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Collection: SHAW Papers
Cumberland County, N. C.
’ - 1735-1883 \
PH 20.1-20.7
Physical Description: c. 80° items; letters, deeds, grants, land surveys,
promissory notes, bonds, receipts, accounts, militia records, court records,
statements, certificates, contracts, appointments, summonses and other legal
papers, reports, lists, and miscellaneous items.
Acquisition: From Biennial Report: 1916-1918 . a large and miscellaneous
collection of letters, business papers, memoranda, etc., many of which
relate to the Scotch Highland immigrants to North Carolina, presented by
Henry E. Shaw, Kinston, N. C.; June 21. 1961. [26 items], deeds, land
grants and surveys, division of land in Bladen and New Hanover counties,
given by Mrs. Isabelle Williams Shaw, Ivanhoe, N. C.
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Description: Shaw Papers (1735-1883). The collection consists primarily of
the personal papers of three generations of the Colin (Collin) Shaw family.
The elder Collin Shaw (spelling later changed to Colin) had come to North
Carolina from Scotland by 1764 and had settled in the Cross Creek area of
Cumberland County. He died around 1791, and his son Colin carried on the
family name until his death in 1821. The third Colin Shaw was bom in 1812.
He received an A.B. degree from the University of North Carolina in 1838 and
an A.M. in 1841. A Presbyterian minister by profession, he served as a Con¬
federate chaplain during the Civil War, surviving until 1905 when he died
near Wallace, N. C.
Correspondence in this collection covers approximately a century (1764-
186l) and apparently spans the. lives of three generations of Colin (Collin)
Shaw families. Letters of particular interest include: several written from
the island of Jura in Scotland, discussing Scottish family matters and immi¬
gration to North Carolina; letters from Collin Shaw as a Loyalist refugee in
New York during the Revolutionary War; a letter from Duncan McFarland relating
Congressional activities and world affairs in 1806; and, several Civil War
letters from Confederate chaplain Colin Shaw describing defense preparations
below Wilmington and military activities in South Carolina. The remainder of
the letters are of a routine nature and are concerned primarily with private
business matters in the Cumberland County area.
Land records make up a significant part of the Shaw Papers. These grants
deeds, patents, and surveys are centered primarily around the Carver's Creek-
Cross Creek area of Cumberland County. The earliest records are concerned '
with the 1735 Sam Carver grants in what was then Bladen County, and later
entries and descriptions are for lands eventually belonging to the Shaw family
in this same general vicinity (1735-1834) . A second distinct group of land
records are for the Colley Swamp and South River area of Bladen County and
the Black River section of New Hanover County. These grants and deeds (1793-
1874) are for the Elkin, Anders, Bannerman, and Sikes families among others,