Samuel Davis (Louisiana planter) dating history

Details

Business and legal papers of Joseph (Jose) Vidal, secretary to Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, Governor of the District of Natchez, 1787–1797, and later Commandant of the Post of Concordia, Louisiana, and also those of Vidal's son-in-law, Samuel Davis. The early part of the collection embodies a number of documents (in Spanish) concerning land grants, transfers, and surveys issued by the Spanish during the last years of the 18th century. A series of conveyances, 1805–1863, deals with lands in Natchez, Mississippi, and Concordia, Louisiana. Land speculation in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas is the subject of a large number of documents, 1834–1866, in which is included an agreement among Samuel Davis, John Boll, Robert Gordon, Peter M. Lapice, and others to purchase the Chickasaw Reservation of lands, 1834. Miscellaneous petitions, conveyances, and items regarding banking enterprises in Mississippi are scattered chronologically throughout the collection. Varied items include: a petition of Vidal to the Mississippi territorial legislature for exclusive right to operate a ferry between Natchez, Mississippi, and Vidalia, Louisiana, 1812; a conveyance by Barnabas Langdon, Troy, New York, to Samuel Davis of a patent on a horse-boat, and the right to operate tho boat 50 miles above and below New Orleans, 1823; sale of a pew in Trinity Church, Natchez, Mississippi, to James Moore, 1829; and currency issued by the Mississippi and Alabama Railroad Company, 1837–1838; a statement shows the condition of the Bank of the State of Mississippi, 1831; similar items dating from 1829 to 1840 include certificates of bank stock, and a resolution designating Samuel Davis as special agent of the Planters Bank of Natchez, to transact business with New York and Philadelphia banking houses.