Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

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 Robert Wilson Account Books #1896, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

All or part of this collection is available on microfilm from University Publications of America as part of the Records of antebellum southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War, Series J.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mrs. James E. Covington of Beaver Creek, Martinsville, Va., in August 1951.

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.

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.
• Blacksmithing--Virginia--History--19th century.
• Carpentry--Virginia--History--19th century.
• Dan's Hill (Va.)--Economic conditions--19th century.
• Danville (Va.)--Economic conditions.
• Grain--Milling--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Guilford County (N.C.)--Economic conditions.
• Hairston Annie M., fl. 1885-1888.
• Martinsville (Va.)--Economic conditions.
• Merchants--North Carolina--History--18th century.
• Merchants--Virginia--History--19th century.
• Mills and mill-work--Virginia--History--19th century.
• Pittsylvania County (Va.)--Economic conditions.
• Plantations--Virginia--Pittsylvania County.
• Sawmills--Virginia--History--19th century.
• Wilson family.
• Wilson, John, d. 1820.
• Wilson, Robert Anderson.
• Wilson, Robert, b. 1789.

• Robert Wilson Papers (#1882) and Robert Hairston Papers (#1148-z).

John Wilson made his home at Dan's Hill, an estate adjoining the home of his father Peter Wilson at Wilson's Ferry on the Dan River in Pittsylvania County, Va. He was a colonel in the Revolutionary War and represented his county at the Constitutional Convention of Virginia. He was also a successful merchant, financier, and gentleman farmer; he owned the land on which the city of Danville was laid out, and his general store was the entrepot for all the settled country for miles around. He died in 1820.

Robert Wilson, the seventh son of Colonel John Wilson, inherited Dan's Hill. He was a colonel in the War of 1812. He married Catharine Pannill, the daughter of Samuel Pannill, a successful businessman of Green Hill, Campbell County, Va.

Robert Anderson Wilson, the third son of Colonel Robert Wilson, inherited Dan's Hill from his father. He married Ruth Stovall Hairston, the daughter of Marshall and Ann Hairston of Martinsville, Va.

The volumes are of three main types:

1. Journals or daybook accounts, chronological records of business day by day, usually with detailed entries as to the articles purchased and showing also the name of the buyer and the amount charged.

2. Ledgers, into which the accounts from the journals were transferred and arranged under the name of the individual purchaser. In some cases, the lists of purchases were transferred in full; in other cases only the amounts or the totals for a day or month were transferred to the ledger.

3. Shop accounts: the same type of records for services such as blacksmithing, shoemaking, carpentry, and general repair work.

The volumes are arranged chronologically according to the earliest date included in each volume, and are organized in the following series and subseries:

• Oversize volume SV-1896/1
• Oversize volume SV-1896/2
• Oversize volume SV-1896/3
• Oversize volume SV-1896/4
• Oversize volume SV-1896/8
• Oversize volume SV-1896/11
• Oversize volume SV-1896/12
• Oversize volume SV-1896/13
• Oversize volume SV-1896/14
• Oversize volume SV-1896/15
• Oversize volume SV-1896/16
• Oversize volume SV-1896/25
• Oversize volume SV-1896/26
• Oversize volume SV-1896/33
• Oversize volume SV-1896/34
• Oversize volume SV-1896/40
• Oversize volume SV-1896/44
• Oversize volume SV-1896/47
• Oversize volume SV-1896/52
• Oversize volume SV-1896/55
• Oversize volume SV-1896/64
• Oversize volume SV-1896/69
• Oversize volume SV-1896/74
• Oversize volume SV-1896/75
• Oversize volume SV-1896/77
• Oversize volume SV-1896/80