Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Angus William McDonald Papers, 1860. Accession 21098, Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Rose McDonald of Berryville, Virginia, on 21 March 1936.

Biographical Information

Angus McDonald was born 14 February 1799 in Winchester, Virginia, to Angus McDonald (1769-1814) and Mary McGuire (d. 1809). He attended Old Winchester Academy and was appointed to the United States Military Academy 30 June 1814. Graduating 17 July 1817, McDonald was appointed 3rd lieutenant and eventually rose to the rank of 1st lieutenant. He resigned his commission 31 January 1819. He surveyed lands in Illinois and Missouri with his brother Edward Charles McDonald (1803-1862), then became a partner in the Missouri Fur Company in 1821. When the company failed, McDonald returned to Virginia, settling in Hampshire County, where he became deputy sheriff. One 11 January 1827 he married Leacy Ann Naylor (d. 1843) of Hampshire County. After her death, he married Cornelia Peake (1822-1909) of Missouri. McDonald relocated to Winchester 9 September 1856. Two years later, 26 March 1858, Governor Henry A. Wise (1806-1876) appointed him a commissioner for Virginia in a boundary dispute with Maryland. In 1860, McDonald travelled to England with his son William Naylor McDonald (1834-1895) to get copies of records held by the British government. He returned and was in Richmond, Virginia, when the state seceded from the Union. He went to Harper's Ferry and raised a regiment of cavalry for service. After seeing active military duty early in the Civil War, he returned to Richmond and became a military advisor in the War Department. Because of illness, he travelled to Lexington, Virginia, to be with his wife in December 1863. The following June, Union troops captured McDonald and he was imprisoned until released on 7 November 1864. He returned to Richmond, where he died 1 December 1864 and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery.

Scope and Content

Papers, 1860, of Angus McDonald (1799-1864) of Winchester, Virginia, and commissioner of Virginia in the Virginia-Maryland boundary dispute, consisting of account, affidavits, correspondence, indexes, land patent transcripts, lists, and other records related to his research conducted in London, England, regarding colonial Virginia and the on-going border dispute between Virginia and Maryland. Lists are of items on colonial Virginia McDonald was having copied at the State Paper Office in London. Index is of headings of all papers contained a volume relating to Virginia. Papers contain accounts due for items McDonald had copied in the State Paper Office. Correspondence consists of rough drafts of a letter of introduction to the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Bird Sumner (1780-1862) and a letter to Goveror John Letcher (1813-1884). Transcripts are of land patents for grants along the Potomac River made between 1654 and 1670. Other records include an affidavit in the United States consulate concerning copies of documents checked by William Naylor McDonald (1834-1895) of Virginia and a description of the church in Tring, England. Papers also include a transcript of a document pertaining to a report, 1739, by the Board of Trade regarding the dispute over the Northern Neck boundary which was copied from a manuscript in the library of Peter Force of Washington D.C.

Related Material

Angus William McDonald Papers, 1860. Accession 21877. Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Adjunct Descriptive Data