John Graves Simcoe Papers, ca. 1776-1806.

Access and use

Location of collection:
Colonial Williamsburg
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
P.O. Box 1776
Williamsburg, VA 23187
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Douglas Mayo
Phone: (757) 565-8521
Phone: (757) 565-8520
Fax: (757) 565-8528
Restrictions:

There are no restrictions.

Terms of access:

Before publishing quotations or excerpts from any materials, permission must be obtained from the Special Collections Librarian/ Associate Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, and the holder of the copyright, if not the Rockefeller Library at Colonial Williamsburg.

Preferred citation:

John Graves Simcoe Papers, Manuscript MS 30.6, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Summary

Creator:
John Graves Simcoe, 1752-1806.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

John Graves Simcoe Papers, Manuscript MS 30.6, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Background

Scope and content:

Papers of Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe. Included are eighteen manuscript maps, many executed in watercolors, of military actions in Virginia; printed maps like those that also appear in Simcoe's book, A Journal of the Operation of the Queen's Rangers, (Exeter, 1787); diagram of the principal streets and buildings of Williamsburg, Va; a watercolor view of Yorktown, Va., during the siege; copies of letters regarding the book and political and military affairs; reminiscences and memorabilia on Simcoe and his father; and two watercolors of soldiers of the Queen's Rangers. The manuscript maps and drawings were probably made by a soldier under Simcoe's command.

Includes correspondence, memoirs, watercolors, etc.

Concerns Simcoe's voyage to Portugal. Page 1, covering 15-19 August 1806, is on the verso of a sketch of Simcoe as Governor of Canada (#10 piece in this folder).

Similar to the published memoir in the back of Simcoe's Journal, printed in New York by Bartlett & Welford, 1844.

Verso of page one contains the first page of a memorandum re Simcoe's voyage to Portugal 15-19 August 1806.

Includes manuscript and printed maps of military actions engaged in by the Queen's Rangers. All of the maps are of Virginia locations.

A sketch of the previous map.

Sketch map of the principal buildings of Williamsburg.

Shows several vessels at anchor.

Shows the military action at Point of Fork on the James River. This is near Columbia, Va. where the Rivanna River enters the James River.

This is a larger map of the one above.

Map by I. Hills, Published in London by Wm. Faden.

These maps illustrate the following battles: Osburn's, Kingsbridge, Burrell's, Spencer's Ordinary, Point of Fork, Richmond, North River, and Quintin's Bridge.

Biographical / historical:

Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe (1752-1806) was commander of the Queen's Rangers in America during the Revolutionary War. Later, he served as the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada.

Acquisition information:
Purchase, 1930.
Arrangement:

These papers have been organized into 2 series. Series 1 contains correspondence, memoirs, watercolors, etc.; Series 2 consists of manuscript and printed maps.

Chronologically arranged.

Physical description:
49 items.