MSS 0098. Delaware Miscellaneous Historical Manuscripts

One handwritten document from George W. Morrison, a former U.S. Representative (D-New Hampshire), written February 16, 1861, freeing Ann Hart from slavery, effective April 6, 1863, and signed by Justices of the Peace Wm. P. Veach and Jms. Bradford.

Two items: Zaner-Bloser handwriting certificate and certificate of Secretarial Course awarded to student Kathryn L. Morrison, Beacom College, Wilmington, Delaware, 1932.

One document of indenture, binding Margaret Murphy to Henry Fulton as a housemaid for a period of three years.

Petition by multiple citizens of New Castle County, Delaware, noting the activities of French and Spanish privateers in Delaware Bay and requesting the removal of vital records to a house at Christiana Bridge for safekeeping.

This last will and administrative account of Delaware planter, mill owner, and surveyor Thomas Noxon reveals Noxon's trading connections with Jamaica and New York, the extent of his property ownership and business interests, names of people he enslaved, and the expenses paid from his estate by his executors from the time of his death in 1743 until 1753.

Printed card listing the arrival and departure schedule for the Odessa & Middletown Railway effective November 28, 1904.

One-page typed letter from Attorney General Mitchell Palmer to Delaware state judge Robert H. Hollet. In the letter, Palmer discusses the critical role Woman Suffrage will play in creating a peaceful and equitable nation.

Delaware sculptor Charles Parks (1922-2012) and his wife Inge sent these two holiday greeting cards to Miriam Willis.

One autograph letter from Theophilus Parvin, a Presbyterian minister and missionary, to Delaware resident Mary Rodney, lamenting Parvin's inability to deliver a packet of letters to Rodney and her family personally. Also includes a short discussion of Parvin's upcoming meeting with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

One handwritten register of patients admitted for care at an unidentified institution in Kent County, Delaware. The list of patients is arranged by hundred (subdivision) and then by race (Black or white) and gender (male or female). The register includes the name of the person admitted, their age, medical condition, admission date, discharge or death date, name of trustee and an occasional remark.

In this autograph letter from Mark Pedrick of Wilmington, Delaware, to Adam Harbeson of New Pennsgrove, New Jersey, dated 1850, Pedrick sought advice and financial backing in order to enter the iron business.

One autograph document by Lieutenant Governor of Colonial Pennsylvania, John Penn, certifying Caesar Rodney's role as a Colonial Supreme Court Justice in the counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex in Delaware. The lower portion of the document is missing.

Founder of the Pennsylvania colony William Penn sent these instructions to William Keith appointing him as Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania and the Counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex upon Delaware, on November 29, 1716. This is a handwritten copy on parchment recorded from Patent Book A, No. 5, pages 229-232, affixed with the seal of the Land Office of Pennsylvania and signed by Secretary of said office, James Brady, on June 16, 1823.

Provincial Secretary of Pennsylvania, Richard Peters, wrote this one-page handwritten and signed letter to Dover surveyor, George Stevenson, requesting a survey of land in St. Georges Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware, for Leonard Humphrys, on May 16, 1747. Includes watermark.

Handwritten letter from Provincial Secretary of Pennsylvania Richard Peters to Chief Justice Richard McWilliam asking him to affix a seal to the appointment of Mr. Joseph [Chandler] as Sheriff and to the Governor's Commission in 1789.

Official document detailing a suit against Henry Peterson for non-payment of one hundred and fifty-four pounds owed to John and James Bayard.

Statement to the Treasurer of the state of Delaware with the number of passengers carried by train within the state during the month of September, in pursuance with the provisions of the legislature. Also included is a letter from company treasurer Alfred Horner protesting the way the company is being taxed, calling it unconstitutional.

A handwritten survey of a 769 acre tract of land in near White Clay Creek, Delaware, conducted by Thomas Pierson, surveyor of New Castle County, accompanied by a drawing of the land and its borders.

Handwritten letter from Delaware Governor Charles Polk to Pennsylvania Governor Joseph Ratner requesting the transfer of a horse thief, Randel Lewis.

This brief note, written by Delaware businessman J. Morton Poole to his cousin James Canby, accompanied a copy of the 1857 edition of The Ordinances of the City of Wilmington.

Delaware historian Walter A. Powell wrote these four letters ranging in dates from 1928 to 1978 to Wilmington News Journal columnist William P. (Bill) Frank in response to Frank's inquiries about articles, pamphlets, or books written by Powell.

Autograph documents produced by lawyer, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and U. S. Senator from Delaware, George Read. One document concerns payments in relation to the will of Ebenezer Howell. The other concerns the sale of Howell's tavern and land in Newark, Delaware, to Henry Darby, and subsequently to John Evans.

Handwritten letter from Delaware lawyer and signer of the Constitution, George Read, to Henry Clark, detailing a case involving a deposition over the ownership of an unnamed enslaved person from the estate of Hance Hanson.

Autograph letter produced by George Read, lawyer, signer of the Declaration of Independence and U. S. Senator from Delaware to William and Samuel McAntier concerning litigation triggered by a will that disrupted the McAntier family. The letter refers exclusively to Read's actions as lawyer for the McAntier family.

This holograph booklet was written by Philip Reading, an Episcopal minister and missionary in New Castle County, Delaware, in 1765, and contains five sermons on various subjects, including "On the Love of God," "On the Love of our Neighbor," "On the Love of our Brother," "On the Love of the World," and "On the Love of ourselves."