Samuel Neilson Papers (Mss. Gr. 72)

The materials in this collection relate to the late eighteenth century Irish patriot, Samuel Neilson (1761-1803). The papers were donated to the University Library in 1984 and 1985 by Katherine Burt Jackson, a descendant of Neilson. All of the items in this collection are secondary sources postdating Neilson's death in 1803. They include newspaper clippings about a monument erected to his memory in the Poughkeepsie, New York cemetery where he is buried, photographs of his portrait and grave stone, a sketch of his life by Jackson, a daughter's copybook which also includes a sketch of his life, and copies of letters Neilson wrote to his wife while he was imprisoned for political agitation.

The collection contains letters written in 1799 while Neilson was imprisoned at Fort George in Scotland. They reveal both the hardship caused by separation from his family and his confusion about the reasons for his imprisonment. The letters are handwritten fair copies of the originals. Family history maintains that they were copied from the original letters by one of his daughters in the early nineteenth century. Additional information about Neilson's life and that of his son, William Bryson Neilson, can be discovered in a copybook compiled by one of the elder Neilson's daughters, either Jane Neilson MacAdam or Anne Neilson Magenes. Included in this copybook are copies of some of Neilson's letters to his family, memorials to this deceased son, and a brief account of his life. Also of interest is a family genealogy.