The Documents

The Documents

The Almshouse Census and Inventory 1756

A List of Persons, Beds &c. in the alms House Augt. 1756

a List of Sundrys in the Alms House taken Augt. 1756

The Almshouse census and inventory manuscripts are not part of the Overseers collection at the MHS though they were most certainly produced by or for the Overseers in 1756. The two transcribed documents that are here presented together are identified as “A List of Persons . . . in the alms House” and “A List of Sundrys in the Alms House.” The documents are dated August 1756 and were likely drawn up then, and annotated later. While they may have been part of the vast Overseers Records held for decades by the City of Boston they became separated and appeared glued to the front leaf of volume one of the six volumes of children’s indentures that were the basis of Lawrence Towner’s study. When Towner did his research, the indenture records were in the City Clerk’s office at the Boston City Hall. Those records, and the attached Almshouse census and inventory, are now in the Manuscripts and Special Collections at the Boston Public Library. So far as we can determine, this is the only manuscript of its kind for the eighteenth-century Almshouse. Other eighteenth-century references to the Almshouse and Workhouse populations can be found in scattered references, mostly in the Boston Records, but the manuscript transcribed here is rare because of its identification of people, living arrangements, and inventory. There are no extant Almshouse admissions and discharge records for 1756 and so it is impossible to measure the lengths of stay of the occupants in this list. While there are comparable censuses for nineteenth-century Boston institutions, and for eighteenth-century institutions elsewhere in America, it is likely that this is the only glimpse we have into the eighteenth-century Boston Almshouse.

Room No. 1 vizt.	Beds	Ruggs & Blanketts	Prs. of Sheets	Shirts & shifts
1 Mary Odlin	3	6	3	6
2 Sarah Battells
3 Sarah Boleson

No. 2
4 Mary Whitehead	3	6	3	6
5 Maratha Kingstone
6 Sarah Bumstead

No. 3
7 Penelope George		3	6	3	10
8 Eliza. Coombs
9 Ester Warden
<John Cushing> gone to servis Children of 6 & 7 years
10 Thos. Field
Margaret Blake	2 Children

No. 4
11 <Martha Colton> Ann Tyley <Mary Blake> gone to Workhous	2	4	2	8
14 Mary Fleet & 2 Children
16 Martha Colton & Daughter

No. 5

17 James Mellins

Dead

18 David Osborne

Ebenzr. Grater

No. 8
28 Hepsibeth Griffith
<Mary Davis> Dead
29 Sarah Richards child	4 womn. [&] 3 Childn.
<Anna Mason>	gone to Servis	4	8	4	14
32 3 Children
34 Mrs Townsend / Sarah Boyles

No. 9
35 Susanna Lynde &	4	8	4	12
36 Daugr. 11 Years Old
37 Mary Brisco
38 Sarah Stover
40 Sarah Harding & Child
43 3 Children

Furniture of [J?] Davis

12
Mrs Garns
48 Rebecca Reed	1	2	1	2

13
Movd. <Saml. Edy>
49 Benja. Phillips	3	6	3	6
50 Saml. Marion
Thos. Odel Lodges in the house only
Ebenzr. Grater

No. 14
51 Hannah [Crehose?] & Sarah Roads
52 Mary Crumpton No. 15 &
53 Mary Crumpton	Susana Dix
54 Eliza. Mccurde	Eddy Child	3	6	3	10
Eddy Joanna <Savage> & child
55 <Margaret Buckly>

No. 15
Dead <Owen Cunningham & Thos. Odell>	4	8	4	4

No. 16
56 Sarah Rice	4	8	4	16
57 Mary Mortgaridge
58 Abigail Lynch & 5 Children

No. 17
64 Sarah <Livingston> Livett	3	6	3	6
65 Sarah Jones 92 yrs. old
66 Mercy Ryland Margaret Clefton young man

No. 18
67 Mary Ann Anderson
68 Jane Champion	4	8	4	12
70 Margaret FitchGerald & Child
72 2 Negro Women Hagar & Rachel

No. 19
73 Rebecca Burnet	Edward McGowen Mary McGowen & Child	4	8	4	10
74 Ann Ashley
75 <Eliza. Garnes>
76 Eliza. Copp
78 <Jane Thompson> a Child
gone

21
85 Mary Wyat & 2 Children
86 Eliza. Gray	2	4	2	2

22
87 Content Gordon
88 Mary Water<house>man & 2 Children	2	4	2	6
Sepr. 4 Layd. 3 weeks

No. 23
91 Hannah Ivory
92 Eliza. Lewis	5	10	5	12
93 Mary Harr all
95 Mary ann Sack & 2 Children
97 Phebe Randal

No. 24
98 Ann Hogg
99 Mary Higgens	4	8	4	10
100 Jane Young
104 Mary Linnington & 3 Children

No. 25. & <26>
Eddy & wife	1	2	1	2
106 Macks Room the Hall & Chairs

No. 27
107 John Warrick
108 Thos. Dilla
109 John Dinsdell	4	8	4	8
110 Thos. Frazier

No. 28
111 Mary Monk	3	6	3	8
112 Susanna Jackson
113 Mary Heath & 1 Child

No. 29
115 Benja. Storrer & susana his Wife	2	4	2	8
116 Eliza. Bill
117 Abigail Dawson

No. 30
118 Thos. Mason	4	8	4	8
119 <John Mccollam>
121 John Preston and Danl. Mondon

No. 31
123 Eliza. Peirce and Mary Thorn	2	4	2	4

No. 32
124 Desire Hawes	3	6	3	6
125 Sands Gibbon
126 Christophr. Thornton

No. 33
127 Jane Taylor	3	6	3	12
128 Mary <Freeman> Shaw
133 Eliza. Barger & 4 Children

19 William Morto

<John Dewen> gone

Phillip More

20 Thos. Bickford

<Robert Feathergill>

21 John Finley

In the Garrett vizt.
A Large Parcell Old Cloths
19 Trunks Some wth. herbs &c.
8 Qts. fish
3 Bushell Beans
a Desk wheel & Table
some Old Chairs & Cask
2 Case Drawers
4 Old Ditto
7 Tables
abt. 40 [Hopps l?]
a Clothiers Frame & Tools
2 New Beds
8 Old Ditto
13 New Duffell Blanketts
2 New Pillows
1 Do. Old &c. &c.
______________________
In the Meal Room viz
a pr. steel yards
a pr. Scale Beams & Weights
a Meal Troth shovels &c.
abt [½ ll.] Brown Sugar
______________________
In the Yard
about 200 Cord Wood
1 Cross cut Saw
2 hand Saws
1 Wood Ax
Betel & Wedges
4 Live Hogs
6 Beds wth. Covering for Four
In the Grainery &c.
abt. 150 Bushell Rye
350 Bushell Corn
______________
In the Kitchen vizt.
1 Large Copper
1 Brass Kettle
1 Brass Ladle
2 Do. Skimmers
5 Wood Trays
2 Platters
4 Large Earthen Pans
5 Do. Dishes
7 Milk Potts
2 Pitchers
1 Bell Meltle Mortar
Pewter unweighd
3 dishes
3 plates
1 Bason
1 porringer
2 Table
1 Large Iron Slice
7 Trammells
2 pr. Dog / 1 pr. hand Irons
3 Iron Candle Sticks
1 Looking Glass
________________
In the Cellar vizt.
about 90 Gall. Mollasses
4 Barrells Pork wantg. 2 or 3 pieces
1 Large Chest
3 Smaller Do.
part 2 Cask Pork
2 Brs. Hogs Fatt
a parcell Empty Cask
2 Chests
1 Grindstone
1 hhd. Soap

1 On some of the MS pages this column is titled “Where born.”

2 Marked for entry at this point is the interlineation “Absent a few days Remitted.”

3 The edge of the page is torn away.

4 In this and the following entry the edge of the manuscript is torn.

5 The year was interlined above “Do.”

6 An entire entry has been effaced.

7 Above the surname the clerk interlined and then canceled the name “Carswell.”

8 The bottom left corner of the page is torn, resulting in the loss of several letters in this and the following entry.

9 Closing parentheses supplied.

10 This entry written in pencil and by another hand than the rest of the register.

11 This word is interlined. I.e., the child of Hannah Hollis.

12 A stain obscures the year.

13 The bottom left corner of the page is both torn and effaced, resulting in the loss of the surname for this and the following entry.

14 The MS is stained, obscuring a portion of this and the following entry.

15 The bottom right corner of the page is torn off, resulting in the loss of text here and in the next entry.

16 The bottom left corner of the page is torn, resulting in the loss of text in this and the next two entries.

17 These two words are entered in a column titled “age.”

18 The edge of the page is worn, resulting in the loss of some text in this entry as well as the next.

19 The edge of the page is worn away resulting in the loss of text at the beginning of the entry.

20 Mrs. Sadler’s given name is interlined above the canceled text.

21 The previous two words are interlined and marked for insertion at this point

22 The edge of the page is worn away, resulting in the loss of text in this and the following entry

23 Thus in MS.

24 Entered in a column titled “age.”

25 Entered in a column titled “age.” The edge of the page is worn away.

26 The remainder of the entry is covered by a strip of paper pasted to the MS to repair a tear.

27 The edge of the page is worn away, resulting in the loss of several letters in this and the next two entries.

28 Entered in a column titled “age.”

29 Entered in a column titled “age.”

30 Entered in a column titled “age.”

1 Heading supplied from the final MS page of Notifications.

2 Written along the left margin of the MS.

3 The corner of the MS is worn away, resulting in the loss of text in this line and the next.

4 This entry written on a slip of paper interleaved at this point in the volume.

1 Thus in MS.

2 10 and 11 of the MS are missing.

3 Pages 28 and 29 of the MS are missing.

4 This is the last page numbered in the MS.