Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/280

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240


VIRGIXIA RIOGRAPHY


"Teaching of the Motlier Tongue," "Shake- speare's \'erse Construction," and mono- graphs of "King Lear," and other plays, go far to exhaust the list. There passed from his lecture rooms an extraordinary number < f men with the impulse and the instinct of the scholar. In the six years of his profes- sorship in X'iiginia alone, Dabney and b'itz- hugh and Kent, were his pupils; Kern, of Washington and Lee, Whiting, of Hamp- den-Sidney, Try, of North Carolina, Bruce, tif I'ennessee. Henneman, of Sewanee. Hall, of William and Mary, Ficklin, of Tulane, Trent, of Columbia, these and many more. His lifework was his wonderful mon- ument.

Wright, Thorr.as Roane Barnes, born at Tappahannock, Virginia, July 4, 1842. son of Capt. W'illiam Alfred Wright and Char- lotte Barnes, his wife, grandson of Edward Wright and Mary Pitts, his wife, and of Rich- ard Barnes and Rebecca Roane, his wife, and great-grandson of William Wright, who emi- grated to the New World from Scotland, early in the seventeenth century. William A. Wright (father) was an eminent lawyer, commonwealth's attorney of Essex county, \'irginia, and served as a private in the war of 181 2. Thomas R. B. W'right was edu- cated at Fleetwood Academy, Hanover Academy, and the University of Virginia, which he entered during the session of 1S59- 60. Two days after the fall of Fort Sumter, he was one of a company of university students, known as the "Southern Guard," to march to Harper's Ferry, and shortly after was a ])rivate in the Second Company, Richmond Howitzers, and was later trans- ferred to Company F. Fifty-fifth \^irginia Regiment ; was elected lieutenant. Com])any


A of that regiment, and later promoted for gallantry ; was dangerously wounded in charge of Fort McCrae, September 30, 1864. After the close of the war he studied in the law office of James M. ^Matthews, Esq., and in 1S68 began the practice of law, and two years later was elected commonwealth's at- torney of Essex county ; was elected judge of the ninth judicial circuit of Virginia, De- cember 14, 1891. He was twice re-elected judge. He took an active part in politics, serving as canvasser for the state at large i:i many heated campaigns; was presidential elector from the first congressional district on the Cleveland ticket in 1888 ; a member cf the Democratic state committee, and chairman of the committee of the first dis- trict. He was the first president of the Tidewater Alumni Association of the Uni- versity of Virginia, and served as first com- mander of the Wright-Latane Camp, Con- federate Veterans. In early manhood Judge Wright was baptized in St. John's Episcopal Church, Tappahannock, Virginia. Judge Wright married, November 29, 1876, Mar- garet Davidella Preston, of Lewisburg, West Virginia. She was the first president of the Essex Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and was president of the Wo- man's Monument Association of Essex County (incorporated) which erected m 1907 a monument to the heroic Confederate dead f f I'"ssex county.

Maury, Richard Launcelot, l)iirn in \'ir- ginia, October 9. 1840. son of Commodore Matthew F. Maury and Anne Herndon. his wife. He enlisted as a private in the \'ir- guiia army, April 28, 1861 : promoted lieu- tenant in Virginia State Troops. June, 1861 ; promoted major in the Confederate army