Scope and Contents Typescript copies of letters and extracts, written by Edward Coles (1786-1868), who held the positions of secretary to President James Madison and Governor of Illinois. Subjects covered by the letters include James Madison and the War of 1812; Madison's not emancipating his slaves at his death; the claiming of public lands by individual states; the estate of James Monroe; Andrew Jackson; Thomas Jefferson's authorship of the Ordinance of 1787; and Jefferson's relationship with John Adams....

Scope and Contents Letter, n.y. January 14, Dolley P. Madison [Richmond, Va.] to Margaret Lowther Page (Mrs. John Page), Rosewell, York [County, Va.]. Written before John Page's death in 1808. James Madison served in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1799 and 1800 and the letter is postmarked Richmond. Discusses her disappointment that she and her husband missed seeing the Pages and the Bishop James Madison. Entreats the Pages to spend the next summer with the Madisons in Orange; hopes Mrs. McClane will...

Scope and Contents Papers of Conway Whittle II of Norfolk, Va. and of his two sisters, Mary Eliza Whittle Neale and Frances Munford Whittle Lewis. There are items concerning the earlier generation of the family, represented by Conway Whittle I and his brother Fortescue Whittle, Norfolk merchants. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of social history and naval history (including personal and official correspondence of William Lewis [1781-1815] and several letters of his...