Charles Smith papers

The Charles Smith papers consists of 1.6 linear feet of material including a collection of trial notes, letters pertaining to his career as a lawyer and judge, business receipts, papers related to state business, personal letters and bank books, all of which range from 1795 to 1847. The collection came to the University of Delaware as a gift of the Moyerman family in 1972. The manuscripts are divided into three series – business, personal, and family papers – and are arranged chronologically within each series.

The trial notes make up the largest portion of the collection, dating from 1795 through 1831. The trials range from debt to trespass to boundary disputes, appeals, motions for new trials, recovery of property and to questions about indenture. In most instances the names of the litigants are included, along with witness testimony, and at times the outcome of the case. The name “Judge Yeates” appears occasionally in the trial notes, and probably refers to Jasper Yeates, Smith’s father-in-law.

The business papers also include letters sent to Smith discussing his cases and asking for his assistance or castigating him for his failure to perform his duties. His career put him in contact with other Pennsylvanians, prominent in both state and national history. Business letters came to him from Tench Coxe (1755-1824), a Philadelphia native active in commerce, land speculation, and the promotion of manufacturing; Simon Gratz (d. 1856), a Philadelphia lawyer and legislator who raised money for the Committee of Defense in preparation for the possible invasion of Philadelphia by British Forces; Alexander Nisbet (1777-1857), the son of Dickson College’s first president, Charles Nesbit, who served as a judge in Baltimore, Maryland, as well as a railroad president; and James Ross (1762-1847), a lawyer and United States senator from York County, Pennsylvania, who acted as a commissioner in dealing with the Whiskey Rebellion.

A small group of papers relate to Pennsylvania politics, including the purchase of a bridge in Lancaster County and the 1803 impeachment of Judge Alexander Addison.

Smith’s personal papers span thirty years between 1803 and 1833. The earliest materials are bank books, but the collection also includes letters written to him about his son’s debts, tuition at Harvard University for law instruction, and a letter of introduction for his son Theodore to a woman in London. A group of items cover the administration of his father’s will.

The last section of family papers includes the letters and trial notes of Frederick Smith. His relationship with Charles Smith is unclear. The same name appears on a list of graduates of the University of Pennsylvania in 1792, and “F. Smith” is occasionally listed as a lawyer in the trial notes, often as opposite council to Charles Smith. A document from Orphans Court related to the administration of a trust for Mary Yeates Smith is also included. As with Frederick, her relationship to Charles Smith is unclear, though she was most likely a granddaughter, possibly the daughter of Charles Edward Smith (1804-1829), who predeceased his father.