Overview
Manuscripts, written in several hands, concerning the Mayhew family of Martha's Vineyard.
Dates
- 1731-1790 and undated
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
Extent
.1 linear feet (1 volume in 1 folder in 1 box)Includes manuscripts relating to the Mayhew family of Martha's Vineyard, written in several hands: a 1731 will of Ebenezer Allen (from Chilmark, Massachusetts), with a 1733 statement of probate; a 1741 land grant deed giving Experience Mayhew acres in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, with an undated note in the hand of Jonathan Mayhew; a discourse and a prayer in the hand of Jonathan Mayhew, unsigned and undated; 2 letters from Harrison Gray, Royal collector of the Province of Massachusetts Bay to Miss Elizabeth Mayhew, 1783 and 1790; and other material. Also includes a 1930 letter from the donor, Charles Henry Taylor to Alfred C. Potter of the Harvard College Library.
Biographical / Historical
Papers concern these members of the Mayhew family:
- Experience Mayhew (1673–1758): was a New England missionary to the Wampanoag Indians on Martha's Vineyard.
- Jonathan Mayhew (1720-1766; Harvard AB 1744): Experience's son, was an American minister at Old West Church, Boston, Massachusetts.
- Elizabeth Mayhew (1759-1829): was the daughter of Jonathan Mayhew, she married Peter Wainwright in 1790.
- Paine Mayhew (1677-1761): was a Chilmark lawyer and judge, and one of the agents for Indian affairs on the island of Martha's Vineyard.
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
No accession number. Gift of Charles Henry Taylor; received: 1930 May 6.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
Processing Information
Shelved with MS Am 829 and MS Am 976.
- Title
- Mayhew family. Mayhew family papers, 1731-1790: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02541
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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