Name/Title
The John Daggett CollectionEntry/Object ID
MSS-98-003Scope and Content
This collection contains documents, deeds, letters, and land surveys dating from 1677-1852, largely located in Attleborough and southeastern Massachusetts.Context
John Daggett (1805 - 1886) is an immensely important figure not only for his efforts to record and preserve the first history of the town of Attleborough, but also for his work in founding the Old Colony Historical Society, as well. Born in the then-small village of East Attleborough, Daggett was educated locally until the age of fourteen, when he contracted a disease that resulted in the amputation of his lower leg. At that point, Daggett’s parents decided he would need a college education in order to make a living.
After attending Day’s Academy in Wrentham, Daggett was accepted to Brown University and graduated in 1826; Volume VI of this collection largely comprises of essays he composed while at Brown. His passion for the pursuit of knowledge did not diminish after graduation, as there are a number of essays included in Volume VI that Daggett delivered as lectures before local audiences, particularly the Attleborough Lyceum. One of his more notable addresses, of which a copy is included in this collection, was the oration he delivered at Attleborough’s Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration of American Independence. In addition to working as an attorney immediately after graduation, Daggett took a vested interest in local history. In 1834 at the age of twenty-nine, he wrote a volume that became the first formally written history of Attleborough based on a series of historical essays and lectures he gave on local histories.
Throughout his life Daggett served in numerous positions in public office, such as the Massachusetts Legislature from 1836 to 1839 and 1866, as Senator representing the 1st Bristol District in 1860, as Bristol County Register of Probate for nine years, and as a member of the Attleborough School Committee for fourteen years. His sense of civic duty collided with his passion for history in 1853, when he and a group of other prominent local men established the Old Colony Historical Society, of which Daggett was elected Vice President at the first members’ meeting. Named “Old Colony” after Plymouth colony’s nickname, Daggett and the other members formed the society in an effort to preserve records and artifacts of the area’s history during a time of immense changes in American society with the Industrial Revolution and increases in immigration.
Throughout his life, John Daggett continued to collect records, deeds, and documents for a second volume of a history of Attleborough, which was incomplete upon his death in 1886 but was completed and published in his honor by his daughter, Amelia Daggett Sheffield, in 1894.Archive Details
Archive Size/Extent
Seven bound volumes comprise the John Daggett Collection, Attleborough, compiled by Amelia Daggett Sheffield.
