Series 2: Paper Materials, 1780-1918

Series 2 consists of 156 boxes of papers, predominantly civil case papers, as well as some criminal case papers and public records. These cases have to do with debt and chancery proceedings, as well as some marriage, estate, survey, and election records. Survey and plat records span from 1790-1862. Furthermore, this series also has lunacy records from 1798-1876, including examinations, bonds, warrants, executions, depositions, and reports from 1798-1876, and records of accounts for running jail, care for prisoners, and inspections. There are also records of enslaved and freedpeople (see card index entry under “Negro,” including 1813 “Lists of Free Negroes,” (Env. 8); a case against Joseph Wheatley for entertaining Charles, a man enslaved by Absalom Wells, without Wells’ permission (1814, env. 89); and a suit of Pero Smith, Sarah Smith, and Sidney, free persons, against Fergus Smith for a charge of false imprisonment (1812, env. 285). Pero, Sarah, and Sidney also appear on the first page of the “Free Negro Register.”

Highlights include: A case regarding property belonging to “enemies of the State” during the Civil War (1862, env. 280-A); a 1736 bond to be paid in silver or gold (env. 2); a telegram regarding a 1908 election (env. 545); a 1786 land grant for Thomas Richardson (env. 357); a case in which William and Elizabeth Meyers convicted by grand jury for the felonious murder of Hannah, a woman enslaved by the Meyers (1810, env. 65); lists of votes for a Congressional election (1815, env. 96); a record concerning two ships, the “William Brown” and the “Crescent,” (1841, env. 211); and an order dividing the county in townships (1863, env. 282).