Quarter bill for Samuel Abbot signed by Steward Caleb Gannett, 1782 November 28

Printed quarter bill for Samuel Abbot (Harvard AB 1785) with sizing and punishment totals, and handwritten credits, signed by Steward Caleb Gannett.

Quarter bill for Timothy Bigelow, 1785 February 25

Printed quarter bill for Timothy Bigelow (Harvard AB 1786) with sizing and punishment totals. Handwritten text of name, date, and bill totals is faded.

Quarter bills for Stephen Moody signed by Steward Caleb Gannett, 1786-1789

Four printed quarter bills for Stephen Moody (Harvard AB 1790) with sizing and punishment totals, each signed by Steward Caleb Gannett.

Quarter bills for Daniel Marrett signed by Steward Caleb Gannett, 1786-1790

Fourteen printed quarter bills for Daniel Marrett (Harvard AB 1790) with sizing and punishment totals, signed by Steward Caleb Gannett.

Quarter bills for Nathaniel Thayer signed by Steward Caleb Gannett, 1787-1789

Four printed quarter bills for Nathaniel Thayer (Harvard AB 1789) with sizing and punishment totals, signed by Steward Caleb Gannett.

Quarter bills for Samuel Stearns signed by Steward Caleb Gannett, 1793-1794

Six printed quarter bills for Samuel Stearns (Harvard AB 1794) with Steward and Commons, Sizings, Study and Cellar Rent, Instruction, Library, French Instruction, Medical Instruction, Books, Sweepers, Catalogues and Commencement Dinner, Repairs, Wood, and Punishment totals. Bills signed by Steward Caleb Gannett.

Quarter bill for Seth Low, 1800 August 28

Photostat copy of printed quarter for Seth Low (Harvard AB 1804) with Steward and Commons, Sizings, Study and Cellar Rent, Instruction, Library, French Instruction, Medical Instruction, Books, Sweepers, Catalogues and Commencement Dinner, Repairs, Wood, and Punishment totals. Bills signed by Steward Caleb Gannett.

[Committee report], 1780 May 16

One-page report signed by Hollis Professor Samuel Williams and Tutor William Bentley examining the complaint made by "Kendall" (probably Samuel Kendal, a member of the Class of 1782) of a "great abuse he received after Commons" on May 9, 1780 from Fortescue Vernon (Class of 1780) and Edward Sohier (Class of 1781). The report finds Vernon guilty and recommends a light punishment. Williams and Bentley then propose six regulations intended to keep order after breakfast and dinner service in the dining hall.

Copy of resolves of the Overseers relative to the Disturbances at the Coll. ye beginning of Apr 1768, 1768 April 12

Handwritten copy of six resolves and one vote passed by the Board of Overseers regarding the behavior of undergraduates, copied by Andrew Eliot, secretary to the Board of Overseers, and entered into the College Book No. 7, page 177. The resolves reflected on the insubordination of Harvard students, declared the support of the Overseers towards the efforts of the College government to maintain order, and proclaimed the expulsion of guilty students a "just punishment." The Overseers voted to have the President read the resolves in the College Chapel, which was done by President Edward Holyoke on April 12, 1768.

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."

" Lines upon the late proceedings of the College Government" collection, 1787-1917

This collection contains various manifestations of a humorous poem, most often called "Lines upon the late proceedings of the College Government," written by classmates John Quincy Adams and John Murray Forbes in 1787. Both Adams and Forbes were members of the class of 1787, and the poem recounts events surrounding the pranks and ensuing punishment of two members of the class behind them, Robert Wier and James Prescott. Wier and Prescott had been caught drinking wine and making "riotous noise," and they were publicly reprimanded by Harvard President Joseph Willard and several professors and tutors, including Eliphalet Pearson, Eleazar James, Jonathan Burr, Nathan Read, and Timothy Lindall Jennison. The poem mocks these authority figures, but it spares Samuel Williams, whom it suggests was the only professor to find their antics humorous.

[ Fetâvâ] : manuscript, 1132 [ca. 1720 C.E.]

A typical fatwa collection covering almost all aspects of law: prayers, ablution, alms, fasting, divorce, capital punishment, etc.

Particulars of the trial and execution of George Partridge, aged 21: who was executed at Bury-St.-Edmund's, on Monday last, for the wilful murder of George Ansell, aged 9 years, within a few miles of Polstead, the late scene of Maria Martin's murder. Also, the prisoner's confession

Date of imprint from execution date, April 13, 1829 -- Capital Punishment UK site via WWW, viewed December 14, 2007.

Joan Little

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.