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Collection Number: 00669

Collection Title: Skinner Family Papers, 1705-1900

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 1.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 800 items)
Abstract The Skinner Family, including Maria Lowther Skinner (1786-1824) and Joseph Blount Skinner (1781-1851) and their children, Tristrim Lowther Skinner (1820-1862) and Penelope Skinner Warren (1818-1841), owned plantations and enslaved people in Bertie, Perquimans, and Chowan counties. The collection is chiefly correspondence that documents a wealthy white family's experiences. Women wrote about their education and reading, courtship and marriage, pregnancy and child care, household and social activities, and political opinions, especially about the War of 1812. Of note are letters documenting the relationship of brother and sister, Tristrim Skinner and Penelope Skinner Warren, and Penelope's 1840 pregnancy. Other letters describe trips to spas in North Carolina and elsewhere. Letters written by school-aged children show differences between male and female education. Letters of several male family members document their experiences at the College of William and Mary and at the University of North Carolina, 1813-1814. Family correspondence also includes scattered references to some of the enslaved people working in the house, including "Annie," "Harriet," "Aunt Eliza," and "Emmaline," and of the challenges of managing an enslaved labor force. Vital statistics about the people they enslaved and other evaluative information about their labor, as well as other aspects of plantation management at Plantation House, Mansion House, and Yeopim, such as work performed, crops, and agricultural reform, can also be found in correspondence, journals, lists of enslaved people, and other papers. Other plantations and residences mentioned include Rosewell, Belgrade, River Farm, and Eden House. Other subjects include North Carolina and Whig Party politics; life in the 1st North Carolina Infantry Regiment, C.S.A.; life on the Confederate homefront; and social conditions in Edenton and Hillsborough, N.C., and Williamsburg and Norfolk, Va.
Creator Skinner (Family : Skinner, Joseph Blount, 1781-1851)
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 Skinner Family Papers #669, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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 Marian Fisk Skinner of Edenton, N.C., in January 1939; Jaquelin Drane Nash of Tarrboro, N.C., in February 1974; Elizabeth Webb Matheson of Hillsborough, N.C., in January 1975 and September 1987; Frances Drane Inglis, August 2004 (Acc. 99883) and November 2006 (Acc. 100530); Rebecca Drane Warren, March 2011 (Acc. 101513) and March 2013 (Acc. 101761).
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: Lisa Tolbert, May 1992

Encoded by: Roslyn Holdzkom, February 2007

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.

Revisions by: Benjamin Bromley, December 2009: Nancy Kaiser, June 2020 (box-level container information added and series arrangement simplified).

Conscious Editing Work by: Nancy Kaiser, May 2020. Updated abstract, subject headings, biographical note, and scope and content note.

Updated by: Laura Hart, March 2021; Nancy Kaiser, October 2023

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.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Subject Headings

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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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Biographical Information

Penelope Johnston Dawson (d. 1797) married John Dawson in 1758, and they lived at Eden House in Bertie County, N.C. Their daughter Penelope Dawson (1763-1820) married Tristrim Lowther (1760-1795) and had at least two children: Maria (1786-1822) and William D. (fl. 1810). William D. Lowther attended Princeton, and Maria Lowther married Joseph Blount Skinner (1781-1851), and had two children--Tristrim Lowther (1820-1862) and Penelope (1818-1841)--before she died in 1824.

Joseph Blount Skinner, a legislator of Edenton, N.C., and his brother Joshua owned several plantations and enslaved people in Bertie, Perquimans and Chowan counties. Plantation House in Chowan County was one mile outside Edenton. Yeopim and Mansion House were in Perquimans County, the latter about 20 miles from Edenton and 12 miles from Hertford (see letter dated 5 January 1841, Subseries 1.4).

After Maria Lowther Skinner died, her children were raised in the household of Frederick Nash of Hillsborough, N.C., where they received their early education. While Tristrim was sent to school as a young boy in New Haven and Philadelphia, his sister Penelope remained in Hillsborough. He attended the College of William and Mary from 1838 to 1840, and briefly studied at the University of North Carolina in 1840. Tristrim Lowther Skinner was summoned home to manage his father's plantations in 1840, when Joseph Blount Skinner's health failed. Between 1846 and 1848, Tristrim served as a member of the North Carolina House of Commons. He married Eliza Fisk Harwood (1827-1888) of Williamsburg, Va., in 1849, and they had four children: Marian Fisk, who was a teacher; Frederick Nash, an Episcopal priest who served in South Carolina; Tristrim Lowther Jr., who moved to Mississippi; and Maria Louisa Warren, who married Robert Brent Drane. In 1860, Tristrim was commissioned captain of Company A, 1st North Carolina Infantry Regiment. He was killed at Mechanicsville, Va., in 1862.

Joseph Blount Skinner purchased from the George Blair estate the Blair family, which included an enslaved woman and her children who had been fathered by her enslaver George Blair, a merchant in Edenton. Upon Joseph Blount Skinner's death, his son Tristrim Lowther Skinner inherited the Blair family. William D. Blair (Bill), who was the great-grandfather of the musician John Coltrane, was enslaved by the Skinners.

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The Skinner Family Papers consist chiefly of correspondence documenting a wealthy white family in Edenton, N.C., and other parts of eastern North Carolina. Skinner and related family members generally wrote long, substantive letters containing information about a wide variety of subjects. There are several significant female correspondents who wrote about their education and reading habits, feelings about courtship and marriage, experience of pregnancy and childcare, household and social activities, and political opinions. Of note are letters documenting Penelope Skinner Warren's 1840 pregnancy, which she endured in Hillsborough, N.C., while her physician-husband was in Edenton, N.C. There are also letters documenting trips taken by family members to spas in North Carolina and other locations.

There are quite a few letters written by school-aged children, showing differences between male and female education and containing specific information about reading materials and study habits. Letters of several male family members document their experiences at universities, such as Princeton, the College of William and Mary, and the University of North Carolina.

Family correspondence also includes scattered references to some of the enslaved people working in the house, including "Annie," "Harriet," "Aunt Eliza," and "Emmaline," and of the challenges of managing an enslaved labor force. Vital statistics about the people they enslaved and other evaluative information about their labor, as well as other aspects of plantation management at Plantation House, Mansion House, and Yeopim, such as work performed, crops, and agricultural reform, can also be found in correspondence, two journals, and other papers.

Additional subjects documented in family correspondence include North Carolina politics--Joseph Blount Skinner and Tristrim Lowther Skinner both wrote letters about their work as members of the North Carolina House of Commons, Joseph in 1807 and 1814 and Tristrim in 1846-1848, and their support for the Whig Party. Letters contain a wealth of information about social life and customs in several towns--most prominently Edenton and Williamsburg, Va., but also New Haven, Conn., Hillsborough, N.C., and Norfolk, Va.

The collection also contains financial and legal papers, especially about land development in Perquimans County, N.C., Bertie County, N.C., and Chowan County, N.C. There is a deed, 1816, that documents the purchase of "Pegg," an enslved woman, and her two children.

Other papers include poetry and writings, newspaper clippings, and other items, as well as pictures of members of the Dawson and Fisk families, relatives of the Skinner family.

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Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series Quick Links

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 1. Correspondence, 1770-1900 and undated.

About 620 items.

Arrangement: chronological.

Chiefly personal family correspondence documenting four generations of Skinner family members.

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Subseries 1.1. Correspondence, 1770-1804.

About 40 items.

Chiefly letters documenting activities of Dawson and Lowther family ancestors of the Skinners. Letters from 1770 to 1796, relate to Penelope Johnston Dawson (d. 1797) of Eden House, Bertie County, N.C. She wrote to her brother, Henry Johnston, and other family members about her children, illness in the household, and her close feelings for her brother.

After 1794, letters relate chiefly to Maria Lowther (1786-1824), granddaughter of Penelope Johnston Dawson. Maria's parents were Penelope Dawson (1763-1820) and Tristrim Lowther (1760-1795). There is little correspondence of Penelope Dawson, although she is mentioned in many of the letters that document her role in negotiating Maria's marriage. Among the letters are several written by Maria as a child to friends and family members, including her uncle William Dawson at Congress in Philadelphia. Her chief correspondents were her cousins, Margaret and Judith Page of York, Va., whose father became governor of Virginia. The girls wrote about moving from their plantation, Rosewell, to the state house in Richmond in 1803. On 31 May 1804, Anne Isabella Iredell wrote Maria about reading novels.

The first Skinner letters appear in 1802 and 1803, when Joseph Blount Skinner (1781-1851) of Edenton proposed to Maria Lowther. They were married in 1804. (See also Subseries 1.6 for undated letters relating to Maria Lowther Skinner and her mother, Penelope Lowther.)

Folder 1

Correspondence, 1770-1794

Folder 2

Correspondence, 1801-1803

Folder 3

Correspondence, 1804

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Subseries 1.2. Correspondence, 1805-1824.

About 100 items.

Letters of Joseph, Joshua, and Maria Lowther Skinner, documenting the married life of Maria Lowther and Joshua Skinner. There are no letters written by Maria, but there are many letters written to her from her husband, from Joshua Skinner, and from female friends in Virginia and Edenton, who discussed a wide variety of topics--their experiences as young brides and mothers, household management, the impact of the War of 1812 in Edenton and along the North Carolina coast, their political views, and religious revivals and social events. Letters document Maria's own interest in gardening.

Much of the correspondence during this period was between the Skinner brothers, Joseph and Joshua, who wrote each other long letters about plantation work, business matters, and politics. Family business took them to various places beyond Edenton, including county courts in Pasquotank and Perquimans counties and Hillsborough, N.C., as well as to New York and Philadelphia, where they established family ties to Thomas Skinner, a minister. Joshua managed the Skinner family plantations while his brother was away on business and kept Joseph well-informed about the work.

Joseph served in the North Carolina legislature in Raleigh 1807 and 1814 and wrote several informative letters about assembly business. He apparently had little patience with lawmaking and lawmakers (24 November 1807).

Of interest are letters documenting Joseph's management of Penelope Lowther's business interests and the education of her son, William D. Lowther. William's letters to his sister Maria document his education and extra-curricular activities at Princeton, 1810-1812, and the University of North Carolina, 1813-1814. His letters are long and informative, containing information about religious revivals in New Haven, northern opposition to the War of 1812, and student-faculty strife in Chapel Hill.

Maria died in childbirth in 1824; the last letter to her was written in that year by Lucy Page of Williamsburg.

Folder 4

Correspondence, 1805-1808

Folder 5

Correspondence, 1810-1811

Folder 6

Correspondence, 1812

Folder 7

Correspondence, 1813

Folder 8

Correspondence, 1814-1815

Folder 9

Correspondence, 1818-1820

Folder 10

Correspondence, 1821

Folder 11

Correspondence, 1822-1824

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Subseries 1.3. Correspondence, 1825-1839.

About 100 items.

Chiefly correspondence of Joseph Skinner and his children Tristrim Lowther and Penelope. Plantation correspondence also continues between Joseph and Joshua. After Maria's death, the children lived much of the time with Judge Frederick Nash and his family in Hillsborough, N.C. Letters from Nash and the children document their childhood and early education in Hillsborough. In 1827, Tristrim attended a school in New Haven, Conn. Thereafter, he and Penelope were often separated, and their letters reveal the close relationship they shared with each other and their strong desire to please their strict and distant father. Penelope and Tristrim both wrote Joseph details about their studies, including specific texts they were reading and the amount of time they devoted to their school work.

By 1832, Tristrim had returned to North Carolina to attend Bingham's School in Hillsborough, while Penelope was a student there at Miss Burk's School. Between 1835 and 1838, Tristrim was in Philadelphia preparing for college. Joseph was particularly keen on the importance of modern languages and encouraged the children to write in French, which they did reluctantly.

Tristrim entered the College of William and Mary in October 1838. While in Williamsburg, he lived with the Dickie Galt family, where he met their ward, Eliza Fisk Harwood. There is little information about her in this subseries. Penelope moved from Hillsborough to live with her father at Plantation House in Chowan County, near Edenton. She was apparently confined to the plantation and found it to be less desirable than the social context of town. In 1837, while still in Hillsborough, she wrote her brother, "Beaux are not very scarce with me. Do not tell if I tell you something. I refused three or four week before last." From the plantation in November 1838, she complained, "Father is so strict and particular that the young men will I fear soon begin not to come here at all."

Tristrim's letters from college and Penelope's from the plantation dramatically document the different expectations of young, wealthy, white men and women preparing for separate adult roles defined by gender. Penelope filled her letters with anxiety about finding the proper husband, while Tristrim kept his father well-informed about his attention to his studies. Brother and sister wrote each other candid, personal letters revealing some of their innermost thoughts.

After two well-documented, broken engagements, Penelope became engaged to Dr. Thomas D. Warren of Edenton in 1839. Also in 1839, Tristrim left Williamsburg, and Eliza Harwood Fisk wrote her first letter to him in August: "The ring remains as you placed it and if it be a good wish I hope it may be realized."

There is no correspondence for 1828-1830 and 1834.

Folder 12

Correspondence, 1825

Folder 13

Correspondence, 1826-1827

Folder 14

Correspondence, 1831-1832

Folder 15

Correspondence, 1833

Folder 16

Correspondence, 1835-1837

Folder 17

Correspondence, 1838

Folder 18-20

Folder 18

Folder 19

Folder 20

Correspondence, 1839

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Subseries 1.4. Correspondence, 1840-1860.

About 250 items.

Chiefly letters documenting the friendship, courtship, and marriage of Tristrim Lowther Skinner and Eliza Fisk Harwood. Their correspondence is in two phases. The first is from 1840 until about 1845. The tone of their letters was friendly and playful, with Tristrim offering Eliza advice about her William and Mary suitors. They kept each other informed about their separate lives--she in Williamsburg, he in Edenton. Tristrim's letters became more serious during 1846, but Eliza rejected his marriage proposal. On 7 April 1846, she wrote, "I never expect to love anyone well enough. Unless I can love someone so much that I feel my existence dependent upon him, I do not think I can marry. With me love must be all absorbing." They stopped writing to each other for two years.

Their second letter-writing phase began in October 1848, when Eliza relented and decided to accept Tristrim's proposal. Eliza affectionately referred to Tristrim as "Old Walter" because he reminded her of a character in the novel Grantley Manor. They were married in 1849. After this, their correspondence was less regular, although occasional separations occasioned informative letters throughout their marriage. Eliza and Tristrim had four children who were frequent subjects of their parents' correspondence.

During this period, Tristrim and Joseph Blount Skinner were also frequent correspondents. Their letters are filled with news about plantation work and North Carolina politics. In October 1840, Tristrim, at school at the University of North Carolina, was summoned home from Chapel Hill to manage the family plantations during his father's illness; he never returned to the University. In January 1841, Tristrim wrote Eliza that as soon as his father was well enough they moved to Perquimans county at Mansion House.

Tristrim's letters show his keen interest in agricultural management. He encouraged competition among overseers at each plantation (14 June 1847). He sent his father detailed information about the condition of specific crops, with lists of insect pests and weeds that threatened the harvests (3 June 1847). (See Series 3 for Tristrim's plantation journal.)

Family letters also contain much information about enslaved people. Letters of 5 August 1849 and 3 July 1850 show that Tristrim was concerned that Joseph's health would suffer without the attention of Annie, an enslaved nurse who tended her patients at Plantation House. A letter of 23 February 1849 shows that when Eliza arrived as Tristrim's new bride in Edenton she was introduced to Annie and Harriet, as well as Aunt Eliza, the washerwoman.

Tristrim's political activities are documented in letters he wrote as a member of North Carolina delegation to Whig presidential convention in Baltimore in May 1844; as a representative to the North Carolina House of Commons, 1846-1848, including information about his successful re-election campaign in 1848; and as a lobbyist for family business interests at the legislature in 1857.

Of particular interest are letters documenting Penelope's pregnancy when she was in Hillsborough during the summer of 1840 while her husband, Dr. Warren, remained in Edenton. She wrote long letters to keep her physician-husband informed about her health. Penelope died in childbirth in 1841, survived by her only child, Maria Warren.

Also of note are letters written during trips made by various family members, including Tristrim's visit to Boston (30 September 1842), where he saw Mount Auburn,the first garden cemetery in the United States, and wrote vivid descriptions of his impressions, and his trip to the Whig convention in Baltimore (3 May 1844). In January 1859, Tristrim wrote a long detailed account of a fire next to his hotel in Norfolk, Va. Regular summer visits to springs and resorts, such as Nags Head and Shannondale Springs also produced descriptive correspondence. Dickie Galt wrote Eliza from Cardenas Island, Cuba (6 January 1851), describing local scenery and customs.

Folder 21-24

Folder 21

Folder 22

Folder 23

Folder 24

Correspondence, 1840

Folder 25-26

Folder 25

Folder 26

Correspondence, 1841

Folder 27

Correspondence, 1842

Folder 28

Correspondence, 1843-1844

Folder 29

Correspondence, 1845

Folder 30

Correspondence, 1846

Folder 31

Correspondence, 1847

Folder 32-34

Folder 32

Folder 33

Folder 34

Correspondence, 1848

Folder 35-37

Folder 35

Folder 36

Folder 37

Correspondence, 1849

Folder 38

Correspondence, 1850

Folder 39

Correspondence, 1851-1856

Folder 40

Correspondence, 1857-1859

Folder 41

Correspondence, 1860

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Subseries 1.5. Correspondence, 1861-1862.

About 120 items.

Chiefly letters from Tristrim documenting his Civil War service. He appears to to have written to Eliza about twice a week. Although Tristrim's letters clearly indicate that Eliza wrote him often, few of her letters seem to have survived.

Tristrim spent much of the war camped near Richmond and Fredricksburg, Va., especially at Camp Bee near Acquia Creek. He was briefly stationed at Camp McIntosh near Goldsboro, N.C. Tristrim referred to his letters as "diaries" of his experience and filled them with descriptions of camp life. He saw more men die of pneumonia than in combat. He wrote of the war refugees he encountered and the sentiment of civilians toward the Confederacy. For example, while camped near Acquia Creek, he wrote, on 18 August 1861, that the soldiers had been ordered not to buy provisions from the citizens of the neighborhood for fear they might poison the Confederates. He also sent Eliza instructions about how to secure family property and important papers and offered advice on how to manage the enslaved people. Tristrim often made references to enslaved people who took advantage of the war to self-emancipate from their masters.

Eliza spent the early part of the war as a boarder in Oxford, N.C. She wrote, on 11 May 1862, that the refugees and residents were going to form a "Soldiers Aid Society." On 6 June 1862, she informed Tristrim that she had "been engaged all day preparing bandages, lint and little pillows for amputated limbs." (See also Series 3 for Eliza's Civil War experiences near Hertford in Perquiman's County.) Tristrim also received a few letters from his niece, Maria Warren during this period.

On 24 June 1862, Tristrim wrote his last letter home. He anticipated a great battle for the relief of Richmond; he was killed two days later at Mechanicsville. Also included is an undated envelope from T. L. Skinner giving instructions about who should receive the $1600 that was in the envelope if it was found on him, and a note from J. W. Cameron saying that he deposited the money.

There are no letters from 1863 to 1868.

Folder 42-47

Folder 42

Folder 43

Folder 44

Folder 45

Folder 46

Folder 47

Correspondence, 1861

Folder 48-51

Folder 48

Folder 49

Folder 50

Folder 51

Correspondence, 1862 and undated 1861-1862 letters

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Subseries 1.6. Correspondence, 1869-1900 and undated.

About 10 items.

There is very little information after 1862. An 1869 letter from a Skinner family relative visiting Nashville gives a postwar description of agricultural recovery in Middle Tennessee. An 1871 letter shows that Eliza was living near Norfolk, Va., when her lawyer wrote to report action on a lawsuit he was handling for her. Undated letters relate chiefly to Maria Warren, Maria Lowther Skinner, and Penelope Lowther.

Folder 52

Correspondence, 1868-1900 and undated

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 2. Financial and Legal Papers, 1705-1862 and undated.

About 150 items.

Arrangement: chronological.

Chiefly deeds and indentures relating to Skinner family plantations in Chowan, Bertie, and Perquimans counties, N.C. Early documents seem to refer to land eventually accumulated by Joshua Skinner, first named in documents during the 1770s. Early documents also refer to John and Penelope Dawson of Eden House and include rental agreements they negotiated with tenants on their Bertie County lands.

Included are a 1796 will of Penelope Johnston Dawson, who left her property to her daughter, Penelope Lowther, with special provisions for her granddaughter, Maria Lowther; papers from 1809 dealing with a law suit involving Penelope Lowther in her capacity as administrator of William Johnston Dawson's estate and regarding disputed land grants issued between 1788 and 1789 when Dawson was secretary to the governor of North Carolina; a deed, dated 11 December 1816, documenting Joseph B. Skinner's purchase of two town lots in Edenton and the enslaved woman Pegg and her two children; wills of Joseph Blount Skinner, 1853, and Tristrim Skinner, 1861; and miscellaneous bills and receipts for items such as furniture bought in Philadelphia in 1853 and materials for an iron fence in 1858.

Researchers should be sure to consult the oversize paper folder OPF-669/1 and 3 for materials that may interest them. (See also Series 3 for financial and legal materials in plantation journals.)

Folder 53

Financial and legal papers, 1705-1733

Folder 54

Financial and legal papers, 1734-1759

Folder 55

Financial and legal papers, 1760-1766

Folder 56

Financial and legal papers, 1767-1769

Folder 57

Financial and legal papers, 1770-1776

Folder 58

Financial and legal papers, 1783-1786

Folder 59

Financial and legal papers, 1787-1789

Folder 60

Financial and legal papers, 1792-1796

Records of enslavement:

  • 20 November 1796: will of Penelope Johnston Dawson bequeathed unidentified enslaved people to her daughter Penelope Lowther.
Folder 61

Financial and legal papers, 1802-1806

Folder 62-63

Folder 62

Folder 63

Financial and legal papers, 1809

Folder 64

Financial and legal papers, 1815-1824

Records of enslavement:

  • 11 December 1816: deed in which Pegg and her children Miles and Hardy were trafficked through sale from Charles and Mary Bissett of Edenton, Chowan County, N.C., to Joseph B. Skinner, of Edenton, Chowan County, N.C.
Folder 65

Financial and legal papers, 1825-1826

Folder 66

Financial and legal papers, 1840-1862

Records of enslavement:

  • 24 May 1853: will of Joseph B. Skinner, in which provisions are made for the lifetime care of Anna, an enslaved woman who was a nurse and house servant. In addition, the will directed that upon Anna's death her youngest child would be sent to Boston to live with her uncle, George Lowther, a formerly enslaved person who was emancipated by Joseph B. Skinner.
  • 31 May 1853: will of Tristam L. Skinner, in which provisions were made for the care of Eden and Mourning, who were enslaved people.
  • 29 September 1857: will of Tristam L. Skinner, in which provisions were made for the care of Annie and her son Thomas, Harriet, Anthony, Eden, and Mourning, who were enslaved people.
  • 1 May 1861: will of Tristam L. Skinner, in which provisions were made for the care of Annie and her son Thomas, Harriet, Anthony, Isom, Mathias, and Dick, who were enslaved people.
Folder 67

Undated

Oversize Paper Folder OPF-669/1

Financial and legal papers: Deeds and indentures (oversize), 1707-1824 and undated

Records of enslavement:

  • OP-669/11: indenture for Pompey, an enslaved person, and a tract of land bought from Edward Penrice, Perquimans County, to Joshua Skinner, Perquimans Province, 16 April 1770

Land records:

  • OP-669/1: deed for Bertie County land of John Plowman, 28 December 1741
  • OP-669/2: deed for land given by Sarah Ashley, Perquimans County, to her sons John Ashley and Joseph Ashley, July 1745
  • OP-669/3: indenture for land sold by William Shandin, Perquimans County, and Henderson Shandin, Chowan County, to Samuel Shandin, Perquimans County, 24 June 1747
  • OP-669/4: deed for land sold by William Ashley, Perquimans County, to George Nichols, 5 November 1759
  • OP-669/5: indenture for land granted in Pasquotank County to Thomas Boyd, 7 June 1765
  • OP-669/6: indenture for land leased by John Dawson and Penelope Dawson, Eden House, Bertie County, to Peter Green, Bute County, 24 January 1766
  • OP-669/7: indenture for land leased by John Dawson and Penelope Dawson, Bertie County, to William Duke, Bute County 29 September 1766
  • OP-669/8: indenture for land leased by John Dawson and Penelope Dawson, Eden House, Bertie County, to William House, Bute County, House 9 December 1766
  • OP-669/9: indenture for Perquimans County land bought by Joshua Skinner 5 May 1768
  • OP-669/10: indenture for land in Perquimans County bought from Daniel Saint and Hercules Saint by Joshua Skinner, 3 October 1769
  • OP-669/12: indenture for land in Perquimans County bought from Thomas Nichols by Joshua Skinner, 28 September 1770
  • OP-669/13: plat fof land in Bertie Precinct, 23 October1770
  • OP-669/14: indenture for land in Perquimans County bought from Ruben Long and Peninah Long by Joshua Skinner, 24 November 1773
  • OP-669/15: indenture for Purchase Patent land bought from William Johnson Dorson by Green Duke, 16 March 1787
  • OP-669/16: map of Purchase Patent land, 1 December 1787
  • OP-669/17: surveyors map, 14 April 1792
  • OP-669/18: $1000 Confederate bond with $40 coupons attached, 1 September 1862
Oversize Paper Folder OPF-669/2

Financial and legal papers: Deeds and indentures (oversize), 1707-1824 and undated

Chiefly records relating to land ownership; also includes a printed advertisement for Edenton Academy and Joseph B. Skinner's license to practice law in North Carolina.

Oversize Paper Folder OPF-669/3

Map of Skinner land in Chowan County, 1828

Acquisitions information: Accession 101761

The map identifies a location for quarters for enslaved people and a race track. Beechwood, which was identical to Athol and Cove Grove, burned down.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 3. Plantation Journals, 1843-1863.

2 items.

Arrangement: chronological.

Folder 68

Journal, 1843-1860

Kept by Tristrim Skinner, who made a wide variety of entries documenting ploughing, planting, production, and profit at each of his plantations. Lists of enslaved people show names and ages; skills; dates of birth, death, or sale; and dates of self-emancipation. There is also a list of "Women having children & Annual increase."

Skinner arranged many entries by plantation--Belgrade, Mansion House, Yeopim, Plantation House--indicating the number of acres, total and improved, at each farm; financial accounts of investment in enslaved people, land, and stock; and substantive notes about work performed (e.g., in 1843, he discussed his plan for getting rid of wild Cammomile, "a weed which has taken possession of all the Belgrade plantation"). Chief crops included wheat and corn, which he sent to Baltimore, New York, and Charleston.

Other entries include tax lists showing amounts paid on Chowan, Perquimans, and Hertford town lots. Lists include tools provisioned to enslaved people, showing name, tool, and date received, and "Times of Planting and Harvesting," 1843-1851.

Also included are an "Account of the preparation--mode of culture--product of my acre of land in Corn entered for competition in 1856"; accounts showing the number and weight of hogs killed each year from 1843 to 1851; accounts for guano and plaster of paris purchased for Plantation House, Yeopim, and the River Farm; and accounts for lime and shells purchased for Mansion House and Yeopim.

Also in this volume are school notes taken by at least two different students: Marian Fisk Skinner who attended summer school at the University of North Carolina, circa 1894, took notes on teaching methods and bookkeeping; and arithmetic problems and French exercises of an unknown nineteenth-century student.

Folder 69

Journal, January-April 1863

Probably kept by Eliza F. H. Skinner upon her return to Perquimans County after the death of Tristrim Skinner.

Entries include references to enslaved people whom she often sent to Hertford on errands; management of household work, such as spinning, weaving, selling lard, and hog killing; management of farm work; visiting and visitors: war rumors and experiences (e.g., 27 January, "Memorable day. While at Dinner we see a Soldier riding down the road ... first Yankee I have seen since the war commenced. Soon the advance guard appeared followed by the Capt. who called to inquire for arms"); and her changing relationship with the people enslaved by the family who felt more empowered to perform acts of resistance (e.g., 11 April 1863). There are also scattered accounts documenting monthly expenses.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 4. Other Papers, 1840-1853 and undated.

About 30 items.

Among the other papers are original poems composed by E. F. H. (Eliza Fisk Harwood?), including an 1840 poem about the end of a love relationship; by Tristrim Skinner, including an 1848 love poem to Eliza; and by Cornelia Skinner of Norfolk, including an 1853 poem, "In heaven, angels do always behold the face of my Father." There are also transcriptions of poetry and other undated original compositions.

Newspaper clippings include an obituary of Eliza F. H. Skinner (1827-1888), which reveals that after Tristrim Skinner was killed, she travelled alone to Edenton from the upper county to convey the people she enslaved and stock from her plantation near town, and that she eventually married Dr. W. J. Leary of Edenton.

There is an address by Tristrim Skinner delivered to an agricultural society; "directions to clean varnished work"; a lace envelope with a wedgewood seal; and a drawing of the Skinner family crest.

The addition of 2011 is a notebook of Penelope Skinner with family marriage and death dates and hair samples.

The addition of 2013 includes a 1917 report card from St. Mary's School in Raleigh, N.C.; a Red Cross First Aid certificate for Katharine Drane; a letter, 1925, concerning road-building at Fort Raleigh by the State Highway Commission; genealogical notes from 1947; typed transcription of Major T. L. Skinner's speech of acceptance of flag presented to the Albemarle Guards and a list of women from Edenton who contributed to the purchase of the flag; and a receipt for summer storage of a mink scarf. Printed materials include an advertisement for the 4th War Loan bonds; a guide to coastal highway ferries; a program for Dare County Homecoming Week in 1931; tourism promotional brochures for points of interest near Edenton and the Blue Ridge Parkway; "Fifty Years of Church Life in North Carolina," an address in 1926 by Joseph Blount Cheshire in honor of Robert B. Drane; and a booklet about George Washington created by Johnston's Chocolates for the bicentennial.

Folder 70

Poetry, 1840-1853 and undated

Folder 71

Miscellaneous

Folder 72

Notebook of Penelope J. Skinner, 1838

Acquisitions information: Accession 101513

Includes notes about marriages and deaths of family members, and hair samples for Tristrim Skinner and Penelope Skinner, Aunt Eliza Skinner, and M. Warren(?).

Folder 73

Miscellaneous, 1917-1976

Acquisitions information: Accession 101761

Oversize Paper Folder OPF-669/4

Drawing of the Skinner family crest

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 5. Pictures, undated.

3 items.

Prints made by the Frick Art Reference Library from miniatures owned by Eliza Harwood Drane Webb.

Image P-669/1

John Dawson, who married Penelope Johnston in 1758

Their daughter, Penelope, married Tristrim Lowther (1760-1795).

Image P-669/2

Martin Fisk

Image P-669/3

Elizabeth Gilbert Fisk, wife of Martin Fisk

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