Only one leaf of this mortgage survives in the scans. The opening lines, which would have named the person C. M. Roach owed and how much, are missing, so the lender is not known from this paper. The debt was due on November 1, 1883.
Chattel mortgage from C. M. Roach on a mule and three bales of cotton – Craven County, 1883
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.
[The first part of the mortgage, naming the lender and the amount of the debt, is not among the scanned pages. The surviving text begins mid-sentence.]
… the 1st day of November 1883 and to secure the payment of the same I do hereby convey to him these articles of Personal Property (to wit) One Light Bay Mule 4 years old also 3 five Hundred Pounds Bales of good Lint Cotton But on this special trust that if I fail to pay said debt and interest of same then he may sell said property or so much thereof as may be necessary by Public auction for Cash first giving twenty [?] days notice at three public places and apply the proceeds of such sale to the discharge of said debt and interest of same and pay any surplus to me. Given under my hand and seal this 13th day of January 1883.
C. M. Roach (Seal)
Bryan Gardner [witness]
State of North Carolina, Craven County.
The execution of the within Mortgage was this day proven before me by Bryan Gardner. Witness my hand and seal this the 28th day of Feby 1883.
W. H. Ellison J. P. (Seal)
[Printed form, filled in by hand:]
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, CRAVEN COUNTY, ss: Probate Court.
The annexed certificate of W. H. Ellison Justice of the Peace of Craven County, is adjudged correct. Let this Instrument, with the certificates, be registered.
Witness my hand and official seal, this 1st day of March, 1883.
E. W. Carpenter, Probate Judge.
Recd for Registration March 2nd 1883 at 10 A. M. & Registered same day, in Book No. 16 page 325.
Joseph Nelson Reg. Deeds
Per C. E. Palmer, Deputy
[Docket, written across the fold:] Presented … 1883 [?]
About the original
“Lint Cotton” is ginned cotton. The number of days’ notice before a sale is hard to read and may be “twenty.”
The mortgage was registered by Joseph Nelson, Register of Deeds for Craven County, through his deputy C. E. Palmer.
Source: Chattel mortgage from C. M. Roach on a mule and three bales of cotton. Roach Family Papers (#346), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, Box 1, Folder d (Legal Records, 1784–1901). Collection guide. Digitized folder: ECU Digital Collections, 0346-b1-fd.
Images courtesy of East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University. View in ECU Digital Collections: 35873.
Also from this folder: Swift Creek residents hire Turner Nelson as teacher of “Reading writing and Arithmetic” in 1823.
Part of the Roach Family Papers collection on East Carolina Roots.
