Wentworth Cheswell Signed Deed and Estate Record

Collection

Identifier: MSS-4789

No requestable containers

Scope and Contents

This collection contains a single holograph deed dated September 15, 1788, written and signed by Revolutionary War veteran Wentworth Cheswell (also spelled Cheswill), while serving as the administrator of the estate of Jacob Durgan in Strafford County, New Hampshire. The folio-sized document (9½” x 14¾”) is written entirely in Cheswell’s hand and details the legal transaction in which Mrs. Martha Tash, wife of Thomas Tash, purchases Lot Number Seven from the Durgan estate. The deed explicitly authorizes the sale to satisfy outstanding debts and demands against the deceased’s estate. It bears Cheswell’s signature as well as those of two witnesses and a Justice of the Peace. The document is docketed on the verso and retains visible signs of age and original use, including creases, foxing, and minor loss from a removed wax seal. This rare piece is a significant example of early American legal writing and documentation, uniquely authored by one of the first African Americans elected to public office in the United States.

Dates

Creation: 1788

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Due to the nature of certain archival formats, including digital and audio-visual materials, access to certain materials may require additional advance notice.

Conditions Governing Use

Researchers are responsible for using the materials in conformance with United States copyright law as well as any donor restrictions accompanying the materials. The user assumes all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any copyright claimants in collection materials. Copyright for official University records is held by The University of Alabama. The library claims only physical ownership of many manuscript collections. Anyone wishing to broadcast or publish this material must assume all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants of literary property rights or copyrights. Please contact Special Collections (archives@ua.edu) with questions regarding specific manuscript collections.

For more information about copyright policy, please visit: https://www.ua.edu/copyright/. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.

Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals without the consent of those individuals may have legal implications, for which the University of Alabama assumes no responsibility.

Biographical / Historical

Wentworth Cheswell (April 11, 1745 – March 8, 1817) was a pioneering African-American statesman, civic leader, educator, and Revolutionary War patriot. Cheswell was educated at Dummer Academy in Byfield, Massachusetts, where he studied classical subjects and practical disciplines.

In 1768, at the age of twenty-three, he became the first African American elected to public office in the emerging United States when he was named town constable of Newmarket. Over the next five decades, Cheswell held numerous municipal roles, including assessor, auditor, selectman, and ultimately Justice of the Peace for Rockingham County. During the American Revolution, he served as a town messenger for the Committee of Safety and participated in the alarm ride with Paul Revere in 1774. He briefly enlisted in the Continental Army in 1777.

A respected intellectual and community leader, Cheswell taught school, managed a general store, and co-founded the Newmarket Social Library in 1801. He is recognized as New Hampshire’s first archaeologist for his early fieldwork and local historical studies, which were cited in Jeremy Belknap’s History of New Hampshire.

Cheswell died of typhus in 1817 at the age of seventy. His legacy as the nation’s first African American elected public official is preserved through documents such as this deed and ongoing public interest in his life and contributions. His grave site remains maintained by descendants on the family’s historic property.