GenMassachusetts-L Archives

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Subject: Humphrey Atherton info from RI Colonial records
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 18:50:42 EST

I am a descendant of Humphrey Atherton as I am sure many others on the list
must be. My primary roots are in Washington County, RI, however, and to help
with my research I've recently acquired a copy of the Fones Record, otherwise
known as The Records of the Proprietors of the Narragansett. I knew that old
Humphrey was a major player in some early land deals in RI, but until
acquiring this resource, had no idea how involved he was. To make a long story
short, Humphrey and a group of other men acquired land from the Narragansetts in
1659. At the time the jurisdiction of RI was still under debate. Once it was
decided that RI was its own colony and not part of Mass or CT (Humphrey and
his cohorts wanted RI under CT jurisdiction) the RI colonial government
declared the acquisition of land from the Indians to be null and void. Many years
were spent straightening this all out and it was not until 1686 that it was
finally settled. The Fones Record has all the deeds and papers related to the
whole fiasco.
Humphrey is not the only Massachusetts player in the records. Also involved
were William Hudson and Amos Richardson of Boston. Some RI men were involved
as well including one of my ancestors, Richard Smith. Atherton is the major
player from Mass, however.

I have transcribed some of the Fones record, including the original deed
from the Indians to Humphrey and company, as well as relevant passages from RI
Colonial Records. The list is by no means complete and there is much more to go
(the Fones record is 199 pages!) but I was wondering if others would want me
to post any of the passages involving Humphrey Atherton to this list? At
this point I cannot take individual lookup requests for the info because there
is way too much containing Humphrey's name for me to be able to do that in a
timely fashion.

I would post the transcriptions to the list as I do them. The records are
not copyrighted so there's no worry about that.

Is there any interest? Donna in RI

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