Francis Brinley Fogg was born to Daniel and Deborah (Brinley) Fogg in Brooklyn, Connecticut on September 21, 1795. He was an exceptional student and passed the Newport (Rhode Island) Bar in the early 1810s. Fogg settled in Columbia, Tennessee in 1818, where he began practicing law. He soon caught the attention of Felix Grundy, who convinced him to relocate to Nashville. Here, he established a partnership with Ephraim H. Foster and went on to enjoy a long and sucessful legal career. He also served as a delegate to the Tennessee Constitutional Convention (1834), as a Member of the Nashville Board of Education (1856-1863), as a Senator in the Tennessee General Assembly (1851-1853), and as a Trustee of Cumberland College and the University of Nashville (1823-1880) in addition to helping to found Nashville's public school system. Fogg married Mary Middleton Rutledge (1801-1872) in Davidson County, Tennessee on October 15, 1823 and the couple had three children: Francis Brinley (1825-1848), Septima Sexta (about 1828-1851), and Henry Middleton Rutledge (about 1830-1862). Francis B. Fogg died in Nashville on April 13, 1880 and is buried in the Old City Cemetery.

The case discussed in this letter was a long-running land dispute between the University of North Carolina and East Tennessee and Cumberland Colleges. In 1806, a considerable amount of land was transferred from North Carolina to Tennessee on the condition that grants made by North Carolina land offices would be honored by their Tennessee counterparts. In 1811, North Carolina attempted to claim lands to the west and south of the original boundary line. Tennessee objected, and the dispute was taken to Congress in 1815. Here, North Carolina's representatives reasserted their claim to the land and objected to the 200,000 acres that had been allotted to Tennessee for schools. Congress found in favor of Tennessee, which was then empowered to adjudicate the disputed lands. The University of North Carolina filed their claims with Tennessee's land office in 1819 but encountered significant opposition based on previous fraud and the enormity of the University's claim. The case was temporarily settled in 1822 when the University ceded a total of 60,000 acres to East Tennessee College and Cumberland College. The University attempted to claim its remaining lands, but doing so would have required Tennessee to transfer land back to North Carolina. The case eventually reached the Supreme Court and was settled by selling the remaining grants and dividing the profits among the University, East Tennessee College, Cumberland College, and Tennessee's common schools.