This fonds contains financial records of Assumption College and University, ca. 1856-1999. These include general cash books, financial statements, correspondence, and records of accounts, as well as real estate acquired, constructed, maintained, or sold by Assumption and/or the Basilian Fathers in the vicinity of the present-day campus, from Tecumseh Road north to the Detroit River. Included are land deeds, contracts, and other legal documents, as well as architectural or schematic drawings and specifications for campus buildings. Notably, this includes records of property acquired in the early days of the college, and campus properties sold by Assumption in the 1960s to the University of Windsor. Of special note: a small number of 1950s-1960s records relating to Essex College, the non-denominational affiliated college that helped secure provincial government funding for the campus.

This fonds contains original records documenting 19th and early 20th century land ownership for several parcels of land in rural Essex County, including deeds of land, affidavits, and mortgages. There are also handwritten notes tracking the chain of ownership for a specific parcel. The lands documented are (1) Lot 16 South of Middle Road, Rochester Township, and (2) Lots 17 and 18 in the Ninth Concession of Sandwich South Township (formerly Sandwich East Township). These transactions involve farmers, farmwives, and bankers, as well as single, widowed, and married people, neighbours, and relatives.

This fonds contains records related to the life and work of 19th century Upper Canadian shipwright Shadrach Jenking. The records are primarily original legal documents related to the sale, acquisition, and boundaries of land in the Township of Sandwich, but also included are original papers relating to Jenking’s training as a shipwright and copies of his descendants’ genealogical research. The fonds is arranged into three series. Series I: Labour Agreements contains documents relating to Jenking’s apprenticeship. Series II: Land Agreements includes deeds and assignments of mortgage, as well as one property sketch and one blueprint. Many are tied to families of Jenking or his wife Margaret Maisonville. Series III: Genealogical Research and Fragments contains bits of unidentified original documents and a variety of correspondence, notes, and photocopied resources relating to the family history of Shadrach Jenking and his descendants.