Gibbes Family Letter, undated.

Gibbes Family Letter, undated.

The collection includes numerous letters between James Ladson Gibbes and his father, John Gibbes, while he was studying at Princeton. Other letters include a note dated 1865 from Alex Hamilton Jr of New York addressed to Mr. Gibbes about supporting Governor Aiken, and also a letter addressed to Mrs. Thomas Gibbes by her sister, Sarah R. Wilmer.
The collection also contains the account of losses to the British troops, 1779-1782, written by William Gibbes.
An indenture contract between Robert Gibbes and his wife, Sarah, over Harriet Colcock and whose trust she would be under

signed by John Gibbes, Thomas Gibbes, Sarah Gibbes.
Two bills of sale for slaves by Joseph Smith Gibbes in 1851.
The will of Sarah Gibbes dated July 6, 1813 is included and signed by Sarah Gibbes, Isaac Motte Dart and Mary Clayton.
A typed transcription of a letter by Dr. Robert W. Gibbes to his son, Captain W. Allston Gibbes, dated March 14, 1865, provides a detailed account of the burning of Columbia, SC by General Sherman.
The 2 volumes of genealogy of the Gibbes family of South Carolina as well as a collection of newspaper clippings relating to the Gibbes family is also included in this collection. Oversized genealogy chart of Gibbes family created in 1899 by Rev. Robert Wilson, cataloged separately.

2023-05-18

600 dpi, 16-bit depth, color, Epson Expression 10000XL, Archival masters are tiffs.

Cox, Danielle

Butler, Collin (transcriber)

Copyright has not been assigned to the Charleston Library Society. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Special Collections Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Charleston Library Society as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

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StillImage

Ms. 62, Gibbes Family Records, 1789-1899.

English

Ms62_Fol2Let12

I received your letter of Saturday the 23 Inst. about 11 o'clock on Tuesday, also one for Miss E. Holmes & my sister, both have been appropriate as you could desire, the first to your brother, the latter to Eleanora. And now the moment approaches, the pleasant hour draws nigh, when the solemnity of night and the dark shades of evening, has drawn its expanded curtain across the wide Hemisphere of earth, yea at this [illegible] him excluded away from all the toil of day, & the perplexity of life, my wandering spirit with the wings of fancy holds communion with your heart, yea that dear communion which only those can know, who feel, though I peruse your letter over and over, and found each time more & more food for my acute appetite, still there reigned throughout, what, awful sadness which I have asked you for so often to dispense with, & which I now implore you to cast from you, you know my whole countenance depicts the malady prevalent whether I experience it or not, still it is there, to all appearances, you also know that it is contagious, infectious & deadly, why not avert the shaft. If you really are not happy, why oh why not make me believe that you are, if you believe I have that affection for you, which "knowing I dare maintain" do you not support, it must distress me, to think which pleasure & contentment makes me happy, you are opposite in every degree & miserable, and if I am not now happy, it is because, I fear, also dread that with all my love, confidence and unactionable affection, still I may not make you happy. Oh, that fond memory would avert only to the past, and that thoughts & imagination would have unheaded this cursed Future, it is this anticipation which dreads the light. It is this that [illegible] the golden path of life. It is this future which (if my letter was sad) made it so, & not repentance for my avowal. How can you suppose I could sell & barter the only relic of my god (my soul), for the petty badge of wealth without one sip of the delicious cup of human joy, without being a participator in that happiness unalloyed by selfish or sensual motives, whose true desires are as pure as the pray that childhood walks above. Such alone should [illegible]
the human heart. Such should be the feelings to render life worth pursuing, if then I ask of your affection as your [illegible] confidence as you do me. Without any other worldly consideration or mercenary affection as an inducement and I possess these, why I would teach the angels that a parade can be formed on earth as unbounded & eternal as the ages of time (if earthly care was excluded & immortality was dead) but let me change this [illegible] theme, let me close by repeating the only pang my bosom does not have, yet though I ask you to annihilate every sadness. I wish you to exclude them from your own mind. While they exist, let me share them with you, if my bosom is ever open to you, joy & it is, if not more [illegible] to your sorrow, I have felt its depth and know full well how to sympathize, nothing such that cannot be overcome, conquered by power & strength, the mind can do this and after a while not know that it ever existed. Such are then dearest those feelings and make doubly happy.
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