The Newtown bee., 1904-11-04
Charles R. Hathaway, Examiner.

Charles R. Hathaway, Examiner. South Manchester, Conn.,,
 October 18 1904.
 To the Selectmen of the Town of Newtown, Newtown, Conn. Gentle men: On the same day which l ex- amined your town records l also made an examination of the probate records of the Probate District of Newtown. l am well aware that this is matter over which you as Selectmen have no control, but the conditions existing in the probate office are such that 1, deem it my duty to call the attention of some one in authority in your town to the same. Out of list of fifteen cases the majority of which had been in court some four or five, and some as far back as seven years, 1 found twelve absolutely unrecorded. The records in these cases l could not find, but on demanding them from the probate judge he handed them out of some re- ceptacle known only to himself. They were not filed away in the vault amongst other files as they should be. l can give you, if necessary, long list of cases which have not been taken care of. taxed the probate judge with having a large number of estates in which he had made no effort to re- cord the proceedings although the eS- tates had been settled some years ago, and he admitted to me that that con- dition did exist and could give no req son whatever why he had not done his work. He has collected his fees, and in some instances l have reason to be- lieve double the fees that should be collected, but he has not put one stroke cases. l will cite to you the case of Curtis L. Bostwick, dating from 1901, an estate of some amount, where nothing whatever appears in the rec ord books; also the case of Samuel Scudder, Patrick O'Dea, Walter H. Glover, Clara T. Warner Botsford and others which an examination of the records by anyone acquainted With the deaths in your town will easily disclose. It is the worst condition of affairs that l have ever found in any probate dis trict in this state, and one which if 1 had not found from my own examina- tiOn would not have believed existed.
 Now l am aware that this is not properly matter on which you can take any action, but as officers of the town who necessarily have at heart the good of the town 1 would call your attention to this matter. From in- formation which l received when in NewtOwn l am satisfied that Judge Bradley has been reconstructed with time and again for not recording these records and keeping his books in proper shape, but it seems to have done no good and it would seem to me that the good citizens of the town of NewtOWn who are interested in having their pro- bate office kept in proper shape should attend to this matter. Should Judge Bradley die the condition of the rec I them that believe 1t would cost the town large sum of money to put these rec OrdS in shape. From my examination and from things discovered I am Satis- fled that the only thing that can be done is. for the town to have a man start from the beginning of Judge Bradley $ administrations ,and examine, classify and look over every paper in the office and see to it that it is proper ly recorded. If this is not done l can not see where your real estate titles are going to be cleared up. Necessar- fly large amounts of real estate de- scend by bequest or inheritance. The title on the town record books comes in such cases through certificates filed by the probate judge or by his order. If he fails to cause these certificates to be filed or if he fails to properly record the papers relating to an estate there IS necessarily break In the cham Of tiJle, and l must say that it is my firm belief that in Newtown to-day, it would be very difficult to prop erly trace many titles coming from estates which have gone through probate during his administration. Yours very truly,-[Charles R. Hath away, Temporary Examiner of Public
 Records for the State of Connecticut.