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VIRGIXIA BIOGRAPHY
in the office of William Wirt, who had
married his sister Mildred; practiced with
success at Winchester and in the neighbor-
ing counties, and in 1818 removed to Rich-
mond as a more enlarged and ambitious
field. Here he worked laboriously and was
one of the leading lawyers. But he was
essentially a student and he loved dearly
literature and the finer arts. It was about
this time that he wrote his "Sketches of
American Orators," in which he touched oflE
with very happy eflFect the eloquence of
William Pinkney. Littleton Waller Taze-
well. William Wirt and others. In 1820 he
wrote a short treatise on "Usury," which re-
ceived high commendation from Jeficrson,
Madison and John Randolph. He took much
interest in the establishment of the Univer-
sity of Virginia and was offered by Mr. Jef-
ferson the post of professor of law. This
he declined, but he was subsequently pre-
vailed upon by him to go to England and
select the first professors. This mission he
executed in a manner most honorable to
himself and the university. On his return
he was again tendered the chair of law,
and on account of his health, which unfitted
him for the strenuous work of practicing, he
accepted. He never delivered a lecture, but
died on February 25. 1826, in the thirty-
sixth year of his age, at the home of his
uncle, George Divers, in Albemarle county
His letters, written in England during his
mission, were published by William P.
Trent, under the title of "English Culture in
Virginia/' in the Johns Hopkins University
publications on historical and political
science. There also exist in MSS. some of
his letters to his nephew. Governor Thomas
Walker Gilmer, in whose education he took
much interest.
Taylor, Edward Thompson, born in Rich-
mond, Virginia, December 25, 1793. He fol-
Iciwed the sea in early life ; was captured on
the privateer Black Hawk in 1S12, taken to
England, and while in prison at Dartmouth
acted as chaplain to his fellow prisoners.
In 1819 he was ordained to the Methodist
ministry. In 1828 he was a missionary to
the Seaman's Bethel in Boston, Massachu-
setts. He was familiarly known as "Father
Taylor," and his discourses commanded
wide attention by reason of his remarkably
vivid use of nautical terms, and his wonder-
ful descriptive powers. In 1832 he visited
Lurope. Palestine in 1842. and in 1840 was
chaplain on the United States frigate Mace-
douian, on its voyage to Ireland with provi-
sions for its famine-stricken people. His elo-
quence commanded the admiring attention
01 such writers as Miss Martineau, Charles
Dickens and Miss Bremer. He died in Bos-
ton, Massachusetts, April 6, 1871.
Collier, Henry Watkins» born in Lunen- burg county, Virginia, January 17, 1801, and was less than a year old when his father re- moved with his family to the Abbeville Dis- trict, South Carolina, where he received his preparatory education. They removed to Madison county, Alabama, in 1818, and he studied law at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and at Huntsville, Alabama, being admitted to legal practice in the latter city. He became a resident of Tuscaloosa in 1823, and was there elected district judge in 1827. Hav- ing been appointed associate justice of the supreme court of Alabama in 1836, he was made chief justice the following year, and remained the incumbent of this office until 1849, when, without opposition, he was elected governor of the state. His support
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