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 Leake Family Estate Papers, #1250, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Gift of Randolph Spalding of Savannah, Ga.; 1947, 1950, 1951.

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: Adam Fielding, Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, September 2010

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.

• Agriculture--Georgia--History.
• Estates (Law)--New York (State)
• Family--United States--Social life and customs.
• Georgia--Economic conditions.
• Lawyers--New Jersey--History--19th century.
• Lawyers--New York (State)--History--19th century.
• Lawyers--Scotland--History--19th century.
• Leake family.
• Leake, John George, 1752-1827.
• Leake, Richard, d. 1802.
• Plantation owners--Georgia.
• Plantations--Georgia.
• Real property--England--History--19th century.
• Real property--Florida--History--19th century.
• Real property--New Jersey--History--19th century.
• Real property--New York (State)--New York--History--19th century.
• Slavery--Georgia.
• Spalding, Sarah Leake.
• Spalding, Thomas, 1774-1851.

John George Leake (1752-1827), of England and New York, N.Y., was the son of Robert Leake (d. 1773) of Scotland, England, and New York. Leake was born in England and studied law, and it is probable that he didn't move to the United States until after his father's death. He resided in New York City, living on his inheritance, and founded the Leake and Watts Orphan Asylum. Leake never married and died intestate.

This collection contains papers relating to the legal dispute of claims to the land holdings in New York City, New Jersey, Florida, and England of John George Leake (1752-1827) who died intestate in New York. Among the claimants was Sarah Leake Spalding of Georgia. Papers include notes, memorials, interrogatories, genealogies, and other evidence supporting various claims; correspondence of lawyers in Scotland, New York, and New Jersey; and other material relating to the claims pressed by collateral descendants for over 70 years. Also included are about 90 items--business correspondence, bills, and receipts, chiefly 1790s, some relating to slaves--of Sarah Leake Spalding's father, Richard Leake (died 1802) of St. Simons and Darien, Ga., and her husband, Thomas Spalding (1774-1851), cotton planters of Savannah and Sapelo Island, Ga.

The arrangement of the Leake Family Estate Papers reflect the donations from 1947, 1950, and 1951. Folders 1-49 were donated in 1947, and are labeled Part A; 50-75 were donated in 1950, and are labeled Part B; 76-91 were donated in 1951, and are labeled Part C.