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Eliezer Hawks land contract

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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Documents of this sort are filled with many lines of the legal language common in the 17th century. This is a land transfer, or sale, of a parcel of land south of the village of Deerfield in the Stebbins Meadows amounting to seven acres and thirty rods, more or less. The principals are the buyer, Eliezer Hawks (1655-1727), who pays fourteen pounds, five shillings, and the sellers, John Stebbins (1647-1724) and his wife, Dorothy (alive 1733). John Stebbins fixes his signature to the document as do the two witnesses, Samuel Partridge and Nathaniel Sutlief, but Dorothy Stebbins is unable to write and makes "her Marke."

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