This volume (around 125 pages) contains manuscript copies of legal documents (60 pages), written in an 1801 edition of Precedents in the Office of a Justice of Peace..., by Collison Read (around 100 pages). The documents, dated 1804-1816, are comprised of deeds, indentures, and similar agreements respecting Pennsylvania real estate, particularly in Lancaster County. A few records from 1815 concern George and Frederick Rapp, the founders of the Harmony Society, who sold Harmony, Pennsylvania, land in Butler County before the sect relocated to Indiana. The author also copied petitions related to road construction and notes about proper forms of address for United States government officials (1 page) and algebraic mathematical equations (2 pages).
The remainder of the volume is a second edition copy of Collinson Read's Precedents in the Office of a Justice of Peace. To Which is Added a Short System of Conveyancing, in a Method Entirely New, with an Appendix, Containing a Variety of the Most Useful Forms (1801), originally published in 1794. The 63-page tract and 36-page appendix provide examples of legal records. The final page of Read's Precedents contains additional notes.
This volume contains copies of legal documents regarding real estate and roads in Pennsylvania, written in a printed guide by Collison Read (1751-1815) entitled Precedents in the Office of a Justice of Peace... (1801). Some of the copied legal documents concern George Rapp (1757-1847) and his adopted son Frederick (1775-1834).
George Rapp, a German immigrant, founded a religious sect called the Harmony Society, and built the town of Harmony (or Harmonie), Pennsylvania, in 1805. The Harmony Society relocated to Indiana in 1815 and returned to Pennsylvania in 1824, where Rapp and his followers founded the town of Economy. Frederick Rapp oversaw the communities' finances and business affairs.
