William Munford

Background

William Munford was born on August 15, 1775, in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, the eldest child and only son of Col. Robert Munford and Anne Beverley.

Education

Munford was educated in the grammer school connected with the College of William and Mary and later at the college itself. His early training might have terminated with his father's death and the resulting straitened circumstances had not Chancellor Wythe, then professor of law at Williamsburg, enabled him to continue. From Wythe, Munford gained a deep insight into the law and learned to love the classics.

Career

Completing his legal course at the age of twenty-one Munford immediately entered upon an unusually brilliant and engrossing career. Until his twenty-fifth year he sat in the Virginia house of delegates, and for four years represented his native county in the state senate.

At the end of that period he removed tc Richmond, and served in the privy council until 1811, when he became clerk in the house of delegates, and held that office until his death.

He acted for several years as reporter of the decisions of the supreme court of appeals, of which he prepared, with some assistance, ten volumes, from 1809 to 1820. In 1819 he assisted Benjamin Watkins Leigh in the revision of the Virginia statute laws.

Of Mr. Munford's poetry, the earliest published was is 1798, "Poems and Compositions in Prose on Several Occasions. " This included a tragedy, "Almoran and Hamet, " and a number of poems, most of which showed the influence of classical literature on the author. He occupied the leisure of his maturer years in making a translation of Homer's "Iliad" in blank verse, which was published posthumously in 1848. William Munford died on June 21, 1825, at Richmond, Virginia.

Achievements

• William Munford was a famous Virginia legislator and poet, who produced ten volumes as reporter for the Virginia supreme court of appeals.

Connections

In 1802, William Munford married Sally Radford, daughter of William Radford of Richmond.

Father:

Robert Munford

Mother:

Anne Munford (Beverley)

Wife:

Sally Munford (Radford)