The Estate Book of Hannah Tait, 1836-1860, records the financial accounts for the estate of Hannah Tait with Robert F.W. Allston as executor. The beginning of the book contains the last will and testament of Hannah Tait in which she outlines her wishes for the division of her estate and paying off of debts. Tait leaves her daughter Elizabeth Shackleford her enslaved persons but if Shackleford dies, the enslaved persons are to be "sold at a private sale to humane masters." The book also includes a copy of the inventory and appraisement of the enslaved persons.
The Robert F.W. Allston with Robert Adger and Co. Account Book, 1860, is a journal recording household and grocery expenses for Robert Allston. Among the lists includes items for enslaved persons such as cloth and toothbrushes. Many entries also contain records of payments to specific individuals.
The Robert F.W Allston Account Book, 1860-1861, documents payments, a recipe to help cure rabies, stocks for Nightingale Hall and Chicora Wood Plantations and the names, births and deaths of enslaved people. The book also includes diary entries for when Robert Allston visited Manassas, Virginia at the Battle of Bull Run during the Civil War, recording conversations he had about the battle, the atmosphere of the army camps and the death of General Barnard E. Bee.
The Robert F.W. Allston 1860 Almanac is a Miller's Planters' and Merchants Almanac for the year 1860 repurposed as a journal. Personal entries include account pages for bushels of rice, a list of enslaved men, women and children who were born and died at Chicora Wood Plantation, the purchase of enslaved people, a presentation of a billiard table to the Lunatic Asylum, a meeting with Laymen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and work on the Georgetown Railroad.
