Other papers

Description

Subseries E, Other papers, 1739-1801, undated (#1.19-1.20, 1.29, 1.33, 1.35-1.36, 1.66-1.67), contains a partial inventory of the Dorchester Library in Dorchester, Massachusetts; an inventory of school property in Dorchester, Massachusetts; an undated description of personal property; one volume of the Journal of the Honorable House of Representatives of the Colony of Massachusetts in New-England, (published in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1775, then the seat of the legislative body); a 1739 copy of Dr. Byle's Sermon on the Spring of the Year; and a 1756 table for calculating the town tax (presumably written by a young Samuel Pierce, probably as an exercise in calculations but also to assist his father, Samuel Pierce, Sr. (1702-1768), a tax collector in Dorchester, Massachusetts). Also included in the subseries is Pierce's folio-size school lesson notebook containing pages of penmanship lessons; mathematical calculations and problems; and doodles (depicting ships) from the period 1753 to 1757; pages at the center of the volume were later used to keep records of the Dorchester Church (baptisms and deaths). Inserted into the volume is an 1895 clipping and a list of Pierce family baptisms, probably extracted from records by George Francis Pierce (1838-1919). Colonel Pierce's small pocket diary, covering the period 1761 to 1800, contains brief daily entries spanning four decades of his life, including the period of the American Revolution. Typical entries mention farming and domestic activities, carpentry work, commercial transactions, weather, community events, and significant events happening in the wider world, such as the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party. During the Revolutionary War period, the diary also provides information on Colonel Pierce's militia duties and his movements with the militia company. The subseries is arranged alphabetically by record type.