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Thomas Rodney was born in Sussex County, Delaware, on June 4, 1744. He was a lawyer and politician in his native state serving as Justice of the Peace in 1770, a member of the assembly to elect delegates to the First Continental Congress in 1774, member of the Council of Safety in 1775, Colonel of militia during the Revolutionary War, Chief Justice of the Kent County Court in 1778, Register of Bills in 1779, member of the Congress of the Confederation from 1781–1783 and 1785–87, and Speaker of the Delaware Assembly in 1787. On July 12, 1803, he and Robert Williams were appointed Land Commissioners for the Mississippi Territory west of the Pearl River. In August of that same year, he was appointed Territorial Judge of the Mississippi Territory to succeed Seth Lewis, a position he held until his death at his home in Jefferson County, M.T., on January 2, 1811.
This collection is composed of a diary, a letter, and a holographic will. The diary is the account of Rodney's journey through the country around Natchez, M.T., from September 8–27, 1804. Among the early Natchez settlers mentioned are William Dunbar, Anthony Hutchins, William B. Shields, Abner Green, John Ellis, Benajah Osman, John Collins, and Ferdinand L. Claiborne. This diary was published in The Journal of Mississippi History, volume 8, number 2 (April, 1945). A typescript of the diary presumably prepared for that publication, is included in the collection. The letter (ALS) was written by Rodney to Dr. William Lattimore, Territorial Representative in the U.S. Congress concerning Rodney's work with land claims as Land Commissioner of Lands west of the Pearl River. The holographic will is dated September, 1785, and revokes all other wills theretofore made by him.