Background

John Barbee Minor was a brother of Lucian Minor, was the ninth and youngest child of Lancelot and Mary Overton (Tompkins) Minor, and a descendant of Maindort Doodes, a Dutch mariner, and his son Doodes Minor, who were naturalized in Virginia in 1673. He was born on June 2, 1813, at "Minor's Folly, " Louisa County, Virginia.

Education

After attending local schools and spending a year at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, in 1831, Minor entered the University of Virginia. Augmenting his slender resources by tutoring, he remained three years, received diplomas from several academic schools, and graduated in law. For his eminent attainments, Minor received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from both Washington and Lee and from Columbia.

Career

Admitted to the bar, Minor practiced about six years in Buchanan, Botetourt County, demonstrating his industry, painstaking care, and veneration for the common law, qualities which were to distinguish him later. Returning to Charlottesville, he continued practice until 1845, when, at thirty-two, despite strong opposition because of his youth and comparative obscurity, he was appointed professor of law in the University of Virginia, the fourth to occupy that chair. He immediately raised the law school's standards and made graduation more difficult; the enrollment steadily increased. Like his predecessors, he taught the law unaided, from 1845 to 1851 and again during the Civil War. His system of instruction was that of searching analysis, based on the methods of Hale and Blackstone. In March 1865, when Sheridan passed through Charlottesville from his devastating Valley campaign, Minor, aided by Prof. Socrates Maupin, secured safeguards from the Union commanders, thereby saving the University from pillage and possible destruction. After Appomattox, again with Maupin, he borrowed money on his personal credit to prepare for the session of 1865-66. From 1870 until his death, he conducted a private summer law class an early experiment in summer instruction. In 1875, he began publication of the Institutes of Common and Statute Law (1875 - 95), a monumental contribution to American jurisprudence. An outgrowth of blackboard analyses of his courses in common and statute law, it went through many editions, was cited in all American courts, and still remains an authority. He was also the author of The Virginia Report 1799-1800 (1850) and an Exposition of the Law of Crimes and Punishments (1894).

Achievements

• Preeminent in legal education, John established the high position of the law school of the University of Virginia among American law schools. On a bust presented by alumni to the University of Virginia a few weeks before he died, after fifty years of service, is inscribed: "He Taught the Law and the Reason Thereof. " Minor Hall, occupied by the law school from 1911 to 1932, was named after him.

Works

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  • Institutes of Common and Statute Law, Volume 4, part 1

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Institutes of Common and Statute Law Volume 1

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  • The Law Of Real Property: (based On Minor's Institutes)...

    ( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)

  • A Brief Comparison Of The Most Important Statutes Of The Codes Of Virginia Of 1873 And 1887: Being Especially Those Referred To In "minor's Institutes Of Common And Statute Law"

    ( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)

Religion

Minor was deeply religious, intolerantly hating moral obliquity but having compassion for the transgressor. Long a vestryman in the Episcopal church, he held family prayers daily, superintended an antebellum Sunday school for slaves, taught a students' Bible class, and powerfully championed the temperance movement. Six feet tall and well proportioned, he had a dignity of presence that was the embodiment of strength, wisdom, and virtue.

Views

Originally a Union man, deeming secession neither wise nor warranted under the Constitution, John supported Virginia's course, however, as "necessary revolution, " her only possible self-respecting reply to Lincoln's call for troops.

Personality

Exquisite in diction, remarkably clear in exposition, wealthy in illustration, rising almost to eloquence, his lectures aroused the enthusiasm of the most indifferent of his students and stimulated the dullest minds. His zealous and almost fanatical love for the common law led him to oppose every contemplated change therein-his only defect, perhaps, as a teacher and author. Despite honorary degrees he preferred to be called simply "Mr. Minor, " abjuring even the title "Professor" because of its misuse. His energy was amazing and his industry untiring. Although he was strong-tempered and positive to dogmatism, his character was mellowed with gentleness.

Connections

Minor married: first, Martha Macon Davis; following her death, Anne Jacqueline Fisher Colston; and after the latter's death, Ellen Temple Hill. He had three children by his first wife, and five by the second, one of whom was Raleigh Colston Minor.

Father:

Lancelot Minor

Mother:

Mary Overton (Tompkins) Minor

Wife:

Anne Fisher “Nannie” Colston Minor

3 January 1827 - 23 August 1883

Wife:

Ellen Temple Hill Minor

12 November 1835 - 9 March 1912

Wife:

Martha Macon Davis Minor

26 November 1810 - 25 July 1857

Daughter:

Susan Colston Minor Wilson

13 August 1864 - 24 March 1937

Daughter:

Nannie Jacquelin Minor

15 June 1871 - 30 January 1934

Daughter:

Mary Lancelot Minor

1 May 1841 - 24 December 1908

Daughter:

Bessie Minor

21 November 1862 - 2 April 1864

Daughter:

Martha Macon “Mattie” Minor Sams

30 May 1867 - 28 July 1897

Son:

John Davis Minor

14 October 1835 - 29 December 1857

Son:

Raleigh Colston Minor

1865 - 1923

Son:

John Barbee Minor, Jr

5 September 1866 - 28 February 1952

Friend:

Matthew Fontaine Maury

January 14, 1806 – February 1, 1873 Was an American astronomer, United States Navy officer, historian, oceanographer, meteorologist, cartographer, author, geologist, and educator.