University of Virginia Library

ROBERT RIDDICK PRENTIS

530. Faculty Minutes, 2 December 1861. See footnote 153.

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531. See section III of this historical sketch, page 33 for enrollment of
students and page 35 for hours of opening and appropriations for the
purchase of books.

532. The reference, of course, is to Matthew, Chapter 25, verses 14-30.

533. The following data have been supplied by Prof. Robert Henning Webb:"Robert
Riddick Prentis: born April 11, 1818, in Suffolk, Va., fifth
of the eleven children of Joseph Prentis II (1783-1851, son of Judge
Joseph Prentis of Williamsburg and Margaret Bowdoin Prentis of `Hungars',
Northampton Co.,; alumnus of William & Mary College; lawyer, Surveyor
and Inspector of the Port of Suffolk, Clerk of the Superior and
Inferior Courts of Nansemond Co.; Visitor of William & Mary College,
Delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-1830) and
Susan Caroline Riddick Prentis (1791-1862, daughter of Col. Robert Moore
Riddick of `Jericho', Nansemond Co., and Elizabeth Riddick Carr Prentis,
widow of Capt. Samuel Carr, 1746-1777, of Albemarle Co., brother of
Dabney Carr, the husband of Martha, sister of Thomas Jefferson); attended
Amelia Academy, student of the University of Va. 1838-1848; married
March 21, 1844, Margaret Ann Whitehead (1826-1910, daughter of Elliott
and Catherine Flynn Whitehead); father of twelve children, including
Robert Riddick Prentis II (1855-1931), Chief Justice of the Virginia
Supreme Court of Appeals; `Proctor and Patron' of the University of Va.
1853-1861, Proctor 1861-1865; Acting Librarian 1862-1865; Commissioner
of Accounts 1867-1871; lived at `Monroe Hill'; died November 23, 1871;
buried in the University Cemetery."

534. Bruce, vol. 3, p. 27.

535. Visitors' Minutes, 6 July 1865.

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536. The title Commissioner of Accounts, which was first used in 1867,
was retained until 1905, when it was changed back to Bursar.

536A. The authority for the statement that Prentis was Clerk of Albemarle
County is Frederick Johnston, Memorials of Old Virginia Clerks,
Lynchburg, 1888, p. 30.

537. The son, Joseph Prentis, is buried in the University Cemetery. His
gravestone bears this inscription: "Joseph Prentis, Second Sergt. of
Co. 1, 9 Reg't Va. Vol. Son of R. R. and M. A. Prentis. Born in
Suffolk, Virginia, June 15, 1845, was killed in battle of Malvern Hill,
July 1, 1862."

538. The first of the following references to the career of Chief Justice
Robert Riddick Prentis II contains the statement that his father had
been a "collector of internal revenue for the Confederacy." The
references are: Alumni News, vol. 20, no. 3, November-December 1931,
p. 65; Barringer-Garnett-Page, vol. 2, p. 134; Who Was Who in America
1897-1942, p. 992.

539. Professor Webb resigned in 1950. The raising of the endowment fund
was started in 1952, the year when he would have retired had he not
previously resigned, and was completed in 1953. The amount of the fund
was approximately $1,500. See Alumni News, vol. 41, no. 8, June 1953,
pp. 7, 29. Professor Webb died 2 November 1952.