University of Virginia Library

3. WILLIAM HENRY BROCKENBROUGH
(1812–1850)
Librarian 1831–1835

William Wertenbaker's first love was the Library. For
William Henry Brockenbrough, who held the position
from 1831 to 1835, the librarianship was a somewhat inconvenient
means to other ends. The outcome with simple
directness points a moral. Of the nine Librarians of this
first hundred years, Brockenbrough was the one definite
failure.

That failure was deserved. Brockenbrough drew the
salary of the position, which was then $250 a year, but
shirked its duties. It is fair, however, to add that the pressure
of circumstances to which he yielded was strong. His
family's fortunes were in eclipse, it was important that he
obtain a law degree, and he seems to have been suffering
from the early stages of tuberculosis.

His father, Arthur Spicer Brockenbrough, had been an

important factor in the building of the University. As
Superintendent of Repairs at the State Capitol in Richmond,
he had come to the attention of the Governor, James
Patton Preston, and Governor Preston had recommended
him for the post of Proctor of the University. There his
energy, his common sense, and his constructive ideas
appealed to Jefferson; and his intelligent comprehension
of the Founder's plans and his constant presence at the
point of operation rendered him an agent of marked value
during the building period. In those days Charlottesville
was an isolated town lacking transportation facilities, and
there were no experienced contractors capable of translating
specifications into reliable estimates of cost. To a
large degree it was necessary for the Proctor to take on
himself the gathering of materials and the training and
superintendence of the workmen. These things Brockenbrough
did to Jefferson's satisfaction—and Jefferson was a
firm and observant principal for any such operations.

The importance of his position and the regard shown
by Jefferson gave prestige to Arthur Brockenbrough during
the first years. Socially he was linked with an early romance
at the University, the wooing and wedding of Harriet
Selden, his wife's sister, by George Long, the young Professor
of Ancient Languages from the University of Cambridge.
But along with his finer qualities, Brockenbrough
was inclined to be impatient of ineptitude, whether in
workmen or in members of the Faculty, and he had a quick
temper. When the major construction tasks had been completed,
and the Proctor's duties fell more into a routine of
small jobs, his popularity waned; and in 1831 he was eased
out of his position—though he was permitted to retain the
title of Patron. His death followed not long after.

His son, William Henry Brockenbrough, had become
a student of the University in 1828 and was pressing assiduously
towards a law degree. His father's loss of position and

income greatly handicapped that effort. It seems possible
that his appointment in 1831 as Librarian (he was a student,
as Kean and Wertenbaker had been at the time of
their appointments) was influenced by sympathy for his
situation on the part of some of the Visitors and Faculty.

The appointment came in July, to take effect in August.
Almost at once his attitude and the criticism thereat
became apparent. His effort to continue as candidate for
a degree without further registration or payment of fees
drew from the Faculty an action specifically aimed at him
in February 1832 and again in October of that year. In
July 1833 the Board of Visitors granted an application for
a room in a vacant hotel but seems to have taken no action
on his claim for compensation for certain temporary shops
erected on university grounds by his father. As late as
August 1834 a letter of his to Joseph C. Cabell of the Board
of Visitors indicates that he was still involved in certain
matters connected with his father's proctorship.

As for his management of the Library, adverse criticism
began early and grew in volume. The Visitors' Library
Committee, whose function at first, it will be recalled, was
chiefly to make an annual inspection, reported in July
1832, after one year of Brockenbrough's tenure of the
librarianship, that there was need of a house cleaning of
the Rotunda and there should be stricter enforcement of
the library regulations. A somewhat similar report was
made by the Visitors' Committee in July 1833. By October
1834 a special committee of the Faculty, headed by Professor
Emmet, had been appointed by that body to examine
into the state of the Library. A month later this Committee
presented an elaborate report, charging the Librarian with
the down-at-the-heel condition of the equipment, with
lack of orderly arrangement of the books, with laxity in
enforcement of the regulations, with frequent absences
without previous notice, and with appointment of assistants

who had not been approved by the Faculty. In the
discovery ten years after the opening of the Library that
the equipment was deteriorating and that some of the
regulations needed clarification, it would seem that the
Faculty had its share in any possible blame; and in view
of the antagonism that had been developing between Faculty
and students in this decade, it was not unnatural that
a student appointee should join in the student attitude
toward what appeared to be illiberal rules. But for his lack
of responsibility as a custodian of the books there was no
excuse.

The long report was presented to the Faculty on 11
November 1834. It was a bad break for Librarian Brockenbrough
that the following week a severe rainstorm descended
on Charlottesville, sundry leaks in the Rotunda
began active operation, and word was brought to the Chairman
of the Faculty, Professor Bonnycastle, that damage was
being done to the books in the library room. The Chairman
hurried to the Rotunda, sent for the Librarian, and learned
that he had chosen that moment again to be absent from
the University without leave. The Chairman took action
of an unusual character. He suspended Brockenbrough
from his office for two days, and appointed a substitute
Librarian. This emergency action received the full approval
of the Faculty.

The Faculty's confidence in Wertenbaker at this stage
is indicated by its appointment of him on November 28
as Assistant Librarian. These moves had the effect of bringing
Brockenbrough literally to book. They also encouraged
further action on the pending report of Professor Emmet
and his special committee. That committee had been
directed to prepare a full set of resolutions concerning the
Library. The resolutions were ready by the end of 1834,
and were adopted by the Faculty on 9 January 1835. This
time the Faculty threw the book at Brockenbrough. It was

not in its power to remove him from his office permanently.
But the resolutions bound him tightly to his library duties;
and just prior to the meeting of the Visitors in July 1835,
the Faculty approved of a resolution presented by Professor
Emmet that the whole library matter be referred to the
Board of Visitors. The Board, however, found also before
it the resignation of William Brockenbrough; and so its
only action was to accept the resignation and to reappoint
Wertenbaker as Librarian.

Meantime Brockenbrough had already achieved the goal
of his law degree. Since he was suffering to an increased
extent from ill health, he decided to try the climate of the
Territory, as it then was, of Florida. He settled in Tallahassee,
and that became his home for fifteen years. He died
in Tallahassee in 1850, at the early age of thirty-seven.

His career during those fifteen years in Florida must
have been a matter of wonderment to those who had known
him only as Librarian. He was admitted to the bar,
advanced rapidly as a lawyer, served in turn as a member
of the Florida House of Representatives and of the Florida
Senate, was selected as President of the Senate, became a
United States District Attorney, and upon the admission of
Florida as a State was elected one of its first Representatives
in the Congress of the United States.

This story began with a moral. It is well that for our
estimate of Brockenbrough we have also the Florida conclusion.
Yet that conclusion makes clear that the lack in his
librarianship was not one of ability.