McIlwaine graduated from Hampden-Sydney College in 1885 and earned a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1893. He returned to Hampden–Sydney in 1893 to serve as professor of English and history until 1907, when he was appointed State Librarian for Virginia, a position he held until his death in Richmond on March 16, 1934.[2][3]
He was a prolific editor of historical volumes relating to the early governance of the Commonwealth including:[4]
Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia
Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia
Legislative journals of the Council of colonial Virginia
Official letters of the governors of the State of Virginia
The struggle of Protestant dissenters for religious toleration in Virginia
^Porter, Duval (1920). "State Officers". Official Virginia: A Composition of Sketches of the Public Men of Virginia at the Present Time. Whittet & Shepperson. p. 47. Retrieved December 24, 2021 – via Google Books.
^General Catalogue of Officers and Students of Hampden-Sydney College (Hampden-Sydney, 1908)