of 1812. Thomas R. Dew the son graduated from William and Mary College in 1820, after which he traveled two years in Europe. On October 16, 1826, he was elected professor of history and political law in William and Mary College. The chair of history, which was established under Rev. Robert Keith, was developed by Mr. Dew into one of first importance. At that time history and political science were scarcely known among the studies of American colleges. In 1836 Mr. Dew became president, and the college achieved a degree of prosperity never previously known. In 1840 the number of students in attendance was one hundred and forty. His "Lectures on the Restrictive System," depicting the evils of the tariff system, were very popular, not only with his students, but with the Southern public, and had much weight in shaping opposition to the tariff laws of 1828 and 1832. His essay in favor of slavery had a marked effect. His greatest work was his "Digest of the Laws, Customs, Manners and Institutions of Ancient and Modern Nations," embracing lectures delivered to is class. Dr. Dew contributed largely to the "Southern Review." In 1845 he married Natilia Hay, daughter of Dr. Hay, of Clarke county, Virginia, and died suddenly on his wedding trip. The faculty formally bore testimony in their minutes that it was difficult to decide whether "his wisdom as president, his ability as a professor, or his excellence as a man was most to be admired. He died in Paris, France, August 6, 1846.

[Pages 218-219]
      Poe, Edgar Allan, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, January 19, 1809, son of David and Elizabeth (Arnold) Poe. His grandfather, David Poe, fought in the revolutionary and 1812 wars, and his father, who had been educated for the law, had become an actor, married an actress, and was playing in Boston, when Edgar Allan, his second son was born. His parents died when he was but two years old, and John Allan, a wealthy merchant of Richmond, adopted him. He attended school at Stoke Newington, England, and a private school in Richmond, Virginia, and entered the University of Virginia, February 14, 1826. He remained there but one year, worked in Mr. Allan's counting room a few months, and in 1827 went to Boston, where at the age of eighteen he published his first volume of poems which he later attempted to destroy When his money was gone, he enlisted in the army, May 6, 1828, as Edgar A. Perry. He was advanced from private to the rank of sergeant-major in less than nine months, and when Mr. Allan learned where he was he furnished a substitute and had Poe appointed to the United States Military Academy, July 1, 1830. Poe found the life distasteful to him, and Mr. Allan, refusing to allow him to resign, he succeeded in being cashiered in 1831. In 1829 he had published a second edition of his poems under a new title, and in 1831 he published a third volume, dedicated to his fellow students. Mr. Allan's anger at the Military Academy disgrace caused Poe to leave his home and go to Baltimore, where he took up literature as a profession, turning his attention to prose. His first story, published in the "Saturday Visitor," in 1833, won him the $100 prize offered by that paper. He became editor of the "Southern Literary Messenger" of Richmond in 1835, and here he began to show the peculiar, Mystical side of his writings and his ability and fearlessness as a critic. He became editor of "Graham's Magazine" in 1836 and in the same year was married to his young cousin, Virginia Clemm. He was made associate editor of the "Gentleman's Magazine" in 1839, and in 1841, when this was merged into "Graham's Magazine," became editor. It was at this time that he published his theories in regard to cryptography, and demonstrated them by solving a hundred miscellaneous specimens that were sent to him by his contributors. This same year he won a hundred dollar prize with his story "The Gold-Bug." In 1842 he left "Graham's Magazine" and in 1844 became editorial assistant on the "Evening Mirror," then conducted by N. P. Willis, and in its columns in 1845 first published "The Raven." In 1846, after an unsuccessful attempt to conduct the "Broadway Journal," he withdrew to Fordham, New York, where on January 30, 1847, his wife died, and he became a complete recluse. Poe's works include: "Tamerlane and Other Poems" (1827); "Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems" (1829); "Poems" (1831); "A Manuscript found in a Bottle" ("Saturday Visitor," 1833); "Berenice" ("Southern Literary Messenger," 1834); "The Fall of the House of Usher" ("Gentleman's Magazine," 1840); "The Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque" (1840); "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" ("Gentleman's Magazine," 1841); "The Gold-Bug" ("Dollar Magazine," 1842); "The Raven" (1845; "The Literati of New York" ("Godey's Lady's Book," 1846); "Eureka, a Prose Poem" (1847); "Ulalume," "The Bells" and "Annabel Lee," written after 1847. Rufus W. Griswold prepared a memoir of Poe which he published in 1880. Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman wrote "Edgar A. Poe and His Critics" (1859); William Fearing Gill (q. v.). refuted certain statements of Griswold in "The Life of Edgar Allan Poe" (1876), and George F. Woodbury wrote "Edgar Allan Poe," for the "American Men of Letters" (1885). The Baltimore school teachers erected a monument to Poe, 1875, and the actors of the United States placed a memorial in the Metropolitan Museum in 1885, Edwin Booth and William Winter officiating. The Poe Memorial Association unveiled a bust of Poe by Zolnay at the University of Virginia, October, 1899. William Fearing Gill, Hamilton W. Mabie and Robert Burns Wilson assisting, and a cenotaph erected in his memory was unveiled in Baltimore, Maryland, October, 1899. He is recognized as the father of the "Short Story," and he was probably the most original American poet. The sale of his works surpasses that of any other on the market. He died in Baltimore Maryland, October 7, 1849.

[Page 219]
      Broaddus, Andrew, born in Caroline county, Virginia, November 4, 1770. He United with the Baptist church in 1788, and soon afterwards became a preacher. In 1821 he was assistant pastor of a church in Richmond, and in 1832 was chosen moderator of the Dover Baptist Association. He received many calls from important churches in Northern as well as Southern cities, but could not be induced to leave the country, and labored incessantly until his death, at Salem, Virginia, December 1, 1848. With limited education, his fine natural abilities and impressive oratorical powers made him a powerful pulpiteer. He published a "History of the Bible," "A Catechism," "A Form of Church Discipline," and the Dover and Kentucky selections of hymns. As late as 1852, Dr. Jeter published his memoirs and some of his sermons.

[Pages 219-220]
      Blair, Francis Preston, born at Abingdon, Virginia, April 12, 1791. He was of Scotch descent, and a great grandson of John Preston (q. v. i, 308). He was educated at Transylvania (Kentucky) University, and studied law, but never engaged in practice, entering almost immediately upon a public and political career. Soon after leaving the university he became clerk of the Kentucky supreme court. In 1828 the legislature elected him to the presidency of the Bank of Kentucky. During this time he had made considerable reputation as a political writer in a controversy which had arisen in Kentucky over the attempt on the part of the state to cripple the Bank of the United States by taxing its branches within its jurisdiction. This contest lasted for ten years, and involved the right of the state to alter its laws enforcing contracts, its right to abolish imprisonment for debt, to extend the replevin laws, and other important questions. It resulted in the triumph of the bank party, but a new direction was given to the controversy — the conflict became national, and resulted in the down fall of the United States Bank, and its overthrow was followed by a reform in Kentucky on the principles which had been sustained by Mr. Blair. Up to this time he had been a Clay man, but he now attracted the attention of President Jackson, who in 1830 induced him to go to Washington City and assume the editorial management of "The Globe" newspaper, which was to be made the official organ of the administration. Mr. Blair displayed excellent journalistic powers in this new field. He gave warm support to the Jackson and Van Buren administrations, but by his opposition to the annexation of Texas lost his hold upon the Democratic party, and a new newspaper, entitled "The Union," edited by Thomas Ritchie, received the support of President Polk, and Blair retired to private life. His leanings were toward the nationalistic wing of the Democratic party, and during Mr. Polk's administration, when the states rights wing was in the ascendant, he allied himself with the Free Soil party, and was chairman of the first national Republican convention, in 1856, which nominated John C. Fremont for the presidency. He was a delegate to the next national convention of the party, in 1860, which nominated Mr. Lincoln, with whom he ever after maintained a close and influential intimacy. In 1864 he visited Richmond, by permission of President Lincoln, and brought about the peace conference which took place in Hampton Roads in the fall of that year, and which was unproductive of results because of the refusal of Mr. Lincoln to negotiate except upon the basis of complete submission of the Southern states. He could not approve the reconstruction methods following after the war, and returned to the Democratic party, but took no part in public affairs. He was the father of two distinguished sons — Montgomery Blair, who became postmaster-general in President Lincoln's cabinet, and Francis P. Blair, Jr., who was prominent in Missouri in 1861, and became a major-general in the Union army. Blair was an able man, a versatile writer and a strong nationalist, but had no scruples in changing his support of men and measures whenever, in his opinions, it was expedient to do so in the interest of party.

[Pages 220-221]
      Janney, Samuel Macpherson, born in Loudoun county, Virginia, January 11, 1801; was a minister of the Society of friends, and travelled extensively in this capacity; in 1869 he was appointed by President Grant superintendent of Indian affairs in the northern superintendency; he was the author of a prize poem entitled "The Country School-House" (1825); "Conversations on Religious Subjects" (1835; 3rd ed., Phil., 1843); "The Last of the Lenape, and Other Poems" (1839); "The Teacher's Gift," essays in prose and verse (1840); "An Historical Sketch of the Christian Church during the Middle Ages" (1847); "Life of William Penn" (1852; 3d ed., 1856); "Life of George Fox" (1853; and a "History of the Religious Society of Friends, from its Rise to the year 1828" (4 vols., 1860-67) died in Loudoun county, Virginia, April 30, 1880.

[Page 221]
      Mann, Ambrose Dudley, born at Hanover Court House, April 26, 1801; after preparatory studies he became a cadet at the United States Military Academy, but deciding upon the legal profession for his life work, resigned from that institution; in 1842 he received the appointment of United States consul to Bremen, Germany, from President Tyler, three years later negotiated commercial treaties with Hanover, Oldenburg and Mecklenburg, and in 1847 with all the other German provinces except Prussia; in 1849 he was appointed United States commissioner to Hungary, from 1850 to 1854 served as United States minister to Switzerland by appointment of President Fillmore, and he negotiated a reciprocal treaty with that republic; from 1854 to 1856 he served in the capacity of assistant secretary of the state of Virginia, and was sent to Europe by the Confederate government on a special mission to England and France for the accomplishment of which he was soon after joined by James M. Mason and John Slidell; he made his home in France after the fall of the Confederacy, and he devoted the remaining years of his life to the preparation of his "Memoirs," which were published after his death, which occurred in Paris, Francis, November 20, 1889.

[Pages 221-222]
      Munford, George Wythe, born in Richmond, Virginia, January 8, 1803, son of William Munford, Esq. (q. v.); was named in honor of the distinguished chancellor, George Wythe, the intimate friend of his father. He inherited from his distinguished father that strength of mind and fondness for intellectual labor, which were his lifelong characteristics. He completed his classical education at the College of William and Mary, and, after his graduation, entered upon the study of the law. However, he was called to another sphere of usefulness. He was employed by his father, at that time clerk of the house of delegates, as an assistant, and whom, by election, he succeeded at his death. For more than twenty-five years he kept the journal in a manner which reflected much credit upon him, and when the convention of 1829 convened his reputation secured his election as secretary of that body. In that capacity he was thrown into daily contact with James Monroe, James Madison, John Marshall, John Randolph, Abel P. Upshur, and other distinguished men, and was more thoroughly acquainted with the public men of Virginia than any other man of his generation. After his long service as clerk, he was elected secretary of the commonwealth, and he served as such with marked ability until the fall of the Confederacy. For several years after the war he lived in Gloucester county. After the reëstablishment of civil government, he was appointed clerk of the committee of the house of delegates for courts of justice, and his services in that capacity were eminently valuable. Subsequently he occupied a position in the office of the first auditor of the United States treasury, and more recently a place in the government census bureau. While most capably discharging his official duties, he accomplished other painstaking tasks, among them the compiling and editing of the code of Virginia of 1860, and afterwards in publishing the code of 1873 — works which will be a witness to his ability and information. He was one of the most active members of the Southern Historical Society, of which he became secretary at its organization in 1873, and which position he filled with marked ability until the winter of 1874, when other pressing duties compelled him to resign. He was author of "The Two Parsons" and "Jewels of Virginia" (Richmond, 1884), and numerous monographs. He died suddenly at his residence in Richmond, January 9, 1882.

[Page 222]
      Rogers, William Barton, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 7, 1804, son of Patrick Kerr and Hannah (Blythe) Rogers. His father having published articles in the Dublin newspapers during the Irish rebellion hostile to the government, said for America to escape arrest, and arrived in Philadelphia in August, 1798. He graduated from the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, 1802; practiced in Philadelphia and Baltimore, and was professor of natural philosophy and chemistry in William and Mary College, 1819-28. William Barton Rogers removed with his parents to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1812, where he attended the common schools and was temporarily employed in a mercantile house; was graduated from William and Mary College, 1822, delivering an oration at the third "Virginiad," Jamestown, in May, 1822; continued at the college as acting professor of mathematics and as a post-graduate student of the classics until October, 1825, and in the fall of 1826 opened a school at Windsor, Maryland, with his brother James. He delivered two courses of lectures before the Maryland Institute at Baltimore, 1827, and in October, 1828, succeeded to his father's professorship at William and Mary College. He made a study of the geology of eastern Virginia, and taught the value of green marl as a fertilizer. He was made state geologist in 1835, and in the same year was made professor of natural philosophy in the University of Virginia, and also chairman of the faculty in 1844. In the latter capacity he prepared a memorial to the legislature in defence of the university and its annual appropriation, and also the "Report" of the committee of the house of delegates on schools and colleges, a report of much importance in the history of American education. His administration included the arduous period of "rioting" among the students, which was suppressed by civil authority. He served as state geologist, 1835-42. He was married, June 20, 1849, to Emma, daughter of James Savage and Elizabeth (Stillman-Lincoln) Savage, of Boston, Massachusetts; visited England and Scotland, June-October, 1849; delivered a course of lectures on "phases of the atmosphere" before the Smithsonian Institution, 1852; resigned from the University of Virginia in 1853, and removed to his wife's former home, "Sunny Hill," Lunenburg, Massachusetts. He delivered lectures on the elementary laws of physics before the Lowell Institute, 1856-57, and devoted much time to geological investigations. As early as 1846 he had conceived a definite idea for a polytechnic school in Boston, and in September, 1860, he submitted the plan which later became the basis of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Rogers was chairman of the "committee of twenty," appointed to frame a constitution and bylaws for the institute, and on April 19, 1862, was elected the first president of the institute. Meanwhile he served as state inspector of gas meters and gas, 1861- 64, and delivered a second course of lectures before the Lowell Institute in 1862. In 1864 he visited Europe to collect machinery and apparatus for the school which opened for the preliminary course, February 20, 1865, and for regular courses, October 2, 1865, with about seventy students and a faculty of ten members. In addition to his duties as president, Professor Rogers also held the chair of physics and geology until June 10, 1868. In December, 1868, he was granted leave of absence for one year on account of failing health, and removed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His improvement not being assured, he resigned from the presidency of the institute, May 3, 1870, and was succeeded by Acting President John D. Runkle. In 1874, after residence in various places, he returned to Boston, and upon the resignation of Dr. Runkle again assumed the presidency of the institute until Gen. Francis A. Walker was appointed his successor, May 20, 1881. The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him by Hampden-Sidney College in 1848, by William and Mary, 1857, and by Harvard in 1866. He was chairman of the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists in 1857, and in 1848 chairman and joint president, with W. C. Redfield, of its successor, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, serving a second time as president in 1876; corresponding secretary of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1863-69; founder and first president of the American Association for the Promotion of Social Science, 1865; Massachusetts commissioner to the Paris Exposition of 1867; president of the National Academy of Sciences, 1878; elected a foreign member of the Geographical Society of London Antiquaries, 1844, and was a corresponding member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition to his many important addresses, his publications include numerous scientific articles in the "Farmer' Register" and Silliman's Journal;" reports for the "Geology of the Virginias" (1836-41); contributions to the proceedings and transactions of various learned societies, and documents relating to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Rogers and his brothers, James B., Henry D. and Robert E., all attained distinction in science and were known as the "brothers Rogers." William Barton Rogers died while delivering the diplomas to the graduating class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Massachusetts, May 30, 1882.

[Pages 223-224]
      Green, Lewis W., was born in Boyle county, Kentucky, January 28, 1806, son of Willis Green and Sarah Reed, his wife, of Culpeper county, Virginia. He was graduated from Center College, and took a course at Princeton Theological Seminary. For two years he was a professor in Center College, then spent two years abroad, engaged in study, and on his return was made vice-president of the college and professor of belle-lettres. From 1840 to 1847 he was a professor in the Western Theological Seminary at Allegheny, Pennsylvania; the following year was pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Baltimore. In 1848 he accepted the presidency of Hampden-Sidney College. He left in 1856, to take the presidency of Transylvania (Kentucky) University, but his expectations of a liberal support were not realized, and a year later he became president of Center College. He wrote several volumes. He died in Kentucky in May, 1863.

[Pages 224-225]
      Grigsby, Hugh Blair, born at Norfolk, Virginia, November 22, 1806, son of Benjamin Grigsby and Elizabeth McPherson, his wife. He began his education in Prince Edward county, and for two years was a student at Yale College, at the same time taking work in law, but was obliged to dismiss the idea of becoming a lawyer on account of a growing deafness. He then became owner and editor of the Norfolk "Beacon," from which he retired with a competency six years later. His health was yet uncertain, and to build himself up he boxed and walked persistently. On one occasion he made a journey on foot to Massachusetts, through much of New England and the lower Canada, and back to Virginia. In 1828 he represented Norfolk in the legislature and was a member of the state convention of 1829-30. In 1840 he married Mary Venable, daughter of Col. Clement Carrington, of "Edgehill," Charlotte county. After a temporary removal to Norfolk he took up his residence at "Edgehill," where he remained until his death, busying himself with his library of six thousand volumes and the care of his estate. Of ample means, it has been said that some of his efforts in improvement "were fanciful or Utopian; but the results showed method and skill; the process was necessarily laborious, but the effect was grand." His biographer has said: "Very few Virginia planters have used their leisure to such advantage, and Mr. Grigsby affords the only parallel in the country at large." He took much interest in the College of William and Mary and succeeded John Tyler as third and last chancellor in 1871. There has been preserved a manuscript volume which he put together in his eighteenth year. His work was almost wholly biographical, the chief of it done during the last thirty years of his life, and the greater portion has been preserved in printed form. These writings include: "Address on the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence," delivered before the Richmond Athenæum in 1848;" Discourse on the Virginia Convention of 1829-30," before the Virginia Historical Society, December 15, 1853; "Discourse on the Virginia Convention of 1776," delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of the College of William and Mary, July 3, 1855; "Discourse on the Virginia Convention of 1788," before the Virginia Historical Society, February 23, 1858; "Discourse on the Character of Jefferson," at the unveiling of his statue in the library of the University of Virginia, 1860; "Discourse on the Life and Character of Littleton Waller Tazewell," before the bar of Norfolk June 29, 1860; "Some of Our Past Historic Periods bearing on the Present," before the Virginia Historical Society, 1870; address on the "Founders of Washington College," at Lexington, 1870; "Centennial Address," before Hampden-Sidney College, 1876. Mr. Grigsby died at his seat, "Edgehill," April 28, 1886. Among his correspondents was Robert C. Winthrop, Massachusetts, and their letters to one another are the prized possession of the Virginia Historical Society.