Difference between revisions of "John Minor"

Revision as of 15:24, 2 December 2015

John Minor III was born on May 13, 1761 at the family home, Topping Castle, in Caroline County, Virginia. ^[1]

While attending the College of William & Mary, fifteen-year-old Minor ran away to join the army and fight in the Revolutionary War. During the war, Minor served as a private in Nelson's Light-horse troop, part of Lighthorse Harry lee's command.^[2] After the war, Minor returned to William & Mary and studied law under George Wythe. ^[3] Upon completing his legal studies, Minor began a successful practice in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and became known for "his knowledge of law and his magnetic eloquence." ^[4]

In addition to his successful legal practice, Minor served as Fredericksburg's first Commonwealth's Attorney. ^[5] As the Commonwealth's Attorney, Minor's salary was 2,000 pounds of tobacco. ^[6] He took particular interest in helping along young and struggling lawyers. ^[7] After being impressed in court by Benjamin Botts, Minor offered the young orphan a place in his home to live and study. Botts went on the pass the bar exam, become a renowned lawyer, and even serve as a lawyer for Aaron Burr alongside John Wickham. ^[8]

While in Fredericksburg, Minor became the first to introduce a resolution for the emancipation of slaves in America. ^[9] The dates are disputed, but Minor introduced his two bills between the years 1782 and 1790. ^[10] Both bills provided for the emancipation of the American slaves. The first bill provided for "gradual emancipation," and the second bill provided for "transportation and colonization." ^[11] While both bills were approved, no further action was taken. ^[12] Minor later freed all his slaves and paid for their return voyage to Liberia. ^[13]

Minor served as a member of the House of Burgesses between the years 1805 and 1807. In an unsuccessful political campaign, Minor ran for Congress against James Monroe and lost. However, Minor and Monroe were close friends, and that friendship survived the congressional campaign. Minor even named one of his sons after Monroe--Dr. James Monroe Minor (a navy surgeon). ^[14] Minor served as colonel of the Spotsylvania County militia, and was commissioned Brigadier General during the War of 1812. ^[15] After the war, Minor returned to his prosperous legal practice. ^[16]

In 1816, Minor died suddenly of apoplexy while giving a speech in Richmond to the Electoral College. According to Blackford's 1903 biographical account of Minor, there is a ghost story surrounding the circumstances of Minor's death:

He [Minor] died in Richmond, as stated above, about eleven o'clock at night in the State capitol. The same evening there were assembled around the parlor fire at Cleve, in King George county, a number of the members of his wife's family, among them her brother-in-law, Mr. Wm McFarland, a lawyer of talents, but more given to poetry than to law. He had a mind which would now be called "impressionable," and which would make a good "medium." About eleven o'clock he left the room to go to bed, but in a moment returned somewhat alarmed, saying that he had seen General Minor in the gallery up stairs--yet he was sure it was only his ghost. He was laughed at and told it was only his fancy, so he started out again, but returned with the same story, and then the whole party went with him, but not being impressionable, the ghost was not seen. In a few days they learned that the time Mr. McFarland went up stairs was the hour at which General Minor had died in Richmond. Mr. McFarland's fancies ever afterwards were more esteemed. Of course, there was no ghost, nor was there anything supernatural in McFarland's vision. The art of photography and wireless telepathy in the physical world prepares us to believe that on a mind peculiarly sensitive, impressions may be made by physical facts at a distance, to which the common mind is absolutely oblivious. ^[17]

Minor is buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Frederickburg, Virginia, next to the James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library. ^[18]

Family Life

Minor married twice. In 1790, Minor married Mary Berkeley, who died only a few months after their marriage. In 1793, Minor married his late wife's cousin, Lucy Landon Carter. ^[19] Together, they had a large family including six sons and one daughter. Minor's daughter, Mary Berkeley Minor, became a prominent female anti-slavery activist and "colonizationist." ^[20]

See also

• Wythe the Teacher

References

1. ↑ Charles M. Blackford, "Four Successive John Minors (Continued)," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Oct., 1902), p. 204, accessed October 14, 2015.
2. ↑ W. W. Blackford, War Years with Jeb Stuart (LSU Press, 1993), 3, accessed October 14, 2015.
3. ↑ Morris L Cohen and Th. Jefferson, "Thomas Jefferson Recommends a Course of Law Study," University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Vol. 119, No. 5 (Apr., 1971), pp. 823-844, 823, accessed October 14, 2015.
4. ↑ Blackford, "Four Successive John Minors (Continued)," 204.
5. ↑ John Taette Goolrick, Historic Fredericksburg: The Story of an Old Town (Whittet & Shepperson, 1922), 26, accessed October 19, 2015.
6. ↑ "Brig. Gen. John Minor N-32" by amyb, Fredericksburg, Stafford, Spotsylvania Historical Markers (2008), 246, accessed October 14, 2015.
7. ↑ Dabney Herndon Maury, Recollections of a Virginian in the Mexican, Indian, and Civil Wars (C. Scribner's Sons, 1894), accessed October 14, 2015.
8. ↑ Ibid, 311.
9. ↑ Ibid, 2.
10. ↑ "Brig. Gen. John Minor N-32."
11. ↑ Charles M. Blackford, "Four Successive John Minors (Concluded)," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Apr., 1903), pp. 436-440, 436, accessed October 15, 2015.
12. ↑ "Brig. Gen. John Minor N-32."
13. ↑ Ibid.
14. ↑ Maury, Recollections of a Virginian in the Mexican, Indian, and Civil Wars, 3.
15. ↑ "Brig. Gen. John Minor N-32;" Blackford, War Years with Jeb Stuart, 4.
16. ↑ Thomas Katheder, "Debt of Honor: A Sabine Hall Gamester Comes to Ruin in Fredericksburg" SSRN (October 2014), 9, accessed October 14, 2015.
17. ↑ Blackford, "Four Successive John Minors (Concluded)," 436-438.
18. ↑ Katheder, "Debt of Honor," 9.
19. ↑ Blackford, "Four Successive John Minors (Continued)," 204.
20. ↑ "Mary Berkeley Minor Blackford (1802-1896)," by Brent Tarter, Education @ Library of Virginia, accessed November 4, 2015.