Description:

Gorham Nathaniel 1738 - 1796
Charleston, MA 1781 land purchase from descendants of Tufts and Adams signed by Nathanial Gorham




Single page 8" x 11" land grant, partially printed and signed, on laid paper. Dated "the Tenth day of July, In the Year of our lord One Thousand Seven Hundred + Eighty One". For the purchase of land in "Charlestown in County of Middlesex ... ". Signed and witnessed by Nathanial Gorham as "Nath Gorham". Docketed and recorded verso in the Registry of Deeds, Book 115, page 262. Age toned with light foxing and staining. Professional archival paper conservation evident to the right margin, where missing paper pieces are backed by a very fine woven mesh which is barely visible but supports the document edge.

An incredibly rich document from the heart of the American Revolutionary period signed by Nathanial Gorham as a witness. Gorham was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, and served as the presiding officer of that body for six months. He also attended the Constitutional Convention and was one of the signers of the United States Constitution on September 17, 1787.

This document involves a Charlestown, MA land sale from David Wood to Joseph Adams, son of Boston patriot Samuel Adams. The land in question had been owned by Peter Tufts, Jr., a descendent of Peter Tufts (1617 - 1700), an early colonist who came to America from England in 1638, and whose descendants lived in Boston suburbs Charlestown, Medford, Malden, and Somerville. (These were the ancestors of Charles Tufts, who donated land that became the campus of Tufts University.) This land is thus some of the most storied in New England, being from the geographical heart of the Revolutionary War movement.

The land grant reads in part:

"In consideration of the sum of 'Two Hundred and forty pounds Lawful silver money'...to me in Hand Paid before the Delivery of the said "Joseph Adams his Heirs and Assigns forever, A certain piece of pasture Land Situate in Charlestown aforesaid and on the .... Side of a Rangeway contains Eighteen Acres more or less bounded Northerly on the Road leading .. Winter Hill, Westerly on the said Rangeway, southerly on land of Samuel Kent, Easterly partly on the Land Of Williams Tufts, and partly on the lands of Peter Tufts Jun: or however otherwise bounded"

The document includes the Registry of Deeds recording information, allowing further research to be done to ascertain the exact location of the land within Charlestown, MA, one the most significant towns involved in the Revolution.

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June 14, 2017 10:30 AM EDT
Wilton, CT, US

University Archives

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