Description:

Archive of July 11, 1776 Conscription Substitution, Letters from Harvard College and Manuscript Books Total around 80 Pages From Abbot Family. Rare Grouping

This archive of materials comes from the Abbot family of Andover, Massachusetts. Two of the four sons of John and Abigail Abbot—John Abbot Jr. and Abiel Abbot—attended Harvard College, and this archive includes one letter from each to their brother Ezra Abbot. It also includes a receipt for a substitute for John Abbot to serve in the Continental Army, and three manuscript booklets. The first is an account book, likely kept by John Abbot; the second is a memorandum of notes due to John Abbot Jr.; and the third is a personal property inventory for residents of Andover for the purposes of taxation, likely compiled by one of the Abbots.

[HARVARD UNIVERSITY.] Abbot Family, Archive of letters and journals, 1772-1793.

Highlights and Excerpts
- [John Abbot?], Manuscript Document, Account Book, 1772-1786. 16 pp., 4.125" x 6.625".
The account book lists amounts of purchases and debts owed. Purchases include turnips, beans, corn, hay, and cider. Services include pasturing yearlings, heifers, oxen, cows, and steers.

- John Whitehorn, Manuscript Document Signed with Mark, Receipt for Enlisting in place of John Abbot, July 11, 1776, Andover, Massachusetts. 1 p., 6.75" x 3.5". Expected folds; several small holes on fold; very good.
"The Subscriber have Recd of John Abbot 4th Nine Pounds Lawful Money in Consiquince of which I have Inlisted my Self into the Continantal Service (Destind to Canady) In Order to Do a Turn for sd Abbot I Say Recd by me
"John his X mark Whitehorn
"Test Joseph Ballard"
John Whitehorn received a "very dangerous wound" in the knee while serving at Crown Point in the Ticonderoga campaign in August 1776 and was thereafter unable "to labor for the support of himself & Family." He began receiving a pension from Nottingham County, New Hampshire in December 1776.

- John Abbot Jr., Autograph Letter Signed, to Ezra Abbot, November 30, 1780, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1 p., 6.5" x 8.125". Expected folds, residue of wax seal; some soiling on verso; very good.
"You seem to want to know if I intend to come home to keep thanksgiving without coming down to Cambridge to find out. I tell you I believe I shall (if I am well and nothing prevents) come up and stay a day or two and as I shall not set out till after commons at noon & perhaps if I do not have an opportunity to send my dirty clothes home before I shall have something of a bundle of clothes to carry I shall be very fond of meeting a horse."

- John Abbot Jr., Autograph Document, "Memorandum of Notes in Favor of John Abbot jun.," February 5, 1784. 8 pp., 4" x 6.25". Text on 5 of 8 pp.; some edge tears.
A series of notes dating from 1765 to 1787 with value in pounds, shillings, and pence.

- Abiel Abbot, Autograph Letter Signed, to Ezra Abbot, November 17, 1789, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 3 pp., 6.25" x 7.5". Expected folds; residue of seal; very good.
"How are ye all? Has this epidemical cold, or rather distemper goten hold of you at Andover? We are all down with here. You might see one puking, another groaning with a sore-throat, a third bleeding at the nose, Abbot in one corner dump'd up with the vapours, Sprague in the other in the same predicament; & in the Chapel such a barking that scarce a word of prayers is heard. Such a disease America, I believe, never knew. It has swept off numbers at New-York & upon Connecticut river, & some few from these parts. The physicians tell us that it is a species of the plague. Out of 12,000 inhabitants in Boston, I was told by a creditable gentleman, that 9,000 were taken with this cold. But I hope that a change of air & better weather will soon deliver us from it."

An epidemic of influenza appeared in New York at the end of September 1789 and members of Congress transferred it to Philadelphia around the first of October. It reached Hartford in mid-October and Boston soon after. It spread throughout the nation within six or eight weeks.

- Manuscript Document, Personal Property Assessment List, ca. 1793, [Andover, Massachusetts]. 48 pp., 4" x 6.5". Soiling of covers; edge tears; bound with string; very good.

This document provides an assessment of the personal property of residents of Andover, ca. 1793. Among the Abbots included are Jonathan Abbot (1714-1794), Nathan Abbot (1753-1801), Capt. Henry Abbot (1724-1805), Samuel Abbot Esqr. (1732-1812), Capt. John Abbot Jr. (1759-1843), Capt. Moses Abbot (1735-1826), Lt. Isaac Abbot (1744-1836), Capt. John L. Abbot (1757-1837), Lt. Timothy Abbot (1745-1826), Jonathan Abbot 3rd (1740-1821), Abner Abbot (1761-1833), Jacob Abbot Esqr. (1776-1847), Enos Abbot (1769-1839), and Moses Abbot Jr. (1765-1859). The assessment list includes the names of approximately 115 men and 6 widows.
Massachusetts first established a system of direct taxation upon property, income, and polls in 1646, which continued in operation for more than two centuries. By the end of the eighteenth century, approximately one-third of direct taxes were upon polls and two-thirds upon property.

Abiel Abbot (1771-1828) was born in Andover, Massachusetts, the son of John Abbot (1735-1818) and Abigail Abbot (1734-1807), and attended Phillips Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire from 1780 to 1783. He graduated from Harvard College with honors in 1792 and taught at Phillips Academy until August 1793. He served as a pastor in Haverhill, Massachusetts from 1794 to 1803. In 1796, he married Eunice Wales (1773-1832), with whom he had at least four children. From 1803 to his death, Abbot served as pastor of First Church in Beverly, Massachusetts. In 1821, he went to South Carolina and Cuba for his health and died of yellow fever aboard the ship Othello on his return voyage from Charleston, South Carolina, to New York.

John Abbot Jr. (1759-1843) was born in Andover, Massachusetts, the son of John Abbot and Abigail Abbot, and graduated from Harvard College in 1784. His ill-health prevented him from entering the ministry, and he served as a tutor at Harvard for five years. He was later a cashier at Portland bank and then a professor of classical languages at Bowdoin College. A poor professor who produced little scholarship, he became a librarian at Bowdoin until 1828. He never married.

Ezra Abbot (1760-1844) was born in Andover, Massachusetts, the son of John Abbot and Abigail Abbot. In 1798, he married Hannah Poor (1770-1861), and they had six children.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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