Massachusetts papers, 1749-1777

ArchivalResource

Massachusetts papers, 1749-1777

Collection of papers relating to Massachusetts history gathered by Alfred Langdon Elwyn consists of letters, petitions, committee reports, resolutions, and official messages relating to public events in Massachusetts, 1749-77, including proceedings of the Massachusetts House, Massachusetts Council, Provinicial Congress at Watertown, minutes of various merchant groups, records of selectmen of Boston convened to consider such matters as the Sugar and Stamp Acts, Townshend duties and Non-Importation Acts, and a copy of a narrative of the Boston Massacre sent to Benjamin Franklin by a committee of Boston selectmen, possibly the Committee of Safety. Include letters by John and Samuel Adams, Thomas Cushing, John Hancock, James Otis, and Joseph Warren to the Massachusetts agent in London, Dennys De Berdt, and correspondence between Sir Francis Bernard, Gen. Thomas Gage, Thomas Hutchinson, the Earls of Hillsborough and Shelburne and customs commissioners at the Boston customhouse.

1 box and 2 vols of photostats.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7807624

Massachusetts Historical Society

Related Entities

There are 19 Entities related to this resource.

Cushing, Thomas, 1725-1788

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r8969b (person)

Thomas Cushing III (March 24, 1725 – February 28, 1788) was an American Founding Father, lawyer, merchant, and statesman from Boston, Massachusetts. Active in Boston politics, he represented the city in the provincial assembly from 1761 to its dissolution in 1774, serving as the lower house's speaker for most of those years. Because of his role as speaker, his signature was affixed to many documents protesting British policies, leading officials in London to consider him a dangerous radical. He ...

Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bs9j71 (person)

Benjamin Franklin FRS FRSA FRSE (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1706] – April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and political philosopher. Among the leading intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, a drafter and signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, and the first United States postmaster general. As a scientist, he was a major figure in ...

Adams, Samuel, 1722-1803

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6wr0vv1 (person)

Samuel Adams (September 27 [O.S. September 16] 1722 – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and one of the architects of the principles of American republicanism that shaped the political culture of the United States. He was a second cousin to his fellow Founding Father, President John Adams. Adams was b...

Hancock, John, 1737-1793

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61h1c98 (person)

John Hancock (January 23, 1737 [O.S. January 12, 1736] – October 8, 1793) was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is remembered for his large and stylish signature on the United States Declaration of Independence, so much so that the term John Hancock or Hancock has become a nickname in the United S...

Great Britain

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6wj3fx1 (corporateBody)

This historic document, considered by many to be the cornerstone of English liberty, was the result of demands made by the English barons at the beginning of the 13th century for rights and guarantees against the exactions of the m̀onarchy' in the person of King John. It consists of a preamble and 63 clauses. Also includes facsimile of Magna Carta from Salisbury Cathedral (acquired 1964). From the description of Magna Carta [manuscript]. 1215. (Libraries Australia). WorldCat record i...

Shelburne, William Petty Fitzmaurice, 2nd Earl, 1737-1805

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sv8dw7 (person)

British politician. Born William Fitzmaurice, assumed surname Petty in 1751, succeeded his father as Earl of Shelburne 1761, created Marquis of Lansdowne 1784. Worked in the House of Lords to repeal the Stamp Act and continued to pursue a conciliatory policy toward the American colonies, though opposed to their independence. He became prime minister in 1782, directed peace negotiations with the United States, France, and Spain, and resigned from office shortly thereafter. ...

Adams, John, 1735-1826

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61h1b9v (person)

John Adams (1735-1826) was the second president of the United States, born in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts. He served as defense counsel for British soldiers accused of Boston Massacre in 1770; as delegate to Continental Congress from 1774 to 1778; as member of committee charged with drafting Declaration of Independence in 1776; as congressional commissioner to France from 1778 to 1779; as minister to United Provinces in 1780; and negotiated a loan from Dutch bankers in 1782. Adams join...

Elwyn, Alfred L. (Alfred Langdon), 1804-1884

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60w93r9 (person)

Physician and father-in-law of S. Weir Mitchell. From the description of Letter, 1859, May 18 : Philadelphia. (Duke University). WorldCat record id: 35060218 ...

Warren, Joseph, 1741-1775

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w612665t (person)

Warren was President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress; three weeks after this letter he was killed at Bunker Hill. From the description of ALS, 1775 May 25 : Watertown, to [Committee of Correspondence]. (Copley Press, J S Copley Library). WorldCat record id: 14040204 Warren was a Boston physician who in 1770 became involved with the Sons of Liberty who protested the British presence in Massachusetts. He was involved with the Committee of Correspondence and was respon...

Gage, Thomas, 1721-1787

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fn15xz (person)

Thomas Gage, British military officer and last royal governor of Mass., was commander-in-chief in North America, 1763-1773. From the description of Letters : New York, to Sir Wm. Johnson, 1766-1771. (Newberry Library). WorldCat record id: 37737851 From the description of Letter : New York, to Honorable Lt. Governor Penn, 1766 July 2. (Newberry Library). WorldCat record id: 37737693 From the description of Letter : Montreal, to Monsr. L'anglade, 1763 July 17. (Newber...

Downshire, Wills Hill, Marquis of, 1718-1793

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6wh34wh (person)

Wills Hill (1718-1793), known as the Earl of Hillsborough, and later Marquis of Downshire. From the description of Letter to James Habersham, 1772 Apr. 1. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 38478005 British politician. Succeeded his father as Viscount Hillsborough in the peerage of Ireland, 1742; created Earl of Hillsborough in the peerage of Ireland, 1751; Baron Harwich in the peerage of Great Britain, 1756; Marquis of Downshire in the peerage of Ireland, 1789. As a member of P...

De Berdt, Dennys, 1694-1770

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pk1k5j (person)

Colonial agent and merchant. From the description of Dennys De Berdt copybook, 1765-1770. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 152581827 ...

United States Customhouse (Boston, Mass.).

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67h8cn8 (corporateBody)

Hutchinson, Thomas, 1711-1780

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bg2sts (person)

Governor of Massachusetts. From the description of Certification, 1752. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70960172 At this time, Hutchinson was judge of probate in Suffolk County (1749-1766); later he was royal governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1771-1774) From the description of A Brief State of that Part of Massachusetts Bay which is situated East of the Province of Main (sic) with reasons for erecting it into a separate & distinct Province : manuscript...

Otis, James, 1725-1783

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6db8c0k (person)

James Otis Jr. was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts on February 5, 1724/5. After receiving his B.A. in 1743 and his M.A. in 1746 from Harvard College, he went on to study law in Boston. Otis' work as a lawyer and writer helped the Revolutionary cause in the 1760s and 1770s. He served in the Massachusetts state government and continued as a lawyer while dealing with more and more pronounced mental illness. He died on May 23, 1783. His father, James Otis, Sr. (1702-1778) was a prominent Massachus...

Massachusetts. Council

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6323n47 (corporateBody)

Samuel Adams was an American patriot and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. From the description of Order for powder magazine guard, 1779 July 21. (Buffalo History Museum). WorldCat record id: 56357672 During the colonial period (1629-1686) certain members of the Court of Assistants (which functioned not only judicially but also legislatively as part of the General Court, constituting from 1644 its upper house, though without the formal title--see: Mas...

Massachusetts. General Court. House of Representatives

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6m36trh (corporateBody)

Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from an equal number of single-member electoral districts across the Commonwealth. Representatives serve two-year terms. From the description of House of Representatives, Order, Massachusetts, 1776 January 22. (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation). WorldCat record id: 189065354 From the gu...

Bernard, Francis, Sir, 1712?-1779

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60g3qgr (person)

Bernard was Captain General and Governor in Chief of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. From the description of DS, 1762 January 28. : Boston. Appointment. (Copley Press, J S Copley Library). WorldCat record id: 14194099 Governor of Massachusetts Bay (Colony). From the description of Sir Francis Bernard commission, 1768. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 79456180 Sir Francis Bernard was born in England in July 1712. After graduating from Oxford University i...

Massachusetts. Provincial Congress

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rr5tqg (corporateBody)

As of Aug. 1, l774, Gov. Thomas Gage had replaced the Council chosen from among the members of the General Court with one appointed by royal writ of mandamus. On Sept. 1 he called for the election of representatives to a General Court to meet in Salem on Oct. 5, but on Sept. 28 discharged them. Nevertheless ninety elected representatives met as scheduled, protested Gage's action, and on Oct. 7 resolved themselves into a Provincial Congress. They then adjourned until Oct. 11 in Conco...