Ballance Family Papers, 1845-1859, 1876, undated
(Manuscript Collection #690)
Descriptive Summary
| Title: | Ballance Family Papers |
| Creator: | Ballance family |
| Repository: | ECU Manuscript Collection |
| Languages: | English |
| Abstract: | Papers (1845-1859, 1876, undated) including shipping records, bills of lading, promissory notes, receipts, indentures and correspondence. |
| Extent: | 0.22 Cubic feet, 90 items , consisting of shipping records, bills of lading, promissory notes, receipts, indentures and correspondence. |
Administrative Information
Accessions Information
August 15, 1994, 90 items; Papers of Hyde County, N.C., family (1844-1876), including bills of lading, shipping records, correspondence, financial accounts, receipts, and a deed. Gift of Mr. W. T. Arrants, Jr., Jamesville, 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
Ballance Family Papers (#690), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
Acquisition Information
- Gift of Mr. W. T. Arrants, Jr.
Processing Information
-
Encoded by Apex Data Services
Biographical / Historical Note
The family of Thomas Ballance, Sr., lived at Middletown in Hyde County, N.C., where they were involved in shipping goods and produce along the East Coast. Their business kept them in contact with business firms in New York. The senior Ballance maintained a warehouse in Middletown primarily for the storage of agricultural products and for at least the 1847-1849 period, the family owned the schooner WALTER MERCHANT, although they used other schooners in their business as well.
Description
The collection consists primarily of business records, which reflect the transport of lime, corn, linseed oil, fish oil, buckram, Manila rope, nails, flour, and snuff. Documents concerned with the WALTER MERCHANT reflect maintenance work being done in 1847; wages paid out in July 1848; billing for pilotage of the schooner over the Ocracoke bar in February 1849; and billing for the altering of sails in October 1849. In July 1849, while on voyage from New York, the schooner put into Norfolk, Virginia, in distress; and bills indicate what work was done, the amount paid, and who did the work. The verso of one document lists the cost of wages, provisions, and payments for taking care of the vessel. Bills of lading and shipping records indicate that in other years the family used the schooners FLORIDA (1845), SURPASS and WILLIS WILLIAM (1846), EFFORT (1847), and MARY JANE (1850).
The remainder of the collection contains Hyde County land indentures and miscellaneous legal documents. An indenture (May 1851) between Sheriff Jesse Gibbs and Thomas Ballance notes that Gibbs took Henderson Ballance's right to sixteen acres of land for debt and sold them to Thomas Ballance. Another indenture (March 1856) details the mortgaging of land by Caleb Ballance to Amasa Harris for $1,000, and a legaldocument (June 1853) designates property that could be retained by an individual seeking protection under the Poor Debtors Act.
The oversize folder contains an 1851 land indenture for Hyde Co., N.C.
Online access to this finding aid is supported with funds created through the federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). These funds come through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services which is administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. This grant is part of the North Carolina ECHO, Exploring Cultural Heritage Online, Digitization Grant Program.
