Preston Davie Collection, 1560-1903

Summary

Creator:

Davie, Preston, b. 1881.

Abstract:

The collection contains scattered documents assembled by white lawyer and historical manuscripts and autograph collector Preston Davie. Documents are chiefly related to diplomatic efforts and military actions in the southeastern colonies during the American Revolutionary War and to politics during the early national period after the war. Early documents dating from the sixteenth, seventeenth, and early eighteenth centuries pertain to French, British, and Spanish colonies; the French and Indian War; land ownership in North Carolina and South Carolina; and colonialism in relationship to the Cherokee Nation, Chickasaw Nation, Choctaw Nation, Creek Nation, Saponi Indian Tribe, and Tuscarora Nation. Several nineteenth-century items are related to the forced removal of people of the Cherokee Nation from their land and forced migration west on the Trail of Tears (1838-1839). A few items document enslavement of African Americans in the American South.

Extent:

600 items (3.0 linear feet)

Language:

Materials in English

Library Catalog Link:

View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

Preston Davie (born 1881) of Louisville, Ky., and New York, N.Y., was a lawyer and collector of historical manuscripts and books chiefly relating to the history of the American South during the colonial, Revolutionary, and early national periods. He was a collateral descendent of William Richardson Davie (1756-1820), one of the founders of the University of North Carolina.

Scope and content:

The collection contains scattered and largely unrelated papers, many containing significant information on political and military affairs, others chiefly of interest as autographs, primarily relating to the South. The papers primarily address military activities during the American Revolutionary War and post-Revolutionary War politics. Other papers relate to French attempts at colonization in the 16th century, a letter of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny to Catherine de Medeci, documents of Charles IX, and an origninal grant from 1682 of 6,000 acres in South Carolina to John Smith, a sugar refiner in Surrey, England, 18th-century colonial history of the Carolinas, land and property, legal issues, and matters regarding relations with Native Americans. There are also a few papers related to enslavement of African Americans in the South. The Kershaw-Chesnut papers, 1751-1832, are a separate series of documents pertaining to lands in North and South Carolina acquired by the Kershaw and Chesnut families of South Carolina. Papers in the collection include letters, land grants, deeds and surveys, indentures, military orders, commissions, administrative documents, petitions, bills of sale, arrest warrants, and one volume.

A significant portion of the collection relates to the American Revolutionary War in the South, 1775-1883, particularly the Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia. These include letters and other documents of military and civic leaders regarding administrative details, troop movements, supplies, and prisoners. A series of letters, 1774-1779, from John Pringle (1753-1843) of South Carolina discusses American Revolutionary diplomacy from Europe, and British attitudes toward the war (folders 59 and 104). Another series of letters relates to the siege and capture of Charleston, S.C., 1780. Three of these letters from Sir Henry Clinton to General Benjamin Lincoln regarding the terms of surrender are believed to have been written by Major John Andre, acting as aide to Clinton (folders 129-138). Other important letters include one from General Horatio Gates to General Nathanael Greene, 4 December 1780, written two days after he had been replaced by Greene, asking Greene for a court-martial to pass upon Gate's conduct at the Battle of Camden (folder 147); and a letter from William Smallwood, 6 December 1780, to General Greene, relating to Colonel William Washington's victory in the "Quaker Gun" battle with Colonel Ridgely and 112 Tory officers and men (folder 148)

Persons represented in the collection include: John Ashe (1720?-1781), Theodore Broughton, William Bull (1710-1791), Thomas Burke (circa 1747-1783), Richard Caswell (1729-1789), Gaspard de Coligny (1519-1572), Christopher Gadsden (1724-1805), Horatio Gates (1728-1806), Alexander Gillon (1741-1794), James Glen (1701-1777), Nathanael Greene (1742-1786), Wade Hampton (1754-1835), Cornelius Harnett (1723-1781), Patrick Henry (1736-1799), William Howe (1732-1786), Allen Jones (1729-1793), Henry Laurens (1724-1792), John Laurens (1754-1782), John Alexander Lillington (1725-1786), Francis Marion (1732-1795), Alexander Martin (1740-1807), Abner Nash (1740-1786), Thomas Pinckney (1750-1828), Griffith Rutherford (1721-1805), John Rutledge (1739-1800), Jethro Sumner (1733-1785), Nicholas Trott (1663-1740), and William Tryon (1729-1788).

Acquisition information:

Gift of Preston Davie of New York, 1958; Addition (3406 B), 1959; Addition (3406 C), 1960; Addition (3409 D), 1960; Addition (3406 E), 1961; Addition (3406 F), transferred from the Rare Book Room, 1972.

Processing information:

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Adam Fielding, Kate Stratton, and Jodi Berkowitz, December 2010

Edited by: Laura Hart, August 2019

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.

In 2017, we began using "white" as an ethnic and racial identity for individual and families, in addition to "Black," "African American," "Jewish," and other familiar identity terms that we have used for decades in collection descriptions. We use this identity term so that whiteness is no longer the presumed default of the people represented in our collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

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.

Related

Separated material:

• Oversize Paper (OPF-3406/1b, 2-29, XOP-30-48, XOPF-3406/1a)

Other finding aids:

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

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Slavery--Southern States.
Trail of Tears, 1838-1839.
Tuscarora Indians--Wars, 1711-1713.
Treaties between the United States of American and the Cherokee Nation--(1785-1868)

Names:

Chesnut family.
Kershaw family.
Ashe, John, 1720?-1781.
Broughton, Theodore.
Bull, William, 1710-1791.
Burke, Thomas, ca. 1747-1783.
Caswell, Richard, 1729-1789.
Coligny, Gaspard de, seigneur de Châtillon, 1519-1572.
Gadsden, Christopher, 1724-1805.
Gates, Horatio, 1728-1806.
Gillon, Alexander, 1741-1794.
Glen, James, 1701-1777.
Greene, Nathanael, 1742-1786.
Hampton, Wade, 1752-1835.
Harnett, Cornelius, 1723-1781.
Henry, Patrick, 1736-1799.
Howe, William, 1732-1786.
Jones, Allen, 1739-1807.
Laurens, Henry, 1724-1792.
Laurens, John, 1754-1782.
Lillington, John Alexander, 1725-1786.
Marion, Francis, 1732-1795.
Martin, Alexander, 1738-1807.
Nash, Abner, ca. 1740-1786.
Pinckney, Thomas, 1750-1828.
Pringle, John Julius, 1753-1843.
Rutherford, Griffith, 1721-1805.
Rutledge, John, 1739-1800.
Sumner, Jethro, 1733?-1785.
Trott, Nicholas, 1663-1740.
Tryon, William, 1729-1788.

Places:

France--Colonies--America.
Southern States--History--Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.
Southern States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783.
United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783--Foreign public opinion.
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma.
Cherokee Nation--History--19th century.
Haliwa Saponi Indian Tribe.
Choctaw Nation--History--18th century.
Chickasaw Nation--History--18th century.
Creek Nation--History--18th century.
Tuscarora Nation--History--18th century.
United States--History--French and Indian War, 1754-1763.

Restrictions to access:

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to use:

No usage restrictions.

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 Preston Davie Collection, #3406, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:

Southern Historical Collection

Louis Round Wilson Library

200 South Road

Chapel Hill, NC 27515

Contact:

(919) 962-3765

wilsonlibrary@unc.edu