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Genealogical research files of Bernard Caperton on the Caperton family from the 1700's to 1980

This collection contains correspondence, publications, and other material kept by Carl R. Dolmetsch, a professor in the Department of English at the College of William and Mary. Included in the collection are publications, a drawing, and a poster related to author H.L. Mencken; correspondence concerning potential visiting lecturers to events in the Department of Engllish; and letters written to Carl R. Dolmetsch by persons who had contributed material to Smart Set magazine as well as letters received by Dolmetsch as chairmanship of the Committee on Arts and Lectures at the College of William and Mary. Prominent correspondents include Faith Baldwin, Jacques Barzun, S. N. Behrman, Rudolf Bing, Kenneth Burke, James Branch Cabell, Padraic Colum, Babette Deutsch, William Golding, H. L. Mencken, Upton Sinclair, C. P. Snow, Louis Untermeyer, Mark Van Doren, Colin Wilson and Edmund Wilson.

Papers, 1765-1922, of the Carpenter family of Rockingham County, Virginia. Includes papers of John Carpenter, William Carpenter and Thomas W. Carpenter. Includes letters, 1837, from Tennessee; and letters, 1851-1853, from Missouri; Confederate currency; accounts, 1810-1817, of C. T. Jones with Doctor John B. Botts; the will of Godfrey Hoge of Philadelphia; and a manuscript recipe booklet, ca. 1800.

The collection includes: correspondence and land records of Robert "King" Carter; correspondence and land records of his sons Robert Carter (1704-1731) and Landon Carter (1710-1778); correspondence, accounts, land records and the appointment to the Virginia Council of Robert Carter (1728-1804), son of Robert Carter (1704-1731); correspondence, diaries, land records and accounts of Robert Wormeley Carter (1734-1804), son of Landon Carter of Sabine Hall; and correspondence and land records and papers concerning the estate of Robert Carter's grandson, Landon Carter (1757-1820).

This inventory, chiefly 1786-1815, represents three generations of the Preston family, and likewise can be divided into the following:

This collection contains correspondence, deeds, estate indentures, account books, receipts notebooks, photographs, carte-de-visite, genealogical research and trees, clippings, a tintype, and ephemera, including wallets, a metal box, and a lock of hair documenting the Rose, Redd, and Claiborne families of Virginia. Names frequently appearing in papers include Eugene M. Redd and his son James Redd. Also included are Ezra Morrison, Mattie Tompkins, Clarence Redd, Jessie Redd McCarthy, Rachel Ayers, Blaine McCarthy Willett, John McCarthy, and the Blain family. The papers document genealogical research and track land purchase and holding, including the Bellevette, a Robert Rose property that has passed down to his descendants, in Nelson County. Also included is correspondence from the turn of the century regarding the Central Virginia Electric Cooperative, a private, not-for-profit cooperative that has provided electricity to customers.

Legal documents concerning the estate of Philip Johnson of Williamsburg and James City County, Virginia. Investiture of Bruton Parish, James City County land to Philip Johnson to eventually become part of the City of Williamsburg at the Court of St. James, dated November 1763. Chancery lawsuit, 1791, written to the Honorable George Wythe Judge of the High Court of Chancery, concerning a trust agreement made in 1769 with Peyton Randolph, Lewis Burwell, Robert Carter Nicholson, and Philip Whitehead Claiborne as trustees for land and goods of Philip Johnson. Names of slaves and their purchasers are mentioned in one document.

This collection consists of papers inherited and collected by Washington family descendants. Many were purchased in 1927 at auction to reunite Washington family correspondence. The collection includes correspondence, financial documents and legal documents that relate primarily to the Custis and Lewis families, but include other items related to Virginia history. Charles and Peter Chapin, the previous owners of this collection, descended from Eleanor Parke Custis and Lawrence Lewis through Esther Maria Lewis and Charles Chapin. This collection was originally assembled by Esther Maria Lewis Chapin who inherited some of the Washington/Custis papers, but was also an avid collector and brought back together family items that were being dispersed nationwide. This collection is an example of that effort; much of which was at auction in 1927 (Anderson Galleries, sale 2201, 28-29 November 1927).