Papers, 1637-1808.

  1. Resources
  2. View Resource

ArchivalResource

Papers, 1637-1808.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/207128834

The papers in this collection consist of wide-ranging correspondence and documents touching on many events throughout the American colonial period. Those items that were donated by Rosseter Cotton (descendant of the famous divine, John Cotton) are listed in the AAS Donation Book for 18 April 1815. (See also a listing filed in Box 1, Folder 1 of this collection.) The provenance of the remaining items is unclear, but all were evidently gathered together early in the 19th century and labeled Curwen Family Papers. A few of the items were written by Samuel Curwen, and some correspondence is addressed to members of the Curwen family. Two brief diaries of Samuel Curwen, 1751 and 1757 (both originally interleaved in Nathaniel Ames' Almanack), Curwen's notebook, 1768-1771, containing financial memos, and a volume titled "His Colledge Laws," which Curwen apparently kept from 1731 to 1732, while a student at Harvard College, are also included. It is possible that those items relating to the Louisbourg Campaign, the French and Indian War, and Salem, Mass., were once in the possession of Samuel Curwen, who was an antiquarian and who gave the choicest items of his collection to his friend, William Bentley (1759-1819). The collection consists of letters, deeds, contracts, rough sermon notes, government documents, maps, and charts. The bulk of the collection is significant correspondence concerning religious and political developments in Old and New England, especially in colonial Massachusetts, during the 17th and 18th centuries. For example, there are letters written to or by the Mathers, John and Josiah Cotton, Joseph Dudley, Jeremiah Dummer, Jonathan Edwards, Samuel and Stephen Sewall, Dennis DeBerdt, Edward A. Holyoke, Nicholas Street, Robert Wodrow, and Thomas Walley. Several letters and documents refer to troubles with (especially King Philip's War) and poor treatment of Indians, e.g., letters of George Shove, Josiah Cotton, Thomas Walley, Henry Dering, Benjamin Colman, Noah Newman, William Bradford, and Jeremiah Dummer. The letters and orders of William Shirley, Benjamin Green, Sir William Pepperrell, and the New York and Massachusetts legislatures refer to the Louisbourg and Crown Point Expeditions of 1745 and 1755, respectively. Several items concern smallpox outbreaks and inoculation, e.g., letters of Samuel Sewall and Thomas Robie. There is business correspondence between Robert Hale and his estate agent in England, Bennett Swayne, as well as business correspondence of bookseller Samuel Gerrish and George Curwin. Peter Collinson's letters from London to John Custis at Williamsburg, Va., 1734-1745/46, concern horticultural subjects, and a letter written by Cadwallader Colden, 1741, objects to the treatment of blacks in New York. There are Indian wills and deeds, an account, 1808, by Ashley Bowen of a 1750 shipwreck, and a copy of the Records of the Salem, Mass. Social Library, 1760-1761. The latter includes the covenant and articles, list of subscribers, rules of borrowing, and a catalog of the books and their cost.

3 boxes.1 folder (20 items) ; oversize.

American Antiquarian Society

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7000348

American Antiquarian Society

Related Entities

There are 13 Entities related to this resource.

Shirley, William, 1694-1771

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bg2p0s (person)

Shirley was governor of Massachusetts from 1741 to 1757. From the description of Letter, 1745 June 1, Boston [Mass.], to Jacob Wendell, Boston [Mass.]. (New England Historic Genealogical Society). WorldCat record id: 50844670 Colonial Governor of Massachusetts. Shirley was active in colonial politics, served in the French and Indian War, and succeeded Braddock as commander of all British Forces in North America upon Braddock's death. Shirley attended a council of war in New ...

Colman, Benjamin, 1673-1747

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67d2vdm (person)

Colman received his A.B. degree from Harvard in 1692. From the description of Sermons : manuscript, 1709. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 612882178 Benjamin Colman (1673-1747) was born in Boston on October 19, 1673. He received an A.B. from Harvard College in 1692 and an A.M. in 1695. Soon after graduation he departed on a ship for London. The ship was taken over by a French privateer, who held the passengers captive before exchanging them once on land...

Hale, Robert, 1703-1767.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67x47kb (person)

Colonel Robert Hale (1702/03-1767) was the son of Robert (1668-1718/19) and Elizabeth Clark Hale. He graduated from Harvard College in 1721, studied medicine with Joseph Manning of Ipswich, Mass., and was one of the most important citizens of Beverly, Mass. From the description of Papers, 1717-1741. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 207141094 ...

Collinson, Peter, 1715-1802.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fz5637 (person)

Curwen family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62822fm (person)

Samuel Curwen (1715-1802), Tory diarist, graduated from Harvard in 1735 and returned to his home in Salem, Mass., to engage in trade and real estate. He was a captain under Sir William Pepperrell in the expedition to Louisbourg but had to resign his commission. Until the Revolution, he occupied a socially prominent position in Salem and made his living by trade. As his Toryism became public knowledge, he was threatened with violence, and in May 1775 he sailed for England, where he remained for t...

Mather family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qk6j20 (family)

Dummer family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ph0sfj (family)

Cotton family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65j6h28 (family)

Sewell family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v215kb (family)

Gerrish, Samuel, -1741

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6j46p7v (person)

Curwen, Samuel, 1715-1802

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65x3cxg (person)

Corwin family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6648qhh (family)

Custis, John, 1678-1749

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zp4r01 (person)

John Custis (August 1678 – November 22, 1749) was an American planter, politician, government official and military officer who sat in the Virginia House of Burgesses. A prominent member of the Custis family of Virginia, he utilized his extensive landholdings to support a career in horticulture and gardening. Born into a slaveholding family who resided in Northampton County, Virginia, Custis was sent to London at a young age to study the tobacco trade under Micajah Perry. He returned to his g...