Collections by Subject: Historical Manuscripts, Pre-1800 Materials
A Selected List of Holdings in Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries
For more information about how to access materials in this guide, please visit the Maryland Room web page or fill out an information request.
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Thomas Bray papers, 1697-1705. 4.00 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Dr. Thomas Bray (1656-1730) was a leading figure in the Church of England within the Maryland Colony. The collection, covering the period from 1697 to 1705, includes important information on colonial religion, libraries, and the Anglican Church Establishment Act.
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Brooke Family papers, 1750-1980. 13.00 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The collection documents the career of an early Maryland family; included are financial/real estate records, 1748-1800.
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Claude-Gray-Hughes-Tuck-Whittington Family papers, 1793-1938. 13.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Five 19th-century Annapolis families, interrelated by marriage. Their correspondence concerns personal affairs and larger national issues.
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Fergusson/Hamilton papers, 1761-1827. 0.25 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Robert Fergusson (c. 1745-1813) and Alexander Hamilton (?-1799) were buying agents for Scottish trading firms during the latter half of the eighteenth century. Both Fergusson and Hamilton were born in Scotland, but came to Maryland as young men and established themselves both as agents and as men of property. Fergusson owned Nanjemoy, an estate in Charles County, though he lived in Georgetown and later at "Mulberry Grove," also in Charles County, near Port Tobacco. Hamilton maintained a sizeable estate in Prince George's County, including more than ten slaves. The Fergusson/Hamilton papers date from 1761 to 1827, with the majority of documents dating from the 1780s and 1790s. The bulk of the papers consist of correspondence between Scottish firms such as Glassford & Company and their Maryland representatives Fergusson and Hamilton. Other documents include statements of debts incurred by planters and storekeepers with whom the agents dealt, records of the disposition of estates, and some agreements about the running of Fergusson's own estate.
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Robert Gilmor and William Trippe Papers, 1776-1777. 0.25 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The collection focuses on Captain Trippe's schooner "Hazzard" and trips made for Robert Gilmor and Company for supplies during the Revolutionary War. It includes business accounts for goods received, goods delivered, and wages paid to sailors, as well as correspondence and intelligence reports concerning the British fleet in the Chesapeake Bay.
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Harwood Family papers, 1652-1842. 53 items.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Legal documents, land plats, and receipts primarily relating to Richard and Thomas Harwood and their lands on Buzzard's Island and other places in Calvert County, Maryland. Included are materials from Aquila Beall, Thomas Holliday, and a property named "Glengary" in Frederick County, Maryland.
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Hepburn Family papers, 1739-1813. 18 items.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Hepburn Family Papers consist of legal documents, public notices, and land records primarily related to Prince George's County, Maryland. Included is a three-party prenuptial agreement between Philip Thomas, John Hepburn, and his soon-to-be wife Mary Chew, regarding the disposition of Mary Chew's property, including 30 named slaves; bonds of credit that John Hepburn extended to named local citizens; and accounting receipts for tobacco deliveries. Also included is a deed of gift for a slave that Samuel Hepburn gave to son John Muir; and a broadside that names Samuel Hepburn as the executor of Samuel Leche's will. The remaining documents include property records for Prince George's County land owned by various Maryland personages; a circular notice by London merchant William Molleson; a circular advocating smallpox vaccination in Baltimore; and a letter of estate administration.
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Lafayette Family Papers, 1549-1957. 2.25 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The papers of the Lafayette family relate primarily to General Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette (1757-1834) who participated in the American and French Revolutions. The collection consists mainly of correspondence (copies and originals) and newspaper clippings, primarily in French.
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Aubrey Land papers, 1755-1985. 2.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Dr. Land, a former member of the History Department, authored several books on colonial Maryland, including The Dulanys of Maryland and Bases of the Plantation Society. This collection contains extensive late colonial and early federal documentation on various shipping companies.
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Maryland Manuscripts Collection, 1664-1981. 5,246 items.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Maryland Manuscripts groups consists of small groups of or single letters, documents, etc. that have been individually catalogued. There are approximately 380 items that date from 1800 or earlier; among these are letters, deeds, bonds, petitions, bills of sale, surveys, promissory notes, business ledgers, slavery documents, books of poems, and marriage certificates.
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Newton Family papers, 1770-1873. 1.00 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Members of the Newton Family were landowners in Anne Arundel, Dorchester, and Howard Counties, and Baltimore City, Maryland. Several documents in the collection date before 1800 and show how business and land transactions were recorded during this time period in the United States.
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Preston Family papers, 1799-1916. 4.75 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Prestons were an upper middle class family in nineteenth-century Baltimore and Balitmore County, Maryland. William P. Preston, a lawyer who dabbled in state and local politics, his wife Margaret "Madge" Smith Preston, and their daughter May Preston McNeal have recorded, through their correspondence, diaries, and other documents, comments on entertainment; domestic life; the Catholic Church; local politics; theater and the arts; court cases; business; travel; fashions; weather and natural disasters; food; slavery; domestic abuse; health; boarding school; and life in Maryland during the Civil War.
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Stoddert Family papers, 1797-1939. 38 items.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Stoddert family of Virginia and Maryland traces its history to Richard Parker, the Viriginia judge at the trial of abolitionist John Brown, and General William Smallwood, a Revoluntionary War soldier from Charles County, Maryland. The collection contains family correspondence, legal documents, and genealogies of various families connected to the Stodderts. It also includes material related to West Hatton, the Stoddert family home in Charles County.
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Swann-Mason Family papers, 1751-1930. 0.75 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Papers of a Maryland family, including those of a Civil War-era governor. The eighteenth-century materials consist of various business agreements and indentures.
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Weems-Reynolds Family papers, 1713-1940. 1.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The papers include some eighteenth-century correspondence and an 1713 land grant. The Weems family is one of the oldest families in Maryland.
Maryland Manuscripts
The Maryland Manuscripts groups consists of small groups of or single letters, documents, etc. that have been individually catalogued. There are approximately 380 items that date from 1800 or earlier; among these are letters, deeds, bonds, petitions, bills of sale, surveys, promissory notes, business ledgers, slavery documents, books of poems, and marriage certificates.
Access to these single items is possible through personal names, titles, and by subject -- by using the Maryland Manuscripts catalogue and supplementary automated finding aid.