[ Order to the sheriff of Bucks County], 1731

An order to the sheriff of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, for twelve men to serve on a jury in the trial of John Borrowes, for an unspecified crime. Signed: Jeremiah Langhorne (justice of the peace); dated 14 June 1731. With seal. With this document (originally attached) is the list of jurors chosen to serve at the trial.

Precedents book of Massachusetts law, 1775

A commonplace book kept by Parsons outling various legal issues including getting a negro with child, slander, deceit, bills of exchange, debt,assault and battery, quantum meruit by a physician, ejectment, covenant, and liberty of the yard. Many of these topics include also forms of declaration.

The royal charter of King Charles the Second to William Penn, esquire, proprietor of the province of Pennsylvania, 1701

A copy of the charter giving William Penn land in the colonies. Also contains Penn's "Frame of the Government of Pennsylvania in America", the laws he established, and the charter of the city of Philadelphia.

Recopilacion sumaria de todos los autos acordados de la Real Audiencia y Sala del Crimen de esta Nueva España, y providencias de su superior gobierno: de varias reales cédulas y ordenes que despues de publicada la Recopilacion de Indias han podido recogerse asi de las dirigidas á la misma Audienca ó gobierno, como de algunas otras que por sus notables decisiones convendrá no ignorar: / 1787

por el doctor don Eusebio Bentura Belña...

An act for granting to His Majesty the sum of fifty-five thousand pounds, and for striking the same in bills of credit, in the manner herein after directed..., 1764

Contains an act for collection of taxes to pay the debt by establishing a set fee of fifteen shillings per head and household.

A catechism geographicall, historical and chronologicall 1719

Notebook of unlined pages with paper marbled cover holding a handwritten copy of Tutor Flynt's "Catechism" likely copied by Harvard student John Wolcott in 1719. The volume lists questions and accompanying answers on various academic subjects. On the last page, the inscription "John Wolcott [the name is crossed over] his geography, 1719" indicates Wolcott (1702-1747), a member of the Harvard class of 1721, copied the book.

Commonplace book of Nathaniel Freeman, 1786-1787

Nathaniel Freeman made entries in this commonplace book between 1786 and 1787, while he was an undergraduate at Harvard College. The book includes the notes Freeman took during three of Hollis Professor Samuel Williams' "Course of Experimental Lectures," and cover Williams' lectures on "The Nature & Properties of Matter," "Attraction & Repulsion," and "The Nature, Kind, & Affections [?] of Motion." These notes also include one diagram. The book also includes forensic compositions on the subjects of capital punishment, the probability of "the immortality of the soul," and "whether there be any disinterested benevolence." It also includes a poem Freeman composed for his uncle, Edmund Freeman; an anecdote about Philojocus and Gripus; an essay called "Character"; a draft of a letter to the Harvard Corporation requesting that, in light of the public debt, the Commencement ceremonies be held privately to lower expenses and exhibit the merits of economy; and an "epistle" to his father, requesting money. This epistle begins: "Most honored sire, / Thy son, poor Nat, in humble strains, / Impell'd by want, thy generous bounty claims."

An English oration : 1783

Paper notebook containing a handwritten copy of an essay titled "An English Oration" composed by Harrison Gray Otis for the 1783 Harvard Commencement. The essay discusses the American Revolution and begins, “An Omission of the usual appeals..."

Student essay composed by Edmund Toppan, 1795

Four-page handwritten student essay composed in English by Edmund Toppan as a Harvard undergraduate. The verso of the last page is inscribed "Toppan June 22'd 1795." The essay is titled with a quote from Horace: "Qui non moderabitur irae, Infectum volet esse, dolor quod suaserit et mens." The essay discusses the destructive force of uncontrolled passion and begins, "Last evening, having a very disagreeable head-ache, I early retired to bed."

Student poem composed by Jacob Abbot Cummings, 1799 September 16

Handwritten poem composed by Jacob Abbot Cummings when he was an undergraduate at Harvard College. The rhyming poem celebrates morning (as a metaphor for life) and describes the farmer, industrious milk maid, and market man. It begins, “Loud speaks the clarion of approaching day..." The poem is labeled "16 September 1799 Cummings" and is headed with a quote from John Milton's Paradise Lost: "Sweet in the breath of morn, her rising sweet, with song of earliest bird."

Mathematical notebook attributed to Thaddeus Mason Harris, ca. 1787

Hardcover notebook containing handwritten transcriptions of rules, cases, and examples from 18th century mathematical texts. The author and purpose of the volume is unclear, though it has been connected with Thaddeus Mason Harris (Harvard AB 1787). Most of the entries include questions and related answers, suggesting the notebook was used as a manuscript textbook and workbook. The extracts appear to be copied from John Dean's " Practical arithmetic" (published in 1756 and 1761), Daniel Fenning's "The young algebraist's companion" (published in multiple editions beginning in 1750), and Martin Clare's "Youth's introduction to trade and business" (extracts first included in 1748 edition).

Sermons : manuscript, 1788-1791

Nine sermons concerning Revelations 7, Hebrews 7, Psalms 174, Matthew 16, and other chapters, delivered chiefly at Hampton, New Hampshire. Includes an epitaph in memory of Thayer.

Orderly book : manuscript, 1775-1776

Orderly book kept by Fogg, the Adjutant for Colonel Enoch Poor's 2d New Hampshire Regiment on Winter Hill, during the siege of Boston, Aug. 23, 1775-Jan. 6, 1776.

An Hebrew grammar, collected chiefly from those of Mr. Israel Lyons, teacher of Hebrew in the University of Cambridge; and the Rev. Richard Grey, D.D. rector of Hinton, in Northamptonshire: To which is subjoined a praxis, taken from the sacred classics, and containing a specimen of the whole Hebrew language: with a sketch of the Hebrew poetry

as retrieved by Bishop Hare ...

Mathematical notebook, and commonplace book, circa 1689-1769

Manuscript notebook, possibly kept by Harvard students, containing 17th century English transcriptions of arithmetic and geometry texts, one of which is dated 1689-1690; 18th century transcriptions from John Ward’s “The Young Mathematician’s Guide”; and notes on physics lectures delivered by John Winthrop, the Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Harvard from 1738 to 1779. The notebook also contains 18th century reading notes on Henry VIII, Tudor succession, and English history from Daniel Neal’s “The History of the Puritans” and David Hume’s “History of England,” and notes on Ancient history, taken mainly from Charles Rollin’s “The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians and Grecians.” Additionally included are an excerpt from Plutarch’s “Lives” and transcriptions of three articles from “The Gentleman’s Magazine, and Historical Chronicle,” published in 1769: “A Critique on the Works of Ovid”; a book review of “A New Voyage to the West-Indies”; and “Genuine Anecdotes of Celebrated Writers, &.” The flyleaf contains the inscription “Semper boni aliquid operis facito ut diabolus te semper inveniat occupatum,” a variation on a quote of Saint Jerome that translates approximately as “Always good to do some work so that the devil may always find you occupied.” In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Harvard College undergraduates often copied academic texts and lecture notes into personal notebooks in place of printed textbooks. Winthrop used Ward’s textbook in his class, while the books of Hume, Neal, and Rollin were used in history courses taught at Harvard in the 18th century.