Manuscripts
Correspondence and manuscripts
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Mather family collection
Manuscripts
Collection of letters and manuscripts of Richard, Increase, and Cotton Mather. The collection incorporates various items acquired between 1905 and 1927 and has been assembled at the Library. The collection includes two manuscripts of Richard Mather: "An exhortation to our Countrymen of Lancashire, by Richard Mather and William Thompson," and 64th and 65th lectures. Increase Mather's manuscripts include a notebook containing observations on the matter of Henry Palmer and the church in Haverhill, Massachusetts, "An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences," a fragment of a sermon, and an address "To the Inhabitants of Boston at their Publick Meeting," signed by Cotton Mather and Benjamin Colman. Cotton Mather's manuscripts include his sermon and notes for a sermon, a list of marriages performed, and a presentation inscription to Ebenezer Bradshaw and George Hughes, apparently cut out from the flyleaf of a volume. There are Increase and Cotton Mather's letters to Sir William Ashurst, treasurer and governor of the New England Company, the chartered company that established the Massachusetts Bay colony. There are also five letters by Increase Mather, 1712 to 1718 and 14 letters by Cotton Mather, 1712 to 1718.
mssMather
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Sermons and notes
Manuscripts
Collection of letters and manuscripts of Richard, Increase, and Cotton Mather. The collection incorporates various items acquired between 1905 and 1927 and has been assembled at the Library. The collection includes two manuscripts of Richard Mather: "An exhortation to our Countrymen of Lancashire, by Richard Mather and William Thompson," and 64th and 65th lectures. Increase Mather's manuscripts include a notebook containing observations on the matter of Henry Palmer and the church in Haverhill, Massachusetts, "An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences,” a fragment of a sermon, and an address "To the Inhabitants of Boston at their Publick Meeting," signed by Cotton Mather and Benjamin Colman. Cotton Mather's manuscripts include his sermon and notes for a sermon, a list of marriages performed, and a presentation inscription to Ebenezer Bradshaw and George Hughes, apparently cut out from the flyleaf of a volume. There are Increase and Cotton Mather's letters to Sir William Ashurst, treasurer and governor of the New England Company, the chartered company that established the Massachusetts Bay colony. There are also five letters by Increase Mather, 1712 to 1718 and 14 letters by Cotton Mather, 1712 to 1718.
mssMather
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Thomas Nowell sermon, correspondence, and related material
Manuscripts
Correspondence and manuscripts regarding the controversy over Thomas Nowell's 1772 Charles I remembrance sermon before the House of Commons, bound together with the printed sermon. Letters to Nowell are from W. (presumably Walter) King and Dr. (presumably James) King, the sermon's printer Henry Hughs, Lord Lichfield, Thomas Fitzmaurice, the Rev. Richard Scrope, and others; letters are both in support of and in opposition to Nowell's sermon. In addition, there are two copies of Thomas Nowell letters to unidentified recipients. Also present in the volume are a manuscript vote of thanks for Nowell's sermon from the House of Commons with an order to print, January 31, 1772; and manuscript extracts from a letter of Edward Gibbon and from the Annual Register regarding the sermon. The front of the volume contains a manuscript table of contents and provenance note, the bulk of which was most likely written in the late 19th century with a note added after 1916 at the end.
mssHM 84141
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Thomas Nowell sermon, correspondence, and related material
Manuscripts
Correspondence and manuscripts regarding the controversy over Thomas Nowell's 1772 Charles I remembrance sermon before the House of Commons, bound together with the printed sermon. Letters to Nowell are from W. (presumably Walter) King and Dr. (presumably James) King, the sermon's printer Henry Hughs, Lord Lichfield, Thomas Fitzmaurice, the Rev. Richard Scrope, and others; letters are both in support of and in opposition to Nowell's sermon. In addition, there are two copies of Thomas Nowell letters to unidentified recipients. Also present in the volume are a manuscript vote of thanks for Nowell's sermon from the House of Commons with an order to print, January 31, 1772; and manuscript extracts from a letter of Edward Gibbon and from the Annual Register regarding the sermon. The front of the volume contains a manuscript table of contents and provenance note, the bulk of which was most likely written in the late 19th century with a note added after 1916 at the end.
mssHM 84141
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Correspondence and documents
Manuscripts
A collection of the personal and professional papers of Edward Davis Townsend. Included in the collection are official and private correspondence, chiefly letters addressed to him, military records, journals, memoirs, and a few photographs. Two journals cover the 2nd Seminole War from 1837 to 1838, and his service in California from 1851 to 1856. The latter was incorporated into a memoir entitled "A Trip to California;" both accounts are accompanied by pencil sketches. An unfinished memoir covers Townsend's life and career until the beginning of the Mexican War. The collection also contains a group of personal and political correspondence of Elbridge Gerry, including pieces related to his diplomatic and political career from 1772 to 1814, and the correspondence of Ann Thompson Gerry and Eliza Gerry Townsend. Also included are a copy of Samuel Auchmuty's 1761 sermon on 1 John 5:7, and contemporary copies of Jefferson Davis's letters to his wife Varina Howell Davis from 1861 to 1865. The collection also includes a spool of thread with a hidden note in it, 1861 February 10, and a cotton ball from the steamer Emma, which was loaded with cotton when its crew burned it at Fort Pulaski on August 31, 1862, to prevent its capture by the Union forces under the command of William B. Barton.
mssTownsend
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Correspondence, documents, and manuscripts
Manuscripts
A collection of 305 items from 1712 to 1927, which contains the correspondence and papers of Robert Valentine; the material chiefly covers his voyage to Great Britain and its aftermath. Included are his letters to his daughters, often both retained and sent copies, and letters from Friends in England, Ireland, and Pennsylvania. A significant number of the letters were written by women Quakers. The collection also includes an account of Robert Valentine's journey to New Jersey in 1775 and other Quaker travel accounts. Also included are minutes and correspondence of various meetings in Pennsylvania, England, and Ireland, including a London Yearly Meeting of Women Friends; other material includes personal testimonies of individual Quakers recounting their visions and prophesies, devotional treatises and poems. There are also a few items relating to the relations between Quaker communities and Native Americans, including the minutes of a meeting between a group of Philadelphia Quakers, headed by Israel Pemberton, and representatives of the Six Nations (1756); also, a few pieces of correspondence between women Friends of Philadelphia and Oneida Native American women (from 1796 to 1797). There is a copy of the congratulatory address from the London Yearly Meeting to George III on the occasion of the end of the Seven Years War (1763). The collection also includes a smaller group of correspondence of Robert Valentine's daughter Rachel Valentine Malin and his granddaughter Rachel Valentine Sharpless Ashbridge. The latter group consists chiefly of the letters to her from her father, a Pennsylvania ironmaster Abraham Sharpless written between 1824 and 1834; also included are a few pieces of later family correspondence.
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