The Birckheads were descendants of many prominent local families in Newport, Rhode Island. Some members of this family are buried in the cemetery of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.
Christopher Birckhead (1910-1985) was born in New York City on June 1, 1910, the son of Reverend Hugh (1876-1929) and Caroline Minturn Hall Birckhead (1874-1972). He served in World War II and worked for the Department of the Interior. Birckhead died on April 23, 1985, in Silver Spring, Maryland. His brother, Hugh Birckhead, Jr. (d. 1944), died in action on November 13, 1944, in France during World War II.
Access is open to members and researchers at the Redwood Library and Athenaeum.
This collection is owned by the Redwood Library and Athenaeum. Permission to publish materials must be obtained in writing from the Special Collections Librarian of the Redwood Library and Athenaeum.
Birckhead collection of Redwood family papers, RLC.Ms.025, Redwood Library and Athenaeum.
This collection consists mainly of letters, receipts, and accounts from 1730-1774 relating to Abraham Redwood (1709-1788), the founder of the Redwood Library, and his business dealings in Newport, Rhode Island. Also included are documents concerning the Redwood Library, Redwood’s contemporaries in Newport, and later letters from David King, a former president of the Redwood Library. The majority of these documents are addressed to Abraham Redwood, unless otherwise noted.
Papers relating to Abraham Redwood document his business activities, mainly in Newport, Rhode Island, but also in Antigua and other cities from 1730 through 1774, with various merchants and tradesmen. There are also correspondence and accounts with his family members including his step-mother, Patience (1687-1745), his half-brother, William (1726-1815), and son Jonas Langford Redwood (1730-1779).
Items of particular note include the following: the December 11, 1730, quitclaim deed from his step-mother, Patience Redwood (1687-1745), in which she signed over all of her rights to Cassada Garden and its black slaves. Cassada Garden was the plantation owned by her husband and Abraham’s father, Abraham Redwood (1665-1728) in Antigua. A February 1731/2 receipt with Edward Barker includes charges for an outsourced black worker to Redwood.
Documents concerning the Redwood Library include a letter Redwood received from John Thomlinson on November 23, 1748, in which Thomlinson acknowledged the receipt of 500 pounds sterling and a list of books that Redwood sent to him in order to start the collection at the Library. This particular letter is a copy of the original and also includes a copied letter from Thomlinson to Redwood dated February 11, 1748, which also concerns the selection of books for the Library. In addition, there are two promissory notes from 1756, which allowed patrons to borrow books from the Library for four weeks.
There are also papers relating to early members of the Library and Abraham Redwood’s contemporaries in Newport including George Gibbs (1755-1803), William Channing (1751-1793), and Aaron Lopez (1731-1782). These particular documents do not have a direct connection to Redwood, except for the fact that they were created during his lifetime. Of particular interest is a bond certificate from the Custom House in Rhode Island to Edward Wanton in which he insures one thousand pounds worth of cargo on his brig (whose name is indecipherable) bound for Africa. Peter Harrison, John Wanton, and John Nicoll signed this document as witnesses.
Papers in this collection from 1809-1866 were all addressed to David King (1812-1882), a former member of the Redwood Library, who served as president from 1849-1859. These particular letters concern the purchase of books for the Redwood Library, genealogical research, and the procedure for borrowing books from Harvard College Library. The receipt dated January 1, 1809, from J. Fraser to Christopher G. Champlin (1768-1840) was sent to King from George C. Mason and Son, Architects in Newport. The receipt and the envelope are all pasted onto one sheet of paper.
Lastly, the original index of the letters, “Birckhead Documents – The Redwood Library,” is also included and contains brief descriptions about each item.
This collection is arranged in chronological order.
These materials were purchased by Ralph E. Carpenter, Mrs. Elizabeth Morris Smith, and F. Dale Crabtree for the Library on August 29, 1985, from an auction sale of the estate of Christopher and Hugh Birckhead, Jr.
These papers were received by the Library in 1985, and were numbered according to a list included with the donation. This list details the date of the document, the parties involved, and a brief description of its contents. It is not apparent if this numbering system and the list were prepared by the Birckheads, the auctioneers, the donors, or the Library itself. Another version of the list, titled “Birckhead Documents – The Redwood Library,” was made sometime after the papers were housed in the Library.
Besides this numbering system, the papers were not in any other discernible order, so during the November 2013 processing of this collection, the papers were rearranged into chronological order. Researchers familiar with the list and looking for a document with a specific number may use the list in folder 31 to find the item’s date.
Prior to November 2013, these papers were housed in the Library’s steel cabinet drawers (Drawer 4, Folder 10). They were removed at this time, placed in a separate archival document case, and assigned a new collection number – RLC.Ms.025.