The Winterthur Library

The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

Title: Wilson-Warner-Corbit Family Papers

Dates: 1681-1902

Call No.: Col. 35

Acc. No.: 69x224

Quantity: 4 boxes

Location: 9 A 4

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

The Wilson, Warner, and Corbit families were important and influential families in Odessa (formerly known as Cantwell's Bridge), St. Georges Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware through much of its history. They were connected by marriage, business, political, and religious ties. It is unclear how the Whites of Kent County, Delaware, fit with the other families.

The connections of the families with each other, with the city of Philadelphia, where some members went for education or for business, and with other Quakers are all evident in this collection.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The collection consists almost entirely of letters to and from members of the named families. The pre-nineteenth century materials relate to the White family. The papers document the education, family life, and relationships of members of these eighteenth and nineteenth century residents of Delaware. Whether being educated at Quaker schools in Pennsylvania or moving to Indiana, the focus of the families was still on their hometown of Odessa. Genealogical information and a few photos are also included.

ORGANIZATION

The papers are arranged by family and are in four series: White papers, Wilson papers, Corbit-Warner papers, and books and oversized documents.

PROVENANCE

The papers came to Winterthur from descendants of the families.

ACCESS POINTS

Topics:

Quakers - Delaware - Odessa - Biography.

Boarding schools - Pennsylvania.

Odessa (Del.) - Genealogy.

Odessa (Del.) - History.

Inventories of decedents’ estates – Delaware – New Castle County.

Letters.

Wills.

Prayer books.

Marriage certificates.

Accounts.

Deeds.

People:

Wilson family.

Warner family.

Corbett family.

White family.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

Location: 9 A 4

Series I: White papers

Box 1:

Folder 1: Andrew White, 1681-1788

Folder 2: James White, 1784

Folder 3: Gilbert White, 1773-99

Folder 4: Sarah White, 1796-1815

Folder 5: George White, 1812-13, 1839

Folder 6: Robert White's heirs, 1793

Folder 7: Mary White, 1783-89

Folder 8: Miscellaneous White papers, 1769-94

Series II: Wilson papers

Box 1:

Folder 9: David Wilson I papers: Letters to David Wilson II, 1800-1805

Folder 10: David Wilson I papers: Estate accounts, 1828-30

Folder 11: David Wilson I papers: Estate surveying, receipts, and description, 1829

Folder 12: David Wilson I papers: Estate accounts, court cases, 1828-29

Folder 13: David Wilson I papers: Court cases, 1829-38

Folder 14: David Wilson I papers: Court cases, Jonathan Wilson, 1829

Folder 15: David Wilson I papers: Court records, Ann Carter, 1821-22, 1829

Folder 16: David Wilson I papers: Court case, Charles S. Boyd, 1828

Folder 17: David Wilson I papers: Land patent to John and Henry Hartrop, copy of 1671 original

Folder 18: David Wilson II papers: Financial agreements and accounts, 1814, 1825-29, 1834

Folder 19: David Wilson II papers: Court records, 1828-29

Folder 20: David Wilson II papers: Letters from Ann Wilson, his wife, 1821

Folder 21: David Wilson II papers: Letters to and from Capt. James Jefferis (father of Ann Wilson), 1807, 1822

Folder 22: David Wilson II papers: Letter from Jefferis Wilson, 1849

Folder 23: David Wilson II papers: Letters received, 1847-64

Folder 24: Jefferis Wilson papers: Letters received, 1848

Folder 25: Elizabeth Shipley papers: Letters received, 1853-64

Folder 26: David Wilson papers, 1769, 1828, 1844

Series III: Corbit-Warner papers

Box 2:

Folder 1: Louisa and Charles C. Corbit papers: Letter received, 1836

Folder 2: Daniel Corbit papers: Letters received, 1832-64

Folder 3: Daniel Corbit papers: Letters received, dates uncertain (no year)

Folder 4: William Corbit papers: Deed, David Wilson to William Corbit, with map, 1815

Folder 5: William Corbit papers: Estate inventory, 1818

Folder 6: Mary Wilson Corbit: Letters received, 1846-48[9?]

Folder 7: Mary Wilson Corbit: Letters received, 1850-59

Folder 8: Mary Wilson Corbit: Letters received, 1860-69

Folder 9: Mary Wilson Corbit: Letters received, 1870-79

Folder 10: Mary Wilson Corbit: Letters received, 1880

Folder 11: Mary Cowgill Corbit (later Warner) papers: Letters received, 1851-65, and n.d.

Folder 12: Mary Cowgill Corbit: Letters sent, 1864

Box 3:

Folder 1: Mary Cowgill Corbit: Letters sent, 1865

Folder 2: Mary Cowgill Corbit: Letters sent, 1866

Folder 3: Mary Cowgill Corbit: Letters sent, 1867

Folder 4: Mary Cowgill Corbit: Letters sent, 1868

Folder 5: Mary Cowgill Corbit Warner papers: Letters received, 1870-1902

Folder 6: Mary Cowgill Corbit Warner papers: genealogical information; includes a list of students at the W.B.S. [Wilmington Boarding School?] in 1799 (William Corbit is listed); several lists of children and marriage dates; and wedding announcement of E. Tatnall Warner and Mary C. Corbit, 1876

Folder 7: Alphabetical subject file, genealogical papers of Mary Corbit Warner

Folder 8: Miscellaneous papers, n.d.:

poem sent to Mary Corbit by Alexander Durkin(?);

a poem entitled “Thou Art Not Lost”;

letter to “My Old Friend” from William Reynolds, Philadelphia April 20, 1841;

engraved picture of The Capitol, Washington;

engraved picture of birthplace of Shakespeare;

calling card of Mr. & Mrs. E. T. Warner;

photo of Mary Wilson Corbit (daughter of David Wilson II and mother of Mary Corbit Warner);

photo of an unidentified woman;

photocopy of letter from Nicholas Ridgely, New Castle, to John Cloak, Smyrna, August 21, 1821, about appointing John Corbit or some other person as guardian for grandchildren of Governor Clark (not named in letter but the children were Sarah Clark Corbit and Mary Pennell Corbit)

Folder 9: Four photographs of the Corbit house dating from 1894 to the 1920s;

photos of a survey of the Corbit property, with a drawing of a house, done by Philip Reading for William Corbit, 1777; the original document is museum accession 1963.0162.

Folder 10: “Mrs. Edward Tatnall Warner, 1848-1923: Reminiscences of Aunt Mollie [Mary C. Corbit Warner]”, by four great-nieces, Mrs. Earle Rosman Crowe, Mrs. Paul Jennings Nowland, Mrs. Charles Lee Reese, Jr., and Mrs. David Meredith Reese.

Folder 11: Stewart Rafert, “The Indiana Connection: Frontier Failure and Images of the Past in the Wilson-Corbit Letters, 1835-1870,: paper for University of Delaware, February 1976

Folder 12: Mary Corbit Warner, “Annals of Odessa,” July 19, 1917

Series IV: Books and oversize

Box 3:

Folder 13: Milk and Honey, or a Miscellaneous Collation of Many Christian Sentences, by Ralph Venning (London: Religious Tract Society), a gift to M. W. Corbit from E.B.H., in 1847.

Box 4:

Folder 1: Marriage certificate: Daniel Corbit and Mary C. Wilson, 1847

Folder 2: Marriage certificate: E. Tatnall Warner and Mary C. Corbit, 1876

Folder 3: Prayer book (title page no longer extant), which includes notices about the births of children to Jonathan and Mary Wilson and to Lawrence and Martha Wilson, 1770s-early 1800s

Folders 4-5 various scraps that came with the collection