Chesnut Family Papers, 1741-1900

The Chesnut Family Papers, 1741-1900, collection contains loose papers belonging the family of merchant, plantation owner and state legislator John Chesnut (1743-1818), A Virginia native living in Camden District, S.C., John Chesnut owned large tracts of land in the vicinity of the Wateree River. He was the father of James Chesnut (1773-1866), a plantation owner and state legislator, and the grandfather of James Chesnut Jr., (1815-1885), who served in the South Carolina legislature and U.S. Senate and was a member of the committee which drafted the Ordinance of Secession in 1860. James Chesnut Jr. married Mary Boykin Miller (1823-1886), daughter of South Carolina governor Stephen Decatur Miller.

Papers consist of 18th century financial accounts for John Chesnut and his enslaved persons, a mortgage for nine enslaved persons, and the last will and testament of Alexander M. Knight of Prince Frederick’s Parish.