Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/253

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

1832. He saw active service and won brevet rank as colonel for distinguished bravery in the Florida campaign, and afterwards in the Mexican war received a like honor for conspicuous gallantry at Vera Cruz in com- mand of the Second Artillery, when he re- ceived the brevet rank of brigadier-general, March 29, 1847. ^^ the following year he was commander of Orizaba, a department in Mexico, and at the time of his death had charge of the military department of the east. His son, John Pine Bankhead, was a United States naval officer during the civil war. Gen. Bankhead died in Baltimore, Maryland, November 11, 1856.

Maxwell, William, born of English par- ents in Norfolk, Virginia, February 27, 1784. He was graduated from Yale College in 1802, studied law in Richmond, and prac- ticed in Norfolk. In 1830 he was elected to the lower house of the legislature, and was a state senator, 1832-38. In the latter year he accepted the presidency of Hamp- den-Sidney College, and continued in that position until 1844, when he resigned, and engaged in law practice in Richmond, and for a time conducted a law school. He was active in resurrecting the Virginia Histor- ical Society, which had been suspended, be- came its librarian, and for six years (1848- 1853) was editor of its organ, the ^'Virginia Historical Register and Literary Adver- tiser." He was an active member of the Bible and Colonization Society. He died June 9, 1857.

Tucker, Nathaniel Beverley, born at Wil- liamsburg, Virginia, September 6, 1784, son of Judge St. George Tucker. He was gradu- ated from William and Mary College in 1801. studied law, and practiced until 181 5, when

he moved to Missouri, where he was a circuit judge till 1830. Returning to Virginia, in 1834, he was made professor of law in Wil- liam and Mary College, which post he filled with signal ability till his death. As a writer he excelled any of his Virginia con- temporaries. His "Partisan Leader" (2 vols., 1836) was printed secretly, bearing the fic- titious date 1856, and purported to be a his- toric novel of the events between 1836 and that date, and in the light of the 1856-1865 period seems almost prophetic. It was re- printed with the title, "A Key to the Dis- union Conspiracy," and was followed by numerous other works. He took great in- terest in politics, had a large correspond- ence, and advocated strong states rights views. He left an unfinished life of his half- brother, John Randolph, of Roanoke. He wrote many political and miscellaneous essays, and was a frequent contributor to the "Southern Literary Messenger" of Rich- mond. He died in Winchester, Virginia, August 26, 1 85 1.

Mayo, Robert, born in Powhatan county, Virginia, April 25, 1784, grandson of Wil- liam Mayo, a pioneer surveyor, who served in that capacity in the Barbadoes, from 1717 to 1721, in Virginia, from 1723 to 1744, ran the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina, in 1728, surveyed the dis- puted land claimed by Lord Fairfax and the crown, in 1737, laid out the city of Rich- mond the same year, became chief civil engineer of Virginia, and died in Rich- mond, October 20, 1744; after completing his classical studies, Robert Mayo entered the University of Pennsylvania, graduating therefrom in 1808 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and from the year of his gradu-

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