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Item Number:  0136
Description:  "Memorandum of Record" written by Joshua Forman October 21, 1829, Rutherfordton, North Carolina. This is a copy of the document, and is not addressed to an individual. Forman refers to himself as the Manager of the Rutherfordton Speculation Lands for Isaac Bronson and Goold Hoyt. He states the "following chronology of material facts as he understands them": 1. James Greenlee, Lewis Beard, and William Erwin entered into an Article of Agreement with 15 others on July 7, 1795, in Rutherford County, for the management and sale of these lands. 2. On June 27, 1797, Lewis Beard and Arthur ____, as their agents, under the Fourth Article, sold Tench Coxe 100,000 acres. 3. On January 1, 1796, the Land Company sold Tench Coxe 50,000 acres. 4. March 9, 1796 Lewis Beard sold 90,000 acres to Tench Coxe. 5. August 11, 1796 James Greenlee contracted to Tench Coxe the balance of their land containing 264,000 acres. 6. August 11, 1796, Lewis Beard and William Erwin executed a Deed to Tench Coxe for seventeen Patents containing 122,240 acres. 7. Having assigned the residue of the __ Warrants to Tench Coxe, they obtained, in the name of Tench Coxe, 43 other Patents containing 267,215 acres. 8. Shortly after this, Tench Coxe, "being financially encumbered" conveyed his lands in Trust for the benefit of his creditors, "in which state they continued until August 12, 1819". 9. On August 12, 1819, the Trustees, Peter Stephen Du Ponceau and Abraham Kintzing ( of Philadelphia) conveyed the deeds for land (in what was then Rutherford County) to Augustus Sacket (of New York City, and Sacket Harbor, New York) for the amount of $199,978 (for 399,040 acres). Sacket mortgaged the total amount for one year and never paid the first installment. 10. July 12, 1825, Coxe's Trustees assigned the mortgage to James Thompson, Gould Hoyt, James B. McMurray and Isaac Bronson. Forman also discusses an evaluation by Judge J. Thomas of the surveys made of these lands at various times by various surveyor's. According to Thomas's evaluation after viewing the lands, because so many different surveyors were used he questions their accuracy. For example, some surveys were of Patents within existing Patents. He also points out that some Deeds and information provided by James Erwin to Tench Coxe and by Coxe to his Trustees were inaccurate. Thomas also raises the issue of what legal body or whom will deal with and resolve these problems when they arise. This document consists of four handwritten pages, some of which is difficult to read.
Date of Item:  1829-10-21
Category:  Supporting Documents
Location:  Box 2
 
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      Shortly after this T. Coxe having become enbanessed[?] by his extensive land purchase conveyed his lands in trust for the benefit of his creditors in which state they continued until 12th August 1809[.]  When P.S. Duponceau and A Kintzig in whom the trust then was conveyed the whole to Augustus Sackett of the State of New York - Who mortgaged back for the whole amount - He came & resided here the year or more, never paid the first Installment and 12 July 1825 Duponeau assigned the mortgage to Thompson, Hoyt, Murray, & Bronson who came to [amend?] providing in equity, foreclosed the mortgage & the lands were sold under a [direct?] of the Court & purchased in by the present owners - 
        Time of arrival here 15 August I have been engaged surveying & exploring the lands and I find that in running these warrants into large surveys under the 2     [?] of the court[?] of 17 or 4 - by employing different surveyors & to save expenses in many instances making but one or two courses and a short lines for a large survey of many courses. -
1. They have included some patents entirely within others & have so others[?] to such an extent overlapped each other that from 15 to 20,000 acres will be lost by that means[?] -
2. They have included within the bounds many older grants of lands covering the best parts of the patent some of which was possessed at the time of these Surveys some have been possessed since and some are still warrants -
3.They have also included numerous tracts of land claimed by the parties to the first [mentioned?] contract A.  Some under older grants - & - some under Junior Grants with older entries - 
4. There are numerous Junior Grants of these Lands - Some to parties to without[?] A under Junior entries -  some to others knowing the lines of those grants & others who were ignorant of them, under all of which there have been possessions over 7 years. -