The Kilby family papers are arranged alphabetically by folder title in four boxes and six oversize folders (see oversize folders 1-6). This series consists of accounts, clippings, correspondence, deeds, genealogical notes, notebooks, obituaries, plats and surveys, promissory notes, receipts, suit papers, and wills.

Included are slave records, 1833-1854, containing receipts for the hire of slaves and a list of Washington, Henning, and Sarah Smith's slaves, 1853-1854; a notebook listing the members of the Suffolk Committee of Native Americans, 1855; and genealogical notes and obituaries from the Blackwell, Glazebrook, Kilby, Riddick, Smith, and Thompson families of Hanover and Nansemond County, Virginia. Within the genealogical notes are included letters to Bradford and Wilbur Kilby, 1890-1943, from family members researching their genealogy. Included are oaths and summonses from Nansemond County, 1820-1872; suit papers relating to the land of "Cross Swamp" in Nansemond County, 1835-1870; and suit papers of Wells administrators vs. Norfolk & Western Railway, 1899-1902; copies of general orders issued from the Adjutant and Inspector General's office, Richmond, Virginia, 1863-1864, from newspapers; and clippings and notes related to the history of Nansemond County, Virginia, 1893-1931.

Within this series are the papers of some individual members of the Kilby family, such as Bradford Kilby, John Kilby, Leroy Kilby, and Josiah Riddick. The Bradford Kilby papers include correspondence, certificates from Randolph Macon College, and ration books. Of note within his papers are the record items of Suffolk Council, 1883-1907, compiled by Simon M. Lawrence, clerk of the Suffolk Council. This record is a compiled list of items presented to the Suffolk Council in the period 1883-1907, such as names of councilmen who served in Suffolk, when lights were introduced in the city, census statistics, what efforts were made for the poor, and the pavement of streets. The John Kilby papers included memoirs of the Revolutionary war and military career of John Paul Jones (1747-1792), written by John Kilby in September 1810. The Leroy R. Kilby papers include reports, returns, and muster rolls of the 16th Virginia Infantry, Company B, Confederate States of America, commanded by Captain Leroy R. Kilby. The Josiah Riddick papers, 1813-1814, contain muster rolls for the 59th Virginia Militia and a list of officers belonging to the 2nd regiment in the War of 1812. The Cowper family papers, 1842-1896, including accounts, correspondence, and receipts. Of note is a letter, 27 May 1861, to Fannie Cowper, Suffolk, Virginia, from a cousin in North Carolina, discussing the beginnings of the Civil War and sentiments in the South.

Of note within the collection are the deeds, plats and surveys, and wills, 1665-1931, mainly from Nansemond County and Norfolk, Virginia. Many of the records pre-1866 of Nansemond County were burned, so these records provide information that is no longer extant. Deeds, patents, and wills exist for the: Allmond, Arnold, Bennett, Benton, Bernard, Boykin, Brewer, Brock, Brown, Butler, Campbell, Capps, Causey, Charlton, Cohoon, Colvin, Cowper, Crittenden, Crocker, Crump, Crumples, Cuddeback, Cutchin, Darden, Daughtrey, Dean, Decormis, Dillard, Flynn, Fort, Frew, Galloway, Gardner, Gaskins, Golden, Gray, Gregory, Hall, Harrell, Hathaway, Hawes, Haywood, Heffington, Hinton, Holland, Holowell, Howell, Johnson, Jones, Jordan, Keeling, Kelly, Kilby, Laderberg, Latimer, Lee, Levett, Little, Lockhart, Mann, McAlister, McClenny, McGuire, Meade, Meriditt, Miles, Minton, Montgomery, Moss, Murdaugh, Murray, Newton, Norfleet, Northcott, Nurney, Oliver, Page, Phillips, Philhower, Pinner, Prentis, Pretlow, Pruden, Pulling, Rawls, Reber, Reid, Riddick, Rogers, Saunders, Savage, Smith, Steel, Swepson, Swett, Tarlington, Tucker, Vaughan, Vickers, Walker, Webb, White, Whitehead, Whitley, Whittock, Williams, Williamson, Willis, Wise, Wood, Wright, and Young families and the Dismal Swamp Company. Also included are land patents, 1711-1805, to the Campbell, Fort, Jones, Lockhart, Meade, Murdaugh, O'sheal, Pulling, and Riddick families, land in Nansemond and Norfolk Counties, Virginia.

Also included is a ledger containing a register of students, 1870-1903, of Suffolk Female Institute (Suffolk, Va.). The register contains the names of students, residence, age, name of parents, and sometimes death date. The front of the ledger includes marriage records of some of the students, including brides and grooms names, place and date of wedding. These records were copied and cataloged separately as MBRC 62 (accession 40347). Included are correspondence, promissory notes, agreements, and receipts for the Florida Land Association, 1859-1869, a joint venture between James Evans, Robert Webb, Nathaniel Riddick, Richard Riddick, and John R. Kilby, to purchase land on the Caloosahatchee River near Ft. Myers, Florida. The papers contain correspondence regarding the purchase and farming of the land; license for the purchase of a ship, "Belle"; receipts for the hiring of slaves from Virginia to work in Florida; and a receipt for slaves kept at Charleston Work House. Of note is a letter to James Evans, 27 July 1861, regarding the outbreak of the Civil War and the effect the war would have on the land venture.

The correspondence, 1801-1908, pertain to health, local and national politics, finances, and contain mostly family letters between Bradford Kilby, Eddie Kilby, Hilah Kilby, John R. Kilby, John S. Kilby, Joseph M. Kilby, Kate G. Kilby, L. Clay Kilby, Lucille Kilby, Martha Kilby, Randal Kilby, T. Spotswood Kilby, Thomas E. Kilby, Thomas J. Kilby, Wilbur J. Kilby, and William Turpin Kilby. Of note is a letter, 12 March 1801, from Archibald Richardson, to Josiah Riddick, regarding politics and the election of Thomas Jefferson as president; letter, 9 January 1846, from the mayors office in Baltimore, Maryland, to the mayor of Norfolk, Virginia, introducing Robert Rankin, a lawyer for Thomas Kiar, a free negro who was being held in a Norfolk jail; letter, 11 January 1849, regarding the sale of slaves in Suffolk, Virginia; letter, 23 August, 1860, regarding the farming of land for cotton and cattle in Florida; letter, 18 July 1871, regarding the pension of Andrew McAlister, for the War of 1812; letter, 23 August 1879, from Thomas Jefferson Kilby, recounting his father's, John Kilby, military service with John Paul Jones and the Revolutionary war; letter, 4 December 1879, regarding the death of John R. Kilby and a resolution passed by the board of directors of the Preacher's Relief Society (Norfolk, Va.); and letter, 10 March 1898, from Wilbur J. Kilby, on the history Quakers in of Nansemond County. Also of note are letters, 1855-1859, from Randal Kilby, a slave who had belonged to the Kilby family but had gained his freedom and resettled in Liberia, to John R. Kilby. His letters describes the voyage to Africa, impressions of the country, farming, and activities of other former slaves who had also resettled in Liberia.

The John R. Kilby papers are arranged alphabetically by folder title in three boxes and fourteen volumes and divided into two subseries. Subseries have been designated for Papers; and Accounts books and ledgers. This series consists of accounts, bank books, bills of sale, broadsides, contracts, correspondence, estate accounts and records, ledgers, promissory notes, receipts, and county records, of John R. Kilby of Nansemond County, Virginia. The paper subseries relate mostly to Kilby's personal and professional life as a lawyer and member of the Virginia House of Delegates, 1849-1852. The account books and ledgers relate mainly to his career as sheriff of Nansemond County, c. 1840-1870.

The Wilbur J. Kilby papers are arranged alphabetically by folder title in one box, three volumes, and one oversize folder (see oversize folder 7). This series consists of appointments, circulars, correspondence, endorsements, estate accounts, graduation certificates, marriage licenses, notes from the University of Virginia law program, and receipts. Of note are the papers relating to Kilby's career as a lawyer and judge in Nansemond County, Virginia. Kilby served as county court judge, superintendent of the cemetery, commissioner of accounts of the court, and judge of the first judicial circuit. Included are appointment and election results, 1883-1905, containing official documents certifying to the authenticity of the election results; circulars endorsing Kilby for judgeship in Nansemond County, 1885-1893; graduation degrees from Randolph Macon College and the University of Virginia, 1868-1872; and his attorney license, 1872.

Kilby was the administrator and/or executor for the estates of many family members and the collection includes accounts, receipts, promissory notes, bills, circulars for land sale, and correspondence relating to the estate accounts. On some estates Wilbur took over as executor when his father (John R. Kilby) died in 1878. Included are records for the estates of Alfred Adkins (d. 1879), John R. Kilby (d. 1878), Martha J. Kilby (d. 1888), Wilbur J. Kilby (d. 1907), Andrew McAlister (d. 1879), Nathaniel P. Phillips (d. 1878), and William Quillen (d. 1875). Of note is the estate of Alfred Akins, a freed black man of Nansemond County, Virginia. Included is Adkins will, 1879; receipts for taxes paid from 1849-1879; funeral expenses; circular announcing the public sale of the household items, 1879; inventory and appraisement of the household goods, 1879; and correspondence. Adkins left half of his estate to Alfred White (b. 1872), the son of Martha White of Pennsylvania and designated Wilbur Kilby as guardian of White, until he turned 21. Also included within the estate records are accounts, bills, correspondence and receipts relating to White's inheritance, 1879-1883.

The correspondence, 1868-1907, includes letters from Edward A. Allen, W.E. Allen, William A. Anderson, J.D. Armstrong, W.H. Bailey Sr., Richard H. Baker, Thomas H. Barnes, George S. Bernard, R.E. Blackwell, F.J.L. Boettcher, J.E. Booker, H.W. Bradshaw, Thomas Branch, R.A. Brock, Merritt Briggs, Lee Britt, Alexander G. Brown, W.S. Brown, Henry L. Bush, P.D. Camp, W.N. Camp, William Camp, Bentley B. Campbell, Hill Carter, H.C. Cheatham, J.F. Crocker, W.B. Crowell, George H. Crump, John W. Daniel, C.H. Disbrow, John B. Donovan, Clara E. Drake, A.E. Eley, S.E. Everett, George B. Finch, L.F. Fort, S. Bassett French, Charles A. Graves, Sallie C. Harbaugh, Sarah C. Harbaugh, Z.T. Holland, Eppa Hunton, Margaret M. Jones, Thomas M. Jones, W.H. Jones, Anna M. Laise-Phillips, William Henry Lee, B.F. McLemore, Morton Marye, John B. Minor, D.J. Mood, Joel Munshell's Sons, John Murray, William W. Murray, L.T. Myers, Clarence F. Norment, Lizzie Smith Norment, George D. Old, A.C. Palmer, Charles Poindexter, Mills E. Powell, J.A. Proctor, J.T.B. Prud, J.W. Randolph & Co., Benjamin Riddick, Asa Rogers, Russell & Russell, John Seay, William B. Shands, Indie Smith, Leroy L. Smith, Thomas Kilby Smith, William R. Smith, William W. Smith, Charles F. Taylor, R.S. Thomas, Hattie Blanche Thompson, I.T. Tichenor, Elizabeth Baxton Tomlin, B.D. Tucker, James F. Twitty, D. Gardiner Tyler, J. Hope Tyler, Lyon G. Tyler, Thomas E. Upshaw, William H. White, John B. Whitehead, William Riddick Whitehead, A.C. Withers, F.C. Woodward, P. Wilson, E.A. Wright, I. Yearsley Jr., George F. Young, and N.P. Young.

Of note are numerous letters from Lyon Gardiner Tyler (1853-1921), son of John Tyler (1790-1862), to Kilby. The two men were college roommates at the University of Virginia and many of the letters are of a friendly, personal nature, inquiring into family and planning visits. Some of the letters are requests for support and recommendations, including a letter dated 19 November 1885, asking Kilby to spread a good word for his brother, David Gardiner Tyler, who was an applicant for circuit judge in the eighth district in Virginia; letter dated 19 November 1887, asking Kilby for support of a friend running for the chancery judgeship of Richmond; and letter dated 25 July 1888, asking for Kilby's support in his bid for the presidency of William and Mary College. Tyler served as the president of William and Mary from 1888-1919.

Also included is correspondence from David Gardiner Tyler (1846-1927), brother of Lyon Gardiner Tyler, while he served in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1893-1897, and correspondence, 1897 March 24 and 17 April 1897, from James Hoge Tyler (1846-1925), asking for Kilby's support in running for governor of Virginia. Tyler served from 1898-1902 as governor of Virginia.

Other topics include family, legal advice, elections, deaths in the family, genealogical research, finances and stock prices, the settlement of his father's (John R. Kilby) estate, local politics in Nansemond County, commencement of the Suffolk Female Institute of 1890, and letters of recommendation. Also included are letters from Martha White, 1888, in regards to her son Alfred White; letters, 1868 April, from Edward A. Allen asking advice on how to start a preparatory school to the University of Virginia in Nansemond County, Virginia; letter, 30 April 1888, from the Commonwealth of Virginia, Auditor of Public Accounts, in response to a request by Kilby to obtain a Confederate pension for the widow of Daniel H. Christie; letter, 28 August 1893, from William Henry Lee, regarding portraits done by the artist John Sharpless; letter, 8 December 1885, from John B. Minor, professor at the University of Virginia, which was used in a circular on Kilby's bid for county judge; and a letter, 23 February 1901, from John Seay at the Virginia State Prison, regarding his trial, claiming that he was not properly represented, and asking Kilby to commute his sentence.

The Arthur Smith papers are arranged alphabetically by folder title in one box and one oversize folder (see oversize folder 8). This series consists of account books, circulars, clippings, correspondence, daybooks, promissory notes, and receipts of Arthur Smith of Nansemond County, Virginia. Included are numerous accounts of the post office of Nansemond County, 1804-1812, where Smith was postmaster from 1804-1844. Also included are receipts for monies paid on behalf of the post office, circulars announcing rate increases, and quarterly reports. Also included is an account book of the post office, 1832-1844, contains postal accounts and a list of subscribers of various newspapers and magazines, such as the Richmond Christian Advocate, Christian Sentinel, Norfolk Herald, Norfolk Beacon, and the Philadelphia Courier (Pa.).

Also includes a summons for Smith to appear before the justice of the peace in Suffolk, Virginia, 1849, tax receipts for Nansemond County, 1849, and receipts for the purchase of insurance from the Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia. Smith also operated a general store in Nansemond County and the collection includes a daybook, 1809-1825. The daybook records purchase amounts and payment for cloth, dry goods, hardware, tobacco, lumber, and iron.

When Arthur Smith died in 1849, his son-in-law, John R. Kilby, was appointed executor of the estate, and receipts and promissory notes are included from the estate settlement, 1850-1853. Also included are two newspaper articles from the Norfolk Virginian Pilot on the history of Nansemond County postmasters, 1932 and 1937.