Batts Family Papers

1736-1971
Manuscript Collection #225
Creator(s)
Batts family
Physical description
0.4 Cubic Feet, 112 items , consisting of correspondence, Edgecombe County, N.C., land records, financial papers, genealogical materials, a publication and miscellaneous.
Preferred Citation
Batts Family Papers (#225), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
Repository
ECU Manuscript Collection
Access
Access to audiovisual and digital media is restricted. Please contact Special Collections for more information.

Papers (1736-1971, undated) consisting of copies and originals, correspondence, genealogical information and miscellaneous. 112 items. Recd. 4/12/1973, 10/1/1985, and 4/24/1991


Biographical/historical information

The Batts family of Edgecombe County, N.C., was among the early settlers of the state. Among their relatives are members of other prominent North Carolina families including the Bryan and Wolfe families, both of Edgecombe County. The Batts home is still standing just north of Tarboro.


Scope and arrangement

The collection contains a variety of materials relating to family and local activities. Correspondence (1866, 1893-1971), though very limited, is primarily related to a search for Batts family genealogical information.

A 1942 letter describes a fire at a home in the country and wartime changes in Nashville, Tenn. Of particular interest is a 1966 reminiscence attached to a family letter. The reminiscence comments on the lives of freed, formerly enslaved, Black people by the Batts family in the early 1900s and details the formalities of funerals held by the Black community; contains a sketch of the family home, Rosedale, along with a description of the various sections of property and the functions of the outbuildings; and gives short descriptions of a barbecue, drying apples and making cider, Christmas festivities, and canning in the first half of the twentieth century.

Edgecombe County land records (1748-1894, undated) constitute a significant portion of the collection. These include deeds of sale, land surveys, and a typed transcript of the court proceedings in a land recovery case (1897). Legal records (1808, 1859) include a dower of land left by Isaac Batts to his widow (1808) and Benjamin Batts' will (1859). Financial records include numerous contracts for the sale of enslaved people (1797-1847) and other miscellaneous financial papers.

The collection also contains extensive genealogical material relating to the Batts and Bryan families of eastern North Carolina, and to the Wolf family of Virginia and North Carolina, as well as related families (Pittman, Fielding, and Galloway). A clipping (1940) concerning Maryland native Margaret Wolf Galloway's 100th birthday in Tarboro, N.C., mentions the Baltimore Riot of 1861 (also known as the Pratt Street Massacre) and the visit of the first Japanese ambassador to the United States in 1858.

Miscellaneous material includes a wide variety of largely unrelated items including an inventory of Batts family antiques and heirlooms (1972), a copy of W. P. Cummings' "The Earliest Permanent Settlement in North Carolina," American Historical Review, undated, about the Batts settlement; and a history of the Regard (Katherine) ring, a friendship (or regards) ring given to Katherine Knoblock by her father and passed down through the generations. One publication, A Hand Book of Republican Misrule and Negro Domination..., Raleigh, Edwards, and Broughton, 1900, published for the Democratic Executive Committee of North Carolina, concerns a white supremacy campaign and the proposed literacy amendment to effectively disenfranchise Black people from voting.

The oversized folder contains Edgecombe Co., N.C., land records (1736-1805) and three Tarboro, N.C., newspapers (1885-1896).


Administrative information
Custodial History

April 12, 1973, 92 items; Papers (1748-1942), consisting of letters, Edgecombe County land records, financial papers, genealogical material, and miscellaneous. Loaned for copying by Mr. John Conner Atkeson, Tarboro, N.C. Originals are in the possession of Mrs. Katherine Batts Salley, Gloucester Point, Virginia

October 1, 1985, 4 items; Newspapers (1892-1896) and a Democratic Party handbook (1900). Gift of Mr. George Collier Salley, Gloucester Point, Virginia

April 24, 1991, 75 items; Originals of Edgecombe County, N.C., land records, will and financial papers (1748/9-1897) from which copies were previously acquisitioned. Gift of Mr. George Collier Salley, Gloucester Point, Virginia

Source of acquisition

Gift of Mr. George Collier Salley

Processing information

Processed by M. Boccaccio, July 1991

Encoded by Apex Data Services

Descriptions updated by Ashlyn Racine, May 2023

Copyright notice

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


Key terms
Family Names
Batts family
Bryan family
Wolf family
Corporate Names
Democratic Party (N.C.). State Executive Committee
Topical
African Americans--North Carolina--Edgecombe County--Social life and customs
Deeds--North Carolina--Edgecombe County
Slave bills of sale--North Carolina
Slavery--North Carolina--Edgecombe County
White supremacy movements--North Carolina
Places
North Carolina--Genealogy
Virginia--Genealogy

Container list
Folder os1 Edgecombe Co., N.C., land records (1736-1805) and Tarboro, N.C., newspapers (1885-1896)