Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Bryan Family Papers, Accession #3440, 3440-a, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The bulk of the papers were deposited by Mr. D. Tennant Bryan of 33 East Grace Street, Richmond, Virginia, 23219, on 11 Feb. 1950, and accessioned as #3400. A supplement to the papers was deposited on 12 April 1950, and accessioned as #3400-a. The entire collection was changed to a gift by Mr. Bryan on 6 June 1977.

Scope and Content

The Bryan Family papers comprise ca. 645 items spanning the years 1770-1918. Most of the collection is correspondence among Randolph, Tucker, and Bryan family members from 1770-1850, representing some twenty correspondents (see attached appendix). There are also two letters from William Wirt to John Coalter. Miscellany and some printed matter complete the collection.

Students seeking to understand the relationships of the various Randolph s, Tucker s, Coalter s, and Bryan s who are represented copiously in the Bryan Papers must turn to the history of the Randolph Family of Virginia. John Randolph, Sr. (1742-1775) was the scion of a successful but not notably "elite" Virginia family. (cf. William E. Stokes, Jr., "Randolph of Roanoke: A Virginia Portrait; The Early Career of John Randolph of Roanoke, 1773-1805," U. Va. Doctoral Dissertation, 1955, pp. 15-16.) Randolph married his second cousin, Frances Bland (sister of Theodorick Bland ) in 1769, and they had three children: Richard Randolph, Theodorick Randolph, and John Randolph.

John Randolph, Sr., died in October, 1775, leaving his young wife with three small boys to raise. She did not, however, raise them alone for long. In September, 1778, Frances Bland Randolph married St. George Tucker (1752-1827), a native of Bermuda who had emigrated to Virginia to pursue a career at the bar. Tucker and his wife inherited the Randolph estates, living at Matoax. They had several children before Frances Randolph Tucker died in 1788, among them Frances Tucker ("Fanny," b. 1779), Henry St. George Tucker (b. 1780), and Nathaniel Beverly Tucker (b. 1784).

Much of the correspondence in the Bryan Papers is carried on by these people, including several letters to John Randolph, Sr., (for the period 1770-1774) by his friend Theodorick Bland. The great majority of the Bland letters discuss business matters. Most of the letters collected here were penned by John Randolph, Jr., (known after 1810 as John Randolph of Roanoke ) and his step-father, St. George Tucker.

Every evidence in his correspondence suggests that St. George Tucker was a remarkably warm and compassionate human being, as well as an able lawyer, scholar, and jurist. (There is no adequate biography of Tucker, but see Charles T. Cullen, "St. George Tucker and Law in Virginia, 1772-1804," U. Va. Doctoral Dissertation, 1971.) Tucker raised a large family, including his step-sons, with great solicitude and continued corresponding with most of his children through his and their lives. ( John Randolph of Roanoke was an exception. See Accession #49 , Grinnan Family Papers, 1813 Dec. 13, John Randolph of Roanoke to Tudor.)

Tucker's letters illuminate the early life of the brilliant and erratic John Randolph of Roanoke, who served Virginia as congressman and senator for nearly thirty years (1799-1813, 1815-1817, 1819-1829). At age nine Randolph was enrolled with his older brothers in a school conducted (first in Chesterfield County and then at Williamsburg ) by Walker Maury, and he remained there two years (1782-1784). After several years with his family, including a sojourn with the Tuckers in Bermuda, Randolph was sent to Princeton grammar school in 1787, and then to Columbia College, along with his brother Theodorick Randolph. Several of St. George Tucker's letters to his step-sons at school are preserved here, including one missive admonishing Theodorick for his profligacy and tendency to drunkenness (see Tucker to Theo Randolph, August 30, 1789).

Most of the St. George Tucker correspondence in this collection was addressed not to his Randolph step-children (or to his children by Frances Bland Randolph Tucker, for that matter), but to Joseph Carrington Cabell. Cabell, who in 1807 married Mary (Poll) Carter, the daughter of Tucker's third wife, was for many years a Virginia State Senator as well as a planter. Tucker's letters to him (totalling 165 in this collection) bulk heavy with family talk, discussion of joint business operations relating to their plantations, as well as political commentary. The papers are a significant aid to any student of either man's career, but particularly contribute to a comprehensive picture of St. George Tucker's life and thought.

Apart from family and business matters, Tucker's letters to Cabell (none of Cabell's responses are preserved here) touch upon such concerns as the Louisiana Purchase (Jan. 23, 1804); American relations with England during the administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison (letters of July 30, 1807, Feb. 1, 1809, Jan. 24, April 1, 1812); proposed changes in the Virginia Constitution (Dec. 20, 1809, Jan. 17, 1810); various reforms Tucker felt essential in Virginia (Dec. 22, 1806); the utility of banks and the attitude of the legislature towards banking (Jan. 3, 1812, Feb. 12, 1813, Jan. 17, 20, 24, Dec. 23, 1814, Jan. 30, 1817, Feb. 4, 1818); activities in the Virginia legislature (Feb. 8, 12, 1813); and the War of 1812, most particularly as it affected Virginia (July 9, 1812, March 31, April 7, 14, June 30, 1813, Jan. 2, April 4, Sept. 1, Dec. 9, 1814, Feb. 6, 1815).

The letters reveal Tucker's concern for improvement. As he wrote to Cabell, Dec. 22, 1806, "I heartily wish our Legislators would turn their attention to the improvement of our revenue; of our miserable defective judiciary system; of our equally defective system of Education; and to the averting from the poor the impending calamities of famine; a subject more truly interesting than any Question who is right, & who is wrong in Congress, at present." They show, moreover, that Tucker believed in a well regulated system of state banks, and was extremely frustrated when the strict construction doctrines of most Virginia legislators placed obstacles in the way of such a system. The weakness this meant for the state's economic development and general governmental flexibility was driven home during the War of 1812, and Tucker constantly harangued his friend Cabell on the subject (see esp. letters of Feb. 8, 12, 1813). "Do, for heaven's sake endeavour to rouse a proper degree of exertion among those members of the House of Delegates, who affect to call themselves the friends of their country. PENURY at this time if not worse, is full as bad as Yankee Federalism."

Tucker's correspondence with Joseph C. Cabell continued until the year of his death, 1827, and it would appear that most of it has been preserved here. These letters do not, however, exhaust the Tucker materials in the Bryan Papers. There is an extended correspondence with John Coalter (a Tucker family tutor who eventually married Fanny Randolph Tucker and entered into business with St. George Tucker ), basically business oriented; seventeen letters, 1822-1826, from Elizabeth Tucker Coalter Bryan (Tucker's grand-daughter) to Tucker and his wife; and one letter to St. George Tucker written by his grandson, St. George Coalter, describing in detail his routine at the University of Virginia (letter of April 16, 1826). A note in Tucker's hand at the letter's end mentions that he answered very "fully & affectionately," and included advice to work hard and spend time with the right company.

The St. George Tucker correspondence, though extensive, is not the only significant element of the correspondence collected here. There is, for example, a voluminous correspondence of John Randolph of Roanoke (1773-1833) with Randolph and Tucker family members, and members of the Bryan family, with whom Randolph had become very close as a consequence of his friendship with Joseph Bryan, a Georgia congressman who died in 1812. Most of the letters addressed to Randolph in this collection were written by his sister-in-law, Judith Randolph, whose husband Richard Randolph (Randolph's eldest brother) died in 1796, and who relied heavily on Randolph for emotional sustenance, financial aid, and advice for many years thereafter. Much of Randolph's correspondence with his extended family of in-laws, nephews and nieces, and with the children of his late friend Bryan, relates to family matters and "philosophy of life" expositions. Many of these missives run to considerable length.

There is a scattering of commentary relating to government and politics. For example, in a letter to John Coalter (29 March, 1808) Randolph discussed in detail an aborted treaty of amity with England. Other letters which touch on politics are found in a copy book of Randolph letters to Francis Walker Gilmer for 1818-1826. For example, on Jan. 12, 1821, Randolph wrote to Gilmer from Washington that "the want of ability in the two houses of Congress (with one or two splendid exceptions in the Senate) is ominous. I fear of the future fate of our republic--both bodies abound in men of mean understandings, & meaner principles & manners. It is not possible to conceive of any thing worse & the H of R is a bear garden at which one blushes when a stranger enters--I endeavor to hold myself entirely aloof from its squabbles--for it would be an irony to term them debates." In another letter, written at Roanoke on July 22, 1821, Randolph had some astringent observations on James Monroe (a former political ally) and Monroe's two predecessors in the Presidential office. "Mr. J[efferson] himself did much to impair the principles upon which he was brought into power," Randolph wrote. "But his successor gave them the coup-de-grace--the recommendation of the Bank of the U. S. alone was a formal renunciation of the heresies of his 'Report' and a reconciliation with the holy catholic church of Expediency to Existing Circumstances. The present incumbent came in upon no particular principles, & as he brought none with him so he will carry none away with him." Randolph's acerbic style was evident in a letter to Gilmer commenting on a speech of "Mr. C." (probably Henry Clay ) in March, 1824. "Yesterday," Randolph wrote from Washington on March 9, "he came flushed with confidence, made five speeches-bad-worse-worst, most worst, worserer, & worserest. Had his shallow sophistry & ignorance exposed in the most glaring and mortifying manner, & never did I behold humiliation & shagrin [sic] more strongly portrayed than in his whole countenance & manner--when he was outvoted 114-66."

There are also scattered political comments by Randolph in a long series of letters (copies) to Elizabeth Tucker Coalter Bryan from 1815-1831. Most comments in these letters, however, relate to family life or reflections on life and philosophical matters (e.g. the "Worldly" v. the "Romantic," in letter of Nov. 20, 1825). Others talk about books (among Randolph's favorites was Smollett's Humphrey Clinker ), writers ( Henry Fielding Randolph calls "the grossest creature imaginable"), and Randolph's past relations with his correspondent's father, Joseph Bryan (letter of March 27, 1828). After 1827, his letters took on an increasingly melancholy tone, and for long periods he functioned only fitfully. See for example letters of October 10, 1828, in which he said that drinking was "my chief support," and Nov. 1, 1828, in which Randolph wrote "I cant read, & writing is very trying to me. I lie in bed as much as possible to shorten the days. I breakfast about 8 dine a little after 2 & am abed by 7 O'clock." The letters often refer to death and in general evince a jaundiced world view. Randolph was sure that the rise of commercial spirit in America was corrupting its people, and this outlook only grew more pronounced in his later years. (See letters of July 27, 1825, Dec. 25, 1828).

Among the last of the Randolph letters in this collection, written less than a year before his death, was penned to his godson, J. R. Bryan. It suggests his overall decline. "I am put into the Carriage daily & driven a mile or two but I am near fainting all the time. I have to be lifted in & I cannot walk or even stand without support. This morning at my frugal meal of barley water & bread I had nearly fainted twice from sheer debility." Randolph died on May 24, 1833, and the collection contains a pencil scrawl of his last words, as witnessed and attested by Condy Raguet of Philadelphia.

Also included in the collection is the correspondence of Elizabeth Tucker Coalter Bryan for 1834-1849, and Nathaniel Beverly Tucker to Elizabeth T. Bryan for the period 1825 to Tucker's death in 1851. Nearly all of these deal with family concerns. There are miscellaneous letters of other Tucker, Randolph, and Bryan family members, and miscellany relating to John Randolph of Roanoke and Nathaniel Beverly Tucker. This includes a collection of anecdotes about Randolph of Roanoke; newspaper clippings about the interment of Randolph's remains in Hollywood Cemetary, Richmond, in 1879; a copy of the Union Seminary Magazine for Sept.-Oct. 1893, with "Early Recollections of John Randolph," and a copy of the Petersburg Virginia Daily Index Appeal for 24 Feb. 1901, which contains an article on Randolph's mother, Frances Bland Randolph. One folder contains a statement by Elizabeth Tucker Bryan on Randolph of Roanoke's will. Also in the collection are several prints of Randolph, his prayer book, a newspaper clipping of a speech made by Nathaniel Beverly Tucker at the Southern Convention held in Nashville in 1850 (a firebrand speech warning the North to accept slavery expansion and the equality of the Southern states or to expect secession), and the Emmanuel Church Sunday School Roll Book for 1918. Taken as a whole the collection provides much material suggestive of plantation life and thought in Virginia in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and offers insight into the lives and thought of John Randolph of Roanoke, St. George Tucker, and Nathaniel Beverly Tucker.

Correspondents in the Bryan Family Papers

Organization

The collection has been put in rough chronological order by correspondent. Undated correspondence, miscellany, and printed matter are placed at the end of the collection.