Dabney Carr Terrell (d. 1827), attorney and poet, was a grandson of TJ’s sister Martha Jefferson Carr and a native of Kentucky. He studied at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he killed his fellow student John T. Corbin in a duel in 1815 and was expelled. With TJ’s help Terrell continued his education in Geneva, Switzerland, where he came under the tutelage of Marc Auguste Pictet. After Terrell’s return to the United States, TJ assisted him in a course of legal studies. When searching for the first law professor for the University of Virginia, TJ submitted Terrell’s name for consideration, but he was not chosen. He subsequently moved to New Orleans, where he died of yellow fever. A small collection of Terrell’s poems was published posthumously (Robert Isham Randolph, The Randolphs of Virginia [1936], 122; VMHB description begins Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 1893–  description ends 2 [1895]: 223; Trustees Minutes, Dickinson College, 18 Dec. 1815 [PCarlD]; Charles Coleman Sellers, Dickinson College: A History [1973], 440–1; Edward Govan to Terrell, Carlisle, 4 Feb. 1816, and Terrell to Martha J. Terrell, brig Rolla, 1 Mar. 1816, both in ViU: Papers of the Carr and Terrell Families; Pictet to TJ, 1 Nov. 1819; TJ to Terrell, 26 Feb. 1821; TJ to University of Virginia Board of Visitors, 20 Jan. 1826; Richmond Enquirer, 28 Sept. 1827; Virginia Literary Museum and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, &c. 1 [1829]: 40–1, 51, 59, 196, 223, 361).

Terrell was concerned that Simon Snyder, the governor of pennsylvania, might seek to prosecute him for killing Corbin. His friend Edward Govan advised him that he would send him his diploma but that Terrell should stay in Virginia or Kentucky, because a coroner’s or grand jury had brought in a “verdict” of “murder in the first degree.” Govan concluded, however, that there was “no danger at present to be apprehended” (Govan to Terrell, 4 Feb. 1816).