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 Richard Caswell Papers, #145-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from the North Carolina Historical Society, prior to 1940.

Additional materials received from John R. Peacock, 1952; James N. B. Hill, 1955 and 1956; Mrs. W. T. Hines, 1955; and transferred from the North Carolina State Papers, #557.

Additional Descriptive Resources

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

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 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.

• Caswell, Richard, 1729-1789.
• Governors--North Carolina.
• North Carolina--Politics and government--1775-1783.
• North Carolina--Politics and government--1775-1865.
• North Carolina. Militia.

Richard Caswell (1729-1789) was governor of North Carolina, general in the state forces during the Revolutionary War, state comptroller, and speaker of the state senate. Caswell came to North Carolina from Maryland about 1746 and became a surveyor, a clerk of Orange County court, and a lawyer. He lived in a part of Johnston County which later was apportioned to be part of Dobbs County and now Lenoir County, N.C. His political career began in 1754 and he held positions in the General Assembly and other public offices almost continually thereafter. Caswell was also a militia officer under Governor William Tryon in the Battle of Alamance, N.C. During the Revolution and the post-Revolutionary period, he served in the Provincial Congress, the Continental Congress, the General Assembly, as speaker of the House of Representatives, as speaker of the Senate, as major general of militia, as comptroller, and twice as governor of North Carolina, 1776-1779 and 1785-1878.

The collection is primarily correspondence relating to North Carolina and United States military and political issues of the Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary periods. Topics include Revolutionary preparations including the arrival of French military officers and the difficulties of funding and arming the militia. After the Revolution, correspondence discusses legislative issues and political news. Correspondents include Thomas Burke, John Penn, Rawlins Lowndes, Henry Laurens, John Ashe, James Iredell, William Sharpe, Abner Nash, and his son, William Caldwell, among others. Other items include a commission, 1777, for the negotiation of boundaries and peace with the Cherokee Indians; a diploma, 1803; and list and map, 1914, related the burial places of Caswell and his relations.

Oversize papers (OPF-145/1).