A late-seventeenth century volume, compiled 1683/4-1686, 1693/4, at the office of the Master of Rolls in Philadelphia, recording sales to Welsh Quakers of lands in the area called the Welsh Tract, in Pennsylvania, along with some other transactions. The original indentures were dated between September 1681 and March 1685/6.
The indentures were recorded, in at least three clerical hands, between February 1683/4 and August 1686, with some sections in non-chronological order (pp. 1-57, 185-196). Of the eighty-one transactions recorded, some fifty-six indentures detail sales by six of the Welsh Original Purchasers (who bought land directly from William Penn) to fifty-six Under Purchasers in six Welsh counties (pp. 29-159, 166-261, 264-276, 288-310), the majority being lands sold by John ap Thomas of Llaithgwm and Edward Jones of Bala, both in Merioneth (pp. 166-196, 212-239) and Richard Davies of Welshpool, Montgomeryshire (pp. 59-159, 165, 239-261, 264-270, 294-301, 305-311). Rowland Ellis, Brynmawr, is the grantee of a deed of 30-31 July 1682 (pp. 294-301). Three other miscellaneous documents are also transcribed (pp. 165-166, 261-262, 367), including a previously omitted assignment added to the end of the volume in January 1693/4 (p. 367). The remaining twenty-two transactions involve non-Welsh purchasers from Wiltshire, Herefordshire and elsewhere in England and a few in Pennsylvania (pp. 5-18, 159-164, 262-264, 276-288, 311-367). A single record refers to an original sale of 250 acres by William Penn in September 1681 (pp. 333-337). The majority of the transactions were deeds of lease and release with receipt, although the lease portion (occasionally) and the receipt (often) may be absent. There are miscellaneous underlinings and marginal annotations in pencil, [?1921] (see arithmetical calculation on p. 159), throughout the volume. The Rolls Office in Philadelphia was established in January 1683/4, with title holders then required to have their deeds registered there; the Master of Rolls during this period was Thomas Lloyd, formerly of Dolobran, Montgomeryshire.
Philadelphia County (Pa.). Master of Rolls
