Collection Description

This collection consists of notes, receipts, letters, wills, inventories, and record books of various members of the Cushing family of Hingham, Mass. over two centuries. The earliest documents include summonses, written evidence, and affidavits relating to Daniel Cushing's legal duties as a justice of the peace in Hingham, Mass. These include information on relations with Native Americans (the Wampanoag/Niantic), land sales, cases of assault, and a libel suit against Jonah Gross by William Sprague. Daniel Cushing's work as an amateur historian and town clerk is documented in a volume listing settlers from Hingham, England, who settled in Hingham, Mass., and a record of Hingham births, deaths, and marriages, 1693-1700. Another volume contains a detailed record of Hingham town meetings from 1680-1696 and includes data on bounties, churches, highways, land, selectmen and other town officers, and town taxes and disbursements. Seven small notebooks list town, province, county, and poll taxes for 1748, 1755, 1770, 1771, and 1771-1776.

The collection also contains an inventory of the estate of Pyam Cushing, together with miscellaneous business receipts and other papers relating to his service as town constable and selectman; manuscript poetry of Henry Cushing; a list of students who attended Christiana Cushing's female school; and business papers of William Gray Cushing.