Pictures of Original Documents

Appeals Court Justice Joseph A. Grasso, Jr. and Jeffrey F. Jones, Esq. view the exhibit of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. For those wishing to see the entire exhibit, it is located in the Great Hall of the John Adams Courthouse.

The Report of A Constitution or form of Government for the Commonwealth ** Massachusetts , September 1, 1779; annotations of Stephen Hall, Esq. Courtesy Massachusetts Archives.

Documents showing the scratching out of the King's name and submitting, by hand, “The Government & People of Massachusetts Bay in New England .” Courtesy Supreme Judicial Court division of Archives and Records Preservation.

A person attending the exhibit looks at the original docket book chronicling the first sitting on February 20, 1781 of the Supreme Judicial Court under the authority of the Constitution of 1780

The First Sitting of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Held in Suffolk County on February 20, 1781, as recorded in the Supreme Judicial Court Record Book, p. 1.

The Last Sitting of the Superiour Court of Judicature, Held 1780 November term on circuit, in Middlesex County, as recorded in the Record Book, Superiour Court of Judicature Court of Assize and General Goal delivery, p. 238.  

Page one of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780.

Courtesy Massachusetts Archives.

The Social Law Library extends its appreciation to those that created the exhibit.
Left to Right: Elizabeth Bouvier, Bruce Shaw, Carole Doody, Chris Mathias