Caleb Ford's Court Expenses for Joseph Mountain, 1790

Version: 10 (current) | Updated: 12/4/2025, 3:22:42 PM

Added description

Description

Caleb Ford Court‑Expense Documentation for Joseph Mountain, 1790

Overview

This archival unit is a small but complete set of digitised court‑expense records from the New Haven County Superior Court, dated 26 May 1790. It contains the original bill issued by court clerk Caleb Ford for services rendered in the case of Joseph Mountain, together with a contemporaneous accounting sheet that records the State of Connecticut’s payment to Ford and the associated fees. The collection is held by the Connecticut State Library and is indexed under the NHSC BAAI Cases Papers Subject project, which focuses on New Haven County court files involving Black, African American, and Indigenous individuals.

Background

In the late‑18th‑century Connecticut judicial system, court expenses were recorded in handwritten ledgers and billed to the state. Caleb Ford, acting as a clerk or contractor, prepared the bill for the case of Joseph Mountain, who was the defendant. The State paid Ford $1 for his services, and the bill itemises charges for chaining Mountain (£0 : 12 : 0) and for “taking off and flattening on five times” (£0 : 15 : 0), with a total of £1 : 7 : 0. The document was witnessed by Chas Chauncey. The material reflects the administrative practices of the period and is part of a broader effort to recover court records that illuminate the experiences of Black and Indigenous litigants in early Connecticut.

Contents

  • Digital images: Two high‑resolution JPEGs (≈ 217 KB and 264 KB) and two TIFFs (≈ 16–17 MB) of the original bill and accounting sheet, preserving the handwritten entries and marginalia.
  • Metadata: A PINAX JSON record that supplies the bill’s title, creator, institution, date, language, subjects, and provenance.
  • Subject terms: “Court expenses,” “Legal documents,” “Historical records,” and “Black, African American, and Indigenous history.”

The images capture the bill’s layout, including the State’s payment line, the service descriptions, the total amount, and the witness notation.

Scope

The collection documents a single financial transaction on 26 May 1790 in New Haven, Connecticut. It is limited to the bill and its digitised images; no court transcripts, docket entries, or related correspondence are included. The material is relevant to scholars of early Connecticut legal history, court administration, and the economic roles of Black and Indigenous individuals in colonial judiciary practices.

Entities

(loading...)

Entity Relationships

(loading...)

Raw Cheimarros Data

@file_pinax:file {title: "Caleb Ford's Court Expenses for Joseph Mountain, 1790", language: "en", subjects: ["Court expenses", "Legal documents", "Historical records", "Black, African American, and Indigenous history", "New Haven County", "Joseph Mountain"], description: "Collection of court expense documents and accounting records related to Caleb Ford's charges for services rendered in the case involving Joseph Mountain in New Haven, Connecticut, dated May 26, 1790.", access_url: "PLACEHOLDER", source: "PINAX", place: ["New Haven, Connecticut", "New Haven County, Connecticut"]}


@file_pinax -> created by -> [@caleb_ford, @state_of_connecticut]


@file_pinax -> held by -> @ct_state_library


@file_pinax -> created on -> @date_1790_05_26


@file_pinax -> documents -> @court_expenses_collection


@file_pinax -> documents -> @court_expenses_bill


@file_pinax -> documents -> @new_haven_court_accounting_records_1790


@ford_caleb -> same as -> @caleb_ford


@mountain_joseph -> same as -> @joseph_mountain


@court_expenses_collection -> represents -> @court_expenses_bill


@new_haven_court_accounting_records_1790 -> contains -> @court_expenses_collection


@court_expenses_bill -> part of project -> @nhsc_baai_cases_papers_subject


@court_expenses_collection -> part of project -> @nhsc_baai_cases_papers_subject


@new_haven_court_accounting_records_1790 -> part of project -> @nhsc_baai_cases_papers_subject

Metadata

Title
Caleb Ford's Court Expenses for Joseph Mountain, 1790
Type
Collection
Creator
Caleb FordState of Connecticut
Institution
Connecticut State Library
Created
1790-05-26
Language
en
Subjects
Court expenses, Legal documents, Historical records, Black, African American, and Indigenous history, New Haven County, Joseph Mountain
Place
New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven County, Connecticut
Source
PINAX

Version History (10 versions)

  • ✓ v10 (current) · 12/4/2025, 3:22:42 PM
    "Added description"
  • v9 · 12/4/2025, 2:59:25 PM · View this version
    "Added knowledge graph extraction"
  • v8 · 12/4/2025, 6:42:30 AM · View this version
    "Added PINAX metadata"
  • v7 · 12/4/2025, 6:25:57 AM · View this version
    "Reorganized into 3 groups"
  • v6 · 12/4/2025, 6:25:56 AM · View this version
    "Added child entity 01KBM0KV8GNPTA76VVMMJA9AD8"
  • v5 · 12/4/2025, 6:25:55 AM · View this version
    "Added child entity 01KBM0KSXWJ78B484MNMBJZAZJ"
  • v4 · 12/4/2025, 6:25:53 AM · View this version
    "Added child entity 01KBM0KQY6JASDY1H2NKD5T77P"
  • v3 · 12/4/2025, 6:15:48 AM · View this version
    "Added OCR to 2 files"
  • v2 · 12/4/2025, 6:14:45 AM · View this version
    "Set parent to 01KBKZYT0EXA04TRHN0SDDKG4E"
  • v1 · 12/4/2025, 6:13:35 AM · View this version
    "Initial snapshot"

Additional Components

reorganization-description.txt
# Reorganization Summary

Files were grouped based on: 1) The common subject of Caleb Ford and Joseph Mountain's court expenses from 1790, 2) Specific document types (individual bill vs. accounting record), and 3) The May 1790 date that appears in multiple documents. All files relate to the same case/expense record, so hierarchical grouping was used to capture both the unified context and specific document types.

## Groups Created

- **FordCaleb_MountainJoseph_CourtExpenses_1790**: Documents related to Caleb Ford and Joseph Mountain's court expenses from May 1790, including bills and accounting records.
- **FordCaleb_Bill_1790**: Specific bill document from Caleb Ford dated 1790.
- **NewHaven_CourtAccounting_1790**: Accounting records from New Haven court dated May 26, 1790, including expenses for Joseph Mountain.

Parent

↑ 01KBKZYT0EXA04TRHN0SDDKG4E

Children (3)