Mailly family papers

Collection

Identifier: Col-0037

Dates

Creation: 1818-1918

Creator

Mailly family. (Family)

Language of Materials

A very few letters to Augustine Mailly are in French.

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open to the public. Copyright restrictions may apply.

Biographical / Historical

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The Mailly family's immigrant ancestor to the United States was Augustine Mailly, who came from Lyon, France, in the early 1800s. He married Mary Ann Thomas (daughter of Samuel and Rachel Wilson Thomas, and granddaughter of David and Mary Corbit Wilson) on 6 September 1831. According to family lore, Augustine was a teacher in the Philadelphia boarding school attended by Mary Ann. The couple went to France for a period of time after the wedding. While there, Mary Ann signed a document giving her mother in law, Constance Mailly, an annual stipend of 1000 francs should she (Mary Ann) die first.

Augustine and Mary Ann Thomas Mailly returned to Delaware by 1834 and settled near Cantwell's Bridge (now Odessa). He became a citizen of the United States in 1839. Mary Ann Mailly died in December 1845. Mary Ann's "cousin-once-removed" (according to notes from Horace Hotchkiss), Daniel Corbit, was designated trustee of her estate (which was her inheritance from her father); some of the correspondence in these papers consists of Corbit's letters to Augustine Mailly regarding the financial support of Mary Ann's children. These children are named in a deed poll of 1846: Charles Edward A. (1832-1880), Augustine (circa 1834-1865), Samuel Thomas (circa 1836-1861), Richard Lindsay (circa 1839-circa 1884), Mary Constance (died 1848), and Eugene Corbit (Sept. 1845-April 1893).

During his life, Augustine earned his living from farming, teaching French, editing a newspaper (the Delaware Line), and as a merchant. Augustine re-married at least once, on July 8, 1847, to Sarah Hodgson of Wilmington. (Family lore says he remarried more than once after Mary Ann’s death, but these papers only mention Sarah Hodgson.) Augustine and Sarah had at least one child, daughter Constance, born in Germantown in Feb. 1849 (died May 1936). From the papers, it seems that Mary Ann Thomas Mailly’s children continued to live in Delaware, although their father eventually moved to Pennsylvania.

At some point, Augustine’s mother Constance Marguerite Mailly (also referred to as Margaret Constance Mailly, but always called Constance) also moved to Delaware, where she died in Wilmington around 1851. Another Mailly, Charles E. Mailly, born in France around 1804, moved to the United States in 1835. He was Augustine’s brother, although only Augustine is mentioned in their mother’s will. Charles lived for a time in Massachusetts, where he probably married his Massachusetts-born wife Nancy. By 1870, they were in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where both died in the 1870s.

Of Augustine’s and Mary Ann’s children, Augustine Mailly, Jr., died in 1865. He was married to Catherine, and they had a daughter Catherine Eugenia Mailly. Charles Edward A. Mailly (1832-1880) married Harriet Lucinda (Lucy, died 1891); their children included Mary Constance and Hamilton. Hamilton became a doctor in Bridgeton, New Jersey, and married Nellie F. Rocap.

Eugene Corbit Mailly never married; in the 1880 census, he was listed as living with his brother Richard. Richard Lindsay Mailly was married to Rachel Jane Deakyne (1845-1918). Richard and Rachel had at least three children, Richard Jr. (1865-1873), Mamie (1863-1953; properly Mary Ann according to the census), and Ethel Lindsay (born circa 1883). Richard’s daughter Mamie Mailly (1863-1953) married William R. Davis, and they had a son named William Mailly Davis (1892-1957). Ethel Lindsay Mailly married David Clarence Aspril in 1912. Several family members are buried at Old Drawyer’s Presbyterian Church, near Odessa.

The White Hall Farm where the Augustine Mailly family lived was located outside of Middletown. The farm was left by Samuel Thomas in trust to his daughter Mary Ann Thomas Mailly and then to her children. The trustees were Daniel Corbit and James Booth. Eventually, the farm was inherited by brothers Charles E.A., Richard L., and Eugene C. Mailly. The property was sold out of the family in 1871.

Mention is made of several of Mary Ann Thomas’s brothers. Her brother Edward (1810-1864) was with her at boarding school in Burlington, N.J. Other brothers were David Wilson (D.W., 1799-1864), Samuel Jr. (1801-1830), William Corbit (1803-1867), and Richard (1805-1870), whose mental condition was a worry to other family members. The Tristram Thomas (1763-1841) in these papers was brother to the elder Samuel Thomas (1767-1829). The Thomas family were Quakers; several members are buried in the Appoquinimink Friends burial ground in Odessa.

Full Extent

1 cubic ft. (4 boxes)

Metadata Rights Declarations

License: This record is made available under an Universal 1.0 Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons license.

Additional Description

Arrangement

The Thomas family papers are filed first, followed by Mailly papers, mostly divided by person and then arranged chronologically. The letters written by Daniel Corbit to Augustine Mailly are organized into one chronological sequence. The newspapers are found in Box 4.

Other Finding Aid

Finding aid is available at this repository.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Miss Mary Mailly Davis, a great-granddaughter of Richard Lindsey and Rachel Jane Mailly.

Although the papers were apparently received in two groups, all the papers were given 84x165 accession numbers and it is not possible to tell which papers were received when.

Summary

The collection includes correspondence; tax receipts; insurance premium payments; and some receipts for building supplies, household supplies, and personal items. The collection centers around Augustine Mailly, but the oldest materials pertain to the family of his wife Mary Ann Thomas of Odessa (then called Cantwell's Bridge), Delaware. Mailly's correspondents included A. Bolmar (a Frenchman who ran a boarding school in West Chester), N. Chauncey, and William McCaully. Some correspondence pertains to a newspaper begun by Mailly, Delaware Line. There is also correspondence with Daniel Corbit, who was trustee of the estate of Mary Ann Thomas Mailly. Augustine depended on the property his wife had inherited from her father for the support of their children. When Mary Ann's brother Richard died, Augustine was also anxious to secure his portion of the Thomas estate for his children.

Summary

Many of the receipts are records of the finances of succeeding generations of the Mailly family, particularly Richard L. and Eugene C. While receipts are included for such items as vests, clover seed, school tuition, and dental expenses, the bulk of the receipts are for various taxes and insurance policies. After the death of Richard L. Mailly around 1884, his brother Eugene C. acted as administrator of his estate. Also in the collection are a few newspapers, a leather wallet, and a metal name plate for S.H. [Sarah Hodgson] Mailly.

Summary

Two documents refer to the sale of enslaved persons, both men, who are named. One bill of sale specifies that William Reynolds was to be freed ten years after the sale, which took place in 1839. A receipt dated July 24, 1865, records a payment for the time of Louis Dixson, "a colored boy who was bound to stay until he was twenty one years of age." It is speculated that Dixson was an indentured servant or an apprentice.