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.

Letter to John Worthington: 13 August 1791

Letter to Worhtington, a Springfield, Massachusetts lawyer, regarding tax on a meeting house near Pittsfield, Massachusetts and public support for ministers.

Notes on cases in Lennox and Worcester, 1789

Contains notes on cases before the Supreme Court in Lennox and Worcester, Massachusetts relating to counterfeiting, libel, and fraud.

Notes on cases in Boston and Springfield, 1790-1793

Notes by unknown author on cases of land rights, debt, and theft.

Notes on cases in Plymouth, Barnstable and Duke Counties, 1785

Includes notes on cases of property law, and assault and battery.

Capt. Weeks his answers to interogatorys on oath ... ca. 1738

Weeks (of Greenland, N.H.) was accused of concealing and embezzling items from his late son's estate. Document is signed: William Parker reg.

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.

Compendium logicæ secundum principia D. Renati Descarte catechisticè propositum : [1693]

Small leather hardcover volume containing a manuscript copy of William Brattle’s abstract of René Descartes’ "Compendium Logicae" copied in Latin, likely by Thomas Phipps in 1693. A crossed out inscription on the inside back cover appears to read “Thomas Phips 1693” likely referring to Thomas Phipps, a member of the Harvard Class of 1695.

Compendium logica in quatuor partes, 1701

Small hardcover notebook containing a manuscript copy of William Brattle's abstract of René Descartes' "Compendium Logicae" copied in Latin by Harvard student Joseph Metcalf between April 29th and May 7th, 1701. The text includes an ornately decorated title page and drawings and notes on the flyleaves. The covers are unattached. The inside front cover is inscribed: "Joseph Burbeen Walker 1845."

Papers of George Godfrey, 1739-1792

The bulk of this collection consists of brief records of civil actions heard by George Godfrey as a justice of the peace for Bristol County, Massachusetts. With only a few interruptions, these records run from February 1754 through the early 1780s. The other documents include several small volumes and loose pages of household accounts, as well as a handful of pages of court records and marriages heard by George Godfrey and his father, John Godfrey.

An abridgment of what I extracted while an undergraduate at Harvard College, 1766-1769

The bound volume contains excerpts copied by Benjamin Wadsworth from books he read as a student at Harvard in the late 1760s. The volume includes almost no personal commentary on the readings. The excerpts are arranged by year of study for the academic years 1766-1769, beginning when Wadsworth was a sophomore. Each entry begins with a title indicating the book title and author for the passage, and there is an alphabetical index at the end of the volume. Wadsworth selected “extracts” from both religious and secular texts including several histories of England, American histories (with a focus on Puritans), the Bible, and in his senior year, “the Koran of Mohammed.” He also read several books on the art of speech and the art of preaching. There are few science texts included, though the final five-page entry is titled, “What I thought fit to note down from Mr. Winthrop’s experimental Lectures” and contains notes both on the content of Professor John Winthrop’s lectures as well as the types of experiments being performed in class. Wadsworth’s commonplace book offers a window on the state of higher education in the eighteenth century and offers a firsthand account of academic life at Harvard College.

[ Bond of Edward Williams and John Black], 1764

Williams was accused of assault and battery against John Black. Bond signed by Joseph Hartz, (justice of the peace for Bucks County, Pennsylvania); dated 30 October 1764.

Oratio salutatoria et oratio valedictoria, ca. 1763

Undated and unattributed handwritten Latin salutatory and valedictory orations composed for the Harvard College Commencement. A modern note with the materials suggests Nathaniel Sparhawk (Harvard AB 1765) as the author, but the author was more likely Joseph Hooper (Harvard AB 1763), who delivered the orations for the 1763 Harvard Commencement. While the documents are undated, textual clues include mention of the command of George III in recent war against France and Spain, suggesting the speech was written soon after the Treaty of Paris which was signed in February 1763 to end the Seven Years' War. The speech also celebrates Harvard Tutor William Kneeland, who resigned from his position in July 1763, and mentions the illness of Professor Edward Wigglesworth (who died before the 1765 Commencement). The text also mentions Professor John Winthrop and Massachusetts Governor Francis Bernard.

Un receuil: containing painting, penmanship, algebra and pieces selected from various authors in prose and verse, with a few pieces in French with their translation / by Phebe Folger of Nantucket : manuscript, 1797-1806

Written mostly in a copperplate hand in black ink, and illustrated with watercolor drawings.

Essays : manuscript, [17--]

Essays on the dispersion of mankind, the Council of Trent, the invention of writing, and other topics.