Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/189

 PROMINENT PERSONS

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been large landed proprietors prior to the revolutionary war. His father was Rich- ard Morris, a lawyer and public man, who represented his district in the famous con- vention of 1829-30, where his eloquence and abilities gave him rank with the other great men that formed that convention. His mother before her marriage was Miss Mary- Watts, the daughter of Judge Watts, of Plotetourt county, Virginia. Charles Morris obtained his early education from private tutors, by whom he was prepared for the University of \'irginia, from which he grad- uated in July, 1845, with the degree of Master of Arts. Having begun the study of law, he settled in his native county, where he served for years as commonwealth's at- torney. In 1850-51 he traveled abroad. In 1859 he was elected professor of law at Wil- liam and Mary College, which position he held at the outbreak of the civil war. He entered the Confederate army as a member of the Hanover troop, which became dis- tinguished as a part of the Fourth Virginia Regiment. Upon the reorganization of the Confederate army, he was attached to the command of Gen. Lafayette McLaws. At the close of the war he held the commission oi major, having received his commission from Gen. John C. Breckenridge, secretary of war of the Confederate States. In Janu- ary, 1869, he was elected professor of Eng- lish in the University of Georgia, and in 1876 accepted the chair of Greek at Ran- clolph-Macon College. In 1882 he was re- elected to the chair of English in the Uni- versity of Georgia, which position he ac- cepted and filled up to the time of his death, in May, 1893. Professor Morris represented to the fullest degree the best type of the southern gentleman of the old school.

Among his most devoted friends he counted the late Henry W. Grady. As a compli- ment to Professor Morris, no less than as a tribute to their own merit, two of his sons after his death were elected professors in the University of Georgia, which he so well and faithfully served. On October 12, 1854. he married his kinswoman, Mary Minor Mor- lis, daughter of Dr. John Morris, of Gooch- land county, Virginia.

Baker, Richard Henry, born December 18, 1826, at Suffolk, Nansemond county, Virginia, son of Judge Richard Henry Baker, who was for thirty-five years upon the bench of the circuit court and Lelia A. Barraud, his wife. His father's ancestors were English people who came to this coun- try in 1632, and his mother's were French, v/ho settled here in 1700. He was educated at the well known boys' school in Amelia county, taught by Mr. \\'illiam H. Harri- son ; at the Episcopal high school near Alexandria, Virginia; and at the Norfolk Academy, from which he entered the Uni- versity of Virginia in 1847. There he stud- ied for two sessions, being graduated in 1850 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Upon leaving the university, he began the practice of his profession in the city of Norfolk. In 1861 he enlisted in the Con- federate army as a member of the Third Virginia Battalion, and was afterwards ap- pointed quartermaster and organized the quartermaster's department for the city of Norfolk. In 1862 he was elected to the legislature of Virginia, where he served until 1865. After the war he returned to Norfolk and resumed the practice of his profession. In 1872 he was appointed a member of the board of visitors of the University of Vir-