[Kentucky: Foundation and Settlement]

A highly important archive from the Beall and Booth families relating to history of Virginia and the founding of Kentucky, and descended directly in the family. Comprising more than 300 manuscripts (receipts, documents and letters—including 39 from the Civil War); a 1794 "A New and General Map of the Middle Dominions belonging to The United States of America," by Robert Laurie and James Whittle; a daguerreotype portrait of Dr. Maupin; a manuscript family tree from a 1777 bible; together with related items including a lengthy manuscript on medical theory from 1842; manuscript notes on farming ca. 1820; a document signed by Henry Clay; and other material.



These rich papers are from the Beall-Booth family, and fall into several chronological groups. The Booths are descendents of George Booth (First Baron of the Sea) ca. 1650. (This is the same family of which the acting family, including John Wilkes Booth, is a part.) Both the American Bealls & Booths came from Williamsburg, Virginia.

Descended in the Booth family

A highly important archive from the Beall and Booth families relating to history of Virginia and the founding of Kentucky, and descended directly in the family. Comprising more than 300 manuscripts (receipts, documents and letters—including 39 from the Civil War); a 1794 "A New and General Map of the Middle Dominions belonging to The United States of America," by Robert Laurie and James Whittle; a daguerreotype portrait of Dr. Maupin; a manuscript family tree from a 1777 bible; together with related items including a lengthy manuscript on medical theory from 1842; manuscript notes on farming ca. 1820; a document signed by Henry Clay; and other material. These rich papers are from the Beall-Booth family, and fall into several chronological groups. The Booths are descendents of George Booth (First Baron of the Sea) ca. 1650. (This is the same family of which the acting family, including John Wilkes Booth, is a part.) Both the American Bealls & Booths came from Williamsburg, Virginia.
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The first set of papers comprises about 40 manuscript receipts and documents from Williamsburg, dating from 1750 through the 1770s. These relate to Samuel Beall, a prominent businessman of the region. Many prominent figures from the area are mentioned in these documents, including William Campbell and Alexander White. This group also contains a small 1750 London edition of the Bible, signed by Gabriel Maupin and his wife, Williamsburg, 1751.

The second group of material consists of some 80 documents and papers from the 1770s, through the early 1800s of Samuel Beall. This group basically deals with the large land transactions of Beall and others, including the celebrated Robert Morris, the so-called financier of the American Revolution. These deal with the interior of what was to become Kentucky.

This section of papers is part of Morris's effort to raise funds through land speculation. Represented are the original documents of the purchase of some 300,000 acres of the Ohio River land, west of Louisville, ca. 1780. These lands were purchased from James Mercer—a Revolutionary Patriot, and captain in the French and Indian War. This sale was probably formulated by Robert Morris for the principal, Samuel Beall, to form a partnership to lease the purchased lands to raise tobacco. This partnership was soon completed, and the tobacco was then to be sold in Richmond to help finance the war.

Also in this group of papers are some of the original land transactions along the Ohio, with signed papers of John Breckinridge and David Meade, for whom counties are named in Kentucky. Although neither Mercer's nor Morris's signed documents are found here, there is a wealth of information on the original transaction. Included are folio folding documents on the break-up of 275,000 acres, and the hand-colored large map of the Kentucky area in 1794.

These papers devolved from a lawsuit on the break-up of the land involving leases and partnerships, etc. These types of partnerships of Robert Morris proved ruinous to his fortunes, and he spent the latter years of his life in prison for debt, dying in 1806.

The third group of papers has some 126 documents and receipts 1800 to 1830 dealing with family matters and court cases in the Big Bend area. Included is a witness document signed by Henry Clay, July 1821. Also this section has a very interesting 12mo. manuscript book on running a farm—some 80 pages, with information on dividing acres, use of fields for crops, when to plant, animals grazing, and so on.

The third group of material deals with the next generation of the families. As shown by the manuscript family tree of the 1777 Bible, Samuel Beall, Jr. was married to Ann Booth in 1786 in Williamsburg; the tree continues to Galt Worthington Booth's birth in 1832 in Big Bend Kentucky, on the Ohio. Before the Civil War, Galt Booth was a doctor. With this material is a folio forty-five page manuscript dealing with the theory of the practice of medicine from the lectures of Prof. Reese of Castleton Medical College, 1842.

There are some 39 letters from Dr. Galt Booth and also the Beall family from the beginning of the political breakdown after Lincoln's election through 1862. Also a daguerreotype of Dr. Edward Maupin; Dr. Booth studied under Dr. Maupin, and was left his estate.

These important Civil War letters show the fracturing of the families who lived along the Kentucky-Indiana border at the beginning of the Civil War. The correspondence covers a range of significant topics, including the Chittenden Compromise; tensions with free blacks; fears of southern secession; family members joining the military; battlefield conditions; reports from field hospitals; and so on.

The contemporary historical material is supported by later family ephemera, including photographs and photocopies.