The Royall House and Slave Quarters
Medford, Massachusetts

 

Volunteer

Volunteer

Like all community organizations, we rely a great deal on the energies of our volunteers. We need your talent and we need your help! Volunteer.

Meeting Space, Event Facility

Meeting Space, Event Facility

Our beautiful grounds are available for rental. Have your special event at the Royall House. Rental information.

Getting There

Getting There

The Royall House and Slave Quarters are located at 15 George Street in Medford, Massachusetts. Detailed Map.

Royall House and Slave Quarters Primary Source Inventory

About the Project

This initiative was generously funded by a grant from MassHumanities and took place from February 1 to July 31, 2009. The work was done by Inventory Taker Kaitlin Edwards and overseen by Project Director Rosemarie Woods, as defined by the grant guidelines.

The goal is to provide a unified and accessible body of primary documents to assist teachers, scholars, and other researchers with an interest in the Royall House and Slave Quarters, as well as provide this information to the general public.

These resources include the Mansion (built 1732-1737), the Slave Quarters (built 1732, enlarged c. 1750), and the remaining landscape of the estate as well as the archaeological artifacts unearthed on the property in this decade.

This inventory is expected to serve as an aid for research related to the Royall family and the enslaved Africans that lived and worked on the property. It is not intended to substitute for the researcher's detailed examination of the actual papers. We make no representation as to the completeness of this inventory; as further research is done, additional sources are likely to be uncovered.

The Royall House Association would sincerely like to thank MassHumanities, the document sources below, Kaitlin Edwards and Rosemarie Woods.

What's included and How It is Cataloged

The inventory includes 81 documents or items, each with an accompanying Primary Document Form. Documents include newspapers, legal documents, letters and a range of miscellany. The documents have been sorted into logical categories and indexed (see below).

Wherever possible, a legible facsimile of the document or items is included; original documents are found in a range of Massachusetts and national archives.

Each of the 81 documents has been assigned to one of the following categories, with these prefixes:

For each document there is a Primary Document Form. In turn, each Primary Document Form has been assigned a four digit number following each prefix; documents are listed chronologically within their category.

To aid the user, the "Forms" contain pertinent information related to its assigned primary document and will assist the researcher in locating the original item at its source location. Categories include: Title, Date of Item, Description, Database/Repository, Format, URL (for online access), Author, Series notes and links if relevant.

Whenever possible, a copy of the primary document and/or its transcription has been included in its entirety. However, based on the physical conditions of original material, availability of source materials and copyright limitations, this is not always possible.

Document sources and originals are found at these institutions and sources:

NOTE: Efforts were made to contact Antigua for property records of the Royall holdings, but we have not received any response thus far.

Guide to Using this Inventory Listing

To access the documents

The 81 documents in the Inventory are grouped into the following 5 categories, with a single PDF encompassing all the documents in the category.

PR = Public Records Download the Primary Document Form (in PDF format) and scroll through it to access these documents:

N = Newspapers Download the Primary Document Form (in PDF format) and scroll through it to access these documents, which include both advertisements and newspaper stories:

C = Correspondence Download the Primary Document Form (in PDF format) and scroll through it to access these documents:

Misc. = Miscellaneous Download the Primary Document Form (in PDF format) and scroll through it to access these documents:

S = Supplementary Download the Primary Document Form (in PDF format) and scroll through it to access these documents:

To Use the Master Index

The Master Index is an Excel spreadsheet (.xls) with three tabs:

Documents and items may be cross-sorted by subject, key words, and names. For example, you can use the Master Index to find all the documents that mention Penelope Vassall.

Download the Master Index in .xls format.

This program is funded in part by Mass Humanities, which receives support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This program is funded in part by Mass Humanities, which receives support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Massachusetts Foundation for The Humanities