Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

Microfilm copy of Edmund Wilkins's letterbook, 1857-1861, should be used instead of the original, which is very fragile.

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 Edmonia Cabell Wilkins Papers #2364, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Edmund Wilkin's letterbook, 1857-1861, available on microfilm.

• Reel 1: Letterbook

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

Acquisitions Information

Gifts of Edmonia Cabell Wilkins and Henry Wilkins Lewis, 1941-1989.

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: Scott Philyaw, July 1992

Encoded by: Mara Dabrishus, September 2004

Revised by: Dawne Howard Lucas, February 2021

This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.

Funding from the State Library of North Carolina supported the encoding of this finding aid.

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.
• Belmont Plantation (Northampton County, N.C.).
• Blacksmiths--History--19th century.
• Brunswick County (Va.)--Social life and customs.
• Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Family--Virginia--Social life and customs.
• Gaston Hotel (Gaston, N.C.).
• Genealogists--North Carolina.
• Genealogists--Virginia.
• Greenville County (Va.)--Social life and customs.
• Law--Study and teaching--Connecticut--History--19th century.
• Lawyers--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Litchfield Law Academy--Students--History--19th century.
• Meadows Plantation (Northampton County, N.C.).
• Medicine--Study and teaching--Pennsylvania--History--19th century.
• North Carolina--Genealogy.
• Northampton County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Plantations--North Carolina--Northampton County.
• Plantations--Virginia.
• Railroads--North Carolina--History.
• Shoemakers--History--19th century.
• Slavery--Southern States.
• Wilkins family.
• Wilkins, Edmonia Cabell, 1865-1949.
• Wilkins, Edmund, 1796-1867.
• Wilkins, John Limbrey, 1768-1850.
• Wilkins, William Wyche, 1768-1840.

Edmonia Cabell Wilkins (1865-1948), genealogist, was the daughter of physician Edmund Webb Wilkins (1830-1899). Other Wilkins family members include Edmund Webb Wilkins's grandfather, lawyer/planter William Wyche Wilkins (1768-1840), a native of Brunswick (later Greensville) County, Va., who moved to nearby Northampton County, N.C., around 1814; his grandfather's twin brother, lawyer/planter John Limbrey Wilkins (1768-1850) of Brunswick County, Va.; and William Wyche Wilkins's children, including lawyer/planter Edmund Wilkins (1796-1867) of Northampton County; John Limbrey Wilkins (1801-1843); William Webb Wilkins (1803-1858); and Rebecca A. Wilkins (1806-1842), wife of Alexander Brodnax (d. 1832).

The Wilkins family owned several plantations in the Roanoke River valley of North Carolina and Virginia. They also owned a significant number of slaves. As Whigs, they were active in the promotion of internal improvements, especially railroads to link the town of Gaston with Petersburg, Va., and Raleigh, N.C. Three members of the family--William Wyche Wilkins, John Limbrey Wilkins, and Edmund Wilkins--attended Litchfield Law Academy in Connecticut.

The collection contains personal and business correspondence, 1786-1949, of several generations of the Wilkins family of Greensville County, Va., Brunswick County, Va., and Northampton County, N.C. Most of the letters are financial in nature. Financial and legal materials, 1782-1909, include bills and receipts concerning property, plantation affairs, and railroad investments in several Virginia and North Carolina railroads; a few documents relating to the purchase and upkeep of slaves; lawyers' accounts and trial dockets from Halifax County, N.C., and Northampton County, N.C.; and other legal and business papers. Also included are account books for a shoemaker, a blacksmith, and the Gaston Hotel.

Other papers include notebooks of law students at Litchfield, Conn., ca. 1817-1819, and a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania, 1851-1860. About half of the collection consists of items relating to the genealogy activities of Edmonia C. Wilkins, 1920-1949. There is little information on the Civil War or sectional tensions of the time.

Items separated include oversize volumes V-2364/S-12 and V-2364/S-17.