Roderick Kirkpatrick Shaw Estate Division of Slaves

Collection — Box: 1805

Identifier: MSS 2005-003

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Roderick Kirkpatrick Shaw Estate Division of Slaves authorizes Gadsden County Commissioners Thomas Munroe, William F. Bull and Hudson Muse to divide the slaves belonging to the estate of the late Roderick K. Shaw into three equal portions and distribute them to Shaw's two sons, Roderick Gosporo Shaw and James Kirkpatrick Shaw, and to John H. Smith, husband of R. K. Shaw's daughter, Jesse Shaw Smith.

In this document, the "Honorable E. C. Love, Judge of Probate" of Gadsden County directs the Commissioners to execute the transaction. The values of each estate portion are recorded, as well as the names and ages of the slaves.

Online Copy Available

This document has been digitized and is available through the FSU Digital Library.

Dates

created: 1858
Other: Majority of material found in January 14, 1858

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open to all researchers.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to quote, publish, broadcast or otherwise reproduce from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Associate Dean for Special Collections & Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Florida State University Libraries 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.

Biographical or Historical Information

Roderick Kirkpatrick (R.K.) Shaw built a home on his estate four miles North of Quincy, Florida some time before 1840. His oldest son, Roderick Gospero (R.G.) Shaw, was born in 1840 and, with his sister, Jessie, and younger brother, James Kirkpatrick, grew up in that home. Some time after 1850, when all three children were old enough to go to school, he built a duplicate of the farm home in Quincy at the corner of King and Jackson Streets, and moved his family to town where they lived only two blocks from the old academy building, which still stands and is now a public library.

R.K. Shaw, his wife, Sarah, and an unnamed baby daughter all died within three weeks in 1857 of yellow fever.

R. G. Shaw, a lieutenant in the Confederate Army, was killed in Dallas, Georgia in 1864 defending Atlanta at the beginning of Sherman's march through Georgia. After the war, Jessie married and moved to Cedar Keys and then to Gainesville where her daughter, Susan, married a druggist, James Bodiford.

The Florida State University Libraries Special Collections Department also houses the Roderick Gospero and James Kirkpatrick Shaw Papers (1861-1864). The collection includes letters from them to their sister, Mrs. Jessie Shaw Smith, a letter describing the burial of R.G. Shaw after his death in battle in 1864, a photo of R.G. Shaw, and "The history and military connections of the family of Gospero Sweet".