VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
225
then studied law, was admitted to the bar,
and l:)egan a legal practice in the city of
Lynchburg which was successful from the
lirst, and which lasted fifty years. He
Achieved great prominence at the bar and
became one of the leading lawyers of
Lynchburg; was elected to the legislature
several times, and served as commonwealth
attorney for a number of years. Mr. Yancey
married Lucy Elizabeth, a woman of re-
markable intellectual gifts, and a daughter
of Henry Davis, a prominent citizen of
Lynchburg. They had children : Mary
Louisa, died unmarried ; Henry Davis, who
was first lieutenant and color bearer of the
Second Virginia Cavalry Regiment, on Gen-
eral Robert E. Rodes' stafif, his first cousin,
and was killed in his twentieth year at the
battle of Spottsylvania Court House ; Wil-
liam Tudor Jr., married (first) Mary Rad-
ford, of Pulaski, (second) Eugenia Macon,
has one child, Thomas Macon Yancey ;
Robert Davis, of further mention.
(IV) Robert Davis Yancey, son of Wil- liam Tudor and Elizabeth Lucy (Davis) Yancey, was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, in the old family home on Diamond Llill, September 15, 1855. He was educated in the Virginia Military Institute, being grad- uated with the class of 1875, then entered the law school of the University of Virginia, and was graduated in 1877, and admitted to the bar of Virginia in 1878. He at once established himself in the practice of his profession and has been successfully iden- tified with this ever since that time, being one of the best representatives of it in the city of Lynchburg. He served two terms as mayor of that city, declining a third nom- ination to that office. In 1894 he was elected commonwealth attorney, re-elected to that office every two years for a long number of years, until the term was changed from two to four years, when he was again elected, has served continuously since, his present term having commenced in January, 1914. When this term is completed he will have served his city in this office continually for the long period of twenty-eight years. Mr. Yancey is a speaker of acknowledged ability and is frecjuently called upon to make ad- dresses at political meetings and social gatherings. A speech which he made at the Virginia Military Institute Alumni Celebra- tion gained for him fame as an orator, copies of it being printed and distributed all over
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the United States. He has always given
his strong and undeviating support to the
Democratic party. He served nineteen years
in the Virginia National Guard, rising to
the rank of colonel. During the adminis-
tration of Governor Lee he was ordered to
the coal districts to quell the riots, a duty
which he performed tactfully and success-
fully. Later, under Governor Ferrall, he
was again ordered out with his command
for the same purpose, and achieved the same
result.
Mr. Yancey married, November 17, 1892, Rosa Faulkner, and has had children : Eliza- beth Davis, Rebecca Voorhis, Robert Davis Jr., Rose Adams, deceased ; Mary Saunders, Joel Tudor. Caroline, Anthony, Henry Davis.
William Peronneau de Saussure. The
subject of this sketch was by birth and par- entage a South Carolinian, who came to Virginia's capitol early in his career and made for himself a place at the bar of that state.
His father was Dr. Llenry William de Saussure, a practicing physician of Charles- ton, South Carolina, and his mother's maiden name was Mary Peronneau. He was thus of Huguenot stock on both sides. After re- ceiving his grammar school education in the excellent private schools of his native city he entered the South Carolina Military In- stitute at the age of fifteen years. In 1863 the cadets of this institute were ordered mto active service in the war between the states and Mr. de Saussure served with them until the close of the war, chiefly along the line of coast defences between Charleston and Savannah. Georgia, and on the outposts in front of Charleston until the evacuation of the city in February, 1865.
Mr. de Saussure comes legitimately to his choice of a profession. His great-grand- father, Henry William de Saussure, was one of the first chancellors of South Carolina ; a member of its court of appeals, and pub- lished under his name the first four volumes of the South Carolina Equity Reports. Chancellor de Saussure, when but a boy of sixteen years, participated in the defense of Charleston against the British and upon the fall of the city was taken prisoner and con- fined upon one of the prison ships. History has thus repeated itself in the case of his great-grandson, the subject of this sketch.
