Note 1 — PREFACE.

Note.—In the library and papers of his son, J. L. Peyton, which were stored for safe keeping on his estate in Alleghany on Jackson's River, and in the Valley of the Falling Spring, in the Spring of 1861, there were many boxes of MSS., letters from various members of the family, written between 1740 and 1860, and often the answers of them. The letters were from John Peyton, who died in 1760, John Rowze Peyton, John Sergeant, C. J. Ingersoll, Jos. R. Ingersoll, J. M. Berrian, Thos. Jefferson, John Marshall, James Madison, Bishop Madison, Governor Tyler, John Scott, of Fauquier, Dr. Alexander, D. D., Bishop Meade, B. W. Leigh, Chapman Johnson, John S. Archer, Gov'r. McDowell, Governor Campbell, Thos. H. Benton, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Wm. C. Rives, Gen. Francis Preston, Wm. C. Preston, William Preston, J. M. Preston, Wm. B. Preston, John Floyd, Judge A. G. Dade, John Yates, Bushrod Washington, Gov. Thos. Mann Randolph, H. A. Wise, John Randolph, of Roanoke, John Tyler, Spencer Roane, and others; and Mr. Peyton's letter book, beginning about 1806. The whole of this invaluable mass was burnt, or destroyed, together with Col. Peyton's library, by Federal troops during the civil war. Cr.