The bulk of this sub-series consists of reports to proprietors at their annual meeting on Easter Monday each year beginning in 1839 from wardens, collectors, auditors, treasurers, and various committees. (Some of these reports are duplicates of those found in the bound volumes listed above.) Also included is correspondence between clergy and church officers, as well as between church leaders, parishioners, and others outside the church. A letter index contains a partial listing of subjects and authors of letters written from 1830-1938. Researchers can access letters listed here by the year in which they were written.

"Papers relating to dressing the church for Christmas, 1844-1850" consist of documents organized in a separate packet relating to the purchase of greenery, banners, and other decorations purchased each year to celebrate the Christmas season.

This sub-series consists of account books kept by the church's wardens and treasurers. Many early account books overlap in their coverage of years or financial transactions, some listing debits and credits chronologically, others listing them by individual debtor or creditor. A few contain expenses relating to the original building of the church, along with various notes, lists, and meeting records. They have been described individually below.

Until the mid-19th century, the junior warden usually functioned as the church's treasurer, keeping lists of subscribers, offertory totals, records of pew purchases and taxes, building accounts, and other financial records. In 1801, the church voted to elect a treasurer, although few formal records exist until 1819. Before this date, it is often difficult to determine whether records were kept by the warden or the treasurer. From 1820 to 1831, for example, Thomas Clark served as both senior warden and treasurer.

Included here are summary accounts and ledger sheets of church expenses, as reported by the church treasurer.

This sub-series includes receipts for a single transaction or running accounts with a single individual or company. Some of the earliest receipts (1722-1732) were numbered and placed in individual paper folders in 1733 or 1734 by vestry clerk Francis Beteilhe, who was paid by the vestry to organize the church's accounts. The numbers on the receipt folders correspond to the numbered transactions in Account Book "A." These relate primarily to building expenses. It is unclear why some early receipts were numbered and others were not.

This sub-series contains subscription lists, in which church members or patrons pledge money for a particular cause. Many of these lists contain the original signatures of the contributors. Lists include subscriptions for building Christ Church (1722-1723), for the "subsistence of Rev. Mr. Cutler while in London" (1723), for building the altar and pulpit (1729-1730), for paving Salem St. (1732), for building the steeple (1740), and for church and steeple repair (1805), as well as various other causes.

Contribution books, also included here, are a record of contributions given during Sunday worship services, listed by pew number. These records were kept by the warden.

This sub-series contains records of the annual tax or "rent" collected annually on each pew, usually listed only by pew number. Pew taxes were collected by the senior warden until 1869, when a separate office of collector was created.

The bonds and notes in this sub-series are essentially loan instruments taken out by the wardens and vestry to help build and maintain the church. Funds were obtained primarily from individuals, but also from the Boston Episcopal Charitable Society.

Included in this sub-series are records pertaining to rental properties on Chambers and Salem Sts. managed by the wardens to generate income for the church.

This sub-series contains bank books and investment records of the church, many relating to funds established for specific purposes.

This sub-series contains fire insurance policies, property inventories, accounts, and correspondence relating to the church's insurance coverage.

Located in this sub-series are records pertaining to legacies and bequests given to Christ Church for its support. Records include wills and estate papers, account books, trustees' reports, receipts, and correspondence. Significant contributions include the legacy of Mrs. Katharine Farnham Hay, who bequeathed $1,000 to the church to invest for the purchase of a parsonage; the $5,000 bequest of Lydia Loring, with which the church purchased property on Hillside Dr. (later Wait St.); the Price Lecture Fund, which in 1771 provided money to support eight sermons a year, to be preached by ministers of King's Chapel, Christ Church, and Trinity Church in Boston; the bequest of Bishop Samuel G. Babcock, who left $1,000 to endow Pew #26 as a free pew; and the $1,000 bequest of Bishop Babcock's wife, church historian Mary Kent Davey Babcock, who left $1,000 to add historical plaques and details to the church.

This sub-series includes gift shop account books containing lists of items sold and numbers of visitors, as well as receipts for gift shop items and contracts with vendors.

Among the miscellaneous financial records of Christ Church is a book of "Poor accounts" showing money disbursed to "the poor of Christ Church in Boston," raised largely from weekly offertories. Recipients are listed by name.

Also found here are papers relating to the estate of Shubael Bell. Bell was senior warden from 1812 until his death in 1819 and, as such, held a number of the church books, receipts, and tomb deed payments. After his death, the church appointed a committee to accept the records and monies belonging to the church that were then held by Bell's estate.

Pew deeds in this sub-series, returned to the church once pews were sold or given up by their owners, were retained in several formats. Most 18th-century deeds were arranged in two scrapbooks by the church historian in 1938. These deeds have been removed from the scrapbooks for preservation purposes, but their order has been retained. Other pew deeds were retained as loose records, but most 19th- and 20th-century deeds were bound into volumes. New pew deeds were issued (and old deeds recalled) after major church restorations in 1806 and 1912. This sub-series also includes quit-claim deeds issued by the church to pew owners who returned their pew deeds in the late 1800s.

This sub-series includes correspondence and records of votes relating to the purchase, sale, and improvement of church pews.

Included in this sub-series are two pew owner card files, listing pew owners from 1806 to 1868 and from 1868 to 1911. Both sets contain an alphabetical index. The cards are numbered by pew, identifying pew owners and the amount paid by them. The sub-series also contains several lists of pew owners, in some cases including place of residence.

Pew plans in this sub-series consist of illustrations of the pew arrangement from 1724 to 1806, copied at a later time from original sources.

This sub-series contains copies of contracts with "joyner" Thomas Tippen, who installed the church's windows, doors, galleries, stairs, and pews. Also found here are papers relating to the installation of the church's bells, including correspondence with Abel Rudhall, bell-founder in Gloucester, England, regarding the strength of the church's steeple, the weight of the bells, their design, the mottos to be placed on the bells, and Rudhall's receipts. Other early building records include plans for repair of the steeple, or "spire," and papers relating to a series of interior and exterior repairs in the 1830s.

Included in this sub-series are committee meeting minutes and reports, proposals for repair, subscriptions for payment of the work, work specifications, and contracts.

This sub-series contains committee records and lists of work completed, including repair of the church organ, furnace installation, carpentry, decoration, and improvements to the structure of the building.

Repair Committee records consist of the 1911 committee report; correspondence, largely between architect Clipston Sturgis and Bishop William Lawrence, treasurer of the Repair Committee; cost summaries; receipts; invoices for Sturgis's services; and the committee's checkbook and cancelled checks.

Located at 21 Unity St., the Clough-Langdon House was originally purchased by Christ Church for demolition to make room for the Paul Revere Mall. Responding to preservationists' appeals to save the ca. 1715 structure, the church eventually restored it for use as a meeting space and vicar's residence. Records in this sub-series include schematics of the house, a photocopy of an article about the house by Frank C. Brown that appeared in Old-Time New England (Apr. 1947), and correspondence concerning the restoration.

Records in this sub-series relate to the restoration of the church steeple after it was destroyed by Hurricane Carol in 1954. They include correspondence with architect Charles Strickland, as well as Strickland's research notes, architectural sketches, and articles concerning the rebuilding of the steeple.

This sub-series contains correspondence and field reports relating to the repair of beetle and fungus damage, including plans and photographs by Maurice A. Reidy Engineers.

This architectural data report, prepared by the National Park Service, contains an extensive history and chronology of the structure.

Included here are records relating to the restoration of the original eight church bells cast by Abel Rudhall in 1744, including the installation of a new bell-frame and ringing elements. Records include correspondence, proposals, plans, a certificate of insurance, bills and expenses, and project reports.

"Project Preservation" was developed to review existing conditions of Old North Church properties and to offer direction for improvements. Included here are marketing and development plans, as well as a master plan containing detailed site plans and photocopies of historic photographs.

This sub-series includes records relating to the installation of automatic sprinkler systems, brick repair, exterior paint, HVAC, and inspections.

This sub-series contains various versions of the church's acts of incorporation and by-laws. In 1789, the wardens incorporated under a special act in order to conduct business. The proprietors formed a constitution and by-laws in 1871 under the name "The Rector, Wardens, and Vestry of the Parish of Christ Church in Boston." In 1947, the church incorporated as "Christ Church in the City of Boston."

Included here are legal certificates verifying that the church's collectors and treasurers are bonded and therefore authorized to handle money belonging to the church.

This sub-series contains deeds and indentures for property belonging to the Old North Church, including land on which the church sits, related structures, and rental properties. Mortgages attached to these properties are also found here. Extensive deed research, conducted in 1965 by a Boston legal firm, consists of photocopies of all extant church property deeds accompanied by explanatory notes and includes a number of oversize documents.

Papers within this sub-series relate to the 1853-1855 conflict between Rev. William Smithett and wardens Elias Goddard and William Parrott. Goddard and Parrott challenged Smithett's authority on personal and legal grounds and attempted to prevent parishioners from purchasing pews (thereby preventing them from becoming voting proprietors). The conflict between Goddard and Smithett eventually came to blows, resulting in one civil and two criminal suits, and ultimately reached the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Documents found here include narratives and notes relating to the controversy; newspaper clippings; a wardens' report for 1855; "A Statement of the Affairs of the Parish of Christ Church," printed by the vestry in 1855; and printed court documents relating to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court trial.

Contained within this sub-series are papers relating to a second struggle between factions of the church in 1882. Warden Thomas Mair refused to sign pew deeds for "non-worshipping parishioners" who were perceived by church officers to be attempting a "hostile takeover" of the church by electing new wardens and vestry. Legal actions again reached the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which, after several cross-suits, found for the original church officers and against the "non-worshipping parishioners." Papers found here include the 1882 election ballots for church officers, legal briefs and court documents, correspondence, and lists of expenses relating to the lawsuits. Also here are the records of the Christ Church Defensive Association, an organization founded by the original church officers to raise funds to fight the "hostile takeover." They include a constitution and by-laws, a record book containing minutes of the founding meeting, copies of pew deeds, lists of pew owners from 1806 to 1882, and copies of significant church documents. A narrative of the conflict, unsigned but most likely written by Thomas Hall in 1885, is also in this sub-series.

This sub-series contains records relating to various legal actions with which Christ Church was involved, including findings of damages against the church, writs of attachment, and proxy statements. In Cutter v. Wardens and Vestry (1911), an architect sued the church to recover payment for his services. Wardens v. Angelina Lavezzelo involved a dispute with abutting neighbors, and in Trustees of Donations v. Christ Church (1948), legal control of the church was passed to the recently incorporated Christ Church in the City of Boston. The Massachusetts Historic Landmark certification was received from the Massachusetts Historical Commission in 1966.

Within this sub-series are the papers of Timothy Cutler (minister from 1723-1765), including early Cutler family deeds, a declaration of conformity to the Church of England (photocopy), and a sermon preached before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (ca. 1754). Also found here are an 1824 sermon entitled "A Discourse: An Historical Account of Christ Church" by Asa Easton (minister from 1805-1829); the papers of William Croswell (minister from 1829-1840), including papers relating to his ordination and a book of Croswell's poetry published in 1861; and a funeral address delivered in 1848 by John Woart (minister from 1840-1850). The papers of Bishop William Lawrence (minister from 1912-1914) include both a manuscript and print version of a sermon preached at the re-opening of Christ Church in 1912, various addresses and articles, and correspondence concerning prisons. The papers of William Dewart (minister from 1914-1926) contain a prayer book and the printed booklet "Sermons of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Phillips Brooks" (1926); and the papers of Ernest Dennen (minister from 1927-1929) include correspondence and the 1927 article "One if by Land, Two if by Sea."

The papers of Charles R. Peck, who served as minister from 1946 to 1956, consist primarily of correspondence, notes, and memoranda. Beginning in the fall of 1954, most of Peck's correspondence relates to fundraising for the restoration of the steeple, as well as his interactions with the Lantern League. Peck's articles include "The Day of August 31, 1954," a first-person account of the hurricane that toppled Old North's steeple written in 1966, and the 1969 article "A Backward Glance."

Howard P. Kellett served as minister of Old North Church from 1956 to 1971. His papers consist of correspondence, subject files relating to his activities as vicar, speeches and sermons, and an unpublished essay. The bulk of Kellett's papers were donated to the church after his death by his son, Dr. Merle Kellett, including a series of 75 typed and handwritten sermons labeled and housed in individual envelopes. The earliest of these sermons relates to Kellett's position as a chaplain of the state prison in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Much of Kellett's early correspondence consists of letters congratulating him on his installation at Old North Church. His papers illustrate his role as both an ecumenical spiritual leader and director of a national historic site.

The papers of Robert W. Golledge, who served as minister from 1971 to 1996, consist of correspondence, subject files relating to his church and community activities, sermons, and speeches.

Jonathan Young served as Associate Vicar and Vicar Pro Tem from 1993 to 1997. His papers consist of correspondence with Howard Kellett and his son, Dr. Merle Kellett, and on various administrative matters.

This sub-series contains sermons and remarks delivered at Old North Church by visiting bishops, cardinals, and dignitaries.

The Salem St. Academy was a school owned in part by Christ Church, built on land owned by the church at 193 Salem St. in 1810 and leased for fifty years for the express purpose of operating an academy. The property was held by fifty-two shareholders or proprietors. In June 1815, the academy began Boston's first Sunday school, opening its doors not just to parishioners, but to children throughout the city. The Sunday school's name was changed to Christ Church Sunday School in 1826.

This sub-series includes an index to the Salem St. Academy records, although some of the material listed is now missing. Other records include plans, an 1817 list of officers and scholars, correspondence, deeds, accounts, receipts, and shareholder certificates that were transferred back to the church between 1833 and 1838.

This sub-series consists of Sunday school minute books, which are volumes published by the General Protestant Episcopal Sunday School Union with pre-printed pages to record the dates classes were held, opening and closing events, numbers of students and teachers, new students, and remarks.

Class registers found in this sub-series include names of new students, by whom they were introduced to the school, and the date the student began.

Attendance books in this sub-series list attendance for each Sunday school class by date, including names of teachers and students.

Records in this sub-series include notes concerning the school taken from the journals of the Diocesan Conventions; an 1817 list of students, teachers, and school officers; committee and superintendent reports; a printed Sunday school prayer book; and several programs for Sunday school Christmas festivals.

This sub-series contains records of the library of Christ Church Sunday School, including catalogs of books owned, a list of the 340 books donated to the school by the Society for Improvement in Practical Piety when the society dissolved in 1825, and library records listing the number of books checked out by individual Sunday school classes. Also included here are a monograph on infant baptism and a Sunday school periodical that were part of the school's library collections.

Records of the Teachers' Association include meeting minutes; accounts; reports of the treasurer, librarian, and various committees; and a detailed narrative of school activities and events.

The Fragment Society was a women's organization founded in January 1818, the object of which was "to furnish with suitable clothing, those children, and those only, who attend or wish to attend the Salem St. Sunday School." Society members made clothing which was loaned to children to wear on Sundays and which was returned to the society each Monday. The journal contains meeting minutes, as well as reports of the treasurer and the Keeper of the Wardrobe.

The Singing School Committee consisted of seven individuals chosen by the proprietors to supervise the church's vocal music and to raise funds to train students for the choir. Records in this sub-series include subscriptions, accounts, and organizing documents of the committee.

The Christ Church Missionary Society was founded in 1832 as a branch of the Massachusetts Episcopal Missionary Society. The society collected money as part of the weekly church offertories and used it to help support Episcopal missionary activities throughout the world, including the Boston Episcopal City Missionary, churches in Tennessee and Illinois, and the Persian mission. The society also helped to pay for current expenses of the church. Records found here include meeting minute books, treasurers' reports, receipts for contributions, and treasurers' accounts for the affiliated Female Auxiliary Mission Society.

The Women's Guild was founded in 1915 to raise money for the church through charitable events. In 1919, the Guild assumed the management of the church property at 193 Salem St., using it as a meeting place and a residence for social workers in Boston's North End. "The House by the Side of the Road," as the Guild named the property, also served as a hospitality house for the church and was used for overnight guests, receptions, teas, and for the sale of postcards and prints to benefit the church.

Within this sub-series are the Guild's meeting minute books, which include financial records and copies of correspondence. Other records include copies of the Guild's constitution and by-laws, annual reports, membership lists, and sales notices. "The Bishop's Window" is a typed manuscript account of the church's history presented to Bishop William Lawrence on his ninetieth birthday. Also here are the "House by the Side of the Road" committee records, which include annual reports to the proprietors, correspondence, meeting minutes, financial records, and newspaper clippings.

The Lantern League was founded by Rev. Ernest Dennen in 1927 and was incorporated in 1932 to preserve and maintain the Old North Church building, its surroundings, and its contents. Led by fundraising consultant Charles W. French, the major objective of the League's fundraising campaign in the 1930s was the acquisition and removal of surrounding buildings deemed "fire hazards." After 1939, the League was largely inactive, but when Hurricane Carol destroyed the church's steeple in 1954, it regrouped to raise money for the restoration of the historic structure.

Records in this sub-series include articles of incorporation, a valuation of surrounding properties, meeting minutes, treasurers' reports, correspondence between leaders of the League and French, and French's correspondence with potential donors. Accounts with French include his expense reports and commissions, as well as a running tally of money that he raised. Later Lantern League records primarily consist of letters sent in response to fundraising appeals to restore the steeple.

Service record books list the day and date of service, the place, hour, attendance, amount of offerings, officiating clergy and the nature of the service (worship service, funeral service, confirmation, patriotic, wedding, holy communion, or other).

This sub-section includes "orders of service" for Sunday worship services, as well as those for annual "lantern services." Lantern services commemorate the anniversary of the displaying of lanterns from the steeple of Christ Church by sexton Robert Newman to warn Paul Revere of the approach of British troops. The event is celebrated with a religious service each April 18th. Traditionally, descendants of the Revere or Newman family ascend the stairs and light the lantern.

Also located here are programs for special religious services, such as the centennial of the inauguration of Washington (30 Apr. 1889), the 175th anniversary of Christ Church (29 Dec. 1898), and the 200th anniversary of the birth of Paul Revere (1 Jan. 1935). Sunday worship services often have themes as well, such as the service commemorating the rectorate of Rev. William Croswell (21 May 1933), the service of Thanksgiving for the restoration of the steeple (12 Oct. 1955), and the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Wesley. A scrapbook, compiled about 1955, contains programs from lantern services, regular Sunday services, and special events. The programs have been removed from the scrapbook for preservation purposes, but left in their original order.

This sub-series contains historical guides to Old North Church, which include sketches of the church's history, information about its physical structure, and details about the art and artifacts owned by the church. Charles Downer's A Visit to Old North Church (1893) was largely taken from earlier church histories. (See Series XIII.C. Early church histories.) Christ Church Guide Book, compiled by Charles K. Bolton in 1913 and expanded by later church historians after his death, was updated numerous times between 1923 and 1952. In addition to a history and description of the church, it contains lists of clergy, church officers, and pew owners; a timeline of events; and numerous photographs. Later guidebooks are more general in nature.

This sub-series contains small cards or pamphlets that include maps, directions, hours of operation, and occasionally a brief history of the church. Although none of the material is dated, it appears to have been created in the first half of the twentieth century.

Beginning in 1916, the church made several attempts to establish a church newsletter containing current information about clergy, parishioners, church events, fundraising activities, and community news. This sub-series contains issues of the Christ Church Chronicle, published between 1916 and 1924; a 1931 issue of Chronicles of the Old North Church; and issues of Christ Church's longest-running newsletter, The Old North Steeple, for the years 1958-1965, 1971-1976, and 1985.

Included in this sub-series is advertising material for church activities, signage, and a capital campaign brochure entitled "250 Years of Freedom, 250 Years of God."

Included here are inventories of church records formerly housed at Old North Church, as well as records placed at the Boston Athenaeum for safekeeping by Charles K. Bolton in the 1920s. Also included in this sub-series is a register of gifts, consisting of an alphabetical accession list of artifacts and books given to the church. The library and publication list was originally compiled by church librarian Edward Percival Merritt in 1923.

Although some of the church record transcriptions in this sub-series were copied by earlier historians, the bulk of these records were produced by parish historian Mary K. D. Babcock in about 1940.

The early historical essays, speeches, manuscript drafts, and typescripts located in this sub-series served as a basis for later guidebooks and research into church history.

Thomas Hall served as church warden and unofficial church historian from 1887 until his death in 1911. His detailed and methodical research was cited often in later church publications and in the works of church historians Charles K. Bolton and Mary K. D. Babcock. This sub-series contains three volumes of Hall's work, described individually below. His "Indexes" and "Summaries" were so highly esteemed that they were bound by order of the vestry in 1913 and were labeled #1 and #2 in the inventory of church records.

Charles K. Bolton (1867-1950) served as senior warden and unofficial historian of Christ Church from 1912-1917 and from 1920-1937. (Bolton was also the librarian of the Boston Athenaeum and served as president of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.) This sub-series contains Bolton's unpublished manuscripts and historical research on the history of Old North Church, including biographical information about the church's clergy, early pew owners, church officers, and benefactors. His "Vignettes of the Old North" chronicle various noteworthy episodes in the church's history.

Edward Percival Merritt (1860-1932) served as church librarian from 1919-1930. This sub-series includes a series of essays written by Merritt about Episcopal clergy, including Tillotson Brosnon, Mather Byles, Abraham Lynsen Clarke, Timothy Cutler, John Sylvester, John Gardiner, James Greaton, William Hooper, Samuel Parker, William Walter, and William Montague. His papers also include research notes concerning the Salem St. Academy and two articles reprinted from the publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.

Mary Kent Davey Babcock, the wife of Bishop Samuel Babcock, served as the official historian for Old North Church from 1935-1944. Papers in this sub-series include correspondence sent and received by Mary K. D. Babcock in her capacity as church historian, a large number of research notes on various topics relating to Old North Church history, and manuscripts of both published and unpublished articles. Copies of published articles from The Church Militant and the Massachusetts Diocesan Library are also here. The typed manuscript "The Old North Church of Paul Revere Fame" is a draft of her book Christ Church, Salem Street, Boston: The Old North Church of Paul Revere Fame, published in 1947. The draft includes illustrations, an index, and a bibliography.

Also in this series is a personal diary kept by Babcock during a trip to Europe with her husband and their return to Boston via Quebec, from 5 August to 20 September 1924. Photographs, postcards, and other ephemera are pasted into the volume.

This sub-series contains unpublished articles and research notes not attributed to a particular historian or written by a person other than a church historian. The papers are arranged by subject and dated by the date of the research, if known.

Contained in this section are scrapbooks compiled by various officers and parishioners of Christ Church, many of whom are unidentified. Most of the scrapbooks include newspaper clippings relating to the history of the church or current church activities, photographs, programs, and other printed church material. Scrapbooks relating to specific topics include "The Rise and Fall of the Steeple," compiled in 1954-1955, and the scrapbook chronicling the early ministry of Rev. Robert Golledge, compiled in 1971-1973.

Senior warden Charles K. Bolton compiled a set of six scrapbooks during his service from 1912-1917 and from 1920-1936. They contain the bulk of Bolton's administrative papers, including correspondence with architect Clipston Sturgis, Bishop William Lawrence, Rev. William Dewart, Rev. Ernest Dennen, and other church officers. Also included in Bolton's scrapbooks are lists of subscribers, pew plans and deeds, treasurers' reports, election ballots, annual meeting agendas, photographs, printed programs, and newspaper clippings relating to the church. Scrapbook #4 (1921-1938) contains a typed index.

This sub-series contains newspaper clippings relating to the history or activities of the Old North Church, collected by various persons. It also includes newspaper articles relating to the U.S. Bicentennial celebrations, President Gerald R. Ford, and Ford's visit to the Old North Church in April 1975, collected by a newsclipping service from newspapers around the country.

Included in this section are magazine and journal articles, pamphlets, Christmas cards, brochures, first day postal covers, and other printed material relating to the history of Old North Church and collected by the church's historians, officers, or members.

This sub-series contains a Bible and three of the original fourteen prayer books that were presented to Christ Church by King George II in 1733.