This collection consists of 17 manuscript documents respecting local affairs in Reading, Massachusetts, between 1666 and 1731. The documents address property, indigent persons, town meetings (calls to meet and issues addressed), and financial matters. Examples include:
- April 30, 1666: An agreement drafted between representatives from the towns of Woburn and Reading reestablishing town boundaries. One attendee was William Cowdrey, a founding member of Reading who served as a deacon, Clerk of the Writs, Town Clerk, a selectman, a chairman, and a Representative to the General Court.
- January 4, 1710: An order, issued by Jn. Horbert (Town clerk), for Constable Thomas Taylor to "warn John Rich forth with to cause to depart and leave this town" the "indigent" person living in his household. Note on the verso indicates the warning was delivered according to the "warrant."
- June 5, 1711: Three individuals from Reading--Cptn. Nickols, Mr. Riley, and Burnap--"are impoured to answer to a petishon presented to the genarall court by sum of the inhabitants of the North syde of Ipswi[c]h river for a precinct to be asined them and to defend the Towns intrest."
- April 21, 1712: Receipt of payment to constable "Gorge Flent," signed by Elizabeth Pierpont.
- February 7, 1727/8: A warrant ordering Hannah Dix, having arrived in Reading "about the thirteenth of November & doth reside in our town at the house of Joseph Wessen," "to depart [out of Wessen's home] & out of this town to Boston from whence she came."
- September 8, 1731: Agenda for a forthcoming meeting, with an item "To hear ye Indian Deed of our Township Read if they if they [sic.] please if sd Deed can be procured."
Residents of Lynn petitioned the Massachusetts Bay Colony for additional land to settle and they began to inhabit the four square miles granted to them in 1639. Initially known as Lynn Village, the area grew sufficiently enough that, by 1644, it was incorporated and renamed Reading. A church and meetinghouse were constructed by 1645 and, by 1658, the appointment of commissioners allowed for the litigation of minor legal issues at the local level. Reading's government consisted of an open town forum, where registered voters gathered on annual basis to determine items, such as budgets and laws, while appointed selectmen oversaw daily operations.
