MAXWELL, William, author, born in Norfolk, Virginia, 27 February, 1784; died near Williamsburg, Virginia, 9 June, 1857. He was graduated at Yale in 1802, studied law in Richmond, Virginia, was admitted to the Norfolk bar in 1808, and attained to eminence as a constitutional lawyer. He edited the literary department of the "New York Journal of Commerce" in 1827, served in the Virginia legislature in 1830, and in the state senate in 1832-'8, and from November of the latter year till 1844 was president of Hampden Sidney college, Virginia he then removed to Richmond, was engaged in reviving the Virginia historical and philosophical society, and in 1848 established the "Virginia Historical Register," of which he edited six volumes (1848-'53). He was a member of the Bible and colonization societies, active in the cause of education, and in 1828 erected at his own expense in Norfolk, Virginia, a lyceum for the diffusion of useful knowledge by means of lectures and scientific experiments. Hampden Sidney gave him the degree of LL. D. He published a "Memoir of Roy. John It. Rice" (Philadelphia, 1835).