Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Land Records of William Sever (1729-1809) of Kingston, Massachusetts

After saving the list of land records in Plymouth County, Massachusetts for William Sever (getting the Grantee Index was discussed in Searching for William Sever's (1729-1809) Land Records in Kingston, Mass.- The Deed Indexes), I started finding and downloading and reviewing the earliest deeds found.  

It is possible that William Sever received the land as part of his father-in-law's estate (William Sever's wife was Sarah Warren (1730-1797) and her parents were James Warren (1700-1757) and Penelope Winslow (1704-1737)), and there might not be a deed.  He might have received land from his father's estate in 1757.

I have downloaded and reviewed the first 15 deeds on the list, which includes deeds from 1751 to 1764.  The ones that describe land in Kingston include:

*  John Brewster to William Sever, dated 1751, for 4 pounds, land in Kingston being 1/6 part of 2/3 of the Landing in Kingston, so-called.  Bounded S by Elisha Stetson, E by the river, N by a fence on the marsh, and W by Samuel Foster and Seth Chipman, Jr.  (Volume 42, number 234).

*  Samuel Foster to William Sever, dated 1756, for 3 pounds, land in Kingston being 1/9 part of an acre; bounded E by land sold to Levi Bradford, N by land of Nicholas Sever Esq., W by land of Wrestling Brewster Jr., and S by land of Nicholas Sever Esq.  (Volume 44, number 196).

*  Peleg Bradford and Lydia his wife to William Sever, dated 1755, for 12 pounds, 1/24 part of the Furnace in Kingston (Volume 44, number 202).

*  Elisha Stetson Jr. and Lydia his wife to William Sever, dated 1758, for 24 pounds, for 6 acres of land in Kingston northeast of the Furnace, bounded by metes and bounds, and on the Trout Brook (Volume 45, number 208).

*  John Fayerweather of Boston to William Sever, dated 1760, for 16 pounds, 10 acres of land in Kingston bounded by land of Jonathan Diman, Nathaniel Foster, Elisha Stetson and Nicholas Sever, Esq. and on the Southeast side of a road. (Volume 46, page 134).


I don't know which one, if any of them, refer to the land that the William Sever house was built on.  I may need to find where Nicholas Sever, William's father, owned land in Kingston, since he is mentioned in several of the deeds.

I doubt that the deeds on the eastern side of the River or near the Furnace pertain to the house site in central Kingston.  If the land was obtained by deed, the second and fifth ones on my list are the most likely candidates.

My next step will be to look for probate records for James Warren and Nicholas Sever.

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Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver


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2 comments:

Sharon said...

Have you (or your correspondent) considered working backwards from the most recent owner. Oftentimes, deeds will refer to how the land was acquired: "being the lot I purchased from John Smith in 1849" etc., which helps in tracing backwards.

Unknown said...

Learned a a lot from this article. I have a 1772 deed of William and Sarah Sever. I was thinking who this guy is. Now it's clear.