Guide to the Hubard Family Papers 1749-1950

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
170 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Special Collections Public Services & Reference Staff
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Restrictions:

There are no restrictions.

Terms of access:

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred citation:

Guide to the Hubard Family Papers, Accession # 8039, 8039-a, 8039-b, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Summary

Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Guide to the Hubard Family Papers, Accession # 8039, 8039-a, 8039-b, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Background

Scope and content:

The Hubard Family Papers, ca. 1749(1845-1930)1950, consist of 12 shelf feet of chiefly correspondence, legal documents, bills and receipts, account books and printed material os the first, second, and third Robert T. Hubards.

Robert Thruston Hubard I (1808-1871), who was educated at Hampden-Sydney and the University of Virginia, was a planter at "Rosney"in Buckingham County and after 1850, at "Chellowe", which he purchased from his brother-in-law, Robert Bolling. Hubard's wife, formerly Susan Pocahantas Bolling, was seventh in descent from John Rolfe's marriage to Pocahantas through a granddaughter, Jane Rolfe, who married Colonel Robert Bolling in 1675. This ancestry is represented in the collection by ca. 50 pages of genealogical material. Of interest in the correspondence are letters to Hubard from his brothers William Bolling Hubard and Edmund Wilcox Hubard, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1841-1847, touching on political issues of the period, and ca. 30 letters, 1851-1857, from Hubard's son, James L., relating his experiences as a cadet at Virginia Military Institute. Also included are a letter from Philip St. George Cocke concerning James Linneaus Hubard's appointment to VMI, an extensive 1840 letter from Buchner Thruston re: Hubard family history and numerous letters concerning plantation business. Other Robert Thruston Hubard I material of note are his plantation journals, 1847-1871, and his lecture notes for Professor Tucker's economics class at the University of Virginia in 1828.

Robert Thruston Hubard II (1839-1921) after attending Hampden-Sydney College and the University of Virginia Law School, practiced law for several years in Richmond before returning to "Chellowe"in 1887, practicing law thereafter in Buckingham, Cumberland, and Prince Edward Counties. Among the legal papers in the collection are ca. 40 documents of the Orange- Keysville Railway, of which Hubard was president. The majority of the correspondence to and from him concerns the legal cases that he handled. Included are letters from members of the Tucker family re: the family estate, letters from H.C Cabell and H.P. Randolph as well as several letters from Thomas Staples Martin relating to a legal case. Of special note among the correspondence are a letter from Horace Greeley dated May 30, 1872 concerning the sending of a delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore, a letter from George C. Cabell to President-Elect McKinley recommending that Hubard be appointed First Assistant to the U.S. Attorney General, and a letter from Governor William Smith commending Robert T. Hubard II for his work in the Virginia Legislature, 1875-1877.

During the Civil War, Robert T. Hubard was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Third Virginia Cavalry, during which time he wrote several letters containing accounts of battles in which he participated. And in a June 5, 1910 letter to his son, he recounts the battle of May 8, 1864, on the Brock road near Spottsylvania Courthouse.

Also among the correspondence are copies of letters dating 1835-1842 from John R. Edmunds, Hubard's father-in-law, to Walter C. Coles, a member of the U.S. Congress. In these letters Edmunds discusses political issues of the period, e.g. abolitionism, the U.S. Treasury, and economic policy. In addition the collection contains ca. 70 pages of genealogical material and history of the Edmunds family.

Robert Thruston Hubard III (1876- ) was educated at Hampden-Sydney College, as was his father, and the University of Virginia Law School, after which he practiced law in Fayetteville, West Virginia. He married Ruth Drewry Whittle, daughter of Judge Stafford G. Whittle of Martinsville, Va., after a courtship in which they exchanged numerous letters amounting to 2 shelf feet along with those written during their marriage.

Among the general material of the colelction are several items concerning slavery, such as a list of Robert T. Hubard I's slaves and their value at the time of emancipation, a list of Virginia counties having fewer than 500 taxable slaves and a table of the population, both slave and white, of Virginia by decades from 1790-1840.

re: Robert Bolling's debt to Robert Thruston Hubard

re: Robert Thruston Hubard estate

re: Samuel Williams

re: Judith Randolph estate

re: Anna D. Randolph estate

re: Garnett and Moseley Gold Mining Co.

re: D.C. Randolph bankruptcy

re: Magdalene Maupin estate

re: John St. George Randolph estate

re: George Fulcher estate

re: claims against French Government by Edmunds family

re: Orange-Keysville Railway

re: John H. Miller

re: Alex Moseley trust fund

re: Samuel Williams Estate

re: Robert Thruston Hubard, Sr. estate

re: Robert Thruston Hubard, Jr's guardianship of Anna T. Daniels

re: George Fulcher estate

re: Robert Bolling

re: Magdalene Maupin estate

re: Judith Randolph estate

re: Anna Daniel Randolph estate

re: Orange-Keysville Railway

re: D.C. Randolph bankruptcy

Robert T. Hubard with Harrison Hubard and Tom Allen

of Robert Thruston Hubard, Jr. from Richmond

re: Brooke vs. Randolph

re: J. St. George Randolph estate

re: Magdalene Maupin estate

re: John St. George Randolph estate

City of Richmond Republican Executive Committee

re: deaths of Mr. and Mrs. H.M. Drewry and Capt. C.W. Whittle

re: death of Mrs. R. T. Hubard, III

Acquisition information:
The original collection was a 1965 loan of Robert T. Hubard Jr. (IV) of Hampden-Sydnye, Va. On May 14, 1974, Mr. Hubard made a gift of the original collection (8039) to the University of Virginia together with two groups of additional materials (8039-a, 8039-b), which are interfiled in the original collection. On the same date Mr. Hubard gave his literary rights to the collection to the University of Virginia.
Arrangement:

The collection is divided into four major sections in the following order: 1) correspondence, 2) legal documents and memoranda, 3) bills, receipts, promissory notes and accounts, 4) general material. In each of sections 1-3 the material is arranged chronologically. The material of section 4 is grouped topically in descending order of importance.

Physical description:
This collection consists of 12 shelf feet of items.