Small group of documents relating to the founding of Braintree and a legal dispute concerning the boundary between Braintree and Quincy, with a large 18th-century manuscript map of Norton Quincy's farm.
[Braintree or Boston]: [mostly circa 1650s-1760s].
Price: $4,500.00
About the item
Together, 8 items. The map measuring 15 x 19 inches. Some foxing to the documents, the map with separations at folds backed at an early date.
Item #333307
Two documents, undated but likely from the mid-17th century, are believed to be in the hand of Richard Brackett (with one signed by Brackett and the other signed by Samuel Bass [John Adams's great-great-grandfather], Martin Sanders, Steven Kingsley, James Penniman and William Allis), dated December 23, 1651 and January 5, 1652, relating to William Tyng's grant to the town and his rights relating thereto. With four other documents being early 18th century true copies of those documents, one with an additional true copy relating to a road through Edmund Quincy's farm and one with a later 1767 notation by Elisha Niles attesting it to be a true copy.
Notably, also included is an early 18th century true copy, in the same hand of the preceding true copies, of the original 1640 petition of the inhabitants of Mount Wollaston to establish the town of Braintree. In the same early 18th century hand is an additional document, being a lengthy legal argument over a dispute concerning land title.
The map, undated but mid-18th century, is titled at the top "A plan of all Norton Quincy's Home Farm which lies westwards of Rye Island containing 13 acres, 0 roods and 27 rods drawn 32 rods to an inch." The map includes the location of the house, with the road identified. Norton Quincy (1716-1801) was Abigail Adams's uncle and the aforementioned William Tyng (1605-1653) her great-great-great-grandfather.
