[NEW YORK] -- [EARLY IMMIGRATION]. $500 Reward! The Booth Associations of Hawleyville, Ct. and New York City. Unite in offering the above Reward for Certified Records of the Landing of Richard Booth. N.p.: N.p., [late 1860s?].

10 1/4 x 13 7/8 in. printed broadside (short separations on old creases, minor offsetting); framed to 15 1/2 x 18 5/8 in. (not examined out of frame). Signed in type by Carlos B. Booth and H.H. Randall.

An article published in the 30 January 1869 issue of the New York Daily Herald reports on the "Meeting of the Booth Heirs", reporting that "the members of the Booth family in this section, which was called the Booth Association, an organization which was effected by members of the Booth family at Bellows Falls, Vt., on the 21st of May, 1867, for the purpose of collecting information relative to the Booth property in England and to devise means to investigate the claims of the family here to that property, which is estimated to amount to $50,000,000." The article details more information about Richard Booth, "who settled at Stratford, Conn., in 1640" and his two brothers John of Southhold, Long Island, and Robert of Exeter, NH, the brothers being some of the earliest European settlers in New England.

The broadside here offers a reward for information regarding Richard Booth's arrival "from England some where on the shores of the Eastern States, before the Year 1640." Current records indicate that Richard Booth sailed in 1639 (Virkus, Immigrant Ancestors, p. 14), it is unclear if the Booth Associations' broadside was successful or if their goal of regaining ancestral lands was achieved.


Property from the James Milgram, M.D., Collection of Broadsides, Ephemeral Americana, and Historical Documents