Robert W. Gibbes Collection of Revolutionary War Manuscripts
Item
Country
US
Name of institution (official language of the state)
Language of name of institution
eng
Contact information: postal address
8301 Parklane Road, Columbia, SC 29223
Contact information: phone number
001 803 896 6196
Contact information: web address
Contact information: email
Reference number
S 213089
Type of reference number
Call number
Title (official language of the state)
Robert W. Gibbes Collection of Revolutionary War Manuscripts
Language of title
eng
Creator / accumulator
Robert W. Gibbes
Date(s)
1773/1820
Language(s)
eng
Extent
4 volumes
Type of material
Textual Material
Scope and content
This series forms part of the records of the Secretary of State. Its core consists of the surviving papers of William Henry Drayton (1742-1779) documenting his political career at the beginning of the American Revolution. It includes those papers of the Council of Safety and other Revolutionary political bodies that had remained in Drayton's possession. The Drayton items include the original correspondence between the committees of correspondence transmitting the news of the battles of Lexington and Concord down the east coast to Charleston; extensive documentation of military affairs at the beginning of the war; and a substantial body of material for the ship Prosper, of which Drayton was commissioned captain. A second key component of Gibbes's collection is the surviving second volume (July 21-Dec. 31, 1781) of five volumes of transcripts of the incoming correspondence of General Francis Marion. Peter Horry made the transcripts between 1804 and 1807, and they are among the most important sources for military activities during the American Revolution in South Carolina. The original Francis Marion papers from which these transcripts were made do not survive. Also present, although possibly not originally a part of the Gibbes Collection, are seven 1778 and 1779 strength and provision returns for various units and ten January 1780 pay rolls for the First South Carolina Continental Regiment. A large group of 1782 pay rolls and clothing rolls for General Thomas Sumter's brigade of state troops and related papers through 1788 have long been housed with the Gibbes Collection but were actually with the state's archives before the donation of the collection. The series also includes a small quantity of Nathanael Greene letters, Andrew Williamson correspondence, and other miscellaneous items, as well as copies of Dr Gibbes's three printed volumes, one of which at one time seemingly belonged to Governor and U.S. Senator B. R. Tillman.
This series contains documents related to the intervention of Francis Salvador in the Revolutionary War. The Treaty of Ninety Six District on September 16, 1775, of which Francis Salvador was one of the signatories (box 2, folder 8). This document was published by R. W. Gibbes (1853-57). It is also part of this collection a letter of Andrew Williamson to John Rutledge on August 4, 1776, detailing the events of an ambush by the Cherokee and reporting the death of Francis Salvador (box 5, folder 8). John Drayton (1821) transcribed and published this letter.
This series contains documents related to the intervention of Francis Salvador in the Revolutionary War. The Treaty of Ninety Six District on September 16, 1775, of which Francis Salvador was one of the signatories (box 2, folder 8). This document was published by R. W. Gibbes (1853-57). It is also part of this collection a letter of Andrew Williamson to John Rutledge on August 4, 1776, detailing the events of an ambush by the Cherokee and reporting the death of Francis Salvador (box 5, folder 8). John Drayton (1821) transcribed and published this letter.
Archival history
Robert Wilson Gibbes offered to donate his Revolutionary War manuscript collection to the state for a legislative subsidy to publish his Documentary History of the American Revolution (1853-57). By legislative resolution of December 1854, the state agreed to subscribe to purchase 500 copies of each of Gibbes's three volumes at the price of $1.25 a volume. The exact date of the following deposit of the collection is uncertain, and no inventory of its contents at that time is known to survive.
Administrative / Biographical history
Robert Wilson Gibbes was born in Charleston on July 8, 1809. The Gibbes family had been in South Carolina since early in the Proprietary Era. His father, William Hasell Gibbes, was a Charleston lawyer. A graduate of South Carolina College and the Medical College of the State of South Carolina, Robert Wilson Gibbes purchased a medical practice in Columbia in the 1830s. In addition to his medical practice, Gibbes became a Columbia newspaper editor, a cotton mill owner, a widely known student of geology and palaeontology, and an art collector. His Columbia home and its art, mineral, and fossil collections were burned in 1865. Married to Carolina Elizabeth Guignard of an old Columbia family, Gibbes had twelve children and passed away in Columbia on October 15, 1866.
Access points: locations
Access points: persons, families
Access points: subject terms
Access points: document types
System of arrangement
Series arranged roughly chronologically with oversize items filed in a separate box.
Access, restrictions
Except for the surviving volume of Peter Horry's transcripts of Francis Marion's correspondence, the entire series is available online in digital format.
Finding aids
All loose manuscripts in this series have been abstracted and indexed to personal names, topics, and geographic locations in the repository's On-line Combined Index to Multiple Record Series, 1675-1929. The surviving volume of transcripts of Francis Marion's correspondence has not been included.
Links to finding aids
Author of the description
Carla Vieira, 2023
Published primary sources
Linked resources
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| Title | Alternate label | Class |
|---|---|---|
| South Carolina Department of Archives and History | Collections (official language of the state) |