USA > Virginia > Virginia and Virginians; eminent Virginians, executives of the colony of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 17
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tThe progenitor of the family in England, according to its records, was Alured de Waller, who came from Normandy with William the Conqueror, settled in the connty of Kent, and died A. D. 1183. Richard Waller of this family distinguished himself at the battle of Agincourt, where he took prisoner the Duke of Orleans, commander-in-chief of the French army, and received from Henry V. of England, in honor of his heroic services, a crest of the arms of France hanging by a label from an oak, with the motto : Huc functus virtutis. The ancient arms of the family were, and are: A shield sable, three walnut leaves, or, between two bendlets or. The crest granted as above being: A walnut tree proper, on the sinister side an escutcheon pendent, charged with the arms of France ( three fleurs-de-lis) with a label of three points, white. Of this fam- ily was the famous poet laureate Benjamin Waller. The immediate ancestor of the Wallers of Virginia was Edmund Waller, who came from England near the close of the seventeenth century and settled in the county of Spotsylvania. He was its first clerk, and a member of the House of Burgesses. He had three sons, William, John, and Benjamin, the last, of the text (born 1716), who settled in Williamsburg, and was for a series of years, an assistant of Thomas Nelson, Seere- tary of the Council of Virginia, and finally a judge of the Court of Admiralty. Hle was a member of the House of Burgesses and of the patriot conventions of 1775 and 1776. He married Martha Hall, of North Carolina, and had issue ten children- his descendants being represented in the names of Tazewell, Taylor, Corbin, Bush, Travis, Byrd, Aylett, Cabell, Claiborne, Speed, Young, Mercer, Tucker, Langhorne, Garland, Massie, Duval, Robertson, Broekenbrough, and others equally worthy.
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a daughter of Governor Alexander Spotswood, and by the wives of Patrick Henry and James Madison also. It has been oft honored in verse and prose, and symbolizes what a true woman is-the gift of God. Until 1786, young Tazewell lived with his grandfather, Benjamin Waller, who taught him the rudiments of English and Latin, and superintended his studies until his death in 1786, Judge Waller having committed him on his death-bed to the care of his life-long friend George Wythe. Young Tazewell lived with the latter until he removed to Richmond, when he became an inmate of the family of Bishop James Madison, President of William and Mary College. His first regular tutor was Walker Murray, with whom he prosecuted the study of Latin, and in whose school he was a classmate of John Randolph-cementing a friendship which continued without abatement until the death of that brilliant or- ator and eccentric being. Young Tazewell at an early age entered Will- iam and Mary College, and took the degree of Bachelor of Arts July 31, 1792. Having finished his college course he commenced the study of law in Richmond in the office of the eminent John Wickham, (whose wife was the half-sister of his father,) and lived with him as a member of his family. While engaged in the study he regularly attended the courts of Richmond, in which Judge Wythe presided as sole Chancellor and Edmund Pendleton as the President of the Court of Appeals. The bar of the State metropolis at this period comprised many men of eminence and vied in distinguished ability with that of any court in the United States. It was a potent school for the young lawyer. Tazewell received his license to practice law on the 14th of May, 1796. It was signed by Judges Peter Lyons, Edmund Winston, and Joseph Jones. The ability of Tazewell was at once discovered by John Marshall, who pronounced him an extraordinary young man. Tazewell surely made his way at the bar in the courts of James City and its neighboring counties. In the spring of 1796, when he had attained his twenty-first year, he was returned to the House of Delegates from the county of James City, and continued a member of that body until the close of the century-including the memorable sessions of 1798-99, and of 1799- 1800. To the important papers from the pen of James Madison, the famous resolutions offered by John Taylor of Caroline, and the " Vir- ginia Report," Tazewell gave a cordial support. John Marshall, having vacated his seat in the House of Representatives to accept the appoint- ment of Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President John Adams, Tazewell, in his twenty-sixth year, was elected to succeed him, and took his seat on the 26th of November, 1800. At the close of his Congressional term in 1801, Mr. Tazewell returned home and withdrew from public life. On the 26th of June he qualified as an attorney in the Hustings Court of Norfolk, and, in the following year, made that city his residence. Its bar, at this period, was an able one, comprising such members as the venerable JJames Nimmo, General Thomas Matthews, Colonel John
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Nivison, Robert Barraud Taylor, Alexander Campbell, and William Wirt; yet, amidst such an array of learning, the ability of Tazewell was at once recognized, and his practice speedily became extensive and lucra- tive. The flagrant outrage upon the American flag in 1807, which has been alluded to in preceding sketches as one of the prime instigations to the second war with Great Britain, was a humiliation which touched the local sensibilities of Norfolk to the quick. On the 22d of June, the frigate "Chesapeake," built by its native mechanics, launched in the waters of the Elizabeth River, in view of the city, put out to sea from Hampton Roads, under command of Captain James Barron. On the following day, unsuspecting of danger, she was attacked by the British frigate "Leopard," and became her prize after three men had been killed, and sixteen wounded. The British commander, after tak- ing from the "Chesapeake " certain seamen, whom he alleged were de- serters from the British flag, declined to take possession of the captured frigate, which returned to the Roads. The wounded men were taken to the Marine Hospital, in Norfolk, where one of them died. Intense indignation prevailed in the city. It was believed that the outrage was deliberately designed, and the ery for vengeance burst from the whole people. In full assembly, with the venerable General Matthews presiding, they appointed, as in the days of '76, a Committee of Safety. A preamble, duly setting forth the outrage on the "Chesapeake," was adopted, and it was resolved that there should be no intercourse with the British frigates in the Norfolk waters, or with their agents, until the decision of the United States Government was known, under the penalty of being deemed infamous; and the Committee of Safety. - Thomas Matthews, Thomas Newton, Jr., Luke Wheeler, Theodric Armistead, Richard E. Lee, Moses Myers, William Pennock, William Newsum, Thomas Blanchard, Daniel Bedinger, Seth Foster, J. W. Murdaugh, Richard Blow, and Franeis S. Taylor-were authorized to take such measures as the emergency demanded. As soon as the Brit- ish commander-Commodore Douglas-read the resolves, he addressed, on the 3d of July, an insolent letter to the Mayor of the Borough, in which he declared if the resolutions were not instantly annulled, he would prohibit every vessel bound in or out of Norfolk from proceeding to her place of destination. He closed his communication by saying that he had proceeded with his squadron of four fifty-gun frigates to Hamp- ton Roads to await the answer of the Mayor, which he hoped would be forwarded without delay. It is thought that Mr. Tazewell had regulated the popular proceedings from their initiation. In the delicate dilemma, which was ominous of vengeful deeds and of so much menace to the commercial interests of Norfolk, he came to the assistance of the Mayor and dietated a reply to the audacious Briton which elicited the admi- ration of the whole American Nation. The letter, written on the 4th of
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July, thus began : "Sir, I have received your menacing letter of yester- day. The day on which this answer is written ought of itself to prove to the subjects of your sovereign that the American people are not to be imtimidated by menace; or induced to adopt any measures except by a sense of their perfect propriety. Seduced by the false show of security, they may be sometimes surprised and slaughtered while unprepared to resist a supposed friend. That delusive security is now passed forever. The late occurrence has taught us to confide our safety no longer to any thing than to our own force. We do not seek hostility, nor shall we avoid it. We are prepared for the worst you may attempt, and will do whatever shall be judged proper to repel force whensoever your efforts shall render any acts of ours necessary. Thus much for the threats in your letter." The letter was delivered by Mr. Tazewell (who was accompanied by Taze- well Taylor), to Commodore Douglas, in presence of the Captains of the Fleet (among whom was Sir Thomas Hardy, whom Lord Nelson so affectionately addressed in his dying moments). It had a due effect. The threats were all recanted, and a letter of the 5th of July breathed nothing but amity and peace-an amusing somersault, like unto which is scarcely to be recalled in the annals of diplomacy.
In 1816, during an absence from home, and without his knowledge, Mr. Tazewell was elected by the people of Norfolk to the House of Del- egates. His speech in that body against the Convention bill, and in reply to General Alexander Smyth, is memorable for its ability and clo- quence. The bill passed in the House but was lost in the Senate. In 1820 Mr. Tazewell was one of the Commissioners under the Florida treaty. In 1824 he was elected to the United States Senate. He was elected to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of John Taylor of Caroline. It is a coincidence that his father, thirty years before, was chosen to fill the vacancy in the Senate caused by the resignation of the same individual. L. W. Tazewell took his seat in January, 1825. His first efforts in the debates was on the bankrupt bill of that session -- a searching examination of its details, which annihilated the hopes of its friends. His speech, on the 21st of January, in behalf of his motion to strike out the third section of the bill for the suppression of piracy in the West India seas, which had been reported from the Committee of Foreign Affairs, and had been introduced by its chairman, James Barbour, was lauded throughout the country. The section proposed to be stricken out authorized the President of the United States in time of profound peace to declare, on the representations of a naval officer, any of the ports of Spain in the West Indies in a state of blockade. It was stricken out by the decisive vote of 37 to 10. Had it remained in the bill, a war with Spain in all probability would have resulted in less than ninety days. "On the election of John Quincy Adams to the Presidency, Mr. Tazewell became hostile to his administration and
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opposed its prominent measures. His speech on the exclusive consti- tutional competency of the executive to originate foreign missions with- out the advice and consent of the Senate, as a constitutional thesis, it is claimed, " stands pre-eminent in our political literature as a model of profound research, of thorough argumentation, and of overwhelming strength." Mr. Tazewell was re-elected to the Senate on the 1st day of January, 1829. Whilst in attendance on that body he was elected by the Norfolk district a member of the Convention which assembled in Richmond, October 5th, 1829, to revise the first Constitution of Vir- ginia. In that illustrious body Mr. Tazewell made the opening speech in support of a resolution which he offered, and which marked out the course of the campaign which he believed to be best adapted to attain the general end in view. He engaged with conspicuous ability in the important discussions of the convention. His speech on the tenure of the judicial office is claimed to have been one of the most able efforts in that body of intellectual giants. Mr. Tazewell was also, in 1829, tendered the mission to Great Britain, but declined the honor. He continued in the Senate until 1833, serving as Chairman of the Com- mittee on Foreign Relations, and as President pro tem. of the body dur- ing a portion of the twenty-second Congress. In January, 1834, he was elected Governor of Virginia to succeed John Floyd, and entered upon the duties of his office March 31st. He resigned March 31, 1836, before the expiration of the term, upon a disagreement with the State Legislature. That body had passed resolutions instructing the Senators from Virginia to vote for the resolutions to expunge from the journal of the Senate the resolutions censuring General Jackson. These instructions Governor Tazewell declined to approve. He was succeeded in the office of Governor by Lieutenant-Governor Wyndham Robertson. Mr. Taze- well was never afterwards in public service. Though so effective with juries as an advocate, his style of address is said to have been singularly simple and free from artifice. His arguments were conversational and his gestures not more striking than those of animated converse. His postures were negligent. His voice was pleasant and of ample compass. He was never vociferous. His logic was consummate, and in putting his arguments before a jury he exhibited great adroitness. He ac- quainted himself with the calling or prejudices of every juryman -- and was thus guided in his appeals to them.
When the passions were to be assailed he indulged in a style of fervid appeal, which was the more effective as it was rare. Of the person of Mr. Tazewell, his friend and eulogist, Hugh Blair Grigsby, LL.D., says: "As soon as the visitor fixed his eyes on Mr. Tazewell, all else was forgotten. He was, without exception, in middle life, the most im- posing, and in old age, the most venerable person I ever beheld. His height exceeded six feet. * * * His head and chest were on a large seale, and his vast blue eye, which always seemed to gaze afar, was aptly
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termed by Wirt an 'eye of ocean.' In early youth he was uncommonly handsome. In middle life he was very thin, though lithe and strong,' but in his latter days he was large of stature, with massive features, and hair of silvery whiteness, which fell in ringlets about his neck. He died at Norfolk, May 6, 1860. He was the author of a "Review of the Negotiations between the United States and Great Britain respect- ing the Commerce between the Two Countries," etc. London, Svo, 1829, and which first appeared under the signature "Sinex," in the Nor- folk Herald," in 1827. A portrait of Governor Tazewell is in the State Library at Richmond, Virginia. He married, in 1802, Anne Stratton, daughter of Colonel John Nivison, of Norfolk, Virginia.
WYNDHAM ROBERTSON.
The clan Donnachie, or Duncan, or Robertson, trace descent from Duncan, King of Scotland, eldest son of Malcolm III., their immediate ancestor being a son of the "ancient and last Celtic Earl of Atole" who, in the reign of Alexander II., received the lands of Strowan. A great grandson of this founder was named Andrew, and was styled of Athole or " de Atholia," which was the uniform designation of the family ; and from Duncan, a son of Andrew, they derive their distinctive appellation of the clan Donnachie, or "children of Duncan." This Duncan was twice married, and acquired by both marriages considerable territory in the district of Rannoch. By his first wife he had a son Robert "de Atholia," who also had a grandson named Robert; and from him the clan Dun- can or Donnachie derive the name of Robertson from their lowland neighbors. This Robert is famous in history, and known as the chief who arrested and delivered to the vengeance of the government Robert Graham and the master of Athole, two of the murderers of James I., for which he was rewarded with a crown charter, dated 1451. He was mortally wounded in a conflict with Robert Forrester, of Solwood, with whom he had a dispute regarding the lands of Little Dunkeld. Bind- ing his head in a white cloth, he rode to Perth and obtained from the king a new grant of the lands of Strowan. Returning home he died of his wounds. His eldest son was twice married; his son, again, be- coming progenitor of various families of Robertsons. Towards the close of the century an heiress of the clan married "Thomas of Loudoun," while another married " David of Hastings," and an heiress of the Leeds branch married a Stewart of Invermeath. The clan were valiant and powerful supporters of the House of Stewart, and devoted to the cause of Charles I. It furnished, during the past two centuries, many war- riors and learned men, famous in Scottish annals. Alexander Robert- son, the celebrated Jacobite chief and poet, was born about 1670. After a warlike and eventful life he died, in the eighty-first year of his age, in his own house. Carr of Rannoch's poems were published after his death,
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with a history of the Robertsons of Strowan. He was Sir Walter Scott's prototype of the Baron " Bradwardine," in Waverley.
The ancestor of the Robertsons of Virginia was William Robertson, son of the Bailie of Edinburgh, Scotland, and a relative of Alexander Robertson, of Strowan, Baron Bradwardine, who emigrated to the col- ony in the early part of the eighteenth century, and settled in Bristol parish, near the location of Petersburg. His son, William Robertson. born in the year 1750, was a vestryman, warden, and deputy of Bristol parish from 1779 to 1789, a member of the council of Virginia, and for a series of years its secretary. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Gay) Bolling, of "Cobbs" (fourth in descent from John Rolfe and the Indian Princess Pocahontas), and had issue twelve children, those who survived being as follows: i. Archibald, born 1776; died 1861; married Elizabeth M. Bolling; ii. Thomas Boll- ing, born February 27, 1778; married, April, 1821, Lelia, daughter of Fulwar Skipwith; studied law with the distinguished John Thompson; member of the House of Delegates from Dinwiddie County 1805-6; appointed, in the summer of 1807, by President Jefferson, Secretary of the then territory of Orleans; continued in this station until Louisiana was erected into a State; member of Congress 1812-18, when he re- signed, resuming the practice of law; appointed, in 1819, Attorney- General of Louisiana ; elected Governor of the State in 1820; appointed, in 1825, United States Judge for the district of Louisiana. During the recess of Congress, 1815, he visited England and France, and being in Paris at the time of the return of Bonaparte from the campaign which ended in his overthrow at Waterloo, he wrote a concise and ani- mated account of the interesting scenes which were passing before him, in letters to his friends in Virginia, which were published in the Rich- mond Enquirer, and in book form. He died October 5, 1828, at the White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier County, Virginia, where a monu- ment marks his remains; iii. William, born 1786; member of the Vir- ginia Assembly; married Christiana, daughter of Frederick Williams, and had issue ; iv. John, born 1788; died 1873; Attorney-General of Virginia ; member of State Assembly, and Chancellor of Virginia ; member of Congress, representing Richmond for more than half a century ; a quaint, vigorous, and accomplished writer, publishing many brochures; married, in 1814, Anne Trent, and left issue ; v. Anne, born 1790; died 1842; married Henry Skipwith, M. D., and left issue; vi. Jane Gay, born 1796; died 1840; married, 1818, John H. Bernard, of " Gaymont," Caroline County, Virginia, member of the State Senate; left issue; vii. Wyndham, the subject of this sketch, born January 26, 1803. He first attended the private schools in his native city-Rich- mond-and completed his education at William and Mary College under the presidency of the brilliant John Augustine Smith, graduating
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REV. JOHN BUCHANAN D. D. Rector of St. Johns Church Richmond Vir.from 1755 tohis death in IS.20.
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thence in 1821. Entering upon the study of law, he was admitted to the bar in 1824. In 1827 he went to Europe for recreation, visiting the cities of London and Paris. Returning home he resumed the prac- tice of his profession. The French Revolution of 1830 enkindled the patriotism of the citizens of Richmond to highly enthusiastic demonstra- tions in civic procession, with flags and banners flying, the parade of the military with salute of musketry and cannon, and a mass meeting. Mr. Robertson was the chosen orator on the occasion, to voice the public sentiment, an office which he discharged so eloquently and acceptably that the common sympathy then established carried with it a regard and confidence which was enduring and found expression in many positions of honorable trust conferred on him. In 1833 Mr. Robertson was elected a member of the Council of State. In 1834, at the first meet- ing of the James River and Kanawha Company, the successors to the franchises of the old James River Company, Mr. Robertson proposed, in lieu of the projected canal, a measure that looked to a railroad con- nection with Lynchburg, to progress alternately westward, on the one hand, to the Mississippi, and on the other to the Kanawha. Although his proposition was defeated, it had the favor of sagacious and able minds, Dr. John Brockenbrough, Judge Philip Norborne Nicholas, Moncure Robinson, and Hon. John Robertson being among its sup- porters. After nearly half a century the wisdom of the measure pro- posed has been vindicated in the displacing of the canal by the Rich- mond & Alleghany Railroad erected on its banks, and which we may hope, may yet grasp the consummations so long ago ardently outlined by Mr. Robertson. On the 31st of March, 1836, Mr. Robertson became senior member of the Council, and as such, Lieutenant-Governor, and on the same day, by the resignation of Governor Tazewell, succeeded him for the remaining year of his term as Governor of Virginia. The period is somewhat memorable. Then began the initiatory movements of the undisguised and fateful crusade by the Northern section of our Union against slavery. We can now calmly survey its turbulent course iu thankful acceptation of an issue which is destined to progressively re- dound in blessings to the South. A different sentiment then prevailed in Virginia. In his first message to the Legislature, Governor Robert- son called attention to the abolition movement, designating it as "a mad fanaticism, the march of which, if unchecked, could well be over vio- lated faith, the rights of the slave-holding States, chartered liberty, and the cause of humanity itself," and recommended that measures should be taken for a convention of all the States to take measures to avert such dire consequences. The Democracy being largely in the majority in the Legislature of 1836-7, one of that party-David Campbell-was chosen to succeed Governor Robertson on the expiration of his term, March 31, 1837, and he retired to private life. In 1841, his health be-
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ing impaired, he removed to the country and engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1858 he returned to Richmond, and in 1860 acquiesced in the wishes of his old constituents to serve them in the House of Del- egates. A friend to peace and the Union, Mr. Robertson actively op- posed secession, and the overtures of South Carolina for a Southern Convention as endangering both, and hastening the loss of what they were designed to save. After South Carolina and other Southern States had seceded, he still urged a refusal on the part of Virginia to follow them, and brought, as the organ of a committee, into the House of Delegates, January 7, 1861, the resolution known as the Anti-Coercion Resolution, denying the existence of present cause for secession, but declaring her purpose, if a war of coercion was undertaken by the Federal Government on the seceded States, to fight with the South. The resolution was adopted. The State now addressed itself to meas- ures of reconciliation, some of which were proposed, and all were ad-
vocated by Mr. Robertson. They were, however, all futile, and the proclamation of President Lincoln calling for troops from Virginia, speedily determined her lot with her Southern sisters, peopled by her own offspring, and Mr. Robertson, ever a dutiful son, was henceforth zealously active in all measures of sustenance and defense, in the lam- entable fraticidal strife which ensued. The painful struggle over, he removed to the native place of his wife (Mary T., daughter of Francis Smith, Esq.), Abingdon, Virginia, where he has since resided. Mr. Robertson has been an ardent student of history for many years, natu- rally with as pecial regard for that of his native State. He has frequently contributed the results of his research to periodicals, and at the annual meeting of the Virginia Historical Society, December 15, 1859, he read an exhaustive paper on the "Marriage of Pocahontas with John Rolfe," which was published by the Society. He has had in preparation for a number of years past, a genealogical account of his kindred, "The De- scendants of Pocahontas," which, it is believed, is now ready for publi- cation. There is an excellent portrait of Governor Robertson in the State Library at Richmond, Virginia.
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