Scope and Content Note
The Rodney Family Papers span the years 1771-1824 and consist of correspondence and other papers of Caesar Rodney (1728-1784), Revolutionary statesman, president of Delaware, and member of the Continental Congress; his brother Thomas Rodney (1744-1811), farmer, Revolutionary war soldier, member of the Continental Congress, judge of the Supreme Court of Delaware, and United States judge for the Mississippi Territory; and Thomas’s son Caesar Augustus Rodney (1772-1824), statesman, lawyer, United States senator from Delaware, United States attorney general, and first United States minister to Argentina.
The papers include several diaries of Thomas Rodney. One written December 1776-January 1777 describes Rodney’s participation in the Trenton and Princeton campaigns. Another written in 1781 and 1786 while he was a member of Congress. A journal was also kept by Rodney while traveling from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory, 1803. Also included is an account book kept during Rodney’s service as a clothier and agent for the Delaware Regiment, April 1778-January 1779, legal papers, judicial cases, and miscellaneous writings (1776-1803).
Correspondence consists chiefly of family letters but also includes correspondence with Ephraim Blaine, William C. C. Claiborne, Henry Clay, Alexander James Dallas, John Dickinson, William Eusitis, Henry Laurens, James Madison, James Monroe, Robert Morris, Samuel Patterson, John Randolph, John Vining, and George Washington concerning topics such as the Confederation, military recruiting and supply, and Thomas Rodney’s business activities, especially related to his Poplar Grove plantation.