 He was a grandson of Maj. Gen. William Preston of the Confederate Army who was a member of Congress and U.S. Minister to Spain, and a descendant of William Richardson Davie, the 10th Governor of North Carolina and U.S. Minister to France who was a General in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.Upon completing military service, he graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School.He amassed a large collection of historical documents over the course of his life, pertaining to the early settling of the United States.