Wymberley Jones De Renne

Wymberley Jones De Renne (September 23, 1853 – June 23, 1916) was an American preservationist. He became a noted collector of literature on the history of the State of Georgia. In 1922, it was described as "the most complete private state historical collection in existence." the first surviving child of George Wymberley Jones De Renne and Mary Wallace Nuttall. His parents' first-born, a son, died in infancy. The family lived at the Wormsloe Plantation in Savannah, Georgia, which De Renne inherited upon the death of his father in 1880. He rented the estate from the Pennsylvania Company for almost 25 years and had it running as a working farm.

He studied abroad, at Leipzig University and the University of Strasbourg, before graduating from Columbia Law School in 1876.

Personal life

In 1880, De Renne married Laura Norris Camblos. It was his bride's second marriage, Laura's first husband—William Pepper Norris and Wymberley Wormsloe— He built a fireproof library―the Wymberley Jones De Renne Georgia Library) He produced seven publications, including two catalogs of his collection. He also printed two collections of manuscripts—the memoirs of Georgia governor Wilson Lumpkin in 1907 and, in 1915, letters of Confederate States Army general Robert E. Lee which had been previously unpublished—and published several collections of the Georgia Historical Society, of which his father had briefly been president. In addition to the library, De Renne was responsible for planting the Oak Avenue which Wormsloe is now famous for.

Among other societies, De Renne was a member of The Oglethorpe Club. De Renne's wife had preceded him in death by three years.