DOI: 10.7910/dvn/nsauwx
title: Petition of Abraham Cooper

description: &lt;p&gt;Petition subject: Indian guardians &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Original: &lt;a href="http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:12208704"&gt;http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:12208704&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Date of creation: 1811-07-13 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Petition location: Gayhead &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Legislator, committee, or address that the petition was sent to: Several names from a committee &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Selected signatures:&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Abraham Cooper&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Alexander Brown&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Amos Jeffers&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Anna Johnson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Rebecca Dodge&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Mary Peters&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Peter Tolman&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Esther Howwoswee&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Bulah Occooch&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Paul Cuffe&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Jonathan Slocum&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Amy Wamsley&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Joel Rogers&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Actions taken on dates: 1811-08-20,1811-08-21,1812-01-23 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Legislative action: Received in the Council on August 20, 1811 and read and referred to a committee and referred to next session of the legislature on August 21, 1811 and received in the Council on January 23, 1812 and referred to a committee &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Total signatures: 59.0 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Legislative action summary: Received, read, referred, referred, received, referred &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Females of color signatures: 33 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Males of color signatures: 23 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Unidentified signatures: 3 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Female only signatures: No &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Identifications of signatories: proprietors with others of the land called Gayhead, [males of color], [females of color] &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Prayer format was &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing"&gt;printed&lt;/a&gt; vs. &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuscript"&gt;manuscript&lt;/a&gt;: Manuscript &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Signatory column format: not column separated &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Native American tribe: Gayhead &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Acknowledgements: Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-5105612), Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University, Institutional Development Initiative at Harvard University, and Harvard University Library.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Additional non-petition or unrelated documents available at archive: no additional documents &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Additional archivist notes: Gayhead, Gay Head, lands, petitioning, Indian guardians, Chilmark, Republicanism, Republicans, poor, schools, meeting house, building, clerk, treasurer, appointments ["...and like Mordecai the Jew wait in sackcloth..."]; Includes note that a meeting of proprietors will be held in December 1811 and a note from July 23, 1811 from Thomas Jeffer, Thomas Jeffers, the elder and pastor of the Baptist Church at Gayhead, enclosed seven dollars collected by him from the proprietors of Gayhead for the sufferers of the late fire at Newburyport, religious, sent to Story of Salem &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Location of the petition at the Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth: Governor Council Files, July 13, 1811 &lt;/p&gt;