Manuscripts of Colonial and Revolutionary America

15 manuscripts. A small accumulation of financial, judicial, and land records pertaining to two generations of the Luther family of Swansea, Bristol County, Massachusetts. Most of these relate to either Hezekiah Luther (1639/40-1723) or to his son, Hezekiah Luther, Jr. (1676-1763). The group includes seven bonds and receipts; three land deeds; several court records, including a memorandum of recognizance licensing Hezekiah Sr. to sell spirits from the house in Swansea "Commonly Known by the sign of the Plough" (1705); and an indenture binding the "malatta child" Mall Church to Hezekiah Jr. as an apprentice servant (1747). Other documents signed by or otherwise pertaining to the Luthers appear among Notre Dame's Swansea Town Records. MSN/COL 0502-1 to MSN/COL 0502-15.

14 manuscripts. William Pickering (1670/71-1720) was a Salem, Massachusetts shipmaster and merchant, active in the New England fishery and coasting trades in the first quarter of the 18th century. The papers include ten letters: four written by Pickering, to various parties (all are the author's retained copies); and six written to Pickering, by the ship owner and merchant Samuel Lillie (b. 1662/63) of Boston. All treat business or financial matters; several relate to the Newfoundland trade. The papers also include a bill of lading, a bond, and two receipts, all relating to Pickering. MSN/COL 0500-1 to MSN/COL 0500-14. [Finding Aid & Images]

3 letters, 1 land deed. Jonathan Trumbull of Lebanon (1710-1785) was a prominent Connecticut merchant whose career in public life included 15 years as colonial and state governor. The papers include three copies of letters to Trumbull from the letter book of the London merchants Lane & Booth, and a draft of a deed of sale recording the transfer of land and attached property from Trumbull to Stephen Apthorp of Bristol, England, to relieve a debt of £923 6s 8d. MSN/COL 0501-1 to MSN/COL 0501-2-F2.

68 items. A collection of business letters and financial records of Maurice-René, Viscount de la Belinaye (1739-1794) of Fougères in Brittany, mainly relating to houses he owned in Cap-Français in the French Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue. The houses were managed by a mercantile establishment under the agent and slave trader Stanislas Foäche, who oversaw Belinaye's business interests in the Cap between 1775 and 1790. MSN/COL 0503-1 to MSN/COL 0503-25. [Finding Aid]