Capt. William Sommerville (1756-1826) Papers

The "View now" link directs to the finding aid only. Please email wvrhcref@westvirginia.libanswers.com or call 304-293-3536 for more information about accessing collection A&M 1750 Capt. William Sommerville (1756-1826) Papers, 1799-1888. Correspondence and genealogical materials related to the William B. Edwards family of King George County, Virginia, and the Capt. William Sommerville family of Martinsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia) from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These families were joined when Elizabeth Sommerville (1812-1886), daughter of the Revolutionary War veteran, married William B. Edwards (1810-1888), a Methodist clergyman from a planter family, in 1833. Collection includes: correspondence between William and Elizabeth Edwards from 1832 to 1888 (chiefly from the 1830s and 1840s about their relationship, family, and his work with the Baltimore Conference); genealogical notes and narrative family histories of the Sommerville, Edwards, and the related William Brown, Laurence Balthrop, and John Sommerville families; and miscellaneous materials related to Captain William Sommerville. The latter include: am original calendar of letter abstracts for the correspondence of William Sommerville, 1810-1811; an original copy of the diary of William Sommerville, 1810-1812; a typescript of his 1794 diary; and a family register that contains a handwritten copy of Sommerville's brief account of his Revolutionary War service with the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment and his life after the war, as well as copied extracts of his diary from 1810 to 1812. Topics of the diary include politics and relations between Britain and the United States; weather; news of family and friends; and the War of 1812.