John Lancaster Bailey was a resident of Pasquotank County, N.C., then Hillsborough, and, finally, Asheville, N.C. He was a superior court judge, served in the state legislature, 1827-1830, and was a delegate to the state convention of 1835. Bailey married Priscilla Brownrigg of Edenton, N.C., in 1821. Their daughter was Sarah Jane Bailey Cain (1828-1927), wife of William Cain (d. 1855) of Orange County. Among their grandchildren were Elizabeth B. Cain (1850-1929), who married John Steele Henderson in 1874, and William Cain (1847-1930), engineer and professor of mathematics at the University of North Carolina. The collection is chiefly family correspondence and miscellaneous papers of Bailey, his wife Priscilla Brownrigg Bailey, and other family members. Papers concerning Bailey's public interests and career are sparse. The correspondence among family members and the letters received by them from numerous relatives and friends provide descriptions of the activities and interests of many planter families in Pasquotank, Perquimans, Chowan, Orange, and Buncombe counties, N.C.; in southeastern Virignia; and around Columbus and Aberdeen, Miss. There are also letters from family and friends in Tennessee, Alabama, and South Carolina. Letters from civilians in Federal-occupied eastern North Carolina are included as are letters from William Cain serving as drillmaster in Confederate army camps at age 13. Postwar letters include those from William while surveying railroad lines in North and South Carolina. Among the families represented in the collectin are the Bailey, Brownrigg, Brown, Sawyer, Scott, Cross, Granberry, Johnson, and Dillard inthe coastal area; Cain, Ruffin, and Caldwell in Orange and Burke counties, N.C.; and Brownrigg and Sparkman in Mississippi. Also included are deeds of gift, 1840s and 1850s bills of sale for slaves, drawings, Sarah Cain's scrapbooks and reminiscences, and a detailed map of Hillsborough, N.C., circa 1839, and related items.
