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BURGWYN, HENRY KING, N DIARIES
Northampton County, N. C.
1840-1842, 1844-1848
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Physical Description: 4 items: diaries and transcripts. 1
Acquisition: No record. [Possibly received from Mrs. W. H. S. Burgwyn.
See Biennial Reports, 1912-1914, 1916-1918.]
Description: Henry King Burgwyn, son of John Fanning Burgwyn and Sara
Pierrepont Hunt, bom 1813; attended U. S. Military Academy at West
Point; married Anna Greenough, stepdaughter of General William Hyslop
Sumner of Boston; lived on plantation lands inherited 1839 from uncle '
George Pollock. [Northampton County tax list 1840 indicates Burgwyn
brothers and sister inheritance: Henry King — 6l slaves, 2504 acres;
Thomas Pollock - 60 slaves, 1688 acres; J, Collinson - 62 slaves, 2000
acres; Sara Emily - 49 slaves, 929 acres. The 1843 tax list indicates
that when Collinson died (1842), his father inherited his plantation.]
Henry's three eldest sons were Henry King, Jr. (1841-1864), William
Hyslop Sumner (1845-1913), and George Pollock (1847-1907). He died in
1877.
Of the two diaries in the collection, the earlier (March 25, 1840-
March 19, 1842) is concerned with the surveying and cultivating of the
recently inherited Burgwyn plantations, described by an. early agricul¬
tural writer as the best farms between Canada and Louisiana. "In one
year [after acquisition] Henry had 900 acres of wheat and 450 acres of
com under cultivation. The Burgwyns practiced crop rotation before
1844, and their farm records were meticulously kept."^ Entries describe
methods and results of cultivation, horse breeding, and building of the
plantation house, "Hillside," and the attendant contacts with overseers,
slaves, brickmakers, carpenters, and neighboring planters (Peebles, Amis
Johnson, etc.). The Roanoke River is a frequent topic, especially
during freshets when the canoe replaces the horse for transportation.
There are references to his wife in Boston where their first son is bom
to his planter brothers Thomas and Collinson, and to his father who is
guardian of the' estate of their minor sister Rnily. Non-farm activities
mentioned are politics during court week, fox hunting, and horse racing
in North Carolina at Greenwood near Scotland Neck and in- Virginia at
Belfield near Emporia and at Petersburg, where Andrewetta,' "the fastest
3/4
miler in the U. S.," was a rival.
^Bill Sharpe, "Northampton, " A New Geography of North Carolina (Sharpe
Publishing Company: Raleigh, ‘1961), 111, 1490.
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