Judge Norris S. Barratt papers
Collection
0262-MDHC
Judge Norris S. Barratt was a Philadelphia lawyer and author of Barratt's Chapel and Methodism. The Judge Norris S. Barratt papers consist of fourteen letters Barrat received from James H. Preston sent during Preston's first term as mayor of Baltimore, Maryland, (1911-1915) and three of Barratt's letters sent to Preston. The letters are both political and personal in nature. Also included are an invitation to a Symbolic Silver Service for James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, at Baltimore's City Hall and two pamphlets on Baltimore and Mayor Preston.
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18 Items
The Judge Norris S. Barratt papers consist of fourteen letters he received from James H. Preston sent during Preston's first term as mayor of Baltimore, Maryland, (1911-1915) and three of Barratt's letters sent to Preston. The letters are both political and personal in nature. Also included are an invitation to a Symbolic Silver Service for James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, at Baltimore's City Hall and two pamphlets on Baltimore and Mayor Preston.
Norris Stanley Barratt was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 23, 1862, to James and Mary (Irvine) Barratt. Barratt grew up in Philadelphia, where he built his life and career. He was admitted to the city's bar in 1883 and, from 1890 to 1901, he served as Philadelphia's Assistant City Solicitor. In 1901, Barratt became First Assistant District Attorney for Philadelphia County and, in 1902, he began a ten-year term as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia. In 1909, Barratt received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Temple University.
Barratt was active in a number of Philadelphia clubs and organizations. In 1895, he became a member of the Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania and, from 1908 to 1912, served as a member of the Grand Lodge and on the Library Committee. In 1902, Barratt was named President of the Young Republicans of Philadelphia. From 1902 to 1905, he was a member of the Library Committee of the Law Association of Philadelphia and a member of Council, Colonial Society of Pennsylvania, from 1907 to 1912. He was elected Historian of the Pennsylvania Society Sons of the Revolution and also Chairman of its Board of Managers.
Norris Barratt authored numerous historical texts on Barratt family genealogy and Pennsylvania-related subjects, including Freemasonry in Pennsylvania, 1727-1907 and Outline of the History of Old St. Paul's Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Perhaps most notably, he wrote Barratt's Chapel and Methodism, published in 1911. Barratt's great-great grandfather, Philip Barratt, of Kent County, Delaware, donated the land in Frederica, Delaware, on which Barratt's Chapel, known as the "Cradle of Methodism," was built in 1780. In Barratt's Chapel and Methodism, Norris Barratt chronicled the meeting of Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury at the Barratt homestead in 1784. That meeting resulted in the formation of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America.
Barratt married Ellen Levering of Baltimore, Maryland, in October 1904. They had four children, three of whom lived to adulthood. Norris Barratt died in 1924 and is buried at Barratt's Chapel Cemetery in Delaware.
The collection is organized in a single series:
The source of the collection is not known.
The letters were placed in acid-free folders and stored in an acid-free box.
Part of the Special Collections and University Archives