PINCKNEY FAMILY.
Pinckney family papers, 1823-1864

Restrictions on Access

Unrestricted access.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.

Source

Purchase, 1938.

Citation

[after identification of item(s)], Pinckney family papers, Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, Emory University.

Processing

Processed by SMM, 1974.

Biographical Note

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1789-1865), a Charleston planter, was the son of General Thomas Pinckney and Elizabeth Motte Pinckney, and the grandson of Chief Justice Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1699-1758). He served as Lt. Governor of South Carolina from 1832-1834. He married Phoebe Caroline Elliott Pinckney (1791-1864) and their children included Reverend Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1812-1899), Caroline (1816-1892), Thomas (1828-1915), and Mary Elliott (1833-1912).

Reverend Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1812-1899), was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, and educated at the South Carolina College (graduated 1831) and Alexandria Theological Seminary. He was ordained a deacon in the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1835 and a priest in 1836; served as rector of St. James Church, Santee and Christ Church, Greenville, 1835-1845; was assistant minister of Grace Episcopal Church, Charleston, 1850-1854, and rector of that Church, 1854-1898. He died at Flat Rock, North Carolina, on August 12, 1898, according to the church memorial. Other sources give the year of death as 1899. Biographical information on the elder Pinckney was obtained from the South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, v. 23, pp. 63 and 151; on the Reverend Pinckney from South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, v. 1, pp. 103-105, and Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, v. 5.

Scope and Content Note

The collection consists of the papers of Pinckney family including 67 letters and 34 pieces of business and legal papers, primarily receipts, but, in addition, two mortgages (for slaves and real estate), accounts with merchants, and miscellaneous notes. Most of the papers date between 1860 and 1864.

The majority of letters deal with business affairs, relating generally to the operation of the Pinckney plantations, Eldorado and Fannymeade. Two letters (August 5 and 30, 1860) from the overseer give information about crops, slaves, and the outlook for harvest. A few letters discuss personal and family affairs. A letter of December 5, 1833, from Caroline Pinckney to her brother, C. C., tells of John C. Calhoun's reception in Charleston. Four letters (December 18, 1833; July 29 and October 13, 1863, February 20; 1964) contain references to slavery, the last three to sales of slaves. One letter to Reverend Pinckney from [James] Peterkin, February 9, 1861, conveys Peterkin's moderate views toward the possibility of sectional conflict. There is slight mention of the military operations of the war.

The letters are mainly addressed to or written by Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1789-1865) and the Reverend C. C. Pinckney (1812-1899). Other correspondents represented are Phoebe Caroline Elliott Pinckney, J. L. McKenna, Mary E. Huger, [James] Peterkin, and A. H. Seabrook.