Restrictions to Access

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 Robert Burton Papers #3973, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from the estate of Archibald Henderson, March 1973; purchased from the Captain's Bookshelf, Asheville, N.C., in 1986; and transferred from the North Carolina Collection in November 2006 (Acc. 101301).

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 Turbyfill, January 1982; Tim West, January 1992

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Updated because of addition in December 2018

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.

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.

• Boone, Daniel, 1734-1820.
• Boonesboro (Ky.)--Social life and customs--18th century.
• Burton, Horace A.
• Burton, Robert, 1747-1825.
• Coinage--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Coinage--Virginia--History--19th century.
• Depreciation.
• Granville County (N.C.)--Economic conditions.
• Harrodsburg (Ky.)--Social life and customs--18th century.
• Hawkins, Benjamin, 1754-1816.
• Henderson, Richard, 1735-1785.
• Holston (Tenn.)--Social life and customs.
• Kentucky--History--To 1792.
• Liquor industry--North Carolina--History--18th century.
• Mineral waters--Southern States--History.
• Mitchell, Elisha, 1793-1857.
• Real property--Kentucky--History--18th century.
• Real property--Kentucky--History--19th century.
• Real property--Tennessee--History--18th century.
• Real property--Tennessee--History--19th century.
• Tennessee--Economic conditions.
• Transylvania Colony.
• United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783.
• United States. Continental Congress.
• Vance County (N.C.)--Economic conditions.
• Williams, John, 1731-1799.

• John Williams Papers (#2115);
• John Williams Ledger (#4472);
• Burton and Young Family Papers (#111);
• Edward Vernon Howell Papers (#1060).

Robert Burton (20 October 1747 - 31 May 1825), member of the Continental Congress, Revolutionary War officer, and planter, was born in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, the son of Tabitha Minge and Hutchings Burton. Around 1775, Burton moved to Granville (now Vance) County, North Carolina; married Agatha Williams (died 1807), daughter of Judge John Williams; and began to practice law.

During the Revolution, Burton was a lieutenant in the continental artillery and, later, quartermaster general of North Carolina with the rank of colonel. He was a member of the governor's council, 1783-1785, 1800-1807, and 1813-1815, and president of that body in 1807, 1813, and 1815. He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1785 but not seated until 1786; he was re-elected in 1787, but there is no record that he attended. In 1813, Burton served on the commission to establish the southern border of North Carolina. He also held several offices in Granville County and Edenton, including his appointment as sheriff in 1795. In 1790, he presented a bust of John Paul Jones, by the artist Jean Antoine Houdon, to the state of North Carolina.

Burton was a successful farmer and planter. Granville County records for 1790 indicate that he owned fourteen slaves and 2,405 acres there, as well as nearly 6,000 acres in what would become Tennessee.

Burton was survived by nine children, including two sons, Alfred M. and Robert H., who attended the University of North Carolina. He also raised his nephew, Hutchins G. Burton, who became governor of North Carolina, 1824-1827. Robert Burton was buried on his plantation, Montpelier, at Williamsboro. Montpelier was the home of his father-in-law, John Williams. Burton presumably inherited Montpelier upon Williams's death in 1799.

The collection includes correspondence; deeds, receipts, ledgers, and other financial and legal materials; and miscellaneous items of Robert Burton and his son, Horace A. Burton. Letters to Robert Burton include a letter, 1775, from Benjamin Hawkins (1754-1816) concerning the American cause; eight letters from John Williams (1731-1799), five of them, August-October 1778, from Philadelphia, where he was serving a delegate to the Continental Congress, with military news and other war-related information, and one February 1776, from Harrodsburg, Transylvania (now Kentucky), about his situation there and other matters; and two letters, 1779-1780, from Richard Henderson (1735-1785) in Holston, Tenn., and Boonesborough, Ky., about the Transylvania Colony and other matters. Letters to Horace A. Burton include one from Elisha Mitchell (1793-1857) concerning Mitchell's testing of mineral water that Burton had sent him. Many of the legal papers are late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century items relating to land in Kentucky and the Powell River valley in Tennessee. Two ledgers of Robert Burton consist of general accounts, 1777-1785, including a record, 1780, of a sale of a horse to Daniel Boone and tables of depreciation and coinage for North Carolina and Virginia; and accounts of whiskey distilled, 1784-1789.