This undated sheet gives the courses and a plat of a tract along a winding creek, under the heading “Walls Deed.” It began at an ash, ran by a sweet gum and a line of marked trees to a water oak, then north 13 east 300 poles to a gum, and followed the creek in many short courses to a cypress and back to the start. The plat gives the acreage as what appears to be 220 [?] acres. No county, seller, buyer, neighbors or date are named.
There is no surveyor’s name or witness. The back has an arithmetic rule and two lines of verse that seem unrelated to the land. The writer’s own words are kept as written below.
Courses and plat of land on a creek, labeled “Walls Deed” – undated
Transcription notes: spelling, capitalization and punctuation follow the original. Words in [square brackets] are editorial notes; [?] marks an uncertain reading and [illegible] marks words that could not be read.
Begining at an Ash runs So. 15. Wt. 25. pole to sweet Gum. No. 88 Et. 17. p with a line of markd. trees No. 9. Et. 22. No. 47. Wt. 9. pole to water oake No. 85. Et. 104. No. 13. Et. 300. to Gum. No. 28. Wt. 10. So. 70. Wt. 12. So. 58. Wt. 12 So. 27. Wt. 12. So. 45. Wt. 26. No. 62. Wt. 12. No. 80. Wt. 26. So. 60. Wt. 24. So. 50. Wt. 12. So. 6. Wt. 12. So. 68. Wt. 22. No. 62. Wt. 18. So. 87. Wt. 22. No. 71. Wt. 6 So. 45. Wt. 6. So. 10. pole. So. 59. Wt. 12. So. 56. Wt. 6. So. 22. Et. 7. So. 37. Wt. 12. So. 14. Wt. 14. So. 39. Wt. 14. So. 36. Wt. 15. So. 40. Et. 16. So. 8. Et. 8. So. 28. Et. 6. So. 14. Wt. 6. So. 32. Et. 12. So. 7. pole. So. 70. Wt. 8. So. 17. Wt. 10. So. 40. Et. 8. So. 13. Wt. 20 So. 52. Et. 14. pole to Cypress. No. 23. Et. 20. So. 75. Et. 7. So. 58. Et. 16. pole to the Begining
Walls Deed,
[Plat. Labels on the drawing:]
Creek
220 [?] Acres
No. 13. Et. 300
104
N [north arrow; S at the other end]
[A pointing hand marks the beginning corner beside the creek.]
34 9 [at the foot of the page]
[Back:]
Having the diameter given to find the Circumference multiply by 22 divide by 7
[Written along the left edge:]
Youth like the Spring will soon be gone
The morning Sun may set at noon
[Center:] Walls Deed
[Upside down at the foot, very faint:] [illegible] date due a [illegible] for no promise to pay [illegible] £1. 10 [illegible]
About the original
A single sheet with the courses (boundary lines) of a tract written out at the top, the heading “Walls Deed,” and a plat drawn below. There is no date, county, acreage in the text, surveyor, or names of buyer, seller or neighbors. The plat shows the tract bounded on one side by a winding creek, with the long line north 13 east 300 poles and the short line of 104 poles drawn in; the many short courses in the text follow the bends of the creek back to the beginning. The acreage written on the plat is partly hidden in the drawing and may be 220.
“Walls Deed” probably means the deed of someone named Wall, but the paper does not say whether Wall was the buyer or the seller, and the name could also be read as “Walls.” Joel Wall was a witness to the 1804 deed from George Charlton to David Averitt in this folder, but nothing on this sheet ties it to that deed or to any other.
The arithmetic note and the two lines of verse on the back seem to be later scribbles unrelated to the land. The faint upside-down note at the foot of the back looks like the start of a note or receipt, but most of it cannot be read.
In each course, “So. 15. Wt. 25.” means south 15 degrees west, 25 poles; “No.” is north and “Et.” is east.
The sheet is set out in the same way as the plat labeled “Charlton Deed” in this folder: a block of abbreviated courses in the same style, the heading “… Deed,” followed by a long dash, and a small plat of land along a winding creek with a pointing hand at the beginning corner. The two may have been drawn by the same person, but neither paper names the surveyor.
Source: Courses and plat labeled “Walls Deed,” undated. Roach Family Papers (#346), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, Box 1, Folder c (Land Records, 1728–1886). Collection guide. Digitized folder: ECU Digital Collections, 0346-b1-fc.
Images courtesy of East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University. View this item in ECU Digital Collections.
Part of the Roach Family Papers collection on East Carolina Roots.
