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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 October 2011
On March 5, 1824, Henry St. George Tucker was elected by the General Assembly of Virginia to be the judge of the circuit superior court of chancery to sit in Winchester and Clarksburg. Tucker had built up a very successful law practice in Winchester, where he had settled in 1802 upon his admission to the bar. He had also built up a large family; he had six sons and two daughters as well as three children who died young. The elevation to the bench resulted in an increase in professional status, but it also resulted in a substantial decrease in income. In order to remedy this financial development without ethical prejudice to his professional development, he opened a law school. This solution was, no doubt, an obvious one, as his father, the eminent Judge St. George Tucker, had done the same in 1790, when he became the professor of law and police in the College of William and Mary.
1. For more complete details of Tucker's career, see Cassady, A. E., “Henry St. George Tucker, Legal Educator” (M.A. thesis, College of William and Mary, 1978)Google Scholar; Tucker, J. R., “The Judges Tucker of the Court of Appeals of Virginia,” Virginia Law Register 1 (1896): 796–812CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cobin, D. M., “Henry St. George Tucker: Jurist, Teacher, Citizen, 1780–1848,” Journal of the Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society 6 (1992): 4–41Google Scholar; Tucker, B. R., Tales of the Tuckers: Descendants of the Male Line of St. George Tucker of Bermuda and Virginia (Richmond: Dietz, 1942), 12–17Google Scholar; Cobin, D.M., “Tucker, Henry St. George,” American National Biography 21 (1999): 894–95Google Scholar; Dobie, A. M., “Tucker, Henry St. George,” Dictionary of American Biography 10 (1936): 32–33.Google Scholar
2. See generally Cullen, C. T., St. George Tucker and Law in Virginia,1772–1804 (New York: Garland, 1987)Google Scholar; Coleman, M. H., Saint George Tucker, Citizen of No Mean City (Richmond: Dietz, 1938)Google Scholar; Cullen, C. T., “St. George Tucker,” in Bryson, W. H., Legal Education in Virginia (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1982), 657–86Google Scholar; Cullen, C. T., “St. George Tucker,” in Bryson, W. H., Virginia Law Reporters before 1880 (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1977), 96–105.Google Scholar
3. Randolph, G. L., Randolphs of Virginia (Atlanta: n.p., 1990), 511–13.Google Scholar
4. Kirk, Russell, John Randolph of Roanoke (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951)Google Scholar; Garland, H. A., The Life of John Randolph of Roanoke (Philadelphia: Appleton, 1850)Google Scholar; Bruce, W. C., John Randolph of Roanoke, 1773–1833 (New York: Putnam's, 1922).Google Scholar
5. Bryan, E. T., “Some Further Account of John Coalter,” Augusta Historical Bulletin 4.2 (1968): 20–24Google Scholar; Coalter, J., “Copy of a Sketch of John Coalter in His Own Hand Writing,” Augusta Historical Bulletin 4.2 (1968): 17–19Google Scholar; Bryan, J. S., “John Coalter,” Reports of the Virginia Bar Association 41 (1929): 460–68.Google Scholar
6. Tucker, B. D., Nathaniel Beverley Tucker: Prophet of the Confederacy, 1784–1851 (Tokyo: Nan'Un Do, 1979)Google Scholar; Brugger, R. J., Beverley Tucker: Heart over Head in the Old South (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1978)Google Scholar; R. J. Brugger, “Nathaniel Beverley Tucker,” in Bryson, Legal Education in Virginia, 642–56.
7. Hunter v. Fairfax's Devisee, 15 Va. (1 Munford) 218 (1810), rev 'd sub nom. Fairfax's Devisee v. Hunter's Lessee, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 603 (1812); on remand sub nom. Hunter v. Martin, 18 Va. (4 Munford) 1 (1813), rev'd sub nom. Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 14 U.S. (1 Wheaton) 304 (1816). Tucker represented Hunter's successor in interest in the United States Supreme Court in the second appeal. Miller, F. T., “John Marshall versus Spencer Roane: A Ree valuation of Martin v. Hunter's Lessee,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 96 (1988): 297, 300–305.Google Scholar
8. Virginia House of Delegates Journal, 1823–24, 209.
9. This opinion was published as a twenty-six page pamphlet in Leesburg, Virginia, by B. W. Sower in 1830; it was reprinted as an appendix to volume two of Tucker's Commentaries on the Laws of Virginia, 2d ed. (1837) and at pages 445–56 in an appendix to volume one of the third edition of that work in 1846.
10. See generally Brydon, G. M., “The Antiecclesiastical Laws of Virginia,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 64 (1956): 259–85.Google Scholar
11. Virginia Senate Journal, 1830–31, 252; Virginia House of Delegates Journal, 1830–31, 302.
12. Letter of H. St. G. Tucker to St. George Tucker, April 4, 1824, Tucker-Coleman papers, Swem Library, College of William and Mary [hereafter Swem]; Tucker, H. St. G., Commentaries on the Laws of Virginia (1831), 1: i.Google Scholar
13. Tucker, “The Judges Tucker of the Court of Appeals of Virginia,” 801; reprinted in Reports of the Virginia Bar Association 41 (1929): 446.
14. Tucker, H. St. G., Commentaries on the Laws of Virginia (1831), 1: iGoogle Scholar; see also Letters of H. St. G. Tucker to St. George Tucker, December 19, 1824, and March 21, 1825, Tucker-Coleman papers, Swem.
15. Tucker, Henry St. George, Commentaries on the Laws of Virginia, Comprising the Substance of a Course of Lectures Delivered to the Winchester Law School (Winchester: Printed at the Office of The Winchester Virginian for the Author, 1831)Google Scholar; 2d ed. (Winchester: Printed at the Office of The Republican for the Author, 1836); 3ded. (Richmond: Colin & Shepherd, 1846); reprint with intro. by D. M. Cobin and P. Finkelman (Union, N.J.: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., 1998).
16. Lectures on Constitutional Law (Richmond: Shepherd & Colin, 1843); Lectures on Government (Charlottesville: Alexander, 1844); A Few Lectures on Natural Law (Charlottesville: Alexander, 1844).
17. C. V. Laughlin, “John Randolph Tucker,” in Bryson, Legal Education in Virginia, 624–38.
18. Rouse, Parke Jr, The Great Wagon Road from Philadelphia to the South (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973).Google Scholar
19. Quarles, G. R., The Schools of Winchester, Virginia (Winchester: n.p., 1964), 30–31Google Scholar; Quarles, G. R., The Story of One Hundred Old Homes in Winchester, Virginia (Winchester: n.p., 1967), 118.Google Scholar
20. Letter of H. St. G. Tucker to St. George Tucker, November 20, 1825, Tucker-Coleman papers, Swem.
21. Letter of Charles Campbell to J. W. Campbell, February 27, 1827, Charles Campbell papers, Swem.
22. Letters of H. St. G. Tucker to St. George Tucker, November 20, 1825, and November 5, 1826, Tucker-Coleman papers, Swem.
23. From 1811 to 1832, there were twenty-two law students from Virginia at Litchfield; it was a steady trickle of one or two each year. Morrison, A. J., “Virginia and North Carolina at the Litchfield Law School,” Tyler's Quarterly 2 (1921): 157–58.Google Scholar See generally, McKenna, M. C., Tapping Reeve and the Litchfield Law School (New York: Oceana, 1986)Google Scholar; Fisher, S. H., Litchfield Law School (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1933).Google Scholar
24. Reed, A. Z., Training for the Public Profession of the Law (New York: Carnegie Foundation, 1921), 128–33, 431–33.Google Scholar
25. See generally S. A. Riggs, “Creed Taylor” in Bryson, Legal Education in Virginia, 589–95, 762–63.
26. Honeywell, R. J., The Educational Work of Thomas Jefferson (New York: Russell and Russell, 1964)Google Scholar; Carrington, P. D., “The Revolutionary Idea of University Legal Education,” William and Mary Law Review 31 (1990): 527–74Google Scholar; Douglas, D. M., “The Jeffersonian Vision of Legal Education,” Journal of Legal Education 51 (2001): 185–211.Google Scholar It should be noted that Jefferson gave up the practice of law in 1774. Dewey, F. L., Thomas Jefferson: Lawyer (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1986), 107.Google Scholar
27. See below.
28. Lomax had resigned his law professorship at the University of Virginia because of the low pay. See generally, E. L. Shepard, “John Tayloe Lomax,” in Bryson, Legal Education in Virginia, 358–66.
29. See generally, E. L. Shepard, “Briscoe Gerard Baldwin,” in Bryson, Legal Education in Virginia, 66–72.
30. Letters of H. St. G. Tucker to Briscoe Gerard Baldwin, May 5, 1831, and June 5, 1831, printed in Bryson, W. H., Essays on Legal Education in Nineteenth Century Virginia (Buffalo: Hein, 1998), 59–63.Google Scholar
31. Bryson, “Introduction,” Essays on Legal Education in Nineteenth Century Virginia, 13–34.
32. Tucker, H. St. G., Notes on Blackstone's Commentaries for the Use of Students (Winchester: Davis, 1826), 11Google Scholar; reprinted in Bryson, Essays on Legal Education in Nineteenth Century Virginia, 50–51.
33. Tucker, H. St. G., Commentaries on the Laws of Virginia (1831), 1: viGoogle Scholar; reprinted in Bryson, Essays on Legal Education in Nineteenth Century Virginia, 51, n. 1.
34. Preyer, K., “Crime, the Criminal Law, and Reform in Post-Revolutionary Virginia,” Law and History Review 1 (1983): 53–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar; reprinted in Hall, K. L., ed., Crime and Criminal Law (New York: Garland, 1987), 653–85Google Scholar; see generally Cullen, C. T., “Completing the Revisal of the Laws in Post-Revolutionary Virginia,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 82 (1974): 84–99.Google Scholar
35. Letter of H. St. G. Tucker to St. George Tucker, December 19, 1824, Tucker-Coleman papers, Swem.
36. Letter of Charles Campbell to Elizabeth M. Campbell, January 29, 1827; letter of Charles Campbell to J. W. Campbell, February 27, 1827, Charles Campbell papers, Swem.
37. I.e., to the Court of Appeals of Virginia on April 11, 1831.
38. Letter of H. St. G. Tucker to Briscoe Gerard Baldwin, June 5, 1831, printed in Bryson, Essays on Legal Education in Nineteenth Century Virginia, 62.
39. “Law School of H. St. G. Tucker in Winchester,” William and Mary Quarterly, 2d ser., 10(1930): 310.
40. Letter of H. St. G. Tucker to Briscoe Gerard Baldwin, June 5, 1831, printed in Bryson, Essays on Legal Education in Nineteenth Century Virginia, 61.
41. Letter of H. St. G. Tucker to St. George Tucker, December 19, 1824, Tucker-Coleman papers, Swera. There were also six part time students, practicing lawyers who attended only the Saturday morning lectures. Ibid.
42. Letter of H. St. G. Tucker to St. George Tucker, September 3, 1825, Tucker-Coleman papers, Swem.
43. The asterisks indicate that circumstantial evidence suggests the dates of attendance, but they are not confirmed by definitive sources.
44. Letter of H. St. G. Tucker to St. George Tucker, November 20, 1825, Tucker-Coleman papers, Swem.
45. He received his B.A. from Georgetown University. He was a member of Congress from 1851 to 1859 and from 1875 to 1877; he was U.S. minister to France from 1859 to 1861. Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, 1774–1989 (Washington: G.P.O., 1989), 985; Pulliam, D. L., The Constitutional Conventions of Virginia (Richmond: West, 1901), 105.Google Scholar Letter of Edward Everett to Charles J. Faulkner, January 6, 1826, and moot court materials, Faulkner family papers, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond.
46. Letter of Maurice H. Garland to Charles J. Faulkner, December 13, 1833, Faulkner family papers, Virginia Historical Society.
47. He attended Hampden-Sydney College from 1822 to 1823 and took his A.B. from Union College in 1825. Morrison, A. J., College of Hampden Sidney Dictionary of Biography, 1776–1825 (Hampden-Sydney: n.p., 1921), 240.Google Scholar
48. This was Tucker's oldest child.
49. Letter of H. St. G. Tucker to St. George Tucker, November 5, 1826, Tucker-Coleman papers, Swem.
50. Letter of Charles Campbell to Mrs. M. W. Campbell, January 1827, Charles Campbell papers, Swem.
51. He took his B.A. from Hampden-Sydney College in 1825; he was bishop of North Carolina from 1853 to 1881. Morrison, College of Hampden Sidney Dictionary of Biography, 260–61; letter of Charles Campbell to J. W. Campbell, March 18, 1827, Charles Campbell papers, Swem.
52. Ibid.
53. Letter of John H. Lee to Charles Campbell, December 26, 1826, Charles Campbell papers, Swem.
54. He was a member of Congress from 1867 to 1869 and a district court judge in West Virginia from 1863 to 1866. Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, 1659; Atkinson, G. W. and Gibbens, A. F., Prominent Men of West Virginia (Wheeling; Callin, 1890), 231.Google Scholar
55. “Law School of H. St. G. Tucker in Winchester,” 310–11.
56. He was Commonwealth's Attorney for Hanover County in the early days of his law career, United States Judge for the Western District of Virginia from 1846 to 1861, and Confederate Judge for the Western District of Virginia from 1861 to 1865. He operated a private law school in Lexington from 1849 to 1861, and from 1866 to 1873, he taught law at Washington College (which was renamed Washington and Lee University in 1870). C. V. Laughlin, “John White Brockenbrough” in Bryson, Legal Education in Virginia, 98–104.
57. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1842 to 1844 and 1874 to 1877, the Senate of Virginia from 1859 to 1861, and the Virginia Constitutional Conventions of 1850 and 1861. Gaines, W. H., Biographical Register of Members, Virginia State Convention of 1861 (Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1969), 25–26.Google Scholar
58. He was a member of Congress from 1839 to 1849 except for 1846 and the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1861. Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, 1069.
59. He was a member of Congress from 1833 to 1844 and governor of Virginia from 1856 to 1860. Chesson, M. B., “Wise, Henry Alexander,” American National Biography 23 (1999): 681–83.Google Scholar
60. “Law School of H. St. G. Tucker in Winchester,” 310–11.
61. He was a member of Congress from 1837 to 1843 and from 1866 to 1867, a circuit court judge in Tennessee from 1847 to 1850, and governor of Tennessee from 1851 to 1853. Caldwell, J. W., Sketches of the Bench and Bar of Tennessee (Knoxville: Ogden Bros., 1898), 190–98Google Scholar; Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, 737.
62. He took his B.A. from Hampden-Sydney College in 1827. Morrison, College of Hampden Sidney Dictionary of Biography, 279.
63. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1840. Morrison, College of Hampden Sidney Dictionary of Biography, 275.
64. He was a member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850. Pulliam, The Constitutional Conventions of Virginia, 113.
65. Tucker, H. St. G., Commentaries on the Laws of Virginia (1831), 1: ii.Google Scholar
66. Anderson, S. T. L., Lewises, Meriwethers and Their Kin (Richmond: Dietz Pr., 1938), 373.Google Scholar
67. Letter of the law class of the Winchester Law School to Robert M. T. Hunter, Feb. 21, 1831, Hunter-Garnett papers, Alderman Library, University of Virginia. Hunterwas a member of the Virginia General Assembly from 1834 to 1837, the United States House of Representatives from 1837 to 1843 and 1845 to 1847, the United States Senate from 1846 to 1861, then Confederate Secretary of State from 1861 to 1862, Senator in the Confederate Congress from 1862 to 1865, and treasurer of Virginia from 1874 to 1880. Ambler, C. H., “Hunter, Robert Mercer Taliaferro,” Dictionary of American Biography 5 (1933): 403–5.Google Scholar
68. Tucker, H. St. G., Commentaries on the Laws of Virginia (1831), 1: ii.Google Scholar
69. He was a member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850 and Commonwealth's Attorney for Warren County. Pulliam, The Constitutional Conventions of Virginia, 104.
70. Letters of M. M. Robinson to Conway Robinson, January 15 and March 20, 1831, Robinson family papers, Swem.
71. Brent was Attorney General of Maryland in 1851. “Brent Family,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 20 (1912): 434.
72. He took his B.L. from the College of William and Mary in 1830; he was a member of the Virginia Constitutional Conventions of 1850 and 1860; he was Commonwealth's Attorney for Greensville and Sussex counties. Pulliam, The Constitutional Conventions of Virginia, 103.
73. Obituary of William Lucas by J. Fairfax McLaughlin in Lucas family papers, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond.
74. Wheeler, J. H., Historical Sketches of North Carolina (1851) 2:246.Google Scholar
75. He was a judge on the Court of Appeals of Virginia from 1852 to 1861. Morris, T. R., The Virginia Supreme Court (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1975), 29, 32, 172.Google Scholar
76. He was a member of Congress from 1839 to 1841 and from 1843 to 1845 and the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850. Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, 1397.
77. He was a member of Congress from 1839 to 1841 and judge on the Courtof Appeals of Virginia from 1852 to 1859. Morris, The Virginia Supreme Court, 32, 172.
78. He was a member of the Missouri state legislature from 1836 to 1837 and the Missouri Convention of 1861. The Bench and Bar of St. Louis (St. Louis: American Biographical Publishing Co., 1884), 255–56.