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Correspondence, 1817-1895 and undated 1.5 Linear Feet — 3 boxes
Correspondence consists chiefly of business letters by John Knight and his partners and friends. However, there are also many letters by Knight family members and their relatives and friends. The correspondence begins in 1817 with letters from Mary (McCleery) Knight in Indiana to her sister Frances (McCleery) Beall, William M. Beall's wife. There is also correspondence between Fanny Knight, John and Frances Knight's daughter, and Thomas McDannold during their courtship. Correspondence also includes letters from friends and relatives while the Knights were traveling abroad. Many letters also mention John Knight's attempts at various cures for ill health, including water cures, hot springs, and baths.
Between 1830 and 1864, Knight's business correspondence with Enoch Pratt, a Baltimore banker in charge of Knight's finances, William Beall, and others, predominates. Topics include: the U.S. political and economic climate: the conflict between Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson; the cotton market; banking and bank failures; investment in cotton land in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas; the purchase and sale of slaves, with some bought by William Beall and sent to Knight in Mississippi; the treatment and medical care of slaves; the operation of Knight's plantations; piracy on the Mississippi River, 1841; cholera and yellow fever epidemics in New York and New Orleans in 1832, 1833, 1837, and 1841; the economic panic of 1857; education at the Frederick Female Academy, Frederick, Maryland; financial conditions in the United States during the Civil War; the relations between the United States and England during the war; and the course of the Civil War, especially the Union invasion of Maryland. One early letter from Roger Brooke Taney to William Murdock Beall explains his refusal of the vice-presidency and discussing his interest in the U.S. presidency.
Other smaller groups of correspondence were written by Frances "Fanny" Knight McDannold, the daughter of John and Frances Knight, her children Knight and Alexandra, and husband Thomas McDannold, and that family's acquaintances.
The correspondence ends with a much smaller series of letters, which include items to Frances S.Z. Knight from her grandchildren, and other correspondence reflecting her financial and legal activities as she managed her husband's large estate and the guardianship of her grandchildren even as she approached old age.
Some additional correspondence can be found in the Legal and Financial Papers series.
Insurance policies, deeds of trust, and land plats pertaining to Bellevue property and W.R. Abbot's property elsewhere in Virginia and in Kansas City; legal papers of Ellen Abbot's pre-Civil War residence in Georgetown; records of W.R. Abbot's partnership with J.P. Holcombe and his assumption of Bellevue subsequent to Holcombe's death; affidavits of family members recording receipt of inheritance; and original deeds of trust recording land grants made in Virginia to John B. Minor from Sir Thomas Carr of Topping Castle.
Accession (2009-0183), 1800-2009 2 boxes
Addition (2009-0183) (900 items; 1.2 lin. ft.; dated 1960s-2000s) includes manuscripts of essays and short stories; drafts of plays and accompanying production materials; research files and correspondence from Bingham's investigations into her family's history (1980s); notebooks and journals; and other miscellaneous materials.
Pages from account book covering purchases from December 1815 to August 1830
General financial material, 1813-1830 11 folders
General financial records including correspondence, receipts, invoices, and orders.
Contents Include: Pan-Africanism, Germany, Edwardian Nationalism, Antiqua, St. Kitts, Colonization Movement, African Nationalism, Gold Coast, William Randolph Hearst, and Garveyism; newspaper articles on the war of the races, race war, and racial war; transcriptions; and keyword searches. Materials may overlap with Research (RE).
Alexander Robinson Boteler papers, 1707-1924, bulk 1836-1889 3 Linear Feet — 5 boxes, 1,686 items (incl. 4 vols.)
Scrapbook of clippings, letters and pictures which cover Boteler's family and his activities.