Amanuensis Monday -- 1841 Lease of Elizabeth H. Smith from Lucy Butterfield For Rooms in Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts

 This week's document for transcription is the 1841 lease of widow Elizabeth H. Smith of Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, for two rooms in the house in Medfield previously owned by the late Alpheus B. Smith, and access to the woodhouse, well, cellar and garden, from Lucy Butterfield of Dedham for $50.

*  Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Deeds 1869, Page 380 (penned in upper right corner), Image 260 of 685

The transcription of this deed (with help from FamilySearch Full-Text Search, with a few errors corrected) is:

[Page 380, Starting near the bottom of the left-hand page of the image]

[In Margin]

Butterfield

to

Smith

[In Body]

                                       Know all men by these presents that 

I Lucy Butterfield of Dedham County of Norfolk and Commonwealth

Mass. in consideration of the sum of fifty dollars paid me by 

Elizabeth H. Smith of Medfield and county aforesaid do by these 

presents let lease and confirm to her the said Elizabeth for 

[right hand side of page 380 image]

use and improvements so long as she remains the widow of the 

late Alpheus B. Smith of Medfield, deceased a good and comfort-

able room and bedroom joining the same in the house which 

was her late husbands and now occupied by her. Also a privi-

lege in the back room and woodhouse with the right to enter 

and re-enter the same at all times, also a right in common 

at the well of water for her own use and a right in the cell-

ar of said house and the garden she now occupies.    In

testimony whereof I the said Lucy Butterfield have hereunto set 

my hand and seal this 18th day of August A.D. 1841. Lucy Butter-

field  {Seal} Signed and sealed in presents of us Hinsdale Fisher 

Betsey Fisher.                                    June 18. 1869. Rec' d entered 

                                                      & examined by James Foord

The source citation for this deed is:

"Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States land records," Lease of Lucy Butterfield to Elizabeth H. Smith  executed 18 August 1841, recorded 18 June 1869; imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89ZH-JQJ8?view=fullText : accessed 9 September 2026), Image Group Number: 007458982, "Norfolk Deeds, 1869, Land Records 1869," page 380 (stamped), image 260 of 685; original papers at Norfolk County (Massachusetts) Register of Deeds.

By this record it appears that Elizabeth H. Smith, widow of Alpheus B. Smith, leased two rooms in the house and access to the woodhouse, well, cellar and garden in Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, from Lucy Butterfield of Dedham for $50.  This appears to be a lifelong lease. Note that this occurred in 1841, and was recorded in 1869 upon the death of Elizabeth H. Smith. In an earlier 1841 deed, Lucy Butterfield bought the one acre tract of land with the house from the Alpheus B. Smith estate for $340 and Elizabeth H. Smith's dower rights to the house for $100.

Alpheus B. Smith (1802-1840) married Elizabeth Horton Dill (1791-1869) in 1826, and they had two children.  They are my 3rd great-grandparents through their daughter Lucretia Townsend Smith (1828-1884) who married Isaac Seaver (1823-1901) in 1851. 

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Read other transcriptions of records of my relatives and ancestors at Amanuensis Monday Posts.

NOTE: Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started a Monday blog theme years ago called "Amanuensis Monday." John offers this definition for "amanuensis:"

"A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."

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