Receipts, receipted bills, and promissory notes, 1773, 1785-1799

The subseries contains extensive records of Shapleigh's personal expenses over the course of almost fifteen years. These receipts, receipted bills, and promissory notes, which range in date from 1785 through 1799, document Shapleigh's purchase of goods and services from almost one hundred individuals and businesses. Included are receipts and receipted bills for room and/or board with Sally Chadbourn, Sarah Chadbourn, Nathaniel Jarvis, Joseph Moody, Phebe Paine, Stephen Sewall, and Mary Thacher; for washing, mending, and/or tailoring by Lydia Hastings, Joseph Hill, Mrs. E. Hunnewell, Jonathan Kidder, Susanna "Sukey" Morse, Katharine Morse, and Jacob Porter; for cloth from John Brooks and Benjamin Callender; for the use of William Frothingham's horse; for hair dressing by John Goodwin; for instruction from Samuel Moody and Joseph Nancrede; for subscriptions to several publications (including Thomas Paine's The Federal Orrery, Benjamin Russell's Columbian Centinel, and Young and Minns' The Mercury); for hats from William Bordman & Son; for a silver watch from Thomas Pons; for transporting bushels of sand to Harvard from "the wharf" by Ebenezer Stedman; and for writing books, copy books, quarto books, pencils, quills, ink powder, ink stands, wrapping paper, and quires of paper from stationer James White.

Also included are receipts and receipted bills for a bed and bedding; having shoes made and repaired by cobblers; the use of horses (sometimes with sulkeys), chaises, and sleighs for visits to Kittery, Woburn, Portsmouth, Charlestown, and other locations; "papering" (applying wall paper), painting, and making blinds for a study and another room; food and drink (including plumcake, loaves of sugar, coffee, tea, raisins, lemons, eggs, flour, a "half bushel pees," gingerbread, bacon, beef, wine, cider, brandy, rum, and many other items); having food made, especially "pyes"; washing and mending of clothes and towels; the rental of chairs, a looking glass, and a trunk; bushels of sand; candles and candlesticks; sweeping and cleaning; "burning" and grinding coffee; furniture repair; "scowering the chappell candlesticks" (presumably part of his duties as Butler which he paid someone else to perform); pipes and tobacco; cloth and buttons; washing windows; books; and many other goods and services. Of particular note is an extensive receipted bill for purchases of furniture and household items from Thomas Thompson on May 14, 1791.

This subseries also contains receipts and receipted bills for large quantities of items which Shapleigh almost certainly sold in the College Buttery. While serving as Butler, Shapleigh was responsible for the supply and sale of items for students' personal use and consumption. Receipted bills in this subseries document his purchase of large quantities of quart bowls, leather gloves, cloth and "twist" (thread), raisins, gingerbread, crackers, "cyder" (receipts indicate that Shapleigh was also responsible for its bottling), writing books and other paper goods, candles, towels, wash basins, and many other items. These records are valuable for research into the types of food available to the Harvard community in the 18th century and their cost. They are also useful for determining the cost and availability of myriad other quotidian items.

Also included in this subseries are several promissory notes, including one from Isaac Moor to Shapleigh's guardian, Samuel Leighton. Its presence among Shapleigh's papers is unexplained.