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Sxnlriglj. Norll) (UurnllnH
Collection : KATHER INE CLARK PENDLETON C0NWAY_C0LLECTI0N P.C..I444-1-1M4 . ]
I769-I877 i n.d.
Physical Description: £. 2,200 items, including correspondence, speeches,,
notes, court records, estate papers, receipts, bills of sale, accounts,
wills, indentures, deed of trust, printed N. C. Senate resolutions,
election returns, newspaper clippings, broadside, periodicals, 1 autograph
book, 1 account book, and 1 memorandum book.
• Acquisition: Given by Miss Sylbert Pendleton, №. Fabius Pendleton, Hiss
Courtney Whitaker, Raleigh; accessioned, Febru¬
ary 10,. 1971.
Description: The Katherine Clark Pendleton Conway collection centers around
Weldon N. Edwards, ' student, and confidant of Nathaniel Macon, President of
the l86l Secession Convention of North Carolina, and an influential Democrat
• for many years. Born in 1788 in Northampton County, he later moved to
Warren County where he died in 1873- He served in the North Carolina House
of Commons and Senate and in the U. S. House of Representatives. Although
encouraged to seek higher offices, he preferred to spend his time at Poplar
Mount, his home near Ridgeway. For further biographical information on
Edwards, see Samuel A. Ashe (ea.) Biographical History of North Carolina,
I, 265-269.
The collection contains a large group of various business papers and a
smaller amount of correspondence. The largest group of business papers
concerns the estate of Marmaduke Norfleet (died I83O, Halifax county),
brother of Lucy S. Norfleet Edwards (wife of Weldon). Edwards v/as appointed
trustee of the estate and in this position handled the property which was
.left to Hannah Gee (Norfleet's mother who had married James Gee) and to the
children of Olivia Norfleet Cox (Norfleet's sister). Other estate papers in
the collection include those of Marmaduke Norfleet (died l8l8), father of
Mrs. Edwards (including account of Thomas Cox, guardian. of Lucy S. Norfleet),
Benjamin Edwards, father of Weldon (including account of Benjamin Williamson,'
guardian of Weldon) , Benjamin Williamson and Nathaniel Macon, Edwards being
executor of the last two estates. There is a small collection of miscel¬
laneous business papers of Nathaniel Macon in addition to the estate papers.
* Other business papers in the collection include receipts of Edwards from
l8l6 to 1821 and from 1849 to 1872, bills of sale for slaves of Edvards'
(1820-1857) and papers of Alexander Yancey, guardian of Edwin Yancey
(Edwards was agent for Alexander Yancey). Within the estate papers dis- .
cussed above, there are copies of wills of both of the Marmaduke Norfleet's
