Sarah W. Brunet

1799

1888

Present

Old detail aerial view map showing Norfolk, Virginia and locations related to Sarah Brunet. — *Detail, “Norfolk & Portsmouth, Virginia, 1873,” C.N. Drie (Library of Congress)*

Sarah Williamson Brunet (1799-1888), a supporter of Baptist causes including Richmond College, lived most or all of her life in Norfolk, Virginia.¹ Her late-life gifts and bequest to Richmond College provided both student aid and property. While few details of her life can be reconstructed, it appears she was married to Peter Brunet, Jr. (1798-1830) and inherited from him control of a household and assets, raising at least two children while steering a real estate portfolio that included properties in Norfolk and Williamsburg, Virginia. She also served on early committees at Norfolk’s Freemason Street Baptist Church, including one with particular attention to the poor, and a Civil War era committee charged with securing insurance for the church’s property. Records also indicate that between 1835 and 1862 Brunet enslaved between one and four children and adults each year.

This page reflects research conducted between 2021 and 023 by Shelby M. Driskill.

Life and Family

Sarah Williamson Brunet was born in 1799.² No information on her parents or her early life has been located. Significant evidence indicates she was married to Peter Brunet, Jr. (1798-1830), though no marriage record for the couple has been located. It appears that her wealth was largely inherited from her husband, whose own wealth originated with his father, Peter Brunet, Sr. (d. 1797), an immigrant from the British-controlled Isle of Jersey who became a prominent Norfolk merchant. The elder Brunet served as Norfolk’s vendue master, a “quasi-official functionary” authorized to conduct auctions of enslaved people, estates, ships’ contents, and goods, exchanges which brought vendue masters significant commissions.³ The holdings Peter Brunet, Jr. ultimately inherited from his father included numerous lots in Norfolk and a plantation in Princess Anne County, Virginia.⁴

Sarah Brunet’s will refers to two daughters, Sarah E.E. Brunet Vaughn Henley (1826-1867) and Adaline Dey Pitt Russell (c. 1817-1902); a grandchild, Howard S. Vaughan (1852-1919); and a great-grandchild, Sarah E. Vaughan.⁵ The absence of Peter Brunet, Jr.’s marriage records, birth records for his children, and will result in a lack of clarity as to whether Henley and Russell and his other known children were from his marriage to Sarah Brunet or his prior marriage to Martha Brunet, whom he appears to have married between 1822 and 1823 and who lived until at least January 1829.⁶ Peter Brunet, Jr. died on September 11, 1830, “leaving a wife and four children.”⁷ Two of these children died over the next two months: Mary Jane, aged 17 months, in October, and Peteranna, aged six years, in November.⁸

In the years following her husband’s death, deeds and other records indicate that Sarah Brunet maintained and augmented her wealth through real estate investment. She owned a commercial building in Williamsburg⁹ and purchased numerous Norfolk properties, including land then known as Barron’s Gardens and Armistead’s Rope Walk,¹⁰ an adjacent farm known as Jerusalem,¹¹ and property on and around Cumberland Street, where she resided for decades and was a member of Cumberland Street Baptist Church.¹²

In 1848, Brunet joined other members of Cumberland Street Baptist Church in becoming charter members of the initially all-white Freemason Street Baptist Church in Norfolk.¹³ She was among the church’s “earliest collectors of funds to help the poor of the membership, and she was elected to a committee to visit the sick in 1848-49.”¹⁴ She also sat on a committee responsible for insuring the church’s property in 1864.¹⁵

Brunet died on July 6,1888 and was buried near Peter Brunet, Jr. in Norfolk’s Cedar Grove Cemetery.¹⁶ She had earlier donated the large central stained-glass window at Freemason Street Baptist Church, and, as she had requested, her name was added to the window’s scroll upon her death.¹⁷

Two pages of old church minute book with handwritten "List of Members".

Freemason Baptist Church minutes recording “Sarah W. Brunett” as 21^st among the church’s original members (Library of Virginia)

Excerpt of old handwritten minute book showing a list of names under the title "List of Female members".

Freemason Baptist Church minutes recording “Sarah W. Brunette” on a “List of Female members” (Library of Virginia)

Close up of excerpt of old handwritten minute book.

Freemason Baptist Church minutes recording “Sisters James, Brunette,” et al, as members of a committee established to collect funds to insure the church (Library of Virginia)

Old newspaper clipping reporting on the funeral of Brunet.

“Funeral of Mrs. Sarah W. Brunet,” Norfolk Virginian, July 10, 1888 (Library of Virginia)

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Enslavement

Sarah Brunet’s wealth following her husband’s death included ownership of enslaved adults and children. In December 1846, she purchased an eight-year-old child named Henry, who was previously enslaved by an apparent neighbor, Ann Dunn (1776-1846).¹⁸ Of the individuals Brunet is known to have enslaved, Henry’s is the only name preserved in available records. Brunet’s 1850 and 1860 Federal Census Slave Schedule entries show the following enumeration of enslaved individuals: a 46-year-old woman in 1850¹⁹and a 33-year-old woman, 14-year-old girl, six-year-old girl, and two-month-old infant girl in 1860.²⁰Available Norfolk property tax records from 1835 to 1862 document Brunet as enslaving:one individual age 12 or over in 17 of those years, 2 individuals age 12 or over in nine of those years, and three individuals in one of those years.²¹ A reference in the will of one of her daughters may also pertain to two individuals enslaved by Brunet:Adeline Dey Pitt Russell (1816-1902) made a bequest to “establish an orphan asylum for negroes . . . in loving memory of my old black mammy and daddy, and the other servants who have belonged to me in the past.”²²For additional information, including full-page images of Brunet’s Federal Census Slave Schedule entries and all property tax entries for Brunet located to date, see Sarah W. Brunet and Enslavement.

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Close-up images of handwritten slave schedule entries for Sarah Brunet. — *1850 (left) and 1860 (right) Federal Census Slave Schedule entries for Sarah Brunet, spelled phonetically as Brunett and Brunette (Ancestry.com)*

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‍Philanthropy and Baptist Causes

Sarah Brunet directed gifts to several Baptist organizations in her will:

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary received $500 “for the education of young men for the Gospel ministry”;
The Southern Baptist Convention received $1,000 “for Home Mission in the State of Virginia”; and
Freemason Street Baptist Church received her 87 Cumberland Street home and $1,000 for its establishment as “a home for the aged and indigent members” of the church. By 1889, it was known as the “Brunett [sic] Baptist Home.”²³

Pair of black and white photos showing the gothic exterior of an old city stone church and the interior of the sanctuary including a stained glass window behind the altar. — Freemason Street Baptist Church: left to right, exterior (Virginia Division of Historic Resources) and sanctuary featuring the central window given by Sarah W. Brunet (Society of Architectural Historians and John R. Waicunas)

Richmond College

Richmond College also benefitted from Brunet’s philanthropy. In addition to scholarship funds, the institution received several gifts of property in Norfolk from Brunet and her estate: a house and lot on James Street (apparently received prior to her death and sold, with new homes constructed by the institution, in 1918); two houses and lots on Freemason Street (sold by the institution in 1914); four houses and lots on Mariner Street (sold in 1921); and a house and lot on Cumberland Street (received in 1922).²⁴

Brunet’s relationship to Richmond College appears indirect. No known relatives attended the institution. Her interest may have arisen through overlapping relationships between Freemason Street Baptist Church and Richmond College:

On May 25, 1848, Richmond College founding trustee Jeremiah Bell Jeter (1802-1880) and Virginia Baptist Education Society Vice President Eli Ball (1786-1853) visited Freemason Street members during the church’s formation out of Cumberland Street Baptist Church;²⁵
Tiberius Gracchus Jones (1821-1895) served as Freemason Street’s pastor both before and after his brief tenure as Richmond College’s president and may have alerted congregants to the college’s tenuous financial position;²⁶

Following Jones’s departure, the church sought unsuccessfully to secure Richmond College faculty member (and later trustee) J.L.M. Curry (1825-1903) as its pastor;²⁷ and
The pastorship was eventually assumed by William D. Thomas (1833-1901), son of Richmond College founding trustee James Thomas, Jr. (1806-1886).

Richmond College was listed as a secondary beneficiary in Brunet’s will, to receive bequests only if her grandson and great-granddaughter were to die without surviving children. The likelihood of the college receiving a bequest from Brunet initially appeared low. An 1898 Richmond College financial secretary’s report records: “Devise of Mrs. Sarah Brunet, of Norfolk, giving the College rights (perhaps remote) in certain realty.”²⁸ As the legal process moved through her heirs, in 1911, the financial secretary reminded trustees of the college’s “contingent interest” in Brunet’s estate.²⁹ By February 1914, however, the institution had received and approved the sale of property from the estate. Records summarize an attorney’s communication to trustees:

Certain Real Est. in Norfolk, bequeathed to the College under the will of Mrs Brunett, under Certain Contingencies of life interest, had been advantageously disposed of and the parties in interest were ready to make a final settlement. The sale was approved.³⁰

Image of page from old book with the page header of "Student Aid Funds" followed by a list of specific scholarships by name and amount. — *1897-98 Richmond College Catalogue Student Aid Funds list, including “The Brunet Scholarship”*

The 1914 Richmond College Treasurer’s Report records the proceeds of the sale of that parcel of Brunet’s property.³¹ The 1922 Richmond College Treasurer’s Report cites the cumulative value of Brunet’s gifts to the institution “before and after her death”³² at $36,062, including $1,000 for the Brunet Scholarship and the proceeds from properties sold to date. The report notes “it would seem appropriate for the Trustees in some way to establish a memorial to her memory.”³³ In recognition of Brunet’s generosity, in 1924, the Board of Trustees named the Refectory (the dining hall constructed on the institution’s new campus in 1914) Sarah Brunet Memorial Hall. It was the first building named for a woman at the institution. In November 1924, as part of the celebration of the institution’s 10^th year at the Westhampton campus, the University placed a bronze plaque on the building memorializing Brunet.³⁴

Image of architectural drawings of building showing varoius elevations. — *Architectural drawings for the Refectory building on the Richmond College campus (Boatwright Memorial Library)*

Image of bronze plaque from Sarah Brunet Memorial Hall. — *Plaque from the former Sarah Brunet Memorial Hall on the current campus*

In 2021, the University of Richmond Board of Trustees initiated development of Naming Principles to guide naming decisions at the University. Those principles were adopted in March 2022 and included the stipulation that “No building . . . at the University should be named for a person who directly engaged in the trafficking and/or enslavement of others or openly advocated for the enslavement of people.” Accordingly, the Board renamed Brunet Hall, restoring its original designation of the Refectory.³⁵

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More Information

¹Brunet is typically referred to as “Sarah W. Brunet.” Her middle or maiden name, Williamson, can be found in an 1838 deed (Lee to Brunet, May 5, 1838, 23:47, Library of Virginia, microfilm). The 1922 Richmond College Treasurer’s report refers to her as Sarah A. Brunet. In many records, including some Norfolk tax records and several University records, Brunet is misspelled as Brunett or a phonetical equivalent. For example, it is spelled Brunett in the Richmond College Financial Secretary’s Annual Report in 1893 (pp. 9-10) and 1898 (Appendix), as well as the February 5, 1914 minutes of the Richmond College Board of Trustees; it is spelled Brunette in the 1911 Annual Report of the Treasurer (p.11).

²“Sarah W. Brunet,” Cedar Grove Cemetery, Norfolk, Virginia, Find a Grave. “Sarah W. Brunet,” Federal Census of the United States, Norfolk, Virginia, 4, Ancestry.com.

³Thomas Costa, “Economic Development and Political Economy: Norfolk, Virginia Merchants-Magistrates 1736-1800,” dissertation, College of William & Mary (1991), 174, 178, 141.

⁴“Peter Brunet,” Norfolk, Virginia, Will Book 1:157B, Library of Virginia.

⁵Sarah W. Brunet, Last Will and Testament and Codicil, City of Norfolk, Virginia, Will Book 10, pp. 137-138, Library of Virginia. No documents have been located in which Russell holds the Brunet name. Her last name was Dey at her 1836 marriage, indicating the possibility that she was adopted by Brunet or was widowed early in her adult life (George Holbert Tucker, Abstracts from Norfolk City Marriage Bonds (1797-1850) (William H. Delaney, 1934), 143). Sarah W. Brunet’s relationship to Sarah E.E. Brunet Vaughn Henley is also documented in the latter’s marriage records (Consent, Sarah W. Brunet, Marriage bond, Sarah E. E. Brunet to James Vaughan, "Virginia, Vital Records, 1715-1901," film 007579021, image 231, FamilySearch.org).

⁶Peter and Martha’s marriage is dated in a deed related to the sale of land that formed a portion of her dowry (Martha Brunet and Peter Brunet to Jules Florentin Brett, Norfolk Deed Book, April 16, 1823, Library of Virginia, microfilm).While Martha Brunet’s death date is unknown, she was alive in January 1829 (John, enslaved by Martha Brunet, Petersburg, Virginia Commonwealth Causes, 1829, Library of Virginia). This suggests that she was the mother of Ana Eliza Margaret (d.1817) and Peteranna (c.1824-1830) (“Died,” Petersburg Republican, January 17, 1817, Library of Virginia; “Died,” American Beacon and Virginia and North Carolina Gazette, November 13, 1830, Library of Virginia). Some genealogical sources describe newspaper editor and Virginia General Assembly member James Monroe H. Brunet (1817-1856) as a child of Peter and Sarah Brunet, though his heirs are not mentioned in Sarah W. Brunet’s 1888 will. According to an 1831 newspaper item, as a young teenager, James M.H. Brunet “absconded” while apprenticed in Norfolk and was thought to be heading to Petersburg and then Tennessee in search of “relations.” This may indicate that he was the child of Martha Brunet, who was associated with Petersburg, though that connection remains uncertain (“$10 Reward,” Phenix [sic] Gazette, May 17, 1831, Virginia Chronicle (VC)). He was later an editor of the Petersburg News and Abingdon Democrat (“The Abingdon Democrat has changed hands,” Richmond Semi-Weekly Examiner, May 27, 1853, VC) and served in the Virginia General Assembly (Republican, March 24, 1853, VC).

⁷American Beacon and Virginia and North Carolina Gazette, September 14, 1830, Library of Virginia.

⁸“Died,” American Beacon and Virginia and North Carolina Gazette, October 19, 1830, Library of Virginia; “Died,” November 13, 1830, American Beacon and Virginia and North Carolina Gazette, Library of Virginia.

⁹Mary A. Stephenson, The Red Lion Historical Report, Block 18-1 Building 23A Lot 44, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library Research Report (Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation), 1990, 30.

¹⁰Taylor to Brunet, November 16, 1836, Norfolk, Virginia, Deed Book 22:186, Library of Virginia.

¹¹Bagnall to Brunett [sic], September 17, 1835, Norfolk, Virginia, Deed Book 22:258, Library of Virginia.

¹²Lee to Brunet, May 5, 1838, Norfolk, Virginia, Deed Book 23:47, Library of Virginia.

¹³William Latane Lumpkin, History of Freemason Street Baptist Church, 1848-1972 (Norfolk, Virginia: Phaup Printing Company, 1973) 27, 48. In its first years, Freemason Street Baptist Church excluded Black individuals from services, unlike nearby Cumberland Baptist Church.

¹⁴Lumpkin, History of the Freemason Street Baptist Church, 31; Dorothy Wagener, “Dining Hall Transformed: Renovated Refectory Nourishes Larger Community,” University of Richmond Magazine, Summer 1985, 3.

¹⁵Minutes of Freemason Street Baptist Church, March 3, 1864, Norfolk, Virginia, Library of Virginia, microfilm.

¹⁶“Sarah W. Brunet” and “Peter Brunet,” Cedar Grove Cemetery, Norfolk, Virginia, Block 4, Lot 61, Find-a-Grave.

¹⁷Lumpkin, History of the Freemason Street Baptist Church, 95.

¹⁸“Audit of the Estate of Ann Dun, decd, in a/c with Wm B. Lamb,” Norfolk, Virginia, Will Book 8:99, microfilm, Library of Virginia. For information located to date about individuals enslaved by Brunet’s husband, see Sarah W. Brunet and Enslavement.

¹⁹“Sarah W. Brunett” [sic], United States Federal Census, Slave Schedule, 1850, Ancesty.com. Numerous records referring to Brunet, including University records, use Brunett or Brunette, suggesting it was a phonetical spelling of her name. Norfolk directories, consistency of the names surrounding Brunet’s entries (under various spellings, including Brunet) across years in tax records, and other sources from her lifetime indicate that “Sarah Brunet,” “Sarah Brunett” and “Sarah Brunette” refer to the same individual.

²⁰“S.W. Brunette [sic],” United States Federal Census, Slave Schedule, 1860, Norfolk, Virginia, Ancestry.com.

²¹See Sarah W. Brunet and Enslavement for the information contained in each tax record located and full citations. To date, 1853 tax records have not been located.

²²Will of Adeline P. Russell in “Prison Association of Virginia v. Russell’s Adm’r, et al,” Southeastern Reporter Volume 49 . . . December 17, 1904 [to] March 25, 1905 (St. Paul: West Publishing Company, 1905), 967; “Mrs. Adelaide [sic] Pitt Russell,” Richmond Dispatch, February 9, 1902.

²³Sarah W. Brunet, Last Will and Testament and Codicil, City of Norfolk, Virginia, Will Book 10, pp. 137-138, Library of Virginia. Norfolk City Directory, Norfolk, Virginia: J. H. Chataigne and Co., 1889. An Alexandria, Virginia newspaper published details of Brunet’s bequests to Freemason Street Baptist Church and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. It referred to what became the Brunet Baptist Home as the Home for Aged and Indigent Females (“Virginia News,” Alexandria Gazette and Virginia Advertiser, July 12, 1888, Chronicling America). Through Brunet’s will, Fanny Carty, a disabled widow, was given permanent residence in the Brunet Baptist Home. Carty was described as having a “nervous debility” in the 1880 census. (“Fanny Carty,” Federal Census, 1880, Norfolk, Virginia, 42.)

²⁴Richmond College Board of Trustees Treasurer’s Report, 1914, University Archives, Virginia Baptist Historical Society (VBHS).

²⁵Lumpkin, History of the Freemason Street Baptist Church, 26.

²⁶Lumpkin, History of the Freemason Street Baptist Church, 32; William Henry Stewart, History of Norfolk County, Virginia, and Representative Citizens, 236-237. Jones presided at Brunet’s funeral.

²⁷Lumpkin, History of the Freemason Street Baptist Church, 70.

²⁸Richmond College, Financial Secretary’s Report, 1898, University Archives, VBHS.

²⁹Richmond College, Financial Secretary’s Report, 1911, University Archives, VBHS.

³⁰Minutes of the Richmond College Board of Trustees, February 5, 1914.

³¹Richmond College Board of Trustees Treasurer’s Report, 1914, University Archives, VBHS.

³²Wagener, “Dining Hall Transformed,” 2.

³³“Student Aid Funds,” Richmond College Catalog, Richmond College, 1897-98, Internet Archive.

^34“Report of the Trustees of the University of Richmond to the Virginia Baptist General Association,” Religious Herald, November 27, 1924, Google Books. According to the 1924 Richmond College Financial Secretary’s Annual Report, the original plaque was to read: “In grateful recognition of gifts made to Richmond College by Mrs. Sarah Williamson Brunet of Norfolk, Va. this building is named in her honor.”

‍³⁵Principle 9 of the Naming Principles specifies that “in instances in which a decision is made to remove a name for any reason, an explanation of the original name, the rationale for the original naming, and the reasons for its removal should be preserved and accessible. In all cases, this historical account should be full and objective, accurately communicating the namesake’s life and principal legacy, including contributions to the University.” An Unfolding History has sought to fulfill that commitment.