|
Description |
Papers of James Iredell, Sr. (1751-1799), of Edenton, state attorney general and U.S Supreme Court justice (1790-1799); papers of James Iredell, Jr. (1788-1853), governor (1827-1828), and U.S. senator (1828-1831); and some papers of Samuel Johnston (1733-1816), governor (1787-1789) and U.S. senator (1789-1793). Letters (1772- 1790) from James Iredell, Sr., to wife Hannah Johnston Iredell were written on travels to eastern and piedmont courts, describing towns, legal and political figures, court cases, actions of the legislature, Onslow Co. property, and celebrations at New Bern and Wilmington for the French alliance and the peace. His correspondence with family in England and Jamaica concerns his friends and fiancee; trade; politics in Britain, America, and France (including mention of the Edenton Tea Party); English society in London and Bath; and Carolinians abroad. Letters to Iredell during the Revolution are from brother-in-law Samuel Johnston, Thomas Jones, Richard Caswell, Abner Nash, Alfred Moore, John Johnston, Robert Smith, John Williams, and William Hooper, concerning provincial congresses (1775-1776), agreement on independence, the state constitution, defense plans, the land and naval war, Iredell's appointment as attorney general (1779), charges being made against judges (1780), prisoner exchange, and unfair taxation. Among the postwar correspondents are Henry E. McCullough, Nathaniel Duckenfield, Archibald Nielson, Archibald MacClaine, Charles Johnson, Hugh Williamson, Pierce Butler, James Hogg, John Burgwin, Baron Poellnitz, Richard D. Spaight, William Cumming, Samuel Spencer, and Samuel Ashe, as well as Samuel Johnston. Subjects include loyalists and confiscation laws; conflict with Cherokee Indians; western lands; the state court system; judges' salaries; location of state capital; incorporation of towns; ratification of the U.S. Constitution; assumption of state debts; conflict between North and South; fraudulent Revolutionary certificates; federal taxes; sessions of Congress in New York; Iredell's appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court; and news about Stephen Carrabus, W.R. Davie, Richard Caswell, William Hooper, and Samuel Johnston. Iredell's correspondence with his wife concerned social activities in New York and Philadelphia; and the appeals court circuits, with descriptions of hazards of travel, New England, and the unfinished federal capital. Iredell also commented on Jay's Treaty, resistance to the excise tax (1794), the Methodist Society, and the Fries uprising in Pennsylvania against direct land tax and his participation as judge in the ensuing trial (1799). Correspondence with William White and Bird Wilson concerns the death at Iredell's home of Supreme Court Justice James Wilson of Pennsylvania (1798). Other correspondents from 1790 to 1799 include Thomas Johnson, William Paterson, Bushrod Washington, John Blair, and John Jay on circuit court revision; John Steele on foreign relations; Thomas Iredell, William and Thomas Blount, Peter Browne, Stephen Carrabus, John Stokes, David Stone, and others on politics and events in North Carolina; and from Samuel Johnston on these matters and also on national leaders, Washington's visit to Halifax, political parties, UNC, farming, and neighbors such as the McKenzies, Blounts, Dawsons, Swanns, Tredwells, Pollocks, Devereauxs, and Lowthers. Iredell's miscellaneous papers include Jones, Chowan, and Onslow county deeds (1722-1756); Port Roanoke customs records (1767- 1799); Edenton Post Office records (1770); lists of his taxable property (1777-1796); estate papers of Robert Smith and minutes of Smith's Academy, Edenton (1782-1789); a Chowan Co. confiscation paper (1780); lists of North Carolina court cases (1779-1789); resolutions from citizens of Edenton to their representatives about current issues (1783); and a petition (1786) from the sugar colonies to the British House of Commons to allow trade with the United States. Rough notes relating to the U.S. Supreme Court include dockets, grand jury charges, consultations with judges, discussion of admiralty jurisdiction, addresses from the court to Congress, draft of court to President Washington about the judiciary act (1790), and lists and descriptions of opinions from circuit courts. Other items are a 91-page manuscript "Of Captures and Depredations on the Sea" and notes about roads in the Carolinas. Letters from Hannah's sister Jane Johnston Blair describe wartime housekeeping, social events in Edenton, the French there during the Revolution, and postwar Charlestion, S.C. Other letters to Hannah describe Warren Co. (1804), UNC, and danger from British (1813). Letters from James Iredell, Jr., describe life at Princeton (1804- 1806) and the American Whig Society there; Edenton Academy (1811); his service as militia captain near Norfolk (1813); investigation of trade between Currituck residents and the British fleet; Aaron Burr (1818); bills before the State legislature (1816-1828); Raleigh personalities and events; his resignation from the Edenton circuit (1819); and his activities as supreme court reporter (1854). Correspondnts include classmates at Princeton, constituents, and Blake Baker, Frederic Beasley, John Branch, Peter Browne, William Gaston, Francis Hawks, Gabriel Holmes, James C. Johnston, Archibald D. Murphey, Joseph Skinner, John Stanly, Montfort Stokes, William Swift, and John H. Wheeler, concerning internal improvements, a pententiary, fishing industry on the Roanoke River, UNC's western lands, and President Jackson. There are also family letters about Edenton, Philadelphia, and the West Indian trade; estate papers of Hannah Iredell (1829), John Beasley (1799-1824), and George Pollock (1840); personal accounts and lists of slaves; notes on court cases in Bertie and Chowan superior courts and the federal court in Raleigh; and drafts of opinions. Letters unrelated to Iredell are from William R. Davie, Robert Knox of New York, the Philanthropic Society of Haiti, and John Marshall to A. D. Murphey describing James Iredell, Sr. Samuel Johnston's papers include deeds for lands of Gov. Gabriel Johnston and notes on Gates and Hertford county court cases, 1769- 1770. Papers of Johnston's nephew Samuel Tredwell include a list of books and papers of Henry Eustace McCullough, Chowan Co. deeds, and estate papers of Charles Johnson, Stephen Cabarrus, and John M. Slade. There are a few papers (1861-1864) of Iredell Brothers (Raleigh druggists) and essays, poetry, recipes, and school lessons of the Iredell and Blair families. Many of the papers of James Iredell, Sr., have been published in Don Higginbotham (ed.), The Papers of James Iredell, Sr. and Jr., and Samuel Johnston are in the Southern Historical Collection, UNC, and the Manuscript Dept., Duke University Library. |
