Valentine Wood Southall (d. 1861), attorney and public official, was a family friend and frequent visitor to Monticello in his youth. He was admitted to the Albemarle bar in 1813 and succeeded Thomas Jefferson Randolph four years later as collector of the federal direct tax and internal duties for Virginia’s 19th Collection District. Southall was the first secretary for the Board of Visitors of Central College and presided over a dinner held at the Rotunda of the University of Virginia during Lafayette’s visit in November 1824. He represented Albemarle County in nine sessions of the House of Delegates, 1833–34, 1835–36, 1839–42, and 1843–46, and served as Speaker, 1840–42 and 1844–45. Southall was also a member of his county’s delegations to the state’s constitutional convention of 1850–51 and the state convention of 1861, in the latter of which he joined the majorities that first rejected and then approved secession (Speakers and Clerks of the Virginia House of Delegates, 1776–1976 [1976], 63; Woods, Albemarle description begins Edgar Woods, Albemarle County in Virginia, 1901, repr. 1991 description ends , 317–8; Pierson, Jefferson at Monticello, 90–1; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States description ends , 3:68 [2, 3 Jan. 1817]; Meeting Minutes of the Central College Board of Visitors, 5 May 1817; Richmond Enquirer, 16 Nov. 1824; Leonard, General Assembly description begins Cynthia Miller Leonard, comp., The General Assembly of Virginia, July 30, 1619–January 11, 1978: A Bicentennial Register of Members, 1978 description ends ; Albemarle Co. Will Book, 26:240–4; Washington Daily National Intelligencer, 4 Sept. 1861).

“An Act to amend and explain the act concerning Public Roads” appeared on p. 423 of the first volume of A Collection of all such Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia, of a public and permanent nature, as are now in force (Richmond, 1803–12; Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends nos. 1868–9; Poor, Jefferson’s Library description begins Nathaniel P. Poor, Catalogue. President Jefferson’s Library, 1829 description ends , 10 [no. 571]). jeff.: Thomas Jefferson Randolph.