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Collection Number: 01052

Collection Title: William Eaton Papers, 1725-1893

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.

This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.

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Size 0.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 90 items)
Abstract The collection documents William Eaton (1785-1862), a plantation owner and enslaver in Halifax and Warren counties, N.C.; other members of the Eaton and Bell families of Warren and Halifax counties, N.C.; and a few of the people who were enslaved by William Eaton and his brother Thomas Eaton. Included are colonial land grants, deeds, indentures, and receipts; store merchandise accounts, 1850-1857, of William Eaton; letters, 1853, to Ella Rives Eaton Bell, from John McGill, Roman Catholic Bishop of Richmond, Va., written while he was in Paris, France, describing the wedding of Napoleon III and referring to Levi Silliman Ives (1797-1867); letters, 1853-1856, to Ella Rives Eaton Bell from Teresa and Beatrice Orsini of Rome, Italy; legal papers, 1870-1876, including the wills of William Eaton and Martha P. Eaton; and business papers, 1880-1893, of Peter Hansborough Bell (1812-1898), a former governor of Texas, and his wife Ella Rives Eaton Bell, living in Littleton, N.C.
Creator Eaton, William, 1785-1862.
Curatorial Unit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
Language English
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Restrictions to Access
No restrictions. Open for research.
Copyright Notice
Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], in the William Eaton Papers #1052, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Alternate Form of Material
All or part of this collection is available on microfilm from University Publications of America as part of the Records of ante-bellum southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War, Series J.
Acquisitions Information
Gift of Mrs. B. B. Brown of York, Ala., in 1946.
Sensitive Materials Statement
Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.
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Processed by: Rebecca Hollingsworth, June 1992

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, November 2010

Conscious editing by Nancy Kaiser, April 2024: Updated abstract, subject headings, biographical note, collection overview, contents list.

In April 2024, archivists reviewed this collection to uncover more information about the lives of enslaved people. Containers that include materials related to enslaved people during the antebellum period or the institution of slavery are indicated as "Records of enslavement." Researchers are advised that the collection may include more documentation of slavery than has been identified in this finding aid.

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.

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The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

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William Eaton (1785-1862) was a plantation owner and enslaver in Halifax and Warren counties, N.C. He was married to Martha P. Eaton (d. 1880). His children included Nathaniel Eaton, Buckner Eaton, William Eaton Jr., Betsy Macon Eaton (Field), and Ella Rives Eaton (Bell). His daughter Ella Rives Eaton married Peter Hansbrough Bell (1810-1898), and they settled in Halifax County in 1857. Bell, a native Virginian, had been in Texas during its war for independence and the Mexican War. He had been governor of Texas from 1849 to 1853 and served as U.S. congressman from Texas, 1853-1857.

Enslaved people who are documented in this collection include:

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The collection documents William Eaton (1785-1862), a plantation owner and enslaver in Halifax and Warren counties, N.C.; other members of the Eaton and Bell families of Warren and Halifax counties, N.C.; and a few of the people who were enslaved by William Eaton and his brother Thomas Eaton. Included are colonial land grants, deeds, indentures, and receipts, some as early as 1725, involving William Eaton, Thomas Eaton, Edward Young, Frederick Cooke, Allen and Wiley Jones, and others; a copy of the North Carolina state constitution, adopted 18 December 1776; store merchandize accounts, 1850-1857, of William Eaton; letters, 1853, to Ella Rives Eaton in Rome, Italy, from John McGill, Roman Catholic Bishop of Richmond, written while he was in Paris, France, and including a description of the emperor's wedding and references to Levi Silliman Ives (1797-1867); letters, 1853-1856, to Ella Rives Eaton from Teresa and Beatrice Orsini of Rome; legal papers, 1870-1876, of the Eaton and Bell families, including the wills of William Eaton and his wife Martha P. Eaton; and business papers, 1880-1893, of Peter Hansbrough and his wife Ella Rives Eaton Bell of Littleton, N.C.

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Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse William Eaton Papers, 1725-1893.

Folder 1

Papers, 1725-1749

Includes original finding aid of 1961 and deeds for land in Northampton County, Granville County, Edgecombe County, and Bertie County.

Oversize Paper OP-1052/1-2

OP-1052/1

OP-1052/2

Papers, Colonial land grants, 1749

Folder 2

Papers, 1752-1776

Includes deeds for land in Edgecombe County, Granville County, Northampton County, Bute County, and Halifax County, and a copy of the North Carolina state constitution, adopted 18 December 1776.

Also included is the undated answer of Charles Turnbell to a bill of complaint filed against him by Thomas Lowe et al, regarding a copartnership agreement to carry on trade of deerskins with the Catawba nation, 1753-1757.

Folder 3

Papers, 1781-1848

Includes deeds for land in Warren County, Halifax County, Northampton County, and Wake County.

Records of enslavement:

  • 23 April 1807: grant from Thomas Eaton of Warren County, N.C., to his granddaughter Frances Bland Dudley, the daughter of Anna Bland Dudley and Guilford Dudley of Halifax County, N.C., and to his friend Col. Harday Murfree of Tennessee, the following enslaved people: Jeffery, Ephraim, Lisbon, and Chance.
  • 3 July 1848: legal document recording that Daniel Hickman, Ann P. Hickman, and Mary J. Hickman, exposed to sale Emiley, her two children, her husband William, and James and Lavenia and their child, all of whom were enslaved to the estate of John Hickman and Agnes Hickman, in King William County, Va. William Eaton, who had been married to two of the heirs of the Hickman estate, purchased the enslaved people in Warrenton.
Folder 4

Papers, 1850-1866

Folder 5

Papers, 1870-1876

Records of enslavement:

  • 28 August 1874: copy of 21 Juy 1862 will of William Eaton (1785-1862), in which he bequeathed Carter and Lemuel, who were enslaved people, to his wife Martha P. Eaton. He directed that other unidentified enslaved people whom he had trafficked to his daugher Ella Rives Eaton Bell should be divided equally among his wife and daughters Ella and Betsy Macon Eaton Fields.
Folder 6

Papers, 1880-1893, undated, and fragments

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