Correspondence, heritage society applications, financial records, legal records, scrapbooks, and assorted materials related to several generations two intermarried families of Hartford, Connecticut. William Hamersley was a noted physician and teacher in New York City. His papers include an account of money received, 1800-1835; tuition bill for his son William at Joseph Perry's Select Academy in New York; bills for the tuition and board for Melissa, Emily and Madeline Kissam at Mrs. Okill's school, also in New York, 1829-1830; documents from the Regents of the University of New York where William taught, 1813-1823; and an agreement to form a co-partnership with John Charlton, 1789. Also among his papers are a letter, a poem and a mortgage for his wife Elizabeth C. Hamersley. Their son William James was a publisher, editor, and book store owner. William Jame's son William was the Hartford, Connecticut, postmaster and later a judge. His papers include correspondence, clippings about his death, letters to him which someone gathered together because of their autographs (Samuel Clemens, Charles Dickens, Franklin Pierce, among others), and appointments, accounts and financial drafts from his years as postmaster, 1853-1858. His son William James died at a young age. His papers include letters written to his father in a child's hand, 1896-1897, his diploma from Trinity College, 1909, and statements issued at and a scrapbook of clippings, memorials and letters at his death, 1918. Oliver D. Cook's papers include his approval for the ministry, correspondence, deeds, and a poem at his death, possibly written by his son. His son Oliver D. Cook, Jr. is represented in the collection by correspondence, deeds, a will, and a poem at the death of his mother Sophia. Erastus Collins kept a diary that turned into a journal of important events, 1830-1842, and also kept notebooks about the trees, shrubs and plants he purchased and how his garden operated, 1857-1866. His son Atwood Collins was active with the Widow's Society in Hartford. His papers include correspondence, a scrapbook and two histories he wrote about the Widow's Society and charities in general, and newspaper clippings about his civic activities and his death. His wife, Mary Brace Collins, received condolence letters when her husband died in 1926. She also applied to the Connecticut Society of Colonial Dames. Emily Collins married William Hemenway who died in 1918. She later married J. Hamilton Scranton. Her papers include copies of birth certificates, her marriage certificates, historic information about Asylum Hill Congregational Church, and condolences on the death of Hamilton Scranton. J. Hamilton Scranton's obituary, an 1898 Class Day program, and biographical notes comprise his papers. Jane Gordon Hamersley Wright applied to the Colonial Dames in 1987 and became a member in 1988. Other Hamersley names that appear in the collection are Elizabeth J. and Sophie. The rest of the collection is comprised of family histories, genealogical research (probably by Jane), a narrative of the history of the Hamersley portraits, and assorted anonymous or unidentified documents.
