Family Manuscripts and Legal and Financial Records, 1818-1940 and undated

Series 2 contains documents other than correspondence related to specific Weems and Reynolds family members. This series contains business and legal documents, as well as several handwritten manuscripts on a variety of subjects.

Prominent among the handwritten manuscripts is the Autobiography of Gustavus Weems. This two-volume work, dating to approximately 1851-1852, contains Gustavus's version of the history of the family in both Scotland and Maryland and discussions of the family farm, enslaved people, and other property. This document is discussed in later correspondence between Rachel Thomason Weems and her daughter, Hattie.

Other manuscripts in this portion of the collection are related to the genealogy of various branches of the family, religion, and astronomy. This material appears to have both copied or authored by various family members.

Legal documents include wills and contracts. Much of this material consists of court petitions related to a land trust held jointly by Helen Dunnington Reynolds Brewer and her brother William Augustus Reynolds. This portion of the collection also contains an inventory of Weems family records held by Helen Dunnington Reynolds Brewer in 1929.

An important document in this series is the "Old Maids Contract" signed by Hattie Reynolds and witnessed by several friends. This document consists of a pledge, in contract form, that Hattie and other named parties would forswear the company of men and society and remain "Old Maids" for life. As discussed in the family history section above, Hattie, indeed, never married.

Financial records in the collection consist largely of two types, account books and receipts. The account books are associated with Joseph W. Reynolds, Gustavus Weems, and Rachel Thomason Reynolds respectively, and are concerned with a variety of family expenses and enterprises. Receipts in the collection typically detail transactions involving agricultural products. This class of material also includes several documents listing or accounting for enslaved people.

This material has been arranged alphabetically by family member.