Manuscripts Department
Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION

#4872-z
PHILIP AYLETT FITZHUGH
Inventory

Abstract:   Correspondence by and relating to Philip Aylett Fitzhugh (1824-1908), 
          physician of Northampton County, Va.; his wife, author Georgiana Tankard 
          Fitzhugh (1827-1899); and his siblings. Included are six letters, 1844-1845, 
          pertaining to his education and training as a doctor at the Virginia Military 
          Institute and society in Lexington, Va.; and letters, 1850-1853, 1866, 1890-1891, 
          from his brother, John H. Fitzhugh, who emigrated to Kentucky and Austin, 
          Tex. Two letters, 1845 and 1866, discuss the emancipation of slaves. Also 
          included are two letters on legal issues:  one, 1876, from Judge John Critchen 
          (1820-1901) and one, 1879, from University of Virginia law professor John B. 
          Minor (1813-1895).

Online Catalog Terms:
    Critchen, John, 1820-1901.
    Family--Virginia--Social life and customs--19th century.
    Fitzhugh, Georgia Tankard, 1827-1899.
    Fitzhugh, John H.
    Fitzhugh, Philip Aylett, 1824-1908.
    Lexington (Va.)--Social life and customs.
    Medical education--Virginia--History--19th century.
    Migration, Internal--United States.
    Minor, John B. (John Barbee), 1813-1895.
    Physicians--Virginia--History--19th century.
    Slaves--Emancipation--United States.
    Virginia Military Institute--Students--Social life and customs--19th century.

Size:       About 30 items.

Date Span:  1842-1891 and undated.

Provenance: Purchased from Terry Alford, Annandale, Va., March 1997 (Acc. 97048).

Access:     No restrictions.

Copyright:  Retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as 
            stipulated by United States copyright law.


                                      DESCRIPTION

    Philip Aylett Fitzhugh (1824-1908) was a member of an old Virginia family and attended the 
Virginia Military Institute (V.M.I.) at Lexington, Va., in the mid-1840s to study medicine. By
the early 1850s Fitzhugh was practicing medicine in Johnsontown, Northampton County, Va. Dr. 
Fitzhugh married Georgiana Tankard (1827-1899) of Northampton County in 1849. A graduate 
of the Wesleyan Female Institute of Wilmington, Del., Mrs. Fitzhugh authored The Life of 
Doctor John Tankard (1907) and other works.

Correspondence pertaining to Fitzhugh’s V.M.I. years includes:

   Six letters, 1844-1845, by Fitzhugh on cadet life at V.M.I., including a description of 
   Christmas Day celebrations, Whig politics, a speech by Fitzhugh to the Temperance Society 
   of Lexington, the decline of Washington (later Washington and Lee) College, Lexington 
   society, and other events;

   A letter, 22 November 1845, which mentions the freedom of a slave named Betsy and a 
   servant named Andy, "but owing to his peculiar dark complexion which characterizes the true 
   African race, we gave him the appropriate appellation of Snowball";

   Two printed forms, signed and completed in manuscript, showing the academic, moral, and 
   financial standing of Fitzhugh, by F. H. Smith, Superintendent of V.M.I.

Family and related correspondence includes:

   Letter, 29 May 1846, to Fitzhugh from William Spotswood Fontaine of Fontainbleau, King 
   William County, Va., discussing their friend, Henry Aylett (1825-1870), great-grandson of 
   Patrick Henry;

   Letter, 18 May 1849, from Fitzhugh and his wife to his mother-in-law, Anna K. Tankard, 
   while the couple were on their bridal tour;

   Letter, 29 February 1851; from Fitzhugh to his brother informing him that their brother John 
   had been shot and wounded by an unknown assailant in Louisville, Ky.;

   Six letters, 1850-1853, from the Covington, Ky., area from Philip’s brother, John H. 
   Fitzhugh, who emigrated west, describing his loneliness, railroad and freighting work, 
   wounding by an unknown assailant, and the collapse of a church floor while a bishop was 
   giving a sermon;

   Three letters, 1866, 1890, 1891, from John Fitzhugh in Austin, Tex.  The 27 July 1866 letter 
   describes the financial ruin which ensued from his enlistment in the Confederate Army, the 
   loss of his horses, and how "bushwhackers" had driven them from their home.  He mentioned 
   that their sister-in-law Mary in Virginia had also suffered with Negroes stealing nearly all
   of her clothing. The 1891 letter states he was pleased with the new minister at the Austin
   Baptist Church, W. B. Garrett, at whose Virginia home John Wilkes Booth died.

The collection also includes three additional letters:

   10 November 1867, from John A. Fitzhugh of New York, nephew of Philip Fitzhugh;

   27 March 1876, from Judge John Critchen (1820-1901), sending legal opinions;

   24 March 1879, from John B. Minor (1813-1895), sending legal opinions to Mr. Williams of 
   Baltimore (connection to Fitzhughs unclear).

Folder 1 (only).