Finding Aid: Shelton Family Papers, 1764-2004 (Bulk dates: 1850-1970)

Welch, Margaret

Catalog No.: RICH 7850 Volume: 14.5 LF Finding aid for documents associated with the Shelton Family Papers (1764-2004) including: newspaper clippings, business and legal records, photographs and drawings, family bibles, and genealogical documents. Most of the business records relate to the twentieth-century Rural Plains Nursery, but two account books and assorted receipts belonged to Colonel Edwin Shelton who ran the Rural Plains plantation until his death in 1874. The twentieth-century articles relating to Shelton House and the Shelton Family make up the bulk of the papers and include photo-documentation of the exterior and interiors and biographical information on the Sheltons. Mary Wynn Shelton donated much of the nineteenth-century material in the House to the Library of Virginia (see Associated Materials below). Photostats of the records directly related to the Shelton family’s role in the Civil War from the Library of Virginia are included in these papers. Limited documentation exists in these papers regarding slavery at Rural Plains. One receipt lists the names of the enslaved men and women Sarah Shelton inherited from her father. The farm laborers listed in the 1858-1873 Edwin Shelton ledger may have been enslaved. Organized into fifteen series, most based on family generational groups: I. Family Bibles; II. John Shelton II (ca. 1713-ca. 1769) and Eleanor Parks Shelton; III. John Shelton III (ca. 1750-31 October 1789) and Anne Southall Shelton (Foster) (1760-1830); IV. Edwin Shelton (1798-1874) and Sarah Oliver Shelton (1810-1887); V. Walter Mitchell Shelton (1849-1932) and Bertie Winn Shelton (1856-1903); VI. William Robert Shelton, Sr. (1877-1958) and Maud Greenlee Shelton (1884-1949); VII. Mary Winn Shelton (1916-1967); VIII. William Robert Shelton, Jr. (1920-2006) and Hollie Bailey Shelton (ca. 1915-2004); IX. Shelton House; X. Rural Plains Nursery; XI. Genealogy; XII. Images; XIII. Newspapers and Periodicals; XIV. Collected Materials. Arrangement: Chronologically within series. Richmond National Battlefield Park collected these papers from the Shelton House, along with selected furnishings and books, and purchased them from the estate of William Robert Shelton, Jr., in 2006.