V. THE RECORDS OF DEEDS FOR THE DISTRICT OF 

 WEST AUGCSTA, \IRt;iNIA, FOR THE COURT 

 HEED AT FORT DUNMORE (PriTSBURGH, PA.), 

 1775-1776; COPIED CONSECUTIVEEY AS RECORDED. 



Edited hv ISond Crumrine, of Washington, Pa. 



Introduction. 



The following pages present a literal transcript of the original 

 manuscript volume, in jjaste-board covers, in which were recorded by 

 John Madison, the Clerk of the Court held for the District of West 

 Augusta at Fort Dunmore, in 1775 and 1776, the contracts, deeds, and 

 mortgages, proved, or acknowledged, before said Court and ordered to 

 be recorded. 



The record of the first deed recorded was "examined" and the 

 deed delivered to Bernard Gratz, the grantee thereof, on May 28, 

 1775. Towards the end of the book, however, are found copied a 

 number of instruments relating to real estate, the records of which are 

 not shown to have been "examined" and attested by the Clerk. 

 Why this was is not known. 



No similar book, containing the records of deeds, etc., proved or 

 acknowledged before the Court for Yohogania County, has been found. 

 When that Court was organized and held its first day's session, to wit, 

 on December 23, 1776, Virginia as well as Pennsylvania had become 

 an independent State in the newly-formed United States of America; 

 and one of the matters of l)usiness done on that day was to choose 

 and appoint unanimously Dorsey Pentecost as the Clerk of Court, and 

 to demand "the Records and Papers from John Madison, Junior, 

 Deputy Clerk of East Augusta, in whose custody they are, which he 

 peremptorily refused, notwithstanding he confessed he had seen an act 

 of assembly directing him so to do," and to order " that a Process be 

 issued to apprehend the said John Madison, and forthwith bring him 

 before the Court to answer the above misdemeanor" (See Vol. II. of 

 these Annals, pj). 79, 81 ). 



237 



