Details

Subjects:

Schools -- New Hampshire -- Chesterfield.
Schools.
Chesterfield (N.H.) -- History.
New Hampshire -- Chesterfield.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Accounts.
Administrative records.
Minute books.
Minutes.
Manuscripts, American.
Manuscripts, Digital.

Summary:

Minute book of Chesterfield Academy, beginning with a copy of the act of incorporation for the school, passed by the New Hampshire legislature on 12 January 1790. Minutes in 1790 record appointments of officers (first secretary, Abner Johnson), petition to the state of New Hampshire for a lottery grant, acquisition of books, and a decision to confer with the president of Harvard College about hiring a preceptor. Through 1792 the meetings are considered quarterly; thereafter a meeting in the summer or early fall is referred to as an annual meeting, with additional meetings called as needed. Instruction began 14 August 1794 with Sheldon Logan as preceptor. The minutes continue to 1886, when the trustees voted to turn over the school buildings to the town. Accounts and receipts are recorded intermittently on pages after the minutes (p. 166-190).

Contents:

1. p.1-4: An act to incorporate an academy in the town of Chesterfield by the name of the Chesterfield Academy.
2. p.5-39: [Minutes, 26 February 1790-20 August 1812]
3. p.40-43: Laws of Chesterfield Academy, adopted March 1806, recorded 9 April 1812.
4. p.44-80: [Minutes, 17 September 1812-7 May 1834]
5. p.80-83: Laws of Chesterfield Academy, revised, adopted 7 May 1834.
6. p.84-109: [Minutes, 21 November 1834-19 August 1859]
7. p.110-111: [Agreement between School District No. 5 of the town of Chesterfield and the trustees of Chesterfield Academy, 23 July 1859, concerning use of Chesterfield Academy property by the school district]
8. p.112-139: [Minutes, 5 December 1859-2 July 1886]
9. p.166-174: [Accounts, 1795-1859, not in chronological order]
10. p.177: [Receipts, 1797, 1799]
11. p.190: [Canceled receipt for payment to Sheldon Logan, 1792]

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Pagination: Paper, i + 131 leaves; [i], 1-139, [140-261] (140-165, 175-176, 178-182, 184-189, 191-261 blank but mostly ruled); contemporary pagination in ink, modern pagination in pencil, upper outer corners.
Layout: Left vertical bounding line and 3 right vertical bounding lines ruled in red ink; on the accounts pages, dates are written left of the left bounding line and amounts are entered in the 3 narrow columns formed by the right vertical bounding lines.
Script: Written in cursive script by multiple hands.
Watermark: AIS Pro Patria (Maid of Dort form) with countermark of crowned GR.
Binding: Original (late 18th-century) leather, tooled in black.
Origin: Written in Chesterfield, N.H., from 1790 (p. 1) to 1886 (p. 139).

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Thomas E. Olliff (Littleton, Mass.) in the 1960s.
Handled earlier by Stone House Antiques & Books (Chesterfield, N.H.).
Sold by David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books (Woodbridge, Conn.), 2012.

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1627.

Contributor:

Olliff, Thomas E., former owner.

OCLC:

812411560

Access Restriction:

Access to this item is subject to staff reivew.