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Title: Letter from Richard T. Brownrigg to Thomas Brownrigg, March 5, 1811: Electronic Edition.
Author: Brownrigg, Richard Thomas, 1793-1846
Editor: Erika Lindemann
Funding from the State Library of North Carolina supported the electronic publication of this title.
Text transcribed by Erika Lindemann
Images scanned by Mara E. Dabrishus
Text encoded by Sarah Ficke
First Edition, 2005
Size of electronic edition: ca. 12K
Publisher: The University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
2005

No Copyright in US

The electronic edition is a part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South.
Languages used in the text: English
Revision history:
2005-03-15, Sarah Ficke finished TEI/XML encoding.
Part of a series:
This transcribed document is part of a digital collection, titled True and Candid Compositions: The Lives and Writings of Antebellum Students in North Carolina
written by Lindemann, Erika
Source(s):
Title of collection: Brownrigg Family Papers (#2226), Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Title of document: Letter from Richard T. Brownrigg to Thomas Brownrigg, March 5, 1811
Author: Richard T. Brownrigg
Description: 3 pages, 4 page images
Note: Call number 2226 (Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Topics covered:
Education/UNC Buildings and Grounds
Education/UNC Enrollments and Finances
Examples of Student Writing/Letters and Letter Writing
Editorial practices
The text has been encoded using the recommendations for Level 5 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines.
Transcript of the personal correspondence. Originals are in the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Original grammar, punctuation, and spelling have been preserved.
DocSouth staff created a 600 dpi uncompressed TIFF file for each image. The TIFF images were then saved as JPEG images at 100 dpi for web access.
Page images can be viewed and compared in parallel with the text.
Any hyphens occurring in line breaks have been removed, and the trailing part of a word has been joined to the preceding line.
Letters, words and passages marked as deleted or added in originals have been encoded accordingly.
All quotation marks, em dashes and ampersand have been transcribed as entity references.
All double right and left quotation marks are encoded as ".
All single right and left quotation marks are encoded as '.
All em dashes are encoded as —.
Indentation in lines has not been preserved.

For more information about transcription and other editorial decisions, see Dr. Erika Lindemann's explanation under the section Editorial Practices.

Document Summary

Brownrigg informs his father that 90 students are enrolled, that a student's father has died, and that construction on the Main (South) Building has begun.
Letter from Richard T. Brownrigglink opens in a new window to Thomas Brownrigg, March 5, 18111
Brownrigg, Richard Thomas, 1793-1846



Page 1
Chapel Hill March 5th 1811

Dear Farther

Anxious of receiveing a letter from you, and waiting with this expecttation for some time, I have neglected writeing to you; but I hope this neglect will be pardoned, as it was not through any want of respect for you, and I likewise hope that it will not be long before I receive a letter from you. I informed you in my last what I was studying, therefore I think it unnecessary now to do so. There are now at this University about 90 students, among whom there appeares to be a great regularity, and an ardent desire to acquire knowledge, which is the only quality that will carry a man through this life with respectability, provided it is used

Page 2
in a proper manner, and conducted through the chanels of reason, usefulness, and virtue, to this we are indebted for our independance, and many other advantages which we injoy. One of the students by the name of Mr Soloman Kittralllink opens in a new window lately lost his Farther, and on that account has quit this place. I was lately at Raleigh in the time of the Methodist conference, where I saw many of our acquaintances from Hallifax; and likewise of Raleigh they all desiered their compliments to you and the famerly It is with the utmost satisfaction that I am able to inform you that there is a gentleman by the name of Mr Closelink opens in a new window 2 from Stokes county, who has undertaken to compleate the new building in two years for $23,000,3 he has lately arrived here and is now preparing the necessary articles to carry on the building; it is to be supposed that

Page 3
when this building is compleated that the number of students will be greatly augmented. Tell my sisters that they must write to me together with all my acquaintances. Give my love to them all here is wishing that you and the famerly may ever enjoy all the blessing that can flow from the hand above

I am your affectionate
Son &c.

Richard T Brow[nrigg]link opens in a new window


Envelope page

Endnotes:

1. Brownrigg Family Papers, SHC. The letter is addressed to "Mr Thomas Brownrigg, esqr/Near Edenton/NCarolina"; in the lower left corner appear the words "per mail." The following postage endorsement appears in the upper right corner: "Chapel Hill/7th March} 18." Another hand has written "Richard T Brownrigglink opens in a new window /March 5 1811" down the right margin, underneath the address.

2. Closelink opens in a new window was the contractor who in 1814 completed the Main Building, known today as South Building. Begun in 1798, the building had become an embarrassing symbol of the Legislature's anti-Federalist refusal to advance the funds necessary to complete it. It became known as "Davie's Temple of Folly." By 1804 when the building was 1 1/2 stories tall, students built cabins in the corners of the brick walls, accommodations preferable to the cramped quarters of Old East. In 1809 and again in 1811, Joseph Caldwelllink opens in a new window traveled the state to raise $8,220 in donations from alumni and friends of the University to complete the building (Henderson Chapter 8).

3. "In 1812, 1814, and 1815, the sums paid John Closelink opens in a new window , the contractor, totaled £4,513 or $9,026. In 1816-17 the expenditures on unpaid debts and contracts amounted to $7,863, giving a total of $16,889" (Henderson 82, note 19).