Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation

MSS 16172, Reverend W. T. Leavell letters, Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was purchased from Crown Collectibles by the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia on July 11, 2016.

Biographical / Historical

Cassius Francis Lee (1808-1890) was a first cousin of General Robert E. Lee and was treasurer of the Educational Society. He wrote to the Reverend W. T. Leavell at Westover Parish Church, Charles City, Virginia on behalf of Dr. Patrick J. Sparrow (1802-1867, a pastor and later President of Hampden-Sydney College about funding.

John Johns (1796-1876)served as the fifteenth president of the College of William and Mary. After the college closed due to financial struggles in 1846 , Bishop William Meade (1789-1862)and the Episcopal Church of Virginia secured the services of Bishop Johns to manage the College. Bishop Johns produced a regular increase of the number of students and established better discipline than ever before and ran the college without pay for the first years)