Elizabeth Calvert Page Dabney is a former Professor of English at Old Dominion University and a descendant of an old Norfolk family. The history of Elizabeth Calvert Page Dabney's family includes the histories of the Dabneys, the Pages, the Gordons, the Whittles, and the Loyalls. The Pages are an old and well-known Virginia family historically distinguished for their devotion to the Episcopal Church. They are related by marriage to the famous Revolutionary War General "Light Horse Harry" Lee and General Robert E. Lee. A known member of the Page family, Richard Lucien Page, served the United States Navy in the War of 1812 and in the Mexican War. When Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, he resigned his commission to the Union and was commissioned in the Navy of the Confederacy. He was later captured as a prisoner of war, and released after the Civil War. The Gordon family came to Virginia from Scotland in the 1700s. Samuel and Basil Gordon, and Samuel's nephew, were the first of their family in Virginia. The three men married three sisters who were the daughters of William Knox of Culpepper County, Virginia. They settled near Fredericksburg. In 1812, after the death of their father, the Gordons returned home to Scotland. Samuel and Agnes Knox Gordon remained in Scotland and England for the next twenty years before returning to Virginia. The Loyalls lived in Norfolk during the Civil War. Camilla Frances Loyall kept a diary of her experiences during this time. Her accounts include the capture of Norfolk by the Union in 1862.

Note written by Special Collections Staff