Scope and Content: The State Almshouse at Monson provided residence for paupers without settlement in the Commonwealth from 1854 to 1872.  St 1852, c 275, s 6 provided for gubernatorial appointment of a three-member Board of Inspectors to establish and enforce almshouse rules and regulations, monitored through weekly visits; to bind out minor inmates as apprentices; and to return inmates to their place of origin.   St 1866, c 209, s 2 gave the board similar powers over inmates at the State Primary School, established at the almshouse in 1866 and providing lodging, instruction, and employment of dependent and neglected children under age sixteen without settlement in the Commonwealth and some juvenile offenders.  St 1872, c 45, s 4 continued the school under the same board after the almshouse closing.  Series documents monthly meetings of the board until three years before its abolition and replacement by the Trustees of the State Primary and Reform Schools per St 1879, c 291.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by meeting date
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