Original papers, 1842-1855, and transcribed correspondence and photocopies of research papers. Settlement, 11 May 1842, re a disputed inheritance, records the legal opinion of John M. Roberts and Vardry McBee in settling the accounts of Thomas B. Williams and James L. Williams. According to the terms of the settlement, Thomas B. Williams was to pay James L. Williams $3,800, the "balance of a Legacy of four thousand dollars" left to James by his uncle and held by Thomas as the guardian of his son. Letter, 8 Jan. 1847, to P. Whitin & Son (Whitinsville, Mass.), ordering a "lap machine" with two beaters, suitable for thirty-inch cards, noting that he would arrange to pay for the machine in New York, adding that his other textile machinery had been made by Rogers, Ketchum & Grosvenor (New Jersey); letter, 9 Jan. 1848, from McBee to his son Vardry A. McBee in Lincolnton, N.C., sending paternal advice, " ... I would endeavour to imitate & practice as much as possible the Magnanimity of Washington, the Sagacity of a Boniparte, the energy of Hannibal ... ", listing books worthy of attentive reading, advising attention to his duties as clerk of court, and advising against moving the shop off the street for use as a kitchen. Unpublished, transcribed copy of McBee's diary for the year 1851, with brief entries concerning plantation, farming, and slave work, news of family and friends, court, railroad, and business activities, travel, and weather, along with separate narrative chapters discussing McBee's early life, the Constitutional Convention in Charleston, S.C., in 1788, his gifts to churches, and information on development of Camperdown Textile Mills; letter, 29 April 1855, to his wife, Jane, in Lincolnton, N.C., reporting progress on digging wells in Greenville, S.C., alluding to management problems at the mill, a recent service at the Presbyterian Church, and an upcoming meeting of railroad directors in Columbia, S.C. Miscellaneous photocopies of research on McBee and early Greenville County history including biographical sketch; his education; his land transactions, homestead, and donations of land to churches; historical sketch of Greenville; Reedy River; Camperdown Mills; and Greenvillians at the South Carolina convention that ratified the U.S. constitution.
