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Stout-Alston Family Papers

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Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Call Number:
RG5.141
Repository:
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
Extent:
4.5 linear ft. (9 boxes)
Language:
English
Preferred Citation:
[Indicate the cited item or series here], RG 5/141, Stout-Alston Family Papers, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College.
Date:
1750-1905 (bulk, 1750-1830) (inclusive)
Creator:
Stout, Jacob, 1774-1855 and Alston, Jonathan
Form:
Account books
Abstract:
The Stout and Alston families were Quaker merchant families of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Delaware and Maryland. This collection of paper contains the personal and business correspondence, business and legal papers of Quaker merchants in Delaware, Philadelphia, and Maryland. The papers are chiefly of Jacob Stout (1774-1855), of Smyrna, Kent County, Delaware, who served as Governor of Delaware and Judge of Court of Appeals, and Jonathan Alston of Leipsic, Delaware.

The Stout and Alston families were Quaker merchants and civil servants, primarily of Delaware.

This collection of paper contains the personal and business correspondence, business and legal papers of Quaker merchants and civil servants in Delaware, Philadelphia, and Maryland. The papers are chiefly of Jacob Stout (1774-1855), of Smyrna, Kent County, Delaware, who served as Governor of Delaware and Judge of Court of Appeals, and Jonathan Alston of Leipsic, Delaware.

The collection is divided into six series:

  1. Biographical material
  2. Correspondence
  3. Miscellaneous manuscripts
  4. Business papers
  5. Legal papers
  6. Political correspondence

Donor: Purchase, 1927

The collection was purchased in 1927 from NYC collector/dealer Walter Benjamin, who had purchased ca. 1927 "a trunkful of Delaware and Phila. Quaker correspondence."

Subject
Place

Publisher
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
Finding Aid Author
FHL staff
Finding Aid Date
Before 1967
Sponsor
Encoding made possible by a grant by the Gladys Kriebel Delmas Foundation to the Philadelphia Consortium of Special Collections Libraries
Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

Friends Historical Library believes all of the items in this collection to be in the Public Domain in the United States, and is not aware of any restrictions on their use. However, the user is responsible for making a final determination of copyright status before reproducing. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/.

Collection Inventory

Biographic information mainly regarding Allston (Alston) family, from 1773 to 1787, covers 1773-1787.
Box 1
Scope and Contents

List of birthdates.

Discharge from military duty for Osburn Alston and Jonathan Alston, 4/17/1810, 5/22/1812 (respectively).
Box 1
Will of Osburn Alston, 8/16/1816.
Box 1
Physical Description

copy

Journal and account, author unknown.
Box 1

Correspondence, 4/17/1775-9/25/1905 and n.d.
Ser. 3. Miscellaneous manuscripts.
Box 3
Scope and Contents

Includes Biblical quotations, medicinal "receipt", diagrams, verse, admonition to a student, notes on French grammar.

Accounts.
Box 4-7
Account books.
Box 4-7
Bills of merchandise, services, etc.
Box 4-7
Miscellaneous and fragments.
Box 4-7
Scope and Contents

Includes allotment of real estate, records of days worked, record of crops, list of expenses of vessel, current price of certain products, weight of hides, statement of public and poor tax, etc.

Pay to Bearer note.
Box 4-7
Receipts for payments.
Box 4-7
Surveyors' drafts.
Box 4-7
Surveyors' field notes.
Box 4-7

Administrative papers.
Box 7-9
Agreements.
Box 7-9
Awards.
Box 7-9
Bonds.
Box 7-9
Briefs testimony.
Box 7-9
Certificates.
Box 7-9
Deeds.
Box 7-9
Depositions.
Box 7-9
Ms. on Grand Jury.
Box 7-9
Indentures.
Box 7-9
Inventories.
Box 7-9
Notices of dates of Causes for Trial Argument.
Box 7-9
Patent of Baer Gonilart.
Box 7-9
Physical Description

copy

Petitions.
Box 7-9
Promissory notes.
Box 7-9
Summons.
Box 7-9
Vend Exponas.
Box 7-9
Vendues.
Box 7-9
Warrants.
Box 7-9
Wills.
Box 7-9
Miscellaneous.
Box 7-9
Scope and Contents

Includes levies on goods & chattel, conditions of sale, settlement, adjustment, eviction notice, attachment, appraisement, order to pay sum from school fund for education of poor children, compromise, approved accounts, transfer of claim, Judgments, referees' decisions, etc.

Ser. 6. Political papers.
Box 9

Print, Suggest