Thomas and John Green papers, 1753-1827

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Summary

Abstract:
This collection contains medical and pharmaceutical documents from Thomas Green and his son John Green, accounts with a weaver and cobbler, and materials relating to John Green's estate.
Extent:
0.21 Linear Feet (1 box)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Thomas and John Green papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains medical and pharmaceutical documents from Thomas Green and his son John Green as well as accounts with a weaver and cobbler. The medical and pharmaceutical documents include a 1753-1754 manuscript from Thomas Green likely to help train his son and other physicians. This document contains original pharmaceutical recipes and procedures for ailments from gunpowder wounds to cancers, many of which incorporated Indigenous people's practices of using local and native plants for medicinal purposes. The medical case histories cover various patients, including women, as well as information about an epidemic that broke out in the spring of 1754. The medical account book from John Green covers the last year of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) while military troops were stationed in Worchester, Massachusetts.

Additionally, there are bills, receipts, and invoices for the estate of John Green that document purchasing medical supplies, blacksmithing services, a gravestone, books, and stationary. Also included is an unsigned polemic draft which discusses the campaign to regulate interstate commerce and a biographical sketch written twenty-eight years after John Green's death.

Biographical / historical:

Thomas Green (1699-1773) was born in Malden, Massachusetts to Samuel Green and Elizabeth (Upham) Green. He settled in Leicester, Massachusetts and was a Baptist pastor as well as a physician who trained more than a hundred medical students, including his son John Green. Thomas Green married Martha (Lynde) Green (1700-1780).

John Green (1736-1799) moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, where he lived in an estate now known as Green Hill Park, and ran a medical practice. He was a member of Worcester's American Political Party, a patriot club organized following the Boston Tea Party. In 1777, he represented the county in the General Court and later served as the town treasurer and selectman. John Green had two wives: Mary Osgood (1740-1761), with whom he had three children, and Mary Ruggles (1740-1814), with whom he had ten children.

Acquisition information:
Purchased from Donald Lippincott, April 2025. Folders 5-9, purchased from Donald Lippincott, July 2025.
Processing information:

Processed at the time of accessioning by Kahlee Leingang in May 2025. In October 2025, Kahlee Leingang processed the addenda and incorporated the materials into the existing collection.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Terms of access:

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Thomas and John Green papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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