Breese-Stevens-Roby family papers

Collection

Identifier: A.B83

Staff Only

Biographical/Historical note

The earliest correspondence, legal papers, and financial records in the collection relate to Sidney Breese (1709-1767), a native of Shrewsbury, England. He was in New York City by 1763 and maintained a home in Shrewsbury, NJ, a community named for his English birthplace The next generation is represented by his son, Samuel Breese (1737-1800), who lived his entire life in Shrewsbury, NJ.

The following generation included Samuel Sidney Breese (1768-1848). He grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Yale University in 1789. In 1796 he went to Cazenovia, NY as a clerk for the Holland Land Company. He married Helen Burrowes (or Burrows) (1781-1861) in 1801 at the home of her uncle, Benjamin Ledyard, in Aurora, NY. She was the daughter of Major John Burrowes of Revolutionary war fame and his wife Margaret (Forman) Burrowes.

The couple first lived in Cazenovia, then in nearby Whitestown, and after 1813 in Sconondoa, a hamlet in the town of Vernon, Oneida County, NY.

Six of their children grew to adulthood, including:

Samuel Breese (1802-1873)

Margaret (1804-1832) who married Joseph Roby (d. 1847). They had two children, Sidney Breese Roby (1830-1898), who became a Rochester NY businessman, and Margaret Roby (1832-1833).

Elizabeth (b. 1808) who married Augustus Stevens and had four children, Sidney Augustus Stevens (b. 1832), Breese Jacob Stevens (b. 1834), Charles Edward Stevens (b. 1836) and Helen Breese Stevens (b. 1839).

Samuel Sidney Breese (1768-1848) had an older half sister, Elizabeth Ann Breese (1766-1828). She married the clergyman and geographer, Jedidiah Morse (1761-1826). They had eleven children. The three who survived to adulthood were Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791-1872), the artist and inventor of the telegraph, Sidney Edwards Morse (1794-1871), an inventor, author, and publisher, and Richard Cary Morse (1795-1868).

Additional biographical and genealogical information on the family can be found in box 20 of the collection.

Scope and Contents

Letters, chiefly family in nature, written to and from Breese-Stevens-Roby family members of New Jersey and upstate New York. Also in the collection are family legal and financial papers, literary items, genealogical material, maps, postal forms, prescriptions and recipes, and newspapers. The material encompasses generations of this extended family from the early 1700s to the early 1900s, with concentration from the 1790s to the 1860s.

Samuel Sidney Breese (1768-1848) was a lawyer for Aaron Burr in the 1790s. The collection contains a small group of letters and documents relating to Burr. They are found in Box 30 of the collection. These letters have been indexed in the card index to manuscript letters in the Department.

The collection also contains 16 letters, 1827-1830 and 1840-1849 by relative Samuel Finley Breese Morse. They have also been indexed in the card index in the Department.

Correspondence through 1840 from some others, including Jedidiah Morse, has also been indexed in the card index. A list of these correspondents follows.

Person: Number of Letters

Samuel Beardsley : 1

Samuel Breese (copy; to Aaron Burr): 1

Eleanor Freneau : 7

Thomas Henderson: 1

Andrew Kirkpatrick: 1

Peter Van Brugh Livingston: 1

William Learned Marcy: 1

Abraham Markoe: 1

Jedidiah Morse: 20

Sidney Edward Morse: 1

Richard Cary Morse: 2

Edward Elbridge Salisbury: 3

Gerrit Smith: 2

Peter Smith: 4

Richard Stockton: 1

James Tallmadge: 1

Francis Adrian Van Der Kemp: 1

Benjamin Wright: 1

Silas Wright Jr.: 1

Creator

Breese (Family : Breese, Sidney, 1709-1767) (Family)
Breese, Sidney, 1709-1767 (Person)
Breese, Samuel Sidney, 1768-1848 (Person)

Dates

Creation: 1705-1923

Language of Materials

English

Extent

24 box(es) (24 boxes and 1 package)

Access

The Breese-Stevens-Roby Family Papers is open for research use. Researchers are advised to contact the Rare Books Special Collections & Preservation Department prior to visiting. Upon arrival, researchers will also be asked to fill out a registration form and provide photo identification.

Use

In consultation with a curator, reproductions may be made upon request. Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from a curator. Researchers are responsible for determining any copyright questions.

Preferred Citation

[Item title, item date], Breese-Stevens-Roby Family Papers, A.B83, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester

Subjects

Genre / Form

Additional Description

Related Archival Materials

An overview of the initial gift of the papers is found in an article by Ruth Schafer Lempert, "A Century of Family History; The Breese-Stevens Papers." The University of Rochester Library Bulletin, 11:1 (Autumn 1955), 4-13.

An article drawing upon some of the family correspondence is: James K. Summerville, "Homesick in Upstate New York: The Saga of Sidney Roby, 1843-1847." New York History, 72:2 (April 1991), 178-196. (Sidney Breese Roby (1830-1898) was the son of Margaret (Breese) Roby and Joseph Roby. After his mother's death when he was two, he lived with his grandparents and other relatives in Sconondoa, Oneida County, NY. When he was 13 he was sent to school in Brockport, living with his father's sister and her family. Nearly 50 surviving letter in the collection (1843-1847) by, to and about him reveal his homesickness at being away from Sconondoa and family members. His father, who played a minor role in his life, died in February 1847.)