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Reminiscences of Wilmington

 Collection
Identifier: MSS 0097-Item 0086

Scope and Contents

This manuscript consists of M.C.L. (Miriam C. Lamborn) Worrell’s reminiscences about Wilmington, Delaware, in the 1810s-1820s. The notes were recorded by Worrell in the 1880s-1890s.

In these reminiscences, Worrell created a detailed sketch of Wilmington, Delaware, as it appeared in the 1810s and 1820s. Worrell moved block by block through the city and its outskirts, recording information about the architecture of buildings, infrastructure, street plans, and past and current residents. Using Market Street and the Christina and Brandywine Rivers as her reference points, Worrell described wharves, craft shops, hotels, private residences, and a variety of specialty stores. She made brief reference to the sections of town inhabited primarily by African American residents, including Chicken Alley. Worrell described Arthur Murphey’s “groggery” on Front and Shipley Streets as the location “where all the lower class of drunkards were made.”

In crafting her reminiscences, Worrell made frequent references to Benjamin Ferris’s A History of the Original Settlements on the Delaware (1846) and Elizabeth Montgomery’s Reminiscences of Wilmington (1851). When she reached the limits of her own knowledge of Wilmington, she referred readers to these authors’ descriptions of the city.

Worrell also included the genealogies of several Wilmington families and information about her schoolmates and members of the Wilmington Monthly Meeting. She provided extensive genealogies of the Richardson and Gilpin families, as well as information regarding the Tatnalls, Mendenhalls, Corbits, Bayards, Shipleys, and others. She included lists of her schoolmates at the Friends’ School between 1817 and 1820 and at “Neighbor Moore’s” school in the later 1820s. Worrell also recalled members of the Wilmington Meeting by their seating order in the pews.

This collection consists of twenty-two leaves of paper with handwritten notes in black ink, several small newspaper clippings, and an envelope that was used to hold the materials.

Dates

  • Creation: 1880s-1890s

Creator

Language of Materials

Materials entirely in English.

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. Please contact Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, https://library.udel.edu/spec/askspec/

Biographical Note

Miriam C. Lamborn was born in 1809 to Jonathan and Rachel Lamborn and was raised in Wilmington, Delaware. In 1833, she married Thomas Worrell at the New Garden Quaker Meeting in Chester County, Pennsylvania. It appears that both Miriam and Thomas Worrell became Hicksite Quakers following the 1827 Hicksite-Orthodox split. The Worrells settled in Mill Creek, Delaware, around 1840 where Thomas ran a woolen mill. The Worrells had returned to Wilmington by the 1880s when Miriam began her reminiscences of the city. Mary C. Lamborn Worrell died in 1905 and was buried at Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery.

University of Delaware. Library. Self works : diaries, scrapbooks, and other autobiographical efforts : catalog of an exhibition, August 19, 1997-December 18, 1997 : guide to selected sources. Newark, Del. : Special Collections, Hugh M. Morris Library, University of Delaware Library, 1997.“Thomas Worrell Family and Mill,” The Mill Creek Hundred History Blog (accessed December 15, 2016) http://mchhistory.blogspot.com/2010/12/thomas-worrell-family-and-mill.htmlLamborn, Samuel. The Genealogy of the Lamborn Family. With Extracts from History, Biographies, Anecdotes, Etc. Philadelphia: The Press of M.L. Marion, 1894.U.S. Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935: New Garden Monthly Meeting, Chester County, Pennsylvania. (accessed via Ancestry.com on December 15, 2016.)U.S. Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935: Wilmington Monthly Meeting, New Castle County, Delaware (accessed via Ancestry.com on December 15, 2016.)Information derived from the collection.

Extent

1 item : 22 leaves ; 37 cm

Abstract

This manuscript consists of M.C.L. (Miriam C. Lamborn) Worrell’s reminiscences about Wilmington, Delaware, in the 1810s-1820s. The notes were recorded by Worrell in the 1880s-1890s.

Materials Available in Alternative Format

A digitized copy of the manuscript is available at the University of Delaware Digital Institutional Repository.

Related Materials

This item forms part of MSS 0097 Diaries, Journals, and Ships' Logs collection.

Publication Note

University of Delaware. Library. Self works : diaries, scrapbooks, and other autobiographical efforts : catalog of an exhibition, August 19, 1997-December 18, 1997 : guide to selected sources. Newark, Del. : Special Collections, Hugh M. Morris Library, University of Delaware Library, 1997.

Shelving Summary

Item 0086: Shelved in SPEC MSS 0097

Processing Information

Processed and encoded by Elizabeth Jones-Minsinger, January 2017.

Title
Finding aid for Reminiscences of Wilmington
Status
Completed
Author
University of Delaware Library, Special Collections
Date
2017 January 9
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the University of Delaware Library Special Collections Repository

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