Papers (1845-1859, 1876, undated) including shipping records, bills of lading, promissory notes, receipts, indentures and correspondence.
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.
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.
Gift of Mr. W. T. Arrants, Jr.
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