Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/281

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VIRGIXIA BIOGRAPHY

added notes to Daniel Call's 'Virginia Re- ports;" revised and condensed the four volumes of Heming and Munford's reports into one, and wrote a tract on the "Reasons for Abolishing the Liquor Traffic;" he de- livered before the alumni of the University of \'irginia a eulogy on Professor John A. G. Davis; he was an earnest advocate of temperance; he married Lavinia Price, of Hanover county, \'irginia; he died in Wil- liamsburg, \'irginia, in 1858, and the Sons of Temperance erected in the col- lege burial ground a monument to his memory.

Davis, John A. G., born in Middlesex county, \'irginia, in March, 1802; studied ai W illiam and Mary College in 1819-20, and two years later commenced practice in iliddlesex county ; at the opening session of the University of Virginia he removed to Charlottesville, and was a student at the university during one year; followed his profession before the Virginia bar for five years ; in 1830, upon the resignation of Pro- fessor Lomax, he was chosen professor of law at the university; on the night of No- vember 12, 1840, while attempting, by vir- tue of the authority vested in him as chairman of the faculty, to disperse a dis- orderly assemblage of rebellious students, he was shot by a student from Georgia, and died from the wound three days later; the murderer escaped justice by forfeiting bail ; Professor Davis was an eminent man in his profession, a distinguished writer on legal subjects, and a notably capable teacher, and his sudden death was a serious loss to the university ; Professor Davis was the author of a large amount of legal writing, his more important publications being: "Estates

Tail, Executory Devises, and Contingent Remainders, under the Virginia Statutes Modifying the Common Law;" "Treatise on Criminal Law, and Guide to Justices of the Peace," 1838; and "Against the Constitu- tional Right of Congress to Pass Laws Ex- pressly and Especially for the Protection of Domestic Manufacturers."

Atkinson, Thomas, born in Dinwiddie county, Virginia, August 6, 1807, son of Robert Atkinson and Mary Tabb, his wife. 1:1 e entered Vale College at the age of six- teen, but finished his education at Hampden- Sidney College, from which he graduated v.-ith the distini(uished class of 1825. He studied law, and made a successful begin- ning in practice, but soon turned to the church, and after proper preparation was ordained deacon in the Protestant Episco- pal church, at the hands of Right Rev. Wil- liam Meade, bishop of Virginia, November i8r 1836. He was assistant at Christ Church, Norfolk, for some months, and then, being ordained priest, was make rector of St. Paul's Church, in the same city. In 1839 he was called to St. Paul's Church, Lynch- burg, then, in succession, to the rectorship of churches at Wilmington, North Carolina, and Baltimore, Maryland. On November I3» ^853, he was consecrated bishop of North Carolina, and continued as such until his death, at Wilmington, North Carolina, January 4, 1881. When he became bishop, he found the church in North Carolina sadly disorganized, his predecessor having gone over to Rome. The restoration under Bishop Atkinson was rapid and substantial. He re- ceived the degree of D. D. from Trinity College in 1846; and that of LL. D. from the University of North Carolina in 1862. and from Cambridge University in 1867.

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