Description:

Documents: Early Charleston Rutledge family correspondence 74 letters from Sarah Motte Rutledge to her son, John Rutledge III, dated 1818-1835
26 letters from John Rutledge III to his mother, Sarah Rutledge
19 letters to John Rutledge III from his siblings
11 letters from Maria Rose Rutledge to her husband, John Rutledge III
15 business letters to General John Rutledge, Jr., 1817-1818
together with:
2 Rutledge-family related letters
9 account books, including accounts of family expenses in Newport, Rhode Island (1801-1803), 6 general family account books (1812-1830), notes from John Rutledge, Jr. to his overseer, Robert McIntosh (c.1818), and accounts of Poplar Grove Plantation (1869-1872) (156pcs)

Provenance: Descended in the Rutledge family

Other Notes: The Rutledge family of Charleston has a long and significant place in South Carolina state history. An archive of documents once belonging to some of the family's and South Carolina's earliest political, military, and landowning ancestors has descended through the family to a present heir.

Included in this lot:
Letters from Sarah Motte Smith Rutledge (1777-1852), dated between 1818-1835, written from various places in England, including London, Bath, and Brighton, primarily to her son John Rutledge III. Sarah M. Rutledge was estranged from her husband as the result of a scandal involving an illicit relationship that she had with a young physician she met in 1801 in Newport, Rhode Island, where the Rutledge family lived during the time that John Rutledge Jr. served in Congress. An entry in John Rutledge's Newport Account Book, dated 5 November 1801, shows a payment of $30 to "Dr. Senter" for medical services. Dr. Horace Senter (1780-1804), a member of a prominent Newport family, later journeyed south, and renewed his relationship with Mrs. Rutledge. Dr. Senter, according to the "Register of Deaths and Burials" for Savannah, Georgia, died in that city on 19 January 1804 of "Lockjaw occasioned by a Wound" suffered "in a Duel with the Hon[ora]ble John Rutledge Esquire." Rutledge and his wife separated in 1809 and she later moved to England where she spent the remainder of her life. The letters she wrote from England describe her life there, family matters, and her travels. Letters from John Rutledge to his mother are also in the archive, as well as two documents that relate to the administration of Mrs. Rutledge's estate after her death on 14 January 1852. In one document, the Ordinary of Charleston District granted letters of Administration to Hugh R. Rutledge, Mrs. Rutledge's grandson, on 20 March 1852, and in the second document, an English court granted "Limited Administration of the effects of Mrs. S. M. Rutledge, decd." to her son John Rutledge on 10 July 1852.
Other letters in the collection include several sent to John Rutledge III from his siblings, 1820-1825; several from Maria Rutledge to her husband, 1819-1821; and business-related letters to John Rutledge, Jr. 1817-1818. Several other 19th-century letters are also present.
Additionally, there are six bank account books from the period 1812- 1830, in the names of John Rutledge Jr. and John Rutledge III in the archive. One account book, labeled "Newport" and dated 16 June 1801, includes expenses incurred from 1801 through 1803, while another account book details the expenses for Poplar Grove Plantation from 1869 through 1872, with lists of monthly and contract laborers and the amounts paid to each. One notebook, circa 1818, contains instructions from John Rutledge, Jr. to his overseer Robert McIntosh, notes about allowances paid to his sons John and Robert, and quarterly advances to his estranged wife.

    Condition:
  • Documents in overall good original condition, with varying states of wear, age discoloration, tears, and holes; account books with wear to covers, age discoloration to interiors, and pages torn/missing.


    *** Notice to bidders: The absence of a condition report does not imply that an object is free of defects or restoration. Condition reports are prepared by request on a 'first come, first served' basis. For more information please read paragraph #9 of Terms and Condition of Sale.

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June 26, 2015 10:00 AM EDT
West Columbia, SC, US

Charlton Hall

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