Battaile Muse (1750-1803) was a planters' agent, of Berkeley Co., Va. (now Jefferson Co., W. Va.). Collection includes correspondence, account books, memoranda, and other papers. The collection concerns the movement from Tidewater farms to western Virginia, the progress of the Revolutionary War, sale of farm produce, the treatment of slaves, business operations, the Mercer (1776-1783) plantations and Fairfax estates, and Muse's career as a rental agent for George Washington in Frederick and Fauquier counties, Va. (1784-1792). Correspondents include W. M. Cary, Bryan Fairfax, Ferdinando Fairfax, G. W. Fairfax, Thomas Fairfax, J. L. Gervais, Tobias Lear, Richard Bland Lee, Warner Lewis, Stevens T. Mason, James Mercer, John Francis Mercer, Hugh Nelson, George Nicholas, John Hatley Norton, Thomas Rutherford, Magnus Tate, Hannah Fairfax Washington, George Washington, and Warner Washington.

Collection includes correspondence and papers of Battaile Muse (1750-1803), agent for large Virginia planters and plantation owners, relating to the desertion of Tidewater farms by Virginia planters for the more fertile areas in Loudoun, Fauquier, Frederick, and Berkeley counties; the progress of the Revolutionary War; planting and the sale of indigo and other farm products; the treatment of slaves, the estate of James and John Francis Mercer, 1776-1783; the Fairfax estate; and Muse's career as rental agent for George Washington in Frederick and Fauquier counties; 1784-1792. Included also are account books and memoranda listing rent collections and other business operations. Four letters, 1847-1848, relate to a dispute in the faculty of the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia.

Business, family, and legal correspondence, accounts, bills, invoices, indentures, land surveys, and other papers. Correspondents whose names appear most often are Pettit and Leake, a legal firm of Goochland Court House, Va., Altantic and Virginia Fertilizing Co. of Richmond, Va., and Appleberry's nephew, Thomas A. Bledsoe.

This collection contains business, family, and legal correspondence of plantation owner Dilmus Appleberry. It is largely composed of accounts, bills, invoices, indentures, and land surveys. Letters, some of a business nature, comprise about five percent of the collection. Correspondents whose names appear most often are Pettit and Leake, a legal firm of Goochland Court House; Atlantic and Virginia Fertilizing Company of Richmond, Virginia; and Dilmus Appleberry's nephew, Thomas A. Bledsoe.

Planter, state legislator, and U.S. Representative, from Lawrenceville (Brunswick Co.), Va. Papers of G. C. Dromgoole, son Edward Dromgoole, and other members of the Dromgoole family, including the papers of Richard B. Robinson, George's nephew by marriage. George's papers concern family, business, and political matters and include a large number of letters dealing with plantation work and the management of slaves; items on the Democratic Party before the Civil War; and letters from Edward when he was a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Richard B. Robinson's papers include correspondence, business papers, and a daybook. Edward Dromgooles papers deal largely with legal and business matters and contain plantation records, accounts of cotton sales, and letters from tenants after the Civil War, and from a student at the Virginia Military Institute in the 1870s. The collection also includes Brunswick County, Va., legal records, including justice of the peace, county, and Circuit Court minutes, orders, summonses, warrants, and depositions. There are volumes, including daybooks, plantation books, an account book for the estate of Thomas Dromgoole, and a description of Edward Dromgoole's home and family genealogy.

The correspondence and papers of Edward Dromgoole, prominent planter of Brunswick Co., Va., during the latter half of the nineteenth century, and sometime lawyer at South Gaston, N.C. The letters and papers give an excellent account of plantation life and management just previous to and following the Civil War in Va., dealing mainly with such matters as the settlement of accounts and notes, the sale of slaves and cotton, the production of such crops as corn, cotton, and tobacco, land tenure, land drainage, labor agreements, etc. A large number of the letters to Dromgoole following the Civil War are from his land tenants, which discuss in great detail the problems of plantation management. A few plantation account sheets and Dromgoole's daybook showing plantation expenses (1892-1893) are included.

A few letters from M.M. Harrison, a student at Virginia Military Institute during the 1870s, to Dromgoole, his guardian, give much information on V.M.I. and some account of the death and funeral of Commodore Mathew Fontaine Maury, a professor at the Institute, in 1873.

Also included in the collection are bonds and obligations; land deeds; Justice of the Peace, County, and Circuit Court minutes; orders, summonses, warrants, and despositions of Brunswick County; articles of agreement for land tenure and labor on Dromgoole's plantations; various obituaries; land plats; the will of James Ledbetter of Brunswick County (Dec. 1, 1820); advertisements; numerous bills and receipts; promissary notes; and a memorandum book.

An item of especial interest in the collection is a copy of the petition for exemption from Confederate military service made by Dromgoole in 1864, in which he discusses the size and importance of the plantation under his management, both those of his own and of his wards.

Scottish merchant and Tory, of Hale's Ford (Franklin Co.), Va. Letters, papers, and mercantile records belonging to John Hook of the mercantile firm of Bowker Preston, Hook's son-in-law, and Smithson H. Davis at Goose Creek, Bedford Co., Va.; and of a similar firm of Asa, Smithson H., and Alexander G. Holland and John D. Booth at Hale's Ford and Germantown, both in Franklin Co., the Holland family apparently being connected with the Hook family by marriage. John Hook's papers consist of daybooks, ledgers, letter books, and memoranda of his mercantile firm and its branch stores, as well as plantation and land records of his extensive holdings and genealogical materials. There is also information concerning sequestration proceedings brought against him by David Ross, a former business partner. The records span the last quarter of the eighteenth century and document the American colonial and post-revolutionary trade system. Records of Bowker Preston and Smithson Davis concern the operation of their mercantile firms, 1813-1830, and include information on goods purchased in Philadelphia, New York City, and Richmond and Lynchburg, Va., and on the tobacco trade in Virginia, especially the effects of the panic of 1819. Records of the Holland family consist of merchants' correspondence, ledgers, account books, and daybooks.

Letters, papers, and mercantile records of John Hook (1745-1808), wealthy Scottish merchant and Tory; of the mercantile firm of Bowker Preston, Hook's son-in-law, and Smithson H. Davis at Goose Creek, Bedford County, Virginia; and of a similar firm of Asa, Smithson H., and Alexander G. Holland and John D. Booth at Halesford and Germantown, both in Franklin County, the Holland family apparently being connected with the Hook family by marriage.

The records of John Hook are comprised of daybooks, ledgers, letter books, and memoranda of the mercantile firm of Ross and Hook at New London, Campbell County Virginia, 1771-1784, of branch stores at Bedford Court House and Falling River in Bedford County, and of John Hook's mercantile establishment in Hale's Ford from 1784 to 1808. These records reflect the nature of goods in common use, the volume of trade, the large trade in iron, the manufacture of plantation tools at Hook's blacksmith shop, and the operation of his distillery. Concerning the mercantile operations are various memoranda and notes kept by Hook relative to debts due him, places of abode of the debtors, and the type of security for the debts; schedule of court days in the various counties of Virginia; inventories of goods; and letters relative to the operation of his business. Many of the records reveal information on the operation of Hook's valuable plantations, two in Franklin County and one in Montgomery County; much concerning the purchase, prizing and shipment of tobacco, usually on the barter basis; and information on large-scale purchase of Revolutionary land warrants with long lists of land owned by Hook.

A great proportion of Hook's papers relate to sequestration proceedings brought against him by David Ross, his partner in business from 1771 until after the Revolution. Concerning the suit are numerous depositions, explanations, histories of the operation of the firm, letters, inventories, lists of questions to be asked of his lawyers (Edmund Randolph and Philip Norbonne Nicholas) and witnesses, copies of letters and documents, and petitions to the Court for various concessions. There are many papers and letters relative to Nanny Pegee's efforts to sue Hook for her freedom. Nanny Pegee had been held as a slave by Hook since 1787 and had brought suit against him in 1803. Hook's efforts to recover Nanny Pegee from Congressman George Hancock, with whom she stayed, are also documented. Included are long lists of slaves; many papers concerning Hook's determination to serve as administrator of the estate of an Englishman, Jeffrey Gresley, who had owed Hook a large sum; many papers concerning the suit of sequestration after Hook's death; papers dealing with the administration of Hook's estate; numerous depositions and other papers relative to the disposition of the estate of Henry Hook, son of John Hook; and letters discussing the Revolutionary War, fugitive slaves, and prominent political figures.

Included also are papers concerning Hook's troubles with the Bedford County Committee of Safety, and two letter books. The papers connected with the Committee of Safety consist of a summons, a rough draft of Hook's reply, his discharge from jail, his oath of allegiance, and others of a similar nature, all bearing on an accusation that Hook had disseminated pamphlets antagonistic to the American cause. The letter books, 1763-1784, contain much information on mercantile pursuits in colonial Virginia, Hook's partnerships, analyses of trade opportunities at various locations, and information on several Scottish merchants prominent in colonial Virginia and their connections in Scotland. Included also is much information concerning David Ross and his connections with Hook before the Hook-Ross suit was started. Among the letters is information on Hook's family life, his wife, his children, his father and his father's family in Scotland, and his brothers in Jamaica. Records centering around Bowker Preston and Smithson H. Davis pertain to the operation of mercantile establishments at Goose Creek and Falling River in Bedford County from 1813 until about 1830, with letters between the partners concerning goods purchased in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, New York City, and Richmond and Lynchburg, Virginia; the purchase, prizing, and sale of tobacco; and the disastrous effects of the panic of 1819. There are also inventories of goods, including one in 1819 which contains the titles of many books and different types and styles of merchandise in common use; ledgers, daybooks, and other mercantile records; and personal letters to Preston after the dissolution of the firm.

Records pertaining to the Holland family are, with the exception of a constable's records kept by Asa Holland while an officer of Franklin County, confined to correspondence, ledgers, account books, and daybooks for the mercantile firms of Asa and Smithson H. Holland and John D. Booth.

Included also are manuscript arithmetic books kept by Robert Hook, Peter D. Holland, and John Hook, Jr., and numerous volumes containing accounts of the Ross-Hook lawsuit. Scattered through the papers and memoranda are various recipes for the cure of rheumatism, an affliction of both Hook and Preston. Among the correspondence are a few perfunctory letters from James Innes, H. H. Leavitt, B. W. Leigh, P. N. Nicholas, and Edmund Randolph. Included also are numerous documents signed by W. W. Hening and copies of Hook's letters and legal documents concerning the Ross-Hook suit.

Collection comprises correspondence, documents and print materials belonging to merchant and land owner Robert Anderson of Williamsburg and Yorktown, Virginia. The materials date from 1735-1908, with the bulk dating from 1735 to 1859, and consist of over eighty letters, both incoming and outgoing, many legal and financial papers, other manuscript documents, and ephemeral print items such as broadsides and circulars. One folder contains military muster lists and fines stemming from Anderson's service as clerk of the 68th regiment of the Virginia militia. Topics in the correspondence include slavery and slave trade, particularly in Virginia, colonization efforts, emancipation, the status of mixed-race individuals, Virginia and U.S. politics, Virginia military history, religion and church affairs, and education. Of particular note are several letters and documents relating to Anderson's children, who he fathered with one or more slaves; one of these children, Haidee, was sent to Eaglewood, a boarding school run by abolitionists Angelina Grimké Weld and Theodore Dwight Weld. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.

Collection consists of correspondence, documents and ephemera belonging to merchant and land owner Robert Anderson of Williamsburg and Yorktown, Virginia. The materials date from 1735-1908, with the bulk dating from 1735-1859. The earliest document is a deed of gift of land from Thomas Vine of York County, Virginia, to his grandson.

There are over 100 pieces of incoming and outgoing correspondence dating from 1804 to 1859, with a few letters dated much later. Many of the retained copies and drafts are written on small slips of paper and docketed, which appears to have been Anderson's idiosyncratic method of dealing with his correspondence. Topics include religion and church matters; U.S. and Virginia politics; Virginia history; mercantile transactions; education; and slavery, including prices for slaves in the Richmond market, and Anderson's correspondence referring to purchases and sales of individual slaves. A printed circular letter from 1850 concerns colonization efforts to send freed slaves to Liberia.

Of note are several letters relating to children Anderson fathered with enslaved women, especially his daughter Haidee, who he sent to Eaglewood, the boarding school run by abolitionists Angelina Grimké and Theodore Dwight Weld; one long letter was written by Grimké to Anderson, exhorting him to emancipate Haidee and her mother. Eaglewood was part of the utopian community in Raritan Union Bay, New Jersey.

Stemming from Anderson's work as clerk for the 68th Regiment of the Virginia militia in James City County (Jamestown), there are 39 items, some written by Anderson, some by the Sheriff of Williamsburg, which consist chiefly of detailed muster lists and fines (1806-1858), and two printed lists of individuals receiving military pensions received due to an Act of Congress in 1828. Other documents in the collection refer to Virginia history during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, and to the history of the Virginia Norfolk Junior Volunteers, founded in 1802, in which Anderson served.

There are also deeds, wills, and other documents; several dozen financial receipts; and a few printed and partially printed ephemeral items. Family names appearing in the deeds, bonds, and other documents are Bryan, Coke, Moody, Dickeson, Nelson, White, and Chapman. Among the later documents is a list of medical expenses from 1852 that seem to relate to Anderson's slaves or servants, and an 1858 bill for boarding school expenses for Haidee, signed by Theodore Weld. A document from 1855 records citizens protesting a request from the ship "Seabird" to land cargo and passengers, due to an outbreak of yellow fever in the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth.

Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.

Robert E. Lee was a Virginia-born career military officer, Confederate general in the U.S. Civil War, and president of what is now Washington and Lee University. Family and military correspondence of Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), Confederate general-in-chief; and of his descendants; and a few letters of Francis Lightfoot Lee, Richard Henry Lee, Henry Lee, and Mary Ann Randolph (Custis) Lee. The letters deal with many phases of Robert E. Lee's life from his marriage in 1832 until his death, including family and personal affairs, especially in his letters to a cousin, Mrs. Anna M. Fitzhugh; settlement of the Custis estate; and improvements at the family house in Arlington, Virginia. Included also is one volume of 295 telegram dispatches sent by Robert E. Lee from the field to Jefferson Davis and the Confederate War Department; two scrapbooks memorializing Robert E. Lee; a small notebook in Robert E. Lee's hand, 1857-1860, containing amounts of meat purchased for the Arlington household; and a letterpress book of Robert E. Lee III, a lawyer of Washington, D.C.

Family and military correspondence of Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), Confederate general-in-chief; and of his descendants; and a few letters of Francis Lightfoot Lee, Richard Henry Lee, Henry Lee, and Mary Ann Randolph (Custis) Lee. The letters deal with many phases of Robert E. Lee's life from his marriage in 1832 until his death, including family and personal affairs, especially in his letters to a cousin, Mrs. Anna M. Fitzhugh; settlement of the Custis estate; and improvements at the family house in Arlington, Virginia. During the Civil War the correspondence consists of official and family letters, the former containing much information on military activities. The postwar letters reveal details of domestic arrangements following the family's removal to Lexington, Virginia.

One volume contains 295 telegrams (collected and arranged by C.C. Jones, Jr., and published by D.S. Freeman, Lee's Dispatches, New York, 1915) sent by Lee from the field to Jefferson Davis and the Confederate War Department, many having been endorsed by James A. Seddon. These dispatches relate to troop movements, reports of the intelligence service, skirmishes, enemy activities, transportation of prisoners and wounded men, and other details of military operations. Included also are two scrapbooks memorializing Robert E. Lee, chiefly consisting of clippings and engravings; a small notebook in Robert E. Lee's hand, 1857-1860, containing amounts of meat purchased for the Arlington household; and a letterpress book of Robert E. Lee III, a lawyer of Washington, D.C.

Collection contains personal and business correspondence, papers, and volumes, mainly of John Winn (d. 1844), farmer, lawyer, and postmaster, and his son, Philip James Winn, physician and postmaster of Fluvanna Co., Va., and of the Winn (Wynn) family. The papers of the elder Winn relate to bounty claims of Revolutionary veterans, personal and business affairs, and include information about "Bremo," the plantation of Gen. John Hartwell Cocke. The papers of Philip James Winn relate to his education at the Virginia Military Institute and the University of Virginia, his career in medicine, the service of his brothers in the Confederate Army, and family activities, and include a description of the religious service of the Dunkards, records of the invention and patenting of a "new gate latch," and a letter of William H. Winn describing the battles of Bethel (1861) and Gettysburg (1863). More than half the collection consists of receipts and bills connected chiefly with John Winn's work in Revolutionary bounty lands and with Philip James Winn's invention. Twenty-seven volumes include post office accounts of John Winn and of his successor, Philip James Winn; a letter book concerning the "New Gate Latch"; accounts of the estate of Samuel Kidd; letter books; ledgers; medical notes; and records of births and deaths of slaves.

Family and business correspondence of John Winn (d. 1844); of his wife Lucy Winn; and of their numerous children, including Philip James Winn. The correspondence of John Winn, farmer, lawyer, postmaster at Winnsville, captain in the War of 1812, and agent for General John Hartwell Cocke, includes information on Bremo, the plantation of the latter, including also a list of periodicals subscribed to by Cocker and legal cases relative to Revolutionary bounty land.

Correspondence centering around Philip James Winn includes information on the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, both of which he attended; one letter with a description of the unusual religious services of the Dunkards; a deed for land purchased by a free Negro; records of the invention and patenting of a 'New Gate Latch' by Philip J. Winn; and the interest of various members of the family in law, medicine, agriculture, mechanics, business, religion, and the operation of a stagecoach line between Richmond and Staunton, Virginia.

Collection also Includes a letter of William H. Winn containing detailed descriptions of the battles of Bethel, 1861, and Gettysburg, 1863, in which he participated as a Confederate soldier. More than half the collection consists of receipts and bills connected chiefly with John Winn's work in Revolutionary bounty lands and with Philip James Winn's invention. Twenty-seven volumes include post office accounts of John Winn and of his successor, Philip James Winn; a letter book concerning the 'New Gate Latch'; accounts of the estate of Samuel Kidd; letter books; ledgers; medical notes; and records of births and deaths of slaves.