Conveyance of Lands to the University of Virginia by John M. Perry and Frances T. Perry, 25 January 1820
Conveyance of Lands to the University of Virginia by John M. Perry and Frances T. Perry
This Indenture made on the twenty fifth day of January one thousand eight hundred and twenty between John M Perry and Frances his wife of the county of Albemarle on the one part, and Arthur S Brockenbrough Proctor of the University of Virginia acting in trust for the said University, on the other part Witnesseth, that the said John & Frances in consideration of the sum of seven thousand two hundred and thirty one Dollars eighty cents1 to them in hand paid the reciept whereof is hereby acknowledged, do hereby bargain and sell to the said Arthur, one parcel of land in the said county of Albemarle containing by a survey made by William Woods surveyor of Albemarle county forty eight and three fourths acres, and bounded as follows. towit. begining at a stake corner to the tract of forty three and three quarter acres heretofore conveyed by the said John & Frances to the late Central College thence up and along Wheelers road as it meanders sixty eight poles to a stake, thence north five degrees West forty four poles to a stake, thence north thirteen degrees East one hundred and thirty seven poles to a stake on the three notched road thence down said road as it meanders sixty2 and one half poles to a pine & stake another corner of said tract of forty three & three quarter acres thence South ten and a half degrees West twenty two poles to a stone pile and persimmontree. thence South three degrees east thirty six poles to a stake, thence South nineteen degrees West twenty nine poles to a stone pile, thence South thirty degrees East thirty five poles to the begining, To have and to hold the said parcel of Land with its appurtenancies to him the said Arthur and his Successors Proctors of the said University of Virginia to and for the use of the said University for ever, and the said John M Perry and Frances his wife for themselves, their heirs executors and administrators, the said forty eight and three fourths acres with its appurtenancies, to the said Arthur, and his successors proctors of the said University of Virginia and for the use of the said University do covenant that they will warrant and do warrant and will forever defend Witness the hands and names of the said John and Frances and their seals hereto set on the day and year within named.
| Signed Sealed and delivered |  |
John M. Perry {seal} | |
| In presence of | Frances T Perry {seal} | ||
| Matthew W Maury | |||
| Charles Stewart | |||
| Hugh Chisholm | |||
Albemarle County towit
We Wm Woods3 and Charles Brown4 Justices of the peace in the county aforesaid in the State of Virginia, do hereby certify that Frances Perry the wife of John M Perry, parties to a certain deed for the conveyance of real estate to Arthur S Brockenbrough Proctor of the University of Virginia bearing date the twenty fifth day of January 1820 and hereto annexed, personally appeared before us in our county aforesaid, and being examined by us privily and apart from her husband, and haveing the deed aforesaid fully explained to her she the said Frances Perry acknowledged the same to be her act and deed, and declared that she had willingly signed, sealed and delivered the same, and that she wished not to retract it, Given under our hands and seals this 28th day of March 1820.
| Wm Woods {seal} |
| Charles Brown {seal} |
In the Office of the County Court of Albemarle the 10th day of June 1820
This Indenture was produced to me in said Office and acknowledged by John M Perry party thereto and thereupon the same together with the Certificate of the relinquishment of Dower of Mrs Frances Perry Wife of said John M Perry was admitted to record.
Ira Garrett DC
MS (ViU: PP); in Alexander Garrett’s hand, signed by John M. Perry, Frances T. Perry, Maury, Stewart, Chisholm, Woods, and Brown, with final 10 June 1820 note in Albemarle County deputy clerk Ira Garrett’s hand; docketed by Alexander Garrett: “Perry & wife to University of Virginia } Deed”; further notations in Ira Garrett’s hand: “10 June 1820 ackd relinqt dower rcd & admitted to record in my office I Garrett DC” and “Recorded Page 170.” Tr (Albemarle Co. Deed Book, 22:170–1); in Ira Garrett’s hand and signed by him. Enclosed in John M. Perry to TJ, 19 Jan. 1820.
Matthew W. Maury (ca. 1792–ca. 1859), carpenter, was the grandson of TJ’s schoolmaster, James Maury. A native of Virginia, he practiced his trade at the University of Virginia in 1821. By 1840 Maury had moved with his family to Staunton, where he continued as a carpenter. In 1850 he owned real estate valued at $4,000 (Robert A. Brock, Documents, Chiefly Unpublished, relating to the Huguenot Emigration to Virginia [1886], 123, 127–8; Maury to Arthur S. Brockenbrough, 25 Mar. 1821, and Proctor’s Ledgers [both in ViU: PP]; DNA: RG 29, CS, Staunton, 1840, Augusta Co., 1850; Matthew W. Maury & wife v. George Sheets etc. [Vi: Augusta Co. Chancery Causes, case 1869–066]; Staunton Will Book, 2:114).
Charles Brown (1783–1879), physician and planter, was born into an Albemarle County family. He practiced medicine in the Charlottesville area beginning in 1812. Brown served in the local militia, was appointed a county magistrate in 1816, subscribed $100 toward the establishment of Central College a year later, and was sheriff, 1841–43. He owned $9,600 in land and eleven slaves in 1850, when the census listed him as a farmer. Ten years later the combined value of Brown’s real estate and personal property was $30,000, including seventeen slaves, and in 1870 his assets were valued at $5,030 (Mary Rawlings and W. Edwin Hemphill, eds., “Dr. Charles Brown’s Reminiscences of Early Albemarle,” 8 [1947/48]: 55–67; Bessie Herring MacLeod, “Genealogical Data from Doctor Charles Brown’s Family Bible,” 8 [1947/48]: 69–70; , 151–2, 377, 375, 379; ViW: Charles Brown Papers; Master List of Subscribers to Central College, [after 7 May 1817], document 5 in a group of documents on The Founding of the University of Virginia: Central College, 1816–1819, printed at 5 May 1817; DNA: RG 29, CS, Albemarle Co., 1820–70, 1850 and 1860 slave schedules; Medical Recorder 10 [1826]: 216; American Farmer 14 [1858]: 69–70; Albemarle Co. Will Book, 29:334–7; Fay V. Early and Constance C. Harris, eds., Records of Cemeteries in Albemarle County, Virginia, including Charlottesville [1971–ca. 1982], 1:278–9).
Conjoined with the MS of this conveyance is a 7 June 1824 memorandum by Arthur S. Brockenbrough reading (period supplied and one word editorially corrrected) “At the request of Capt John M Perry, A. S. Brockenbrough Proctor consented that Wheelers road mentioned in the first part of this deed, should be changed from below to above the spring[.] accordingly in the year 1821 or 1822 commissioners were appointed to view and report upon it, they accordingly did so & the road was changed runing in now upon the University land & cuting off a small triangular slipe which said proctor intended exchanging wit[h] said Perry for other land of same value, but finding there is difficulty in making a conveyance, it (the slipe cut off) is still the property of the University of Va the old road being the Line” (MS in ViU: PP; in Brockenbrough’s hand, signed and dated by him).
The day after executing this conveyance, on 26 Jan. 1820 John M. Perry signed a receipt confirming that he had “Received a Draft on the Bursar of the University of Va for three thousand six hundred & fifteen dollars ninety cents for & on acct of forty eight Acres of land with the improvements: thereon sold to the Central College” (MS in ViU: PP; in Brockenbrough’s hand, signed by Perry). This payment covered the balance due (Brockenbrough to TJ, 4 Sept. 1819, and note).
1. Preceding ten words, possibly added later, are in a different ink.
2. Tr: “sixty one.”
3. Preceding two words in Woods’s hand.
4. Preceding two words in Brown’s hand.
Index Entries
- Brockenbrough, Arthur Spicer; as University of Virginia proctor search
- Brown, Charles (1783–1879); as justice of the peace search
- Brown, Charles (1783–1879); identified search
- Chisholm, Hugh; witnesses documents search
- Garrett, Alexander; as Albemarle Co. clerk search
- Garrett, Alexander; as University of Virginia bursar search
- Garrett, Ira; as Albemarle Co. clerk search
- Maury, Matthew W.; as justice of the peace search
- Maury, Matthew W.; identified search
- Perry, Frances T. (John M. Perry’s wife); sells land to Central College–University of Virginia search
- Perry, John M.; sells land to Central College–University of Virginia search
- Stewart, Charles (ca.1791–1835); witnesses document search
- Virginia, University of; Construction and Grounds; land for search
- Woods, William (ca.1777–1849); surveys land for University of Virginia search