Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

This volume, titled "The Conundrum Crop for 1859," is a blank book containing 36 handwritten riddles and their answers. They include references to agriculture, literature and prominent figures (e.g. Lord Byron, Cowper, Louis Napoleon, Victor Emmanuel, Pope Leo, Shakespeare, Ivanhoe, Bunyan, and John G. Saxe), military culture, technology (iron steamers, railroads), race, gender, and geography.

This volume, titled "The Conundrum Crop for 1859," is a blank book containing 36 handwritten riddles and their answers. They include references to agriculture, literature and prominent figures (e.g. Lord Byron, Cowper, Louis Napoleon, Victor Emmanuel, Pope Leo, Shakespeare, Ivanhoe, Bunyan, and John G. Saxe), military culture, technology (iron steamers, railroads), race, gender, and geography.

This manuscript, entitled The Number of Polls and the Value of rateable Estates within the Province of Massachusetts-bay during the year 1771, contains a detailed calculation of the total tax revenue generated by Massachusetts in 1771. The manuscript may be in the hand of George Chalmers.

This manuscript is entitled "The Number of Polls and the Value of rateable Estates within the Province of Massachusetts-bay during the year 1771." The figures are presented by county, with each county divided into towns; totals for each town and county are provided, as are totals for the entire colony, multiplied by current tax rates to provide a proportional and total amount of taxes owed in 1771. The information was presented to the House of Delegates.

• Suffolk: 8,446 (including Boston's 2,876)
• Essex: 11,697
• Middlesex: 8,987
• Hampshire: 6,779
• Plymouth: 6,163
• Barnstable: 3,478
• Bristol: 5,842
• York: 3,368
• Dukes: 692
• Nantucket: 1,130
• Cumberland: 2,683
• Lincoln: 1,844
• Worcester: 9,697
• Berkshire: 2,773

A "Recapitulation" shows a total count of 73,478 polls and a total estate value of £549,001 17s. 4d. Taxes accrued equal £382 14s. 0d. from polls, £617 12s. 6d. from estates, and £1000 6s. 6d. total.

This collection is made up of 4 letters that Dr. Theodore Beardsley wrote to Dr. Wells Beardsley about his medical practice in North Hero, Vermont, in 1808, and a letter that Wells Beardsley wrote to his son Marcus in 1833.

This collection is made up of 4 letters that Dr. Theodore Beardsley wrote to Dr. Wells Beardsley about his medical practice in North Hero, Vermont, in 1808, and a letter that Wells Beardsley wrote to his son Marcus in 1833. Theodore Beardsley wrote about illnesses, treatments, pregnancies, commerce, and agriculture in Grand Isle County, Vermont. Wells Beardsley's letter concerns a recent journey to northern New York, Vermont, and Québec (November 1833). See the Detailed Box and Folder Listing for more information about each letter.

This cypher book, by Theophilus Norris of Epping, New Hampshire, contains mathematical rules, examples, and exercises. Entries also relate to practical uses, including surveying, weights and measures, and compound interest. Several handwriting exercises are also present, as well as brief genealogical notes relating to Elizabeth Brier and Elizabeth Norris.

The Thomas Caldwell Moore sketchbook is made up of twenty-two images on nineteen loose, encapsulated pages as well as the original cover boards and binding. The back of the original front cover board of the sketchbook includes the penciled inscription: "Sketch Book, New York -1865, T.C. Moore of Allegheny Arsenal Pittsburg, Pa." Three pages have images on both sides. The creator of the sketchbook has been identified as Thomas Caldwell Moore (1825-1886). The sketchbook contains pencil and watercolor landscape views of rivers, shorelines and towns from ca. 1865. Locations represented include the Shenandoah Valley, the Allegheny River, and New York City. One sketch (image #2), titled "U.S Rifle Factory on the Shennandoah" is likely to be Harpers Ferry Armory.

The Thomas Caldwell Moore sketchbook, housed in a blue tray case with gilt lettering on the spine, is made up of twenty-two images on nineteen loose, encapsulated, pages as well as the original cover boards and binding. Three pages have drawings on both sides. The back of the original front cover board of the sketchbook includes the penciled inscription: "Sketch Book, New York -1865, T.C. Moore of Allegheny Arsenal Pittsburg, Pa." The creator of the sketchbook has been identified as Thomas Caldwell Moore (1825-1886). While only two of the drawings are individually dated (both 1865), given that the date on the inside of the front cover matches the two dated sketches it can be assumed that the sketchbook contains pencil and watercolor landscape views of rivers, shorelines and towns from ca. 1865. Nine of the images include titles, many of which are in ink written over pencil, indicating the location the sketch depicts. Locations represented include the Shenandoah Valley, the Allegheny River, and New York City. One sketch (image #2), titled "U.S Rifle Factory on the Shennandoah," is likely to be Harpers Ferry Armory.

The Thomas Leyland Company account books are two volumes of records for the slave ships Hannah (1789-90) and Jenny (1792-1793), traveling from Liverpool to Africa, then across the Atlantic to Jamaica and other West Indian Islands. The books record the goods sold in each port, such as slaves, fabric, and sugar, and contain details on seamen's wages and instructions to the captain for the treatment of slaves.

The Thomas Leyland Company account books are two volumes of records for the slave ships Hannah (1789-90) and Jenny (1792-1793), which made trips from Liverpool to Africa, then across the Atlantic to Jamaica and other West Indian Islands. These record the goods (sugar, food, arms, and cloth) and slaves sold in each port, and contain details on seamen's wages and instructions to ship captains for the treatment of slaves.

The first volume documents the 2nd voyage of the Ship Hannah, captained by Charles Wilson (39 pages). The ship sailed from Liverpool on July 3, 1789, to the Calabar River in Africa (present day Nigeria), then to Barbadoes; Dominica; and Kingston, Jamaica; and finally back to Liverpool in December 1790.

The account book opens with directions to the captain, instructing him on the ship's itinerary and what to sell and purchase on the journey. The note also cautioned the captain to treat his crew with humanity and to show the "utmost tenderness to the Negroes" (page 1). The next item is the shipment invoice, which includes food (white barley, corn, rice, peas, beans, beef, salt, and bread), liquor (brandy, port, sherry), china, fabric and clothing (hats, trousers, jackets, silk, cotton, romal and photaes), arms (gunpowder, muskets, French guns, and knives), and purchased items including tobacco, wine, rum, sugar, raisins, cotton, sailcloth, iron, and gunpowder (pages 5-13). Page 15 contains a list of the 30 officers and seamen on board the Hannah, with their names, rank or profession, wages per month, and total pay. Professions included master, mate, carpenter, cooper, steward, surgeon, cook, and seaman. Pages 16-20 contain lists of trader's names along with notes on disbursements and what they purchased. Pages 22-24 cover accounts for the 294 slaves sold at Kingston, Jamaica, with details on the purchasers, prices, and types of slaves sold (privileged men, privileged women, cargo men, cargo women, men boys, women girls, boys, and girls). Finally, pages 25-32 provide information about the total amount of sugar purchased in Jamaica for Thomas Leyland, and the accounts of goods sold to various traders in the West Indies, including William Daggers of Kingston, Jamaica; Barton and Gibbald of Barbados; and Neilson and Heathcote of Dominica.

The second volume documents the first voyage of the Ship Jenny, captained by William Stringer (29 pages). The Jenny left Liverpool on November 27, 1792, and arrived at the Zaire River (Congo) off the coast of Angola on February 18, 1793. They arrived at the port town of Emboma (today Boma, Kongo Central) on February 23, 1793, then at Barbadoes (May 6, 1793), St. Vincent (May 7, 1793), Grenada (May 8, 1793), and finally Kingston, Jamaica (May 18, 1793).

The record keeping for both volumes is similar. The account book opens with an itinerary of the trade mission and instructions for the captain on selling and purchasing cargo (pages 1-3). Following that are the invoice for goods shipped and purchased (page 5-14), a list of the 29 officers and seamen on board (page 15), tradesmen's notes and disbursements (pages 16-20), sales for 250 slaves (pages 21-23), and accounts with Thomas Leyland, who funded the expedition (pages 24-29).

The Thomas Morton New English Canaan or New Canaan manuscript is Samuel Gardner Drake's 1830 transcription of Thomas Morton's book, New English Canaan or New Canaan (2nd edition: Amsterdam, 1637). The work describes Native Americans and New World flora and fauna, and satirizes the Massachusetts Bay colonists.

The Thomas Morton New Canaan manuscript is a copy of the 1637 Amsterdam edition of Morton's major work, New Canaan. Antiquarian Samuel Gardner Drake made the transcription in 1830, from John Quincy Adams' printed copy. In addition to a full transcription of all three volumes of the work, Gardner included Adams' and his own sources for further reading on Morton, as well as "Notes by the transcriber," in which he recounted his request to Adams to borrow the work and laid out his reasons for making a copy (p. ii).

Each of the three "volumes" that make up Morton's work addresses a different subject. The first contains information collected by Morton on Native Americans, including a description of a recent deadly plague (p. 23), child-rearing customs (p. 31-32), and lengthy accounts of Native Americans' home, and religious and agricultural practices. Morton was a fairly sympathetic, if at times confused, observer, and found a great deal to praise. In the second volume, Morton focused on the natural features of the New World, and cataloged and commented on a range of trees, herbs, animals, and minerals. He expressed great admiration for the wilderness, calling the New World "a Country so infinitely blest" (p. 92). The third volume satirizes the austerity of the Puritans and criticizes them for the massacre of members of the Massachusett tribe at Wessagusset (p. 111). It also incorporates several poems by Morton.

This volume contains lists of Royal Navy ships active in the early 19th century, including information about each ship's size, number of crewmen, number of guns, and origin.

This volume (390 pages) contains lists of Royal Navy vessels in the 19th century, organized by type (see list below) and number of guns. Each set of facing pages consists of a table of information about each listed ship's tonnage and dimensions, total number of guns, number of guns on each deck, number of crewmen, and construction place and year; some entries contain only partial information. A column labeled "by whose Draught" contains information on vessels' origins; some had been captured from the Spanish, French, Dutch, and Danes from the 1790s to 1808, and some had noted similarities to other vessels. A few late pages note ships' locations in English ports such as Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, Portsmouth, and Plymouth, and, in three cases, at Halifax, Gibraltar, and Bombay.

In 1814, Baptist minister Thomas Smiley of White Deer Hole Valley, Pennsylvania, wrote three letters to Edward Bird of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about a dispute over the ownership and use of a meeting house on land formerly owned by Bird.

This collection is made up of letters that Baptist minister Thomas Smiley of White Deer Hole Valley, Pennsylvania, wrote to Edward Bird of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 2, 1814 (3 pages); September 23, 1814 (3 pages); and September 27, 1814 (2 pages). Smiley explained the history and details of a dispute about the ownership and use of a religious meetinghouse and schoolhouse that had been constructed in 1808. Part of the building stood on land owned by Edward Bird, who sold the tract to Henry Wise and Peter Brause, Germans and dissenting English Methodists who had recently moved to White Deer Hole Valley. Smiley outlined the ensuing dispute between Wise and Brause, who claimed ownership of the building, and his congregation, who had initially funded the project, and requested that Bird intervene. Smiley discussed several unsuccessful compromises that the Baptists had offered to the newcomers and reported that Wise and Brause had broken a lock and illegally entered the building. The letters pertain to the building's funding and construction, surveying efforts, land prices, and possible agreements between the involved parties. The first letter is co-signed by John Oakes and John Lewis, and the beginning of Edward Bird's response is present on the third letter.

The Thomas Thorbury War of 1812 poetry consists of three fragmentary poems written postwar by an American soldier and prisoner at Melville Prison.

The collection consists of a single volume, which contains three fragmentary poems. The first poem (pp. 2-25), which is untitled, consists of 582 lines of rhyming couplets. Seven of its lines are unreadable due to paper degradation. In an extended satire of the conflict between the United States and Great Britain in the War of 1812, the poet described the savage feud between two farmers, Jack and Sam, indentified as the narrator's uncles. The conflict arose over the use of roads, bridges, and waterways, for which Jack charged tolls. Goaded by his wife, Sam hesitantly entered into battle with Jack, and defeated him on land and water, but only after both men suffered from wounds and exhaustion. They reached an agreement allowing Sam's sons to go unmolested to market, but how long the peace would last "no tongue can tell."

The second poem (pp. 26-43) is also untitled, and concerns a group of Americans taken prisoner on the shores of Ontario and held in Melville Prison. In the poem, Thorbury described their capture, the taking of their clothing, and the recording of their names and ranks by a British agent. He also recounted their separation into groups: "The Boatswain next in messes places/ Each one according to their faces./ The whites are separate from the blacks,/ And yanky Tars from monsier Jacks." The poem also gives descriptions of prison food, sleeping conditions, and fights among the prisoners. It ends with the declaration of peace and the return of 300 captives to the United States.

The final poem (pp. 43-44), entitled "Tom and Joe [a] Dialogue," is a small fragment, with only four legible lines, describing an autumn walk to meet a friend.

Also included with the volume are transcriptions of each poem and notes made in 2006 by the donor, David P. Harris, who provided annotations, background information, and a well-researched collection description.