Correspondence between President A. D. Chandler and Colonel A. E. Potts regarding a gift of items which belonged to Dr. Adam Empie, President of the College of William and Mary, 1827-36.

Richmond Times-Dispatch news clipping. Regarding St. James' Episcopal Church, Richmond, mentioning Dr. Empie's connection with that church.

Richmond Times-Dispatch news clipping. Regarding oil portrait Adam Empie given to Bruton Parish Church.

Newport News Daily Press news clipping. Biographical sketch of Adam Empie.

Typescript giving biographical details of Dr. Empie.

Note in Dr. Empie's hand to Mr. and Mrs. Woosten asking them to accept an article as a token of affection.

Williamsburg. Journal in Dr. Empie's hand containing memoranda and notes of accounts. Gives salary from William and Mary College and benefits pertaining to position. Mentions the receipt of two loans from the Bursar of the College totalling $800. Also mentions receiving a trunk of books from Mrs. Avey to be appropriated as he pleased and possibly given to Church Library. Mention also of receipt of $400 from Mr. and Mrs. Woosten.

Contemporary copy of will of Adam Empie.

Three pages of notes for religious sermons in Dr. Empie's hand.

Letter from W. M. Atkinson, Raleigh, to Rev'd. A. Empie. Acknowledgement of Dr. Empie's inability to undertake some unspecified work previously agreed upon.

Four letters from Sarah M. Grimke to Mrs. Anna Eliza Empie. Signature of two letters illegible but undoubtedly by the same hand. Personal letters. One mentions some embroidery for the Society and the dispatch of a box of Bibles and tracts. Mention in one letter of her school for Negroes.

Poems and letters addressed specifically to Mrs. Empie. Signatures include Mrs. Empie's sister Caroline, A.S. Swann, Eliza Ann Gautier, and (Mrs. Homan?). Two of the poems initialled E. G. G. and one initialled E.

Miscellaneous collection of poems all in differrent hands, only one signed-Anna Louisa Campbell.

Manuscript volume, in two unknown hands. Religious text in one half of notebook, receipes in the other half with list of household articles dated 1831 January.

Three manuscript prayers.

Miscellaneous collection of engravings apparently cut from books, most of them very badly stained.

One pencil sketch of a woman's head, signed Williamson. One silhouette of a girl's head, inscribed, cut by M. Honeywell. Still life addressed to Mis A. C. Empie from her friend I. Williamson.

One letter written by former College of William and Mary President Adam Empie sending his regrets for not being able to accept an invitation.

Mss. Acc. 2010.360

Biographical Information on Adam Empie.

Mss. Acc. 2011.707

Biographical Information on Adam Empie.

Mss. Acc. 2011.707

These family papers focus on the Rev. Dr. Adam Empie's descendants, including two letters to his daughter Mrs. James Sheppard and a transcript of his genealogy from his family Bible. Items are as follows. Letter from Thomas A. Graves, Jr., President of the College of William and Mary to Ralph James, Sr. regarding his donation of what are now the Adam Empie Papers. Notes from vestry meeting of 1860 November 13 on death of the Rev. Dr. Empie with a letter to his daughter Mrs. Sheppard. Newspaper clipping from the Newport News Daily Press, 1960 March 20, regarding nineteenth-century silhouettes of four presidents of the College of William and Mary (William Holland Wilmer, Adam Empie, John Augustine Smith, and John Bracken), purchased in a New York antique shop and put on display in the campus library. Transcript of the family records from the family Bible of Rev. Adam Empie made 1935 April 21. Bible owned by Major Adam Empie Potts. Letter and envelope addressed to Mrs. James Sheppard of Richmond, Virginia. Dated 1859 May 1 from "Bro. Will" of Waterford, Mississippi.

Mss. 1979.13

Warren Seymour Lurty, uncle of Adam Empie Potts, served as a captain in the Confederate army over the Virginia Horse Artillery Battery, which was involved in the Shenandoah Valley campaign. The battery was nearly annihilated and Lurty was captured at Ninevah, Virginia in 1864 and was a prisoner of war at Fort Delaware. Lurty served as a lawyer before and after the Civil War. He was US District Attorney of western Virginia from 1877-1882.

This folder, which mainly consists of correspondence, includes Civil War military documents and letters of recommendation written for Lurty as he reentered the practice of law after the Civil War.

The folder contains the following papers:

Letter to Lurty from Lieutenant Halyburton on behalf of General Jubal Anderson Early expressing disapproval of Lurty's application to acquire horses and approval of Lurty's moving camp to Fishersville or Waynesboro, Virginia. 1864 October 8.

Letter from Hon. W. T. Willey, U. S. Senate, War Department, Washington City, 1865 January 26, requesting a prisoner exchange.

Printed and singed copy of loyalty oath taken by Lurty upon his release from Fort Delaware, 1865 June 17.

Letters of recommendation for Lurty as he seeks to recommence practicing law from W. P. Cooper, U.(?) M. Turner, James M. Jackson, and Gro. W. Jackson, who writes to affirm Lurty's relation to Stonewall Jackson, 1865 October.

Two 1877 letters recommending the reappointment of Lurty as U. S. District Attorney of western Virginia: one to President Rutherford B. Hayes, 1877, the other from Senator John F. Lewis to Hon. O.(?) P. Morton.

Letters of introduction for Lurty from William Pope Harrison to the Hon. B. H. Hill, U.S. Senate, and to Hon. Joseph E. Brown, U.S. Senate. Both letters are dated 1881 March 15.

Letter to President Chester A. Arthur recommending the reappointment of Lurty as U. .S. District Attorney of western Virginia from the members of the bar of Carroll County, Virginia: Norman Staley(?), Commonwealth attorney, G. B. Wiley, R. M. Brown, Walter Pendleton, Garland Hale, and Walter S. Tipton(?), 1882.

Draft of a speech commemorating the Civil War, 1885.

The envelope dated 1895 January 15 bears two inscriptions: "the $10 note is my first fee as atty in Washington in 1892 –Seymour" and a verse to his "best earthly friend"." The accompanying note seems to be a marriage proposal and references a gift of a ring.

Typed note to Lurty signed by William McKinley, dated 1896 April 28 on letterhead from his home in Canton, Ohio. This note was written to congratulate Lurty on his selection as "Elector-at-large" and thank him for his support in McKinley's presidential campaign, which was underway during 1896.

Photocopy of military order dated 1866(?) January 12 removing any "person having served in the Rebel Armies" from the "Public grounds of Fortress Monroe."

Empty envelope from State-Planters Bank & Trust Co. labeled "Lurty Papers, Uncle of Adam E. Potts".

Certificate from the Columbian Democratic Club, certifying that Joseph S. Potts' election as delegate to the Convention of the National League of Democratic Clubs, 1888 June 14. Badge for the Richmond, Virginia Delegation of the Baltimore Convention of the Columbian Democratic Club, 1888 July 4. Seal attached to black cloth. The faded seal reads "Richmond Public Schools."

Mss. 1979.13

Empie writes from Williamsburg, Virginia, to Rev. Doctor Eliphalet Nott, a Presbyterian minister and president of Union College in Schenectady, New York. Empie asks for a copy of Union College laws, course of studies, and textbooks, as he is interested in "different literary seminaries." He also promises to call on Nott when he visits New York "next summer."

Empie was an alumnus of Union College.