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Iron In The New World’S Veins: Government, Ironworks, And Community In The Massachusetts Bay Colony, Abigail Adam May 2024

Iron In The New World’S Veins: Government, Ironworks, And Community In The Massachusetts Bay Colony, Abigail Adam

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The Massachusetts Bay Company conceived of a colonial iron industry as early as 1628; two years before its leaders migrated to the New World. The colony’s founders continued their efforts to establish a functioning iron industry in subsequent decades. With the General Court’s support, John Winthrop Jr. engaged in business with the London-based Company of Undertakers to make the iron industry a reality. Nevertheless, previous scholarship has neglected the iron industry’s place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s establishment. Yet surviving court records and correspondence indicates that these two bodies are inseparable. Indeed, the General Court used the ironworks to materially …


This Species Of Property: Slavery And The Properties Of Subjecthood In Anglo-American Law And Politics, 1619-1783, John N. Blanton Feb 2016

This Species Of Property: Slavery And The Properties Of Subjecthood In Anglo-American Law And Politics, 1619-1783, John N. Blanton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This Species of Property examines the development of the law and practice of slavery in the 17th and 18th century Anglo-American empire through analysis of common law court decisions in England, Massachusetts, and Virginia. The dissertation argues that there was a long and vibrant debate over the legitimacy of the chattel principle – the definition of enslaved persons as a type of property – and that enslaved people and their allies pushed for the recognition of the legal humanity or subjecthood of the enslaved in colonial and metropolitan courts. This antislavery legal tradition culminated in the famous Somerset …


Petition Of Prisoners In Worcester Jail To Extend The Prison Yard, September 8, 1784., Elijah Isaacson, George Shayer, Jacob Ellison, Henry Chase, Jonathan Willington, Daniel Novell, Asa Danforth, Matthew Knight Sep 2014

Petition Of Prisoners In Worcester Jail To Extend The Prison Yard, September 8, 1784., Elijah Isaacson, George Shayer, Jacob Ellison, Henry Chase, Jonathan Willington, Daniel Novell, Asa Danforth, Matthew Knight

Broadus R. Littlejohn, Jr. Manuscript and Ephemera Collection

The prisoners ask that the prison yard at Worcester jail be extended to accomodate the increasing number of prisoners.


List Of Prisoners In Jail, Worcester, Massachusetts, September 6, 1785., Worcester Polytechnic Institute Sep 1785

List Of Prisoners In Jail, Worcester, Massachusetts, September 6, 1785., Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Broadus R. Littlejohn, Jr. Manuscript and Ephemera Collection

List of prisoners "confined in the common goal in Worcester in the County of Worcester," September 6, 1785. Next to the prisoners' names are the charges for which they are confined.


List Of Prisoners In Jail, Worcester, Massachusetts, June 6, 1785., Worcester County Jun 1785

List Of Prisoners In Jail, Worcester, Massachusetts, June 6, 1785., Worcester County

Broadus R. Littlejohn, Jr. Manuscript and Ephemera Collection

List of prisoners "confined in the Common Goal in Worcester." List includes names of prisoners and charges for which they were imprisoned.


Worcester County Court Of General Sessions Document Determining That A New Jail Should Be Built, June 10, 1784., Worcester County Court Of General Sessions, Worcester County, Abel Wilder Jun 1784

Worcester County Court Of General Sessions Document Determining That A New Jail Should Be Built, June 10, 1784., Worcester County Court Of General Sessions, Worcester County, Abel Wilder

Broadus R. Littlejohn, Jr. Manuscript and Ephemera Collection

This document notes that the current jail is "Very inconvenient + insufficient for the safety of the County[,] Comfort of the Prisoners" and it is necessary to build a new jail on a new plot of land.


Request By Grand Jury To Court Of Sessions To Order Treasurer To Give The Jurors Their "Note Upon Interest" In Payment For Their Service, Worcester, Massachusetts, December 7, 1781., Ephraim Doolittle Dec 1781

Request By Grand Jury To Court Of Sessions To Order Treasurer To Give The Jurors Their "Note Upon Interest" In Payment For Their Service, Worcester, Massachusetts, December 7, 1781., Ephraim Doolittle

Broadus R. Littlejohn, Jr. Manuscript and Ephemera Collection

A grand jury in Worcester, Massachusetts requests arrangements be made for their payment in light of the fact that the County Treasurer "has not money in store to pay them."


Receipt For Payment To Ephraim Curtis For His Boarding Of Prisoner Levi Carter, Worcester, Massachusetts, March 19, 1779., Worcester County, Ephraim Curtis Mar 1779

Receipt For Payment To Ephraim Curtis For His Boarding Of Prisoner Levi Carter, Worcester, Massachusetts, March 19, 1779., Worcester County, Ephraim Curtis

Broadus R. Littlejohn, Jr. Manuscript and Ephemera Collection

This is a debit receipt indicating Ephraim Curtis' payment for the boarding of Levi Carter, who was "committed" by William Dunsmoor for desertion. Carter was boarded for 4 weeks and 3 days. Curtis is also paid for a "turning key."


Order To Choose Juror For Grand Jury And Petit Jury, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1765., George William Frederick Feb 1765

Order To Choose Juror For Grand Jury And Petit Jury, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1765., George William Frederick

Broadus R. Littlejohn, Jr. Manuscript and Ephemera Collection

This record orders the selection of jurors from the "good and lawful men" of Worcester to serve on the Grand Jury and Petit Jury at the Court of General Sessions of the Peace. February 15, 1765. On the verso a handwritten notice enumerates the men chosen for each jury.