Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Richard Shelton Ellis Journals and Ledgers, 1817-1846. Local Government Records Collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

These items came to the Library of Virginia in shipments of court papers from Amherst County.

Historical Information

Richard Shelton Ellis, 1775-1846, was a large property owner and businessman who lived in the Pedlar Mills, Amherst County, Virginia. Ellis, as a sole proprietor and in partnership with his brother John, owned mercantile businesses in Pedlar Mills, Richmond, and Wheeling during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He also owned a plantation in Amherst County named Red Hill.

Scope and Content

Richard Shelton Ellis Journals and Ledgers, 1817-1846, consist of three ledgers and five journals of a mercantile business owned by Ellis. It records the company's activities in Pedlar Mills, Amherst County, Virginia.

Journals, 1818-1832, two identified as Journals C and D, that were used as daybooks. They record transactions on a daily basis as they occurred. Information found in each entry includes name of customer and the amount owed and paid. The daybooks also record the store's payments of regular expenses such as purchases of merchandise, legal expenses, payment of debts, and hiring of slaves. Merchandise sold included dry- goods (cloth, yarn, thread, buttons), shoes, dishes, spices, knives, and tools.

Ledgers A, B, and G, 1816-1846, records the accounts of individual customers. Each account lists transactions in chronological order and the amount owed and paid. Also records store's controlling accounts including cash account, property account, interest account, merchandise account, batteau account, etc. Ledger A includes an index that records accounts in alphabetical order and the page number where the accounts can be found. The ledgers also include a list of debts due to and owed by Richard Shelton Ellis.

Related Material

Related materials may be found in Accession 21597 and 21717 which include the following: Thomas and Daniel Higginbotham and Company Journals and Ledgers, Daniel and David Higginbotham and Company Journals and Ledgers, John and Richard Shelton Ellis Journals and Ledgers, Archibald Robertson and Company Journals and Ledgers, Samuel Read and Company Journals and Ledgers, John James London Records, Thomas Higginbotham Records, and Soldier's Joy Plantation Records.

Access Terms

Personal Name

• Ellis, Richard Shelton. 1775-1846.

Subject Terms

• Consumer goods--Virginia--Amherst County.
• Dry-goods--Virginia--Amherst County.
• Slave labor--Virginia--Amherst County.

Geographic Terms

• Amherst County (Va.)--History--19th century.

Record Type

• Daybooks--Virginia--Amherst County.
• Journals (accounts)--Virginia--Amherst County.
• Journals and Ledgers--Virginia--Amherst County.
• Ledgers (account books)--Virginia--Amherst County.
• Local government records--Virginia--Amherst County.

Occupation Terms

• Merchants--Virginia--Amherst County.

Adjunct Descriptive Data