Ipswich, Massachusetts Town Records, 1634-1909, undated
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Not requestable
Scope and Content Note
This collection includes church, society and private corporation records; property appraisals and tax records; receipts for labor and materials relating to the building of the county jail; school attendance records, penmanship workbooks, essays, notices and reports of the Feoffees to the town; military roll calls; vital statistics; weather records; a scrapbook; and miscellaneous papers pertaining to the inhabitants of Ipswich.
The bulk of this collection relates to the building of the county jail and early court records. This collection includes documents of the Feoffees of Salem, which support the Ipswich public schools. This relationship began in 1651 when the town gave all of the "neck beyond Chebacco River and the rest of the ground up to [the] Gloucester line to the grammar school." Five trustees were chosen to oversee this donation, for which the income from leasing the land supported the Ipswich public schools. The Feoffees are still in existence today. The collection includes daily weather records from 1820 to 1852. The collection also includes a receipt signed by Samuel Adams dated 1790.
Dates
- Creation: 1634-1909, undated
Restrictions on Access
This collection is open for research use.
Historical Sketch
The town of Ipswich, located in Essex County Massachusetts, was a part of what the Native Americans called Agawam. In August of 1635, the Court of Assistants declared the area to be Ipswich, named after a town in England from which most of the early settlers originated. Governor John Winthrop officially purchased the land from Chief Masconomet for £20 in a deed dated June 28, 1638. Notable residents of the town have included the Choate family, the Lord family, and the Saltonstalls.
The first residents of Ipswich were farmers, fishermen, tanners, shipbuilders and traders, made possible by the Ipswich River and its coastal location. Lace making developed as a home industry, as did the making of stockings. In the 1800s, Ipswich saw the rise and fall of many textile industries. In 1868, the Ipswich Hosiery Mills had been established, and by the turn of the 20th century, it was the largest stocking mill in the country.
Extent
6.5 linear feet (10 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
This collection includes church, society and private corporation records; property appraisals and tax records; receipts for labor and materials relating to the building of the county jail; school attendance records, penmanship workbooks, essays, notices and reports of the Feoffees to the town; military roll calls; vital statistics; weather records; a scrapbook; and miscellaneous papers pertaining to the inhabitants of Ipswich.
Series List
SERIES I. Town and County Records
- A. County Jail
- B. Court Documents
- C. Essex County Commissioners
- D. Taxes
- E. Weather
- F. Other County Records
SERIES III. Churches
SERIES IV. Private Corporations
SERIES V. Scrapbook
Physical Location
Phillips Library Stacks
Provenance
This material was donated to the Essex Institute by George Baxter in 1867; George R. Lord in 1884; Mrs. William C. West in 1925; Mrs. John Daland in 1932; G. H. Tapley in 1943; the estate of Elizabeth Lord in 1949 and Charles F. Montgomery in 1954.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Jennifer Hornsby, April 2011.
Subject
- Lord, George R. (Person)
- Lord, John O. (Person)
- Lord, Joseph (Person)
- Kimball, David Tenney, 1808-1886 (Person)
- Wade, Nathaniel (Person)
- Wade, William F. (Person)
- Ipswich Social Library (Organization)
- Ipswich Female Seminary (Ipswich, Mass.) (Organization)
- Title
- IPSWICH, MASSACHUSETTS TOWN RECORDS, 1634-1909, undated
- Author
- Processed by: Jennifer Hornsby; machine-readable finding aid created by: Rajkumar Natarajan.
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Phillips Library Repository