Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Margaret Emily Kent Letter, Mss. Collection 2010.13, Kegley Library, Wytheville Community College, Wytheville, VA

Acquisition Information

Donated by Beverly Repass Hoch in May 2010.

Biographical Information

Margaret Emily Kent, known as Emily, was the daughter of Robert C. Kent (1797-1852) and Elizabeth Montgomery Craig Kent (1799-1869). She was born on 11 December 1823 and died 4 June 1856 at the family home of Bellefield, at Kent's Mill in Wythe County, Virginia. She never married.

Her brother, Joseph F. Kent, paid Fleming K. Rich $35.00 for a "fine covered coffin with cloth and case " for her burial. No record of the burial is extant but most of the Kent family, including her parents, Robert Kent and Elizabeth Kent, are buried at the cemetery at Fort Chiswell.

Scope and Content

In a 29 February 1840 letter from an unknown location, Margaret Emily Kent writes her father, Robert Kent about her experiences presumably at a school. She mentions a Mr. Davis, Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Williamson, and a Miss Abbie (perhaps Abbie Williamson who later married Ephraim McGavock.