Series 41 - Richard Edgeworth letters

20pp and 1 microfilm reel

Kerby A. Miller created this transcript from a copy of the original manuscript held on a microfilm provided by the South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina. The microfilm is now held with Miller's Richard Edgeworth letter materials in the University of Galway Library.

[This series contains outdated attitudes or language that does not reflect the current views or positions of the University of Galway Library. Reader discretion is advised.]
Kerby A. Miller's typed excerpts, including the Richard Edgeworth letters, from Edgar E. MacDonald's The American Edgeworth: A biographical sketch of Richard Edgeworth, with letters and documents pertaining to the legacy of his three sons, Richmond, Virginia, 1970.
Per MacDonald: 'Richard Edgeworth, who settled on the upper PeeDee River on the South Carolina-North Carolina border sometime before 1790, was the first son of Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744-1817), and the brother of the novelist, Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849). He died in 1796, at the age of 32, when the eldest of his 3 sons was but 7. Since his will, recorded in Anson Co., No. Carolina, left his eldest son "all my property in Europe, both real and personal," the legend grew that a vast estate in Ireland awaited his descendants [...] Richard spent most of early life in England, where he went to school. (7) Failing to apply himself to regular public schooling, however, Richard was allowed to go to sea c. 1778. During the 1780s, Richard's father's letters reveal that the returns of his son to England or to Ireland were both troublesome and expensive for him; and his father ruefully admitted his son's bad behaviour and his "corruption."'
Also included is a copy of MacDonald's 'The American Edgeworth' on microfilm.