Apr 15, 2021 - Sale 2564

Sale 2564 - Lot 263

Price Realized: $ 3,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
(NEW JERSEY.) Deed for a portion of West Jersey near Trenton, predating the first English settlement. Manuscript deed signed by Mahlon Stacy of Handsworth, Yorkshire to Robert Stacy, with signatures of witnesses George Hutchinson, Robert Schooley and Thomas Revell on verso, 13 x 28 inches on vellum, with wax and metal seal affixed on bottom edge; folds, minor soiling, 1/2-inch hole in text area; docketed "Given by A to Howard Edwards June 1st 1897" on verso. [Yorkshire?], 29 January 1677
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This deed begins by sketching out the entire title history of West Jersey, from King Charles's grant of New York and New Jersey to his brother James, Duke of York, in 1664; the Duke's grant of what became New Jersey to Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley; Berkeley's sale of his half to a group of Quakers led by William Penn in 1674; and the partition of this half as West Jersey in 1676. It then describes the sale of a portion of a 7/90th portion of West Jersey to the partnership of Thomas Hutchinson, Thomas Pearson, Joseph Helmsley, George Hutchinson and Mahlon Stacy. This land extended from the Assumpink Creek south to Burlington--the modern city of Trenton and points south.

Finally, this deed grants by "Mahlon Stacy for & in consideration of the sum of ffive and twenty pounds on lawful English money to him in hand paid by the said Robert Stacy . . . one full equall & undevided sixth pt, in six pts to be devided of one of the aforesaid seaven nynetieth pts of all that the said westernly pt." Mahlon Stacy (1638-1704), a tanner and devout Quaker, became a central figure in the earliest history of the Trenton area. His brother Robert Stacy (1631-1701) also remained in the area. In August 1677 he became the first magistrate in West Jersey.