Robert Lee Foy Collection, 1762-1894

(Manuscript Collection #32)

Title:	Robert Lee Foy Collection
Creator:	Foy, Robert Lee
Repository:	ECU Manuscript Collection
Languages:	English
Abstract:	Collection (1762-1894) including correspondence, deeds, accounts, receipts, promissory notes, plat, church minutes, judgment, etc. of early settlers of Poplar Grove Plantation, Scott's Hill, NC
Extent:	0.22 Cubic feet, 227 items , including correspondence, deeds, accounts, receipts, promissory notes, plat, church minutes, judgment, speech, pamphlet, newspapers, and miscellaneous items.

Accessions Information

November 1, 1967, 192 items; Papers (1762-1875) of the Foy family of Scott's Hill (Pender County), N.C. Collection includes correspondence, deeds, accounts, receipts, promissory notes, plat, church minutes, judgement, speech, pamphlet, newspapers, and miscellaneous items.

December 2, 1968, 35 items; Grants, deeds, estate papers, and accounts of Foy family (1763-1894). Gift of Mr. Robert Lee Foy, Scott's Hill N.C.

Access Restrictions

No restrictions

Copyright Notice

Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.

Preferred Citation

Robert Lee Foy Collection (#32), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.

Acquisition Information

• Gift of Mr. Robert Lee Foy

Processing Information

• Processed by D. Lennon; M. Quintanilla, November 1986

• Encoded by Apex Data Services

The Foy family settled in southeastern North Carolina prior to the American Revolution, and James Foy, Jr., purchased Poplar Grove Plantation at Scott's Hill in 1795. Poplar Grove was owned originally by Cornelius Harnett and his colonial mill site is still visible on the plantation. The present Foy home was built by Joseph Montford Foy around 1850 and is now owned by his grandson, Robert Lee Foy, Sr. The genealogical chart accompanying this description was taken from a family history in the possession of Mr. Foy.

Correspondence in the collection includes a letter (October 1860) from Joseph M. Foy to his son opposing Southern secession and predicting the victory of Abraham Lincoln in the approaching presidential election. An 1864 letter lists Foy slaves being hired and the annual rate for their employment. In October of 1865, Edward C. Armstrong, nephew of the brother of Secretary of State William H. Seward, commented on agricultural activities in Orange County, New York, and offered to use his influence to assist Mrs. Joseph Foy if she so desired. The remainder of the correspondence (1871-1875) concerns claims made by Mrs. Foy against the U.S. government. In executing these claims, Mrs. Foy declared her loyalty during the recent conflict and charged that her livestock was taken for the use of the Union Army.

Land records make up a second significant portion of the collection. Deeds and grants (1762-1861) reflect the transfer of land in the Topsail Sound area of New Hanover (now Pender) County, including pre-Revolutionary transactions of James Moore, CorneliusHarnett, and John Picket. Other land records include memorandums of survey, property bonds, a lease, land description, and a plat of Cornelius Harnett's Poplar Grove Plantation (undated).

Also included in the Robert Lee Foy Collection are accounts (1848-1872) dealing primarily with goods and services purchased and crops, particularly peanuts, sold on the market. Other financial papers consist of promissory notes (1805-1858); miscellaneous receipts (1776, 1806, 1849-1874, 1894), including receipts for the purchase of slaves and for shares in the Wilmington and Topsail Sound Plank Road Company (1853); an 1860 itemized tax receipt; and a medical receipt for the attendance of slaves (1861).

Miscellaneous items include an account book (1790) that contains Algebra problems; writ for seizure of property (1814); a deed of sale for two slaves (1848); an inventory of the Henry Rhodes estate (1781); a flier concerning claims against the government stemming from the Civil War (1869); and minutes of a meeting held at Cats [Scotts] Hill Meeting House, October 8, 1842, with resolutions for building a new meeting house and providing for the administration of the same. Other items consist of an oath of allegiance to U.S. government (1865); claims application against U.S. government for property taken by Union Army (1871); a speech on temperance; a pamphlet, Ohio Combination Bee-Hive, by E. W. Phelps; and copies of the Kingston, New York, Ulster County Gazette (January 4, 1800), telling of the burial of former President Washington, and The New York Herald (April 15, 1865), reporting the assassination of President Lincoln.

An oversize folder contains land records and two newspapers.