Boston Overseers of the Poor indentures and related material
Collection
Call Number: MS 7248
Scope and Contents
The Boston Overseers of the Poor indentures and related material consists of about 1,800 indentures, certificates of endorsement, and other related materials spanning the years 1734-1805. The indentures document the Overseers’ efforts to place children who, because of the conditions in their home, were living in the Almshouse. These children became apprentices in either homes or in other suitable means of employment with the intent that they would learn skills that would mutually benefit both them and society.
An indenture is an official contract between the Overseers and a family or individual that stipulates the obligations established by the Overseers for an apprenticeship. The name and town of the apprentice; name and town of the person(s) indentured to; and the trades and skills to be taught are documented. The trades include: carpentry, domestic arts – including dressmaking – farming, and maritime trades. The length of the apprenticeship is noted in the body of the indenture and its end date is recorded on the back of the document.
The indentures note that all apprentices were entitled to a basic education consisting of reading, writing, and simple arithmetic during their apprenticeships and to two proper suits of clothing at the end. There are some cases in which compensation is noted. In addition, the indentures set out the moral behavior expected of an apprentice and the appropriate living conditions that were to be provided to them. Each indenture was witnessed by two people and signed by officials of the Almshouse, justices of the peace, and the Overseers. Persons wishing to have an apprentice and were living outside of Boston were required to obtain a certificate of endorsement of good character from their town’s selectmen. The indentures and endorsement certificates are on printed forms that were filled in by hand.
Other related materials include correspondence verifying apprentices’ terms of service in the Continental Army, requests from parents for apprenticeships for their children, and a request to end an apprenticeship because of the death of the head of the family. Fragments of indentures, lists from the almshouse, and correspondence are also included.
An indenture is an official contract between the Overseers and a family or individual that stipulates the obligations established by the Overseers for an apprenticeship. The name and town of the apprentice; name and town of the person(s) indentured to; and the trades and skills to be taught are documented. The trades include: carpentry, domestic arts – including dressmaking – farming, and maritime trades. The length of the apprenticeship is noted in the body of the indenture and its end date is recorded on the back of the document.
The indentures note that all apprentices were entitled to a basic education consisting of reading, writing, and simple arithmetic during their apprenticeships and to two proper suits of clothing at the end. There are some cases in which compensation is noted. In addition, the indentures set out the moral behavior expected of an apprentice and the appropriate living conditions that were to be provided to them. Each indenture was witnessed by two people and signed by officials of the Almshouse, justices of the peace, and the Overseers. Persons wishing to have an apprentice and were living outside of Boston were required to obtain a certificate of endorsement of good character from their town’s selectmen. The indentures and endorsement certificates are on printed forms that were filled in by hand.
Other related materials include correspondence verifying apprentices’ terms of service in the Continental Army, requests from parents for apprenticeships for their children, and a request to end an apprenticeship because of the death of the head of the family. Fragments of indentures, lists from the almshouse, and correspondence are also included.
Dates
- 1734 - 1805
Creator
- Boston (Mass.) Overseers of the Poor (Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Items in this collection may be subject to copyright restrictions. In most cases, the Boston Public Library does not hold the copyright to the items in our collections. It is the sole responsibility of the user to make their own determination about what types of usage might be permissible under U.S. and international copyright law.
Boston Overseers of the Poor
The Boston Overseers of the Poor was established in 1692, by an act that allowed either town selectmen or an Overseer of the Poor to place children, who had no visible means of support, in a home or in suitable employment that would benefit them and society. Overseers were obliged to act on their own to protect children under the various amendments to the 1692 act. They were allowed to remove children from homes that they thought to be without necessary parental guidance or when they believed that the child lacked not only religious and secular literacy but also a grasp of what might today be considered civics. Moreover, parents who wanted their children brought up or trained outside the home volunteered their children for apprenticeships. In addition, the act stipulated that females should be apprenticed until age eighteen, or time of marriage, and males until age 21. In 1720, it became mandatory for male apprentices to be taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, and female apprentices only reading. Eventually, females were also taught arithmetic and writing. The Overseers placed about 1,200 apprentices between 1734 and 1805.
Extent
1226 Items
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The indentures and related material of the Boston Overseers of the Poor, whose responsibility it was to assist in aiding the poor of New England, consist of about 1,800 indentures, certificates of endorsement, and other related materials spanning the years 1734-1805. The collection documents the Overseers’ efforts to place children who, because of the conditions in their homes, were living in the Almshouse, into either homes or other suitable means of employment where they would learn skills that would mutually benefit both them and society. The indentures and endorsement certificates are on printed forms that were filled in by hand.
Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Transferred from the City of Boston, 1968.
General
This collection was treated by conservators in 2014. Conservation work was underwritten by the Associates of the Boston Public Library and the Yale Class of 1955 in honor of David McCullough.
Processing Information
Former call number: MS Bos. W2.
Processing Information
This electronic finding aid is transcribed from legacy data. In many cases, transcriptions were not verified against collection materials at the time of transcription. As a result, this finding aid could be incomplete and might only reflect a partial understanding of the material.
Statement on harmful description
Archival description reflects the biases of time periods and cultures in which it was created and may include direct quotations or descriptions that use inappropriate or harmful language. Creator provided descriptions may be maintained in order to preserve the context in which the collection was created and/or used. Legacy description and potentially offensive content may be made available online until a collection can be reprocessed because the access that they provide to primary source materials is uniquely valuable to the research community at large. Our efforts to repair outdated descriptions and to describe our collections more equitably are iterative and ongoing.
Creator
- Boston (Mass.) Overseers of the Poor (Organization)
- Title
- Guide to the Boston Overseers of the Poor Indentures and Related Material
- Author
- Finding aid written by Kimberly Reynolds
- Date
- 2014 August
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Revision Statements
- 2023-06: Collection description remediated by Kimberly Reynolds and Margaret Peachy to remove harmful language and reframe relationships represented by the documents in the collection. Fields updated during this process are: title, extent, finding aid title, finding aid filing title, finding aid date, immediate source of acquisition note, biographical/historical note, general note, scope and content note, processing information note, related materials note, subjects, agents, and all file-level description, including digital objects. Fields added during this process are: abstract, preferred citation, and the collection-level digital object instance.
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