1740 HANDWRITTEN DEED OF SALE BY THE ACCLAIMED PEWTERER, THOMAS DANFORTH, NORWICH, CONNECTICUT. Dated 19 AUGUST 1740 by Connecticut, Norwich / Danforth, Thomas (1703-1786) - 1740

1740. Original manuscript. Very Good. One full page, quarto, 45 lines written in sepia ink on laid paper. In part: "To all people to whom these presents shall come Greeting. Know ye that I Thomas Danforth of Norwich in the County of New London and Colony of Connecticut in New England for & in consideration of One Hundred & thirty pounds to me paid Before the Executing of these presents by John Manley...Deliver unto him...my sixty Rods of Land Lying situate in Norwich...adjoining & Lying upon the East side of the Training field [village green*]...Beginning at the southwest Corner of my own Land Butting three rods on the Training field to William Morgan's Land... [detailed parameters follow] ... [signed] Thomas Danforth. [Witnessed by] John Hutchens and George Throope. [Certified by] Isaac Huntington [1688-1764], Justice of the Peace." Wax seal. Docketed on verso. Thomas Danforth, a noted pewterer and the first of several generations of pewterers, was born at Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1703. He moved to Norwich, Connecticut in 1733 and opened a pewterer's and brazier's shop on the Norwichtown Green. Two of his sons, Thomas II and John, also became pewterers. Thomas the elder's Norwich home was a house at 25 Scotland Road, built in 1746 [courtesy of Historic Buildings of Connecticut website]. [*A plot of ground was usually left open in the centre of town for the public use, about which clustered the church, the parsonage, and public buildings. This centre of the town plot in Norwich was called 'ye Green'...later 'the Parade,' 'the Training Field,' and the 'Plain'." -- Perkins, Old Houses of the Antient Town of Norwich.].