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(MASSACHUSETTS.) Bradford, William.
Quitclaim deed to the proprietors
of the town of Rehoboth.
Document Signed, also signed by witnesses John Cotton,
Roland Cotton, Samuel Clapp, and John Cushing, and with a 1735 docketing note by the
county registrar. 44 x 24 inches, on two conjoined pieces of vellum, with partly intact wax
seal attached; faint adhesive stains on verso, minor foxing and wear.
[Plymouth, MA?], 26 December 1689 and 7 February 1689 [1690]
[2,000/3,000]
The town of Rehoboth was incorporated as part of Plymouth Colony in 1645, and originally
covered a very large area including what are now Seekonk, MA, East Providence, RI, and
parts of several other towns. One of the early Plymouth patents had been made out in the name
of longtime governor William Bradford (1590-1657), and later town leaders thought it prudent
to obtain the heir’s quitclaim and secure their title to the land. The grantor on this deed, Major
William Bradford (1624-1704) of Plymouth, was the eldest surviving heir of Governor
Bradford, and was paid £15 for his trouble. Among the witnesses were John Cotton (1640-
1699) and Roland Cotton (1667-1722) of Plymouth, son and grandson of the Puritan
clergyman John Cotton.
Appended to the deed on an attached second sheet of vellum is “A List of the Names of the
Inhabitants and Proprietors of the Towne of Rehoboth haveing Rights and Titles.” It was read
and approved at a town meeting six weeks after the quitclaim was secured. As only these heads
of households received proprietor status, unusual care was taken in the preparation of this list. It
functioned as an early census of the town, and is still frequently cited by genealogists. The list is
divided into 130 inhabitants, 26 “orphants” (many listed with the names of their late
parents), and 40 “propriater not inhabitants.”
Published and discussed at length in Bowen’s Early Rehoboth, pages I:47-57. Provenance:
Discovered in a second-hand book shop in 1939; collection of Frederick Stanhope Peck (1868-
1947) of Barrington, RI; in the collection of Richard Bowen in 1945.
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