Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

The collection is without restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

The Papers of Joseph Watkins and the Shields Family, Accession # 11433, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

Copies of the Watkins-Shields documents were given to the University of Virginia Library on September 15, 1998 by George Hoffman, West End, North Carolina, who retains the originals.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of electrostatic copies of about 300 items, 1763-1852, chiefly the business and financial letters, accounts, and legal documents of Joseph Watkins of "[Janetoe]," Goochland County, Virginia, apparently a surveyor and tobacco agent, and son of Benjamin and Jane Watkins. The collection also includes some papers of David Shields, of Cartersville, Cumberland County, Virginia, and Dr. Thomas P. Watkins, Goochland County, Virginia. Many of the earlier letters, ca. 1770-1802, are from Thomas Mann Randolph to his tobacco agent, Joseph Watkins, concerning tobacco sales, land deals, surveys, and land plats, and the estate of his father, Thomas Mann Randolph, Sr. Most of the correspondence deals with legal and business matters.

Other topics which occur in the letters include: Indians killing eighteen out of nineteen men employed in cutting hay at Ft. Jefferson, [Kentucky?] (1792 Jul 8); slave hires listed by name (1796 [Feb?] 1); references to Thomas Jefferson by Thomas Mann Randolph (1796 Oct 17, 1797 Mar 31; 1799 May 26); complaints that treaties with the Indians have decreased the amount of land available for land grants to the military (1796 Dec 6); the slaves Randal and Daniel (1798 Jan 18); fears about the possible effects of an embargo upon the sale of flour and other goods (1798 Mar 15; 1801 Jan 1); and a printed circular discussing differences between the United States and France (Philadelphia, 1798 April 6).

Additional topics include: a request of money from the estate of Thomas Mann Randolph and a record of the account (1798 Jul 9; 1799 Dec 25); a survey of land sold to Thomas Mann Randolph by the late Richard Randolph of Curles and a discussion of named slaves (1799 Feb 11); the importance of exchanging, by the next election, "the anti-Federal and weak members" in Congress for "men more attached to our good government, and more able to de[fine] our true interests" such as General Marshall (1799 Apr 2); and a proposed method to settle military lands on the banks of the Ohio with New England farmers (1799 May 16).

Other subjects mentioned in these papers include: offer of partnership in the Dover Mill and problems with its operation (1800 Sep 13; 1801 Jan 8); the slaves of George Underwood unwilling to be hired out as blacksmith's helpers (1800 Oct 26); Watkins' saltpeter cave in Bath County, Virginia, and the last election results, including 112 for Thomas Jefferson and 52 for John Adams (1800 Nov 9); three slaves named at the Cumberland County plantation (1800 Dec 2); discussion of the character of a slave, Janey (1801 Jan 10); purchase of Albion Mills and determination by Thomas Rutherford to sell the Dover plantation "because I feel day by day a greater repugnance to owning Negroes" ( 1801 Jan 13); and the Thomas Mann Randolph, Sr. estate, with Joseph Watkins as the agent for the executors (1801 Feb, May 10).

Other topics are: the death of the wife of David Shields (1801 May 2); the estate of Thomas Mann Randolph and a suit between the executors and creditors (1802 Feb 26, Oct 16; 1803 May 5); the sale of the Randolph farm on the banks of the James River below "Tuckahoe" (1802 Apr 15); the wish of Mr. Monroe to purchase a lot on Shockhoe Hill, Richmond (1802 May 20); T.M. Randolph's comments about the Louisiana Purchase Treaty before Congress and Spain's fears about American settlement near her Mexican subjects (1803 Oct 22); a slave list from the estate of Joel Redding (1804 Jan 20); the Varina tract of land for sale (1804 Feb 6); and the death and estate of Joseph Watkins (1804 Nov 26; 1805 Dec 10).

Other subjects of interest include: William and Mary lottery tickets (1805 May 23); the hiring of slaves Charles, Wilson, and Hatty (1829 Nov 6, Dec 10; 1830 Nov 9); the drowning of David Shields, the brother of A.W. Shields, in the Tuckahoe Creek (1833 Dec 21); the plans of Robert S. Madison to attend the University of Virginia and the possibility of war with Mexico (1845 Sep 16).

Other letters from Robert S. Madison to Thomas P. Shields cover the years 1845-1848. Undated items include a letter about danger from the "British Horse " and the capture of sixty-five men from Colonel Goode's party; an almost illegible slave list; essays; and a "Slave Song."