Dickins, Francis Asbury

Francis Asbury Dickins (1804-1901) was a planter of Ossian Hall in Fairfax County, Va., agent for the United States War and Treasury departments and lawyer of Washington, D.C., specializing in government claims, son of Asbury Dickins (1780-1861), who had also held various government positions. Francis Asbury Dickins married Margaret Harvie Randolph (d. 1891), daughter of Harriot Wilson and Thomas Mann Randolph (1792-1848) of Tuckahoe Plantation in Goochland County, Va. Francis and Margaret had five children who lived to maturity: Francis Asbury, Jr. (called Frank) (1841-1890), Frances Margaret (called Fanny) (1842-1914), Harriot Wilson (1844-1917), Thomas Mann Randolph (called Randolph) (1853-1914), and Albert White (1855-1913).

Asbury Dickins (1780-1861) was the son of John Dickins (1747-1798), an early leader of the Methodist Church, and Elizabeth Yancey (fl. 1780) of North Carolina. Except for a brief sojourn in England early in the 19th century, Asbury Dickins spent his adult life in Maryland and the District of Columbia working in various government departments. From 1829 to 1833, he served as chief clerk of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. For the next three years, he worked as chief clerk of the State Department. In both of these jobs, he occasionally served as acting secretary. In 1836, Asbury Dickins was chosen secretary of the U.S. Senate, a position he retained until his death in 1861.

Asbury Dickins married Lilias Arnot of Scotland, and they had four sons--Hugo, James, Francis Asbury, and Thomas--and one daughter, Lilia, who married Charles Stewart McCauley, a naval officer. Francis Asbury Dickins (1804-1901) followed his father into government service and was also a lawyer. In the late 1820s and the 1830s, he worked as an agent for the War and Treasury departments. By 1839, Francis Asbury had opened a law office in partnership with his brother James, specializing in claims before Congress, and other branches of the Government. In 1841, he formed a law partnership with Cornelius P. Van Ness, former governor of Vermont, maintaining his specialty in government claims.

Francis Asbury Dickins married Margaret Harvie Randolph (d. 1891) in 1839. Although Dickins maintained his law office in Washington, the newlyweds' official residence was Ossian Hall Plantation in Fairfax County, Va. Margaret Harvie Randolph Dickins was the daughter of Harriot Wilson and Thomas Mann Randolph (1792-1848) of Tuckahoe, Goochland County, Va. Margaret's uncle, her father's half-brother who was also named Thomas Mann Randolph (1769-1828), lived at Edgehill in Albemarle County, Va., married Thomas Jefferson's daughter, Martha, and was governor of Virginia. He was more widely known than Margaret's father, but there are no papers of Governor Randolph in this collection.

Francis Asbury and Margaret Harvie Randolph Dickins had nine children. Five lived to maturity: Francis Asbury, Jr. (called Frank) (1841-1890); Frances Margaret (called Fanny) (1842-1914); Harriot Wilson (1844-1917); Thomas Mann Randolph (called Randolph) (1853-1914); and Albert White (1855-1913).

During the Civil War, Ossian Hall was within U.S. army lines, but the Dickins family were southern sympathizers. Francis Asbury was imprisoned three times on suspicion of aiding the South and ultimately left home to spend the final days of the war behind Confederate lines. Frank served in the Confederate army, and both daughters moved to Richmond during the war. Fanny was employed by the Confederate Treasury Department in 1862 at Richmond, and, in 1863, she moved to Columbia, S.C., to work with a branch of the Confederate Treasury there.

After the Civil War, Francis Asbury Dickins returned to Ossian Hall and reopened his Washington law office. His sons Frank and Albert worked on railroads in the west. Randolph attended Virginia Military Institute and became a colonel in the Marine Corps. Harriot Wilson married Dr. Henry Theodore Wight and had two daughters. Fanny continued to live with her mother after the death of Frances Asbury in 1879. The two women left Ossian Hall and divided their time among family in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and New York.

Significant Randolph family correspondents in this collection include:

Gabriella Harvie Randolph Brockenbrough, second wife of Thomas Mann Randolph, grandmother of Margaret Randolph Dickins. Gabriella Randolph married Dr. John Brockenbrough of Richmond after the death of her first husband, and he served as guardian for her son. Her Randolph granddaughters frequently visited the Brockenbroughs in Richmond.

Margaret Harvie Randolph's siblings: