Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Coalter-Tucker Family. Letters, 1802-1819. Accession 20186, Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Daniel Grinnan, Richmond, Virginia, 4 June 1930.

Biographical Information

John Coalter was born 20 August 1769 in the part of Augusta County, Virginia, which is now Rockbridge County, Virginia. He attended Liberty Hall Academy (now Washington and Lee University). He became tutor to the children of St. George Tucker (1752-1827) and studied law. He returned to Augusta County where he practiced law. Coalter was appointed sheriff in 1791 and clerk of the District Court in 1793. He was appointed judge of the Circuit Superior Court of Law in 1809, and a judge of the Court of Appeals in 1811, serving until 1831. Coalter was a member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-1830. He married first Maria Rind (d. 1791) in 1790; second, Margaret Davenport (d. 1796) in 1795; third, Anne Frances Bland Tucker (1779-1813) 5 June 1802; and fourth Hannah Harrison Jones (1786-1856) 14 February 1822. He had at least three children by his third wife. Coalter died 2 February 1838 at Chatham, his estate in Stafford County, Virginia. He was buried in St. George's Church cemetery in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

St. George Tucker was born 29 June 1752 (O.S.) in Port Royal, Bermuda. He emigrated to Virginia in his late teens and entered the College of William and Mary. Tucker graduated in 1772, entered the bar, and began practicing law in Williamsburg, Virginia. During the American Revolution, he served with distinction at the battle of Guilford Court House and at the siege of Yorktown. Tucker returned to his law practice and in 1788 was appointed as a judge of the General Court of Virginia. In 1800, he was appointed a professor of law at William and Mary. Tucker was appointed to the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals in 1803 and served until he resigned in 1811. President James Madison (1751-1836) appointed Tucker to the Federal District Court for the District of Virginia in 1813 and he served until he resigned for reasons of health in 1827. Tucker married first, Frances Bland Randolph (d. 1788), the widow of John Randolph of Matoax in Chesterfield County, Virginia. He became the step-father of John Randolph of Roanoke (1773-1833). Tucker and his wife had three children including Henry St. George Tucker (1780-1848) and Nathaniel Beverley Tucker (1784-1851). After the death of his first wife, Tucker married Lelia Skipwith Carter (d. 1837) 19 October 1791. Tucker died 10 November 1827 in Nelson County, Virginia.

Scope and Content Information

Letters, 1802-1819, between the Coalter and Tucker families, consisting mainly of the correspondence between St. George Tucker (1752-1827) of Williamsburg, Virginia, and his son-in-law John Coalter (1769- 1838) of Richmond, Virginia. Most of the letters between the two contains family and social news. Tucker discusses the Richmond Theater fire of 1811, mentions a biographical sketch he may write about Thomas Nelson, Jr., (1738-1789), comments on the illness of Judith Randolph (1772-1816) and the need for her to write a will, asks Coalter to pass some legal information to William Wirt (1772-1834), sends books on the law and on the statutes of the state and asks Coalter not to loan them out, and remarks on the steamboat service between Hampton and Norfolk, Virginia. Also contains two letters from Coalter to his mother-in-law from his second marriage, Frances Davenport (d. 1816) containing family and social news. Also a letter from Henry St. George Tucker (1780-1848) to Coalter concerning the possibility of Coalter's remarrying and family news. Contains letters from Lelia Tucker, one to Coalter as an enclosure and a second to an unknown recipient regarding family and social news, and mentioning the death of Mrs. Greenhow. Also a letter from "Betsy" to her mother from Williamsburg about her trip from Richmond, an invitation to a ball and fox hunt given by a Mr. Harris, and other social news from Williamsburg and Charles City County, Virginia.

Arrangement

Chronological