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1698 DEED p. 1

The deed for 500 acres was issued by Robert Fairman, Penn's agent, to Joseph Ashton Jr., dated 1698 but not filed until 1766. In 1703, Joseph Ashton Sr. purchased the land from his son, and Granville Leach makes the point that "Joseph Jr was 'of age'." The untoward emphasis on Jr's age in 1703 compels us to ask how old he was in 1698 when he purchased the land? Besides confirming Joseph Jr's birthdate as 1683, the phrase may infer that Joseph Jr. was serving as a front for his father in this land transfer--at age 16, he could buy/sell land and renege on such transactions, for nothing in the law prevented minors from buying land. His father, Joseph Sr., had incurred Penn's disgust over the building of a road in 1701 and may have fallen in disfavor with Penn's agent, Fairman. Therefore, he set up his son to be the purchaser, and five years later, a "statute of limitations," per se, bought it back from him. In 1708, when Sr. died, he gave the land back to his son: "I give & bequeath unto Joseph my Eldest Son 250 acres of Land . . . upon the same that I purchased." Joseph's eldest son was to inherit the remaining 250 acres upon coming of age.

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