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Henry Newman family papers, 1777-1872

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Summary

Creator:
Newman family
Abstract:
The Henry Newman family papers document Henry Newman's land speculation in the southeastern United States and Ohio, and Henry Newman, Jr.'s, efforts to manage these properties and resolve legal quandaries--primarily in relation to the family's involvement with the Yazoo Land Fraud. The collection also details activities of Henry Newman's other children, particularly William Newman and the business he established in Buffalo, New York, in the 1820s.
Extent:
0.5 linear feet
Language:
English
Authors:
Collection processed and finding aid created by Jayne Ptolemy, October 2018

Background

Scope and Content:

The Henry Newman Family Papers document Henry Newman's land speculation in the southeastern United States and Ohio, and Henry Newman, Jr.'s, efforts to manage these properties and resolve legal quandaries--primarily in relation to the family's involvement with the Yazoo Land Fraud. The collection also details activities of Henry Newman's other children, particularly William Newman and the business he established in Buffalo, New York, in the 1820s.

The bulk of the Correspondence Series is letters between Henry Newman and his son, Henry Newman, Jr., from 1803 to 1811, relating to the management of their land holdings. Notably, they discussed Henry Newman, Jr's, lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C., regarding their Georgia claims. In this work, he interacted with President Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), the commissioners appointed to consider the Yazoo land claims-- James Madison (1751-1836), Albert Gallatin (1761-1849), and Levi Lincoln (1749-1820)--as well as Perez Morton (1751-1837) and Gideon Granger (1767-1822), agents for the New England Mississippi Land Company. The letters from 1803 to 1811 periodically reference John Peck, another speculator in the Yazoo lands who would eventually become embroiled in the landmark Supreme Court Case Fletcher v. Peck in relation to the Georgia land claims.

Henry Newman, Jr., also wrote detailed letters to his father describing his travels, meetings, and financial difficulties as he worked to manage issues with land titles, taxes, surveys, squatters, and determining the quality of their disputed properties in Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Ohio. Several of Henry Newman, Jr.'s, letters also describe his interest in Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, and western New York as developing centers of settlement, commenting on business prospects and rising land prices.

William Newman's letters detail his business enterprises in Buffalo, New York, where he settled in the 1820s. Other letters written between members of the Newman family, particularly the siblings, document the family's social life.

Some letters of note include:
  • Descriptions of meeting Samuel Blodget (1757-1814) in Debtor's Prison and discussions regarding his failed lottery to finance construction in Washington, D.C. (November 26, 1803; November 30, 1803; December 11, 1803; December 21, 1803)
  • Land speculators' deliberate fraud in Virginia (December 10, 1803; November 9, 1805)
  • Legislative negotiations concerning compensating Yazoo claimants (March 5, 1804; March 14, 1804; December 2, 1804; December 18, 1804; February 4, 1805; February 18, 1805; February 28, 1807)
  • Mentions of the Burr conspiracy (January 28, 1807; February 1, 1807)
  • Tennessee Governor Willie Blount's comments on Congressional support for settlement in the state and the possible threat of Native American conflict should war break out with Great Britain (March 17, 1812)
  • Discussion of Ohio's promise as a site of settlement (December 2, 1804; January 28, 1807; February 28, 1807)
  • Description of Huntsville, Alabama Territory, and its prospects (July 16, 1818; May 5, 1819)
  • Prospects for settling in Texas and inducements provided by the Mexican government (October 27, 1833)
  • Commentary on a German communal society (the Community of True Inspiration) and how the rising value of western New York lands convinced them to emigrate (April 15, 1856)

The Land and Estate Documents Series consists of eight items relating to the estates of William Newman and Henry Newman, Jr., as well as documents concerning Newman lands in Alabama, Mississippi, and Virginia, including three survey maps.

The Genealogy, Family Record, and Poetry Series consists of six items, which relate to the Newman and Cushing families' histories, including a detailed account of Henry Newman's final illness and an acrostic poem written for Henry Newman.

Biographical / Historical:

Henry Newman was born in Boston in 1756. He married Deborah Cushing (1762-1845) on December 7, 1781. Henry Newman was a successful Boston merchant who also engaged in land speculation with the Ohio Company of Associates and the New England Mississippi Land Company. His participation as a principal in the latter embroiled him in the 1795 Yazoo Land Fraud, where 35 million acres of land in present-day Mississippi and Alabama were sold by Georgia under questionable circumstances. The sale was nullified in 1796, but those who had purchased lands under the original agreement pressed for financial restitution. In 1814, Congress passed legislation to enable redress through $5 million procured through land sales in Mississippi Territory. Henry Newman died of Typhus Fever in 1811.

Henry Newman, Jr., the eldest son of Henry and Deborah Newman, was born in Boston on May 16, 1783. He attended Boston Latin School, Harvard College, and studied law under Thomas Dawes and William Prescott. He actively advocated for the government to settle the family's Yazoo land claims and managed other aspects of the family's land speculation. He died in 1861.

William Newman, son of Henry and Deborah Newman, settled in Buffalo, New York, in the 1820s and married Lydia Scrafford on July 1, 1845. He worked at several area banks and a land office. He died in Buffalo in 1860 at the age of 60.

Acquisition Information:
2018. M-7083 .
Processing information:

This collection has been processed according to minimal, accession-level processing procedures and may be revised, expanded, or updated in the future.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into three series:
  • Series I: Correspondence
  • Series II: Land and Estate Documents
  • Series III: Genealogy, Family Record, and Poetry

Each series is arranged chronologically, with undated items at the end.

Rules or Conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Contents

Using These Materials

Info for Visitors

How to Request

Ordering Reproductions

Download PDF Finding Aid
RESTRICTIONS:

The collection is open for research.

USE & PERMISSIONS:

Copyright status is unknown

PREFERRED CITATION:

Henry Newman Family Papers, William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan

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Collection

Henry Newman family papers, 1777-1872
Total components 4
Last indexed 2025-02-09