In his most recent Swain Report, David writes about the Burd-Shippen collection the Library recently acquired from the Pennsylvania State Archives. The Collection contains a wide array of documents from the Burd, Shippen, Yeates, and Hubley families. These families were among the most prominent Pennsylvanians in western Pennsylvania, especially Lancaster and Cumberland Counties, during the colonial and revolutionary eras. The families were involved in all aspects of society, and their papers touch on important matters relating to law, business, and politics.

The individuals most prominent in the manuscripts are (note: family relationships "guessed" from clues found in the correspondence):

§ Edward Shippen of Philadelphia (young man in 1704—see reel 2 transcripts)
§ Edward Shippen of Philadelphia, son of the first Edward (their family home was in West Chester)
§ James Burd (1726-1793) of Lancaster and Carlisle (their family home was named Tinian) (attorney), who married Sarah Shippen
§ William Shippen of Philadelphia, brother of second Edward
§ Edward Burd of Philadelphia (attorney), brother of James, grandson of Edward Shippen
§ Joseph Shippen Jr., brother of second Edward and William
§ Edward Shippen Burd, son of Edward Burd
§ Joseph Burd, son of James
§ John Shippen, son of second Edward
§ Edward Shippen, son of second Edward, cousin of James Hubley
§ Jasper Yeats (attorney in Lancaster—see his own papers, which contain additional correspondence with the Burds and Shippens)
§ Jacob Hubley
§ James B. Hubley, son of Jacob, cousin of Edward Shippen (son of second Edward)


In microfilm form, the collection fills two reels. The first contains manuscripts (manuscript folders 1 through 30), the second "transcripts" (manuscript folders 31 through 45). This report considers only the manuscript collection on reel 1.

Each reel contains a detailed typewritten (but not always clearly legible, due probably to microfilming error) list of contents, by folder. This tool is invaluable for identifying documents and their organization/location.

The generalized contents of reel 1 are as follows:

§ Accounts 1768-1779, 1801 (folder 1)
§ Appointments, Commissions 1759, 1791 (folder 2)
§ Articles of Agreement 1789, 1810, nd (folder 3)
§ General Correspondence 1715-1833, nd (folders 4 through 25)
§ Legal Papers 1719-1829, nd (folders 26 through 30)


The General Correspondence is voluminous and interesting—and, in general, fairly clearly written and clearly microfilmed. Generally speaking, the content is a mixture of:
§ personal sharing of family news and mutual appreciation,
§ family business information sharing and decision making, and
§ a few legal documents interspersed among the letters.

Several more specific items of content are worth recording:

§ Among the family businesses was land speculation and perhaps lumbering. A 1769 letter includes information about a request to the Crown to purchase 80,000 acres of land "in the Alleghenies" (i.e. somewhere west of Carlisle ?) on which the plan was to settle 60 families. The deal was approved in 1771 but for only 50,000 acres. However, in March 1779, the family was busy seeking US and PA recognition of their titles to the land. (See the PA Archives website description of this set of papers (Manuscript Group 30) for more on

§ On September 16, 1769, Edward Burd wrote to his grandfather Edward Shippen about his frustration that he could not purchase books from France because of the "Revenue Act," which he felt would soon be repealed.

§ In about 1776, Joseph Shippen Jr wrote to James Burd about land speculation—something about buying up soldiers' warrant rights to land (enticements for PA men to enlist on the PA militia and Continental Army?).

§ On August 13, 1776, Jasper Yeats wrote to Edward Shippen about the Commission of Indian Affairs (see Jasper Yeats papers for more on this).

§ During the Revolutionary War, James Burd served as a colonel, apparently concerned with recruitment and paying of troops.

§ In March 1779, Joseph Shippen wrote to Edward Shippen from Kennet Square, expressing optimism (based on undisclosable information) about an early peace and speculating about what he might do after the war.

§ In 1786 several letters reveal the family’s pain when a son-in-law of James Burd named Peter Grubb committed suicide.

§ By the mid 1780s and after, much of the correspondence pertains to Edward Burd’s Philadelphia law practice.

§ In 1794, the Burds and Shippens corresponded about shares one of them owned in a "turnpike road."

§ By the early 19th Century, both Burds and Shippens were living in newly founded Shippensburg, PA, SW of Carlisle.

The Legal Papers are also voluminous, containing detailed records of court cases and legal arguments used, with legal citations, as well as some legal documents interspersed. Few of these cases seem to pertain to family business; most pertain to the law practices of Burd and Shippen family members.

In the midst of these, the collection contains an interesting printed flyer that must date from the 1824 presidential election campaign. It brands Jackson the "military candidate" and Adams the "national candidate," and makes a pitch for voting for Adams.

Stay tuned for a report on the Transcripts portion of the Burd-Shippen Family Collection contained on reel 2.


Have something you want to share? A research question, a research find, or a personal story about the Library? Email Patrick Spero at spero@dlar.org

Labels: acquisitions, archives, documents, research, swain report

In 2009, the David Library made a large acquisition at the Pennsylvania State Archive. The Papers of Jasper Yeates was among those acquired. As you'll note in David’s report, Yeates was a very important figure in revolutionary Pennsylvania. Stationed in Lancaster County as a prominent lawyer, he served on the Committee of Safety for the County, was a member of the Middle Department for Indian Affairs during days immediately following Independence, and served as a Supreme Court judge for the state of Pennsylvania. The Collection we have contains a wide-range of his papers. Other portions of his papers can be found in the Lancaster County Historical Society and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Jasper Yeates was born in 1745 and died in 1817. His father, John Yeats, was a Philadelphia merchant, so Jasper may have been born in Philadelphia and moved to Lancaster when he decided to start a law practice. He married Catherine Burd, whose family came from Carlisle, and his business correspondence includes a number of letters from two of her brothers, Joseph and Edward. Another in-law family was the Shippens of Lancaster. The Yeats, Burds, and Shippens all seem to have known each other well and intermarried closely. The PA State Archives contain a Burd-Shippen Family Collection of papers dating from 1715 to 1834 (M-30). Judging from the papers, Jasper practiced law from the early 1760s until he died. In 1791, he was appointed an associate justice on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, a position he held until he died.

Each microfilm reel contains, at the beginning, a typed list of contents. This includes a one-page general contents list and a three-page letter-by-letter list (name and place to; name and place from; date) of the papers in the correspondence section.

§ Commissioners for Indian Affairs for the Middle District: This brief section of papers is fascinating but confusing—given that I have not done the background research to understand it. The Continental Congress had a Commission for Indian Affairs with probably three districts. The papers in this section are all financially related. Some researcher with a very particular interest might be thrilled to find this little cache of papers. Also, the cache actually “leaks” over into the correspondence section, in which a few similar documents are found dated in the latter half of 1776.

§ Committee of Safety: Jasper Yeates served on the Lancaster County Committee of Safety, and some of this organization's records are included in this collection. By 1775, committees of correspondence had evolved through being committees of observation to being committees of safety. The difference in the latter name was that it implied a mission of action, for the safety of the province, potentially through the use of the provincial militia. Jasper's involvement with the Committee on Safety, as revealed by the papers in this section, was in March and April 1776, just before it was reconstituted. This section of the papers is tantalizingly short, with little of substance in it.

§ Correspondence: Most of the letters are business letters from others to John Yeats and later to Jasper Yeats. The largest number are letters Jasper received concerning details of individual law cases (all civil law; a fair number land-transaction cases) that he was handling. Two of these letters are written in German. A few are copies of letters by Jasper to others, usually concerning billing for legal services rendered. A few others are by females in the Yeats family. These tend to be personal letters to relatives. One is a 1774 letter from Sarah Yeats (Jasper's daughter?) to "Grandma" Shippen in Lancaster.

In 1804, the correspondence section gets a bit lively with a March 6 entry that is not a letter but a copy of excerpts from a Committee on Grievances report with "resolves." The grievance was against the PA Supreme Court judges, and the proposed remedy was impeachment, apparently of the whole lot. However, the committee tied 14 to 14 on the question of impeachment, so it resolved to send the matter back to the PA House of Representatives to do with what they wished.

§ Legal papers: Accounts: This section contains papers dealing with financial matters, mostly of Jasper's law practice, but the papers are not limited to account books. Some papers do contain itemized lists in pounds or dollars, but the section also contains a variety of receipts and other legal documents, including printed form documents with the particulars filled in by hand. For a researcher interested in the detailed history of law practice, of civil law in action, or of land transactions, this section (the whole set of papers in fact) could be of interest.

§ Legal papers: Letters of agreement: The contents of this section are more legal documents from Jasper's law practice. Many more such documents are contained in the Accounts and Bonds sections, but a few have been placed separately in what once was a separate folder of papers.

§ Legal papers: Bonds: The documents in this section are mostly printed forms filled in by hand concerning the binding of individuals to pay debts to or through the government. (I do not understand well the nature of these bonds and did not research them further. Some of them may relate to indentures but others appear to pertain to money debts. The form itself left me quite confused.)

Have something you want to share? A research question, a research find, or a personal story about the Library? Email Patrick Spero at spero@dlar.org

Labels: acquisitions, archives, documents, research, swain report

The David Library hosted a number of great interns this summer. Below, Robert Fisher, a history major at Rider University, writes about a number of documents the David Library had in our vault that were not accessible to researchers. Bob helped catalog them. Due to his efforts, researchers can now look at these rare documents, and, as you'll notice in Bob's entry, there is a wealth of information in them.

Labels: documents, interns notebook, research