Cynthia Beverley Tucker Washington Coleman (1832-1908) was one of the founders of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. She was the daughter of Nathaniel Beverley Tucker (1820-1890) and the granddaughter of St. George Tucker (1752-1827).
Born Cynthia Beverley Tucker, she was first married to Henry A. Washington (1820-1858), they had two daughters, Lucy Beverley Washington (1854 - 1854) and Sarah Tayloe Augustine Washington (1856 - c. 1862).
She later married Dr. Charles Washington Coleman (1826-1894). Their children were Charles Washington Coleman (1862-1932), Elizabeth Beverley Coleman (1866 - 1948), Nathaniel Beverley Tucker Coleman (1868- ), George Preston Coleman (1870-1948), Catharine Coleman* (c. 1872-1883) and Giles Bland Coleman(1873-1873) died the day he was born.
She was also the grandmother of Janet Haldane Coleman Kimbrough (1902-1992), and the great-grandmother of Cynthia Beverly Tucker Kimbrough Barlowe. Her portrait hangs in the Special Collections Research Center in the Earl Gregg Swem Library.
CYNTHIA BEVERLEY TUCKER COLEMAN OBITUARY RICHMOND TIMES DISPATCH OCTOBER 25 1908
After a protracted illness, which for a week past had been extreme, Mrs. Cynthia Beverley Tucker Coleman died at her residence in Williamsburg, Va., yesterday, in the seventy-seventh year of her age. Mrs. Coleman was the eldest child of Judge N. Beverley Tucker (professor of law in William & Mary College, and author of the "Partisan Leader", and other works) and of Lucy Anne Smith, daughter of Brigadier-General Thomas Adams Smith, U.S.A. She married first, July 8, 1852, Henry Augustine Washington, of Westmoreland county, Va., professor of history and political economy in the College of William & Mary and editor of the first edition of the writings of Thomas Jefferson. He died in Washington, D.C., February 28, 1858. The two children of this marriage died in infancy.
Mrs. Washington married, secondly, October 29, 1861, Dr. Charles Washington Coleman, of Williamsburg, Va. Of the children of this marriage, three sons and one daughter survive- Charles Washington, N. Beverley Tucker, George Preston and Elizabeth Beverley Coleman. Dr. Coleman died September 15, 1894.
Mrs. Coleman was one of the founders and incorporators of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, a charter member of the Society of Colonial Dames of America in the State of Virginia, and ever active in public work of a historical nature.
Funeral services will be held in Bruton Parish Church, Monday, October 26th at noon. The pall-bearers will be from the immediate family connections, including Mrs. Coleman's sons.
From History Colonial Capital Branch Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquitiesby Walter J. Miller (pages ix - x):
Preservation is in the Air: Catharine Memorial Society
The history of the branch as well as of the APVA begins with a brief mention of the Catharine Memorial Society. The following background material is taken from The First Restoration in Williamsburg by Jeanette S. Kelly, written for the Colonial Capital Branch, APVA in 1933. Miss Kelly served as recording secretary of the branch, 1923-1926.
On February 9, 1884, Mrs. Cynthia Beverley Tucker Coleman called together a group of children, the playmates of her daughter Catharine, who had died a few months before, and in order to keep in touch with these children she formed with them a society called the "Catharine Memorial Society." For a number of years the society met regularly at Mrs. Coleman's and, with the assistance of Mis Estelle Smith, Mrs. Helen Leigh, Miss Alice Smith and other young ladies were taught to sew and carry on such charitable projects as a Junior Branch of the King's Daughters might do. But Mrs. Coleman's interest in history and tradition had been awakened prior to this date, and in 1886 the work of the Catharine Memorial Society was turned into new channels and the great task of assisting in the repair of Bruton Parish Church and restoring the tombs and the walls of the church yard was begun.
The money for the work was raised by the sale of small articles made by the children, and by gifts of money from individuals whose interest was roused by an article in the Southern Churchman of August 5, 1887, written by Mrs. C. B. T. Coleman, and by gifts sent in response to many personal letters written by her and other ladies who were members of the Catharine Memorial Society.
The successful undertakings of the Catharine Memorial Society became a stimulus to interest in the historical possessions in Williamsburg and in other parts of the state, not only among dwellers in the city itself but throughout Virginia and beyond. Expansion was natural and necessary, and in 1889 steps were taken to form a larger association whose object, to quote from Mrs. Coleman's notebook[,] was to "preserve just such records of the past as are attracting the interest and attention elsewhere. Not only are the monuments and tombs to be repaired but buildings in which stirring deeds have been enacted, and where they have been destroyed to mark the spot on which they stood."
On January 4, 1889, a group of ladies and gentlemen met at Mrs. Coleman's home to discuss the organization of a society that was called the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. Mrs. Fitzhugh Lee, wife of the governor, was elected president; the central group was in Richmond with Branches in various places, of which the Colonial Capitol Branch in Williamsburg was the first."
Materials in the Special Collections Research Center
- Cynthia Beverley Tucker Washington Coleman in SCRC Database
- Mueller, Walter J. History Colonial Capital Branch Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. Williamsburg: The Colonial Capital Branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, 1988. pp. ix-x. In SCRC Rare Books Collection (F221 .A737 1988
- Cynthia Beverley Tucker Washington Coleman cookbook, 1854 in SCRC Digital Archive
- Williamsburg During the Occupancy of Federal Troops during the Civil War in SCRC Digital Archive
- Description of Lafayette's 1824 visit, written circa 1900 in SCRC Digital Archive
Further Reading
- "Send me word . . ." SCRC blog posted on August 5, 2015 by Kim Sims
- Cynthia Beverley Tucker Coleman U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current