Noble Family Papers

Personal and professional correspondence of the Noble family, mostly Edward Noble and his son Patrick Noble, as preserved by Patrick Noble's family. The collection also includes a group of letters addressed to Edward Noble's uncle John Noble (1774-1819), and the correspondence of Floride Calhoun (1792-1866) and James Edward Calhoun (1826-1861), wife and son of John C. Calhoun, about the administration of Calhoun's estate and property. There are also several documents about slaves owned by the Calhoun, Cuningham, and Pickens families as well as legal documents used in various law suits brought about by the various family estates and property.

John Noble's correspondence includes letters from his brothers Alexander, Ezekiel, and Patrick. In his letters, Alexander Noble discusses the disposition of the estate of Nicolas Cooper; his business affairs, including management of the Vienna Plantation, cotton trade, and family slaves (including news of a fire set by the enslaved woman Hannah). Ten letters by Patrick Noble (1805-1818) describe his studies at Princeton and his trip home in the fall of 1806; admission to the bar, partnership with John C. Calhoun, his legal practice, and state and national politics. Also included is the letter to Patrick Noble from John C. Calhoun (1828, Sep. 19, NBL 165), discussing the tariff controversy.

Correspondence of Edward Noble includes his letters to his wife and son; his business correspondence, including communications with the Calhoun and Clemson families, and letters from his friends, family members, colleagues, and political allies, including John Bratton and Francis Wilkinson Pickens. The letters of Edward Noble and Patrick Noble (1849-1920) describe Patrick's school studies; Edward Noble's trip to New York, Washington, D.C., White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, in the summer of 1860; the South Carolina Secession Convention in Charleston (December 1860-March 1861); Noble's service in the Confederate Army (February 1862-June 1863); the politics of Reconstruction in South Carolina and particularly in Abbeville (including the activities of the local Ku Klux Klan), Patrick's life in California, news of friends and family.

Other prominent participants include: Thomas W. Bacot, South Carolina lawyer and politician; Andrew Pickens Calhoun, son of John C. Calhoun; author Floride Clemson; professor R. Means Davis; businessman and Senator James G. Fair; General John T. Morgan; businessman J. Mora Moss; Mexican journalist Manuel Payno; Francis W. Pickens, South Carolina representative; Charles P. Stone, U.S. Army officer; and Major Jasper S. Whiting.