Wade and Hodgkins Papers |
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WADE AND HODGKINS PAPERS, 1775-1855, 1879-1927
Collection Summary | |
Repository: | The Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum 166 Essex Street Salem, MA 01970 Phone: 978-745-9500 Fax: 978-948-6012 |
Creator: | Colonel Nathaniel Wade and Colonel Joseph Hodgkins |
Title: | Wade and Hodgkins Papers |
Dates: | 1775/1855, 1879/1927 |
Quantity: | 2.5 linear feet (3 boxes) |
Abstract: | The Wade and Hodgkins Papers include materials collected by the Wade and Hodgkins family related to the service of Colonels Nathaniel Wade and Joseph Hodgkins during the American Revolutionary War. |
Collection Number: | MSS 806 |
Series List
SERIES I. Nathaniel Wade Sr. Military PapersSERIES II. Wade Family Correspondence
SERIES III. Miscellaneous Wade Family Papers
SERIES IV. Hodgkins Family CorrespondenceSERIES V. Joseph Hodgkins Military and Family Papers
Scope and Content Note
The Wade and Hodgkins Papers include materials collected by the Wade and
Hodgkins family related to the service of Colonels Nathaniel Wade and Joseph
Hodgkins during the American Revolutionary War. The earliest papers are dated from
1775, and the most recent 1927, with the bulk of the papers dating between 1775, and
1855. While connected initially through shared military service, the families merged
through marital union in 1803. This collection has been divided into five series.
Series I. Nathaniel Wade Sr. Military Papers is
separated into two subseries. Subseries A. Muster Lists and
Military Papers includes the enrollment lists of members of Col.
Nathaniel Wade's Regiment and various military papers, such as a rations list for
1787. Subseries B. Orderly Books contains three orderly
books documenting camp life, including court martial proceedings. Series II. Wade Family Correspondence includes incoming and
outgoing letters by both Nathaniel Wade Sr. and Jr., as well as limited amounts of
correspondence from disparate family members. This series includes two letters from
George Washington to Colonel Wade dated September 25, and 26, 1780; also included in
the same folder are photocopies made at a later date.
Series III. Miscellaneous Wade Family Papers contains
materials reflecting an array of the family's activities over the late 18th and the
19th centuries including rental agreements and receipts, deeds of will, a
hand-written account of the family's genealogy beginning in the early 19th century,
newspaper clippings, material related to the family's involvement in the Ipswich
Historical Society, and business papers of Nathaniel Treadwell 3rd.
Series IV. Hodgkins Family Correspondence contains
two subseries. Subseries A. Joseph Hodgkins to Sarah
Hodgkins includes a substantial number of letters from Hodgkins to his
second wife Sarah throughout the course of the war, from 1775, to 1779, including a
letter from the Battle of Harlem Heights and three from Valley Forge. Subseries B. Sarah Hodgkins' Correspondence contains
letters written by Sarah to Joseph Hodgkins during the course of the war as well as
letters sent by her sister Joanna Chapman to Sarah.
Series V. Joseph Hodgkins Military and Family Papers
contains a roll of the Ipswich Minutemen, family legal records, including a contract
relating to church pew use, nineteenth century historical society publications, an
orderly book, and various military papers. The legal records speak to the debt of
Hodgkins at the end of his life.
Biographical Sketches
Colonel Nathaniel Wade was born on February 27, 1750,
in Ipswich, Massachusetts, to Timothy and Ruth (Woodbury) Wade. He worked in Boston
as a carpenter and held six acres of land in Ipswich before serving in the American
Revolutionary War (Wade and Lively, 7). After enlisting in the Ipswich Minutemen on
January 24, 1775, he was elected Colonel by his peers. He married Mary Foster
(1760-1785) of Gloucester (Wade and Lively, 122) in 1777, and together they had
three children that survived to adulthood (Ancestry.com). The Colonel served during
the Boston, Long Island, Trenton, and Princeton campaigns. Wade's last act as a
militiaman included efforts to shutdown Shay's Rebellion (Wade and Lively, 154). He
married in 1788, to Hannah Treadwell (1762-1814), sister of Nathaniel Treadwell 3rd
(1765-1804) (Ancestry.com). Wade held various political offices in and for Ipswich
following his service, chiefly as a member of the Massachusetts General Court, on
which he served continually for twenty-one years (Wade and Lively, 156-157). In
1803, his eldest son, Nathaniel Wade Jr. (1778-1843) married Hannah Hodgkins
(1780-1820), Joseph Hodgkins' (1743-1829) eldest daughter by Sarah (Perkins)
Hodgkins. Colonel Nathaniel Wade died in 1826.
Colonel Joseph Hodgkins was born in 1743, to Thomas
and Hannah Hodgkins. He worked as a shoemaker in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Hodgkins
married Joanna Webber (1741-1772) of Methuen in 1764, and only one of their children
survived to adulthood, Joanna Hodgkins born July 8, 1765. In January of 1772, Joanna
(Webber) Hodgkins died and in December of that year he married Sarah Perkins
(1780-1803), to whom his correspondence is addressed in this collection (Wade and
Lively, 8-10). Hodgkins served as Lieutenant to Colonel Wade during the War, as he
was elected to this position by his peers following enrollment in the Ipswich
Minutemen in January 24, 1775. He served during the Boston, Long Island, Trenton,
and Princeton campaigns, and ended his Revolutionary War service in June of 1779.
Following the war he worked in public service positions, including on the
Massachusetts General Court and also as a keeper of the Ipswich County House (Wade
and Lively, 160). He ascended to the position of Colonel in the early 1790s (Wade
and Lively, 159). Sarah Hodgkins died in 1803, and he married for a third and final
time to Lydia Crocker Treadwell (1754-1833) in 1804. Hodgkins died in 1829
(Ancestry.com).
Index Terms
This collection is indexed under the following headings in Philcat. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
Restrictions
Restrictions on Access
This collection is open for research use.
Administrative Information
Copyright
Request for permission to publish material from the collection must be submitted in writing to the Manuscript Librarian in the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum.
Preferred Citation
Wade and Hodgkins Papers, MSS 806, Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.
Provenance
This material was donated by Lauretta A. Wade on February 25, 1985 (accessions
#83003, 83003a, and 83003b). Accession #83003 was formerly cataloged as Fam. Mss. 1056.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Francesca Scaraggi, April 2019.
Related Material
Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database
on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Wade, Herbert T. and Robert Lively, This Glorious Cause:
The Adventures of Two Company Officers in Washington's
Army, Princeton: Princeton, 1958.?