Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictiosn

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers of Joseph C. Cabell and the Cabell Family, Accession #38-111, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The Cabell family papers were loaned to the Library by Mr. Hartwell Cabell of New York City, New York, and "Edgewood," Warminster, Nelson County, Virginia, with the major collection arriving in 1910, and additions at various times up to 1948.

The Library purchased the collection from James Self in 2001.

Scope and Content

The Cabell Family Papers consist of ca. 2,415 items (71 four-inch Hollinger boxes and one oversize box, filling ca. 25 linear feet of shelving), ca. 1731-1917, correspondence, diaries, account books, financial and legal papers, and other material. They are chiefly the papers of Joseph Carrington Cabell (1778-1856), planter, political leader, and statesman of Amherst (now Nelson) County, Virginia. There is a considerable quantity of material generated by other members of the Cabell family, including William Cabell, William D. Cabell, Nathaniel Francis Cabell, Mayo Cabell, Joseph L. Cabell, and Philip B. Cabell.

Some topics of interest in these papers include: nineteenth-century Virginia life, and the politics of the period ( Joseph C. Cabell served in the state legislature for nearly thirty years); agriculture; enslavement; travels in England, France, Holland, and Italy from 1802-1806; an outline of a course of reading for the education of young men, prepared by Thomas Jefferson and St. George Tucker ; the founding and early years of the University of Virginia ( Joseph C. Cabell served on the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia and as Rector); social life; and of course, the Cabell family itself. Prominent correspondents include: John Quincy Adams, R. A. Anderson, W. H. Benade, E. Benson, Samuel R. Betts, C. Bolling, P. A. Bolling, Richard Bolling, Tom Bolling, William Brent, Jr., R. A. Brock, Annie Cabell, Hartwell Cabell, William Cabell, William H. Cabell, William M. Cabell, John C. Calhoun, A. K.Campbell, Dabney Carr, Edward Carrington, Paul Carrington, William Cabell Carrington, Landon Carter, Henry Clay, George Clinton, John Coalter, John Hartwell Cocke, W. R. C. Cocke, Isaac A. Coles, D. Conway, R. Cralle, Peter V. Daniel, Jr., Walter R. Daniel, John D. Dickinson, L. C. Draper, Lewis Dubois, Baron Dubose, William Temple Franklin, Peter Gansevoort, Gessner Harrison, D. J. Hartsook, J. B. Hayword, George Hinkley, H. H. Hite, Alexander von Humboldt, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, Joseph Johnson, Frank Keck, Arthur Lee, Richard Henry Lee, William Lee, Edward Livingston, D. H. London, J. R. McClelland, William Holmes McGuffey, B. G. McPhail, James Madison (Bishop), James Madison (President), Walkill Malcolm, John Marshall, John B. Minor, James Monroe, Charles J. Morris, Gouverneur Morris, Richard Morris, John Singleton Mosby, Wilson Cary Nicholas, Thomas Nelson Page, H. A. Powers, George Wythe Randolph, John Randolph, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, Thomas Mann Randolph, William Cabell Rives, A. Sinclair, L. I. Singleton, Alexander Spotswood, James Stephenson, Andrew Stevenson, P. D. Sutton, Philip Tabb, James Tallmadge, John Taylor, Abraham Ten Broeck, Charles Thompson, George Tucker, Henry St. George Tucker, St. George Tucker, John Tyler, Robert Van Rensselaer, George Van Schaick, Edwin C. Venable, William Walker, J. H. Wallace, George Washington, James Webb, William Wirt, C. V. Woodson, and William Yates.

A card index to correspondents (through about 1852) found in this collection is available in the Manuscripts Department as is a calendar (prepared by Frances Elizabeth Harshbarger and completed to 1836 only) of part of the collection, and a copy of N. F. Cabell's Early History of the University of Virginia as Contained in the Letters of Thomas Jefferson and Joseph C. Cabell . A biographical sketch of Joseph C. Cabell from the Dictionary of American Biography is included in this guide. There are a number of related Cabell collections owned by the Library: Accession numbers 383, 1495, 2791-a, 2791-b, 3021, 3021-a, 3073, 3119, 3845, 4606, 5136, 5542, 5644, 5970, 6038, and 7579 .

Arrangement

This collection is arranged chronologically except that in the post-Civil War years accounts or graphs of business material or of correspondence covering a period of years are filed under the earliest date on the folder.