Series 3 - Financial and legal records

2.1 cm of textual records

This series consists of business and personal documents created through James Morrison's activities as a trader and merchant, including the management of land that he owned and the running of his household. Other documents created before or after Morrison's life relate to the personal lives of Morrison and his family members or to the sale of land. The documents date from between 18 September 1651 and 25 November 1902, and were created primarily in Montreal, as well as in other locations in Quebec, Ontario, and England.

This series was created and arranged by archivists, with items grouped together into four files based on activity: the purchase and management of land (File 01 - Land ownership documents), personal and business transactions (File 02 - Financial and business documents), participation in political and military spheres (File 03 - Political and military documents), and the accumulation of documentation about Morrison and his family members (File 04 - Biographical material). These documents are primarily legal and financial in nature and include contracts, deeds of ownership, power of attorney, birth and marriage certificates, bills of sale, invoices, accounts. Several of the financial documents in this series include evidence of the trafficking of enslaved Black people, including people who were enslaved by Morrison. Also includes documents containing accounts of political and military events, notes about the genealogy of the family created by Morrison's descendants, and some correspondence concerning land ownership, military concerns, and the division of family estates.