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Collection: BAGLEY, WILLIAM HENRY, COLLECTION
Raleigh, North Carolina
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201,1-
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18Ц9-1886
Physical Description: Letters, court records. 585 items, 2 bound volumes.
Acquisition: Transferred from the Jonathan Worth Papers at the
Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
January 22, I960.
Description: William Henry Bagley, born in Perquimans County, North
Carolina, July 5, 1833, was the son of Colonel Willis H. Bagley*
The younger Bagley became register of deeds in Perquimans in 1852}
three years later he moved to Elizabeth City and edited the Sentinel.
In 1859 he received a law license but the next year he was co-editor
with Colonel James Hinton of the State. A first lieutenant, 8th
North Carolina Troops, he was captured at Roanoke Island, was
exchanged, promoted to captain, later to major, with the 66th North
Carolina Troops, serving on coastal defence in North and South
Carolina. He resigned his commission in 186U when he was elected
to the state senate. Bagley was private secretary to Governor
Jonathan Worth (1865) and married the governor’s daughter Adelaide.
In I869 he was elected clerk of the supreme court and remained in
office until his death, February, 1886.
' The papers contain records from the office of the
clerk of the supreme court during Bagley’ s incumbency (1869-1886)
and a few during the terms of Edmund Freeman (l81i3~l868) and Charles
B. Root (1868-1869). One bound volume of copies of letters written
by Bagley, containing approximately 121 letters, give replies to
inquiries about court matters from sheriffs, lawyers, clerks of
court, and county ccxnmissioners. Some twenty-five letters are to
publishers, ordering books for the supreme court library; several
others are addressed to the assistant postmaster general concerning
a contract for the Cape Fear Steamship Company to cariy mail between
Fayetteville and Wilmington* Thirty or more relate to the settlement
of Governor Worth's estate. Some of the letters are illegible.
