Anthony Dey Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company records

The Anthony Dey Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company Records consist of correspondence, documents, account books, case files, financial papers, and printed material which document the workings of one of the earliest Texas land companies. The collection spans the years 1828-1855, but the bulk of the material dates from the most active years of the company, 1830-1835.

The Records are organized into five series: Correspondence, Agreements, Grants and Proposals, Court Actions, Financial Papers, and Printed Material. Boxes 4-6 contain Oversize material.

Series I, Correspondence (1828-1855), contains letters addressed to either Anthony Dey or the Galveston Bay Company and letters from Dey, as well as a small group of third party correspondence. The series is arranged chronologically. The earliest correspondences date from the time that Lorenzo de Zavala obtained his grant; later letters concern the company's business, including correspondence with agents both in Texas and Europe, sending instructions and receiving news from Texas, Mexico City and various places in Europe. There are also inquiries in response to the Company's advertisements, letters from surveyors, and discussions of the advantages of to the United States if it were to purchase Texas from Mexico. Principal correspondents include John T. Mason, William H. Sumner, Jonathan Turnbull, G. H. Paulsen, and William S. Allen. There is a gap in the correspondence from January 1836 to June 1849. The letters from 1849-1851 are written by William H. Sumner to Anthony Dey and concern a memorial to President James K. Polk that Sumner was preparing. Five folders of correspondence fragments have been placed at the end of the series. One of these, folder number 18, contains correspondence, probably written to John T. Mason, discussing the merits of the United States owning Texas.

Series II, Agreements, Grants, and Proposals (1826-1835) contains documents related to the people and events discussed in the correspondence of Series I. The files include copies of the grants of the empresarios, agreements with agents, letters of attorney for agents to sell scrip, and proposals of surveyors. Series III, Court Actions (1832-1852), contains papers relating to four court cases in which the company or Dey was involved, which are arranged by case. The first, Anthony Dey, impleaded with George Curtis ads. Charles A. Carter concerns a dispute with a land agent over payment for services rendered. The second case, Anthony Dey ads. Peter Reinoudt and Stewart Newell concerns Anthony Dey's dispute with his agents Newell and Reinoudt over the allocation of the grant lands. The case of Galveston Bay Company vs. Federal Government of Mexico consists of Anthony Dey's claims against the government of Mexico for the expenses incurred and premiums not gained due to governmental interference. The case of Stephen Whitney et al. vs. Anthony Dey et al. concerns a complaint brought by Stephen Whitney and others who had been appointed directors of the Galveston Bay Company.

Anthony Dey's personal financial papers are included with Galveston Bay Company papers in Series IV, Financial Papers (1821-1837). A two volume, highly detailed, account book dating from 1821 to 1834 carries both personal and business accounts, from the payment of servants, and purchase of horses and bread to the sale of shares in the Galveston Bay Company. Also present is Anthony Dey's bankbook as trustee of the company, and eight printed scrip, one of which was printed in Germany. Series V, Printed Material, includes newspapers, pamphlets (one published in Germany), broadsides, and other printed ephemera. Several items in this series have been cataloged separately, but remain with the collection.

Oversize contains material from Series II, IV, and V, arranged in box order.