David Alexander Barnes graduated fromthe University of North Carolina with an A.B. in 1840. He lived at Jackson(Northampton County), N.C., and was a member of the state House of Commons in 1844,1846, 1850, and of the Convention of 1861. He was a superior court judge from 1865to 1868 and a university trustee in 1868. In 1873, he married BettieVaughan. The collection includes personal and businesscorrespondence, chiefly 1850-1890; bills and receipts; bills of sale; wills; deeds;indentures; and other legal papers of David A. Barnes. The papers concerninglegal matters handled by Barnes are largely relate to members of the Burgwyn andMcRae families. They include letters concerning Alveston, the Burgwyn plantation inOcconeechie Neck, Northampton County, N.C.; George Pollock Burgwyn's bankruptcycase; and the affairs of T. Pollock Burgwyn and his sister Emily. There arescattered items relating to Barnes's service as aide-de-camp to North Carolinagovernor Zebulan B. Vance during the Civil War and to his postwar railroad interestsas a director and attorney of the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad. Postwar politicalcorrespondence includes letters to and from Jonathan Worth, William C. Bagley, andothers. Personal correspondence includes letters between Bettie Vaughan Barnes, theVaughan family, and her husband and children, especially son David Collin Barneswhile he was a student at Horner Academy, Oxford, N.C. Volumes include CollinWilliam Barnes's ledger for provisions, shoe shop, and labor, 1820-1832; an accountbook and ledger for whiskey and bacon, 1833; Boons Mill day books, 1836-1839; otheraccount books; proceedings of the Jackson Lyceum Society, Jackson, N.C., 1838-1839;and the 1840 diary Barnes kept while he was a student at the University of NorthCarolina.
