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1774-1966, predominant 1800-1899
HGO-02-102-C-C-501; HGO-02-105-A-E-104; HGO-02-105-A-J-202
GUSN-181311
This collection includes the family papers associated with the Barrett House of New Ipswich, New Hampshire. The materials date from 1774 to 1966 with the bulk of the material from the 1800s. The materials document the Ames, Barr, and Barrett families as well as other relatives of the families. The collection includes personal papers, correspondence, photographs, legal and financial documents, newspaper clippings, photograph albums, deeds, land transfers, leases, court documents, and materials documenting the history of New Ipswich, New Hampshire.
NOTE: Processing/updating the collection and making the finding aid accessible online were made possible through grants from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (Award Number: NAR13-RH-50051-13), the Bedford Family Foundation, and an anonymous donor.
account books
correspondence
deeds
financial records
leases
legal documents
local history (discipline)
clippings (information artifacts)
photograph albums
family papers
photographs
publications
2.09 linear feet (5 boxes) plus 17 volumes
An electronic finding aid is available through Historic New England's Collections Access Portal. A paper finding aid is available in the Library & Archives.
The materials in this collection were acquired by Historic New England through the donation of the Barrett House in 1948; the materials were gathered from within the house by Historic New England staff.
MS007
Barrett family papers
MS007
The Barrett family papers document the history of the families associated with the Barrett House of New Ipswich, New Hampshire, as well as history of the town.
Gift
Gift, Caroline Barr Wade, 1948.
New Ipswich (Hillsborough county, New Hampshire)
Barrett family
family papers
photographs
publications
Ames, Ambrose, 1765-1858
Ames, Jane, 1798-
Barr, George Lyman, 1830-1877
Barr, James, Sr., 1752-1829
Barr, James, Jr., 1790-1845
Barr, Laura L. (Bellows), 1804-1878
Barr, Mary H., 1825-1893
Barr, Molly, 1764-1845
Barr, Sarah J., 1827-1897
Barrett, Charles, 1740-1808
Barrett, Charles, Jr., 1773-1836
Barrett, Frances Hall (Ames), 1809-1887
Barrett, George, 1801-1862
Barrett, George Robert, 1844-1916
Barrett, Martha Minot, 1771-1842
Bellows, Caroline P.
Brooks, Daniel
Bullard, Jeanie W.
Bullard, Silas, 1786-1835
Campbell, Caleb
Emery, Noah
Green, Elizabeth
Green, James
Green, John Q. A.
Green, Leonard
Green, Nathan, Jr.
Green, William
Hartwell, Ephraim
Hartwell, Polly
Hersey, Mary Ann (Barrett), 1802-1875
Hodgeman, William F.
Kidder, Thomas
Minot, Jonas
Morgan, Caroline Ames, 1795-
Wade, Caroline Hartwell (Barr), 1865-1954
Wilcox, David
Historic New England (Organization)
New Ipswich Water-loom Factory
Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities
Barr family
Kidder family
Minot family
Russell family
Wade family
This collection is available for research.
There are no physical restrictions on this collection. There are no technical restrictions on this collection.
Collection
HGO-02-102-C-C-501; HGO-02-105-A-E-104; HGO-02-105-A-J-202
Accruals are not expected.
The following materials have been removed from the collection: Beecher, C. E. (1854). Miss Beecher's domestic receipt book: designed as a supplement to her Treatise on domestic economy. New York: Harper & Bros.
Materials are mostly in English with a small amount of French (see copy book, folder 3.7).
Item identification. Box #, folder #. Barrett family papers (MS007). Historic New England, Library & Archives.
This collection was originally processed and the finding aid written by Susan Johnson, March 3, 2005. Johnson updated the finding aid on May 1, 2007. Additions to the collection were added by Johnson in March, 2008. Johnson revised the finding aid in April, 2010. The finding aid was updated and made DACS-compliant by Abigail Cramer in April, 2014; the 2014 updates and online access to the collection were made possible by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (project #RH-50051).
This finding aid is DACS-compliant.
Historic New England properties photographic collection - Barrett House, New Ipswich, N.H.
Barrett family property and financial papers, 1734-1860. Concord Library, Concord, Mass.
Charles Barrett, Sr., built the Barrett House in 1800 as a wedding gift for his son, Charles Barrett, Jr., and his son's wife, Martha Minot Barrett. Martha's father, Jonas Minot, furnished the home for the couple. Soon after graduating from Dartmouth College in 1794, Charles, Jr., became a business partner of Samuel Appleton (an ancestor of William Sumner Appleton). Charles and Martha maintained an elegant lifestyle at Barrett House. They entertained guests, at times in their third floor ballroom, and surrounded themselves with fine furniture and decorative pieces. After Martha's death in 1842, her second eldest son, Charles III, lived at Barrett House with his family for several years before moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to pursue a career as a book dealer. In 1848, George Barrett, the eldest son of Charles and Martha, and his wife, Frances Ames Barrett, took up residence in the Barrett House. In 1862, George Barrett died, leaving Frances the house. To accommodate the growth of her extended family, Frances built an adjoining ell for her son Edward and his family. She maintained residence in the main house with her younger son George Robert. After Frances's death in 1887, George Robert Barrett took ownership of Barrett House. He and his wife, Elizabeth Barr Barrett, were living in Boston at the time. In an effort to make Barrett House their comfortable country summer retreat, they undertook several renovations, including the addition of two luxurious bathrooms.
George Robert and Elizabeth's renovation of Barrett House took several years and was never completed. Elizabeth died in 1911 and George Robert in 1916, leaving renovation and redecoration of some rooms unfinished. Crates of furniture and fixtures, still in their original packaging, are in the house today. At George Robert's death, the house and its contents were left to his stepdaughter, Caroline Barr Wade. She never made Barrett House her home. Instead, she boarded up the house and its contents and it sat unoccupied for more than forty years. In 1948, Caroline Barr Wade donated Barrett House to Historic New England (then the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities) as a memorial to the Barrett family.
Barrett House History. (2014). Historic New England. Retrieved April 22, 2014, from http://www.historicnewengland.org/historic-properties/homes/barrett-house/barrett-house-history.
The collection is arranged in three series, which are arranged into subseries as follows: Series I. Family papers, 1774-1907; Series II. Photographic materials, 1883-1954; and Series III. Printed material, 1815-1966.
Historic New England is committed to implementing reparative language description for existing collections and creating respectful and inclusive language description for new collections. If you encounter language in Historic England's Collections Access Portal that is harmful or offensive, or you find materials that would benefit from a content warning, please contact [email protected].
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