Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Bruce Cotten Papers, #181, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Bruce Cotten of Baltimore, Md., September 1940.

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1a.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, January 2009

This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Account books.
• Bertie County (N.C.)--Commerce.
• Chowan County (N.C.)--Commerce.
• Courts-martial and courts of inquiry--Virginia--History--19th century.
• Edenton (N.C.)--Commerce.
• Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, 1757-1834.
• Merchants--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Murfreesboro (N.C.)--Commerce.
• Norfleet & Murdaugh (Bertie County, N.C.)
• Norfolk (Va.)--History.
• North Carolina--Commerce.
• United States. Army--History--War of 1812.
• Virginia. Militia--History--War of 1812.
• White, John David, 1931-
• Yorktown (Va.)--History.

• See also Cotten Collection, North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Bruce Cotten (1873-1954) was born in Wilson, N.C., and over his lifetime became a serious collector of books and other materials related to North Carolina.

The collection contains volumes collected by Bruce Cotten, including merchandise daybooks and ledgers of several firms in Bertie and Chowan counties, N.C.; order books, 1811-1813, of United States troops at Norfolk and of Virginia militia; and a record book, 1824, of Virginia militia observance of Lafayette's visit to Yorktown. The merchants' account books include one of John D. White of Bertie County, 1802; a ledger of general merchandise, Norfleet & Murdaugh, Bertie County, 1815-1816; and general mercantile books of unnamed firms of Edenton, N.C., 1802, and of Murfreesboro, N.C., 1816-1861. The order books contain chiefly general orders and court martial records.

• Oversize volumes (SV-181/1,2,7,8)