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MSS 098, F171, Land indenture between David Wilkin, his wife Ann, and Jonathan Germain, Blacksmith, of Newark in White Clay Creek Hundred and County of Newcastle on Delaware, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.
Processed and encoded by Keith Minsinger, September 2008.
This land indenture, or deed, from David Wilkins and his wife Anne is granted to Jonathan
Germain, all eighteenth-century residents of Newark, White Clay Creek Hundred, New Castle
County, Delaware. Jonathan Germain was a blacksmith, though David Wilkin’s occupation remains
unknown.
This indenture also traces the ownership of this parcel of land back through the owners back to the original grant held by John Guest, a wealthy jurist from Philadelphia, in 1702. Guest held many positions of power in Pennsylvania, including being a member of the Pennsylvania Provincial Council.
This document is the indenture for a tract of land, 223 acres in Newark, White Clay Creek
Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware. It is dated May 17, 1763. The property was sold by David
Wilkins and his wife, Ann, to Jonathan Germain, a blacksmith. They were all residents of Newark,
a small town which received a charter from King George III in 1758.
The deed, which is a three-page paper document tied with ribbon and notarized with three wax and paper seals, also lists the entire lineage of ownership and history of division of the property, starting with the original grant to John Guest from the province of Pennsylvania in September of 1702. Other property holders include Samuel Lowman, Samuel Johnson, Napthtaly Johnson, Dan Johnson, Edward Miles, and William McCrea. It also lists an independent woman as owner, Rachel Jones, who later carried the property into marriage with David Davis, when she took his surname. It actually refers to the locations of these original deeds of sale as found in the Rolls Office of New Castle County. The document also gives detailed directions regarding the boundaries, both past and present of the lot. This indenture was acknowledged in the Court of Common Pleas and recorded by R.W. Williams in the Rolls Office at New Castle.
This item forms part of MSS 098 Delaware Miscellaneous Literary and Historical Manuscripts Collection.