Berkeley Cox family papers

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
160 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Brenda Gunn
Phone: (434) 924-1037
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Restrictions:

This collection has been minimally processed and is open for research.

Preferred citation:

MSS 16941, Berkeley Cox family papers, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

Summary

Extent:
.4 Cubic Feet 1 letter-sized document box
Creator:
Cox, Richard Smith, 1825–1889 and Cox, Mary Lewis Berkeley, 1830-1897
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

MSS 16941, Berkeley Cox family papers, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains items from the Berkeley Cox family papers. The collection contains cased photographs, hair of various family members, a glass plate photograph, a silver card case with calling cards, a medallion, a photograph, and a Mulberry Hill pamphlet. Many of the items have a small notation from a family member describing the people in photographs or the physical item. Family members represented in the collection include: Mary Berkeley Cox, Lewis Berkeley Cox, Francis Callendar Cox, Richard S. Cox, Eliza Williams, Bessie Cox, Catherine Cox Reynolds, Lewis Berkeley Cox, and son Berkeley Cox.

Biographical / historical:

Richard Smith Cox (1825–1889) was the patriarch of the family and a native of Georgetown, D.C. He was the son of Georgetown mayor John Cox and the great-great-grandson of the prominent Maryland physician Dr. Gustavus Brown. Beginning around 1847, he served as a clerk in the Paymaster-General's Office of the War Department. He married twice: first to Elizabeth Williams, known as Eliza, in 1849. She died approximately one year after the marriage. No children from their union are documented. He then married, following her death, Mary Lewis Berkeley in 1851. During the Civil War, Cox resigned from his federal position and served as a Confederate paymaster. After the war, the family settled at Stoke Farm in Aldie, Loudoun County, Virginia, which Cox purchased in 1868.

Mary Lewis Berkeley was born in 1830 to a farming family in Loudoun County, Virginia. She married Richard S. Cox in 1851. Her maiden name, Berkeley, was passed forward as a given name to multiple children and grandchildren. The children of Richard S. Cox and Mary Lewis Berkeley Cox had eight children including Lewis, Francis,and Bessie. Lewis Berkeley Cox was born on January 7, 1856, at the family's Georgetown estate, Berleith. He later settled in Portland, Oregon, where he married Elinor Junkin. He died on April 11, 1901, in Portland. He and Elinor had a son, Berkeley Cox. Francis Callendar Cox appeared in the 1870 Loudoun County, Virginia census as "Frances C.," listed at age 10. Bessie Cox was a daughter of Richard S. Cox and Mary Lewis Berkeley Cox. "Bessie" was commonly used in the nineteenth century as an informal form of Elizabeth. Catherine Cox Reynolds would marry into the Reynolds family.

References:

Fletcher, Carlton. "Local Slaveholders." Glover Park History. Last modified May 14, 2025. https://gloverparkhistory.com/population/slaves-population/local-slaveholders/.

Fletcher, Carlton. "Richard Smith Cox and Berleith." Glover Park History. Last modified May 14, 2025. https://gloverparkhistory.com/glover-park/neighborhood-histories/burleith-history/.

Fletcher, Carlton. "The Colored Home." Glover Park History. Last modified May 14, 2025. https://gloverparkhistory.com/estates-and-farms/burleith/the-colored-home/.

Find a Grave. Memorial page for Lewis Berkeley Cox, Sr. (7 Jan 1856–11 Apr 1901). Memorial no. 156853896. Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/156853896.

Find a Grave. Memorial page for Richard Threlkeld Cox (2 Dec 1862–4 Mar 1939). Memorial ID 37193719. Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/37193719/richard-threlkeld-cox.

Jewell, Aurelia M. Loudoun County, Virginia, Marriage Records to 1881. 1975. Cited in Fletcher, "Richard Smith Cox and Berleith."

United States Census Bureau. Ninth Census of the United States, 1870. Loudoun County, Virginia, Schedule 1 (Population). National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Acquisition information:
This collection was a gift from Mary Berkeley Reynolds to the Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia on 20 February 2025.
Physical description:
Fair.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard