Conditions Governing Use:

Before reproducing or quoting from any materials, in whole or in part, permission must be obtained from the Special Collections Research Center, 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:

Hugh Blair Grigsby Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.

Acquisition Information:

Gift 2004.16 addition: Removed from vol. 1 of Grigsby's copy of Bancroft's History of the Colonization of the United States (1841) - uncatalogued at SOSS as of 3/04.

Processing Information:

Processed by Laura Odendahl in 1995.

Biographical Information:

Hugh Blair Grigsby was the son and only child of Benjamin Porter Grigsby (1770-1810), an early Presbyterian minister in Norfolk, Va., and Elizabeth McPherson (1778-1860). Grigsby married Mary Venable Carrington in 1840 and afterwards lived at Edgehill, Charlotte County, Virginia.

Hugh Blair Grigsby, nineteenth-century Virginia historian, lived from 1806-1881. He served on the Board of Visitors and as Chancellor of the College of William and Mary and was President of the Virginia Historical Society. Further information about this individual or organization may be available in the Special Collections Research Center Wiki: .

Scope and Contents

Letters written to Grigsby by L. S. Joynes, Thomas R. Joynes and Benjamin S. Ewell concerning a professorship for Edward S. Joynes and the Grammar School at the College of William and Mary. Includes constitution, 1854, of the Jamestown Society, Washington, D. C. and one issue of the newspaper, the Richmond Standard, 29 May 1880, which had an article on the Henry family of Virginia (descended from John Henry and Sarah Winston Syme.

Letter written from New York by George Bancroft, retired Secretary of the Navy, to Hugh Blair Grigsby concerning the "Mecklenburg Affair," Madison on the Constitution and refers to Edward Rutledge. Dated 27 June 1857. Original ID number was Mss. 95 G87. Material from the Faculty Alumni File added in 2018.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• College of William and Mary--Grammar School--History--19th century
• College of William and Mary--History--19th century
• Correspondence
• Henry family
• Henry, John
• Jamestown Society--Washington, (D. C.)--History--19th century
• Joynes, Thomas R., 1789-1859
• Madison, James, 1751-1836
• Mecklenburg Affair
• Rutledge, Edward
• Syme, Sarah Winston
• United States. Constitution.