Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/264

 GARXETT

GARNETT

Garnett; and grandson of James Garnett of Essex county, Va., and of Jolm Mercer of Stafford county, "Va., who emigrated to Virginia from Dublin, Ireland, early in the 18th century. His uncle, James Mercer, was a jvidge of the court of appeals of Virginia, a member of the committee of safety of 1775-76, and of the state conventions of 1774, 1775 and 1776. He was married in 1793 to Mary Eleanor Dick, daughter of James and Eleanor (Dick) Mercer. He berved in 1799-1800 and again in 1835-26, as a member of the Virginia legislature, and was a representa- yiUAA^^i.-C^aJ-huJk tive from Virginia in / '^-^lii;!:!^//^?'^'^''"- the 9th and 10th con- gresses, 1805-09. While in congress he was, with Jolm Randolph of Roanoke, Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina and others, a member of that '■ Mixed Party," which opposed some of the meas- ures of Mr. Jefferson's second administration. Mr. Randolph in the pamphlet edition of his speech on " Retrenchment and Reform," delivered in the house of representatives in February, 1838, in reply to Mr. Everett of Massachusetts, makes reference to Mr. Garnett and appends a note, saying; " I take pride in naming this gentleman among my steady, uniform and unwavering friends. In congress he never said an unwise thing or gave a bad vote. He has kept the faith fiom 1799, when he supported the doctrines of Jladison's famous report made at the session of the Virginia assembly of which he was a mem- ber." He was a member of the convention as- sembled at Riclimond in 1839 to revise the state constitution. He was well known as an educator and conducted in his home a school for girls, 1831-29, and later a school for boys. He was also devoted to agi'iculture, writing extensively on the subject; presiding over the Agi-icultural society of Fredericksburg. Va., for more than twenty years, and was the founder and first president of the National agricultural society. He was a member of the grand jury that indicted Aaron Burr in 1807, of which jury Jolm Ran- dolph of Roanoke was foreman. He was an intimate friend of John Randolph, and an inter- esting correspondence of the two, from 1805 to 1833, the year of Mr. Randolph's death, has been preserved. He has been characterized by his nephew, the Hon. Robert M. T. Hunter, U.S. and C.S. senator, as " a Virginia gentleman, a Christian philosopher, a cultivated scholar."'

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He contributed to the Spirit of Seventy-Six, the Argils, the Richmond Enquirer, the Southern Liter- ary Messenger, Ruffin's Farmer's Register, the Al- bany Cultivator, and Skinner's American Farmer. He published lectures on female education (1834- 25-26), and on male education entitled Token of Regard Presented to the Pupils of the Elmwood School (1830); Constitutional Charts (1829); and other lectures and addresses on education and agricidt- ure. He died at Elmwood, Va., April 23, 1843.

GARNETT, James Mercer, educator, was born at Aldie, Loudoun county, Va., April 24, 1840; son of Theodore Stanford and Florentina I. (Moreno) Garnett; and grandson of James Mer- cer (1770-1843) an(l Mary Eleanor Dick (Mercer) Garnett, and of Francisco Moreno, Spanish consul at Pensacola, Fla. He was graduated from the Episcopal high school of Virginia in 1857 and from the University of Vir- ginia in 18.59. In 1861 he entered the Con- federate army as a private in the Rock- bridge artillery and served throughout the war as lieutenant and captain of artil-.

lery on ordnance duty. c^^,»ti^^^,^,!^^^^^y^,,^Zr He taught school in

Charlottesville, Va., 1865-67; held the chair of Greek in the Louisiana state university, 1867; was instructor in ancient languages and mathe- matics in the Episcopal high school of Virginia, 1867-69; and in 1869-70 studied in Germany, cliiefly at the universities of Berlin and Leiijzig. He was president of St. Jolm's college, Annapolis, Md., 1870-80; principal of his imiversity school at Ellicott City, Md., 1880-82; professor of the English language and literature at the University of Virginia, 1883-93. and of the English language alone, 1893-96; and acting professor of English in the Woman's college of Baltimore, 1896-97. He was married in 1871 to Kate Huntington, daughter of Maj. Burr Powell Noland of Middle- burg, Va., and had one son, J. Mercer Garnett, Jr. He received from St. John's college the degree of LL.D. in 1874. His published writings include: Translations of Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg (1882, 3d ed., 1893); Translation of Elrne, Judith, Athelstan, and Byrhtnoth: Anglo- Saxon Poems (1889); Selections in English Prose from Elizabeth to Victoria (1891); editions of Haynes Speech (1894), and of Macbeth (1897); and many essays, addresses, and reviews in the American Journal of Philology, ,the Nation and other journals.