Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers of the Brockenbrough, Lamb, Fauntleroy and Smith families, Accession #10987-a, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was deposited by James C. Lamb, III on 1990 Nov 12.

Biographical/Historical Information

Virginia family residing at "Belle Ville," Warsaw, Richmond County and in Tappahannock, Essex County.

Scope and Content Information

This collection, ca. 1835-1945, of ca. 1500 items, consists primarily of family papers of the Brockenbrough and Lamb families of the farm known as "Belle Ville" in Warsaw, Richmond County, in the Northern Neck area of Virginia. The collection is organized in the following series: Correspondence; Financial Papers and Receipts; Legal Papers; Topical and Miscellaneous; Ledgers; Photographs and Scrapbooks; Oversize Items; and Oversize bound volumes. Of special interest are slave lists, letters from soldiers in World War I, photographs of Charlottesville and the University of Virginia, and a letter describing Egypt and the Middle East in the 1870s.

The bulk of the collection concerns members of the Brockenbrough and Lamb families belonging to the branch charted here:
William Fauntleroy Brockenbrough (1826-1890) m. Eliza Bland Smith
Their issue:
Saide Smith B. (1862-1949)
Alice Waller (Sis Allie) B. (1870-1955)
Agnes Atkinson B. (1876-1967)
Eliza Bland (Lila) B. (1877-1917)

Saide Smith B. m. 1885 James Christian Lamb, brother of John Lamb (1840-1924)
Their issue:
William Brockenbrough L. (1886-?)
James Christian L. Jr. (1891-1943)
Eliza Bland L. (1898-?)

Other members of the family (figuring primarily in the ledgers) are Austin Brockenbrough, William Fauntleroy, and Lucy Yates Gray (nee Brockenbrough). Both the Smith and Brockenbrough families appear to have been planters until fairly late in the nineteenth century, according to the ledgers, letters, and legal papers of this collection. James C. Lamb, Sr. was a circuit court judge in Richmond; his elder son W. Brockenbrough Lamb was also a lawyer and judge; and his younger son, James Jr., was an engineer and served in the first World War. John Lamb was a member of the House of Representatives, chairing the Committee on Agriculture in the 62nd Congress, and served in the Confederate army (Company D, Third Virginia Cavalry).

The correspondence is arranged by recipient. Of special interest are letters from various men during their service in France during World War I. The letters describe the day-to-day life of soldiering, troop movements, conditions on ships making the Atlantic crossing, and (most fully) the country and people of France after the end of the war. The letters were sent to Eliza Bland Lamb by Frank Brown, Gilbert Campbell, Hollyday Compton, James C. Lamb, Jr., J. Warren Quackenbush, Ernest Turner, and others in the miscellaneous file, and to Saide Lamb by James, C. Lamb, Jr.. In addition, in the miscellaneous correspondence folder there is a letter dated April 4, 1873, to "My dear Mother" (Mrs. D.R. Hagner) from Julian Howard, nephew of W.F. Brockenbrough; the letter was written in Alexandria, Egypt, and goes into some detail in describing the pyramids and travel to various sites in the Middle East.

The majority of the financial papers are notes and minor correspondence relating to personal financial matters of the members of the Brockenbrough and Lamb families and to the business of their farms. The receipts record mercantile and farm-produce transactions, and have been sorted chronologically by decade. The legal papers contain bonds, insurance papers, estate settlements, real estate transactions, and legal agreements. There is a folder for papers relating to the management and sale of the farm known as "Bay Quarter," formerly a part of "Belle Ville," and another on the Tappahannock Ferry and its parent company.

Among the topical and miscellaneous papers there is a folder of World War I newspapers published by the American Expeditionary Forces, a folder of miscellaneous printed material, and two items in oversize folders: a certificate from the Nurses' Board of Examiners licensing Eliza Bland Brockenbrough to practice nursing in the state of Virginia, and two copies of a floor plan drawing for alterations to the second floor of "Old School, Warsaw, Virginia." There are cancelled checks, school records, a birth, marriage and death register torn from a Brockenbrough family Bible, a plan for lots in Belle Ville Heights, a copy of an order from R.E. Lee, poems and essays, and a Bank of the Commonwealth Stock Certificate.

There are twenty-six bound volumes boxed with the collection and three oversize volumes. The box listing below details the contents of each of these volumes, which include photograph scrapbooks, school notebooks, diaries, accounts, and ledgers.