[Papermaking]. [Massachusetts]

[Manuscript Document Establishing the Paper Mill of James Boies of Milton, Massachusetts]

Milton, Ma. 1765. [4]pp., folio. Old folds, minor toning, light foxing. Docketed on verso of second leaf. Very good. Item #4379

A contemporary manuscript copy of a partnership agreement between James Boies and "Richard Clarke of Milton aforesaid papermaker" for the establishment of a paper mill on the Neponset River in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The production of paper in colonial America was slow to develop. Before about 1765 (the year of the present agreement), most of the paper used in the American colonies was imported. Colonial paper mills could not meet the demand, and the shortage of paper became more dire after the passage of nonimportation agreements following the Stamp and Townshend Acts of 1765 and 1767, respectively. The present deed stands as evidence of an increasing development of homegrown colonial paper mills in the late colonial period. The document details the boundary lines of Boies's property that will now belong to Clarke for half of the business, gives Clarke access to two water wells, grants Clarke over six acres of pasture land, and other considerations. Chiefly among those is "Also one moiety or half part of the Paper Mill with the one half of the implements and appurtenances thereto belonging to be improved by said Boies and Clarke as a paper mill...Together with the one moiety or half of my Right & Interest in the stream of water, the said Paper Mill to have the Commanding part of said stream from the first of May to the first of October following yearly and the equal half of said stream the remaining part of the year forever...."

"Papermaking in Massachusetts began in 1730 when a mill went into operation on the Neponset River in Milton. By 1800, six paper mills had been established on the river. James Boies (1702-1798), a native of Ireland, entered the business in 1760, when he went to work for his father-in-law, Jeremiah Smith (1704-1790), who was another Irish immigrant. In 1765, Boies built a paper mill of his own on the Neponset in partnership with Richard Clarke (?-1777)" - Collection Description for the American Antiquarian Society's Tileston and Hollingsworth Papers.

Price: $1,750.00