[3] According to one account, he was considered frail at sixteen, but went through a strenuous horseback journey across the state as a newspaper agent and collector and then walked to Ohio, where he entered Kenyon College.

Returning home, he entered the University of Virginia in January 1831 and was a student for three sessions, "graduating in several schools", and received the Bachelor of Law degree in 1834, at twenty-one.

"[2] John "John" Barbee Minor was related to the Berkley, Maury, Dabney, Herndon, Byrd, Page, and many other Virginia families and was a close friend and kinsman to Matthew Fontaine Maury and B. Franklin "Frank" Minor, with whom he often corresponded on a variety of subjects.

In 1845, at thirty-two years old, Minor was elected Professor of Law at the University of Virginia, succeeding H. St. George Tucker, and remained the only instructor in that department until 1851.

Minor served as a guard and an attendant at the Military Hospital in Louisa Court House at the university.

[2] In addition to his Institutes, Minor published in 1850, The Virginia Reports, 1799-1800, and in 1894, the Exposition of the Law of Crimes and Punishments, which long remained in general use.

"[2] James Russell Lowell wrote his obituary, claiming Minor had signed more law diplomas than anyone in the country's history.