Amanuensis Monday - Land Grant - William Martindell 1817

On his TransylvanianDutch blog, John Newmark defines an amanuensis as “a person employed to write out what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.” For more information about this daily blogging prompt, see John’s post Amanuensis – Why?.

I have amassed quite a collection of scans of handwritten documents related to my ancestors—primarily marriage records, deeds, and wills. As I have been transcribing these documents, it occurred to me that most of these documents were not actually written by my ancestors, but rather dictated to someone else, and then transcribed by a clerk into official records.

Although I do not yet have enough evidence to prove the relationship, my hypothesis is that William Martindell/Martindale (born about 1780 and died after 1860) was the father of my paternal 2^nd great-grandfather Howell Brewer Martindale (born 1814 in Moore County, NC, died about 1866 in Arkansas) and that William’s wife was probably a Brewer. Only two Martindale men are enumerated in the 1820 Moore County, North Carolina, census that could be the father of Howell: Samuel Martindale and William Martindale. Samuel is considerably older than William and may be his father. The following land grant to William Martindell mentions Mycajah (Micajah) Brewer as an adjacent landowner; it is not uncommon for collateral families to be close neighbors.

Determining the parents of Howell Brewer Martindale is one of my goals this year, but it’s going to be tough!

“Book 134. State of North Carolina.

No. 2447. Know ye that we have granted unto William Martindell one hundred acres of land in Moore County; on the East side of fall Creek; Beginning at a stake in a rut between a pine post & red Oak Mycajah Brewers corner running thence as Brewers line North thirty East twenty chains to his corner, thence as his other line East forty one chains to his other corner thence North fifteen chains, thence South twenty eight East twenty one chains and seventy links Parsons second corner of two hundred acres thence as Parsons second line West twenty five chains to his third corner, thence as his third line South sixty three chains and twenty five links to the corner, thence North twelve and a half West fifty one chains to a pine Wills's corner thence as Wills's line to the Beginning. Entered 18th.February 1817. To Hold to the said William Martindell his heirs and assigns forever. Dated the 22d. day of December 1819.

Wm. Hil Secretary                                         Jno. Branch”

Source: Moore County, North Carolina, Record of Grants, Volume 2, page 705,
State of North Carolina to William Martindell, entered 18 February 1817;
 Family History Library microfilm 546530.

© 2012 Denise Spurlock