Power of Attorney, Samuel Shapleigh for Thomas Thompson, May 18, 1791

Signed by Thomas Thompson and witnessed by Thaddeus Mason Harris and Otis(?) Clarke.

Letter from David Phips to Colonel Jonathan Snelling regarding escort of Governor Hutchinson to Harvard Commencement, 1773 July 12

David Phips wrote this letter to Colonel Jonathan Snelling from Cambridge on July 12, 1773, to inform him that Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson had requested the accompaniment of guards during his travels from Milton to Cambridge on July 21, 1773, to attend the Harvard College Commencement exercises. In the letter, Phips informs Snelling that he has issued warrants to the guards, instructing them to congregate at the Sign of the Grey Hound in Roxbury, Massachusetts at eight o'clock on the morning of the 21st. He explains that twelve other men will march, under the command of Sub-Brigadier Sumner, to the Governor's home in Milton to escort him to Roxbury, where the larger party will assemble. These heightened security measures were certainly prompted by political unrest, although this is not stated explicitly in the letter. Phips concludes by saying: "I shall order a dinner for us at Bradish's, where I hope to have the pleasure to dine with you."

Letter, 17 January 1795

Letter written from York to an unnamed correspondent, in which Sewall discusses political matters, court and legislative business, and news from a recent visit to Boston. With extensive comments on the nature of winter weather in New England.

Letter to Samuel Dexter, 13 November 1796

Letter regarding a bankruptcy case, later heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1797 (3 Dallas 369; Emory v. Greenough) and the upcoming national election.

Samuel Hazlet puts in his place James Duane his attorney against Thomas Dignel in a plea of trespass against the case, 1757

Title from verso.

[ Warrant for the arrest of Samuel Gray for debt], 1769

A warrant for the arrest and sale of all assets of Gray who was found to owe another merchant Alexander Hill in a recent trial. Also includes appraisal of property by Fairfield and Salter and statement by Sheriff Cudworth.

The testimony of Samuel Parsons., 1703

Title from verso.

Series: II. Letter from Joseph Willard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, to William Willard, Petersham, Massachusetts, August 4, 1800

Letter from Harvard president Joseph Willard to his brother (Samuel’s father) William Willard recommending a young preacher, Micah Stone, (Harvard College Class of 1790), to be assigned to Petersham’s church. He describes Stone as “liberal and catholic.” President Willard explains that he has asked Samuel to post the letter because, “I am just setting out upon a journey for my health, and leave this letter to be forwarded to you by your son.”

Letters from Benjamin Welles to John Henry Tudor, 1799-1801

Benjamin Welles wrote these six letters to his friend and classmate, John Henry Tudor, between 1799 and 1801. Four of the letters are dated, and the dates of the other two can be deduced from their contents. Welles wrote Tudor four times in September 1799, at the onset of their senior year at Harvard, in an attempt to clear up hurt feelings and false rumors that he believed had caused a chill in their friendship. The cause of the rift is never fully explained, though Welles alludes to "a viper" and "villainous hypocrite" who apparently spread rumors and fueled discord between the two friends. In one letter, Welles asserts that "College is a rascal's Elysium - or the feeling man's hell." In another he writes: "College, Tudor, is a furnace to the phlegmatic, & a Greenland to thee feeling man; it has an atmosphere which breathes contagion to the soul [...] Villains fatten here. College is the embryo of hell." Whatever their discord, the wounds were apparently eventually healed; in a letter written June 26, 1800, Welles writes to ask Tudor about his impending speech at Commencement exercises. In an October 29, 1801 letter, Welles writes to Tudor in Philadelphia (where he appears to have traveled in attempts to recover his failing health) and expresses strong wishes for his friend's recovery and return to Boston. This letter also contains news of their classmate Washington Allston's meeting with painters Henry Fuseli and Benjamin West.

Papers of David Sewall, 1753-1756

Three letters written to David Sewall (Harvard AB 1755). The first letter, written on September 21, 1753 by Samuel Sewall in York, to his brother at Harvard sends general news, asks after a hat sent to David, and requests he have a wig made for him. The second letter, written by Harvard student David Wyer on August 28, 1756, enthusiastically thanks Sewall for his past advice. The third letter, also sent from his brother Samuel in York on December 9, 1766, offers David advice on love. The two later letters were sent to Sewall while he was a schoolmaster in Wells, Maine.

Account book of David Townsend, 1774-1791

Account book kept by Dr. David Townsend (1753-1829) that records patients treated, illnesses, and fees charged in Boston, Massachusetts, and neighboring towns from 1774 to 1791. His patients included a number of soldiers and sailors, as well as figures like the French-American writer John Hector St. John (1735-1813). Townsend's treatments typically consisted of delivering cathartics or emetics. For the family of Samuel Appleton, Townsend administered smallpox inoculation in 1776, charging him 4 pounds, 4 shillings. Townsend sometimes recorded the occupation or race of the patient. For example, he attended the delivery of a child of Sappho Henshaw, "black girl," in 1786; in 1787 he attended to an unnamed "black man at [who lived at the] corner of Board Alley" in the North End of Boston. Other patients included John Hancock (1736-1793) and members of Hancock's household, as well as Federalist publisher John Fenno (1751-1798).

Hādhihi Risālah fī al-ijāzah / lil-Imām al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Awḥad al-Mutqin Abū al-Muẓaffar Manṣūr ibn Salīm al-Hamadānī al-Iskandarī al-Shāfiʻī : manuscript, 1865 or 6

Cream laid paper.

Kitāb Risālat al-murīd al-makhṣūṣ min rabbihi al-ḥamīd / lil-Sayyid al-ʻārif al-kabīr wa-al-quṭb al-shahīr ʻAbd Allāh ibn ʻAlawī al-Ḥaddād : manuscript, 1865 or 6

Written in one column, 9 lines per page, in black and red.