Proprietors of the Township of Brunswick Pejepscot Proprietors papers

This collection of Pejepscot Company papers is made up of business papers of the company, both directly from the company and material acquired later. Because the collection includes deeds and records concerning owners from whom the Pejepscot Company acquired its title (in 1714), the inclusive dates of the collection are ca. 1627 to ca. 1866. The collection includes land deeds, depositions, maps, correspondence, broadsides for and records of meetings of the proprietors, accounts, appointments of land agents, and other documents generated by the business of the company. It also includes municipal records for towns settled by the company, such as Brunswick. These papers include warrants and reports for town meetings, tax records, lists of settlers, returns for roads, etc.

The collection contains unexpected but related documents, collected or written by John McKeen or other MHS members. These additions are primarily located in Volumes 4-10. Documents that discuss such as Indian captivity depositions; documents about the Newburyport, Massachusetts privateer Sea Flower; documents dating from 1841 related to French spoliation claims for the brig Hope, which was taken by the French in 1800; records of various churches founded in towns settled by the Pejepscot proprietors and histories of their ministers; miscellaneous material about native Americans; material concerning the voyage of George Weymouth; documents about Father Rasle of Norridgewock fame; Revolutionary War documents; reports of the Massachusetts and New York Border Commission, 1773 and 1787, etc. Assorted historical notes and writings, some (most?) produced by John McKeen, the town clerk of Brunswick, Maine, (and founding member of MHS) are also part of the collection.

The arrangement imposed on the collection by a Maine Historical Society Librarian, most likely heavily influenced by how the papers were deposited from John Mckeen, has been retained, although how the documents have been stored has been changed (see Condition and Conservation below) with the current handling. The documents are, first, arranged chronologically, and second, by subject, such as “Brunswick,” “Topsham,” etc. These arrangements are casual; that is, all the documents related to one subject are not together, but in some instances can be found in two or more groupings.