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 William Birnie Papers, #66, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mrs. James Lewis of Greenville, S.C., prior to 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, July 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.

Diacritics and other special characters have been omitted from this finding aid to facilitate keyword searching in web browsers.

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.

• Aberdeen (Scotland)--Social life and customs.
• Bankers--South Carolina--History--19th century.
• Birnie family.
• Birnie, William, 1782-1865.
• Charleston (S.C.)--Commerce--History--19th century.
• Charleston (S.C.)--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Ferguson family.
• Merchants--South Carolina--History--19th century.
• Railroads--South Carolina--History--19th century.
• Scotland--Economic conditions.
• South Carolina--Economic conditions.
• South Carolina--Social life and customs.

William Birnie (fl. 1842-1864) was a Charleston, S.C., merchant and president of the Bank of South Carolina. He was at one time associated with Birnie & Stuart, and later with Birnie & Ogilvie.

The collection includes letters, 1842-1864, to William Birnie, from members of the Birnie and Ferguson families, mostly in Aberdeen, Scotland, about family affairs, commerce, economic conditions, and current events; letters from American relatives which contain information about life and industries in Charleston, S.C., in the early 1800s, railroad enterprises, and agricultural trade; and letters, 1862-1864, to Birnie in Greenville, S.C., from his nephews, who were managing his affairs in Charleston.