The gathering at the main entrance of the Thomas Jefferson building looked like a family reunion when Library officials met Becky L. Sworden on July 2.
Ms. Sworden is the great, great, great, great granddaughter of John Beckley, the first Librarian of Congress.
Center for the Book Director John Y. Cole and Visitor Services Specialist James Pellettieri gave Ms. Sworden a tour of the building and introduced her to Early American History Specialist Gerard Gawalt so he could lay to rest some unanswered questions about her earliest American ancestor.
"As you get older, [family history] comes to mean more," she said. "My dad is 78 now. Somebody has to take on his job of knowing about the family."
After a tour that included a visit to the ceremonial Librarian's Office in the Jefferson Building, Ms. Sworden asked Mr. Gawalt about her ancestor's history.
She wanted to see the Library's collection of his papers, and she wondered whether he changed the spelling of his name from Bickley after he emigrated from England when he was 11. She was also curious about a clause in the family's copy of John Beckley's will that mentions a debt he owed his mother-in-law, implying he was once her indentured servant.
Although John Beckley was an indentured servant to a prominent family in Virginia, he probably did not work for the family of his wife, Maria Prince, Mr. Gawalt said, an expert in early-18th century history, who said there was no indication Beckley ever changed his name.
However, Mr. Gawalt said, the papers of his that still belong to the Library reveal details about the first Librarian that Ms. Sworden never knew. For example, Beckley was so close to Jefferson that he became his presidential campaign manager.
"He was definitely a man of political importance," Mr. Gawalt said. "As the first clerk of the House of Representatives he [had access to] a lot of confidential papers, including ... news of Alexander Hamilton's alleged affair."
Many amateur genealogists come to the Library every year to research their family trees, but rarely are their family's roots intertwined with those of the Library. Mr. Pellettieri said that is why he was delighted to arrange a tour of the Thomas Jefferson building for Ms. Sworden, her husband, James, and her friends Robert and Bonnie Hoover.
None of the three Library buildings was standing when Beckley was Librarian from 1802 until his death in 1807; the Library was in the U.S. Capitol. Mr. Cole said Beckley's residence was probably located on the same block where the Jefferson Building now stands, to the east of the Capitol.
Born in England in 1757, Beckley traveled alone to Virginia and was apprenticed to John Clayton, a prominent court clerk who was the grandson of a founder of the Royal Society of London. Clayton taught Beckley clerkship skills and introduced him to Attorney General Edmund Randolph, who became an early mentor for the young scribe.
Beckley replaced Randolph as the clerk for the Virginia House of Delegates when his mentor was elected to the Continental Congress in 1779. That year Beckley became a member of the original chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at the College of William and Mary, even though he was not a student there. Beckley's college history is not known.
The rising political star taught himself law and joined the Williamsburg Lodge of Freemasons, where he developed lasting political ties with fellow members Randolph, James Madison, John Marshall and James Monroe.
Beckley served as mayor of Richmond three times, beginning when he was 26. He developed an interest in national politics and was present for both the revision of the Articles of Confederation in 1787 and the Virginia convention to ratify the Constitution the following year.
In 1789 he was elected the first clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives. He developed strong Republican ties after he joined Jefferson as a member of the American Philosophical Society and campaigned vigorously to win Pennsylvania's vote for Jefferson in the 1796 presidential election.
Jefferson appointed Beckley to be Librarian of the original Capitol Library in recognition of his political skill and loyalty. Beckley biographers Edmund and Dorothy Smith Berkeley credit him with first bringing Thomas Paine's Rights of Man to the attention of Madison so he could use it as a rebuttal to John Adams's monarchist Discourses on Davilla.
Mr. Gawalt laid out documents belonging to Beckley in the Manuscript Reading Room for Ms. Sworden to view. She saw Beckley's handwritten memorandum book tracking early constitutional precedents when he was House Clerk, a bill signed by Beckley approving $5,000 for the purchase of books for the Library and the Library's copy of Beckley's will.
Mr. Gawalt gave Ms. Sworden a copy of his 1995 book, Justifying Jefferson: The Political Writings of John James Beckley.
"Gerry [Gawalt] told me a lot that I couldn't have known if I hadn't come here."
