The majority of the collection concerns the activities of Samuel Wadsworth, a merchant and landowner of Hartford. Among his legal records are bills of sale for one Negro woman and two Negro men, 1756-1766, and a document in which Sarah Boardman gives her man Peter “liberty to work for” Samuel Wadsworth. Deeds comprise another substantial portion of Wadsworth’s legal papers and these instruments of transfer include leases for “farm letts”, and the sale and purchase of partial interest in several sailing vessels. Accounts among Samuel’s financial records indicate he traded horses for rum and sugar in Barbados. There are also bills for services rendered by what appears to be a maid, one for schooling Gurdon, and one for making britches for Samuel and his son and repairing britches for his Negro. An account of the distribution of Samuel’s estate illustrates the extent of his wealth and land holdings. In 1826, someone made an inventory of land owned by Gurdon and George Wadsworth with exact measurements of each plot. Gurdon’s papers also include a copy of a document setting out his widow’s third. Several plot plans accompany the land inventories. Samuel’s daughter Hannah married John Bigelow. When Bigelow died, Samuel settled his estate. The estate records and several earlier documents, such as a bill dated 1777 for eleven months service in your company, indicate Bigelow served during the Revolution.
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