Thomas C. Williams, Sr.

Thomas C. Williams, Sr., a late-19^th-century Richmond College trustee and donor, amassed considerable wealth through tobacco manufacturing enterprises of “world-wide reputation,” becoming “one of the two or three most wealthy men in Richmond.”¹ As a Richmond College trustee, Williams provided funds at crucial times and exhibited a strong interest in the law program. He began his career in the 1850s as a clerk in the tobacco business of Richmond College founding Trustee James Thomas, Jr. (1806-1886); established the tobacco firm Patterson & Williams & Company with Richard A. Patterson (1826-1912), who also later became a Richmond College trustee; and operated Thomas C. Williams & Company, another tobacco business, originally in partnership with James Thomas, Jr. This page provides a summary of Williams’s life and work, as well as his relationship to Richmond College.

During Williams’s career, Richmond was one of the largest slave-trading centers in the South, and enslaved people represented one-third of the state’s population. From Williams’s entry into the tobacco business until the end of the Civil War, he was actively involved in enslavement, acting as Thomas’s representative and overseer in managing an enslaved workforce and running Patterson & Williams and Thomas C. Williams & Company through a dependence on forced labor. Further details about his involvement in enslavement are available at Thomas C. Williams, Sr. & Enslavement.

1831-1855: Early Life & Career

Childhood & Education

Thomas Williams—later known as Thomas C. Williams, Sr. and T.C. Williams, Sr.—was born in Richmond, Virginia on August 14, 1831 to Christiana Dill Williams (c.1798-1836) and Jesse Williams (1796-1874).² His father was a prominent figure in the city and owner of a brick manufacturing and masonry business. Jesse Williams was said to have “erected or furnished bricks for a large proportion of the houses [in Richmond] finished prior to the [Civil] war.”³ Thomas Williams’s mother died when he was a child, and Jesse Williams married Maria Anderson (1806-1853) three years later in 1839.⁴

Williams is believed to have attended Rumford Academy, a school in King William County, Virginia, founded in 1804 as a preparatory school for the College of William and Mary.⁵ Between 1846 and 1849, Williams and his brother, Adolph D. Williams (1833-1884), studied at Richmond College.⁶

1850-1882: Business Career

c.1850-1855: Clerkship for James Thomas, Jr.

Between 1850 and 1862, Williams was employed by tobacco magnate, prominent Baptist, and Richmond College trustee and donor James Thomas, Jr., one of the most significant producers of tobacco products in Virginia, whose business and fortune were heavily reliant on the labor of enslaved individuals. There were several relationships between the Williams and Thomas families over multiple decades: 

• James Thomas, Jr. conducted business with Thomas C. Williams, Sr.’s father, Jesse, and uncle, Thomas, in the 1850s.⁷ 
• Jesse Williams and James Thomas, Jr. were both involved in the formation of institutions that became Richmond College.
• The two families were dedicated members and supporters of Richmond’s First Baptist Church. 
• Thomas C. Williams, Sr. and James Thomas, Jr.’s nephew, Richard A. Patterson, worked together at the firm of James Thomas, Jr. and from 1853 to 1861, operated their own company, Patterson & Williams.
• In 1861, Thomas C. Williams, Sr. married Samuella (Ella) Peatross (1837-1901), described as a cousin of James Thomas, Jr.’s wife, Mary W. Wortham Thomas (1823-1897), and whom Williams reportedly met in the Thomas home. Thomas and Ella Williams would later share a home with the Thomas family in Danville, Virginia during a portion of the Civil War.
• In 1862, Thomas and Thomas C. Williams, Sr. formally became business partners.
• From 1882 until James Thomas, Jr.’s death in 1886, Thomas C. Williams, Sr. and Thomas served together on the Richmond College board. 

As Thomas’s clerk, Williams was immersed in the operational details of the massive enterprise and at times also handled Thomas’s personal business. He managed the business’s accounts,⁸ performed clerical duties, wrote and signed shipping orders on Thomas’s behalf,⁹ kept Thomas up to date on sales and shipments across the country and the world,¹⁰ maintained financial records, advised on insurance coverage, managed some of Thomas’s rental properties, executed the leasing of enslaved individuals, oversaw their labor, and handled payments and other financial details related to their “hire.”¹¹

Thomas, who suffered ill health, was frequently absent from Richmond for stays at Virginia’s healing spring resorts, resulting in near-daily letters between him and Williams that provide a record of Williams’s role as clerk and transition to management. Williams often wrote summaries of factory activity for Thomas, keeping him connected to the business in Richmond with details of shipping (“Since I last wrote you I have shipped the following. . .”) and processing (“We are prizing the unsound Tobo. [tobacco] & will finish it in a day or two[. It] looks quite well”).¹² As Thomas prepared to return to Richmond in 1854, he made Williams’s broad responsibilities clear, writing, “I hope to find every thing in first rate order at Home & factory.”¹³ When Thomas returned, Williams embarked on a multi-state trip to call on Thomas’s agents and report back on business in the West.¹⁴ 

Though business correspondence indicates the duties of Williams and Thomas’s nephew, Richard A. Patterson, at times overlapped, Williams was in a subordinate role prior to 1855. Patterson, four years older than Williams and educated at the Richmond Medical College, lived in the Thomas home in 1850 and had been brought into the business at a managerial level.¹⁵ By Spring 1855, Williams and Patterson were both described as Thomas’s managers.¹⁶ Williams was firmly established in the role by September of that year, serving, for example, as the point of contact for a representative from Connolly & Adams, New York-based commission merchants that acted as Thomas’s agents (those responsible for sales of his products in specific areas), and dealing with the firm’s complaints about a particular brand of his tobacco.¹⁷ 

1853-1861: Patterson & Williams & Co.

As Williams rose from clerk to manager under Thomas, he and Patterson also launched their own tobacco business in 1852. Patterson & Williams & Company (typically shortened to Patterson & Williams), centered on the production of chewing tobacco. According to Patterson’s son, Archibald Williams Patterson (1858-1940), James Thomas, Jr. helped establish Patterson & Williams, which was housed in a building Thomas owned adjacent to his own factory.¹⁸ He also purchased large amounts of tobacco product from Patterson & Williams and had his own tobacco processed by the company.¹⁹ In his capacity as Thomas’s clerk, Williams signed many bank drafts to Patterson & Williams on Thomas’s behalf.²⁰ 

Williams and Patterson used the “slave hire” system in the operation of their business. The length of “hire” was generally one year, with occasional half-year or seasonal agreements. During the hiring term, despite some contractual stipulations, hirers typically viewed themselves as the temporary “owners” of leased enslaved persons.²¹ This extended to a responsibility for paying the property taxes assessed on individuals they leased from enslavers. Patterson & Williams relied on enslaved adults and children for the majority of its labor force.²² Richmond property tax records indicate that the business was taxed on 25 enslaved individuals in 1857;²³ 26 in 1858;²⁴ 45 in 1859;²⁵ 27 in 1860;²⁶ 23 in 1861;²⁷ and 1 in 1862.²⁸ According to the Slave Schedule of the 1860 Federal Census, Patterson & Williams held 35 men and boys between the ages of 12 and 55 through the “slave hire” system.²⁹

For images of all census and property tax records related to enslavement located for Patterson & Williams, see Thomas C. Williams, Sr. and Enslavement.

In 1860, the business produced 450,000 pounds of manufactured tobacco, valued at $90,000, positioning Patterson & Williams among the mid-level producers in the city.³⁰ The company also gained brief regional and national attention the previous year for employing white women or girls as laborers in their factory, an experiment Thomas had tried and abandoned.³¹

The Civil War ended the Williams and Patterson partnership. According to Patterson’s son, his father “retired from his co-partnership with Mr. Williams” before entering the Confederate Army as a surgeon.³²  A November 1863 item in the Daily Dispatch detailed the sale of factory fixtures, lumber, and office furnishings at the former Patterson & Williams factory.³³ 

c.1855-1860: Management and Marriage

In the growth of his managerial role for Thomas, Williams’s responsibilities continued to range from keeping an eye on Thomas’s house during his time away from Richmond to handling high-level operations at the tobacco factory. Williams signed hundreds of bank drafts on Thomas’s behalf as “T.C. Williams, atty,” indicating Thomas had granted him power of attorney for that purpose.

Williams had direct oversight of the factory during this period and continued reporting major information to Thomas when he was away. In September 1859, for example, he conveyed details of Thomas’s operations in Australia, the death of a tobacconist tenant in a Thomas warehouse, and the possibility of leasing the warehouse to an interested party from New York.³⁴ The following month he wrote about the lack of golden tobacco leaves that were a key part of Thomas’s branding strategy: “I dont know what we will do about bright wrappers, it seems impossible to get any, none coming in . . . . Unless we get some tomorrow Facty No 2 must stop work.”³⁵ 

Williams’s responsibilities also included extensive travel, visiting key tobacco agents, reporting back on prospective markets, sorting out disagreements with customers, and managing other potential problems. His destinations included Philadelphia, Chicago, and St. Louis (October 1854); Cincinnati (January 1855); Baltimore (March 1855); Philadelphia (November 1857); and New Orleans (May 1858).³⁶ Williams’s travel soon became a means by which he gathered information about the prospects of Civil War. In a return to Cincinnati in 1860, he conveyed to Thomas the increasing sectional tension he was witnessing as the prospect of South Carolina seceding from the Union loomed: 

“All anxious to know what Va. will do. Am told a great many who voted for Lincoln now regret it, and are anxious for peace. I tell them that I fear they wont have it for a long time. Some say, let S.C. & other Cotton states go out, that they can eat Cotton & will starve & beg to get back in 3 months, and a great deal of ful-du-rol like that. Felt several times yesterday like ‘pitching into’ some abolitionists on the cars but discretion prevailed. I could write pages related to what I have heard about the South in past two or three days, but will not bore you.”³⁷

In a postscript on his letter to Thomas the following day, he added another observation related to the prospect of war:

“What an immense trade & prosperous times we would have had this fall & spring, but for the political troubles. The west has seldom been in better condition, but the trouble in S.C. has ‘brought them up standing.’ Imprecations ‘long & deep’ are heaped upon the Palmetto state out here. As dull as things are out here, there is one branch of business in which a ‘pile’ can be made in a short time, if anyone is so disposed, that is, betting that S.C. will secede, they dont believe and cant be made to believe it. Will bet 50 to 1 on it!!! They ridicule the idea &c &c.”³⁸

Williams travelled to Cincinnati again three weeks after the April 1861 firing on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, reporting on business and the atmosphere of the city:

“I cant get anything out of them. All is confusion here, Wish I could give you an idea of the feeling here on the War question. a more determined set of people you never saw. The ‘Union shall be preserved’ is the motto. The stars & stripes are floating from every window in the City. there must be millions of them.”³⁹ 

Marriage

Williams married Samuella (Ella) Peatross in Caroline County, Virginia on May 24, 1860.⁴⁰ She was described as a cousin of Thomas’s wife, Mary W. Wortham Thomas (1823-1897),⁴¹ whom Williams reportedly met while visiting the Thomas home in Richmond. The couple resided with Jesse Williams for a time, then, according to their granddaughter, for a brief period they had a home of their own at Second and Grace Streets.⁴²

1861-1882: Civil War and Thomas C. Williams & Co. 

Substitute Soldiers and Postal Role

Williams continued to pursue his business career throughout the Civil War. According to Williams’s granddaughter’s memoir and that of Richard A. Patterson’s son, Williams did not serve in the Confederate military due to his health.⁴³ His correspondence before and during the war indicates occasional prolonged illnesses and diminished hearing. Letters between 1862 and 1864 detail his avoidance of military service, with Thomas’s assistance, though he affirmed in one that he would serve were his health not compromised.⁴⁴ Williams initially took advantage of the Confederate government provision that allowed white men to hire “substitutes” to serve in the army in their stead. He hired two substitutes prior to the repeal of the provision.⁴⁵ Once a substitute was no longer an option, he considered other possible exemptions, including his position as a “Farmer” and including himself among “managers of Negroes” who were then exempted from service:⁴⁶ 

“Cant say that I would much like getting my exemption by being P.M. [Post Master] here, would prefer it on a/c [account] of disability, or as a Farmer, or even in some other employment for the government, there is time enough I suppose to talk about being P.M. even if I could get it. If the bill passes the Senate as it passed the house, the President will detail Farmers or managers of Negroes, or the country will be ruined.”⁴⁷ 

While Williams resisted taking on a postmaster role in December 1863, ultimately, it was a postal position that kept him out of the army.⁴⁸ Williams secured a contract to carry mail through Thomas’s connections to the Confederate government, then sought a contractor to handle the delivery work for him.⁴⁹

‍1862: Creation of Thomas C. Williams & Co. and Move to Danville

As the second year of the Civil War began, Thomas’s concerns about his own health and Richmond’s strategic vulnerability had already led to two major changes: shifting his business to a partnership with Williams in April 1862 (with Thomas and Williams purchasing ownership stakes and renaming the firm Thomas C. Williams & Company) and relocating the bulk of their operations, and their families, to Danville, Virginia.⁵⁰

‍‍Thomas placed a newspaper announcement of his intention to step back from the workings of the company due to his health (describing himself as “so feeble as to disable me entirely for business”) and communicating his resulting association with Williams in Thomas C. Williams & Company. An announcement signed “T.C. Williams & Co.” was appended, directing correspondents to “address us at Danville for the present, where we have our factory.”⁵¹ In an advertisement Thomas signed in November 1862, he recommended that those interested in purchasing his “five or six hundred kegs of rough and ready twist” seek out Williams.⁵² While Thomas stepped back and Williams took the lead, deeds and correspondence demonstrate that, in some cases, it remained an active  partnership, with both men recorded as property owners and a collaborative approach to many business matters.⁵³ 

Danville was selected for its “comparative security, easy accessibility, and convenient proximity to the base of supplies.”⁵⁴ In 1861, Thomas had already secured a factory there.⁵⁵ In 1862, he purchased a large residential property on 35 acres at the edge of the city. His intention was to seek a separate home for the Williams family, but he found that the property was substantial enough to house his own family, that of his son William Dandridge Thomas (1833-1901), and Thomas and Ella Williams. The large property included multiple outbuildings, was close to other tobacconists’ mansions, and was considered “one of the most desirable residences in town.”⁵⁶ A detail of the plat that accompanied the sale shows the large main house fronting Grove Street, a separate kitchen and office, a granary, tobacco barn, and a “negro cabin” or “cabins” near Ridge street and at a slight distance from the house. The Williamses resided on the property throughout the war.⁵⁷

Williams initially remained in Richmond for several weeks after Thomas moved to Danville, concerned that getting back to Richmond to tie up loose ends might soon become impossible.⁵⁸ He spent early May securing an expanded power of attorney that would allow him to sell Thomas’s stocks,⁵⁹ scrambling to get financial affairs in order (including collecting rents, withdrawing tens of thousands of dollars of Thomas’s money, and liquidating assets belonging to Thomas and his son),⁶⁰ attempting to prevent the conscription of Thomas’s farm manager,⁶¹ renting buildings to the Confederate government,⁶² and dealing with the mounting panic among tobacconists that tobacco was about to be seized and burned. In May 1862, fear of loss led him to send immediately back a shipment of boxes for the company as soon as it arrived in Richmond. He wrote to Thomas: 

“You never saw the like, every wagon, drag & cart is loaded with Tobo, the Depots are crowded with it, a whole train of it goes [illegible] by Danville RR. [Your] 254 boxes will be down this evening, it will go right back . . . . It seems impossible almost for me to get things wound up . . . What shall I do? Wish you were here, but as you are not and will not come, we will do all & the best we can.”⁶³ 

By mid-May, Williams and his wife were residing with the Thomas family in Danville. Two of their children, Susanna Williams and Thomas C. Williams, Jr., were born there during the war years. The Thomas family was often away, and Williams’s correspondence suggests the Thomases returned to Richmond in the winter of 1863-1864 while the Williams family remained in Danville.⁶⁴ 
‍

Enslavement and Views on Emancipation

Williams’s slaveholding during the years he resided in Danville is reflected in property tax records under his own name and under Thomas C. Williams & Company. ‍In the city of Danville in 1863, Williams and Thomas were taxed on 29 people, collectively assigned a value of $34,000, under “T.C. Williams & Co.” The next line of the tax record shows Williams personally assessed on one enslaved person, assigned a value of $1,500.⁶⁵ In Pittsylvania County, Williams and Thomas were taxed on 14 enslaved people, assigned a value of $10,000, as “T.C. Williams & Company (Danville).”⁶⁶ In the City of Richmond, where Williams and Thomas maintained a small portion of their business during the Civil War years, one person was assessed under “T.C. Williams & Co.” and assigned a value of $1,200.⁶⁷ Two individuals were also assessed in Richmond under “T.C. Williams,” and assigned a combined value of $2,000.⁶⁸ 

Throughout this period, Williams was involved in the leasing of enslaved individuals and directing their daily labor in agricultural and factory operations, as well as at his residential property (originally shared with James Thomas, Jr.). Williams’s role is detailed in the numerous letters he and Thomas exchanged when one was in Richmond and the other in Danville. Topics addressed included his selection of two enslaved men to turn over to the Confederacy for work on the railroad in response to the impressment of enslaved laborers;⁶⁹ his receipt in Danville of enslaved men from other Thomas properties and his assignment of their labor;⁷⁰ his plans to hide the enslaved people he oversaw from Union forces “if the Enemy come”;⁷¹ and handling the payment of taxes on the company’s enslaved labor force.⁷²

Among those held by Williams and Thomas through Thomas C. Williams & Company were Todd and Alex, who escaped the Danville-area farm in August 1864. An ad placed in the company’s name offered a reward for their return, describing with respect to each man, when, where, and from whom “We bought him.”⁷³

^‍Following the Confederate surrender at Appomattox on April 9, Williams described what he viewed as social inversions as formerly enslaved people he and Thomas once controlled began acting on their freedom,⁷⁴ complaining of “impudence.”⁷⁵ Additional information about the involvement of Thomas Williams and Thomas C. Williams & Company in enslavement and Williams’s views on emancipation can be found in Thomas C. Williams, Sr. and Enslavement.

Loyalty Oath and Pardon

In a letter to Thomas, Williams described the encampment of Union soldiers in their Pittsylvania County field and his plan to seek compensation for damage to fences and crops. While he considered the advantage of liquidating his assets (“From the day of the evacuation of Richmond I have been anxious to sell out everything for Gold”), he recognized that without money “from abroad” the plan was not practical.⁷⁶ Instead, he shifted his attention to sustaining the company. Fearing he would not be able to do business otherwise, his first step was to take the oath of loyalty to the United States on May 8, 1865.⁷⁷ The next was to resume tobacco manufacturing: “I took the Oath today & intend to get a few hands & prize up the smo Tobo.” Still, “the constant dread we are in prevents our having any fixed plans.”⁷⁸

Williams also sought “amnesty & pardon” from President Andrew Johnson, attesting that he neither served in the military nor held Confederate office. Williams’s letter acknowledges his ownership of assets valued at more than $20,000; those whose wealth exceeded $20,000 were initially excluded from presidential pardons.⁷⁹

1865-1899: Post-war Danville and Return to Richmond

Williams continued to advance Thomas C. Williams & Company’s investment in Danville, inspired in part by the words of Union officials who visited him at home and assured him that “they will make it a flourishing town.”⁸⁰ By mid-May 1865, he had resumed the agriculture operation, but had difficulty finding labor. Initially, he reported to Thomas that white laborers were working as well as had “twice the number of Negroes,” but a week later, he wrote that the men had been shifted to cleaning up the factory since “they wont work on farm, Say Wills [the new farm manager] works them too hard &c.” Williams recommended hiring eight additional men at the farm, allowing for the cultivation of 100,000 hills of tobacco, which would result in 20,000 pounds of workable leaves, and asked Thomas’s thoughts on doubling it and building 12 to 15 more tobacco barns.⁸¹ As the summer progressed, Williams relied on flour sales for capital⁸² and competed with other tobacconists for available leaves for manufacture.⁸³ 

Williams remained in Danville until at least 1867, serving on the City’s Common Council and on a committee to receive proposals for the new courthouse and town hall.⁸⁴ He expanded the company’s agricultural and factory operations there, yielding local and international attention and prizes. Thomas C. Williams & Company was pivotal to the economic success of the area, with one newspaper correspondent writing from Pittsylvania that it “has done as much or more to encourage our farming interest than any other firm.”⁸⁵ While a portion of the operation remained in Danville, at some point before 1869, Williams, his wife, and their children returned to Richmond, where they first resided on West Grace Street.⁸⁶ The family moved to Franklin Street, two blocks from Richmond College, before 1877. Their home there was described as “one of the most elegant in the city . . . furnished in magnificent style,”⁸⁷ and was represented in an illustrated atlas of the city.⁸⁸ Thomas C. Williams & Company advertised the sale of a massive agricultural tract and 40 to 60 building lots in Danville in 1872,⁸⁹ but the company’s factories continued to hold dominant positions in both Richmond and Danville.⁹⁰

Continued Business Growth

Until his death in 1889, Williams continued to oversee the massive growth of Thomas C. Williams & Company, which was described by one publication as having a “worldwide reputation for superior excellence in grade and flavor.”⁹¹ In 1885, the Danville operation employed between 175 and 200 individuals and produced between 500,000 and 600,000 pounds of “manufactured plug, twist and coil tobacco in the summer months” alone.⁹² That year Williams received national attention for the construction of his large six-story factory in Richmond.⁹³ The main Williams factory was later described as one of the three “most impressive fronts” in the city, selected more “for their extent than style” in a survey of the city’s prominent buildings.⁹⁴ A large production facility was featured in an advertisement for T.C. Williams & Company’s Hygeia brand.⁹⁵

In 1874, Williams filed a patent on a chewing tobacco production method that promised to preserve freshness and limit the need for a large labor force.⁹⁶ In 1879, the company’s products were on display at an exhibition in Sydney, Australia.⁹⁷ 

In 1878, fire destroyed much of Williams’s Richmond factory, with losses exceeding $69,000.⁹⁸ In 1882, Thomas C. Williams & Company, along with many other businesses, was again affected by fire—this one described as “the most destructive conflagration” Richmond had seen since Confederate soldiers set fire to the city as they retreated on April 3, 1865.⁹⁹

Following James Thomas, Jr.’s death on October 8, 1882, Williams announced the dissolution of the business he had operated with Thomas and its continuation under the same name, this time in partnership with a fellow former Thomas employee, Robert S. Bosher (1843-1904).¹⁰⁰ Business leadership duties were shared among Williams; Bosher; Williams's nephew, James T. Parkinson (1851-1947); and Williams’s elder son, Thomas C. Williams, Jr. (1864-1929).¹⁰¹

Other Businesses and Organizations

Williams was a highly influential figure in Richmond, involved in a variety of endeavors. He purchased significant real estate, including a store sold for $11,000;¹⁰² a large former foundry he bought as an investment property (and for which he outbid fellow tobacconist Lewis Ginter (1824-1897));¹⁰³ and in 1887, the lot then occupied by Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad at 8th and Broad Streets.¹⁰⁴

In addition to his own home on West Franklin Street, Williams acquired his late father’s retirement residence, then known as Windsor Farm and located several miles from Richmond’s western city limits.¹⁰⁵ In the 1920s, the farm and surrounding property were developed by Thomas C. Williams, Jr. as Windsor Farms. 

The elder Williams also served as a director of the Virginia Home Insurance Company;¹⁰⁶ director of the National Bank of Virginia;¹⁰⁷ member of the Richmond Chamber of Commerce and the manufacturers standing committee;¹⁰⁸ incorporator of the  Virginia Safety and Deposit Trust Company¹⁰⁹ and the New York and Southern Construction Company;¹¹⁰ director of the Virginia Construction Company;¹¹¹ member of the executive committee that planned for the large Virginia Agricultural, Mechanical and Tobacco Exposition;¹¹² and member of the James River Valley Immigration Society, formed to increase the state’s labor force.¹¹³  At his death, Williams was described as holding “interests in several railroad-construction companies,” a reference to his connections to the Virginia Construction Company and New York and Southern Construction Company.¹¹⁴ 

Williams & the Baptist Church

The Williams family was long associated with the city’s First Baptist Church.¹¹⁵ According to one church history, Jesse Williams provided the brick for the church’s impressive new location following the racial division of the congregation in 1841 into the all-white First Baptist Church and the Black First African Baptist Church.¹¹⁶

As he grew wealthier, Thomas C. Williams, Sr. also became a supporter of Baptist causes and institutions,¹¹⁷ providing financial resources to Southwest Virginia Institute (at the time a women’s institution, later known as Virginia Intermont College), churches, and mission efforts.¹¹⁸ 

Williams, along with many prominent Baptists with Richmond College affiliations, also served on the Board of Managers for the State Mission Board of the Baptist General Association of Virginia¹¹⁹ and was a founding trustee at the board’s 1888 incorporation.¹²⁰ 

Williams & Richmond College

As was the case with First Baptist Church, the Williams family’s association with the institution that would become the University of Richmond began with Williams’s father, Jesse, who was a member of the Virginia Baptist Education Society, the organization that developed and oversaw the Virginia Baptist Seminary, the college’s predecessor institution. Jesse Williams served on the society’s board in 1837 and was elected one of its managers in 1841.¹²¹

Having attended Richmond College decades earlier, Thomas C. Williams, Sr., was elected to the Richmond College Board of Trustees in December 1881. As a trustee, he generously supported the institution, which continued to experience periods of post-war financial strain. Williams made gifts to fund salaries for faculty in English, to augment the institution’s general endowment, and to create the Ella Williams Student Aid Fund as a memorial to his daughter, who died in 1883. He also purchased from Richmond College a house and lot in Manchester (an area south of the James River), apparently to provide liquidity for the institution. Williams also showed a strong interest in the law program, which had experienced repeated episodes of financial instability. Prior to his death, he offered a challenge gift of $5,000 if the institution could raise an additional $20,000 for a law school endowment. While that challenge failed, after Williams passed away in April 1889 at age 57, his widow, Ella, and their surviving children, led by Thomas C. Williams, Jr., together made a $25,000 gift in his memory to support the law program, placing it on a solid foundation for the future. 

News of Williams’s death was published across the country. Richmond College trustees convened the day after he died, lamenting the loss of one of its “most generous benefactors, wisest counsellors, and sincerest friends” and one of the community’s “most intelligent, enterprising, and useful citizens.” The faculty likewise expressed its sense of loss and indicated plans for the faculty and students to attend Williams’s funeral together.¹²² Williams’s obituaries recounted his business success and also cited his philanthropy, while consistently noting that he avoided attention for his gifts, wishing that “only those to whom he gave would know what he did.”¹²³ 

T.C. Williams, Jr. and A.D. Williams 

Thomas C. Williams, Jr. (1864-1929), known as T.C. Williams, Jr., attended Richmond College (1882-1883) and succeeded his father on the Richmond College board, serving as a trustee from 1890 until his death in 1929, chairing the Executive Committee, and playing an active role in the investment of endowment funds. T.C. Williams, Jr. also served as vice president of T.C. Williams Tobacco Company and vice president and director of the Virginia Trust Company. He was a generous supporter of Richmond College and later, the University of Richmond, throughout his time as a trustee. His sister Mary Thomas Williams (1867-1920) also joined him in making a gift to the law program. His final gift to the University and the law school was a $200,000 bequest.¹²⁴ At T.C. Williams Jr.’s death, University President Frederic W. Boatwright described him as “one of the most distinguished alumni of the University” and praised his 40 years of service as a Trustee, wise counsel, and “almost daily attention to the business of the university.”¹²⁵ As was the case for his father, the University suspended classes to enable faculty and students to attend his funeral.¹²⁶ 

Adolph Dill Williams (1871-1952), the younger son of Thomas C. Williams, Sr., attended Richmond College from 1887 to 1889.¹²⁷ Often referred to as A.D. Williams, with his wife, Wilkins Coons Williams (1870-1950), he supported construction of a new law school building in the early 1950s. Through his estate, A.D. Williams established generous trusts with income designated to benefit several Richmond-area institutions and organizations, including the University of Richmond and its law school.¹²⁸ 

In 1920, when Richmond College was re-chartered as the University of Richmond, the law school was listed with Richmond College and Westhampton College as one of the three constituent schools of the University and, recognizing the support and legacy of Thomas C. Williams, Sr., was identified at that time as the T.C. Williams School of Law.  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, program, professorship, or other entity 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, in fall 2022, the board formally renamed the law school the University of Richmond School of Law.