Papers, 1731-1757, of James Patton (1731-1755), John Buchanan (1742-1757), and William Preston (1754-1757). Patton's early papers include a few business records prior to his emigration from Great Britain and an indenture for Peter Burke (also known as Burk or Burn), one of the servants who came to America with the family. Among Patton's Virginia records are commissions signed by William Gooch (1742-1743) and Robert Dinwiddie (1752, 1754), both lieutenant governors; a muster book, 1742-1747; and numerous records of Augusta County militia court-martial proceedings, which include information on taxation and on wolf bounties. Many documents concern the vast land grants and leases in which both Patton and Buchanan were deeply involved.

Memoranda, 1745-1751, by Buchanan include his diary of a trip to Wood's River on land business in October, 1745.

Preston's papers begin with entries in 1754 in his "Register of persons killed, wounded, or captured by Indians in Augusta County" (1754-1758), followed by rolls, accounts, and orders for his company of rangers in 1755-1756; his diary (February 9 - March 13, 1756) of the Sandy Creek expedition, which ended in mutiny and desertion by most of the rangers; and correspondence on frontier defense and on relations with the Cherokee and the Shawnee. Writers of letters include Robert Macky in London; J.O. Miller in Ireland; and in Virginia Robert Dinwiddie, William Fleming, Robert Jackson, Andrew Lewis, James Patton, Edmund Pendleton, William Preston, Clement Read, and John Wood. Among persons addressed were John Blair, John Buchanan, Dinwiddie, Patton, and Preston. One letter by Robert Jackson (1753) may have been intended for Dr. Thomas Walker.

Appendix A lists by page number names found in 1 QQ (Volume 1).

Additional papers, 1758-1773, of John Buchanan and William Preston. Major recurrent topics throughout this period are Indian affairs, provisions for military protection of the border areas, and western land surveys and grants in the Virginia frontiers. Numbered among the correspondents are James Adams, Robert Breckinridge, James Brigham, John Brown, William Byrd, James Callaway, Archibald Cary, Robert Doack, Francis Fauquier, William Ingles, Andrew Lewis, Thomas Lewis, David Looney, George Moffett, Robert C. Nicholas, William Peachey, John Randolph, David Robinson, John Todd, and Thomas Walker. The protection of the western settlements during Pontiac's conspiracy (1763-1764) are discussed in letters by Brown, Ingles, and Governor Fauquier. Protest against higher taxes, Virginia politics, unrest in Boston, the repeal of the Stamp Act, the establishment of a boundary between white settlements and Cherokee lands, and the legal settlement of Buchanan's estate are among the specific subjects touched upon, sometimes only briefly, in letters, 1765-1773. Comments on ecclesiastical, educational, and literary matters are found particularly in the letters of Brown and Robinson. The latter sent Preston a concise but vivid account (1761) of his experiences in a storm at sea and of the burning in effigy of the Pope and the Devil in Boston.

Other papers include: militia accounts and receipts for pay and provisions, chiefly for the companies of Buchanan and Preston, 1757-1760; and commissions issued by Governor Fauquier to Buchanan as militia officer (1758), collector of duty on skins and furs (1759), and sheriff of Augusta County (1761). Also included are Preston's account book, 1762-1767, showing names of persons for whom he made surveys, his charges, and in some instances the location of the tracts; a payroll (1764) for William Christian's militia company; and warrants (1773) for land grants for military service issued by Lord Dunmore as governor to Hugh Allen, John Dickinson, Samuel Edmondson (Edmiston), William Edmondson (Edmiston), Thomas Fleming, William Fleming, and Holt Richardson.

Appendix B lists by page number names found in 2 QQ (Volume 2).

Preston's papers, 1774. The majority pertain to Dunmore's expedition - its preparation, its progress, the battle at Point Pleasant, the march beyond the Ohio, the peace settlement, and the return to Virginia. During this year of significant frontier developments, there are also papers concerning western land surveys, unsettled relations with the Cherokee including fears of war along the Clinch and Holston rivers, and preparations of the Transylvania Company for purchase of Kentucky lands from the Cherokee.

Preston's principal correspondents were Arthur Campbell, writer of three dozen letters, and William Christian, James Robertson, and William Russell, each responsible for nearly a dozen letters. Other writers represented by one to four letters apiece are George Adams, John Blair, Anthony Bledsoe, John Brown, Thomas Bullitt, James Byrn, Joseph Cloyd, William Cocke, William Crow, Alexander Spotswood Dandridge, Robert Doack, William Doack, James Douglas, Lord Dunmore, John (Jack) Floyd, William Hallam, Abraham Hite Jr., William Ingles, Andrew Lewis, Charles Lewis, Thomas Lewis, Philip Love, Hugh Mercer, William Peachey, Edmund Pendleton, Bryce Russell, George Rutledge, Daniel Smith, Henry Skaggs, John Walker, Thomas Walker, Edmund Winston, John Wood, and Michael Woods. Drafts of ten letters written by Preston are also in this volume; his addressees were William Byrd, Arthur Campbell (two), William Christian (two), Patrick Henry, John Litton Jones, David Long, Samuel McDowell, and Edmund Pendleton. Daniel Boone's operations were discussed in several letters by Campbell and Christian. One of Daniel Smith's letters (3 QQ 57) described the circumstances in which he produced a map of the upper waters of the Clinch and Holston rivers; originally enclosed with this letter, the map was later filed in the Tennessee Papers (4 XX 62).

Accompanying the correspondence are military and land records; several lists of Virginia militia, including rolls for Robert Doack's company and for the members of William Campbell's company who agreed to go on an expedition with Joseph Drake; land warrants for military service issued by Dunmore to Joseph Bickley, Alexander Boyd, William Christian, Angus McDonald, Daniel McDonald, Theodosius McDonald, James McDowell, George Moffett, and Zachary Taylor. Most of the papers concerning Dunmore's expedition were printed by Reuben G. Thwaites and Louise Phelps Kellogg in Dunmore's War, 1774 (Madison, 1905).

Appendix C lists by page number names found in 3 QQ (Volume 3).

Papers, 1775-1778. Many concern Preston's involvement in negotiations with the Cherokee and Shawnee tribes. Pertaining to the Cherokee are letters about negotiations in 1775 and the Cherokee expedition of 1776, and correspondence, speeches, and related records of the negotiations conducted in the following year by the Virginia commissioners, Preston, Christian, and Evan Shelby. Letters in 1778 attest to the successful attempts by William Fleming and Preston to pacify the Shawnee aroused by the murder of Cornstalk.

From relatives and friends east of the mountains, Preston received occasional reactions to the conflicts in Boston and Ticonderoga (1775), to events in Williamsburg and the movements of Governor Dunmore after his flight from the Virginia capital (1775), to the entrance of the French into the war (1778), and to conditions at Valley Forge and to other northeastern military operations (1778). Opposition to Richard Henderson's plan of settlement in Kentucky in 1775 was expressed in letters by Lord Dunmore, Thomas Lewis, and Preston. Other news from Kentucky, extolled by John Donelson as “that Land of promise, that Terrestrial paradise and garden of Eden” (1778), came to Preston from surveyors and settlers throughout the period. One letter (1778) by Thomas Walker was written as a physician as well as land speculator.

Writers of three or more letters or documents were John Brown, William Christian, William Fleming, Patrick Henry, Thomas Lewis, William Russell, Evan Shelby, John Todd, and Walker. Other correspondents or authors of one or two pieces include Anthony Bledsoe, Alexander Breckinridge, Matthew Brooks, John Brown, James Buchanan, John Buchanan, Thomas Burk, William Byrd, John Camm, Arthur Campbell, John Carter, Archibald Cary, Richard Caswell, and Gilbert Christian. Also included are George Clymer, William Cocke, the Shawnee chief Cornam Fleming, Patrick Henry, Thomas Lewis, William Russell, Evan Shelby, John Todd, and Walker. Other correspondents or authors of one or two pieces include Anthony Bledsoe, Alexander Breckinridge, Matthew Brooks, John Brown, James Buchanan, John Buchanan, Thomas Burk, William Byrd, John Camm, Arthur Campbell, John Carter, Archibald Cary, Richard Caswell, and Gilbert Christian. Also included are George Clymer, William Cocke, the Shawnee chief Cornstalk, Alexander Craig, John Dickinson, James Estill, David Gass, Edward Hand, Aaron Lewis, Andrew Lewis, Samuel McDowell, James McGavock, William Madison, Sampson Matthews, Hugh Mercer, John Montgomery, John Page, James Robertson, Alexander Ross, Gabriel Shoat, Thomas Smallman, Jethro Sumner, John Tayloe, James Thompson, The Reverend John Todd, Stephen Trigg, and Edmond Winston. A few letters were addressed to Camm, William Christian, Dunmore, Henry, and Edmund Pendleton, and one to Oconastota, Little Carpenter, and other Cherokee chiefs.

Appendix D lists by page number names found in 4 QQ (Volume 4).

Papers, 1779-1791, relating to Preston's public service and family interests. More than a dozen letters, 1779-1789, from his nephew John Brown Jr. describe his life as a law student under George Wythe at William and Mary College; events in Williamsburg during the Revolution; his later study with Jefferson; and his subsequent law practice with his brother James in Danville, Kentucky. A letter (1779) from John Williams at Kaskaskia discussed Illinois conditions after Clark's conquest and included mention of the death of Joseph Bowman.

Numerous papers pertain to the Loyalist plot (1780) to capture lead mines near Fort Chiswell and to make connections with the British Army invading the Carolinas, a conspiracy followed by legal prosecution of suspected or alleged Tories. Relating to these events are letters of advice from Governor Thomas Jefferson and a letter by Preston to several Loyalists whom he hoped could be won back to allegiance to Virginia.

Also included are Montgomery and Botetourt county court proceedings during the trial of the Tories for misbehavior and treason, during which Preston was one of the fifteen justices taking part; confessions and bonds for good behavior entered by several of the Loyalists; and a list of Tories and Quakers who refused to take the oath of allegiance. Names of approximately fifty Loyalists appear in these court proceedings and related papers.

Scattered through Preston's correspondence are references to frontier Indian depredations and to land business, particularly that of the Loyal and Greenbrier land companies in which Dr. Thomas Walker was deeply involved. Among topics given occasional comments in letters are the battle of Stony Point (1779), the battle of King's Mountain and Preston's resignation as superintendent of the captured British prisoners (1780), the founding of a Latin school at New Providence Meetinghouse (1783), and Spanish control of trade on the Mississippi River (1789).

Among the many other persons from whom Preston received letters were Martin Armstrong, Andrew Boyd, Alexander Breckinridge, John Breckinridge, William Breckinridge, James Brown, the Reverend John Brown, Arthur Campbell, William Campbell, William Christian, Joseph Cloyd, Joseph Crockett, Walter Crockett, Mrs. Nancy Devereaux, Dudley Digges, Thomas Douglas, William Fleming, Joseph Grey, John Heavin, John Hetcher, Peter Hog, Andrew Lewis, Thomas Lewis, Patrick Lockhart, Andrew McWilliams, Thomas Madison, Thomas Martin, John Mills, Edmund Pendleton, James Robertson, Thomas Walker, and John Williams. A few drafts of letters by Preston to James Bane, James Byrn, Horatio Gates, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, George Skillern, and Isaac Taylor are also in this volume. Also found is a list of men in William Doack's militia company (1780).

Appendix E lists by page number names found in 5 QQ (Volume 5).

Military receipt book, 1757-1766. In this volume kept by Preston, members of his company of Augusta County rangers entered receipts for pay, provisions, and other services. Each receipt was individually described and indexed in the calendar, The Preston and Virginia Papers.

Appendix F lists by page number names found in 6 QQ (Volume 6).