Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers of George Carr, Accession #4869, -a, -b, -c, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The collection was loaned to the library on the following dates by Mrs. Abbott P. Mills, 8 West Irving Street, Chevy Chase, Maryland: #4869 on 10 September 1954; #4869-a on 30 March 1955; #4869-b on 3 November 1960; and #4869-c on 30 October 1962.

Biographical/Historical Information

George Carr was born in Albemarle County, Virginia on November 16, 1800, the son of Micajah Carr (1752-1812) and Elizabeth Wood. He received his education in local schools and through independent study, and on September 15, 1822 was licensed to practice law in Virginia, qualified as an attorney in the local bar, and practiced in Charlottesville. He was also involved in educational work for over ten years. In February 1855 Carr married Melinda Cahoon Poore (1827-1898), and several years later the couple moved to "The Barracks," a farm six miles northwest of Charlottesville where Hessian troops were imprisioned during the Revolutionary War. George Carr died on October 1, 1866.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists primarily of the correspondence of George Carr, but includes correspondence of other members of the Carr family of Albemarle County, Virginia, financial papers, legal documents and papers, genealogical records, and other miscellaneous papers and memorabilia  .

Much of the correspondence in the collection is between various members of the Levy family and concerns the maintenance and sale of "Monticello," the former home of Thomas Jefferson and later the home of Captain Uriah Phillips Levy, who bought the estate in 1836. George Carr, as commissioner for the liquidation of the estate, saw to the maintenance of the estate, both before and after Levy's death, and dealt with troublesome caretakers who sold shingles and bricks from the house and charged admission for tours of the estate. Captain Levy willed the estate to the United States government upon his death in 1862, but the will was successfully contested by his heirs. Arrangements to sell the estate dragged on for many years, and included in this collection are many letters from perspective buyers. Through George Carr's efforts, Jefferson Monroe Levy -- a United States congressman and lawyer from New York, and the nephew of Uriah Levy -- was finally able to purchase the estate from the other heirs in 1882. Also relating to "Monticello" are four letters to Thomas Jefferson in 1801 and 1802 from James Dinsmore regarding the building of "Monticello."

Much of the remaining correspondence consists of letters from members of George Carr's family and from friends, which describe the hardships of life in Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Missouri during the first half of the nineteenth century, and includes letters from Adare, Green, Hickman, and Todd counties in Kentucky; Cooper County, Pleasant Hill, and St. Louis in Missouri; Davidson, Wilson, and Shelby counties, and Memphis in Tennessee; Spartin county in South Carolina; and Natchez, Mississippi. Topics discussed include the frequency of crop failure, the cost of land, and interest rates.

Prominent correspondents among Carr's friends are St. George Tucker, Thomas Walker Gilmer, Joseph Coolidge, George Wythe Randolph and John A. G. Davis. Several letters from Alexander Rives concern party politics in Virginia. A letter from William Cabell Rives presents George Carr to Vice-president Martin Van Buren. Also included is a letter from Joseph Jones Monroe, dated 23 April 1814, to President James Monroe regarding a Mr. Carr's opposition to the administration and containing some unfavorable remarks on Thomas Jefferson. The twentieth-century corresponence is primarily concerned with the Daughters of the American Revolution and their research into family lineage. The remaining non-business correspondence provides insights into life in the nineteenth century, and mentions such topics as the difficulties of travelling, the experiences of a student in a medical school in Philadelphia in 1829, a race riot in Philadelphia in 1842, and the prices of crops in various parts of the country.

The financial papers date from ca. 1800-1939, and contain the bills, receipts, accounts, commodity price reports, and checks of George Carr and other members of the Carr family. Included among the financial papers is an itemized receipt for fees paid to the University of Virginia in 1837 by George Carr.

The legal papers, dating from 1745 to 1882, contain indentures; wills; land deeds and grants; and other legal documents and copies of documents belonging to George Carr, his family, and his clients. Included is a copy of a legal brief (ca. 1804-1813) concering a dispute between Thomas Jefferson and David Michie over land at Milton, Virginia. Although the collection has many letters concerning "Monticello," it contains no legal documents relating to the settlement of the estate.

Other items of interest in the collection include a twenty-one page speech draft, dated 1834, by William Cabell Rives, concerning his resignation from the U.S. Senate over orders from the Virginia Assembly to vote against Andrew Jackson's proposed decentralization of the second Bank of the United States. Also included are documents concerning the Virginia militia; land surveys and plats; genealogical material regarding the Poore, Carr, Cave, Cross, Tompkins, and Trevillian families; a recipe book; two report cards of University of Virginia students; and other miscellaneous papers, printed material, memorabilia  , and photographs, inlcuding a photograph of "Our Mammy Sally," a Black woman.

Arrangement

Items are arranged chronologically.

The four accessions have been filed separately. Each is organized in a similar fashion, with correspondence followed by legal papers, financial papers, broadsides and circulars, and other printed materials and memorabilia  . In each section, correspondence and miscellaneous material regarding the sale of "Monticello" is filed separately from the rest of the correspondence. #4869-b, which is made up primarily of genealogical material, is divided between material on the Carr, Poore, and Tompkins families, and within each section by type of material: correspondence, legal papers, financial papers, genealogical material, printed material, and miscellaneous papers and memorabilia  .