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Collection Number: 03478

Collection Title: Caroline Mallett Hooper Papers, 1835-1880

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.


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Size 66 items
Abstract Family correspondence of Hooper, including letters from her father, Charles Peter Mallett, of Fayetteville, N.C.; from her fiance and husband, George DeBerniere Hooper, lawyer, of Lafayette, Ala.; and from other relatives. The letters deal largely with family and personal matters, but include references to the Creek War in letters from Lafayette in 1836 and a discussion by Charles P. Mallett in 1853 of his slaves and their religious faith.
Creator Hooper, Caroline Mallett.
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 Caroline Mallett Hooper Papers #3478, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Alternate Form of Material
Microfilm copy available.
Acquisitions Information
Received from Mrs. H. Burwell Bennett, Stafford, Va., in September 1985; lent for microfilming in 1960.
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 McCoy, July 1984; Connie Cartledge, September 1985

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, January 2010

Updated by: Laura Hart, May 2021

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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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Caroline Eliza Mallett (1814-1875) was the daughter of Charles Peter Mallett (1792-1874), a prominent manufacturer and banker of Fayetteville, North Carolina. She lived in North Carolina until her marriage in 1836 to George De Berniere Hooper (1809-1892). Hooper was the son of Archibald Maclaine Hooper (1775-1853), journalist and lawyer of Wilmington, North Carolina. He taught school in Wilmington and Charleston, studied law in Wilmington, and began practice in Alabama in 1833. The letters show that he lived successively in LaFayette, Alabama; Columbus, Georgia; and Crawford and Opelika, Alabama.

Among the correspondents in this group is Charlotte De Berniere Hooper (1775-1853), mother of George Hooper and daughter of John Antony De Berniere and Anne Jones De Berniere. The papers include references to her sisters, Margaret De Berniere, Louisa (Mrs. Robert) Lane, and Mary (Mrs. John) Johnson, all of Charleston, South Carolina, and to her Jones cousins, the children of her uncle, Edward Jones of Chatham County and Pittsboro, North Carolina. The Jones family was also related to Caroline Mallett because Edward Jones married Mary Elizabeth Mallett, sister of Charles Peter Mallett.

Other children of Archibald Maclaine Hooper are also mentioned in the papers. His son John De Berniere Hooper (called De Berniere or D. B.) was a tutor and professor at the University of North Carolina and married his cousin Mary Elizabeth Hooper. She was the daughter of William Hooper, professor at UNC and South Carolina College, president of Wake Forest, and teacher, with his son-in-law at a private school in Littleton, North Carolina. Johnson Jones Hooper, a journalist, lived in Alabama. Louisa Hooper first married Rev. Daniel Cobia of Charleston and then Rev. John J. Roberts.

Children of Caroline and George Hooper were Sophia Betty, Archibald Maclaine, and William, all of whom died young. George William (whose son George Beatty was the father of Mrs. Bennett, the owner of the papers), Charles Mallett, John De Berniere, and Caroline Alice.

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1835 1 letter: George D. Hooper, visiting in Wilmington, asked C. P. Mallett's permission to propose marriage to Caroline Mallett.
1836 11 letters: January to May, George to Caroline Hooper, from LaFayette, Ala., and 1 in August written from McDonough, Ga., while he was on his way to North Carolina to marry her. These letters are mainly personal, with information on persons and conditions in LaFayette, including the Creek War. There are also two letters from Mary Johnson, in Charleston and from Charlotte C. Jones.
1837 2 brief notes from George to Caroline.
1838 18 letters: March to May, between George and Caroline Hooper, who was in North Carolina for her health, spending most of her time with her father in Fayetteville. In the summer, Hooper visited his wife in Fayetteville and went on to Tennessee on a business trip for her father. There are three letters about his travels.
1839-1847 There are no letters between 1838 and 1848.
1848 Letters from Charles P. Mallett with family news; Charlotte De Berniere Hooper with news of the activities of John De Berniere Hooper; and Jane McCrady of Charleston proposing to start a school for young girls in the home of her brother-in-law, Henry Trescott. 1850. Letters from Charlotte Hooper in Littleton, North Carolina where John D. Hooper and William Hooper were running a school; Mrs. Mary Johnson in Charleston about preparations for John C. Calhoun's funeral; and Charles P. Mallett in Fayetteville with family news and complaints about hard times for manufacturers of cotton goods. 1851. Two letters between Caroline and George Hooper.
1853 Letters from Mary Charlotte Roberts; Charles P. Mallett with family news and a discussion of the religious faith of the people he claimed as property and enslaved; and from an unidentified sister condoling Caroline Hooper for the death of her son. 1854. One letter from Charles P. Mallett on religious matters. 1857 and 1859. Two letters between Caroline and George Hooper, and one from Charles P. Mallett with family news.
1864 Letter from Mrs. Martha A. E. Philpotts in Goochland County, Virginia on behalf of Mrs. Caroline Keeling who apparently committed a crime in Alabama while travelling for her health. Mrs. Philpotts offered to procure evidence of Mrs. Keeling's insanity in order to aid Hooper, her lawyer. 1873 to 1880. Three letters from Mary Hooper, the wife of John D. Hooper, Caroline Alice Hooper, and George William Hooper, relating family news and discussing business affairs.
Undated Letters from George Hooper, Edward Mallett, and Helen D. Hooper (the daughter of John D. Hooper), with family news.
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Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Caroline Mallett Hooper Papers, 1835-1880.

Folder 1

1835-1836

Folder 2

1837-April 1838

Folder 3

May-August 1838

Folder 4

1848-1851

Folder 5

1853-1880

Folder 6

Undated

Reel M-3478/1

Microfilm copy of collection, 1835-1880

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