Macky-Dunbar Records

1752 THL 

Finding aid created by Archives Staff on 01/18. Last revised 08/21.

ACCESS RESTRICTIONS: Collection is open to all researchers. 

USE RESTRICTIONS:  Restrictions may apply concerning the use, photoduplication, or publication of items in this collection. Consult a member of the archives staff for information concerning these restrictions. The user assumes all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants of copyright. 

EXTENT:  0.25 linear feet 

CREATOR:Macky, Robert, 1737-1814; Dunbar, Robert, d. 1815

DATES: 1796 – 1814 

ALTERNATIVE FORM AVAILABLE: Digitized in 2018. Macky's account book is available online through the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives Digital Collections.

SCOPE AND CONTENT:  This collection holds a ledger belonging to the medical practice of Doctors Robert Macky and Robert Dunbar. The ledger contains records of treatment and the sale of medicines to patients between the years 1796 to 1814, mainly in the Winchester-Frederick County area. The account book shows entries organized by individual account holders accompanied by the names of those whose treatment was billed to that account holder, often with details of treatment. Additionally, there are records of business transactions between the practice and individuals providing services of one kind or another, and names of other local doctors consulted by the practice.

Entries may show family members, guests, hired workers, and enslaved persons receiving treatment. The practice also provided medical care to individuals who, through infirmity or poverty, were under the care of the Overseers of the Poor of Frederick County. Consequently, the account book is a valuable source for information about people living in the Winchester-Frederick County area, as well as for the history of medicine in Virginia at the turn of the nineteenth century. An index of account holders and other names treated by or doing business with Macky and Dunbar is available and kept with the collection.

BIOGRAPHICAL/HISTORICAL: Dr. Robert Macky (1737-1814) was a Scotsman by birth and is thought to have been a Quaker. He came to Virginia from Pennsylvania. He served over a year during the Revolutionary War as the surgeon in the 11^th VA Regiment of Foot in 1776. Dr. Macky served under various commanders but most noteworthy was Colonel Daniel Morgan. He was also personal physician to Thomas Lord Fairfax. 

Dr. Macky was active in business and politics and became very wealthy and influential. On January 31, 1778, he received a land grant of 430 acres in Hampshire County from Lord Fairfax. In 1779 he purchased the James Dowdall Lot #60 on the North side of Piccadilly Street and the East side of Drury Lane (present day Braddock Street), where he built his home. Dr. Macky also purchased Lot #77 from the estate of George Washington in 1804. 

Dr. Macky died March 10, 1814 at his residence on the corner of Braddock and Piccadilly Street (where the current Old Post Office building now stands). He and his wife Catherine were both buried in the garden of their home. When the home was razed the Post Office and adjacent parking lot were built over the garden. The graves were never moved. 

There is less information about his partner, Robert Dunbar. Dunbar lived in a house at the intersection of Piccadilly and Loudoun Streets, close to where Macky lived. He died in 1815 and is buried in Mt. Hebron cemetery. His daughter, Mary Louise Dunbar, was the second wife of Winchester lawyer Philip Williams.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Thomas, Ann Whitehead. Dr. Robert Macky: Surgeon, Revolutionary War, 1737[?]-1814 (1990). “MMF-Macky, Dr. Robert,” Ann Whitehead Thomas Collection, 938 THL; Dunn, Victor S. “Frederick Parish, Frederick County Vestry Book, 1764-1818.” Magazine of Virginia Genealogy 45, no. 1 (February 2007): 32-38; Cartmell, Thomas. Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and their Descendants: A History of Frederick County, Virginia. Berryville, Va.: Chesapeake Book Company, 1963.

CITE AS: Robert Macky Records, 1752 THL, Stewart Bell Jr. Archives, Handley Regional Library, Winchester, VA, USA. 

ACQUISITION INFORMATION:  Acquired as a gift. 

ORGANIZATION: 

BOX 1

Account book, July 1796 – March 1808, 1 volume ; 40 cm

Index to Ledger of Doctors Robert Macky and Robert Dunbar, Compiled by Ellen Schwalenstocker, Jan. 17, 2020, 347 pages, typescript

Supplemental Index I– Individuals not identified with last name by group common to the day, 7 leaves, typescript

Supplemental Index II- Individuals not identified with last name but by role common to the day, 1 leaf, typescript

Summary index of Names, 91 leaves, typescript.