8

WILSON AND HAIRSTON #4134
PAPERS.
[underlined Chronological Analysis]
[underlined 1789-1813] (Continued):

Wilson's accounts with these merchants, and the latest political news. Merchants also wrote Hairston and Wilson asking their assistance in the collection of debts owed them by other Stokes and Rockingham residents. There are letters to Peter Hairston from customers requesting that their taxes be charged to their store accounts; similarly customers wrote to Peter Wilson about adjustments in their accounts. From 1789 to 1800 there are numerous notes to Peter Wilson whereby the sender asked Wilson to entrust certain merchandise to the bearer of the note. Correspondence indicates Thomas Bouldin and Company was in business with Peter Wilson from 1801 to 1803.

There are also many financial papers for this period. There are accounts for goods bought by Peter Wilson and Peter Hairston, some for large quantities of merchandise for their stores and others for smaller quantities of merchandise obviously bought for plantation or personal use. Together they show patterns of buying and selling between both Wilson and Hairston and various general and commission merchants in Lynchburg, Richmond, and Petersburg, Virginia. Occasionally there are accounts for merchandise purchased from London merchants through these Virginia merchants. The two Peters paid for their merchandise in tobacco, and there are numerous lists of tobacco sent to Petersburg and receipts for the labor expended for its carriage. Other tobacco was sent to commission merchants just for sale.

Scattered throughout the period are legal papers for the alteration of land ownership and the collection of debts. Peter Wilson and Peter Hairston constantly bought land, and there are deeds and plats for their land purchases. In addition, there are letters and financial papers about property transfers, including Peter Wilson's purchase of a grist mill in 1804. There are also bonds, notes, judgements, summons, and court bills concerning Wilson and Hairston suits brought against their debtors.

In addition, there are bonds and annual agreements with their overseers enumerating employment terms, including amounts of crops owed to Wilson and Hairston. There is also an agreement between Peter Perkins and his overseer at Troublesome Creek Ironworks in Rockingham county, North Carolina.

There are also bills of sale for slave purchases by Peter Wilson and Peter Hairston.

Peter Hairston served intermittently during this period as a justice of the peace. Thus, there are summons and marriage bonds issued by him and over 80 lists of taxables for 1799 (?) collected by Peter Hairston. These listed the property of Stokes county, North Carolina, residents. One legal document in 1810 indicated Peter Wilson also served as a justice of the peace, but for Pittsylvania county, Virginia

Dec. 1978
by
M.V. Jones