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Henry Watson papers, 1765-1938 5 Linear Feet (14 boxes; 18 volumes) 5,641 Items

Henry Watson, Jr. (1810-1891) was a plantation owner, enslaver, and lawyer of Greensboro, Alabama. Collection includes letters, diaries, business correspondence, and papers (chiefly 1828-1869) relating to Watson's career in law, his planting activities, his accumulation of property (including enslaved persons), establishment of the Planter's Insurance Company, farming conditions in antebellum Alabama, politics in Alabama before the Civil War, activities of the Watson family, the migration of Watson's family and relatives to various places in the West, secession in Alabama, Watson's removal to Germany during the Civil War, his return to the U.S. after the war, and his postwar career in Connecticut and Alabama. Also includes correspondence with his partner, John Erwin, a Whig leader; land grants to Edwin Peck signed by Martin Van Buren; letters from Confederate soldiers imprisoned at Johnson's Island, Ohio; letters from Henry Bernard; and early letters from Elisha Stanley describing Pittsburgh, Pa., Cincinnati, Ohio, and Kentucky, the mercantile business during the War of 1812, the martial spirit and activities of the Kentuckians during the War of 1812, and the disastrous effects of peace on mercantile pursuits. Also in the collection are letters and papers of John Watson (d. 1824), including fragments, complete literary manuscripts, and papers relating to the settlement of his estate; and letters and diaries of Henry Watson's brother, Sereno.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

William Alexander Smith papers, 1765-1949 20 Linear Feet (51 boxes; 9 separately bound volumes)

William Alexander Smith was a textile manufacturer and businessman of Ansonville, North Carolina. Collection includes correspondence, account books, business records, and other papers, relating to Smith's career as a merchant, cotton textile manufacturer, farmer, and investor. Includes material relating to the family's agricultural, mercantile, and milling enterprises during the antebellum period, with references to Smith's interests in education, the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Civil War, and the United Confederate Veterans, and to automobile manufacture, banking, commercial finance, cosmetics, furniture, insurance, lumbering, patent medicine, personal loans, self-propelled railway passenger cars, real estate development, tobacco processing, and the mining of gold in Alaska and Montana, copper in Arizona, and mica in North Carolina. Correspondents include Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire, Francis Johnstone Murdoch, and George Stephens.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Admiral Robert Barrie papers, 1765-1953 6 Linear Feet 735 Items

Admiral Sir Robert Barrie (1774-1841) served in the British Navy and participated in the Vancouver expedition, 1791-1795; the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars; the War of 1812; and served as naval commissioner in Canada, 1819-1834. Collection includes papers relating to Admiral Barrie's experiences in the Vancouver expedition, 1791-1795; the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars; the War of 1812; and his service as naval commissioner in Canada, 1819-1834. Included is a small group of material relating to the 31st Regiment of Foot in Florida and Britain during the 1760s and 1770s when the Admiral's father, Dr. Robert Barrie, was surgeon's mate. Correspondents include Thomas Manby and James Macnamara.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Stephen Moore family papers, 1765-1990s 1.0 Linear Feet (1 box, 1 oversize folder)

Stephen Moore (1734-1799) was a merchant and slaveholding landowner from Person County, North Carolina. This collection contains papers from him and several Moore family members, particularly children Phillips Moore and Ann Moore, documenting Moore family activities, accounts, and property in Québec, Canada; West Point, N.Y.; and Orange and Caswell (now Person) Counties, N.C., largely dating between the 1760s and 1860s.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Gerard Freiherr van Swieten note, 1765, Dec. 15 1 items

ANS. Reviews A.M. Salvini's Italian translation of Xenophon of Ephesus, "Di Senofonte Efesio degli Amori di Abrocome e d'Anzia", sent to the Empress Maria Theresa by the Chancellery of Hungary. Condemns the essay appended to the second edition of the volume, "Cicalata sopra una ceria curiosa statuetta", as "tres impudique". Note is evidence of Swieten's function as censor to the Empress' library. A typed transcript and an English translation are available.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Medical statements and receipts, 1766-1810 6 items
Box 3 > Folder 6

Includes statements and receipts for medicines, advice, consultations, and sundries. In one case, Rush collected a fee on behalf of another physician. Julia Stockton Rush also served as collector, along with her husband. Includes a receipt from Richard Henderson in Leesburg, Va., for payment on the account of Mr. Carter, who had been a patient in Rush's care (see Letters series).

  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
  2. Benjamin and Julia Stockton Rush papers, bulk 1766-1845 and undated
  3. Financial Records, 1766-1828

Materials relating to the Tuscarora Nation, 1766-1818, undated 3 folders

This portion of the collection relates to the work of General Jeremiah Slade, who was appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs by the N.C. State Legislature in 1802. He was charged with the task of settling accounts with the Tuscarora, whose lands in Bertie County were to be leased to white farmers after the nation was removed to New York in the early nineteenth century. Slade's correspondence with Tuscarora chiefs in New York, particularly Chiefs Longboard and Saracusa, as well as his accounts of land leases, debts owed the Tuscarora, and various legal documents, including correspondence with the War Department, are all present in this series. Notable documents include a power of attorney from 1817 signed with seals by dozens of Tuscarora chiefs and warriors, as well as a few letters from the Tuscarora to Slade, acknowledging receipt of funds or other financial updates. Correspondence and contracts with the chiefs are signed with X and usually accompanied by a seal.

  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
  2. Slade family papers, 1751-1929 and undated

Papers, 1766-1825
Box 1

Assorted manuscript documents from the Massie family, arranged chronologically. Items include land surveys and hand drawn plot maps; correspondence from acquaintances and business contacts regarding crops and prices for tobacco, corn, wheat, rye, hemp, and other agriculture; planning and maps for planting fields, raising pigs, or other farming activities; some family correspondence about travel plans and different health of various family members. Includes some exchanges between Thomas Massie and his sons, William and Thomas Massie, as well as between the two brothers themselves; also includes small amount of correspondence to Sarah Massie. Includes a deed with a seal granting land to Thomas Massie from Governor Wilson Cary Nicholas in 1814. There are at least two references to sales of enslaved people. One is a note from William Garland to Massie, offering to send a courier with a "boy with him - if you think proper to take him at the six hundred dollars, Mr. Ware will deliver to you a Bill of Sale." A later bill of sale, issued in Lynchburg on 1815 August 5, notes that William Massie purchased "negro woman by the name of Lady and her son Bob" for six hundred seventy five dollars, from Davidson Bradford.

  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
  2. Massie family papers, 1766-1920s
  3. Papers, 1766-1920s

Financial Records, 1766-1828

Includes a few medical statements and receipts, along with two volumes of household accounts maintained by Benjamin Rush, one in conjunction with his wife. Along with general expenses and accounting information, the account books feature the employment records for Rush family staff and servants, often containing comments on the character and notable aspects of the employment history of each employee.

  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
  2. Benjamin and Julia Stockton Rush papers, bulk 1766-1845 and undated

Ballard's Valley and Berry Hill Penn Plantation records, 1766-1873 6 Linear Feet (3 boxes; 3 oversize folders; 8 volumes)

Ballard's Valley and Berry Hill Penn were plantations in St. Mary's Parish, Jamaica. The records prior to 1837 document plantation operations and finances, and include details on enslaved persons and apprentices at the two plantations. Later papers include letters from managers of the estate to the owners describing crop conditions, potential land sales and leases, the end of the apprenticeship system in 1838, the importation of Chinese laborers in 1846, sugar traders' reaction to the repeal of the corn laws in that year, and plans for the erection of a Church of England chapel in 1848.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Massie family papers, 1766-1920s 3.0 Linear Feet (3 boxes and 1 oversize folder.)

The William Massie family owned several plantations in Virginia in the 18th and 19th centuries, and owned several hundred enslaved people during this time. This collection contains the papers and records of several members and generations of the Massie family, based at the Pharsalia plantation in Nelson County, Virginia. Family members represented include Thomas Massie; his children, including Thomas Massie Jr. and William Massie; William Massie's widow, Maria Massie, who inherited Pharsalia; as well as several grandchildren, including Martha, Hope, Florence, and Bland Massie. The bulk of the material in the collection dates from William Massie's ownership and management of Pharsalia, including the purchases and labor of dozens of enslaved men, women, and children in the mid-1800s. The collection also includes detailed agricultural and financial accounts, weather logs, land surveys and plots, a plantation ledger, and family and business correspondence.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Stephen Moore account and estate book, 1767-1770, 1799-1813 1 Volumes
Volume L-2999

A bound volume used in two different ways: first, an account kept by Stephen Moore of his expenses in Quebec, Canada, between May 1 1767 and Sept. 18 1770, tracking cash and debts for various individuals. The later part of the book was used by Stephen Moore's executors of estate, beginning 1799 through 1813. The estate pages include expenses and distribution of the estate across several Moore dependents; expense lists often record movements, hiring, and labor of the family's enslaved people, including their names.

  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
  2. Stephen Moore family papers, 1765-1990s
  3. Financial and legal records, 1767-1870s

New Bern (N.C.) Merchant's Ledger C, 1767-1785 0.5 Linear Feet 1 item

Ledger of an unknown merchant in New Bern, N.C. Transactions appear chronologically by account holder, and reflect the sale of general merchandise, such as cloth and clothing, food, rum, seed, pitch, tar, and turpentine. Accounts were settled with either cash or goods. Formerly known as Anonymous ledger C, 1767-1776.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Joseph Clay papers, 1767-1800 .1 Linear Feet

Joseph Clay was a businessman, slave trader, and politician in Savannah, Georgia, during the late 18th century. The Joseph Clay papers consist of a few letters and legal documents related to or written by Joseph Clay, including one referring briefly to the acquisition of two enslaved men from Jamaica, and an unbound volume of depositions regarding the seizure of the brigantine Bachelor, suspected of supplying British troops in South Carolina in late 1782.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Letters, 1767-1852, undated

The letter series includes correspondence addressed to and from both James Iredell Jr. and Sr. and is organized chronologically. The correspondence varies widely and includes both family and professional letters from colleagues and fellow revolutionaries concerning matters of the new nation, N.C. state government, and the Supreme Court.

  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
  2. James Iredell Sr. and James Iredell Jr. papers, 1724-1890, undated

James Ludovic Lindsay collection of French manuscripts, 1767-1863 1.75 Linear Feet 223 Items

James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford and 9th Earl of Balcarres, was a British astronomer, politician, and noted collector of books and manuscripts. Lindsay inherited a considerable library from his father, but during his lifetime he assembled the Bibliotheca Lindesiana, one of the largest private libraries of the nineteenth century. In the 1880s, Lindsay’s fortunes suffered and he was forced to sell much of his rare book library, although he continued to collect proclamations, broadsides, and manuscripts of the French Revolutionary era. After Lindsay’s death, his heirs auctioned off most of what remained of his collections, including his French manuscripts. Collection consists of selected letters, administrative papers, and other manuscripts, chiefly of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, that bear the bookplate and previously formed part of the Bibliotheca Lindesiana, the private library of James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford. Lindsay's collection of French manuscripts was auctioned off by Sotheby's between 1924 and 1925 and a small portion was acquired by Duke in 1960. Duke's collection represents a very small fraction of Lindsay's original collection and consists chiefly of manuscripts, with typed transcripts in French, that document various aspects of civil administration including letters from the prefects of various departments, letters from government ministers, and several letters addressed to Comte Collin de Sussy, Minister of Commerce and Manufacturing, and the Comte d'Antraigues. Other materials in the collection include letters in English from French elites to British nobility, such as to the Duke of York, and letters from French aristocrats to government officials. Examples include a letter addressed to Napoleon Bonaparte from Arnoud Joubert, a lawyer at the imperial court of Paris, discussing the possibility of receiving a medal of honor, and a letter from Cardinal Albani to Alexander I, Emperor of Russia, requesting the Emperor's protection from French authorities. The collection also includes some manuscripts and engravings acquired separately that do not bear the Bibliotheca Lindesiana bookplate.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Bryant Bennett papers, 1767-1902, bulk 1840-1875, bulk bulk 2 Linear Feet

Bryant Bennett was a merchant and planter residing in Williamston, North Carolina (in Martin County). This collection contains correspondence and papers of Bryant Bennett and of his family. Included are mercantile accounts of the firms of Bennett and Hyman in Williamston, N.C. and of Bennett and Price in Hamilton (both places in Martin County), school letters from a normal school in Oxford, North Carolina, deeds, promissory notes, receipts for land sold for taxes, plantation account books containing household and farm accounts, lists of slaves and supplies issued to them, business records dealing with the marketing of cotton at Norfolk, Virginia, agricultural treatises by one S. W. Outterbridge of Martin County, and letters to Bennett after he had moved to Plymouth, North Carolina, in 1869.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Sheek family papers, 1767-1939, bulk 1850-1869, bulk 1850-1869 3.5 Linear Feet

Collection contains mainly letters (mostly between 1850-1869) to members of the Sheek family of North Carolina, from relatives who had migrated to Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Texas. The letters concern religion in the West, economic conditions, farming on the frontier, Texas during the 1840s-1860s, sectional strife, Civil War experiences, and conditions in the Confederacy and after the war.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

George Frederick Holmes papers, 1767-1960 3.6 Linear Feet 586 Items

Scholar, educator, and author of Charlottesville (Albemarle Co.), Virginia. Correspondence, notes, diaries, and literary works of George Frederick Holmes. Also contains correspondence of William Howard Perkinson, educator and son-in-law of Holmes; and of Joseph Henry Herndon Holmes and Mary Ann Pemberton Holmes, parents of George Frederick Holmes. Early papers of Joseph and Mary Holmes concern their life in Demerara, British Guyana, where Joseph Holmes was a barrister, and include legal papers, poems, and a genealogy. The papers of their son, George Frederick, a professor at the University of Virginia, include correspondence, diaries, articles, literary works, and notes, and relate to his interests in philology, grammar, history, political science and economics, and to Southern colleges and universities. The papers of William Howard Perkinson are confined to a few records of his work as a professor of Latin and Greek at the University of Virginia, a few business papers, and records of the administration of his father-in-law's estate.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

George Coke Dromgoole papers, 1767-1974 8 Linear Feet 4564 Items

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.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

James Rogers papers, 1768-1794 and undated 10 Linear Feet

Collection consists almost entirely of photocopies of documents held in the Public Records Office (London) originally belonging to James Rogers, Bristol, England, a merchant, ship owner, and slave trader who engaged in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The material, dating from 1768-1794, largely consists of incoming correspondence, bills of sale, receipts, and other items related to ships' voyages and trading activities. Many of these voyages were for the purpose of acquiring and trading enslaved laborers from Africa. A paper guide to the collection created by the donor of the collection and available to researchers includes descriptions of most of the ships' voyages.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

James Martin Bell papers, 1768-1870 and undated 15 Linear Feet (40 boxes) 13,604 Items

Lawyer, political leader, ironmaster, railroad promoter, and banker, of Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. Correspondence and business papers reflecting the major part played by Bell and his family in the economic development of central Pennsylvania and other areas. Among the subjects dealt with are the building of internal improvements, the charcoal iron industry in the Juniata Valley, land titles and speculation, and early growth of the Pennsylvania Railroad under J. Edgar Thomson and others, tariff bills, the economic cycle of booms and depressions, the evolution of the monetary and banking system, telegraph companies, coal mining, Lake Superior copper mining, and Bell's active interest in Whig and Republican Party politics. Papers of the Civil War period illustrate the impact of the conflict on the business community in the North, and on the people of Pennsylvania during Confederate raids and invasions. Some papers relate to tests of Pennsylvania iron made at the Washington Navy Yard by Captain Dahlgren, to Bell's service as agent of Jay Cooke in floating Federal loans in Pennsylvania, and to the effect of the war on the banking system. Included are two early railroad broadsides from Bellefontaine and Indiana Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad (1856 and 1867).
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

W. Robert Leckie papers, 1768-1906 and undated 3 Linear Feet

Although filed under the name Leckie, the collection primarily consists of the papers of two individuals: W. Robert Leckie, and his son-in-law, William Hendrick. The papers of Leckie, who was educated in Scotland, are concerned with construction of public buildings, canals, arsenals, aqueducts, fortifications, masonry of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and surveying and building of walls in the District of Columbia. The papers of Hendrick and those of his wife, after his death, constitute a long record of the sales of plantation products and the purchase of supplies from commission merchants in Petersburg, Virginia, and the operation of a series of corn and grain farms.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Eleanor Elliott papers, 1768-2006 and undated (bulk 1951-2006) 55 Linear Feet

Eleanor "Elly" Elliott was a women's rights activist, a board member of NOW's Legal Defense and Education Fund, a Barnard College Board Member, served on the National Advisory Council on Women's Educational Programs and was an editor at Vogue magazine. These materials consist of personal papers from the Elliott family and administrative files from Elliott's work in various women's rights organizations and philanthropic activities. It also includes photographs, scrapbooks and some audio/visual materials.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Letters, 1769-1819
Box 1

Assorted manuscript documents from the Ingram and Chiles families, arranged chronologically. Items include correspondence from acquaintances and business contacts regarding the Ingram's cidar, brandy, and cotton businesses; memoranda concerning trading and legal matters; some family correspondence about the health of family members and Eben N. Ingram's medical education in Louisburg, NC, Pennslyvania, and New York. The bulk of documents fall into two distinct periods, 1785-1792 and 1815-1819. Letters and memoranda from the early period include those of John Chiles of Georgetown, SC and Thomas Chiles, Esquire. The later period includes several letters from Thomas Ingram to his brother, Eben N. Ingram about family and business matters at the Ingram plantation while Eben was away for medical school.

  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
  2. Joseph Ingram Sr. papers, 1769-1935 and undated

James Hamilton papers, 1769-1870, bulk 1785-1858 15 Linear Feet (16 boxes; 1 oversize folder)

Merchant and plantation owner of Charleston, S.C., later of Philadelphia, Pa. Collection comprises business and family correspondence, accounts, and receipts, including papers related to several of Hamilton's business partnerships (dating mainly from 1785 to 1818) and numerous private transactions, including purchases of slaves (1784-1785, 1801, 1808). There also are papers from voyages of ships in which he had a major interest, including routes to India, the Mediterranean, and the West Indies. The collection concludes with accounts and records related to the settlement of his estate from 1832 to 1870.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Joseph Ingram Sr. papers, 1769-1935 and undated 2.5 Linear Feet Approx. 1,130 Items

The family of Joseph Ingram Sr. owned a plantation in Anson Country, North Carolina in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The collection contains family and business papers, legal records and correspondence of Joseph Ingram, Joseph's son Dr. Eben Nelms Ingram, and various other members of the Ingram family. The collection also contains legal records and business papers of Thomas Chiles Jr., dating between 1790 and 1820. The bulk of the collection belongs to the first half of the nineteenth century and includes materials pertaining to the cotton industry, cider, brandy, slavery, transportation, and social and economic conditions in Anson and surrounding counties in North and South Carolina along the Pee Dee River.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Recueils. Affaires Diverses du 18e Siècle, Particulièrement de Celles de Dauphiné, 1770-1790 0.2 Linear Feet 1 item

Manuscript volume includes thirty-two articles of varying lengths relating mostly to the political, economic, social, and ecclesiastical history of the French province of Dauphiné during the eighteenth century. No authors are given for any of the writings. The volume probably dates from the decade before the outbreak of the revolutions. Topics of the articles include: the boundary between Dauphiné and Sardinia; the government of Geneva in 1733; extracts from the registers of the Council of State about certain ecclesiastical matters; the boundaries of Dauphiné; methods of teaching at the University of Paris; population, emigration, and the Huguenots; the condition and productivity of Valence, Montélimar, Crest, and Die; commerce, silk and textile production; meat production; a history of fiefs; a petition from the nobles to the King, 1770; Princess Charlotte of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, wife of the Russian Tsarevich Alexius Petrovich; affairs concerning the parliament of Dauphiné; and other matters.
  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Household Accounts, 1770-1797 1 Volumes
Volume 1

Contains primarily Benjamin Rush's records of his expenses, including tax and bond payments, rental property fees, classes and dance lessons for family members, as well as money lent or advanced, accounts paid, cash received, and income from boarders. Rush noted the wide variety of areas where his money was spent, from postage and travel, to clothing and shoes, to household provisions and stores, along with medicines purchased. In addition, Rush created accounts for servants when they arrived, and noted their wages and any increased wages, advances, or loans; cloth, clothing, and shoes provided; with occasional notes on their personal and work habits and work history, and when they exited his service or married. Several of the comments have been redacted, along with a few pages of the account book. Finally, Rush made a few brief commonplace notes randomly in the volume, providing a "style sheet" for description of pulses, outlining a few prescriptions for patients, describing the weather, listing inventories of his furniture and linens, recording a few recipes, and in 1783, noting the news of possible peace with England.

  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
  2. Benjamin and Julia Stockton Rush papers, bulk 1766-1845 and undated
  3. Financial Records, 1766-1828

William Sims papers, 1770-1860 3.6 Linear Feet 385 Items

Correspondence, financial papers, and legal documents, concerning William Sims' extensive plantation holdings in South Carolina. Includes two account books. Correspondence is primarily related to business matters, including cotton trade and prices; the price and availability of slaves; and the beginnings of a textile industry on the plantation. Local and state politicians in South Carolina are often mentioned, as is the general economic plight of the Southern planter in the period (ca. 1819-1830), and currency problems in the state (ca. 1826-1830). One personal letter effusively describes newly settled land in Mississippi and the quality of the cotton grown there.

  1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

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