LEAVITT, Jonathan.

£550 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

A Summary of the Laws of Massachusetts, relative to the Settlement, Support, Employment and Removal of Paupers. First edition of this collection of laws relating to paupers in the state. The emphasis is on the question of who qualifies as settled, an important issue when towns often sought to move out paupers.Leavitt (1764-1830) was a prominent lawyer in Greenfield and later served as a probate judge there from 1814 to 1821. He collects the relevant laws from 1692 to the present, with commentary on the changing legal status of paupers and civic obligations towards them. He places the law within five historical periods, each marked by a major statute. Provenance: i) Joel Harris, contemporary ownership signature to the front free endpaper and title page; possibly the Harris (1769-1845) born in Harvard, Massachusetts, afterwards practising law in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, and associate justice of the supreme court of New Hampshire from 1823 to 1833.ii) Katharine Harris, her name on a Boston Museum of Fine Arts student ticket dated 1911 loosely inserted.iii) Francis Nims Thompson, typed note on his letterhead on Jonathan Leavitt, dated 1936, loosely inserted. Thompson (1872-1948) was judge of the probate court in Greenfield and a local historian.

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