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95Robert Anderson Papers INVENTORY of THE ROBERT ANDERSON PAPERS in the COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION LIBRARY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS ROBERT ANDERSON PAPERS INVENTORY MS 72.2 This inventory consists of a listing of every item in the Robert Anderson papers at the Colonial Williamsburg Library, Special Collections. Included are a summary of the contents of the papers, an outline of the various types of papers in the collection, the listing of the manuscript items, and a name index for each manuscript ledger or other bound volume. The collection can be searched with the “FIND” function on Adobe Acrobat by key word. The Robert Anderson Papers have been microfilmed (M-1525.1- 17) and may be available through Interlibrary Loan. ROBERT ANDERSON PAPERS, 1693 [1787-1858] 1877, 35 vols. and 4,728 pieces. MS 72.2. Business, political, and legal papers; business and personal correspondence; and daybooks and ledgers for the varied interests and ventures of Robert Anderson (1781-1859), a Williamsburg and Yorktown merchant, Whig politician, agent for the Mutual Assurance Society and the Aetna Insurance Company, director of the James City Steamboat Company, and holder of extensive real estate in Williamsburg and Yorktown. He married Helen M. Macauley Southall, widow of Peyton Southall, in 1814. They had no issue, but Helen had four children from her previous marriage. Business papers include those of Mathew Anderson (1782- 1803), Robert Anderson (1805-1858), Anderson-McCandlish (1805- 1812), Joseph A. Repiton and Repiton-Bruff, printers (1827-1836), and John Crump (1804-1824). Estate papers include those of James, Rachel and Sarah Anderson (l80l-1836), Henry and Robert Anderson Ashburn (1836-1855), Ann Anderson Camp (1849-1853), McCauley and Southall families (1817-1858), and Mary Williamson of Powhatan County (1821-1850). Insurance accounts and policies cover 1796 to 1857. Includes steamboat accounts for the "Alice" and "Curtis Peck" (1844-1850). Political papers include poll lists for Williamsburg (1821- 1849), James City and York counties (1813-1849), Accomack, Elizabeth City and Warwick counties (1813-1844); as well as election notes, memos, drafts of articles and speeches, and electoral tickets (1804-1855); notes of Anti-Jackson meetings (1827-1838); Richmond-Yorktown Railroad (1832 and 1852); and members of Congress and House of Delegates (1809-1843). Legal papers document land transactions and include originals, extracts, and copies of 18th and 19th century deeds, land plats, leases and rentals, primarily for Williamsburg and York counties. Volumes include daybooks (1784-1817); ledgers (1784-1823); insurance accounts (1837-1853); register and ledger of the Swan Tavern in Yorktown (1852); a grist mill account book for corn (1855); sales books of auctions (1822 and 1842); account books (1801-1837); bank book of Robert Anderson (1835-1856); memo book (1850-1857) showing expenses for servants clothes, etc.; and the constitution of the Mutual Assurance Society of Richmond (1795- 1856). The Anderson family was numerous and moved and traveled extensively. Personal correspondence includes letters covering a variety of subjects, thoughts and opinions. Names mentioned include Littleton W[aller] Tazewell; Charles S. Bruff; Thomas G. Peachy; Richard Coke, Jr.; Robert Saunders; Thomas, William and Robert McCandlish; George W. Southall; William Redwood; Hamilton and William C. Shields; John Rutherfoord; William Nelson; Charles Shield; Philip J. Barziza; W. W. Webb; W. W. Vest and Company; George Page and Company; Henley Taylor; Mildred Bowden; Mary Charlton; Scervant Jones; and Thomas Bayly. Collection has research guide and card index. Microfilm copy (M-1525.1-16) available. 4 ROBERT ANDERSON PAPERS, ADDITION ONE, 1784 [1788] 1789, 1 vol. [290] pp. MS 72.2. General merchandise journal of the partnership of Low and Anderson (1784-1785). Kept by Mathew Anderson (1745-1803), born in Gloucester, Virginia, son of William and Sarah Anderson, younger brother of James Anderson, blacksmith of Williamsburg, Virginia. Mathew was in Williamsburg in 1779 as a saddler, shoemaker and harness maker, then as a merchant, 1784-1803. Entered into partnership with David Low, 1784 [partnership dissolved in 1785 but accounts continue until 1788]. Never married. His nephew, Robert, youngest son of James, joined him in the mercantile business in the late 1790s. David Low was a merchant in Williamsburg from 1782 until his death in 1787. Microfilm copy (M-1525.17) available. THE ROBERT ANDERSON PAPERS The Robert Anderson Papers, 1693 [1787-1858] 1877, consist of 4728 pieces and 35 volumes relating to late eighteenth-and nineteenth-century Williamsburg and vicinity. Robert Anderson, the son of Williamsburg blacksmith James Anderson and Hannah Tyler Anderson was born at Howard's Neck in Gloucester County on 22 October 1781.1 Robert was the last of eight children born to James and Hannah; the others were: William, John Tyler, Leroy, Ann, James, Julia, and Henry.2 On 18 August 1814, Robert Anderson married Helen Maxwell Macauley Southall, the daughter of Alexander and Elizabeth Macauley and the widow of Peyton Southall.3 Robert and Helen had no issue but he regarded her four children by her previous marriage (Peyton Alexander Southall, Helen Matilda Southall, George Washington Southall, and Elianna Jerdone Southall Bright) as his own.4 Robert Anderson moved to York Town permanently following a family rupture over his administration of George Washington Southall's estate and died there on 25 January 1859.5 Anderson was a wealthy businessman with varied interests and this is reflected in his papers. He was a Williamsburg and York Town merchant; served as an agent for the Mutual Assurance Society, 1811-1857, and the Aetna Insurance Company, 1838-1857; was director of the James River Steam Boat Company (1844); acted as administrator or executor of various 1 estates; owned property in Williamsburg and York Town, and James City and York counties; and was active in politics. Anderson was mayor of Williamsburg in 1812, 1820, and 1828;6 alderman in 1825;7 and an unsuccessful candidate for various state and federal offices in the 1830's and '40's. The Robert Anderson Papers are divided into the following groups: business, general correspondence, political, deeds, land papers, legal papers, family correspondence. The largest group is business papers which are divided into the papers of Matthew Anderson, 1782-1823; the papers of Robert Anderson, 1803-1858; estate papers, 1801-1858; insurance papers, 1796-1858; and steamboat papers, 1844-1850. Robert Anderson entered the mercantile business under his uncle Matthew Anderson who operated a store in Williamsburg in the late eighteenth century, and acted as his uncle's confidential agent.8 In the Matthew Anderson papers, 1782-1803, are several papers, 1782-1787 and one ledger, 1784-1788, of the firm [David] Low and Anderson; correspondence and accounts of Littleton Waller Tazewell with Matthew Anderson, 1803-1823. There are also fifteen account books, 1788-1804, of Matthew Anderson. About the time of his uncle's death in 1803, Robert Anderson entered into a partner ship with Thomas and William McCandlish9 and there are several papers of the firm, 1804-1815, and some relating to a suit, Anderson v. McCandlish, 1807-1836, in the Robert Anderson papers. After Anderson dissolved the partnership in December, 1805,10 he engaged in various business pursuits. The main part of the business papers contains accounts, receipts, bonds, notes, contracts, of Robert Anderson, 1800-1858. There is an interesting series of letters and accounts of Anderson with George Page & Company of Baltimore, 1855-1857, regarding the building and operation of a gristmill at York Town. Papers relating to various business suits include the John Crump papers, 1804-1855; the Repiton Family papers, 1824-1855; and the Repiton and Bruff papers, 1827-1836. A detailed plat of the John Crump House, 1808, contained in the John Crump papers, is of particular interest for Williamsburg. The Repiton Family papers include letters and accounts of Joseph A. Repiton, (a printer), and interesting correspondence regarding St. Domingo claims held by the Doford and Repiton families. The Repiton and Bruff papers are letters and papers of the Williamsburg printing establishment operated by Joseph A. Repiton, Charles S. Bruff, and James T. Bruff. There are thirteen manuscript volumes, 1801-1857, including several account books of Robert Anderson; an account book of Peyton Southall, 1801-[1803]; a Williamsburg daybook of Cary and Co., 1835-1840; a register and ledger for the Swan Tavern at York Town, 1852; Anderson's bank book, 1835-1856; and a memorandum book, 1850-1857. The estate papers, 1801-1858, contain documents, accounts, and memos relating to the estates of members of the Anderson, Macauley, Southall, and Ashburn families; correspondence and papers regarding the estates of Mary Williamson [Robert Anderson executor], 1821-1850; Mary Charlton, 1794-1835; Seymour, Powell, 1776-1831; as well as several others. Robert Anderson was an agent for the Mutual Assurance Society of Richmond, and the Aetna Insurance Company of Hartford. The insurance papers, 1796-1857, include correspondence and accounts with John O. Lay and Heman Baldwin of Aetna, 1838-1857; and John R. Rutherford of the Mutual Assurance Society, 1840- 1857; insurance policies for Williamsburg property, 1796-1853; and some for Richmond, Norfolk, and York Town property, 1829- 1853. There are two insurance agent's account books, 1837-1853 and four copies of the Constitution of the Mutual Assurance Society, 1795-1856. The steamboat papers, 1844-1850, are primarily grocery, bar, and coal accounts of the steamboats "Alice" and the "Curtis Peck" of the James River Steam Boat Company. The general correspondence, 1799-1858, is mainly of a business nature but is concerned also with political and personal matters. Among the correspondents are Mary M. Peachy (1763- 1836), Maria Moody Crump (writing in regard to Williamsburg property), Robert McCandlish ( ) (business and politics), Leonard Henley (1789-1831), Robert Saunders (1805-1868) (business and politics), Theodore Pearson (concerning his Williamsburg tanyard property), Abel P.
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