PBA Galleries

The indenture is 12x15½” and is laid down on an old piece of American sheet music, titled Grand Triumphal Quick Step,  which bears an engraving of Gen. Zachary Taylor, and is dated 1847.

The document introduces the Right Honorable Thomas Lord Fairfax Baron of Cameron, Scotland and proprietor  of the Northern Neck of Virginia. The indenture transfers a tract of land to Nathaniel Thomas of Frederick County as surveyed by Robert Rutherford. It goes on to describe in detail the boundaries etc. and mentions it bordering (his friend) Maj. Washington’s land, the whole consisting of 240 acres. The text continues in a complicated manner of description concerning the mining rights of a lead, copper and iron mine and follows with what appears to be some sort of rental or commission payments for mining rights which are to be made, “dated this twenty fourth day of March the first year of his majesty King George the third AD one thousand seen hundred sixty on”, and then boldly signed Fairfax, with a blind embossed seal in the upper left hand corner. The document is in a good strong hand and very readable and is “Registered in the Proprietor’s Office in Book K #257.

Thomas Fairfax (1693-1781)  was the only resident peer in late colonial America, and administered his vast  Northern Neck properties granted in 1649 from his wilderness estate at Greenway Court, Virginia. He came into the vast Culpeper estates in 1719 consisting of 5,282,000 acres which he attempted to manage from his Scottish castle. After having Robert “King” Carter manage them until 1732 and die leaving a huge fortune, he decided to move to Virginia and manage the lands himself until his death in 1781. He is buried in Winchester, VA.

Provenance: An old California collection.