ICAR Research Data Repository for Knowledge Management

Petition subject: Slaves

Original: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:13908971

Date of creation: 1742-03-04

Petition location: Boston

Selected signatures:

1. Boston Jethro

Actions taken on dates: 1742-03-04,1742-04-15

Legislative action: Received in the Council on March 4, 1742 and read and ordered that the petitioner serve his wife Hagar with a copy of this petition that so she answer to the complaint within before this board Thursday the twenty fifth day of March instant at three o'clock in the afternoon and received in the Council April 15, 1742 and read again and the matter of this complaint being fully proved by the depositions of John Gyles Esq. and Capt. Thomas Saunders taken upon oath and ordered that the petitioner Boston Jethro be and hereby is divorced from his wife Hagar and that the bonds of their marriage be dissolved to all intents and purposes whatsoever

Total signatures: 1

Legislative action summary: Received, read, ordered, received, read, ordered

Males of color signatures: 1

Female only signatures: No

Identifications of signatories: negro servant of Edward Bromfield of Boston merchant, [males of color]

Prayer format was printed vs. manuscript: Manuscript

Additional archivist notes: Hagar, adultery, molatto bastard child, divorce, Edward Bromfield, John Giles, John Gyles, Thomas Sanders, Thomas Saunders, William Shirley, [Harvard], [additional documents in volumes, see pages 249-250]

Location of the petition at the Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth: Massachusetts Archives volume 9, page 248

Acknowledgements: Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-5105612), Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University, Institutional Development Initiative at Harvard University, and Harvard University Library.