Inventory of the Shanks Family Papers, 1801-1923

Collection Number 2090

unc seal
Manuscripts Department, University Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Collection Information
block Descriptive Summary
block Administrative Information
block Online Catalog Headings
block Biographical Note
block Collection Overview
plus Detailed Description of the Collection
Contact Information:
Manuscripts Department
CB#3926, Wilson Library
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890
Phone: 919/962-1345
Fax: 919/962-3594
Email: mss@email.unc.edu
URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/
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Descriptive Summary

Repository
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
Creator
Shanks family.
Title
Shanks Family Papers, 1801-1923
Call Number
2090
Language of Materials
Materials in English
Extent
Items: About 1000
Linear Feet: 1.5
Abstract
The William Shanks family and the William A. Moody family were related. Both were chiefly tobacco planters of Granville County, N.C., and Mecklenburg County, Va. The Royster family of Granville County was related to the Shanks and Moody families.
The collection is chiefly business papers, with scattered family correspondence and miscellaneous items. Business papers pertain to the administration of estates and to plantation finances, and most involve William Shanks between the 1830s and the 1870s. Earlier financial materials include papers of William Shanks's father, Robert Shanks, mostly between 1801 and the 1820s, and of Williams Shanks's brother-in-law, William A. Moody, in the 1830s and 1840s. Later business papers are for William Shanks's son, Henry T. Shanks. Estate papers appear for Benjamin Moody, Francis Royster, Robert Shanks, Elizabeth Shanks, and others. The financial items consist of bills, receipts, accounts, slave bills of sale, slave lists, deeds, legal agreements, correspondence concerning personal finances and the sale of tobacco, and summonses. Family letters touch on social, religious, plantation, and school life; slavery; politics in Macon County, N.C., Fayette County, Tenn., Drew County, Ark., and several locations in Virginia; and overseers' duties in Clarke and Hinds counties, Miss. There are a few Civil War letters relating to life in the Confederate army. Also included are poems, a hymn, and a pamphlet.

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Administrative Information

Restrictions to Access
No restrictions.
Alternate Form of Material
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
Received from Henry T. Shanks of Chapel Hill, N.C., before January 1940.
Processing Information
Processed by: Jill Snider, August 1992
Encoded by: Roslyn Holdzkom, January 2007
This collection was processed with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], in the Shanks Family Papers #2090, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Copyright Notice
Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
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Online Catalog Headings

These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.

Clark County (Miss.)--History.
Confederate States of America. Army--Military life.
Drew County (Ark.)--History.
Estates (Law)--Southern States.
Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
Family--Virginia--Social life and customs.
Fayette County (Tenn.)--History.
Granville County (N.C.)--History.
Hinds County (Miss.)--History.
Macon County (N.C.)--History.
Mecklenburg County (Va.)--History.
Migration, Internal--Southern States--History--19th century.
Moody, Benjamin, d. 1831?
Moody, William A., fl. 1831-1849.
Moody family.
Plantations--Mississippi.
Plantations--North Carolina.
Plantations--Virginia.
Royster family.
Royster, Francis, d. 1831.
Shanks, Elizabeth, d. 1864?
Shanks, Henry T., fl. 1872-1923.
Shanks, Robert, 1775-1845?
Shanks, William, 1801-1888?
Shanks family.
Slavery--Mississippi.
Slavery--North Carolina.
Slavery--Virginia.
Slave bills of sale--Southern States.
Slave-trade--Southern States.
Tobacco--North Carolina--History--19th century.
Tobacco--Virginia--History--19th century.
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Biographical Note

William Shanks (1801-1888?) was a tobacco planter in Granville County, N.C., and Mecklenburg County, Va. The son of Robert (1775-1845?) and Elizabeth Royster Shanks (d. 1864?), he had several siblings, including Robert Jr. (b. 1811), James (b. 1814), Susanna (b. 1805), and Mary Shanks (b. 1817).

William Shanks married Ann Moody, the daughter of Benjamin and Dolly Moody of Granville County. William and Ann had several children, among them Henry T. Shanks (fl. 1869-1923).

Ann Moody Shanks had several siblings, including William A. Moody (fl. 1831-1849), Mary E. (possibly called Elizabeth), Almirah (possibly Susan Almirah, often called Elmyrah or Elly), James (d. 1833?), and Francis A. Moody (fl. 1831-1838). All the younger siblings became the wards of John H. Ragsdale and of their brother, William A. Moody, upon the death of their father, Benjamin Moody, about 1831.

William A. Moody was a tobacco planter in both Granville County, N.C., and Mecklenburg County, Va. As guardian for his younger siblings, he shared responsibility for raising them with his mother, Dolly, who remarried after her husband's death to Pomfreitt Lloyd of Granville County.

Mary E. Moody (fl. 1831-1851) may have married William D. Trotter; although she continued to use her maiden name in her letters, their content suggests that she was married to and had children with Trotter. She moved with him first to Macon County, N.C., and later to Fayette County, Tenn., and Drew County, Ark.

Other relatives of the Shanks and Moody families include Elizabeth Royster Shanks's father, James Royster (d. 1837?), and her brother, Banister Royster (fl. 1831-1837). Relatives whose connections are unclear are Francis Royster (d. 1831), his daughter, Emily Royster (fl. 1831-1837), and John Royster (d. 1838?), who were probably relations of Elizabeth, and Peter W. Brame and Mary Brame. Peter worked as an overseer in Clarke County, Miss., in 1860-1861, and served in the Confederate army in 1862.

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Collection Overview

The collection is chiefly business papers, with scattered family correspondence and miscellaneous items related to the Shanks family, tobacco planters of Granville County, N.C., and Mecklenburg County, Va. There are also papers of the related Moody family, also of Granville County, N.C., and Mecklenburg County, Va., and of the Royster family of Granville County. Business papers pertain to the administration of estates and to plantation finances, and most involve William Shanks between the 1830s and the 1870s. Earlier financial materials include papers of William Shanks's father, Robert Shanks, mostly between 1801 and the 1820s, and of Williams Shanks's brother-in-law, William A. Moody, in the 1830s and 1840s. Later business papers are for William Shanks's son, Henry T. Shanks. Estate papers appear for Benjamin Moody, Francis Royster, Robert Shanks, Elizabeth Shanks, and others. The financial items consist of bills, receipts, accounts, slave bills of sale, slave lists, deeds, legal agreements, correspondence concerning personal finances and the sale of tobacco, and summonses. Family letters touch on social, religious, plantation, and school life; slavery; and politics in Macon County, N.C., Fayette County, Tenn., Drew County, Ark., and several locations in Virginia; and overseers' duties in Clarke County, Miss., and Hinds County, Miss. There are a few Civil War letters relating to life in the Confederate army. Also included are poems, a hymn, and a pamphlet.

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Arrangement of Collection

1. Family Correspondence
2. Financial and Legal Papers
3. Other Items
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Detailed Description of the Collection

1. Family Correspondence, 1837-1891 and undated.

42 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Scattered letters to Ann Moody (Mrs. William) Shanks and Margaret (Mrs. William A.) Moody from Mary E. Moody and W. D. Trotter (probably Mary E, Moody's husband), from Macon County, N.C., Fayette County, Tenn., and Drew County, Ark., 1845-1851, and later letters from relatives in North Carolina and Virginia; letters to William Moody from his brother Francis in Rockingham, N.C., and cousins in Virginia and North Carolina, mostly in the 1840s; letters to William Shanks from relatives in North Carolina in the 1830s and 1840s; letters to Miss Mary Brame (location unknown) from her brother Peter W. Brame, while he worked as an overseer on a cotton plantation in Clarke County, Miss., 1860-1861; and miscellaneous letters exchanged by other Shanks and Moody family members whose identities are unclear. One item, dated 25 March 1849, is a letter from an unidentified overseer in Hinds County, Miss. Two Civil War letters appear: one, dated 24 June 1862, is from Peter W. Brame, while he was a soldier in Virginia, to Mary Brame, and the other, dated 23 July 1862, is from James Shanks at Camp Johnston to his father.
Antebellum letters chiefly discuss family, social, religious, and plantation life, slavery, and politics in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas, and overseers' duties in Mississippi. Civil War letters discuss camp life and family matters. Postbellum letters, some addressed to a Mary Shanks, discuss family matters and school life.
Folder 1
1837-1847
Folder 2
1848-1861
Folder 3
1862-1891 and undated

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2. Financial and Legal Papers, 1801-1923 and undated.

About 990 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Business papers, chiefly of William Shanks of Granville County, N.C., and Mecklenburg County, Va., between the 1830s and the 1870s, and of William A. Moody of the same area in the 1830s and 1840s. Papers also appear for Robert Shanks Sr., mostly between 1801 and the 1820s, and for Henry T. Shanks, 1872-1923. The bulk of the papers concern the settlement of the estates of Francis Royster and Benjamin Moody and the plantation business of Shanks and Moody. Estate papers also appear for James Royster, James Moody, John Royster, Robert Shanks, Sr., Elizabeth Shanks, and William Shanks. Items include bills, receipts, estate and plantation accounts, slave bills of sale, slave lists, correspondence with commission merchants in Richmond and Petersburg, correspondence with local creditors and debtors, banking papers, legal agreements, summonses, and deeds.
Of note are a list, 20 February 1820, of the names and birth dates of the children of Robert and Elizabeth Shanks, and an 1837 legal agreement on the division of slaves belonging to the estate of James Royster.
Folder 4
1801-1826
Folder 5
1827-1832
Folder 6
1833
Folder 7
1834
Folder 8-9
1835
Folder 10-11
1836
Folder 12-13
1837
Folder 14
1838
Folder 15
1839
Folder 16
1840
Folder 17
1841
Folder 18
1842
Folder 19
1843-1844
Folder 20
1845
Folder 21
1846-1847
Folder 22
1848-1849
Folder 23
1850
Folder 24
1851-1852
Folder 25
1853-1854
Folder 26
1855-1856
Folder 27
1857-1859
Folder 28
1860-1861
Folder 29
1862-1865
Folder 30
1866-1868
Folder 31
1869-1872
Folder 32
1873-1877
Folder 33
1878-1885
Folder 34
1886-1923
Folder 35
Undated

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3. Other Items, 1877 and undated.

4 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Pamphlet entitled The Vindication of Thomas Paine by Robert G. Ingersoll (64 pages) published on 8 October 1877 by the Appeal To Reason of Girard, Kan.; an undated, untitled hymn (handwritten); an untitled poem by T. A. Clairborn, given to his student Miss E. T. Moody, bidding his scholar farewell; and an undated fragment of a poem.
Folder 36
Other items

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