William Brockenbrough (1834-1838)

Further reading:

“Virginia’s Response to McCullough v. Maryland,” in Richard E. Ellis, Aggressive Nationalism: McCulloch v. Maryland and the Foundation of Federal Authority in the Young Republic (2007). Brockenbrough advocated against the U.S. Supreme Court decision in letters written under a pseudonym and published in the Richmond Enquirer in 1819. The text of Brockenbrough’s letters are published in Gerald Gunther, ed., John Marshall’s Defense of McCullough v. Maryland (1969).

Richard E. Ellis, “The Path Not Taken: Virginia and the Supreme Court, 1789-1821,” in Virginia and the Constitution, edited by A.E. Dick Howard and Melvin I. Urofsky (1992).

F. Thornton Miller, “William Brockenbrough (1778-1838),” Dictionary of Virginia Biography (1998).

David A. Powers III, “William Brockenbrough,” Law Reporters Before 1880, edited by William Hamilton Bryson (1977).


Research Collections:

New York Historical Society
New York, NY
Brockenbrough Family Collection, 1809-1836; 1 letter, 1809.
Letter to unknown recipient, dated Richmond, Va., Jan. 3, 1809, regarding the embargo and non-intercourse law with England and France, and the consequences for ignoring them; judicial matters, the removal of Alexander McRae and John Guerrant, and a recommendation of Peyton Randolph for a position.

Virginia Museum of History and Culture
Richmond, Va.
Harrison Family Papers, 1756-1893, section 2, correspondence of Spencer Roane, 1802-1821; 14 items.
Includes Roane’s correspondence with William Brockenbrough about land belonging to the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia.