Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Chichester Family Papers, Accession 11047, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Acquisition Information

This collection was given to the Library by S. Tebbs Chichester, Crofton, Maryland, on May 29, 1992.

Funding Note

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Scope and Content

This collection consists of 125 items (1 Hollinger box and 1 oversize folder), [1716 ?]-1897, chiefly the papers of the Chichester , Taliaferro and related families of Fauquier and Culpeper Counties, Virginia , including personal and business correspondence, a will, deeds and indentures, land plats, surveys, muster rolls, accounts & receipts, poetry, and documents pertaining to slavery.

The accounts and receipts, 1860-1897, are chiefly those of Mrs. Thomas Chichester , Prince William County and Warrenton , and Ann N. Owens , and include an apparent hire of two white children to shuck corn (n.d.).

All correspondence from 1826 to 1846 are letters to William S. Chichester , Alexandria, Virginia , and Pine Quarter, Fauquier County, Virginia , chiefly concerning the business of running the farms at Pine Quarter and Wood Park , from the following correspondents: his brother, Richard Chichester ; his cousin, George Chichester ; his sister, Frances D. Lemoine , and her husband, M. Lemoine ; his father, Dodridge P. Chichester ; John Lindsay ; R.M. Chichester ; William Sydnor ; R.Y.G. Johnston ; John Potter ; Beverley Roy ; Eli McVeigh ; V.T. Taylor ; and John H. Sydnor . Three letters mention slaves or slavery: the slaves Ephraim and Nathan (1827 Dec 30); a slave named Adam belonging to Dodridge P. Chichester (1828 May 3); and suits concerning slaves (1828 Aug 15). Letters dated post 1860 are chiefly about the family and personal news of the Thomas T. Chichester family and his brothers and sisters, with one letter, November 23, 1888, discussing the Republican Party and the Presidential election of 1888.

Legal documents include surveys; deed abstracts; copies of land plats in Fauquier County and Culpeper County, Virginia ; articles of agreement; a deposition concerning a survey; a memorandum of agreement; a bankruptcy warrant for James H. Shumatt ; a copy of the will of Henry Taliaferro of Culpeper County, Virginia , January 21, 1803, naming members of his family and providing for the deposition of his slaves; and indentures, 1767-1815, foldered separately.

Also part of the collection are two muster rolls, 1839 and undated, listing the Captain as Joseph Black Smith , with William S. Chichester as the second lieutenant. A patrol roster for the 85th Infantry , with William S. Chichester as its captain, from October 15, 1836 until April 1837, is foldered with the muster rolls.

Financial and legal documents pertaining to slaves were foldered separately (except for the slaves in the will of Henry Taliaferro mentioned previously) and include: a receipt to D.P. Chichester to James Hathaway for property amounting to $ 1571.41, including a female slave Nancy and a male slave Jesse (1815 Mar 17); the hiring out of two slaves (1827 Nov 22); a list of William S. Chichester 's slaves (1836); the sale of slaves at auction by order of William S. Chichester , one girl Maria , one woman Peggy and her child (1841 Mar 11); a receipt to Fanny Chichester for payment of an advertisement offering a reward for the return of a runaway slave, Abraham Jamerson (1845 Aug 5); receipt with a letter to William S. Chichester for the sale of fifteen slaves to Judge Joshua Baker , Nanklin, Louisiana , shipped aboard the schooner Ophir (1846 Nov 2); and a memorandum book of hirelings, with a list of the slaves hired out (1846).

The oversize folder contains a survey with a plat done for Richard Chichester by J. Coffen , September 1792. Other miscellaneous items include poetry, 1823 and undated, directions for making colonge water, and a wedding invitation from Mr. & Mrs. Linton.