Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Telfair family. Papers, 1803-1893. Accession 32226, Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Lent for copying by M.O. Roache, Jr., 25 June 1984.

Biographical/Historical Information

Thomas Telfair was born 2 March 1787 and Margaret Long was born 31 January 1789. They married 18 March 1809. The Telfairs became a prominent and wealthy family in Georgia, owning property in Savannah, and Chatham and Wilkes Counties, Georgia.

Scope and Content Information

Papers, 1803-1893, of the Telfair family of Chatham and Wilkes Counties, Georgia, consisting of correspondence, deeds, genealogical notes and charts, and wills. Some correspondence concerns a land claim in Maury County, Tennessee. There is a list, 1838, of slaves which gives their ages.

Items consist of: a) will, 21 September 1803, of William Gibbons of Chatham County, Georgia, disposing of his property including slaves, copy made 19 April 1861; b) will, 20 January 1807, of George W. Long of Halifax County, North Carolina, disposing of his property in North Carolina, Georgia, and the "western country, and of his slaves; c) marriage license, 29 November 1827, for John Burch and Patience D. Cobb of Wilkes County, Georgia; d) letter, 4 April 1832, from Alexander Telfair (d. 1832) of Savannah, Georgia, to Margaret Telfair of Wilkes County sending copies of a marriage agreement, and discussing settlement of his father's and brother's estates, and cotton crops on various Telfair properties; e) deed, dated 16 March 1836 and recorded 8 November 1836, for a tract of land in Wilkes County from Margaret Telfair of Chatham County to Lock Weems of Wilkes County; f) letter, 25 January[?] 1837, from Robert Habersham to John M. Berrien concerning Mrs. Cobb's marriage settlement and the estate of Thomas Telfair; g) list, 1838, of slaves giving ages and values taken by G. Jones; h) letter, 15 September 1838, from Robert Habersham of Savannah to Margaret Telfair of Jefferson County, Georgia, regarding legal and personal matters; i) letter, 3 February 1840, from Robert Habersham to Margaret Telfair concerning legal matters involving a division of property and slaves; j) letter, 8 March 1848, from Genevieve Pierce of Annisquam, Massachusetts, to her sister Mrs. Harriet M. Andrews of Boston, Massachusetts, containing personal news; and k) letter, 28 October 1851, from Duke Williams of Maury County, Tennessee, to Margaret Telfair of Savannah concerning land in Maury County owned at one time by her grandfather and part of his estate.

Also includes: l) letter, 1858, from Harriet Pierce of Annisquam, Massachusetts, to her daughter Harriet M. Andrews of Boston, Massachusetts, containing personal news; m) receipt, 22 January 1866, from the United States to A. P. Wetter for payment of direct taxes on property in Savannah; n) letter, 25 May 1871, from Frank Baltzell of Marianna, Florida, to A. P. Wetter of Savannah informing Wetter that as an heir of Margaret Telfair he has claim to land in Maury County, Tennessee, on which the town of Columbia sits; o) certified list, 1 March 1889, of marriage licenses issued in Wilkes County from 1813 to 1830 for the Long family; p) agreement, 11 October 1893, between John W. Taylor of Omaha, Nebraska, and Edward Telfair Wetter of Chatham County, Georgia, in which Taylor agrees to sell to Wetter his interests and claims in the "Las Arcas Cays" in the Gulf of Mexico and all rights to guano deposits on the islands; q) memorandum on the the family of Thomas and Margaret Telfair including their birth and marriage dates and the birth dates of their children; r) notes on the division of property formerly owned by James Ballion and William Gibbons; s) genealogical notes on the Benning family of Georgia; t) genealogical chart of the Long, Milton, Telfair, and Weems families of Georgia; and u) genealogical notes and chart on the Long and Cobb families of Georgia.