Conditions Governing Use

Before publishing quotations or excerpts from any materials, permission must be obtained from the Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books, and the holder of the copyright, if not Swem Library.

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open to all researchers. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, such as the Virginia Public Records Act (Code of Virginia. § 42.1-76-91); and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Code of Virginia § 2.2-3705.5). Confidential material may include, but is not limited to, educational, medical, and personnel records. If sensitive material is found in this collection, please contact a staff member immediately. The disclosure of personally identifiable information pertaining to a living individual may have legal consequences for which the College of William and Mary assumes no responsibility.

Preferred Citation

Thomas Gwatkin Papers, Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Miss Gwatkin of England by way of Jack E. Morpurgo in 1948.

Biographical / Historical

Thomas Gwatkin came to William & Mary as a member of the faculty in 1770. He returned to England at the outbreak of the American Revolution.

Scope and Contents

The contents of the collection include the following items (some of which are incomplete): Gwatkin's petition to the Parlimentary Commission on Loyalists (Dec. 13, 1783), letter written by Gwatkin in Williamsburg, stating "Now altho' publick affairs in this province become to such a crisis, as to render it necessary for me to quit the College very shortly," (Mar. 4, 1775), a short note on Loyalist faith in Gwatkin's hand, two private letters in one of which Gwatkin refers to the possiblity of going to Jamaica (1785), two manuscript sermons, and a draft of a lecture or article on Virginia before the American Revolution and in Gwatkin's hand. There are missing pages of the manuscript.

Related Material

University Archives Faculty-Alumni File Collection

General

Removed from the Faculty-Alumni File Collection in 2016