Massachusetts Social Law Library is established.

Founded by Theophilus Parsons and others, it is located initially in a lawyer’s office. The first private, member-supported law library in New England, it is initially made up of a few books collected by the town’s few lawyers. The library moves to the Suffolk Country Court House at 1 Court Square, and then to new Old Suffolk County Court House in Pemberton Square in 1895. All 18 of the state’s county law libraries are made open to the public under the Court Reorganization Act of 1978.