Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

George Rogers Clark Papers, 1777-1810. Accession 22954d. Personal Papers Collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Purchased, 1949, from the Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, Illinois.

Biographical Information

George Rogers Clark was born 19 November 1752 in Albemarle County, Virginia, to John Clark (1725-1799) and Ann Rogers Clark (1728-1798). Clark learned surveying from his grandfather in Caroline County, Virginia. He explored down the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers in what is now Kentucky and West Virginia and surveyed farms for settlers arriving in that territory. Clark served as a captain in the Virginia militia during Lord Dunmore's War in 1774, and the next year returned to Kentucky to survey lands for the Ohio Company. When the Revolution began, Clark encouraged Virginia to protect Kentucky from the British and indians. He captured Kaskaskia, Illinois from the British 4 July 1778 and won the allegience of French settlers in Vincennes, Indiana. When the British took Vincennes in October 1778, Clark recaptured it 25 February 1779. He was responsible for the defense of the Northwest Territory during the rest of the American Revolution. After Kentucky troops were defeated at Blue Licks, Kentucky, by the Shawnee 19 August 1782, Clark retaliated with an attack on Chillicothe, Ohio, defeating the Shawnee 4 November 1782. After the American Revolution ended, Clark served on the Board of Commissioners which allotted the lands in Kentucky and the Northwest Territory granted by Virginia to its soldiers. Clark lived the last few years of his life with his sister and her husband outside Louisville, Kentucky, where he died 13 February 1818.

Scope and Content

Papers, 1777-1810, of George Rogers Clark (1752-1818) of Louisville, Kentucky, consisting ofa muster roll of Captain William Croghan's (1744-1822) Company in the 8th Virginia Regiment; the articles of capitulation of Fort Sackville at Vincennes (Indiana) by the British; a notice permitting Reverend Ichabod Camp (1726-1786) to occupy vacant land; bills of exchange from William Shannon and from George Rogers Clark; correspondence concerning a battle with the Shawnee Indians in Ohio, land distribution in Kentucky, and a land warrant for General Friedrich von Steuben (1730-1794); a survey for 1500 acres in in Kentucky; George Rogers Clark's bond for surveyor; a land grant for 12,000 acres in Kentucky to John Crittenden (1750-1806); and an account of George Rogers Clark with Richard Ferguson of Louisville.

Adjunct Descriptive Data

Originals located in the Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, Illinois.