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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Am 628

Documents concerning citizens and town of Medway, Massachusetts

Overview

Materials documenting town and personal affairs in Medway, Massachusetts.

Dates

  • 1762-1798

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English.

Extent

.5 linear feet (1 box)

Collection includes manuscript documents and printed documents with manuscript additions related to the people and town of Medway, Massachusetts. Many of the documents bear the signature of Medway resident Elijah Clark. Items include town meeting warrants, tax assessment lists, church sermon journals, voting returns, estate inventories, and other town-related documents.

Biographical / Historical

Medway, Massachusetts was first settled in 1657 and was incorporated in 1713. Elijah Clark (1727-1801) was a prominent Medway citizen who served as Town Clerk (1762-1764, 1766-1768, 1771-1778, 1783-1792), Selectman (1761-1775), and Representative to the General Court of Massachusetts (1776-1779, 1785). Elijah was also appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1775. Elijah married Bathsheba Harding (1731-1819) in 1751 and they had ten children: Theodore (1752-?), Eunice (1753-1838), Elijah (1756-1805), Hannah (1759-?), Jotham (1761-1777), Bathsheba (1764-1766), Prudence (1766-?), Bathsheba (1769-1831), Joseph (1771-?), and Abijah (1775-1802).

Arrangement

Arranged into the following series:

  1. I. Town meeting warrants, 1764-1793
  2. II. Tax rates and assessments, 1762-1780
  3. III. Church-related documents, 1772-1798
  4. IV. Other documents, 1768-1792

Physical Location

b

Immediate Source of Acquisition

No accession number. Gift of Elijah Clark; received: 1846 July 6.

Related Materials

See also MS Am 623 and MS Am 821 for papers collected by the same donor.

Processing Information

Processed by: Ashley M. Nary

Title
Documents concerning citizens and town of Medway, Massachusetts, 1762-1798: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou02555

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.

Contact:
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440