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 namesake William Lewis Herndon who served in the Navy and went down in the sinking of the ship Central America in 1857).

There are letters written by and concerning Matthew Fontaine Maury.

The collection also covers the following subject areas: life in Philadelphia, life in Norfolk, the Whittle family in Mecklenburg County, Va., war with Tripoli (Barbary pirates), Confederate exiles in Nova Scotia, U. S. Civil War, U. S. Customs Service, Dismal Swamp Canal Company, politics, trips to the springs, marriage and courtship, the Protestant Episcopal Church, and slavery. Prominent correspondents in the collection include Charles Jared Ingersoll, Marquis de Lafayette, Tobias Lear, Dolley Madison, James Madison, Margaret Mercer, James Monroe, Edward Preble, John Randolph of Roanoke, and John Tyler.

See also Southern Women and their Families in the 19th Century Papers and Diaries Series C Reel # 16-22 in Swem Library’s microforms area, call number HQ1438 .V5 S68