The Joseph Dow trunk archive · Document gallery 67

Early ledger continued: accounts, community agreements and material condition

20 photographs · 7 document groups

Photographed by Whit from the recovered Joseph Dow collection. Descriptions draw on visible names, dates and subjects; uncertain readings remain provisional. Reading copies are turned upright, and each image links to the unchanged full-resolution original.

JDT-D509 · A name-and-amount table within the ledger

Dense rows of names and monetary columns contrast with the narrative transactions elsewhere. Hobbs family names are among the visible entries. The layout suggests a collective reckoning or assessment; its exact function should be established by transcription before assigning a narrower title.

2 photographs

JDT-D510 · Working accounts and changes in use

Account headings and compact lists occupy selected parts of these openings, leaving other areas unused. The different hands, spacing and types of entry suggest a book used for more than one immediate purpose. The photographs preserve that layered use rather than presenting the volume as a single uniform register.

4 photographs

JDT-D511 · A Hampton sheep-keeping agreement, 1712

A manuscript agreement dated 20 March 1712, in Queen Anne’s eleventh regnal year, names Morris Hobbs, Ephraim and Samuel Marston, and other Hampton men in an arrangement with the selectmen to keep a flock of sheep. Its survival among accounts links livestock management with the town’s contractual and communal responsibilities. Some names remain provisional.

2 photographs

JDT-D512 · Lists, balances and another tabular reckoning

The ledger returns to names, amounts and compact account summaries. A ruled opening sets several columns beside one another, making it possible to compare obligations or payments. Careful enlargement is needed to distinguish figures from the vertical ruling and stains.

4 photographs

JDT-D513 · Labor and craft work recorded in money

Among the entries are charges for work on tools and animals, including shoeing, sharpening and repairs. These practical services show the ledger extending beyond store goods into skilled labor. A list of people and family references on the facing areas may reflect later reuse and should not automatically be read as part of the same account.

3 photographs

JDT-D514 · Final openings and a folded view

Pages are shown partly lifted and then folded, revealing how the narrow book was handled. Account columns continue beneath damage and discoloration. The overlapping views are useful for recovering obscured text and for understanding the relationship of the surviving leaves.

3 photographs

JDT-D515 · The closed book and its layered edge

The final views record the compact closed ledger and the irregular edges of its folded leaves. They show the book as a physical object: creased, incomplete and assembled from fragile paper. The edge view closes the sequence without implying that the surviving text is complete.

2 photographs

Collection photographs supplied by Whit. Descriptions are finding aids, not full transcriptions. Names, dates and associations remain provisional where the handwriting is uncertain.