Papers (1708, 1782-1923, undated) including correspondence, land records, contracts, promissory notes, crop and livestock liens, testimony, mortgages, copies of birth and death records, and miscellaneous.
The Worsley and Rollins families resided in Pitt County, N.C., on neighboring properties.
Correspondence in the collection includes a cancelled note (1910) from Dawson & Wilson, Dealers in Horses and Mules, to J.S. Rollins. Attached is a note regarding the acquisition of several mules. A second letter (1884) is from Richard H. Jones of the Christian Brotherhood in Norfolk, Virginia, requesting money from a member.
Land records in the collection consist of a survey (1708) and deeds for land in Pitt County (1782-1900) concerning mainly the Stancil, Whitehurst, Porter, Bryant, Worsley, and Rollins families. An 1849 deed concerns land for Bethel meeting house for the Methodist Episcopal Church South in Pitt Co., N.C.
Contracts and promissory notes (1876-1899) concern work agreements and crop liens in Pitt County, N.C. Crop and livestock liens (1899-1914) generally list livestock, mules in particular, for collateral. Of particular interest is a description by an employee of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of a group of mules unloaded in Bethel, N.C. (1923). He explains what the mules would have been worth in prime condition and what they were actually worth in their dilapidated state.
Miscellaneous material in the collection include copies of three pages from the Rollins family Bible, listing births, marriages, and deaths; a one-hundred-dollar Confederate war bond issued in 1863; a certificate regarding the accuracy of weights and measures (1875); and an original story entitled "An Irish Lady."
The oversized folder contains Pitt Co., N.C., land records (1782, 1800).
Gift of Mrs. Jean Smith
Processed by A. Foss, October 1991
Encoded by Apex Data Services
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.