Robert Armistead Burwell

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 14 dated events in the chronology →

1. 1835 Elizabeth Hobbs is brought to Hillsborough in the household of Robert and Anna Burwell When the Reverend Robert Burwell became minister of the Presbyterian church in Hillsborough, he moved his household from Virginia, bringing the enslaved Elizabeth Hobbs, later Keckly. By her own account she was nearly eighteen. People: Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly, Robert Armistead BurwellEncyclopedia Virginia (Virginia Humanities): Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly (1818–1907), by Jennifer Fleischner
2. About 1836 Schoolmaster William J. Bingham repeatedly beats Elizabeth Hobbs at Anna Burwell's urging Anna Burwell had William J. Bingham, the Hillsborough schoolmaster, flog Elizabeth Hobbs over a period of weeks in an attempt to break her spirit. Her memoir says Robert Burwell also beat her, and that she was eighteen at the time. People: Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly, Robert Armistead Burwell, William James BinghamDocumenting the American South: Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House (Keckley, 1868)
3. January 1836 Hillsborough Presbyterian Church buys the house as its manse The church's trustees bought lots 152 and 153 in January 1836, renovated the house, and gave it to their minister, Robert Armistead Burwell, and his family, who had arrived from Virginia late the year before. People: Robert Armistead BurwellElizabeth Keckly Center at the Burwell School: virtual exhibit timeline
4. 1837–1857 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
5. July 1837 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)
6. May 17, 1838 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
7. Early 1842 Hillsborough Literary Association forms with Dennis Heartt as secretary A Literary Association was formed at Hillsborough in early 1842 with Frederick Nash as president; James S. Smith, Cadwallader Jones and Robert Burwell as vice presidents; Dennis Heartt as secretary; and Walter A. Norwood as treasurer. Heartt, a charter member, had helped organize it. People: Frederick Nash, Cadwallader Jones, Robert Armistead Burwell, James Strudwick SmithSearch the index · DigitalNC: Wilmington Chronicle, February 9, 1842, page 2
8. February 9, 1846 Mitchell asks the Burwells to sell his wife Mary Ann with him Mitchell, an enslaved man who had run from his owner, came to Robert Burwell asking that he and his wife Mary Ann, enslaved in the Burwell household, be sold together. He worked at the house for a week; then Burwell told him to go back to his master, and he left on February 17. People: Robert Armistead BurwellElizabeth Keckly Center research database: Mitchell
9. 1848 Robert Burwell buys the house and has John Berry enlarge it Burwell resigned his pulpit and bought the two lots from the church for $800 and back pay. The builder John Berry added a central hall and two rooms and turned the house to face Churton Street. A deed of trust of July 16, 1850 shows Burwell still owing Berry $2,500 and the church trustees $800, secured on the lots and on enslaved members of the household. People: Robert Armistead Burwell, John BerryElizabeth Keckly Center at the Burwell School: virtual exhibit timeline
10. July 16, 1850 Robert Burwell pledges Mary Ann and her children against his building debts A deed of trust set out Burwell's debts of $2,500 to the builder John Berry and $800 to the Presbyterian trustees, and offered as security the enslaved seamstress Mary Ann, her four children and any children born to her, and a girl named Ann. People: Robert Armistead Burwell, John Berry, Thomas WebbElizabeth Keckly Center research database: Mary Ann
11. February 8, 1856 The Burwells resolve to sell their cook Hannah Hannah, who had come from Virginia with the family and cooked for the school, had been drinking heavily through 1855. Anna Burwell wrote to her daughter Fanny that she had made up her mind: Hannah would be sent to Richmond to be sold. People: Robert Armistead BurwellBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 14
12. April 27, 1856 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)
13. 1857 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
14. November 1862 The Collins family buys the former Burwell School and calls it the Beehive Members of the Collins family of Somerset Place, who had left Union-held eastern North Carolina, paid Robert Burwell $3,500 for the house and four lots. By 1863 about forty family members and enslaved servants lived there, and the family named it the Beehive. People: Robert Armistead BurwellElizabeth Keckly Center research database: The Collins family and the Beehive years