A Trip to the Plymouth County Registry of Deeds Part 1

I was off to the Plymouth County Registry of Deeds to record my mortgage discharge. While there, I though I’d check out some genealogical land records for my Bradford and Snell ancestors. In this Blog I’ll look at one of my Bradford ancestors and land they held across from the Training Green in Plymouth.

Harvey Bradford and the Plymouth Training Green

Harvey Bradford born about 1809 is the weak link between myself and Governor William Bradford of Pilgrim fame. One of the best records I have for him is in a land deed. That 1816 land deed connects him to the Training Green in Plymouth:

In my transcription above Harvey was listed in the sale of a house from his family to Henry Bartlett, Jr. This house was on the North side of the Training Green. To the West of the house was a way leading from the meeting house in the Third precinct. To the East was Deacon Lot Harlow Land. It seems with all that description I should be able to find where this house was. I assume that this was Harvey’s father Samuel’s house and where Harvey grew up.

On the way to the Registry, I passed the Green:

Technically North of the Green is at the intersection of N Green and Sandwich. However, the fact that there is a North Green leads me to believe that North could have been to the upper left of the map above. There are only four houses on North Green Street, so my thought was that the Bradford house could be the one on the corner of North Green and Pleasant.

It was clear to me that this house was a newer one or seriously rebuilt:

I did walk from the bottom of the street to the top. The house at the bottom was the Benjamin Bartlett House from 1726. The next house up was listed as the Jesse Harlow House from about 1800. There were no plaques on the top two houses.

Next, I checked a Fire Insurance map from 1885:

This map shows no house on the corner of Pleasant and N. Green, so the house there now was built some time after 1885.

Also no house there in 1879:

Here’s an 1857 Map of the area:

Now we are back up to four houses on this little Street. That means that the Bradford house disappeared sometime between 1857 and 1879. One interesting thing is that there is a S Bradford at the corner of Commercial and Sandwich. He is surrounded by Churchill’s [possibly Samuel, son of Samuel Bradford?]. I have that Harvey’s father Samuel Bradford married Lucy Churchill. The name on the map above associated with the house I think was my ancestor’s looks like W Straffin or Straflin. This could be the W Straffin:

Looks like he got property from Daniel Gale. From there I go back to 1818:

I picked the Bates to Gale deed because the Street name was blank on both. Now I’m getting lost. [See later in the Blog for the correction.]

The Bradford House Going Forward

I tried going backward from an 1857 Map and got lost. The Bradford House and Land near the Training Green was sold in 1816 to Henry Bartlett Junior. On my trip to the Registry of Deeds I saw that Henry Bartlett Junior turned around the next year and sold the land in 1817 to Joseph Avery.

Hopefully the answer would be in one of these deeds:

However, I wonder if Joseph dies after 1824. Then the land could have been conveyed by inheritance. According to the deed I got at the Registry, this Joseph Avery was a bookbinder.

Deacon Lot Harlow Land Next to the Samuel Bradford Land

I did find a deed on-line for Deacon Lot Harlow from 1805. He was Samuel Bradford’s neighbor:

This was a family transaction:

Short story: this lot was between my ancestor Samuel Bradford on the West and Lazarus Harlow on the East. So I am back to 1805, but no mention of Jesse Harlow. Apparently this house used to belong to Deacon Lot Harlow’s father John Harlow.

How Did Samuel Bradford Get His Land Near the Training Green?

Samuel got this property from Nathaniel Ripley:

Here’s the whole 1793 deed. Only 226 years old:

Apparently Nathaniel Ripley and Samuel Bradford were both mariners. The Bartlett name is here also:

Samuel paid 8 pounds, so this was before the time of the dollar.

Here we learn that this property previously belonged to Abigail Bartlett who had died. She was the wife of Benjamin Bartlett and received that property after Benjamin died. The wives of Nathaniel and Joseph are also mentioned:

Here is some more on the Bartlett/Ripley connection:

It looks like Nathaniel Ripley was a Captain married to Elizabeth Bartlett, daughter of Benjamin and Abigail. Here is a Reference from the Mayflower Descendant Richard Warren Book (Vol 18, part 2):

I assume that this was the widow’s dower mentioned in the Samuel Bradford deed.

This is also interesting in that there was no house on the property in 1793. Benjamin Bartlett is mentioned in this deed. He is likely the one who built this house on the lower corner:

The garden to the Bartlett house mentioned in the deed must have been to the left of the house. This Bradford deed gives me more certainty that I have been on the right track.

Tracing 7 North Green from Present Going Back in Time

One tedious way to look at this is starting with the Plymouth Assessor’s Office and going back through deeds:

The lot that Samuel purchased was fairly small. This lot is 0.075 acres, so would be a good match. I traced this back to 1948:

There was a hint on this deed:

I’m glad that this deed mentioned a previous deed as Bumpus is not mentioned on the previous deed. So this deed gets us back to Hannah T Weston in 1896. I feel like I am getting closer:

This deed references an earlier deed in Book 409, pages 230-231:

Here I am getting a bit stuck. I’m having trouble finding this Book and Page. Hannah was the wife of George:

This was probably Hannah T Chase:

Fortunately, FamilySearch also has records. Here is Volume 409, page 230:

Page 231:

This page mentions William Straffin which is back where I was a while ago. This was the W Straffin on the map that showed occupants’ names.

Back to the Straffin Deed

This Straffin/Gale deed where I got stuck should be found in Book 164, page 104. A closer read of this deed shows that this is the wrong property. This must be the right one in 1857:

The Straffin/Spear deed shows that Straffin bought this property at auction for $8.50.

Turns out Spear is the administrator for Hannah Bartlett. This could get us back to the Bradford/Bartlett deed. For some reason, this house that Straffin bought was already called the Straffins house in 1857.

I assume that this Straffin house was the one originally occupied by my ancestor Samuel Bradford.

The Bartlett/Straffin Connection

On 21 November 1811 Henry Bartlett married Prudence Straffin. My guess is that this was Henry Bartlett Junior.

Avery/Bartlett Connection

There was a connection also between Avery and Bartlett. On 8 October 1816 Henry Bartlett Junior sold Joseph Avery a house for $1,350. That was quite a bit in those days. Henry’s wife Prudence agrees to give up her dower in the house. In that deed mention is made of Joseph’s mother:

More On Hannah S Bartlett

Hannah apparently died in 1855. A William Harlow applied to be her administrator because Hannah owed him the most money, but the administrator role was awarded to William H Spear. A note on the record refers to her as a:

More On Henry Bartlett, Junior

The Samuel Bradford house on the Training Green in Plymouth got sold to Henry Bartlett Junior in 1816. This Henry Bartlett the second may be the same person here:

It appears that he died in 1827 and Ezra Finney was named administrator. This was probably the same one who sold to Joseph Avery.

That means that I am missing something between 1817 and 1857.

More on Joseph Avery

Joseph Avery was a bookbinder in Plymouth. His father, also Joseph Avery was apparently a clergyman in Holden.

In Joseph Avery’s Inventory of Real Estate, I don’t see the property by the Training Green:

Avery’s Pew

In a custom that has not carried to this day, pews in the Church were sold. This Registry of Deeds record describes Avery buying a pew from Stephen and Lucy Churchill:

This is interesting because Stephen and Lucy Churchill were the parents of Lucy Churchill who married Samuel Bradford. If I have the right couple, they would have been quite old as Stephen was born in 1743 and Lucy in 1745. I don’t have death dates for either person, so this document could narrow things down.

Other Churchill Deeds

This has me wondering if there were other Churchill deeds around this time. Here is one where Stephen sells his cooper shop to Samuel in 1813:

However, was this Samuel the father born about 1755 or Samuel Bradford the son born 1788?

It turns out that Samuel’s father-in-law Stephen Churchill was also his second cousin:

Telling the Story of Samuel and His Property at the Training Green

According to the Mayflower Families Bradford Book, Samuel was the fourth of nine children born between Josiah in 1754 and Charles who was baptized in 1756. That could put his birth in 1755. That birth order was likely derived from another deed:

Growing up, the family lived mostly in Plymouth, but for a while also in Middleborough. Samuel’s father Josiah was originally a mariner but mostly was a cordwainer. On 10 Jan 1757, Josiah Bradford and family were warned from Middleborough. In 1763 Josiah Bradford and family, from Middleborough, were warned from Plymouth. Warning was a way for a Town to get rid of someone they didn’t want – either bacause they were trouble or they needed Town support. The idea was that their home town should be dealing with them and that you couldn’t just move to another town if you were a liability. Here is one court case that mentions Josiah:

There is no date on this case, but it was probably about 1759. Here another case involving someone from “Plimpton”:

This must be the Warning from Middleborough:

No reason is given for the warning other than they are not inhabitants. Here is the warning from Plymouth:

I assume that this warning was ignored or appealed. This would have put the family in a Catch 22. They couldn’t be in Middleborough or Plymouth. This gives me the sense of an unstable home life for the family. Samuel’s father Josiah died in 1777 during the time of the Revolutionary war.

Eight years later, Samuel married Lucy Churchill in 1785. She was one of nine children of Stephen Churchill and Lucy Burbank. Perhaps Samuel was working at Stephen’s cooper shop when he met Lucy. At any rate, Samuel changes his profession from mariner to cooper.

On 26 April 1777, Samuel’s father, Josiah dies. This was an interesting time as it was during the Revolutionary War. That brings up the question of what Samuel was doing during the Revolutionary War. I haven’t found any obvious record of his service in that War. Samuel was listed as a mariner, but apparently got into the cooper business through his father-in-law Stephen Churchill. Samuel married Lucy Churchill in 1785.

Here is some Samuel Bradford family chronology:

Samuel Bradford born about 1755
1757-1759 Samuel appears to be living in Middleborough where his father is listed as a cordwainer. Was Samuel’s birth not recorded because they weren’t supposed to be living in Middleborough?
1763 or 1765 – The Mayflower Families Book says that Samuel’s father Josiah was warned from Plymouth in 1763. However, the transcription above says this happened 12 Feb 1765 and that they moved to Plymouth from Middleborough the previous May (1764)
1772 – Samuel’s father Josiah given eighty acres of land by his mother Elizabeth Finney Bradford. The land is to the East of Gunner’s Exchange Pond
1773 Samuel’s father Josiah buys land from Henry Richmond near South Pond where his house is already located
26 April 1777 – Samuel’s father Josiah dies
26 Oct 1777 – Samuel’s mother Hannah becomes a member of the Plymouth Church
Lucy Bradford born 1787
Samuel Bradford born 1788
19 May 1790 – Samuel’s mother Hannah Rider dies

Other Samuel Bradford Deeds

At this point, I went looking for more records for 1790 and found another deed:

This deed names William Bradford, Cordwainer, Samuel Bradford, Charles Bradford, Zephaniah Bradford, Married Hannah Bradford, Betsy Bradford, Lois Bradford, Mercy Bradford, spinsters all of Plymouth. [But where is Josiah, son of Josiah?] They sold land for 5 pounds to Rosseter Cotton. This land was near South Pond, Plymouth and was 1-1/2 acres. Further mention is that their father Josiah had bought this land from Henry Richmond on Sept 14th 1773.

Here is South Pond which is also a village in Plymouth:

Here is the earlier deed reference:

This is actually quite interesting. The question is why a mariner would buy land from a ‘Husbandman’. The answer is within the deed:

…one acre and a half more or less of land lying near South Pond in said Plymouth being part of my [Henry Richmond’s] homestead, and is the piece of land where said Bradford’s House stands and is all included within fence and is twenty Rods long and sixteen Rods wide at one end and eight Rods at the other end. Being the easterly Part of my said Homestead Lands. – To have and to hold the same, with all the priveledges and appurtenances thereto belonging, (the Dwelling House being his before,)…

The deed suggests a few issues:

Why was Josiah Bradford’s house on Henry Richmond’s Land?
The deed does not state which side of the Pond the property was on.
Why is there no mention of the Bradford house in the 1790 deed?
I assume that Josiah Bradford’s children were raised at this dwelling house.
I don’t see this deed mentioned in the Mayflower Descendants Books, so in a sense this is ‘new’ evidence’. Or you might say one good deed leads to another.

Here is something on Henry Richmond:

It looks like Henry Richmond had something in common with Josiah Bradford, in that they were both warned out of Plymouth in 1765. This Henry was in Court a lot as a lot of people were trying to get money that Henry owed them.

The following deed is mentioned in the book, William Bradford of the Mayflower:

I had previously transcribed that deed:

I now see Zephaniah Bradford as Mariner (not married). This is for the sale of land to the East of Gunner’s Exchange Pond in Plymouth. Gunner’s Exchange Pond is to the Southeast of South Pond:

This was an important deed. This land was given to Josiah by his mother Elizabeth Finney Bradford in 1772. That deed refers to an earlier deed dated 6 Jun 1727. I haven’t looked up that deed, but apparently Elizabeth’s two brothers gave the land to their three sisters at that time.

Back to Samuel Bradford’s Chronology

1791 – Stephen Bradford born
1793 – Samuel buys land near the Training Green. Was he looking for a shorter commute for his Mariner profession? Samuel apparently has a house built around this time on this property.
January 1797 – Samuel and family sell to Joshua Wright and Joseph Samson 80 acres of land that their grandmother Elizabeth Bradford deeded to their father Josiah Bradford to the East of Gunner’s Exchange Pond.
August 1797 – Ellen Bradford born
1800 – Hannah B Bradford born
1809 – My ancestor Harvey Bradford born. His mother Lucy was about 41 at the time.
1813 – Stephen Churchill, father-in-law of Samuel, sells his cooper shop to Samuel [probably the elder] Bradford
The Bradford house and land near the Training Green is sold on 8 October 1816 after Samuel’s death. That puts Samuel’s death at some time not too long before this date.

Summary and Questions

Looking at deeds and legal documents gave a lot more information on the Bradford family, food for thought and future research
I feel like I have the right property for the Samuel Bradford House on the Corner of Pleasant and North Green.
Samuel bought the land and apparently built a house there sometime after 1793. Samuel’s first three children Lucy, Samuel and Stephen were born before this time. Ellen, Hannah and Harvey were perhaps born in this house.
Samuel dies and the house is sold to Henry Bartlett Jr, in 1816 when Harvey is only about 7 years old
The next year the land is sold to bookseller, Joseph Avery. He dies in 1822, but there is no mention that he owns this property.
What happened to the Bradford family after the death of Samuel Bradford?
Looking at deeds gave more information on the Samuel Bradford family and the family of his father Josiah Bradford, including places where Josiah and family had lived