Inventor Name
Macay and McNeely family
Repository
University of North Carolina Library
Southern Historical Collection
CB# 3926, Wilson Library
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890
919-962-1345
http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/shc
Physical Description
1.5 linear feet
Summary
Papers of the Macay and McNeely families of Rowan County, N.C. Prominent family members included Spruce Macay (1755-1808), lawyer and judge, and his sons Alfred (d. 1827) and William Spruce (d. ca. 1861). Also represented is Robert W. McNeely, son of William Spruce Macay's widow, Mildred Ann Hunt Macay, and her second husband, William G. McNeely. Materials up to 1820 consist chiefly of legal papers and a few letters of Spruce Macay and his second wife, Elizabeth Haynes Macay. There are also materials relating to several of his children, especially his son Alfred. Papers for 1827-1856 deal chiefly with William Spruce Macay and include correspondence, legaldocuments, and financial papers, some relating to his brother Alfred's estate. Correspondence is primarily about family affairs. Material dated 1861-1877 concerns members of the Macay, McNeely, and Hunt families, and includes a few letters from Meshack F. Hunt, 1st lieutenant in the 5th Infantry, N.C. State Troops; a muster roll of Co. G., 54th Regiment, N.C. State Troops; and other items relating to the Confederate Army. 1880-1918 items are chiefly papers of McNeely family members and include documents relating to their efforts, 1891-1892, to claim land on Manhattan Island, New York City, through their relationship to the Edwards family. In addition, there is material concerning the naval service of Robert W. McNeely, including letters describing his trips to the Azores, the British Isles, the Caribbean, Greece, the Mediterranean, Palestine, and Turkey, and letters from Cuba during the Spanish-American War. There are also letters of Robert's wife Marie Calhoun Butler McNeely, who travelled with him to posts in the Orient, 1902-1908, and wrote of her experiences there. Volumes include a lawyer's fee book, 1759-1774, and Rowan County plantation, merchant, and household accounts and slave records beginning in 1791. In the Macay family papers there is a letter dated 1809 from J. Franklin of Washington, D.C. to Jo. Williams of Surry County, North Carolina on political issues and the invention of a cotton card.
Finding Aid
http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/m/Macay_and_McNeely_Family