MDAH only has microfilm. (MF Rolls # 36185–36186)

Biography:

Robert Martin Ayres was born in Berlin, Worcester County, Maryland, in 1812. He was the son of Lambert Pernell Ayres (1782-1856) and Nancy Richardson Ayres (1782-1876). After moving to Adams County, Mississippi, Ayres married Sarah Macrery (ca. 1822-1859), daughter of Natchez physician Andrew Macrery, in 1839. He obtained Roseland, an 857-acre plantation on Second Creek, Adams County, from the Macrery family in 1849. Ayres was also the partner of William Cannon in the Natchez mercantile firm, Cannon and Ayres. He died at Roseland Plantation in 1864.

Robert Martin and Sarah Macrery Ayres were the parents of Anna Milbury Ayres (b. ca. 1845) and John Richardson Ayres (1849-1924), an Adams County planter who worked as an agent for the New Orleans cotton factor, John Phelps and Company. He married Nellie Henderson (ca. 1859-1951) in 1886.

Scope and Content:

This collection contains a variety of financial records documenting the activities of the Natchez, mercantile firms, Cannon and Ayres and Cannon and Nichols, as well as a journal for Roseland Plantation in Adams County. The plantation journal lists the names of slaves and the amount of cotton they picked.

Series Identification:

Roll 1 (MF Roll # 36185): 
invoice book, 1834-1835.
receipt book, ca. 1820s-1840s.
accounting ledger, ca. 1830s-1840s.
accounting journal, January 1839-April 1840.
accounting journal, May 1840-February 1844.

 

Roll 2 (MF Roll # 36186): 
accounting journal, January 1837-April 1840.
accounting journal, 1880-1881.
plantation journal, ca. 1845-1860.