Collections

The collection includes 57 letters (1795-1871) to or from Benjamin H., Henry, James G., James O., Rebecca D., and Thomas Watson; 3 land grants on sheep-skin (1787-1798) Monongalia County; 25 articles of agreement (1812-1875), manuscript; 4 manuscript wills or copies of wills (1852-1862); 32 surveys, maps, and plats of coal fields (1798-1892); 99 tax receipts (1807-1865), manuscript and printed forms; 44 receipts for clerking fees (1815-1845) manuscript and printed forms; 79 receipts, bills, notes (1782-1862), manuscript and printed forms; 51 miscellaneous manuscript and printed forms (1790-1902), including inventories of estates, sale bills, notes on legal matters with respect to property, court proceedings, etc.; and one manuscript constable's receipt book of Campbell and Watson.

The Watts family papers of Roanoke County, Virginia at "Oaklands" in Flat Creek, Campbell County) consist of correspondence and documents related to the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the United States Civil War, war with Osceola and Seminole tribes in Florida, Virginia politics, economic and social history (including enslavement),land ownership, farming, court cases and debt from 1786 to 1950 in southwest Virginia. The Watts are related to many other Virginia families including James and Dolley Madison. This collection represents a great view into historical and social events of the eighteenth and nineteenth century in Virginia.

The collection contains 41 manuscripts dating 1770-1831. Many of the manuscripts date from the era of the American Revolution, and several are directly relevant to the course of the war. Among the documents are single letters by John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, Lafayette, James Madison, John Marshall, James Monroe, Paul Revere, and George Washington, as well as letters and other documents that include the signatures of signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Papers, 1792-1822, concerning the law suit of John C. Webb and Jacob Keeling and his wife Sarah Webb Keeling against George Webb, administrator of Kedar Webb, deceased. (Jacob Keeling was the administrator of Sarah Webb, James Webb and Penelope Webb.) Includes documents and accounts concerning Nansemond and Norfolk counties, Va. Sarah Webb Keeling was the daughter of James Webb. Kedar Webb was the son of James Webb and his wife Sarah Webb.

Account books of several generations of the Welch family of Fauquier County, Virginia. The earliest book includes notes, 1767-1778, of Thomas Glascock. The early volumes were probably kept by or for Sylvester Welch (1764-1832), the later ones by or for Sylvester Welch (b. 1800).

Records of land grants made by the Secretary of the Colony of Virginia from 1748 to 1778, by the Virginia Land Office of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 1779 until 1863, and by the State of West Virginia from its formation until 1912. These records were held by the Office of the West Virginia State Auditor at the time the Sims Index to Land Grants in West Virginia was published by State Auditor Edgar B. Sims in 1952. The land grants were microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah and are now held by the West Virginia State Archives.