Transcription
To all People to whom these presents shall come We Oliver Smith, Warham Smith, and Eliakim Smith the major Part of the select Men & overseers of the Poor for the town of Hadley in the County of Hampshire & Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England Send Greeting
Whereas Timothy Buggy a transient Person who for several Months last past has been, and now is found residing in the said Town of Hadley, is a Person of able Body to work and Labour, and has no Estate otherwise to maintain himself, yet lives Idly, mispending his Time in loitering and Intemperance, and uses or exercises no daily lawful Trade or Business to get his living by, & the said Town of Hadley is thereby exposed to be at Charge & Expense for his Support in case of sickness whereby the said Timothy is (as we judge) by virtue of the Laws of this government liable to be sent to the and committed to the House of Correction or Work House from the said Town of Hadley or to be by us found out to Service to such Person or Persons as we shall judge suitable
Know ye therefore – That we the [s]aid Oliver, Warham, and Eliakim, have and hereby do put place and bind out to Service him the said Timothy Buggy unto Charles Phelps of said Hadley gentleman to be employed and kept to work by the said Charles for the space of three months from the Day of the Date hereof & We hereby give unto the said Charles full Power to direct, govern, and employ him the said Timothy during the said Term in and about such Business as he can best perform, or other Husbanding Business (the ^ Charles to pay unto us at the End of the said Term so much Money as the said Timothy shall reasonably earn by his said Labour, to be by us disposed of according to Law) (agreable to his the said Charles’s obligation bearing even Date herewith)
In Testimony whereof We the said Oliver, Warham, & Eliakim have hereunto set our Hand and affix our Seal this fifteenth Day of August in the fourteenth year of his Majesty Reign Domini. One Thousand Seven Hundred & Seventy four
Sign’d & Seal’d in
Presence of us –
Stephen Goodman Oliver Smith
Elyna Cook Sr Warham Smith
Eliakim Smith