The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1889-06-14

coast you would come to the exact site Of
Purchases house
Much doubt has at times been expressed
about the existence Of the Patent from the
council for New England, but the evidence of
Its existence is Overwhelming, and permits of
no doubt or cavil. John Cousins had seen it;
Richard Callicott deposed that Purchase in
tended TO go to England to get new copy Of it
in 1871, after his own had been destroyed by fire
in his house; all of Purchases neighbors knew
more or less about it; and now more new
evidence can be adduced; George Way devises
his half to his son Eleaxer in his will quoted
above. This Eleazer Way found that certain
agreements made by his father and Purchase
IN 1888, operated as an equitable bar to the
execution he had obtained against his uncle
and so released him, distinctly citing the
Patent. Why then did not Purchase place
SO important a Patent upon reeordi and
the statement by Edward Rishworth. the
Recorder of the Province, "that he
could find no record Ut giyeth any
person or persons any Title thereunto," has
been relied upon as disproving the existence
of any such Patent The reason why it
could not be found there by him, or by sub
sequent searchers was because, though prop
erly recorded, it was not done in Yorkshire,
but among the vanished records, of which but
scanty bits have ever been discovered,
Of the Rigby government, the evanescent
General Assembly of the Province of
Ligonia which dragged through a
precarious and intermittent existence
from 1913 to 1858, and Of which Bruins
wick then formed component part. Francis
Neale, the second Recorder Of that Province
deposes to this in the most unmistakable man
ner: "Mr. Purchase gave the Depon't copy
nf "a mi hu xxvhtrh he hald
which, that Depon't, being then Recorder put
on record"
These records had disappeared, doubtless
destroyed from interested motives, before the
time Of Purchases fire, or else he could have
gotten certified copy without going to Eng
land.
1t is now certain that Wharton in his nego-
tiations for this property had insisted that a
copy of the Patent should be produced, and it
was to obtain this that the younger Purchase
sailed for England; hearing nothing from him
and being impatient to consummate the bar
gain Wharton paid part of the purchase money
down and executed the above sarticles" the
fourth paragraph of which reads: "Fourthly
John Blany and Elizabeth Rlany covenant and
promise in case no Inrollment or record of
said Patent can be found nor other Confrma-
ton be obtained in right of said Purchase
& Way for the premises, and on
said Wharton reconveying he shall
be discharged from the said one
hundred and thirty pounds" Between the
time of the Purchase Wharton deed and that
of the deed Of the Indian Sagamores Whar-
ton either went or sent to England and OBJ
tanned the full copy of the Patent from which
the description in the latter deed must have been
taken so full and precise in its terms as COM
pared with the earlier one, for which at the
time of its execution material was not at hand,
except for very general terms. Another con-
frmatory fact is that we find him in 1887
making payments on account of his purchase
satisfied with the confirmation he had OBJ
tanned in right of said Purchase and Way for
said Patent"
Having gotten possession of the original
Patent Wharton changed its depository, plac-
| ing it with intimate friends as is shown by
extracts from letter from Mrs. Eunice Whar-
ton, his sons widow. dated London Nov.
LIST, 1887, 81 can make them valid Title &
none Elce can do it, which is likewise re-
corded and Patented. here in ould England
| the oridginal Patient from the Council OF
Plimoth is in the hands of the Duke of Ham,
bleton; the disqualification which Mr.. Pur-
chase had was believed to be burnt with his
Hous; but his Title was sufficiently proved :
Mr.. Winthrop have a copie of il, if you can
| get his Wife to shew ii you"
This last clause seems likely enough be-
cause of Winthrop's care to protect the Bay
title under the grant of 1889, and because Of
the secretiveness of interested Massachusetts,
claimants of the Kennebec tract. who would
hardly divulge all they had knowledge of
about a rival claim that they hoped some day
| TO absorb. III s.ss4
Thus have we traced your worthy founders
family, patiently celebrating details that may
seem trivial to some of you. but which will
serve the historiographer of the future, who to
cope with communities, to generalize upon
generations and to popularize peoples to
posterity must first study personalp eculiarities
and family transactions and traditions.
Now as we bid goodbye to Thomas Pur-
chase, leaving estimates of his character,
praises of bis virtues and censpres of his
faults to the enthusiastic imagery Of rising gen.
erations, we reflect
"No epitaph can make
The just man famed;
The good are praised
When ran mil nj mad