Collection includes business, personal, and legal correspondence of Edward B. Hicks (died 1858), lawyer and planter of Lawrenceville, Brunswick County, Virginia, and of his son, David S. Hicks, lawyer, planter, and land agent. Papers of Edward B. Hicks include jockey club dues, records connected with his duties as sheriff in 1821 and possibly later, and with Hicks' position as superintendent of schools in Brunswick County in 1847.
Included also is an extensive series of letters and papers relating to the operation, in partnership with John W. Paup, of Spring Hill plantation at Red River, Arkansas, in 1837 and later. An early letter, 1840, describes the deaths ("losses") of enslaved persons at the plantation, and the building of better quarters. Letters also show that Hicks engaged in selling enslaved persons in New Orleans during 1852. Other interesting letters are from Lewis Taylor on the War of 1812 and another, in 1817, relative to disturbances at Princeton College, Princeton, New Jersey, caused by refusal of professors to accept state bank notes.
Centering around David S. Hicks, the papers dated after 1858 are largely legal documents, notes, and correspondence concerned with his law practice and the administration of the estate of Edward R. Hicks. The most continuous series among these legal papers is a set of letters from Leigh R. Page, a Richmond attorney. Papers also pertain to the efforts of Hicks and one Turnbull to sell lands in Brunswick County to Northerners.
Included also are records of Hicks's activities as judge of Brunswick County, as dealer in Texas lands, and as an organizer of the Atlantic and Danville Railroad. One letter, June 30, 1866, from D. J. Claiborne, Jr., concerns African American congressmen in the South and his hatred for them amidst fears of a "Negro supremacy." Fifteen letters from General Thomas Ewing are concerned with the Atlantic and Danville Railroad Company.
The volumes, generally mercantile records, seem to have into the collection as a result of Hicks's legal practice and duties as sheriff in Virginia. These are chiefly in the form of account and ledger books.
Edward Brodnax Hicks (1800-1858) was a sheriff and plantation owner of Lawrenceville, Brunswick County, Virginia. He was also superintendent of schools for a time. His son and successor to the estate and law practice, David Hicks, was a judge, sheriff, land agent, lawyer, and planter in the same locality. In 1870 he was engaged with Turnbull in selling Brunswick County land to Northerners and there is some correspondence on this matter. In 1878, David became County Judge of Brunswick County, and in the same year the letters show him as a partner in the Brunswick Land Company, engaged in land negotiations in Texas. In 1896 he was made trustee of this company, having all the land it owned put in his charge. David S. Hicks had at least three children: Rowena, Bessie, and David Jr., who was in 1894 engaged with Thomas B. Price in the lumber business in Lawrenceville.
