General accounts include both bound volumes and loose papers. Bound volumes, 1711-1968, include account books, receipt books, treasurer's correspondence, poor fund records, some pew accounts, and memorial fund records. Loose papers, 1718-1964, include accounts, receipts, treasurer's correspondence, checks, and treasurer's annual reports. With the exception of checks and annual reports, all loose general accounts items have been interfiled in one chronological sequence.

General accounts include documentation of the Second Church's payments for a variety of goods and services, including printing, singing, taxes, foodstuffs, coal, and utilities. Building maintenance and repairs were constant expenses, and the costs of new construction dominate the records in the years surrounding the construction of new churches in 1845 and 1874.

Pew accounts, both bound volumes, 1755-1918, and loose papers, 1779-1913, include records, receipts, tax rolls, assessments, and treasurer's correspondence concerning pews.

Pew deeds include both bound volumes and loose papers. Bound volumes, 1795-1871, are organized either chronologically or by pew number. Loose deeds, ca. 1783-1845, are organized alphabetically by the last name of the person to whom the deed was issued. In instances of a deed being issued to two people, the deed is filed alphabetically under the first name. This subseries contains only those documents clearly marked as deeds.

The standing committee of the Second Church was comprised of the treasurer, a clerk, and a committee of seven people, elected by the proprietors. The committee was responsible for managing the property and the financial matters of the Second Church by examining the treasurer's accounts annually and reporting on them at the proprietors' annual meeting. The standing committee appointed a sexton, arranged the music for services, assessed taxes [on pews], and purchased and sold pews. The committee met "as often as once in three months" and was required to keep a "book of record."

Standing committee records include both bound volumes and loose papers. Bound volumes, 1801-1963, contain the records of the committee, including minutes, reports, resolutions, clippings, and correspondence. Loose papers, 1805-1964, contain records, correspondence, committee reports, annual reports, and minutes.

Building committee records concern the construction and maintenance of church properties and include committee reports, plans and drawings, correspondence, and accounts and receipts settled by the building committee. There is one bound volume of building committee accounts. Also included are reverse copies of cornerstone engravings, as well as prayers offered at the dedication of the Copley Square building.

The finance committee was responsible for examining the treasurer's records and providing an annual report on the fiscal state of the church for the prior year and budget recommendations for the next.

The music committee was responsible for providing music for Second Church services. Music committee records include correspondence and reports. Also included are records of the earlier singing committee, as well as the hymnbook committee, and organ subscribers.

The parish committee was started for the purpose of soliciting funds from parishioners and easing the church's financial difficulty. Records include one bound volume of meeting minutes and clippings, as well as loose correspondence and notes.

The religious education committee oversaw the church school and educational groups including the Lathrop Club, the Emerson Guild, the Wolf Club, the Cotton Mather Guild, and the Revere Club. The series contains annual reports from both the religious education committee and the groups it oversaw.

The Second Church was acknowledged as a corporate body by the legislature on four occasions, in 1786, 1824, 1845, and 1912. This series contains manuscript and photostatic copies of the charter bills enacted by the state legislature.

This series contains two deeds for land belonging to the Second Church.

This series includes fire insurance policies issued to the Second Church by the Global Fire and Marine Insurance, Franklin Insurance, and Merchant's Insurance companies.

Proxies enabled proprietors of the Second Church, in the event that they could not attend an annual proprietors meeting, to designate a representative to vote on their behalf. Proxies are organized chronologically and alphabetically within the same date.

The Second Church branch of the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches was organized in 1834 to support, through subscriptions, the Unitarian ministry at large, including such activities as the Hancock Sunday School and other parish charities. The branch continued its work into the twentieth century, sponsoring services for the poor and for college students at chapels and campuses around the city. Upon its incorporation in 1834, the branch assumed the accounts and responsibilities of the Evangelical Treasury, which had been organized for a similar purpose. Evangelical Treasury records are included in this series.

Records include one volume of Evangelical Treasury and Benevolent Fraternity meeting minutes and records, as well as loose correspondence, accounts of subscriptions, and reports.

The Second Church Board of Charity was organized in 1855 for the purpose of coordinating the charitable donations of the members of the church. The Board of Charity oversaw donations for the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, as well as other causes sponsored by the Second Church, including the Sunday School, the South End Industrial School, the Ladies Benevolent Society, various holiday celebrations, the American Unitarian Association, the Women's Alliance, and various missions. Records include correspondence and annual reports.

A Memorial Endowment Fund was established in trust for the Second Church in 1937 and was overseen by the board of trustees. The trustees were charged with investing the fund and distributing the profits to the treasurer for the maintenance of the Second Church, as they saw fit. Board of trustees records include the Declaration of Trust, correspondence, reports, and fund accounts.

A collaborative effort of several Boston churches (including the Second Church, First Church, Old South Church, New South Church, and Arlington Street Church), the lectures or sermons raised funds to benefit the poor. Cotton Mather gave the first recorded lecture in 1720. By 1860, one lecture was given each year, but was still called the Quarterly Charity Lecture. The funds raised at each lecture were divided among the affiliated churches, and the churches donated the proceeds to various charitable causes and organizations. Records include three volumes of records of minutes, lecture summaries, and accounts, as well as loose correspondence and reports.

The Ladies Benevolent Society held weekly sewing circle social meetings for the purposes of fostering community, giving employment in sewing to poor women, and producing clothing for sale and donation. Records include loose correspondence, reports, and accounts.

Ministers Joshua Gee and Cotton Mather founded the Second Church Library in 1727 for the purpose of providing members of the church with access to religious texts. A bound volume includes an account of the library's founding and a register of patrons and books bestowed. Loose records include correspondence and reports.

The Second Church Post Office Mission spread the word of the Unitarian faith via mailings of sermons intended to help establish correspondence with interested parties. Correspondents ranged from Boston to India. One bound volume of meeting and annual reports includes summaries of the mission's activities, tallies of materials sent, and accounts.

The women of the Second Church organized the Second Church Club as a social and philanthropic group to meet twice monthly. Home relief and foreign relief committees sewed and distributed clothing in Boston and abroad, and a civics committee arranged guest speakers. One volume of minutes and reports includes descriptions of club activities and club accounts listing donations both to and from the club.

The Hancock Sunday School was founded in 1823, and by 1865 it was simply known as the Second Church Sunday School. Seven bound volumes of records include lists of students and teachers, attendance records, minutes, and school library records. Loose papers include correspondence, printed materials, school bills, receipts, and accounts.

Mrs. DuBois LeFevre founded the Tuesday Evening Club in 1935 for sociability and work to benefit the church. Activities of the club included sewing, providing food for the annual meeting and other church events, corresponding with servicemen, and planning and attending recitals at the Second Church. Records include annual reports of the club to the proprietors.

The Women's National Alliance was born of the American Unitarian Association. In 1888, members of the AUA's Women's Auxiliary became sufficiently frustrated with their parent organization, in particular its reluctance to turn over the fruits of its fundraising efforts, and organized the Women's National Alliance of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian Women. The purpose of the Alliance was to improve the religious life of Unitarian churches by bringing women into more active roles. Activities included fundraising through food sales, volunteering with the Red Cross, organizing an open house, and overseeing the Junior Alliance.

Records include one bound volume of "Second Church reminiscences" and loose papers such as the alliance constitution, the by-laws of the Second Church branch, a typescript history of the alliance, secretary reports, annual reports of the alliance and the Junior Alliance, and a list of members.

Two volumes of notes on sermons, of which one is signed Nicholas Cook, include longhand (and some cipher) notes on sermons.

This series includes one letter from Samuel Mather to the committee of the North Church, ca. 1741, defending himself against "aspersions unjustly cast" that eventually led to his dismissal from the pulpit of the Second Church.

The papers of Joshua Gee consist of photostats of his will and an inventory of his estate.

The papers of Samuel Checkley, Jr. consist of a letter (with a manuscript copy) to the congregation announcing his retirement due to ill health.

The papers of John Lathrop include photostats of a title page to A Discourse, Preached on March the Fifth, 1778, by John Lathrop, inscribed to the Rev. Thomas Prentiss.

The papers of Henry Ware, Jr. include papers relating to his ordination, a letter from Jairus Lincoln, and manuscript sermons.

The papers of Ralph Waldo Emerson include papers relating to his ordination; correspondence and receipts; a manuscript copy of his sermon on the Lord's Supper, 9 September 1832, in which he announced his resignation; and correspondence relating to his time at the Second Church. Emerson's correspondence includes his letter of acceptance and his letter of resignation. Formerly in Folio 61.

The papers of Chandler Robbins relate to his ordination.

The papers of Walton E. Cole consist of a letter from David Anderson.

The papers of John Nicholls Booth include typescript sermons, some of which were bound in a binder with the title "Key Sermons Preached by John Nicholls Booth to Interpret his Changes in the Worship Structure of the Second Church in Boston."

Papers include correspondence concerning the "Mather chair" (1879), the controversy between the Second Church and Christ Church in Boston about which church was Revere's Old North Church, a miniature of Chandler Robbins painted by Sarah Goodridge, and other historical topics. Also included are several undated essays about the history of the church.