He lived in a house in the most fashion able part of Richmond, on Shockoe Hill, that had been built by the grandfather of his second wife. In Gov. Henry A. Wise's "Seven Decades of American History" there is an account of his splendid debate in the United States Senate with William C. Rives. His eulogy on Chief Justice Marshall, when he offered the resolutions, at the time of Marshall's death, is said to have been one of the most beautiful ever spoken by man of man. Unfortu nately it was not pre served. John Esten Cooke says: "Vir ginia sent Benjamin Watkins Leigh, one of her most illustri ous citizens to South Carolina in 1832, as a pacificator, between that State and Presi dent Jackson, who had threatened to coerce the State into obedience to the fed eral authority, and so ably did he fulfill his mission that the storm that threatened the
United States was for the time dissipated."
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CONWAY ROBINSON
Conway Robinson, who has been called "Virginia's Justinian" was born at Rich mond, September 15, 1805. He married a daughter of Benjamin Watkins Leigh. He was of distinguished ancestry. In 1827 he was admitted to the Richmond bar. Mr. Selden, who wrote a very interesting sketch of Mr. Robinson says: " He brought to the practice of law, habits of accuracy and modes of procedure acquired during his long con nection with clerk's offices, a wide and liberal knowledge derived from patient and un rivalled application of the great principles
of jurisprudence, a faculty of analysis, an ability and passion for continuous investiga tion and research rarely equalled in any clime, and the profoundest convictions of the nobility and obligations of the profession." His first reported case in the Virginia court of appeals is that of Ncwsum v. Newsum, and although he was opposed by the great lawyer, Robert Stanard, he won. " His first appearance before Chief Justice Mar shall," says Mr. Sei dell, " was in an up per apartment, facing the State Capitol, of the City Hall, dedi cated to the accom modation of the Fed eral Court at Rich mond, in 1801, in Waller v. Thornton, administrator." In 183 1 he assisted in founding the Vir ginia historical socie ty and gave to it many valuable documents, portraits, etc., includ ing learned treatises about the discoveries in America down to 1 5 19; voyages to and
along the North At lantic from 1520 to 1573 and between 1573 and 1606. In 1832, 1835 and 1839 he published his "Virginia Practice" which, it has been said, "Was the only treatise that had ever been at tempted upon that large and technical branch of local law of which it treated and to this work, after more than half a century, the State practitioner still turns." Chancellor Kent, whom he met in 1835, complimented this work highly. In 1846 the legislature of Virginia appointed him, with John M. Patton, to revise the crimirtal code of the State. Mr. Selden says : " In the article of
