Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Meade Family Papers, Accession 10126-c, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Acquisition Information

This collection was given to the Library by Mrs. Robert D. Meade of Lynchburg, Virginia, on November 6, 1985.

Funding Note

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Scope and Content

This addition to the papers of the Meade family of Amelia County, Virginia , contains ca. one hundred items (1 Hollinger box; .5 linear feet), 1770-1872, and chiefly consists of correspondence, business, and legal papers.

The largest group of correspondence is that of Hodijah Baylies (1755-?) and his son, Edmund Baylies , to his namesake, Hodijah Meade (d. 1842 ?) and his son, William E. Meade . These letters show a continuation of friendship and affection that had begun between Hodijah Baylies and Everard Meade (1746-1802), father of Hodijah, when they were both aides-de-camp to Major General [Benjamin ?] Lincoln during the Revolutionary War.

One letter, December 20, 1832, discusses the rank of Everard Meade in the Continental Army and the possibility of erecting a tombstone to his memory. Another letter, September 13, 1835, from the northerner, Edmund Baylies , expresses sympathy for anti-abolitionist sentiments.

Letters to Everard Meade include correspondence from R[ichard] K[idder] Meade , July 3, 1777, concerning the actions of a party of militia who captured a ship of produce on the New Jersey shore; D[avid] M. Randolph (son of Richard Randolph, Jr. of Curle) and David Meade .

Letters to Hodijah Meade include the following correspondents: T.H. Drew , T.B. Massie , John R. Meade , William E. Meade , J. Parker , L.J. Preston and William E. Preston . One letter, April 3, 1837, mentions a poisoning attempt by a servant girl and failures in the Panic of 1837.

Correspondence to William E. Meade contains chiefly news of friends and family and includes the following writers: Edward Coles , John P. DuVal , R. Gwathmey , J.V. Ligon , Hodijah Meade , J.R. Meade , Francis H. Smith , and Edmund Randolph .

Known correspondents in the miscellaneous group of letters include: Peter Hagner , Hodijah Baylies Meade , Peyton Meade , R.H. Meade , William E. Meade , and W[illiam] B. Tabb . Topics of interest include: the movement of some Confederate forces under General Henry S. Wise , February 6, 1863; the critical condition and eventual death of Jane Meade (daughter of William E. and Mary (Steger) Meade, February 21, and March 21, 1864; and Hodijah Baylies Meade urging his brother [William ?] to sell his farm at the Hermitage and to buy a small farm in the "valley," presumably the Shenandoah Valley , and warning him not to consider Danville, Virginia , as suitable farming country as it was overworked by tobacco, January 30,1868.

Letters of Thomas Rutherfoord, Sr. (father-in-law of Hodijah Meade ) to members of the Meade family mainly concern the family flour mill business, family news, and grandfatherly advice. This group of letters also contains a few letters by Thomas Rutherfoord, Jr. and Samuel Rutherfoord , brothers of Hodijah Meade 's wife, Jane (d. 1839 ?).

Other items in this collection include: an almanac, an arithmetic book, wills, receipts, a survey, deeds and indentures and accounts. Of special interest are: a survey for Everard Meade in Amelia County (October 5, 1770); the will of Everard Meade (January 13, 1801); the will of Hodijah Meade (May 30, 1840); and a bounty land claim based on Hodijah Meade 's service in the War of 1812 (May 1859).

The correspondence is arranged chronologically by the correspondent or recipient of the letter. The business and legal papers are also in chronological order.