Legal documents

The Brinton family papers document several generations of the Brinton, Steinmetz, and Ward families, who flourished between 1760-1930 in Pennsylvania and New York. Several members of the family played prominent roles in their communities and included landholders, real estate developers, merchants, Civil War surgeons, medical doctors and professors, missionaries, a minister, an art critic, an anthropologist, lawyers, a judge, an engineer, and several authors.

The Harry Fletcher Brown collection, spanning the years 1881-1960 (bulk dates 1910-1952), contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, speeches, business cards, legal documents, printed material, ephemera, a photograph, World War I medal, programs, and blueprints of his Wilmington, Delaware, residence.

The N. B. Browne papers, 1845-1873, document the professional and personal affairs of nineteenth-century Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, businessman and public servant Nathaniel Borradaile Browne.

The Burd Family Papers concern the business, legal, and personal affairs of the Burd family, prominent lawyers and landowners from Philadelphia from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, as well as the legal and business affairs of other branches of the extended family, including the Shippens and Coxes.

Hugh M. Morris (1878-1966) was a Delaware lawyer and served as a federal district judge from 1919-1930. The Morris family papers, spanning the dates 1740-1985 and including legal deeds, account books, personal and busienss correspondence, legal records and photographs, documents the lives and career of Judge Hugh Morris and members of his extended family and network.

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.

This volume, entitled “Court Blotter No. 2,” contains the handwritten record of Philadelphia County Court proceedings and testimony from March 21-31, 1829. It includes case titles, lists of defendants and witnesses, descriptions of crimes, testimony, summations, and verdicts.

The John Reade Family Papers consist primarily of correspondence to John Reade, a successful businessman and land speculator of Red Hook and Poughkeepsie, New York, from various family members.

Henry Clay Reed, 1899-1972, was a renound Delaware historian and history professor at the University of Delaware for forty years, researching, teaching, writing, and editing numerous articles and books.

The Henry Clay Reed papers, spanning the dates from 1915-1974, contains legal documents, photographs, microfilm, correspondence, research notes, manuscripts, publications, and ephemera from the historian and University of Delaware professor.

Document giving the legal opinion of John Ross on how money should be distributed from fines levied against forgers in New Castle, Delaware.

Document appointing Stephen Green as trustee of Sussex County, Delaware, replacing resignee David Hazzard, signed by Governor of Delaware William H. Ross on April 16, 1851.

A printed document signed by American physician and Delaware Governor Gove Saulsbury, appointing James B. Bell of Boston, Massachusetts, to be a Commissioner for the state of Delaware, on January 28, 1870.

The Madeleine B. Stern papers related to Joseph de Nancrède span the dates 1972-1977 and comprise one linear foot of photocopied letters, original documents, and working notes from rare book dealer and writer Stern for an article on the Franco-American bookseller-publisher Joseph de Nancrède (1761-1841).

Small group of miscellaneous papers relating to several generations of the Thatcher family of Wilmington, Delaware. Papers include correspondence, military documents, photographs, notebooks, legal documents, and miscellaneous material.

The Tilghman family papers, spanning the years 1730-1903 (bulk dates 1776-1810), comprises .3 linear ft. (102 items) of legal documents, legal correspondence, receipts, and financial records from this Maryland Eastern Shore family.

The Torbert-Ellegood Collection, spanning 1759-1889, with the bulk of the papers dating 1820-1840, consists of 1.3 linear feet of legal papers, land records, accounts, receipts, correspondence, and other documents, many of which relate to the Torbert and Ellegood families of Delaware.