Title: Draper Manuscripts: North Carolina Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1756, 1768-1818

Call Number: Draper Mss KK; Micro 1034

Quantity: 0.2 cubic feet (1 volume) and 1 reel of microfilm

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Primarily papers of Waightstill Avery, a North Carolina Revolutionary patriot, an ally of the Scots-Irish of Mecklenburg County who was a member of the committee dealing with the Mecklenburg Declaration, holder of civil and military positions during the American Revolution, North Carolina congressional delegate, participant in drafting a new state constitution, and attorney general of North Carolina, among other roles. Also included are materials related to the French and Indian War in 1756, and a broadside of 1789 addressed to the Creek (Muscogee) Nation.

Note:

Descriptions of the volumes are copied from the Guide to the Draper Manuscripts / by Josephine Harper. Out of date and offensive language may be present.

This collection is also available as a microfilm publication.

Forms part of the Lyman Copeland Draper Manuscripts. The fifty series included in the Draper Manuscripts have been cataloged individually. See the Draper Manuscripts Overview, and the Guide to the Draper Manuscripts / by Josephine Harper (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1983) for further information.

There is a restriction on use to this material; see the Administrative/Restriction Information portion of this finding aid for details.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-draper0kk

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Although a native of Norwich, Connecticut, Waightstill Avery (1743—1821) moved to North Carolina after attending school at Princeton, New Jersey, and studying law in Maryland. Of English-Puritan background, he allied himself with the Scots-Irish of Mecklenburg County in politics. A member of the committee which drafted the Mecklenburg resolves in 1775, he held many other positions, civil and military, during the Revolution: delegate to the North Carolina congress, member of the council of safety, participant in the drafting of the new state constitution, negotiator with the Cherokee during Griffith Rutherford's expedition in 1776 and for the Long Island treaty in 1777, attorney general of North Carolina, and colonel of the Jones County militia. In 1781 he moved to his “Swan Ponds” estate in Burke County, his residence for the remainder of his life.

Use Restrictions

PHOTOCOPY RESTRICTION: Photocopying originals is not permitted; researchers may copy from the microfilm available in the Library.

Draper Mss KK/Micro 1034 Volume   1 Reel   93

Series: North Carolina papers: 1 KK Scope and Content Note Primarily a varied assortment of Waightstill Avery papers, 1768-1818, but the majority originated during the Revolutionary period. Personal papers include his journal from New Bern to Salisbury (1768) with a sketch of the route; his diary for 1769 in Virginia and North Carolina and a portion of his diary for 1776; and family letters from his brothers Samuel (1772) and Solomon (1783). Among his papers of legal, military, and political interest are pre-Revolutionary protests against court abuses; his record of fees received in court (1771-1775) and his address (1777) to the grand jury of the Salisbury district; petitions (1776 and undated) to Governor William Tryon from inhabitants of Mecklenburg and Tryon counties; militia records, including a return for provisions furnished to Evan Shelby's troops in the Chickamauga expedition (1779); lists of goods for Indian presents; and several commissions for civil and military offices, two of which bear signatures of Governor Richard Caswell. A few of his notations on bonds and financial transactions (circa 1812-1818) are the only records kept during his later years. Preceding the original manuscripts are a short biography of Waightstill Avery by his son Isaac T. Avery, and transcripts of other Avery papers loaned to Draper for copying (1878-1800) by Waightstill's granddaughter Mrs. Mary A. Chambers. Draper's correspondence, 1773-1774, with Avery's literary friend and protege, Silas McDowell (1795-1877), concerns participants in the Cherokee expedition (1776) and the geographical location of mountain forts involved in that campaign. Also found in this volume are Draper's copies of newspaper articles on Indian hostilities in North Carolina in 1756, and a printed broadside (1789) addressed “To the Head Men, Chiefs, and Warriors of the Creek Nation” by Andrew Pickens and H. Osborne, United States commissioners of Indian affairs.