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Local figure

Margaret Anna Burwell

Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell founded a girls' school in Hillsborough after her husband, Robert Burwell, became the town's Presbyterian minister in 1835. The couple held Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly in slavery and relied on her forced labor, and Anna Burwell enlisted schoolmaster William J. Bingham to beat Keckly to break her pride.

Source: Encyclopedia Virginia (Virginia Humanities): Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly (1818-1907), by Jennifer Fleischner

Also found in catalogs as M. A. Burwell, M. A. (Margaret Anna) Burwell, Anna Burwell, Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell.

1810–1871 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

25 indexed works are connected with this person. 1 held at OCPL →

Indexed works

Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.

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Anna Burwell and the business of being a Presbyterian minister's wife in North Carolina, 1835-1857

Hoffert, Sylvia D. · 2019 · Historical Research Office, Office of Archives and History

Sylvia D. Hoffert's article on Margaret Anna Burwell, 1810 to 1871, and the work of being a Presbyterian minister's wife in North Carolina from 1835 to 1857, the years of the female school she and her husband kept in Hillsborough. Pages 245 to 275 with illustrations, facsimiles and portraits, issued by the Office of Archives and History in Raleigh in 2019.

UNC

The Book of Burwell Students

Engstrom, Mary Claire · 1979 · Historic Hillsborough Commission

Mary Claire Engstrom's biographical register of the young women who attended the Burwell School in Hillsborough, subtitled lives of educated women in the antebellum South. The school was kept by Margaret Anna Burwell and her husband, and the book bears on women's education in nineteenth-century North Carolina. Published by the Historic Hillsborough Commission, 1979, 256 pages with illustrations and portraits.

Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell Diary [1866-1871]

Burwell, Margaret Anna Robertson, 1810-1871 · 1866

Diary of Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell covering 7 January 1866 to 27 January 1871, ending in the year of her death. Born in Virginia in 1810, she and her husband, Robert Armistead Burwell, had earlier run a girls' school in Hillsborough, where she served as principal.

Letter from Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell to Fanny Burwell [February 16, 1856]

Burwell, Margaret Anna Robertson, 1810-1871 · 1856

Written 16 February 1856, a letter from Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell in Hillsborough to her daughter Frances Armistead Burwell, known as Fanny, about family and daily affairs.

Letter from Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell to Fanny Burwell [February 20, 1856]

Burwell, Margaret Anna Robertson, 1810-1871 · 1856

Letter dated 20 February 1856 from Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell to her daughter Frances Armistead Burwell, called Fanny, 1838 to 1856. Mrs. Burwell and her husband ran the Burwell School for girls in Hillsborough.

Letter from Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell to Fanny Burwell [February 4, 1856]

Burwell, Margaret Anna Robertson, 1810-1871 · 1856

In a letter of 4 February 1856, Anna Burwell writes to her daughter Fanny. It belongs with her other Hillsborough letters to Fanny from 1855 and 1856.

Show 6 more

Letter from Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell to Fanny Burwell [February 8, 1856]

Burwell, Margaret Anna Robertson, 1810-1871 · 1856

Family letter of 8 February 1856 from Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell to Frances Armistead Burwell, her daughter, known as Fanny, touching on daily life in the Burwell household in Hillsborough.

Letter from Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell to Fanny Burwell [January 12, 1856]

Burwell, Margaret Anna Robertson, 1810-1871 · 1856

Hillsborough mother to daughter: Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell's letter of 12 January 1856 to Frances Armistead Burwell, called Fanny, concerning daily life at home.

Letter from Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell to Fanny Burwell [January 19, 1856]

Burwell, Margaret Anna Robertson, 1810-1871 · 1856

Letter of 19 January 1856 from Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell, 1810 to 1871, to her daughter Fanny (Frances Armistead Burwell), written in Hillsborough in the last year of Fanny's life.

Letter from Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell to Fanny Burwell [January 25, 1856]

Burwell, Margaret Anna Robertson, 1810-1871 · 1856

Family letter of 25 January 1856 in which Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell writes from Hillsborough to her daughter Fanny Burwell, part of a series of letters to Fanny from 1855 and 1856.

Letter from Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell to Fanny Burwell [January 5, 1856]

Burwell, Margaret Anna Robertson, 1810-1871 · 1856

On 5 January 1856 Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell wrote this letter to her daughter Fanny, Frances Armistead Burwell, one of several from the Burwell family of Hillsborough in the winter of 1855 to 1856.

Letter from Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell to Fanny Burwell [March 10, 1856]

Burwell, Margaret Anna Robertson, 1810-1871 · 1856

Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell of Hillsborough writes to her daughter Frances, called Fanny, on 10 March 1856, one of a run of family letters from that winter touching on daily life.

Search all 25 indexed works →

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Foundational · NC 371.82 ENG The Book of Burwell Students: Lives of Educated Women in the Antebellum South Engstrom, Mary Claire · 1979

    Mary Claire Engstrom's biographical register of the young women who attended the Burwell School in Hillsborough, subtitled lives of educated women in the antebellum South. The school was kept by Margaret Anna Burwell and her husband, and the book bears on women's education in nineteenth-century North Carolina. Published by the Historic Hillsborough Commission, 1979, 256 pages with illustrations and portraits.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 6 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Burwell School for young women operates Robert and Margaret Anna Burwell operated their Hillsborough school for girls from 1837 to 1857. People: Margaret Anna Burwell, Robert Armistead Burwell, Elizabeth Hobbs KecklyNCpedia
  2. Anna Burwell opens a school for girls in Hillsborough Anna Burwell advertised that she would open a female school in Hillsborough on July 17, 1837, teaching the usual English branches, with music available. She and her husband, the Rev. Robert Burwell, ran it in their home until 1857. People: Robert Armistead Burwell, Margaret Anna BurwellInternet Archive: Charles L. Coon, North Carolina Schools and Academies, 1790-1840: A Documentary History (1915)
  3. Elizabeth Hobbs writes to her mother from Hillsborough Elizabeth Hobbs wrote to her mother Agnes Hobbs in Virginia asking for news of home and saying she did not expect to see her family again. She wrote that Anna Burwell planned to go to Petersburg without her and that she had been told she would belong to Elizabeth Burwell once that daughter married. She also wrote that she had been a bridesmaid at Ann Nash's wedding a week before Christmas 1837. People: Anna BurwellProject Gutenberg: Elizabeth Keckley, Behind the Scenes (1868), p. 16
  4. Frances Armistead Burwell is born to Robert and Anna Burwell of Hillsborough Frances Armistead Burwell, called Fanny, was the fourth of the twelve children of Robert and Margaret Anna Burwell. People: Robert Armistead Burwell, Margaret Anna BurwellSearch the index · Orange County NCGenWeb: Burwell School
  5. Fanny Burwell dies aboard the steamer Jamestown as her parents bring her home to Hillsborough Fanny Burwell had gone to New York to complete her music education, but fell ill with erysipelas in early March. Her mother went north to nurse her, and she died at dawn on the steamer Jamestown between New York and Norfolk with both parents beside her, in her eighteenth year; her body was brought home to Hillsborough for burial. People: Robert Armistead Burwell, Margaret Anna BurwellSearch the index · DigitalNC: The Hillsborough Recorder, May 7, 1856, page 3 (obituary)
  6. Burwell School closes as the Burwells move to Charlotte The Burwells closed their Hillsborough school in 1857, the same year they took charge of a girls' school in Charlotte. People: Robert Armistead Burwell, Margaret Anna BurwellDigitalNC: Burwell School Historic Site Materials Now Available on DigitalNC

Places in this person’s story

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Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

  • Burwell School Schools and academies · Hillsborough · 3 events here

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Books about Margaret Anna Burwell

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Additional research sources

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  • Background context: National Register: Burwell School National Register nomination Nomination (9/15/1970), Hillsborough: history, description, and sources for the property
  • Search beyond the index: NC LIVE: prepared search for Margaret Anna Burwell NC LIVE An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read

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