Individual Notes

Note for: James Marshall, - Index

Individual Note:
name from Edwin Morton Marshall obit. Assumed to be from F Marshall's second wife

Individual Notes

Note for: Thomas W Dyas, - Index

Occupation:
     Date:   1888
     Place:   of "The Mail"

Residence:
     Date:   1888
     Place:   probably Toronto

Individual Notes

Note for: J.J. Dyas, - Index

Residence:
     Date:   1888
     Place:   Toronto, Canada

Individual Notes

Note for: Robert W.H. Dyas, - Index

Residence:
     Date:   1888
     Place:   British Columbia

Individual Notes

Note for: H.L. Church, - Index

Residence:
     Date:   1888
     Place:   London, Ontario

Individual Notes

Note for: ? Halpin, - Index

Residence:
     Date:   1888
     Place:   London, Ontario

Individual Notes

Note for: John Robert Donnell, 1789 - 1864 Index

Individual Note:
     Ezekiel tranfered his Montgomery property (and mortgages) to his brother, Ezekiel tranfered his Montgomery property (and mortgages) to his brother, John Robert Donnell (perhaps around 1860)
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#1154
DONNELL FAMILY PAPERS
Summary

NOTE: A more complete finding aid for this collection is available at the Southern Historical Collection.
Contact staff at: (919)962-1345 (telephone); (919)962-4452 (FAX); mss@@email.unc.edu.

Donnell family.
Papers, 1795-1869.
469 items (0.5 linear ft.).

Papers of John Robert Donnell (1789-1864), New Bern, N.C., lawyer; his
brothers; his son, Richard Spaight Donnell (1820-1867); his daughter, Mary
Spaight Donnell Shepard (1817-1883); and his in-laws. The materials are
almost entirely business and property papers, including many notes,
receipts, and accounts, along with a lesser amount of correspondence about
legal and financial transactions. They concern principally the estates of
Gov. Richard Dobbs Spaight, Jr., U.S. Representative Charles Biddle
Shepard, and Joseph Leech in North Carolina; J. R. Donnell's property in
Montgomery, Ala.; and R. S. Donnell's Hyde County, N.C., farm in 1866-1867.
The only items pertaining to public affairs are seventeen letters,
1866-1867, regarding the dispute between Edward Conigland (1819-1877) and
Edward Jenner Warren (1826-1876). R. S. Donnell's activities as state
legislator and U.S. representative are not reflected in these papers.

Gifts, 1946 and 1956.

ONLINE CATALOG TERMS:
      Conigland, Edward, 1819-1877.
      Donnell, John Robert, 1789-1864.
      Donnell, Richard S. (Richard Spaight), 1820-1867.
      Donnell family.
      Estates (Law)--North Carolina.
      Farms--North Carolina--History--19th century.
      Hyde County (N.C.)--Economic conditions--19th century.
      Leech, Joseph, fl. 1795.
      Montgomery (Ala.)--Economic conditions--19th century.
      North Carolina--Economic conditions--19th century.
      Reconstruction--North Carolina.
      Shepard, Charles, 1807-1843.
      Shepard, Mary Spaight Donnell, 1817-1883.
      Spaight, Richard Dobbs, 1758-1802.
      Warren, Edward Jenner, 1826-1876.

Individual Notes

Note for: Richard Spaight Donnell, 20 SEP 1820 - 3 JUN 1867 Index

Individual Note:
DONNELL, Richard Spaight, (grandson of Richard Dobbs Spaight), a Representative from North Carolina; born in New Bern, N.C., September 20, 1820; attended New Bern Academy and Yale College; was graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1839; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1840 and commenced practice in New Bern, N.C.; elected as a Whig to the Thirtieth Congress (March 4, 1847-March 3, 1849); was not a candidate for renomination in 1848; resumed the practice of law in Washington, N.C.; delegate to the State secession convention in 1861 and to the State constitutional convention in 1865; member of the State house of commons in 1862 and 1864, and served as speaker; died in New Bern, N.C., June 3, 1867; interment in Cedar Grove Cemetery.

Individual Notes

Note for: Margaret Elizabeth Spaight, 1799 - 3 SEP 1831 Index

Individual Note:
     Craven County, NC - Cemeteries - Gen'l Richard Dobbs Spaight

        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[From the Elizabeth Moore Papers, Collection No 322. Folder 322.43.
East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J.Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina
University, Greenville, NC. For research and study only; not for deposit
inother repositories. Most manuscripts are protected by copyright laws;
permission to publish must be requested]

Copy of inscription on bronze marker at tomb of Gen. Richard Dobbs
Spaight, Clermont Plantation, Craven County, NC.

On this property, known as "Clermont" was erected by Colonel William
Wilson, about 1735, a colonial brick mansion which was destroyed by
the Federal forces in 1863.

Col. Wilson married Mary Vail, the widow of Frederick Jones esq.,
their daughter, Elizabeth, married in 1756, Richard Spaight, Secretary
of the Crown in the Province of North Carolina; Justice of the Supreme
Court and Member of the Council of Gov. Arthur Dobbs, 1757-1763.

Here was born in 1758 their son, Richard Dobbs Spaight, the first
native Governor of North Carolina 1792-1795.

In this plot are interred the remains of

Richard Spaight, 1730-1763
"Madame" Mary Vail Moore, 1705-1764
Gov. Richard Dobbs Spaight, 1758-1802
Mary Jones Leech, 1765-1810, his wife
William Wilson Spaight, 1794-1812
Charles George Spaight, 1798-1831
Gov. Richard Dobbs Spaight, Jr., 1796-1850
Margaret Elizabeth Spaight, 1800-1831, wife of Judge John R. Donnell....................[Brother of William S Donnell]
Margaret Elizabeth Donnell, 1828-1836
Col. Joseph Leech, 1720-1803, Treasurer of North Carolina, 1771 and
     President of the Council of State during the Revolutionary War
Mary Dorothy Vail, 1735-1775, his second wife

In this grove stood the family sepulchre of Gen'l Richard Dobbs Spaight

The tomb having fallen in ruins, this wall was erected by his Great,
Great Grandson, Charles Shepard Bryan, Colonel Ordnance U.S.A., A.E.F.
      June, 1934

Size of marker 30 in. long and 20 in. high, with all letters in capitals

__________________________________________________________________

Individual Notes

Note for: Ezekiel J Donnell, 1822 - 24 JAN 1896 Index

Occupation:
     Place:   Cotton merchant, broker

Residence:
     Date:   BET 1840 AND 1854
     Place:   Montgomery, Alabama

Residence:
     Date:   BET 1854 AND 1896
     Place:   New York City

Residence:
     Date:   1890
     Place:   44 W. 58th, NYC

Individual Note:
     Ezekiel J. Donnell 1822-1896
By EMMA COHN

VISITORS to the Donnell Library Center of The New York Public Library frequently ask for information about Ezekiel J. Donnell, the successful cotton merchant who died in 1896 and left about one million dollars to be used, as he said in his will, "to erect a fire proof building suitable and proper for the purposes of a library . . . with a reading room open free every day in which young people can spend their evenings profitably away from demoralizing influences."

The occasion of the fifth anniversary of the opening of the Donnell Library Center (December 13, 1960) seemed to be an appropriate time to report on Ezekiel Donnell's life and ideas. Unfortunately, almost no biographical information about him could be found.
There is the appealing portrait of Mr Donnell in his early thirties which hangs in the Library's entrance and shows him to be scholarly and reticent looking, with a slightly quizzical smile. And there is the obituary notice in the New-York Daily Tribune of January 25, 1896:

"Ezekiel J. Donnell died yesterday at 6 p. m. at his home, No. 44 W. Fifty Eighth Street. He was born at Strabane, Ireland, in 1822, and he was the youngest child of a large family. Several of his older brothers having come to this country, he followed their example, and took up his residence when 18 years old in Montgomery, Ala., and began business as a merchant. He made money rapidly, and came in 1854 to this city, where he entered upon a long and successful career as a cotton-dealer. He retired from business five years ago. He leaves a large estate. He was one of the best-known men in the cotton trade in the United States. His History of Cotton, an exhaustive treatise on cotton-growing and the cotton business is an acknowledged authority. He was an advocate of free trade. He had written several books on economic subjects. He was a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Reform Club, of which he was a founder, and the Democratic Club. He never held a public office. In 1852 he married Miss Lydia Moore, of Pennsylvania. The widow and one daughter, Miss Florence Donnell, survive him. His oldest brother, John R. Donnell, was judge of the Superior Court of North Carolina. The funeral will take place Friday at the house."

However, if the biographical material is scant, the books and pamphlets written by Donnell, which are in The New York Public Library's collections, reveal his ideas and ambitions eloquently. The quotations from these writings which follow provide a sure guide to his principles and character.

Their style is characterized by extreme modesty. Reading them one gathers that Donnell would have preferred not to have been driven to writing at all. But as an ardent advocate of tariff reduction he was somewhat ahead of his time when he wrote between 1872 and 1889. He must have reluctantly concluded that his point of view was so unusual that no one else would be likely to express it for him.
For Donnell the essence of all commerce was the universal commerce of ideas. He believed that civilization began where the paths of two tribes first crossed each other, and that when one tribe or nation became separated from the rest, growth ceased.

------------------------------------------------------------
from March 21, 1857 "News from Ireland"
Mr. Ezekiel DONNELL of New York, while lately on a visit to his relatives at Ballee, having purchased the tenant-right of the large farm of Milltown, Ballymagorry, [in County Tyrone, about 5 miles north of Strabane] which he left in the hands of his father, his neighbors met on the 11th instant, and with 25 well-appointed ploughs, ploughed nearly all the ground intended for cropping this year.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Ezekiel Donnell, address Miltown, Ballymagorry, owned 62 acres - in later 1870's
-------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Donnell, Ezekiel J
Birth - Death: 1822-1896
Accession Number: 1110333
Source Citation: Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in
books and magazines. Volume 5: September, 1958-August, 1961. New
York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1962.(BioIn 5)
---------------------------------------------------------------
1860 United States Federal Census
Household of Ezekel Donnell
Name Home in 1860 (City,County,State) Age in 1860 Estimated Birth Year Birthplace Gender

Ezekel Donnell Middletown, Richmond, NY 40 1819 Ireland Male ...................[merchant]
Lydia G Donnell Middletown, Richmond, NY 42 1817 New York Female
Theadore Donnell Middletown, Richmond, NY 40 1819 Alabama Male
Grace Donnell Middletown, Richmond, NY 4 1855 New York Female
Florence Donnell Middletown, Richmond, NY 2 1857 New York Female
Eliza Newcomb Middletown, Richmond, NY 40 1819 New York Female
Margt Cornell Middletown, Richmond, NY 40 1819 Ireland Female ..................[guest]
George Mayor Middletown, Richmond, NY 16 1843 Connecticut Male .............[waiter]
Fredk Hampton Middletown, Richmond, NY 33 1826 England Male .................[Coachman]
---------------------------------------------------------------

Individual Notes

Note for: Ann M Donnell, 1822 - Index

Individual Note:
possibly never married