Search Finding Aid
A Guide to the Wickham Family Papers, 1766-1945 Wickham Family Papers, 1766-1945 Mss1 W6326 a FA2

A Guide to the Wickham Family Papers, 1766-1945

A Collection in
the Virginia Historical Society
Collection Number Mss1 W6326 a FA2


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Virginia Historical Society
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Funding: Web version of the finding aid funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Processed by: Virginia Historical Society Staff

Repository
Virginia Historical Society
Collection number
Mss1 W6326 a FA2
Title
A Guide to the Wickham Family Papers, 1766-1945
Size
5,500 (ca.) items (37 mss. boxes)
Language
English
Abstract
Abstract: The collection includes correspondence, 1798-1839, of Richmond, Va., attorney John Wickham, primarily concerning business and legal affairs and politics (correspondents include Stephen Decatur, Edmund Ruffin, and U.S. senator Littleton Waller Tazewell); legal records (including materials concerning the treason trial of Aaron Burr in 1807); records concerning "East Tuckahoe" plantation, Henrico County, Va.; and records concerning the settlement of Wickham's estate. Also, includes correspondence, 1836-1897, of Wickham's son Littleton Waller Tazewell Wickham (1821-1909), New Orleans, La., attorney and planter at "Woodside," Henrico County, Va. (including letters of Thomas Ashby concerning the "Bunker Hill" plantation, Darlington County, S.C., and of Elizabeth Selden Maclurg Wickham of Richmond and while visiting the Virginia springs); accounts; and materials concerning his law practice. Also, includes correspondence, 1864-1895, of Francis Peyre Porcher (1825-1895), physician of Charleston, S.C., with family members, prominent medical practitioners, and business associates; and family and personal correspondence, 1870-1929, of his daughter, Julia Wickham (Porcher) Wickham (1860-1933), especially with French soldiers and widows World War I, along with two autograph albums compiled by Mrs. Wickham featuring signatures and letters of prominent American and English literary, political and scientific figures. Also, includes diaries (36 v.), 1900-1939, correspondence, 1872-1935, and miscellaneous records of Thomas Ashby Wickham (1857-1939), attorney of Sprague, Wash., and Richmond, Va., judge of the Henrico County Court, and while serving in the Virginia Senate; correspondence, 1891-1897, and miscellaneous records of his cousin and law partner, William Fanning Wickham (1860-1900) of Richmond, Va., concerning his law practice, local civic activities, and service with the 1st Cavalry Regiment of Virginia Volunteers; and miscellaneous records of other Wickham family members

Administrative Information

Access

Collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Wickham Family Papers, 1766-1945 (Mss1 W6326 a FA2), Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Va.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Dr. Charles W. Porter and Mrs. Julia Wickham Porter, Richmond, Va., in 1986. Accessioned 1 October 1987.

Biographical/Historical Information

The Wickham family of Richmond and Henrico County, known as the "Woodside Wickhams," was founded by the celebrated post-Revolutionary War attorney John Wickham (1763-1839). A skilled advocate and friend to many of the prominent legal and political figures of his day, Wickham married twice and had numerous off-springs. This collection primarily traces his descendants by his second wife, Elizabeth Selden McClurg.

Scope and Content Information

The collection opens with attorney John Wickham's personal correspondence, largely with his second wife, Elizabeth Selden (McClurg) Wickham, and his children. Letters from a number of prominent correspondents appear as well, including: James Breckinridge (concerning the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-1830), Joseph Carrington Cabell (enclosing lengthy letters of Isaac A. Coles concerning his travels in western Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, the Missouri Territory, and the Missouri Compromise), Stephen Decatur, Maria M. Fanning (of Prince Edward Island, Canada; in part concerning Governor Edmund Fanning), Robert Gamble (enclosing an extract from a letter of George Mathews, governor of Georgia), John Church Hamilton (concerning a biography of Alexander Hamilton), William Gaston, Edmund Ruffin, Benjamin Silliman (of Yale College), Littleton Waller Tazewell (about 35 letters written while a U.S. senator from Virginia, a Norfolk attorney, and a planter on the Eastern Shore; enclosing a copy of a letter from Chief Justice John Marshall [18 January 1827] and notes on admiralty law; and describing a cholera epidemic [17 September 1832]), George Wickham (while serving as an officer in the U.S. Navy aboard the U.S.S. Constellation in the Mediterranean Sea [see also Josiah Colston]), and Walter Maclurg Wickham (as a medical student and physician in Baltimore, Md.).

Box three commences with materials from John Wickham's law practice. These include his 1787 licence to practice in Virginia; a commonplace book, ca. 1766-1780, kept by an unidentified person (no doubt a Wickham relative), with notes on procedural law in the inferior and superior courts of the Colony of New York and accounts (p. 130ff) of an unidentified individual; proceedings and orders of the Board of British Debt Commissioners in Philadelphia, Pa., 1798-1808; records of actions in the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Virginia in the so-called British Debt Cases, 1795-1808; and a will of Nicholas M. Vaughan of Goochland County 1833.

Materials concerning the famous trial of Aaron Burr in the federal court in Richmond on treason charges in 1806-1807 primarily revolve around Wickham's questioning of the integrity of evidence provided by General James Wilkinson and Wilkinson's attempt to secure satisfaction on the field of honor. The records include copies of Wilkinson's letters to President Thomas Jefferson; correspondence of Wickham with George Hay, Dr. William Upshaw and James Wilkinson; and affidavits and a memorial of Miles Selden and John Wickham. (Wickham's writings are letter-press copies in very poor condition and barely legible.)

While a resident of Richmond, John Wickham purchased a large tract of land in western Henrico County known as "East Tuckahoe." His records of that estate include lists of slaves at "Middle Quarter" and "Lower Quarter," 1821-1837 (the 1825 list includes Wickham's notes on various workers); test borings for coal, 1809-1834; and notes on the wheat crop, 1836.

John Wickham's commonplace book, 1804-1807, records notes on climate, weather, agriculture and population, and undoubtedly served as a source for the pamphlet on climate that he wrote. Miscellaneous materials include a lengthy essay on slavery and abolition(undated but probably written by Wickham in the 1830s); a biographical sketch of Chief Justice John Marshall (see letter of Bushrod Washington, Box 2); physician's instructions for the care of Elizabeth Selden (McClurg) Wickham, 1823; epitaphs of certain of the Wickham children; notes concerning a tour through Europe, ca. 1784; and lines of verse.

Materials concerning the estate of John Wickham include his will, 1839, probated in Richmond (bearing extensive notes of Benjamin Watkins Leigh); letters of condolence addressed to Mrs. and Henry Hiort; Richmond City tax receipts, 1854-1863; and litigation among the heirs, 1854 (also concerns the estate of Dr. James McClurg). Division of the "East Tuckahoe" estate, 1847-1871, includes agreements, litters of John Wickham (1825-1902) And William Fanning Wickham (1793-1880) to Littleton Waller Tazewell Wickham; an abstract of title; notes and a bond.

John Wickham married first Mary Smith Fanning, who bore him two sons and died young in 1799. His second wife, Elizabeth Selden McClurg, was a celebrated belle of her day. The papers of this second Mrs. Wickham, in Series 2, consist of correspondence, 1794-1850, including letters of Edwin Burwell, Stephen Decatur, Dr. James McClurg, Eliza (Kinloch) Nelson (at "Shirley" Charles City county), Littleton Waller Tazewell, Eliza Carter (Randolph) Turner (of "Shirley," Charles City County), George Wickham, and John Wickham ([1825-1902] at Harvard College). Copies of wills of benefactors include those of Edwin Burwell (an early admirer, written in Richmond, 1798), Dr. James McClug (probated in Richmond, 1823), and Walter McClurg (probated in Elizabeth City County in 1784). Miscellany is comprised of a receipt, 1850; autograph of Henry Clay; recipes; and lines of verse.

The eldest of the children of John and Elizabeth Wickham featured prominently in this collection is Maclurg Wickham (note that the children began to spell "McClurg" as "maclurg"). Maclurg Wickham (1814-1900) lived at "East Tuckahoe." His papers are contained in Series 3, and consist of a diary, 1851-1882, with many gaps, that deals primarily with plantation operations, the management of slaves (including lists of slaves with records of the distribution of clothing and supplies), and notes from 1890 concerning the recent death of family members and friends. Some of the records in this diary were entered by John Wickham (1825-1902). A few items of correspondence, 1848-1876, include letters from his brother William Fanning Wickham (1793-1880). Additional materials are made up of loose accounts, 1860-1897; bonds of Littleton Waller Tazewell Wickham and receipts of Maclurg Wickham, 1859-1865; and materials, 1893-1897, from the lawsuit of Maclurg Wickham trustee etal. v. the heirs of Frances (Wickham) Graham etal. in an unidentified Virginia court (including correspondence and notes of William Fanning Wickham [1860-1900] as counsel and receipts of the legatees).

Maclurg Wickham's miscellany consists of diplomas from the University of Virginia, 1831-1832; a pardon, 1865, signed by President Andrew Johnson and William Henry Seward; a lease of Thomas E. Clarke to the "Woodside" plantation in Henrico County (including trust deeds concerning horses and cattle at "Woodlawn," Henrico County); personal property tax return, 1896; and an insurance policy, 1897. Wickham's estate records are comprised of notes of Henry Taylor Wickham concerning the draft of a will and the response; a certificate of the executor's qualification; an inventory; and an unexecuted deed, 1909, to real property in Richmond, Va.

Littleton Waller Tazewell Wickham was named for one of his father's closest personal friends. Educated at the University of Virginia, he practiced law in New Orleans for a time before returning to Virginia in the 1850s. His papers comprise Series 4. His correspondence (Boxes 5-8), 1836-1897, largely concerns his life as a student at the University, the estates of his two deceased wives, and plantation a portion of the old "East Tuckahoe" estate. Among the more important of frequent correspondents are: Thomas Ashby (of Charleston, S.C., concerning the "Bunker Hill" plantation in Darlington County, S.C.), Parke Farley Berkeley, John Minor Botts, Alfred T. Conrad, Francis Buckner Conrad, William W. Harllee (of Mars Bluff, S.C., concerning the purchase and sale of the "Bunker Hill" plantation), William F. Harrison (of Powhatan County), Gabriella Brockenbrough (Wickham) Leigh, Robert Nash Ogden (New Orleans judge, concerning the estate of John Nicholson), John Scott (of "Oakwood," Fauquier County, concerning the abolition of slavery), Philip Montague Thompson (at the University of Virginia), Elizabeth Seldon Maclurg Wickham (with comments on everyday life and society in Richmond; some letters written from New Orleans, La., Salt Sulphur Springs and Sweet Springs, W. Va., and Hot Springs, Bath County, Va.), George Wickham, John Wickham ([1825-1902] at the White Sulphur Springs and Sweet Springs, W.Va., in1844 and bearing references to John Minor Botts and Robert Edward Lee), Littleton Tazewell Wickham, Thomas Ashby Wickham (practicing law at Sprague, Washington and visiting White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., in 1895), William Fanning Wickham ([1793-1880] of "Hickory Hill," Hanover County, concerning the lawsuit Wickham etal. v. Leigh etal. in Richmond Circuit Court), and H. B. Taliaferro & Co., Richmond (postwar produce and commission merchants).

L. W. T. Wickham's financial records are found in Boxes 8-9. These include two account books, 1851-1874 (record of checks) and 1874-1878; a passbook, 1855-1857; and loose accounts, 1849-1882 and 1890-1891. Materials, 1837-1839, concerning Wickham's education at the University of Virginia include essays (bear notes of Professor George Tucker), a speech on slavery, scheme of study, invitations, accounts, eximinations, and diplomas. Records of invitatins, accounts, examinations, and diplomas. Records of Wickham's law practice, 1848-1852, consist of licenses, a commonplace book bearing abstracts of Virginia and British case reports and notes of John Wickham (1763-1839), notes on law, materials concerning lawsuits in Louisiana, and materials concerning his law partner in New Orleans, Francis Buckner Conrad.

Bell & Gibson of Richmond constructed Wickham's home at "Woodside" about 1857. Records in Box 10 include agreements, accounts, an insurance policy, and letters to William Fanning Wickham (1793-1880) from Baltimore craftsmen concerning a mantle. William F. Harrison of Powhatan County built a barn and "machine shelter" on the estate and his records are comprised of agreements, accounts, notes and miscellany. Then follow records of agricultural operations, 1857-1875: deeds to portions of the estate; inventories of personal property; lists of slaves; a petition to the Virginia General Assembly concerning fence laws; agreements with overseers; notes and miscellany.

In the later 1850s Wickham purchased the land and slaves at "Bunker Hill" in Darlington County, S.C., from his father-in-law, Thomas Ashby. After Wickham's wife died, the transaction became a point of conflict between the two men. Records consist of bonds, receipts of Ashby, accounts, proceedings concerning the dower right of Elizabeth Peyre (Ashby) Laurens Wickham, accounts of sales of property, lists of slaves, a letter of William W. Harllee to Dr. Edward Porcher, and miscellany.

A few of Littleton Wickham's records from the period of the Civil War survive. These include certificates; assessors' receipts for produce; a petition of George A. Mathews to Confederate Secretary of War James Alexander Seddon (draft in the hand of Wickham); a pass; petition of Henrico County residents to General Edward R. S. Canby concerning the fencing of farms (signed by L.W.T. Wickham, Maclurg Wickham, and about two dozen others); and notes. Materials relating to Wickham's postwar filing for bankruptcy in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia consist of a petition, schedules of property (broadsides), a deposition, power of attorney, notes and letters of William Fanning Wickham (1793-1880) and William Fanning Wickham (1860-1900) as a counsel, a copy of the marriage settlement of Charlotte Georgiana (Wickham) Lee and William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, receipts, and certificates.

Miscellaneous documents relating to Littleton Waller Tazewell Wickham are comprised of a letter of Daniel Webster to Benjamin Watkins Leigh in 1840; plans for the gradual abolition of slavery written by Wickham in 1847; a lease, 1862, to a house in Richmond; litigation involving Wickham, 1867-1870; a will written in Henrico County, 1861; lines of verse composed by Wickham (including odes to Richmond and to Virginia); a commonplace book, 1886 (two entries); letters written to Wickham & Co., Lorraine, Va., 1893-1897; and newspaper clippings.

Littleton Wickham married his first wife, Eliza Wyckoff Nicholson, in New Orleans, but she died young in 1850. She is represented in Series 5. Her correspondence, 1846-1850, is primarily with relatives and largely concerns the estate of her father, John Nicholson. Among her correspondents are Alfred T. Conrad, Louisiana congressman Charles Magill Conrad, Francis Buckner Conrad, Frances S. D. Ogden, Judge Robert Nash Ogden and Elizabeth Selden Maclurg Wickham. Box 12 also contains a few accounts, 1849-1850, and materials concerning the estate of John Nicholson ([d. 1848] including correspondence of L.W.T. Wickham and William T. Hepp [administrator]; accounts; power of attorney; petition to the Louisiana District Court in New Orleans; a printed message of the governor of Pennsylvania concerning the estate of John Nicholson [d. 1800]; a document of partition and compromise; inventories of estate property; court proceedings; and notes of L.W.T. Wickham and others). Miscellany and a few items from her estate round out the records of the first Mrs. Wickham (will [three copies], memorial by L.W.T. Wickham and funeral notice, certificate from the Louisiana district Court for Jefferson Parish, accounts, court proceedings [drafts of petitions and motions], and notes).

The second Mrs. Wickham, the widow Elizabeth Peyre (Ashby) Laurens of Charleston, S.C., likewise died young in 1859 after bearing four children. Her papers, in Series 6, include letters written to her, 1852- 1859, including one from South Carolina attorney general James Louis Petigru. The collection also includes letters, 1821-1831, written by her mother, Elizabeth (Peyre) Sinkler Ashby, to a handful of correspondents, and a letter of E. Thomas concerning the death of Mrs. Ashby. Series 7 contains the papers of John Wickham (1825-1902), the youngest of the Wickham sons, who also lived at "Woodside" in Henrico County. His correspondence, 1837-1902, includes letters from Benjamin Watkins Leigh, Winfield Scott (concerning an appointment to the military academy at West Point) and Littleton Waller Tazewell (bears an extract from a letter of President John Tyler to Tazewell, 24 October 1842). Along with sporadic accounts, Box 13 contains John Wickham's records of "East Tuckahoe," particularly concerning mineral rights and mining proposals and including plats and notes of John J. Pleasants, deeds, and an agreement.

John Wickham likewise filed for bankruptcy following the Civil War. Records of these proceedings in the U. S. District Court for Easter Virginia consist of a memorandum of proceedings; petition; reports; reply and exceptions of Maclurg Wickham (drafts in the hand of William Fanning Wickham [1860-1900]); letters addressed to William Fanning Wickham of T.A. & W.F. Wickham of Richmond; notes and miscellany. Some general miscellany and a few items from his estate (including diplomas from the University of Virginia, 1841, and a will written in Henrico County in 1901) complete John Wickham's records.

Series 8 contains materials relating to this generation of Wickhams. Included are a number of items of correspondence of Dr. James McClurg, Littleton Waller Tazewell, Elizabeth Selden Maclurg Wickham, George Wickham, James Maclurg Wickham and others.

Series 9 contains the papers of Dr. Francis Peyre Porcher, whose daughter married a son of L.W.T. Wickham. Porcher was an eminent South Carolina physician and medical writer who had married a granddaughter of John Wickham (1763-1839). His correspondence in this collection, 1864-1895, is directed largely to family members, prominent American and European practitioners, and some financial and business associates (especially concerning railroad bonds). Some letters concern the collection of autographs for his daughter, discussed below. Correspondents include Dr. Abel Seymour Baldwin, Florida congreeman Silas Leslie Niblack, Dr. George Frederick Shrady, Julia Wickham (Porcher) Wickham, William Fanning Wickham (1793-1880) and a number of Porcher family members. Lectures, 1849 and 1870) on Cicero and the Roman Forum, an 1879 lecture before the Young Men's Christian Association of Charleston, S.C., and an undated essay concerning South Carolina local history also survive.

Dr. Porcher's miscellany includes a number of interesting items. Along with a few accounts, 1865-1869 and 1895, are orders of the Confederate States Surgeon General Samuel Preston Moore, 1862; notes on the Confederate service of the 7th South Carolina Infantry Regiment; Confederate States Bonds, 1863; Florida Central Railroad stock certificates, 1868; a published articles on Yellow Fever, 1894; and a commission, 1881, as South Carolina representative to the American Public Health Association, signed by Governor Johnson Hagood. These are followed by a few miscellaneous Porcher family materials: letters to or from Isabella Sarah (Peyre) Porcher, Virginia (Leigh) Porcher and Dr. Walter Peyre Porcher; and essays on freedmen in South carolina by Alexander Mazyck Porcher.

Series 10, the papers of Thomas Ashby Wickham (1857-1939), include thirty-six volumes of Judge Wickham's diaries, for the years 1900, 1902-1925, and 1929-1939. The entries are cryptic notations on local weather, farming activities, travel, personal finances, and the like. Judge Wickham's correspondence, 1872-1938 (beginning in Box 19), is primarily with members of his family, concerning his law practice in the Washington Territory, his service in the Virginia Senate (especially regarding confirmation proceedings for the appointment of Judge William Francis Rhea to the State Corporation Commission), and the estate of Frances (Wickham) Graham. This includes a large number of letters from his law partner and later Washington State Supreme Court justice Wallace Mount.

Following a group of loose accounts and check stub books (two volumes), the collection contains records of Judge Wickham's residence at "Woodside." These include an insurance policy, proposal for rental of farm land, agreements, materials concerning bridge construction over Tuckahoe Creek and miscellany. Other land records of Wickham concern the acquisition of lots and improvements in Richmond and Henrico County, 1909- 1912.

Records concerning Judge Wickham's law practice, 1843-1921, consist of licences and licence fees; law notes; a tribute to James Robertson Vivian Daniel; notes concerning the professional conduct of John Anthony Lamb; accounts of the law firm of T.A. & W.F. Wickham in Richmond, 1893-1896; cases in the Richmond Chancery Court, Richmond Law and Equity Court, and Henrico Circuit Court (including the estate of Frances (Wickham) Graham in Graham's trustee v. Graham's heirs); materials concerning lands in Richmond belonging to Lucy Wickham (Fitzhugh) Faison and R. H. Sinton (in the lawsuit of Joseph A. Johnston v. Rebecca Johnston etal.); and materials concerning executorships and trusteeships handled by Wickham during his judicial career.

Judge Wickham's political materials concern his service in the Virginia Senate in 1908 (petition of citizens of York County for a portion of their district to be added to James City County; materials concerning the confirmation proceedings in the case of Judge Rhea on the State Corporation Commission) and his unsuccessful bid to win the 1910 Democratic Congressional Primary against Congreeman John Lamb (notes; form letter; labor union materials, newspaper clippings). The judge's miscellany includes the diary of an 1895 visit to White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.; stock certificates, 1907-1910; tax forms for various years; and a will (revoked).

Following Judge Wickham's papers are the surviving records of his cousins and law partner William Fanning Wickham (1860-1900). They practiced together in Richmond in the 1890s as T.A. & W.F. Wickham. Contained in Series 11, William F. Wickham's correspondence largely concerns his law practice, St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Hanover County (letters from architects, manufacturers, contractors, etc.), the Virginia State Agricultural and Mechanical Society (especially concerning the Virginia State Fair of 1893), the First Cavalry Regiment of Virginia Volunteers, Wickham's purchase of a farm in Powhatan County, and local alumni of the University of Virginia. Prominent correspondents include Anne Carter (Wickham) Renshaw Byerly, horsebreeder H. Clay Chamblin, Stuart Lee Dance, Alexander Barclay Guigon, Maryland horseman Robert Hough, Fenton Noland (of Offley, Va.), Thomas Nelson Page, clergy Clevius Orlando Pruden, Hanover County attorney Hill Carter Redd, federal judge Edmund Waddill, Henry Taylor Wickham, Lucy Penn (Taylor) Wickham, John Sergeant Wise, and the Re. E. Lee Camp of Sons of Confederate Veterans in Richmond.

Additional records of William Fanning Wickham consist of accounts, 1893-1897; materials as colonel commanding the First Cavalry Regiment of Virginia Volunteers (general and special orders, invitations to participate in special events, expenses of a court-martial, and subscribers to the Albemarle Light Horse Troop of Virginia Volunteers); invitations and notices of meetings of such secret societies, clubs, and fraternal orders as the Scottish Rite Freemasons, Shriners, Knights Templar, Tuckahoe Farmers' Club, and Wednesday Club of Richmond. General miscellany includes records of his law practice; assorted materials concerning the construction of St. Paul's Church in Hanover County; materials concerning the Seay Farm in Powhatan County; Republican Party materials; records of the University of Virginia alumni banquet in Richmond, 1894; bonds; and materials concerning Hanover County courthouse.

Series 12 contains materials relating to Julia Wickham Porcher (1860-1933), who married her cousin Thomas Ashby Wickham in 1897 and lived at "Woodside." She kept a diary (Box 28) in 1896 during a trip to England and France that contains numerous clippings and photographs along with daily notations. Her correspondence, 1870-1929, is primarily with Porcher family members and with friends, but also includes letters from a number of French soldiers and widows during and just after World War I. Among the significant correspondents: Hobart Asquith (concerning his Confederate serve in the Maryland Line under generals Lunsford Lindsay Lomax and Williams Carter Wickham), Episcopal clergyman Ambler Mason Blackford, French clergyman C. Boyer (written in French at the close of World War I), New York banker Charles Meriwether Fry, Elizabeth (Leigh) Fry, Hamilton Wright Mable, Virginia Carter Minor, Alexander Mazyck Porcher, Isabella Sarah (Peyre) Porcher, Virginia Leigh Porcher, Dr. Walter Peyre Porcher, Helen Willis (Minor) Poyntz, Conway Robinson (concerning President Rutherford B. Hayes), Mary Susan Selden (Leigh) Robinson, Irish actress Patricia (Collinge) Smith, Littleton Maclurg Wickham, and Bishop Richard Hooker Wilmer (enclosing a copy of his pamphlet entitled Some Thoughts on Robert Elsmere, in a Letter to a Friend [1889?]).Mrs. Wickham's account books include a volume covering expenses on a trip to Europe in 1891 and a passbook apparently on a New York bank, 1895-1896. Then follow in Boxes 33-34 her very extensive collection of autographs of famous persons. Mrs. Wickham apparently began collecting as a young woman with her father's encouragement and aid, and amassed a fine group of letters, autographs, and clipped signatures from her father's friends and medical associates, as well as from other Porcher and Wickham family members. The first volume remains intact and an index to it follows this collection description. Loose items have been filed in the same box with the album, as the index will show. The second volume was in very poor condition, the highly acidic paper on which many items were pasted threatened their very existence. The volume thus was disassembled and the loose items filed alphabetically according to type of document. A separate index of the documents removed from this second volume is also available.

The remaining materials of Mrs. Wickham in this collection include a scrapbook dating from 1904 containing numerous newspaper clippings, and a large file of clippings grouped around certain subjects (obituary notices, Virginia and South Carolina local history, Huguenots in America, general information). Miscellany consists of a few accounts, 1920-1926; an essay on women; a student notebook (primarily concerns literature and language); materials concerning the "Half-Hour Reading Club," 1889-1895, presumably in South Carolina; genealogical and historical notes; and lines of verse by Edmund Pendleton.

Series 13 is made up of a few surviving papers of Judge Thomas Ashby Wickham's brother Littleton Tazewell Wickham survive in this collection. They consist of correspondence, 1880-1889; accounts, 1886-1888; account books (two volumes), 1878-1883, 1882-1883; and a check stub book, 1882-1884. Series 14 contains papers of their sister Elizabeth (Wickham) Fitzhugh, including letters, 1866-1881, from Thomas Ashby, Mary Louise Brooks, Isabella Sarah (Peyre) Porcher, William Fanning Wickham (1793-1880) and others; accounts, 1882-1884; and miscellany. A number of items of correspondence, 1882-1939, of Mrs. Wickham's sister Virginia Leigh Porcher, make up Series 15. These may be found in Box 36 as well.

Littleton Maclurg Wickham (1898-1973), son of Judge Thomas Ashby Wickham, represents the last generation of "Woodside Wickhams" in this collection. His papers are contained in Series 16. His correspondence, 1909-1945, is primarily with family and friends from the University of Virginia and concerns in part Zeta Psi Fraternity of North America and Wickham's service in World War I. Correspondents include John Herbert Claiborne, Richard Hartwell Cocke (of "Lower Bremo," Fluvanna County, and as an attorney in Alabama), Richard Davenport Gilliam, Congreeman Andrew Jackson Montague, Amelia Louise (Rives) Chanler Troubetzkoy and Dr. Frederick Henry Wilke.

Records of Littleton Wickham's days at the Episcopal High School in Alexandria, both as student and teacher, may be found in Box 37. Examination reports, exam questions, a list of students, invitations and programs illustrate his career as a student, 1911-1915, while teach contracts (signed by Archibald Robinson Hoxton) and accounts cover his teaching career, 1917-1921 (see also his correspondence with his mother, Julia Wickham (Porcher) Wickham). Wickham attended the University of Virginia, graduating from the college in 1917 and attending the School of Law from 1922 to 1924. Examination reports, a recommendation from Professor Richard Henry Wilson, and miscellany cover his years in Charlottesville. Miscellany concerns his World War I service (1917) and personal accounts, 1923-1938.

The collection closes with Series 17, which contains miscellaneous family and non-family materials including letters written to or by Anne Alston Porcher, Margaret Ward Porcher and Ashby Porcher Wickham; a commonplace book of Mary Charlotte Porcher, 1850; and accounts of Julia Porcher (Wickham) Porter, 1931-1937.

Arrangement

Arranged into seventeen series by main entry and further subdivided by document type or subject as necessary.

Index Terms

  • Ashby, Thomas, 1783-1872.
  • Autograph albums -- Virginia -- Richmond.
  • Bunker Hill (Darlington County, S.C.)
  • Diaries -- Virginia -- Henrico County -- History -- 20th century.
  • East Tuckahoe (Henrico County, Va.)
  • Lawyers -- Virginia -- Richmond -- History.
  • New Orleans (La.) -- History -- 19th century.
  • Physicians -- South Carolina -- Charleston -- History -- 19th century.
  • Porcher, Francis Peyre, 1825-1895.
  • Practice of law -- Louisiana -- New Orleans -- History -- 19th century.
  • Practice of law -- Virginia - - Richmond -- History.
  • Sprague (Wash.) -- History -- 19th century.
  • Tazewell, Littleton Waller, 1774-1860.
  • United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865.
  • Veterans -- France -- History -- World War, 1914-1918.
  • Virginia -- Description and travel -- 19th century.
  • Virginia. General Assembly. Senate -- Members -- History -- 20th century.
  • Virginia. Militia. Cavalry Regiment, 1st (1891-1897)
  • Wickham family.
  • Wickham, Elizabeth Selden Maclurg, 1815-1853.
  • Wickham, John, 1763-1839.
  • Wickham, Julia Wickham Porcher, 1860-1933.
  • Wickham, Littleton Waller Tazewell, 1821- 1909.
  • Wickham, Thomas Ashby, 1857-1939.
  • Wickham, William Fanning, 1860- 1900.
  • Woodside (Henrico County, Va.)

Contents List

Series 1: John Wickham (1763-1839), Richmond and "East Tuckahoe," Henrico County, Va.
  • Box 1-2
    Subseries 1.1: Correspondence, 1798-1839
  • Box 3
    Subseries 1.2: Law materials and miscellany, 1766-1833

    Law practice, 1766-1833; Burr trial, 1806-1807; "East Tuckahoe" materials; commonplace book; miscellany; estate.

Series 2: Elizabeth Selden (McClurg) Wickham (1781-1853), Richmond, Va.
Box 4

Correspondence, 1794-1850; wills of benefactors; miscellany.

Series 3: Maclurg Wickham (1814-1900), "East Tuckahoe," Henrico County, Va.
Box 5

Diary, 1851-1882; correspondence, 1848-1876; accounts, 1860-1897; bonds; Wickham v. Graham materials; miscellany; estate.

Series 4: Littleton Waller Tazewell Wickham (1821-1909), New Orleans, La., and "Woodside," Henrico County, Va.
  • Box 5 (cont.)-8
    Series 4.1.: Correspondence, 1836-1897.
  • Box 8 (cont.)-10
    Series 4.2: Financial materials, 1849-1891.

    Account books, bank books, loose accounts, bonds and notes.

  • Box 10 (cont.)
    Series 4.3: University of Virginia records, 1837-1839.
  • Box 10 (cont.)
    Series 4.4: Law practice, 1848-1852.
  • Box 10 (cont.)-11
    series 4.5: Plantation records, "Woodside" and "Bunker Hill," 1858-1861.
  • Box 11 (cont.)
    Series 4.6: Miscellany

    Civil War materials, 1862-1865; bankruptcy materials, 1859-1880; miscellany.

Series 5: Eliza Wyckoff (Nicholson) Wickham (d. 1850), New Orleans, La.
Box 12

Correspondence, 1846-1850; accounts, 1849-1850; estate of John Nicholson, 1842-1851; miscellany; estate.

series 6: Elizabeth Peyre (Ashby) Laurens Wickham (1824-1859), Charleston, S.C. and Richmond, Va.
Box 12 (cont.)

Letters to, 1852-1859; letters of her mother, Elizabeth (Peyre) Sinkler Ashby, 1821-1831.

Series 7: John Wickham (1825-1902), "Woodside," Henrico County, Va.
Box 13

Correspondence, 1837-1902; accounts, 1876-1877, 1893-1902; "East Tuckahoe" materials, 1840-1868; bankruptcy materials, 1878-1896; miscellany and estate.

Series 8: Remaining children of John Wickham (1763-1839).
Series 9: Doctor Francis Peyre Porcher (1824-1895), Charleston, S.C.
  • Box 14
    Series 9.1: Correspondence and lectures, 1864-1895.
  • Box 15
    Series 9.2: Porcher family materials, 1864-1883, and miscellany.
Series 10: Thomas Ashby Wickham (1857-1939), Sprague, Washington, Richmond, and "Woodside," Henrico County, Va.
Box 13
  • Box 15 (cont.)-19
    Series 10.1: Diaries, 1900, 1902-1925, 1929-1939
  • Box Box 19 (cont.)-20
    Series 10.2: Correspondence, 1872-1938
  • Box 21
    Series 10.3: Financial materials, 1882-1939

    Accounts, 1882-1885, 1895-1922 (sporadic), 1930-1939; check stub books (2 v.), 1910-1912, 1912-1914.

  • Box 22
    Series 10.4: Plantation materials, 1894-1935

    "Woodside" materials, 1894-1935; land records, 1900-1912

  • Box 22 (cont.)
    Series 10.5: Legal and political materials, 1843-1921, and miscellany.

    Law practice, 1843-1921; Virginia Senate, 1908; Democratic Congressional primary, 1910; miscellany.

Series 11: William Fanning Wickham (1860-1900), Richmond, Va.
  • Box 23-26
    Subseries 11.1: Correspondence, 1891-1897.
  • Box 27
    Subseries 11.2.: Financial materials, 1893-1897.
  • Box 27 (cont.)
    Subseries 11.3: Military, 1893-1894, personal, and general miscellany.

    First Cavalry Regiment material, 1893-1894; secret societies, clubs, fraternal orders; general miscellany.

Series 12: Julia Wickham (Porcher) Wickham (1860-1933), Charleston, S.C., and "Woodside," Henrico County, Va.
  • Box 28
    Series 12.1: Julia Wickham Diary, 1896
  • Box 28 (cont.)-32
    Series 12.2: Correspondence, 1870-1929.
  • Box 33
    Series 12.3: Account books, 1891, 1895-1896
  • Box 33 (cont.)-34
    Series 12.4: Autograph albums, 1769-1887

    Autograph album I, 1769-1887; Aautograph album II, 1825-1884

  • Box 35
    Series 12.5: Scrapbook and miscellany.

    Scrapbook, 1904; newspaper clippings; miscellany.

Series 13: Littleton Tazewell Wickham (1858-1890), "Woodside," Henrico County, Va.
Box 36

Correspondence, 1880-1889; accounts, 1886-1888; account books (2 vols.), 1878-1883, 1882-1883; check stub book, 1882-1884.

Series 14: Elizabeth (Wickham) Fitzhugh (1854-1889), "Woodside," Henrico County, Va.
Box 36 (cont.)

Letters to, 1866-1881; accounts, 1882-1884; miscellany

Series 15: Virginia Leigh Porcher (1866-1940), Charleston, S.C., and "Woodside," Henrico County, Va.
Box 36 (cont.)

Correspondence, 1882-1939

Series 16: Littleton Maclurg Wickham (1898-1973), "Woodside," Henrico County, Va.
  • Box 36 (cont.)-37
    Series 16.1: Correspondence, 1909-1945
  • Box 37 (cont.)
    Series 16.2: Educational materials and miscellany

    Episcopal High School records; University of Virginia; miscellany

Series 17: Miscellaneous family and non-family materials
Box 37 (cont.)

Letters, commonplace book, accounts