Initially proposed by Peter Legaux at a meeting of the American Philosophical Society in 1793, the Vine Company of Pennsylvania was a stock company that encouraged the domestic production of grapes, wines, and brandy, and dissemination of knowledge about viticulture. After its incorporation in 1802, the Company operated vineyards on Legaux's farm at Spring Mill, 13 miles northwest of Philadelphia, until it failed in 1822. The three volumes of Journals of the Vine Company of Pennsylvania record the daily operations of America's first commercial vineyard bewteeen 1803 and 1814. Kept by the superintendent, Peter Legaux, the journals provide careful records of weather, planting, harvesting and other field work, as well as some of the doings of the officers and shareholders of the Company. The fourth volume is essentially a weather diary kept by Legaux at Spring Mill from 1822 until his death in 1827. The last volume of Vine Company records covering the last eight years of its operation, 1814-1822, has been lost.

Three volumes contain letters, laws, charters, reports, proclamations, petitions, and other official and semi-official documents relating principally to early Pennsylvania and New Jersey, signed by or addressed to William Penn, among others. A fourth volume is Penn's cash book, 1699-1703, which records expeditures, payments of quit rents, etc. Tipped in is "Catalogue of Goods left at Pensbury," and of goods left at Philadelphia, 1701.

Numbered "11", this item contains notes on lands owned and sold; notes on leases of Philadelphia houses; accounts with Daphne Peterson ("a free black woman"), Mary Spence ("of Dunfermline, Scotland"), and Baynard Hall; a list of books lent; a list of those receiving copies of Rush's publications, 1805-1806 (among whom was Thomas Jefferson); and an "account of property belonging to the estate."

This collection contains minutes of the Society, 1781-1975; minutes of the directors of the Corporation, 1929-1947; membership book (with signatures of early members), 1785; and names of later members. There are also deeds to the meeting house and burying ground; treasurers' accounts; reports of officers and committees; bills and receipts for constructing, maintaining, and repairing the meeting house; cancelled checks; and letters to the Society and its officers, especially Samuel Wetherill, 1883-1884.

Jasper Yeates (1745-1817) was a lawyer and Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice, one of the state's most successful colonial-era legal practitioners. After moving to Lancaster County in 1765, he became active in colonial and early federal affairs, first by supporting the Revolutionary struggle and later by serving as one of Lancaster's delegates to the State Convention of 1787, which ratified the U.S. Constitution. The Jasper Yeates Papers (1728-1910, bulk 1760-1816) consist mainly of correspondence and business and court/legal records related to the Yeates family. The bulk of this three linear foot collection reflect Yeates' personal life as husband, father, son, and friend, as well as his professional life as lawyer and judge in Pennsylvania; much of the material dated after Yeates' death was created by children and/or grandchildren.

This collection contains applications to possess and operate stills and to retail spirits and liquors, receipts for distilled liquors, accounts of monies collected by Lawrence Erb and James Brice. Pennsylvania counties covered are Berks, Fayette, Franklin, Philadelphia, and York.