To James Madison from Francis Brooke, 4 March 1826
From Francis Brooke
Fredg March 4th 1826
My Dear Sir
I take the liberty to recommend to you Mr John T Lomax of this place as the Successor of Mr Gilmer in the university. I know no professional lawyer better qualified to fill his place, Mr Lomax is one of the best read lawyers in the State,1 and though he has not attained the eminence of some of them, it is more to be attributed to his great modesty and other causes, than to any inferiority of information or talents, his morals are irreproachable and his manners very engaging—Affable and acceptable enough, he is sufficiently reserved and dignified in his deportment to merit the affections and to command the respect of all who know him, I believe him to be, what I think of great importance a Sound republican—in Saying this much in his behalf the interest I have ever felt in the prosperity of the University outweighs every other consideration, and I shall be much gratified if any other person more fit to discharge the comprehensive duties of a law professor can be selected. With great respect & Esteem Your obedient Servant
Francis Brooke2
RC (ViU: Special Collections, Jefferson Papers). Docketed by Thomas Jefferson: “Brooke Francis to Mr. Madison/Mr. Lomax.”
1. “Mr Wirt I am told says that the best speech and the most convincing arguments he ever heard were on one occasion delivered by Mr. Lomax. It is a little remarkable however (this I heard at Tufton) that he should have lived all his life within thirty miles of Montpellier and yet that Mr Madison should have been ignorant of his very name and existen[ce] until he was proposed as a candidate for the professorship at the University” (Mary Jefferson Randolph to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 16 Apr. 1826, ViU: Special Collections, Correspondence of Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge).
2. Francis Taliaferro Brooke (1763–1851) was born at Smithfield, his father’s plantation, near Fredericksburg. In 1780 Brooke was appointed a lieutenant in the Continental Army, and he served in the defense of Virginia in 1781 and in the Southern Department until the end of the war. He became a lawyer and established himself on a plantation, St. Julien, near Fredericksburg. Brooke served in the Virginia General Assembly, first in the House of Delegates, 1794–95, and then in the Senate, 1800–1804, holding the post of Speaker from December 1802 until January 1803. From 1804 to 1811 he was a judge on the General Court, and he subsequently served as a judge on the Virginia Court of Appeals, 1811–51 (Kneebone et al., Dictionary of Virginia Biography, 2:259–60; , 15:243 n. 1).