Description:

Colonial Massachusetts - Sale of a saw mill by Allen Convers, whose family was aboard the ship "Arabela" as it set sail for America in 1630 and heard John Winthrop deliver his "City Upon a Hill" sermon


Manuscript Document Signed "Allen Convers" and Elizabeth Convers "by her Marke" "E," 1p, 8.5" x 12.25". Woburn, Middlesex [Massachusetts Colony ], March 8, 1675. Strengthened on verso at folds. Small portion removed to the left of each signature and red wax each bearing fingerprint of signer. On watermarked laid paper. Fine condition.

In part "Allen Convers of the Towne of Woburne in the County of Midlesex in ther Massachusets Collony in New England ... unto Robart Eams ... Carpenter one twelfth part of a saw mill ... at a place commonly caled boggy medow..." Very legible.

Allen Convers (1620-1679) is mentioned in the will of Edward Convers as "my kinsman." He and his wife Elizabeth (d. 1691), Woburn's first schoolmistress, taught school from 1676. Edward Convers (1587-1663), one of the original seven founders of Woburn, and his family (probably including 10-year-old Allen) arrived in Salem on June 12, 1630, aboard the "Arabela," the first of 11 sailing ships, under the leadership of John Winthrop, carrying about 700 Puritans from England to New England. Winthrop became Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, the first major settlement in New England after Plymouth Colony was founded in 1620 by the passengers on the "Mayflower." In 1691, Plymouth was merged with the Massachusetts Bay Colony and other territories to form the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Winthrop, aboard "Arabela" as it headed towards New England, delivered his sermon "A Model of Christian Charity," undoubtedly heard by Edward Convers and possibly Allen, concluding, "For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us..."

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