William Wurts White family papers (Ms.2007.038)

The William Wurts White family papers were maintained by Frank W. Matteson, a financial advisor to the White family as well as several other prominent Providence families. Frank W. Matteson's primary employment was with the John Nicholas Brown family at their 50 South Main Street offices; the Brown family donated their business records and other papers filed at 50 South Main Street to the John Nicholas Brown Center in 1992. While the White family papers do not contain much in the way of personal information, the papers do detail the arduous process of settling the estates of a wealthy family.

The papers of Ella C. White are mostly legal documents related to her property on Mount Desert Island, Maine, stock holdings, and jewelry.

The majority of William Wurts White's (1841-1911) papers are correspondence and legal and financial documents related to his estate. The few papers that precede 1911 involve William Wurts White's (1841-1911) real estate and stock holdings and financial transactions handled by Frank W. Matteson. Following William Wurts White's (1841-1911) death, the main correspondents were Frank W. Matteson, Merwin White, and William Wurts White (1882-1918). Additional correspondents were S. Davis and Howard Page, attorneys in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Edward B. Mears, a Bar Harbor, Maine, attorney. Kate (Merwin) White and John Richards White both died intestate which delayed the settlement of William Wurts White's (1841-1911) estate. The trustees of William Wurts White's (1841-1911) estate were Frank W. Matteson, Merwin White, and James A. Kinghorn.

A small portion of Merwin White's papers involve tax returns prior to his death in 1920. The majority of his papers are correspondence and financial papers related to his estate. The trustees of Merwin White's estate were Frank W. Matteson, Robert H. Gardiner, John Henshaw, and Paul Nicholson.