Noble Family Papers, 1801-1921

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Summary

Creators:
Noble (Family : Abbeville, S.C.)
Abstract:
This collection contains the personal and professional correspondence of the Noble family of South Carolina, mostly of attorney Edward Noble (1823-1889) and his son Patrick Noble (1849-1920). The Nobles were closely related through various marriages to the Calhoun, Green, Clemson, Bratton, Pickens, McCaws, Cuningham, and Gadsden families.
Extent:
18.7 Linear Feet (16 boxes)
Language:
The records are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Noble Family Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

Personal and professional correspondence of the Noble family, mostly Edward Noble and his son Patrick Noble, as preserved by Patrick Noble's family. The collection also includes a group of letters addressed to Edward Noble's uncle John Noble (1774-1819), and the correspondence of Floride Calhoun (1792-1866) and James Edward Calhoun (1826-1861), wife and son of John C. Calhoun, about the administration of Calhoun's estate and property. There are also several documents about slaves owned by the Calhoun, Cuningham, and Pickens families as well as legal documents used in various law suits brought about by the various family estates and property.

John Noble's correspondence includes letters from his brothers Alexander, Ezekiel, and Patrick. In his letters, Alexander Noble discusses the disposition of the estate of Nicolas Cooper; his business affairs, including management of the Vienna Plantation, cotton trade, and family slaves (including news of a fire set by the enslaved woman Hannah). Ten letters by Patrick Noble (1805-1818) describe his studies at Princeton and his trip home in the fall of 1806; admission to the bar, partnership with John C. Calhoun, his legal practice, and state and national politics. Also included is the letter to Patrick Noble from John C. Calhoun (1828, Sep. 19, NBL 165), discussing the tariff controversy.

Correspondence of Edward Noble includes his letters to his wife and son; his business correspondence, including communications with the Calhoun and Clemson families, and letters from his friends, family members, colleagues, and political allies, including John Bratton and Francis Wilkinson Pickens. The letters of Edward Noble and Patrick Noble (1849-1920) describe Patrick's school studies; Edward Noble's trip to New York, Washington, D.C., White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, in the summer of 1860; the South Carolina Secession Convention in Charleston (December 1860-March 1861); Noble's service in the Confederate Army (February 1862-June 1863); the politics of Reconstruction in South Carolina and particularly in Abbeville (including the activities of the local Ku Klux Klan), Patrick's life in California, news of friends and family.

Other prominent participants include: Thomas W. Bacot, South Carolina lawyer and politician; Andrew Pickens Calhoun, son of John C. Calhoun; author Floride Clemson; professor R. Means Davis; businessman and Senator James G. Fair; General John T. Morgan; businessman J. Mora Moss; Mexican journalist Manuel Payno; Francis W. Pickens, South Carolina representative; Charles P. Stone, U.S. Army officer; and Major Jasper S. Whiting.

Biographical / historical:

The Nobles of Abbeville, South Carolina, closely related through various marriages to the Calhoun, Green, Clemson, Bratton, Pickens, McCaws, Cuningham, and Gadsden families, was one of the most prominent planter families of the "featherbed aristocracy" of South Carolina. The Noble family was of Scots-Irish ancestry; the first Nobles came to America in the early 1700s and settled in Augusta County, Va. Major Alexander Noble (1733-1801), married to his first cousin Catherine Calhoun, moved to South Carolina and made his home in Abbeville District, near Willington. During the Revolutionary War, he was Captain of the state militia and later became an aide-de-camp to General Andrew Pickens. Major Noble's eldest son John (1774-1819) went to Princeton, studied medicine in France, and the set up medical practice in Charleston. His brothers Ezekiel Noble (d. 1732), William (1777-1823), and Alexander (1794-1821) ran family plantations, including Vienna Plantation on the Savannah River and were engaged in cotton trade. Joseph Noble (1792-1822), a Yale educated lawyer left for Alabama. Patrick Noble (1787-1840), the 57th Governor of South Carolina was the most prominent among Alexander Noble's sons. He was born in Abbeville and graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1806. In 1809, he was admitted to the bar and set up a law practice in partnership with John C. Calhoun. In 1814, Noble was elected to the state legislature. In 1830, the General Assembly elected him as 34th Lieutenant Governor; in 1836, he became state senator, and in 1838, the General Assembly elected him Governor of South Carolina.

Patrick Noble's son Edward Noble (1823-1889) graduated from South Carolina College in 1844 and practiced law in Abbeville and Charleston. He was a well respected lawyer and also served as the alderman. He was the legal advisor to the family of his cousin John C. Calhoun and a trustee to Anna Calhoun Clemson. On February 4, 1849, Edward Noble married Mary Means Bratton (1827-1905) of the Yorkville Brattons, sister of the Confederate general John Bratton. The couple had five children: Patrick (1849-1920), Belle (1852-1866), Edward (b. 1855), Floride (b. 1859), and Mary Bratton Pickens (1861-1898). A nullifier, Edward Noble represented his district at the South Carolina's secession convention and signed the state's Ordinance of Secession on December 20, 1861. In 1862-1863, he served for 90 days as Major of the 5th South Carolina Reserves. After the war, he returned to Abbeville to his farming and law practice. In the 1880s, he joined his son Patrick in San Francisco; he died there in 1889.

Patrick Noble (1849-1920) studied at South Carolina College. During the Civil War, he briefly fought in the Confederate Army, and then returned to Charleston to his studies. In 1868, Patrick Noble moved to California and became a clerk at Pacific Rolling Mills Co., the first iron and steel foundry in the West that had been founded two years earlier by William Alvord and James G. Fair. In the 1880s, Noble was the company's president. After the Pacific Rolling Mills' original operation closed at Potrero Point, Noble reorganized the company at its new location on 17th and Mississippi Streets. Patrick Noble passed away in October 1920, and his son, Edward B. Noble continued leading the company through successive mergers until he retired 1945.

Acquisition information:
Gift of P. N. Jenkins, November 2007.
Arrangement:

Arranged chronologically.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Indexed terms

Subjects:
Administration of estates -- South Carolina
African Americans -- Southern States -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
Cotton growing -- Southern States -- History -- Sources
Cotton trade -- Southern States -- History -- Sources
Freedmen -- Southern States -- History -- Sources
Fugitive slaves -- South Carolina
Iron ores -- South Carolina
Lawyers -- Southern States
Plantation owners -- Southern States -- Archives
Plantations -- Southern States
Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877) -- Sources
Secession -- Southern States -- Sources
Slaveholders -- Southern States -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
Slavery -- Confederate States of America
Slaves -- Southern States -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
Women -- Confederate States of America -- Correspondence
Women plantations owners -- Southern States
Family papers -- United States -- 19th century
Legal documents -- United States -- 19th century
Letters (correspondence) -- United States -- 19th century
Names:
Ku Klux Klan (19th century) -- South Carolina
Bacot, Thomas W. (Thomas Wright), 1849-1927
Calhoun family
Calhoun, Andrew P. (Andrew Pickens), 1811-1865
Calhoun, Floride, 1792-1866
Calhoun, James E. (James Edward), 1826-1861
Calhoun, John C. (John Caldwell), 1782-1850
Clemson, Floride, 1842-1871
Davis, R. Means, 1849-1904
Fair, James Graham, 1831-1894
Morgan, John Tyler, 1824-1907
Moss, Joseph Mora, 1809-1880
Noble family -- Archives
Noble, Edward, 1823-1890
Noble, John, 1774-1819
Noble, Patrick, 1849-1920
Payno, Manuel, 1810-1894
Pickens, F. W. (Francis Wilkinson), 1805-1889
Stone, Chas. P. (Charles Pomeroy), 1824-1887
Whiting, Jasper S.
Places:
Abbeville (S.C.) -- History
Charleston (S.C.) -- History
Confederate States of America -- History -- Sources
Fort Hill Plantation (S.C.)
Sonora (Mexico : State) -- Description and travel
South Carolina -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Sources
South Carolina -- Politics and government -- 1775-1865 -- Sources
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Sources
Winnsboro (S.C.) -- History

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Terms of access:

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Noble Family Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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