CHAPTER VI.

HENRY RICHMOND AND HIS SON, ELIAB

Checking at the Registry of Deeds about Henry Richmond, the next owner after the Churchills, I found that he and his father had many real estate transactions in Middleboro, Massachusetts. His father, Henry, was a native of Cumberland, R. I., once a part of the Old Plymouth Colony. In 1747 he bought land in the “sixteen shilling purchase” area from his father, recorded in Book 39, Page 201. In 1754 Henry and Sarah Richmond sold land in Middleboro for 133 pounds, which land originally belonged to John Wright, Book 45, Page 21. There will be more on the Wrights later on. In 1759, Book 45, Page 17, he bought land from William Hooper, called “Titticut” land in Middleboro. His last transaction there was in 1761. Book 53, Page 43.

Then on Feb. 3, 1768, according to Book 54, Page 19, he bought 90 acres at South Pond from Jonathan and Hannah Churchill for twenty pounds. It was referred to as woodland. He shortly built buildings and made it into a homestead and farm, as the deed of sale of 30 acres of this land to his son, Eliab, five years later indicates. His son came to Plymouth about this time and married Hannah Holmes in 1773.

The sale to his son, as described in Book 57, Page 54, was in the amount of 13 pounds, six shillings for the thirty acres. This amount represents about sixty percent of the cost of all of the property Henry Richmond bought from the Churchills five years earlier.[8]

In 1794 there is recorded a marriage between Henry Richmond, probably the son of the owner, and Submit Wetherell. No doubt giving a daughter such a name at that time was fitting and proper, but hardly so today.

About 300 feet east of the Burgess house, near Baptist Road in the woods are large rectangular cut foundation stones and a small grassy area. I have speculated that a small adequate dwelling house or cottage typical of the time could have been located there, perhaps 18 x 20 feet with upper loft, which later could have been moved and attached to the north side of the main Richmond dwelling, or later after the Richmonds, and serve eventually as a kitchen. That such an attachment was made is evident and visible. Its age and construction and the type of lumber used is the same as that of the main house. This addition could supplant an original kitchen area in the southwest part of the house. This transference could have been carried out at the time of Eliab or later and not recorded in the Registry records, if there were a dwelling on Eliab’s property in the year of the sale it is not mentioned in the deed of sale. Near the little house site are the remains of a dump of old glass bottles. The land is now owned by Dr. Milton Brougham.[9]

Sarah Richmond (Henry’s daughter, I assume) married Samuel Wright in 1783. This Samuel Wright bought the Richmond homestead later on March 18, 1788, from the later owner Nathaniel Clark.[10]

There is an interesting transaction by Henry Richmond about a tight money problem for him as shown in Book 57, Page 75, on March 7, 1773, the year of several of his transactions. He gave a mortgage on his homestead for “12 pounds, 15 shillings lawful money to me in hand paid by Jesse Vaughan of Middleboro, husbandman.” All ended well, as the mortgage was discharged and the property reconveyed, recorded January 6, 1777. The mortgage had been for one year. This period was considered to be a time of great fluctuations in the value of money in the colonies, with the Revolutionary war continuing on, causing great depreciation. Jesse Vaughan was an active man, as ten property grants by him over several years are recorded in the Registry of Deeds.

We now come to the next owner of the homestead, apparently a bachelor.