Deed, dated May 1830, on three pieces of vellum sewn together with ribbon to make a two-page deed measuring 2 feet 5 inches wide and 2 feet 7 inches high. The script is lovely and was obviously done by a professional scribe for display purposes. The deed is written in standard legal language and follows standard legal protocol, providing a property description and a list of previous owners. It was signed by various members of the Walter family, with their attached seals, which are still intact but cracked, including William Walter of Philadelphia, a blacksmith, Aaron Stoops of Baltimore (Md.), shoemaker, and his wife, Hannah J. (late Hannah J. Walter), and Joseph Walter of Lycoming County (Pa.), teacher, and their attorney, Wm. Rowan of Wilmington (Del.), merchant, and his wife Ann (late Ann Walter, widow of James, late of Philadelphia, teacher, deceased), and Lydia Hough (late Lydia Walter) of Wilmington, widow, Joseph C. Carpenter and his wife, Jemima, of Wilmington, James Caldwell of Philadelphia, blacksmith, and Ann Maria his wife (late Ann Maria Walter). The fact that all the women signed for themselves and had their own seals, as well as the occupations of the men, indicates that the extended family was both well educated and middle class. The property, which is described as including 1,500 acres of land with its roads, buildings, passages, etc., in Roanoke (Va.) on Shavers River, was sold to Joseph Logue of Philadelphia, merchant, for $2,000 U.S. silver. The deed was recorded in Justice of the Peace courts in both Philadelphia and New Castle (Del.), and also the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia. At one point, the deed was folded in thirds and then quarters. Regardless of this, the deed is in excellent condition. Although the deed does not fit the Clarke Historical Library's collecting policy, it is retained as an example of early historical manuscripts and vellum (parchment) for instructional purposes.
