Apr 16, 2013 - Sale 2310

Sale 2310 - Lot 177

Unsold
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(MASSACHUSETTS.) Bradford, William. Quitclaim deed to the proprietors of the town of Rehoboth. Document Signed, also signed by witnesses John Cotton, Roland Cotton, Samuel Clapp, and John Cushing, and with a 1735 docketing note by the county registrar. 44 x 24 inches, on two conjoined pieces of vellum, with partly intact wax seal attached; faint adhesive stains on verso, minor foxing and wear. [Plymouth, MA?], 26 December 1689 and 7 February 1689 [1690]
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Additional Details

The town of Rehoboth was incorporated as part of Plymouth Colony in 1645, and originally covered a very large area including what are now Seekonk, MA, East Providence, RI, and parts of several other towns. One of the early Plymouth patents had been made out in the name of longtime governor William Bradford (1590-1657), and later town leaders thought it prudent to obtain the heir's quitclaim and secure their title to the land. The grantor on this deed, Major William Bradford (1624-1704) of Plymouth, was the eldest surviving heir of Governor Bradford, and was paid £15 for his trouble. Among the witnesses were John Cotton (1640-1699) and Roland Cotton (1667-1722) of Plymouth, son and grandson of the Puritan clergyman John Cotton.
Appended to the deed on an attached second sheet of vellum is "A List of the Names of the Inhabitants and Proprietors of the Towne of Rehoboth haveing Rights and Titles." It was read and approved at a town meeting six weeks after the quitclaim was secured. As only these heads of households received proprietor status, unusual care was taken in the preparation of this list. It functioned as an early census of the town, and is still frequently cited by genealogists. The list is divided into 130 inhabitants, 26 "orphants" (many listed with the names of their late parents), and 40 "propriater not inhabitants."
Published and discussed at length in Bowen's Early Rehoboth, pages I:47-57. Provenance: Discovered in a second-hand book shop in 1939; collection of Frederick Stanhope Peck (1868-1947) of Barrington, RI; in the collection of Richard Bowen in 1945.