Joseph Brevitt Townsend papers

The Joseph Brevitt Townsend papers, spanning the dates 1810-1917 (bulk dates 1840-1896), document the professional career, and to a lesser extent the personal life, of the Philadelphia lawyer, Joseph Brevitt Townsend.

A gift of the Moyerman family in 1970, the collection comprises approximately 2,000 items (4 linear feet) of legal and personal correspondence, printed and manuscript wills and estate records, personal and legal account books, printed and manuscript legal proceedings, and court decisions and drafts of agreements. Eli K. Price appears frequently in Townsend's early career, as Price was Townsend's mentor and later business partner. Also represented in the papers are Townsend's four sons: James Price, Joseph Brevitt Jr., John Barton and Charles Cooper.

Soon after receipt at the University of Delaware Library, the collection was arranged into four series, largely by document type with chronological subdivisions. These series include: I. Legal documents and professional correspondence (F1-F47), II. Miscellaneous documents and correspondence (F48-F51), III. Printed court proceedings and legal documents (F52-F55), and IV. Financial records (F56-F64).

Series I. contains legal documents and the professional correspondence of Townsend's Philadelphia practice. The largest series, this material has been arranged chronologically. There are several divisions by decade, with subdivisions by document type (legal documents or correspondence). Drafts of court proceedings from the Orphan's Court of Philadelphia, the Court of Common Pleas, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and various Circuit Courts frequently appear in this series. There are also many records of land transactions, some maps of land holdings, and indentures and mortgages. A series of land transactions pertaining to the formation of Fairmount Park, a project Eli K. Price was heavily involved in, appears in the collection beginning in 1867 (F11). J.B. Townsend served as the trustee or executor of many wills and estates of Philadelphia families. Discussion of estate dispersals, land disputes and land sales are the main topics discussed in the professional correspondence in this series. The correspondence, with Philadelphia names such as Lea, Biddle, Barton, and Price, also conveys a sense of Townsend's extensive social and professional network. J.B. Townsend practiced law with his mentor, Eli K. Price, early in his career and therefore Eli Price appears in many documents and pieces of correspondence early in this series. Beginning circa 1850, J.B. Townsend was joined in his law practice by the first of his four sons, who all appear in the collection. James P. Townsend, Charles C. Townsend, and J.B. Townsend, Jr. appear most frequently in the documents and professional correspondence, and John Barton appears through his affiliation with the Provident Life and Trust Company of Philadelphia. Upon J.B. Townsend's death in 1896 his sons continued his law practice under the name Townsend, Elliott & Townsend, a firm name that appears in this series beginning in F40.

Series II. Miscellaneous documents and correspondence, contains items related to the estate of the Picot family, John B. Chrisman and his business Chrisman, Brothers & Company, correspondence related to the Pennsylvania Hospital, and miscellaneous papers related to the legal careers of the Townsend men. These items were separated arbitrarily from the first series in the early processing of the collection. The Picot papers (F49) include correspondence and other documents dealing with the settlement of the estate of Charles Picot, of which Eli K. Price and J.B. Townsend were executors. The John B. Chrisman papers (F50) include receipts, accounts and correspondence related to Chrisman, Brothers & Company, a firm affiliated with the Rolling Iron Mill in Bergen County, New Jersey. John B. Chrisman lived in Wallace Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, with his wife Isabella. The Pennsylvania Hospital correspondence (F51) includes letters concerning J.B. Townsend's management of the hospital, as well as many recommendation letters in reference to a vacant position on the hospital staff. The final folder in this series contains legal certifications awarded to J.B. Townsend, Jr. and Charles C. Townsend, making them eligible to practice law in certain types of courts in Philadelphia. This folder also contains J.B. Townsend, Jr.'s diploma from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law.

Series III. Printed court proceedings (F53 - F56), separated by document type, contains the printed court proceedings of various Philadelphia cases represented in the first series. This series also contains the printed wills and estate audits of many of the Townsend clients.

Series IV. Financial records and pocket diaries includes the personal financial records of various Townsend family members, as well as the financial accounts of Townsend, Elliott & Townsend. Other financial records relate to two of J.B. Townsend's clients, the William Chamberlain Estate and the Woodlands Cemetery.

The Joseph Brevitt Townsend papers highlight Townsend's legal practice, including his collaboration with his four sons, and his mentor and associate Eli K. Price. This collection would be of interest to legal historians, particularly of those interested in nineteenth-century Philadelphia. As documented in this collection, Townsend's work with real estate and estate settlements provides insight into various land transactions that shaped Philadelphia's growth and development in the mid-to-late nineteenth century.