County Indenture (land) record

pbaum, there are a few basic principles that need to be addressed first. These are in Chapters 1 and 2, which lay the foundation for understanding all the different types of records and their different quirks. The critical ones for your problem are these:

• Almost every source citation starts with the identity of the author/creator, not the name of the archives or repository.
• A Source List Entry is a generic entry, not a specific one. Specific details go in the Reference Note. By keeping the Source List Entry generic (citing to the collection or series, rather than the book:page), our basic citation can be reused for many documents within that collection.  (EE 2.4)
• Records may be in the original repository or they may have been removed to another locale. That difference makes a difference in how we cite a source. (This is an issue discussed in the first chapter that deals with deeds and other local government records. See 8.20 "Basic Formats: Records Archives Off-site.")

Using the QuickCheck Model you referenced (p. 488), let's dissect the elements, for comparison to the citations you have drafted.

Source List:

• Jurisdiction/agency that created the record: Franklin County, Tenn.,
• Series (or collection or record group): Deed Records, 1807-1882,
• Repository: Office of the Register of Deeds,
• Repository location. Winchester, Tennesseee.

Reference Note:

• Jurisdiction,
• Series,
• Volume: page,
• Item of interest,
• Record date;
• Repository,
• Repository location.

However, your deed has a quirk: The originals are no longer in the office where the records were created. They are in the state archives. And the "Register of Deeds"—an office/agency that you attach to the name of the archives—is not at the state archives. The "Register of Deeds" (technically, "Recorder of Deeds" in Delaware) is a county level office. That identification, if used, needs to be grouped with the county data.

In that deed chapter you consulted, go to the backside of the first gray page and skim the contents list for the chapter. (The contents list is called “Guidelines and Examples.”) There you’ll find “Deeds & Conveyances: Records archived off-site ….10.13.” In that passage, you’ll find your instruction for county-level deeds that we access from the state archives.

There’s one other technical issue involved. Your Source List Entry identifies the “record group” as 4555.031. However, the actual record group number is “4555.”  Record groups at archives are subdivided by subgroups and series (see EE’s first chapter on archives, chapter 3, section 3.1 “Basic Issues: Archival Arrangements”). The webpage at which this archives gives us cataloging information for Sussex County deeds tells us the following:

• Record Group # 4555 
• Subgroup # 000 
• Series # 001 
• Name of Department: Recorder of Deeds, Sussex County 
• [Dates]: c1682-1976.

Possibly 031 is the volume number. In my cursory perusal of the website, I did not see an explicit list of volumes. But "031" is not part of the record group number.

All things considered, an EE citation would probably be this:

Source List Entry:

Delaware. Sussex County. Deeds, ca.1682–1976.  Record Group 4555. Delaware Public Archives, Dover.

Reference Note:

Sussex County, Delaware, Deed Book I: 47, First Party to Second Party, 7 February 1754; digital copy, Record Group 4555, Delaware Public Archives, Dover.

As you'll notice, this citation omits the word “indenture.” Two points are relevant here:

• You mention, in your first message, that an indenture was “early form of a deed.” Actually, an indenture could have been any of several types of records. (See “Indents, Indentures, and More Kinds of Indentures").
• Because the title of the book states that the documents are deeds, you don’t have to repeat that information as part of your item-of-interest. If your document had been, say, a will that is recorded in the deed book then you should point out what kind of record it actually is, rather than leave the impression that it's a deed; but when a deed appears in a deed book, we don’t have to be redundant.

As Jade points out, we do find more than land conveyances in deed books.  A superb way to better understand legal language is to study legal dictionaries of the era in which we are working. A favorite of mine for the mid-1800s is

John Bouvier, A Law Dictionary; Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America and of the Several States of the American Union …, rev. 6^th ed., 1856 (Philadelphia: Childs & Peterson, 1856); HTML and OCR editions, Constitution Society (http://www.constitution.org/bouv/bouvier.htm)

Bouvier’s definition of “Deed” is quite lengthy, with discussions of its many essential characteristics. I’ll extract the main points here:

DEED, conveyancing, contracts. A writing or instrument, under seal, containing some contract or agreement, and which has been delivered by the parties. … This applies to all instruments in writing, under seal, whether they relate to the conveyance of lands, or to any other matter; a bond, a single bill, an agreement in writing, or any other contract whatever, when reduced to writing, which writing is sealed and delivered, is as much a deed as any conveyance of land. …

2. Deed, in its more confined sense, signifies a writing, by which lands, tenements, and hereditaments are conveyed, which writing is sealed and delivered by the parties.

13. According to Sir William Blackstone, 2 Com. 313, deeds may be considered as

• Conveyances at common law, original and derivative.  The original are, 1.Feoffment. 2.Gift. 3. Grant. 4. Lease. 5. Exchange; and 6. Partition. … Derivative … are 7. Release. 8. Confirmation. 9. Surrender. 10. Assignment 11. Defeasance.
• Conveyances which derive their force by virtue of the statute of uses; namely, 12.Covenant to stand seised to uses. 13. Bargain and sale of lands. 14. Lease and release. 15. Deed to lead and declare uses. 16.Deed of revocation of uses.

While Blackstone and Bouvier do not identify “wills” as deeds, we do find some wills recorded in deed books—typically instances in which a testator therein conveyed land to certain heirs and typically in early years of a county before separate will books were established. Also, because of No. 6 on the Blackstone list (Partition), we also find probate-related documents dividing land that belongs to an estate.