The Childe family papers contain correspondence and documents primarily related to Zachariah Child of West Boylston, Massachusetts, and his son John; John later used the surname "Childe." Until 1844, most items relate to landholdings belonging to Zachariah and David Child in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, including three manuscript maps of tracts in Shrewsbury and Boylston, several official indentures, and two unofficial indentures made in 1822 between Zachariah Child and Dorothy Thurston, a widow. The collection also holds correspondence addressed to John Childe (formerly Child) in Troy, New York; West Boylston, Massachusetts; and Springfield, Massachusetts, in the mid-19th century. His brother Marcus, who lived in Stanstead, Quebec, discussed the family's farm in West Boylston, as well as other legal matters, and officially designated John Childe his attorney at law (April 25, 1844).
Later letters primarily concern John Childe's engineering career, including congratulations from William B. Trotter after a recent legal triumph (February 20, 1857) and a letter from Childe to Mobile & Ohio Railroad President Judge Hopkins about the effects of financial regulations on railroad construction in the West and Southwest (March 17, 1856). His second wife, Ellen Healy Childe, received several letters following his death, documenting biographical details of his life, for use in a biographical sketch. These cover his early life and time in the military and include a contribution from his brother, David Lee Child (July 22, 1859). John Healy Childe also received a letter from Henry Clark, who agreed that his daughter Jessie could marry Childe (August 5, 1889). An undated "Family Record" gives birth and death dates for the family of Zachariah and Lydia Bigelow Child, and a brief biographical sketch of John Healy Childe.
Zachariah Child (1763-1845), the son of David Child and Mehitable Richardson of West Boylston, Massachusetts, served in the Revolutionary War. He married Lydia Bigelow (1764-1849) in 1784, and they had several children: Cynthia, Annis, Dolly, Walter, Lydia B. (who died after 4 weeks), Marcus (b. 1792), David Lee (1794-1874), Levi Bigelow, Lydia Bigelow, Susan, John (1802-1858), and Lucretia. David Lee Child became a lawyer and married author Lydia Maria Francis in 1828; in 1841, they moved to New York, where they published the Anti-Slavery Standard. Marcus Child married Lydia Chadwick and moved to Stanstead, Quebec, where he became a partner in a pharmaceutical business and a Provincial Parliament representative. John Child, who later added an e to his surname, entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1823, graduated in 1827, and left the Army as a captain in December 1835. Following his military service, he became a civil engineer and worked for several railroad companies; most notably, he was chief engineer during construction of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad. His first wife, Laura Dwight, died on the Arctic in 1854; he married Ellen Wills Healy in 1856. He and Laura had two daughters: Lelia Maria, who died with her mother on the Arctic, and Maria Dwight. He had one son with Ellen: John Healy Childe (b. 1858), who married Jessie Duncan Clark around 1887.
