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Collection: JOHN GRAY BLOUNT PAPERS
Beaufort County (Washington)
1706-1868
Physical Description: 20 ft. (34 fibredex boxes + 2 oversized manuscript
boxes); correspondence, surveys and plats, grants, maps, courses, deeds,
wills, estates papers, tax lists, music book (manuscript), receipts,
invoices, manifests, promissory notes, sermons, memorandums, pocket
notebooks, marriage contracts, agreements, bills of sale, lists, etc.
/
Acquisition: Biennial Report, 1932-1934, and Daily Record of Events,
1931-1935, ca. 10,000 letters, mostly from period before 1800, a gift
of William B. Rodman II of Norfolk, Va., November 16, 1933, by direction
of the.will of the late Miss Lida T. Rodman. [At the same time other
items from the Blount Historical Collection were donated to the Hall of
History.] Daily Record of Events, 1931-1935, additional gift of 988 items
from William B. Rodman II, February 6, 1935. Biennial Report, 1952-1954,
additional gift of business and family papers, 1795-1931, from William
B. Rodman III of Washington, N. C. , March 5, 1953 [10 boxes].
Description: John Gray Blount (1752-1833), son of Barbara Gray and
Jacob Blount, was a planter, justice of the peace, commissioner for the
town of Bath, postmaster at Washington (Beaufort Co.), merchant, shipper,
surveyor, land speculator, and state legislator for seven sessions (1782-
1795). In 1778 he married Mary "Polly" Harvey of Perquimans Co., who
bore him three sons (John Gray, Jr., William Augustus, and Thomas Harvey)
and three daughters (Patsey Baker, Lucy Olivia [Mrs. Bryan] Grimes , and
Polly Anne [Mrs. William W. ] Rodman).
CORRESPONDENCE, 1775-1868
The significant correspondence in this collection up. to the death of
John Gray Blount (January 4, 1833), with some supporting papers both from
this collection and from' public papers, has been culled by scholars and
published in The Papers of John Gray Blount, Alice Barnwell Keith and
William H. Masterson (eds.), 1764-1802, (Raleigh: NC Department of Archives ■
and History), I-III. Volume IV, 1802-1833 is forthcoming. This finding
aid concentrates on the unpublished correspondence, 1833-1868, and on the
supporting papers such as business and land speculation records.
The most valuable portion of the entire correspondence^ begins after
the American Revolution in 1783 when Blount and his two brothers Thomas
William formed a business partnership, "John Gray and Thomas Blount,
Merchants." John was the senior partner arid business manager, operating
■^Ca. 5,550 letters.
