Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm82038513
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of the Rumsey family of Bohemia, Cecil County, Maryland, were deposited in the Library of Congress by Julia Brinkle Rodney in 1929 and converted to a gift in 1938. Additional material held by Rodney was reproduced with her permission to addition to the collection in 1939.
The Rumsey Family Papers were housed and described circa 1980. The finding aid was revised in 2012.
James Rumsey (1743-1792), an inventor of the steamboat, was related to this family. His papers are not included here, but his correspondence with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson about the steamboat and other matters is in the George Washington and Thomas Jefferson papers in the Manuscript Division. It (and his correspondence with others) is published in James A. Padgett, ed., “Letters of James Rumsey,”
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of the Rumsey family is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
The papers of the Rumsey family are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Rumsey Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of the Rumsey family of Cecil County, Maryland, span the years 1661-1907, with the bulk of the material from 1700 to 1799. The collection consists of correspondence among family members; wills; surveys, deeds, plats, and other documents relating to land ownership (including a “manufacturing hall” for “Rumsey's mills,” 1742); personal and business financial accounts; contracts and other legal documents (one of these includes a signature of Francis Scott Key, probably in his capacity as attorney); sermons; and notes on family history. Family members represented include Anna, Benjamin, Charles, John, John Jr., Julia, Margarett, Nathan, Nathaniel, Sabina, Susan, Thomas, and William. Birth and death dates are unknown, and names are repeated across the generations. Also included as correspondents or subjects of correspondence are members of the Bayard, Bordley, Boyer, Brinkle, Everitt, Pearce, Rigbie, and Wright families. Correspondence among family members concerns health and sickness, travel, weather, family news, business, and politics. Places mentioned include Bohemia Manor, Cecil County, Maryland; Georgetown, Maryland; Wilmington, Delaware; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Of note are correspondence and accounts, 1775-1777, of a Philadelphia merchant shipping
company, Hodges, Bayard and Company, that worked with Nathaniel Rumsey, and Benjamin
Rumsey. A letter, July 27, 1775, from Hodges, Bayard instructs the captain of the
Also of note is a license to keep a billiard table, in French and English, issued to Théophile Askin by the Province of Quebec, May 23, 1872. Its connection to the Rumsey family is unknown.
The papers are organized by type of material.