A GUIDE TO THE

Joseph Sawin Ewing, Papers, 1794-1965 (bulk 1950-1965)

The Library of Virginia
800 E. Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia
www.lva.virginia.gov/

Processed by: Renee Savits
Date completed: May 4, 2001

Personal Papers Collection, Accession # 31871
Extent: 4.05 cubic feet; 9 boxes; box numbers 1-9

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Provenance:
Gift of John MacDonald Ewing, 1208 Morningside Lane, Alexandria, Virginia, 28 July 1983.

Restrictions:
None

Preferred citation:
Joseph Sawin Ewing, Papers, 1794-1965 (bulk 1950-1965). Accession 31871. Personal Papers Collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA 23219.

Separations:
One hundred forty one maps were transferred to the Map Collection. These include primarily U.S.G.S. topographic quadrangles and facsimiles of some historical maps. A list of the maps is contained at the end of the container list.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

The Reverend Joseph Sawin Ewing (1899-1965) was born in Illinois and spent a great part of his life in the midwest and west, serving churches in Oregon, South Dakota, and Oklahoma. A 1922 graduate of the Virginia Theological Seminary, he returned to Virginia in 1950 as rector of South Farnham Parish, Essex County, Virginia. Residing in Tappahannock, he was active in local historical societies and served as president of the Essex County Historical Society in the early 1960s. He became interested in the history of local Indian tribes and early colonial churches, doing research and field work in both areas, locating early sites through records, maps, and local people. He published articles in Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Magazine (1963) and Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (1965).

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

These papers consist of research notes, correspondence, printed items, and published articles documenting Ewing's interests in genealogy and local history of the Old Rappahannock County (Va.) area. The county existed from 1656 to 1692 and covered present day Essex and Richmond counties and parts of other adjoining counties. There are transcripts of court records, correspondence, information on old homes, towns, families, and villages of Old Rappahannock County, extracts from published sources, and other historical information. Ewing also included King and Queen, King George, Lancaster, Middlesex, New Kent, and Westmoreland counties in his researches.

The papers are divided into eight series including, Colonial Church, Correspondence, Indians, Notes, Pioneer Settlements, Research notes for published articles, Rosegill, and Subject files. Ewing's original folder titles have been maintained, along with the original series division. Ewing's method of titling folders appears to have been one of casual notations of content, rather than precise information on materials within the folders. Therefore crosschecking of folders and series is necessary to yield all pertinent information.

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Series I: Colonial Church (1794-1961)
This series includes notes, maps, outlines, plats, and published materials used in Ewing's 1961 lecture series on the colonial church in Virginia. Ewing lectured at the Grace Episcopal Church (Alexandria, Va.) and the Abingdon Men's Club (Abingdon, Va.), among other places. Included are notes on Lancaster Parish (Middlesex County, Virginia), South Farnham Parish (Essex County, Virginia), and Upper Piscataway Parish (Old Rappahannock County, Virginia).

Series II: Correspondence (1952-1965)
This series includes correspondence from genealogists researching families in Essex, King and Queen, King George, Lancaster, Middlesex, New Kent, Richmond, and Westmoreland counties, Virginia. Correspondents include Stephen F. Bayne Jr., Laurance S. Brigham, Lawrence L. Brown, George MacLaren Brydon, George H.S. King, Howard McCord, George Carrington Mason, and Peter Quennel.

Series III: Indians (1950-1964)
This series includes correspondence, clippings, maps, notes, and publications Ewing gathered on the Rappahannock Indians. Includes copy of the publication "Indian Sites below the falls of the Rappahannock, Virginia," by David Bushnell, correspondence, newsletters, and quarterly bulletins from the Archeological Society of Virginia, and a paper written by Joseph Ewing, Margaret Ewing, and Helen Rountree entitled, "Indian towns in Virginia's Rappahannock River Valley, 1608-1800." Also includes information on the Mattaponi Indians.

Series IV: Notes
This series contains miscellaneous notes regarding Essex and Richmond counties, Virginia. The folders are labeled according to the source of the information. Folder titles include Essex County land tax lists and order books, Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia records, chancery cases, Colonial Records Project, and the Webb family papers.

Series V: Pioneer settlements
This series includes notes on the neighborhoods resulting from the Lancaster County court order of 6 August 1653, which created Rappahannock County and appointed ten commissioners to oversee the local muster. The order described the muster limits, which included the home plantation of each commissioner. These neighborhoods are numbered by Ewing and listed geographically from the lower end of the north side of the Rappahannock River to the upper section, and from the lower end of the south side of the river to the upper section. Ewing's folder titles have been maintained as well as the original arrangement of the folders after determining the subject's location on the north or south side of the Rappahannock River. Materials within these folders contain general information on land transfers and ownership of a particular piece of land.

Series VI: Research notes for published articles (1963-1965)
This series includes drafts and notes from articles written by Ewing, including "The First Justices in the Rappahannock River and the Formation of Rappahannock County," published in 1963 in the Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Magazine (Vol. 13, December 1963, pp. 1182-1194) and "The Correspondence of Archibald McCall and George McCall," published in 1965 in Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (Vol. 73, July and October 1965, pp. 312-353, 425-454). Included are notes, footnotes, drafts, and final drafts.

Series VII: Rosegill
This series includes notes, clippings, published materials, maps, and an outline for a paper about the Wormley family plantation of Rosegill in Middlesex County, Virginia.

Series VIII: Subject files
This series contains clippings, notes, maps, and correspondence on a variety of subjects including Bacon's Rebellion, biographies on Henry Fleet and George Washington, highway markers in Essex County, mills, naval officers and collectors of revenue in the rivers, roads and ferries, swamps and creeks, and tobacco.

CONTAINER LIST

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