The accounts subseries documents accounts with family members and overseers of Chew's plantations. Also included here are receipts for purchases and sales of slaves, the purchase of slaves' clothing, payments related to Chew's slaves' work on ships, and wages paid to servants. Bonds and agreements deals with the great deal of money Benjamin Chew lent to friends, family, and business associates over the course of his life; many of the documents in this subseries trace those loans and the payments received on the money lent, including receipts and correspondence related to the payment of bonds. The correspondence subseries creates a clear picture of Benjamin Chew's relationships with his family and friends, and provides insight into his political views as well as the connections he had with the Penn family and other public figures. Benjamin Chew's correspondence is particularly rich during the period of 1777-1778, when he was held as a prisoner at the Union Forge in New Jersey with John Penn. These letters not only describe his separation from his family, but also discuss the state of the nation during the Revolution. Benjamin Chew's correspondence with political and military figures hints at his ambivalence about the war and discusses the roles of his associates in carrying out military actions. Letters from his wife, Elizabeth Oswald Chew, document the attempts made by his children to visit him at Union Forge, provide updates about the health and welfare of the family, and relay Elizabeth's concerns about Benjamin's comfort and health. Legal and political papers contains materials related to Benjamin Chew's legal and political work, including his appointments to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the Assembly of Lower Counties, and the Provincial Council, as well as his positions as attorney general for Pennsylvania, recorder of wills, register general for Pennsylvania and the Three Lower Counties, and president of the High Court of Errors and Appeals. Miscellaneous materials include copies of Benjamin Chew's journals during his studies in London; a biographical sketch and portrait of Benjamin Chew; rules for the Overseers of the Poor; genealogical notes; inventories of books; recipes for homes remedies and dyes; spinning and weaving instructions for slaves' clothing; travel logs for trips to Maryland, Massachusetts, and Portsmouth; and certificates of appointment. Papers on the Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary dispute document the boundary commissioners' and surveyors' work through correspondence, notes, and proposals for methods of calculating the line. Many of the records pertain to the legal dispute between Penn and Baltimore, and include addresses, affidavits, agreements, complaints, commissions, correspondence, depositions, reports, petitions, testimony, interrogatories, minutes of the Boundary Commission, notes, patents, surveys, and maps. The accounts, correspondence, and surveyor's notes illustrate the arduous nature of conducting the survey, provide details about the relationships between commissioners and surveyors, and document the materials purchased over the course of the survey. The subseries on the Treaty at Easton documents the Treaty hearings that took place in Easton, Pennsylvania during the years of 1756 and 1762. After the first proceedings, the Council of the Committee to Review the Complaints of the Delaware Indians produced a report, to which were annexed copies of the documents referenced during the hearings. The affidavits, depositions, copies of deeds, maps and surveys that were cited as evidence are all included in this subseries, along with the Committee's report, providing a fairly comprehensive view of the proceedings at Easton, at least from the perspective of the Council. Also included here are complaints made by Teedyuscung, the Delaware chief, and documents related to the Seven Years' War and the violence that led up to the treaty hearings. The Turner Estate subseries contains accounts, bonds, correspondence, deeds, estate inventories, leases, legal documents, and materials documenting the sale and transfer of several slaves from Benjamin Chew to Margaret Oswald Smyth.
