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No restrictions. Open for research.

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 Joseph Blount Cheshire Papers #146, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Joseph Blount Cheshire, Jr., of Raleigh, N.C., before 1940, with additions received from Joseph Blount Cheshire, Jr., in 1970; Lawrence London of Chapel Hill, N.C., in 1942, 1983, and 1986; David Stick of Kitty Hawk, N.C., in 1966; Bishop Thomas A. Fraser of Raleigh, N.C., in 1982; material transferred from Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina Records (#3438), in 1987. Addition filed as folder 269a, received from Jacqueline Drane Nash in May 1989 (Acc. 89025); folder 220b received from Henry Clark of Chapel Hill, N.C., in February 1999 (Acc. 98293); addition of February 2000 (Acc. 98563) transferred from North Carolina Collection; addition of October 2002 (Acc. 99343) transferred from Rare Book Collection.

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: Marion Presler, August 1987; Linda Sellars, March 2002

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Updated by: Nancy Kaiser, 2020

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.

• Cheshire family.
• Cheshire, Joseph B. (Joseph Blount), 1882-1961.
• Cheshire, Joseph Blount, 1814-1899.
• Cheshire, Joseph Blount, 1850-1932.
• Clergy--North Carolina.
• Edgecombe County (N.C.)--History.
• Episcopal Church--Bishops.
• Episcopal Church--North Carolina--History.
• Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Lawyers--North Carolina--History.
• North Carolina--Religion.
• Parker, Theophilus.
• Sermons.

• Episcopal Convocation of Edenton Records (#1943).

Joseph Blount Cheshire, son of the Reverend Joseph Blount Cheshire (1814-1899) and Elizabeth Toole Parker Cheshire, was born in Tarboro, N.C., 27 March 1850. In 1869, he received a B.A. from Trinity College, in Hartford, Conn. After he graduated from college, Cheshire taught Greek and Latin at St. Clement's Hall in Ellicott City, Md.

In 1871, Cheshire moved back to North Carolina and began studying law under William Ruffin of Hillsborough and then under Judge George Howard of Tarboro. Cheshire was licensed to practice law in 1872. He began his work as a lawyer in Baltimore, Md., with his college friend George Hooper. Fifteen months later, Cheshire joined the the law firm of Colonel John L. Bridgers and his son in Tarboro, N.C.

In 1876, Cheshire began to consider becoming a candidate for holy orders and began studying theology under the direction of his father. In 1878, he was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church. Kemp Battle, president of the University of North Carolina, requested that Cheshire be assigned to Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill. While at Chapel of the Cross, Cheshire organized the mission of St. Phillip's in Durham.

Cheshire was ordained in 1880. In 1881, he became rector of St. Peter's Church in Charlotte; he was rector there for twelve years. During this time, Cheshire was deeply involved in mission work in Charlotte and the surrounding counties. In Charlotte, he organized St. Martin's Church and St. Michael and All Angels, a black mission. He also organized St. Mark's mission in Mecklenburg and St. Paul's mission in Monroe. He was actively involved in building two hospitals in the Charlotte area, St. Peter's and Good Samaritan. In addition, Cheshire, with the help of the Reverend E. A. Osborne, established the Thompson Orphanage in Charlotte.

In October 1893, Cheshire was elected Bishop Coadjuator to Bishop Thomas Lyman. After the death of Bishop Lyman in December 1893, Cheshire became the first native North Carolinian to be elected bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina.

Cheshire accomplished much during his tenure as Bishop and was prominent in the national church. He was very interested in the cause of mission and promoted the growth of the Episcopal Church in the mountains of western North Carolina. In 1895, his efforts led to the creation of a separate mission district in the western part of the state, which was later given its own bishop.

Cheshire was also noted for his contributions to education in the diocese. At his urging, St. Mary's School in Raleigh, now St. Mary's College, became a diocesan institution. (It had been a private girls' school run by an Episcopal clergyman and was failing.) Under Cheshire's leadership, its endowment grew and its success was insured. Cheshire also established St. Augustine's School in Raleigh, which was devoted to the education of African-Americans.

Cheshire's relationship with black Episcopalians in the Diocese was apparently very good. During his episcopacy, Henry B. Delany, a black clergyman, was elected Suffragan Bishop. Cheshire served on the General Convention's Joint Commission on a Racial Episcopate. He did not support separation of the races, but supported the idea of separate bishops for blacks after he was persuaded that blacks themselves preferred it.

Cheshire was a writer and a historian as well as a clergyman. He was elected president of the State Literary and Historical Association in 1930. His most famous historical work, The Church in the Confederate States, was published in 1912. Nonnulla, a book of reminiscences, Cheshire's most popular book, was published in 1930.

Cheshire married Annie Huske Webb of Hillsborough, N.C., in 1874. They had six children: Elizabeth Toole, Sarah, Joseph Blount, Jr., Annie, James Webb, and Godfrey. Cheshire's wife died in 1897, and two years later, he married again. His second wife was Elizabeth Lansdale Mitchell of Beltsville, Md. They had no children.

After 1922, Cheshire gradually began to turn over his episcopal duties to his Bishop Coadjutor, the Reverend Edwin Penick. Joseph Blount Cheshire died 27 December 1932.

Most of the collection documents the professional life of Joseph Blount Cheshire. The professional material consists of correspondence, speeches and writings, and subject files documenting Cheshire's activities as a clergyman and bishop from 1878 to 1932.

Before the addition of February 2000, personal and family materials were scant. A memoir Cheshire wrote about his father is in Subseries 2.2. About thirty miscellaneous personal items are in Subseries 3.4. There are a few personal letters in Series 1. The addition of February 2000 contains many family letters, 1800-1856, mostly of Cheshire's grandfather, Theophilus Parker, and uncle, John Haywood Parker, and many letters to Cheshire from his father, 1866-1897.

Also included in the collection are minutes and account books pertaining to various diocesan organizations, dating from the period prior to Cheshire's election to the episcopacy. These materials are in Series 3.

The addition of February 2000 also contains many speeches and writings by Cheshire and account books of his son, Joseph Blount Cheshire, a lawyer in Raleigh, N.C.

Items Separated

• Pictures (PF-146/1-4)
• Oversize papers (OPF-146/1, XOPF-146/1)