Papers of Dr. Stapleton Coates (1807-1890) of Henrico County, Virginia, and his descendants. Other prominent surnames, related by marriage, are Deitrick and Sutton; names of unspecified relation include Wingfield and Pettus. The collection consists of correspondence, sermon notes, property agreements and drawings, probate documents, tax receipts, obituaries, and a tintype of an unidentified man.

All but one of the 27 letters or letter fragments in the collection were written in the 1870s and 1880s or are undated. Not all correspondents are identified, and some have no apparent familial relationship with the Coates family. A number of the letters were written by or addressed to persons named Belle. There were females with that name in at least three generations of the family; it is not always apparent which is the correspondent.

Topics mentioned in the letters include family and church activities, illness, romance and marriage, school and partying, friendship, prospective visits, the tobacco business, and the presidential election of 1880. Two sets of seven letters reveal the evolving romances of two different couples, both of whom later married.

Anna Maria Pettus, the subject of the probate records, apparently was a patient of Dr. Coates. She named him her principal beneficiary and executor of her estate.