Genealogy and notes, 1870, 1920s

Creator
Bearing Witness to Enslaved Women and Their Future Issue and Increase in the Massie Family’s 18th- and 19th-Century Reproductive Labor Systems
Archive
Duke
Collection
Massie family papers, 1766-1920s
Box
Box 2
Folder
Genealogy and notes, 1870, 1920s
Rights
Free Re-Use No Copyright - United States
Date added
17 September 2026 9.33 pm
Date modified
1 October 2026 2.35 pm

Document notes

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Document excerpt

Running notes & remarks on old papers — For Col. T J Massie The first letter I happen to take is from Mrs Mary Pearkes from London 17th June 1805 addressed to Yr Grand Father near Amherst Court House & post marked Williamsburg — First can you be correct in yr dates when you say that Yr Grand Father remained in Clarke until 1806? This letter you observe is addressed to him at Amh. C H in June 1805 — Moreover it is obviously in answer to a letter of introduction given by him to his son the Dr. when he went abroad, & I presume this was dated from "near Amh. C H. or the reply would not have been so directed, and observe the direction is in the handwriting of Mrs Pearkes and not of Mrs Paradise who brought it over. I do not know who Mrs Pearkes is, but several things are manifest from the letter — In the first place she was an educated lady. The letter being exceedingly well written, with but a single instance of misspelling, & that of a proper name of a French city, with which a lady might well be unfamiliar — In the next place she was a Virginian from the tide water country, I presume the Northern Neck & no great way from Williamsburg with whose vicinity she is obviously acquainted — She had married an Englishman and lived in London & her Father, a very old gentleman had gone to live with her — I take it this was Major Fowke who sends his regards & is an acquaintance of yr grandfather's — Again from the phraseology used I infer that she was not a relative of your Grandfather's, but of his wife's — She has evidently been familiar all her life with the name — Observe she not only spells, but actually writes it just as we have done for two hundred years "Mopie" — The address both in the opening & the close, especially the latter is rather more formal than if written to her own cousin, but just what would be used, in that day to a connection — one who had married a cousin or other relative — It must be remembered though that letters in those days were always more formal than in these latter times — I fear it is a mark of decline in something more than reverence & courtesy — The letter of "Major Washington" I think may be explained — The general appearance of the signature is certainly like that of Genl Washington's, but I do not think it could ever be mistaken for it — Moreover if you will study it, you will find that it is obviously Geo A. Washington — I take it that it was George Augustine Washington, a nephew of the General's who was much at Mr Vernon, a brother of Judge Brushrod Washington, and I think the Father (or Grand Father, I rather think the latter) of Jno Augustine Washington who sold Mr Vernon to the present Association on Ladies's Society, who now own it, and who was on Gen Lee's staff in 1861 in N. West Va and was killed at the battle at Cheat River, I think. I have no doubt this Geo A. Washington had been on the Genl's staff